Fifteen
Scherie, Palace Grounds
"So, lunch with a princess?" Suzona asked.
"Lunch with my son and a princess," I said, reading over the note as we entered the palace grounds.
The palace was a rather large area, I knew that from last time.
The part we were headed to looked more functional than ceremonial.
There were what looked like quarters—not the royal family type, more like the guard type—a large parade ground, and several different training fields.
We were led past that to a… you'd almost call it a café, I guess? There were tables inside, and people sitting at them, eating. We were directed into a private room, where we found Princess Chari, who was just as lovely as ever, and a young man with a distinct resemblance to yours truly.
I stopped and smiled. "Princess Chari, you are as lovely as ever. It's nice to see you again, and I hope you're doing well. This is Suzona, one of my wives."
"One of?" Princess Chari asked, with a smile.
"And I am quite happy to be called such," Suzona said, smiling.
"How many wives do you have now, William?"
"One more than I had when I was here last," I said, smiling. "Would you be so kind as to introduce me to my son?"
"I'm not your son," the young man said, frowning.
"Names first, arguments second," I said, smiling at him, then I turned back to Chari, who laughed.
"Will, this is Theodoros, or Theo for short."
"Thank you."
I seated Suzona, doing the polite thing, then sat down myself.
Both Suzona and I were wearing nice clothes.
Not fancy dinner outfits, but nicer than what the average person wore.
Not quite 'dressed to impress', but obviously above average.
Suzona's outfit showed off her impressive shape and assets.
Mine was a looser cut, because I didn't want to ruin anything if I had to shift.
Princess Chari was dressed to impress and was still a lovely woman. Theo was wearing training armor. I was fairly sure he'd been in training when we'd shown up, based on the scuffs and marks on it.
"Now, Theo, while I might not have been here to raise you, I still brought you into this world, and you are one of my sons. Either show a little respect, or you'll soon find out you're not too big to get spanked."
"You didn't raise me."
I sighed. "Yeah, I know. I admit that bothers me, but I was promised you'd be well raised and well cared for." I turned and looked at Chari.
"Yes, I married before your son was born, and my husband raised Theo as his own, along with the children I've given him."
I smiled. "Thank him for me."
"So why are you here?" Theo all but demanded.
"Because you're my son, and I finally had the time and opportunity to come see you. I wanted to be sure you were okay, and that you were doing well."
"Well, as you can see, I'm doing well. So you can go now."
"Is he always like this?" I asked, looking over at Chari.
"No, usually he's much better behaved," she said with a frown.
Theo started to say something, but I spoke first.
"If you give your mother any sass, Theo, I will tan your hide."
"You don't look all that big or strong to me."
Standing up, I smiled. "Looks like someone's about to find out. What do you say we use one of the practice fields so you can learn, first hand, not to give any lip to your father?"
"You're not my—"
My hand snaked out, and I grabbed the shoulder guard of his armor and dragged him out of his seat towards the door.
I will say this, Theo was big and almost as heavy as I was. Course, he was just eighteen, so he was still growing. He tried to dislodge my grip several times as I dragged him out of the room, through the café, and outside towards one of the practice areas.
"Just what do you think you're doing to the prince there?" one of the sergeants yelled, running up to me.
"Teaching him a lesson. Somebody needs to be cut back down to size. Have somebody bring us some practice weapons, please."
"And who would you be?"
"His father, that's who."
"What?"
"Remember the guy who killed Harker?"
"Oh… There's a rack in that field over there," he said, pointing, and I changed course.
Theo wasn't struggling as much now.
"I'll show you," he all but growled.
"You know, even I had better manners than this when I was your age. Might have to talk to your 'dad' about that."
That put his back up, and I had to smile. "Well, at least it's nice to see you respect somebody, and again, don't even think about giving your mother any lip. You're a man now; act like it."
With that, I let go of him and pushed him at the weapons rack. I grabbed a pair of swords, then walked out to the center, stuck one in the ground, and looked at Theo, who grabbed a sword and a light shield.
He charged me immediately, but as always, I had my speed advantage. I just waited until he got close, then dropped down low and performed a spinning leg sweep, tumbling him.
"What the hell was that?" I asked, jumping back to my feet and looking at him. "You don't fight angry, and you sure as hell don't charge willy-nilly into combat! Now, get up!"
