15. Lessons #2
If he hadn’t been attached to Kiki, I might have been interested in a repeat engagement. He was quite competitive, and he had a number of inventive piercings in delicate places. But he was Kiki’s, and I wasn’t going there. Just…no.
“Perhaps,” I said, narrowly keeping myself from darting a look at Kiki to see what she thought of his offer.
Tiernan was a handsome man, the same height as Alluin and with a similar build, though with a swordsman’s power instead of a horse-archer’s muscled shoulders and lean strength, but the knowledge that his only interest in me was in riling his paramour soured the whole thing.
Both of them were like that, fickle with their friendships but bound to each other like twin stars.
They used and discarded the people around them with casual ease.
I’d wanted to pit Dain against an actual trained squad, and I understood why Alluin had chosen one of the more efficient teams of monster-hunters under his command, but I was eager to finish up the unpleasant small talk and get to the actual training.
Kiki hooked her arm through mine while I was distracted. “Lead on, sir,” she said, putting a sly emphasis on the honorific. She looked sidelong at me, as if daring me to shake her off.
“Of course,” I said, keeping my voice level, and took her through the gate into the Antlered Palace.
I ran them through the exercise as we headed towards the large, stone-paved courtyard I used as a training ground for Dain.
He had a tendency to treat battle as much like playing as practice, and he didn’t have any respect for the dangers of being surrounded.
Sparring was the closest thing to playing he ever got to have, and as a result I hadn’t put nearly the amount of attention towards ensuring he knew how to defend his belly and haunches as was needed to keep him alive in a truly dangerous fight.
“Yes, I’ve seen that,” Duennain said, his light tenor voice level and steady. “I’ve watched several of his sparring sessions. His right hind in particular, yes?”
Something about the words made me want to defend myself, as if I’d been failing at something important. “I haven’t been derelict in my duty—”
“Of course not,” Kiki said, shooting me a puzzled look.
She gave my arm a squeeze. “Zhio, he’s not trying to be pissy with you.
We’re glad you’ve left us something easy to exploit in battle.
He’s fast and strong, and for all that we’re experienced with large beasts, we’ve never faced anything quite like him before. ”
I gave her an uncomfortable smile. I really didn’t like her playing nice with me.
“Well, yes, I suppose it would be a shame if he managed to flatten all of you in the first ten seconds,” I said, trying and failing to keep my tone light.
“The official goal of today’s exercise is to remind the prince to guard his weak spots the way a warg or wolf would, not to inflict too much punishment, hence the requirement for unsharpened swords instead of merely blunted ones. ”
“I know, Commander,” she said as we stepped into the courtyard, letting go of my arm. Kiki’s expression went hard as she added, “Luckily, it’s much easier to sharpen a new blade than a blunted one. It would be a shame to waste a good sword.”
The harshness of her voice was a reprieve from her weird pretend-niceness, but it still wasn’t particularly pleasant to deal with. “If that’s all—”
“We need you, Lieutenant,” the woman who’d been introduced as Irridyi said, cutting in.
She was tall and stern, with an iciness to her face as she glanced across the courtyard to where Dain was watching that left me feeling unsettled—but Kiki just rolled her eyes and huffed with annoyance, so I didn’t pay it any mind. Maybe Irridyi was simply like that.
“Yes, that’s fine. We can take it from here,” she said, shaking her head. “You might as well go tell him to get ready. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
Gods, I hated the way she always sidestepped her way into controlling situations. I knew it was the reason she’d never make captain—something that I was willing to bet large sums of money had left a massive chip on Kiki’s shoulder—but it still pissed me off every time she usurped things.
“Wouldn’t want to keep you longer than necessary,” I said in my most pleasant voice, and strode off before she could fire off some sort of obnoxious rejoinder.
Dain watched the five soldiers as they checked their armor and swords, his head tilted to the side like a curious dog. “New people,” he signed to me when I came over, not taking his eyes away from them.
“Don’t worry. They’re… Well, they’re not friends in the sense that I’m friends with them, but they’re well-trained soldiers, and I’ve worked with them successfully before,” I told him as I finished armoring up with the help of a squire.
“General Xilsatra suggested that you have some new combatants for variety, and I agree. You’ll surely learn bad habits if you always face the same soldiers. ”
“They smell bad,” he signed, his ears pinning back and hackles going up as the breeze swept their scent towards him. “Adrenaline. Fear. Maybe anger.”
I held out my arms as the squire did the clasps I couldn’t reach. “Well, yes,” I said, frowning slightly. “They’ve never fought you before, Your Highness, and you’re an intimidating opponent. Shouldn’t it count as a compliment for First Army soldiers to view fighting you with trepidation?”
The explanation didn’t sit quite right with me, though I couldn’t pin down exactly why.
Kiki hadn’t seemed at all concerned by fighting Dain, especially knowing that he—like many boys his age—was far more interested in showy offense than the rather more boring defense that was critical to survival on the battlefield.
They were First Army soldiers. Why would they be afraid of sparring, even when the opponent was someone like Dain?
The prince made an unconvinced noise, but he gave himself a shake, nostrils flaring for a moment before he turned back to me. “Is it a glamor fight?” he asked.
“They’re fully equipped with First Army standard gear, so you’re welcome to use glamor if you so desire,” I said.
“Remember to guard your soft spots, my prince. Even unsharpened weapons can give you quite the bruise, and this is part of a legitimate field squad of monster-hunters. They’re surely not going to be daunted by shock-and-awe tactics. ”
I accepted my helmet from the squire and put it on, then checked my scabbard to ensure my sword was free.
Spectating fights didn’t generally require steel plate and a sharp sword, but being the training master of the boy prince required that I be prepared to intercede on his behalf if he were ever in any true danger.
The concept of assassins dropping in over the courtyard wall while we were in the middle of training was laughable, but the law was the law, so sweltering in plate armor while I observed Dain smacking soldiers around was my unfortunate fate.
Instead of answering, he dropped down onto all fours and settled himself for a pounce, his wing-arms flexing and tails swinging, obviously uninterested in anything other than the fun of whatever glamor-trick he was thinking up.
I rolled my eyes fondly and strode back over towards my post. Once Kiki gave him a good whack on the rear with the flat of her sword I suspected Dain would be a bit more receptive to the concept of personal defense.
I glanced over at Kiki and her squad. They’d taken a good position for handling someone like Dain, spread out in a ‘W’ shape, with Kiki on the left front and Tiernan to her rear right.
Like most First Army squads, they fought in light infantry armor, and all five were armed with swords.
While a typical fight against an opponent like Dain would likely have been done with spears to stay out of range of his wing-arms and jaws, I’d asked for swords; there was less opportunity for my prince to accidentally impale himself by jumping atop a swordsman than a spearman.
Kiki lifted her sword in a salute and settled back into a fighting stance. The others shifted their grips on their weapons in synchrony, their focus on Dain, who was wiggling his haunches like a cat about to pounce on a favorite toy.
“Alright!” I called, leaving my visor up on my helmet so I could keep track of how Dain performed. “Begin!”