Scowling at me, he got up, and while he didn't run this time, he still came right at me.
"Tighten up your guard!" I said, moving in close and using my free hand to slap the flat of his blade as I hip-checked his shield. "Get your emotions under control!"
I stepped back and leaned out of the way of his counterstrike.
"Footwork!" I growled and circled slowly, banging on his shield. He was still giving me a look of death.
"Take some deep breaths and get yourself under control! You're making it easy, Son!" With that, I slipped in, knocked his sword wide, grabbed the edge of his shield with my left hand, pulled it open, and got right in his face.
"Anger has no place in a fight," I whispered. "You can be mad at me all you want; you can want to hit me, hurt me, but the second you lose your temper, you're dead. Got that? Now collect yourself and stop acting like a child!"
I pushed him back, hard, causing him to windmill a little bit, then I stood there frowning at him. Theo stopped for a moment, took a couple of breaths, frowned, and started in much more carefully.
I smiled. "Better. Much better. Now, let's try this again."
I moved towards him and attacked him. I didn't use my speed advantage; I didn't really have to.
He was still learning, after all. He wasn't bad, though I called out some pointers when I thought he needed them.
Surprisingly, he started listening because what I was telling him was making it easier for him, and he started pushing back and taking shots that caused me to block.
"Better, much better," I said, and then I changed from right-handed to left-handed, switching my sword over and changing the direction of my motion. Theo was suddenly quite flustered.
"This is a bit more advanced. Never fought a lefty before, have you?"
Theo just frowned and tried to press me again, but he wasn't familiar with the style.
"Lose the shield."
"What?" he said, giving me a look.
"Lose the shield. Drop it. Right now, it's a liability to you, and an advantage to me, because you haven't faced this before."
I was surprised that he did it, but a few back-and-forths later, he was taking good swings at me again.
"See? Now, put your sword in your left hand."
"What? I can't do that!"
I took a step back and stopped. "Just do it. I'm not going to attack you."
He did it.
"Now, do your first sword form."
"What? How?"
"However you want. Typically, I just mirror them."
"But, why?"
"Let me show you." I turned back to the sergeant, who was watching. "Send somebody good over, one of your instructors. I want to show my son what he's capable of."
"Pallas! Get over here!"
I got the other sword from where I'd left it and took a couple of swings to loosen up. Then I looked at the man who'd jogged over. He was quite a few years older than Theo, obviously. His practice armor was heavier and well-worn. He had a shield and a sword.
"What do you need?"
The sergeant pointed at me. "Try to knock his ass down."
"But he's not wearing any armor!"
"Yeah, he's not. Oh, try not to lose too badly."
Pallas snorted. "As if!" Turning to me, he banged his sword on his shield, and after I tapped my swords together in response, he moved in and attacked. He was good, which helped, but while he could handle my left-handed style, my constantly switching back and forth made it harder on him.
Then, of course, I started in on some of my tricks, things I'd learned from decades of fighting and sparring.
He yelped a few times as I blocked with one sword and came over the top of his shield with the other one.
Or under it. Or around it. He got so distracted by some of the tricks I was doing that when I body-slammed his shield, he started wind-milling and had to drop it, or he'd have fallen over.
He took a knee not long after that, as I was starting to punish him.
I hadn't even had to use my speed, which made it all the more impressive.
"How long have you been fighting?" he asked me as I picked his shield up and handed it to him.
"Decades. Been in a lot of wars, too."
I walked back to Theo, who was chatting quietly with the sergeant.
"I want you to practice everything you learn with your right hand with your left.
Do it every night. Once you can fight out here on the field left-handed, I want you to find someone who can teach you to fight two-handed.
There's a lot of variations on that, and when you consider how hard it is to pack a shield around, there's a lot of advantages, too. "
"Did you really fight a man in armor only wearing a suit?" Theo asked, looking at me.
"Armor is good for battles, especially if you're in the heavy infantry, but for duels? You want speed and flexibility. He thought my sword couldn't get through his plate. He was wrong."
"They say your father here made it look easy."
"I spent years training and had already been through several wars by then," I said with a shrug. "That's what I do. Now, let's go back inside and have lunch. Just remember one thing."