Jabone's Sword (11 page)

"Yes, well I haven't learned to cuss yet in their language," Jestia said. "What exactly happens when this horn blows?" she asked Ufalla, who shrugged. They both looked at Kasiria.

"The horn blows. We all meet in the middle of the garrison where they do a head count and then we go to breakfast."

"Well I'm all for breakfast," Ufalla said, and then turning to Jestia screamed, "get out of bed!"

"I'm cold," Jestia whined.

"Cold?" Kasiria said in disbelief.

"Yes, we're freezing," Ufalla said. Then to Jestia. "You'll feel warmer once you get up, move around and get dressed."
"I have to get undressed to do that," Jestia whined.

"I told you to sleep in your clothes. I don't know why you always have to put on such stupid airs," Ufalla said, obviously out of patience with her or at least pretending to be.

"I just wanted to sleep comfortably. That's not putting on airs. Could you hand me my clothes so I can get dressed under the covers?"

"You are such a little pain in the ass." But Ufalla handed over her clothes. Jestia was dressed and out of the covers as the horn blew.

They all put their swords on and then they walked out. Kasiria was just enjoying the idea that she now had companions when Ufalla and Jestia saw Jabone and Tarius and ran to meet them. "So much for my friends," she muttered, and went off to find her unit. She found them battered and bruised. "What in hell's name happened to you?" she demanded, expecting a pub story.

"We got in a scuffle with the new guys," Thomas said.

She found a whole new reason to like Jabone. She looked over to see if Jabone was hurt and saw that he didn't have so much as a scratch on him. "I guess I don't have to ask who won," she taunted.

"So did you . . . You know, get some action with the girls?" Thomas taunted right back.

His double meaning wasn't lost on her. She guessed they had already forgotten that she had saved them and were reverting right back to their old ways. She ignored him, it was how she got through the day. She lined up with them but longed to be with the Kartiks.

* * *

"Well?" Ufalla asked, sliding in beside Jabone.

"It's apparently how they make sure everyone is accounted for." He shrugged. "Seems a great waste of time to me. The way we do it at home makes a lot more sense."

"Huh?"

"You know, if you notice someone's missing you sound the alarm."

Ufalla nodded and then said, "That wasn't what I was asking. How did it go in the barracks with the chowder heads?"
"We had to fight, but they are our friends now. How about you?" he asked. Ufalla looked to make sure that Tarius and Jestia were busy talking, and then she whispered so low that only her friend the Katabull could hear. "Jestia got cold and asked me to sleep with her. It was better than full blown sex with other women so apparently I am doomed."

Jabone laughed and put his arm around her shoulders. "Maybe she got cold because she just wanted to be near you."

"A romantic thought, Jabone, of which we know you are filled because of your mothers, but she was just cold because it's cold here," Ufalla said.

Jabone nodded. "My mother packed me an extra blanket and thicker shirts. I thought she was crazy, just trying to coddle me, but now, well my mother knows the country of her birth. So did you get along with Kasiria?"

"Yes actually. I think she was just glad to be in the company of women who also wield steel. She has a huge undying desire for you my brother."

Jabone shook his head sadly. "No her fellows say she's much more likely to be interested in you."

Ufalla laughed. "No way. What's your mother always say? A beast can smell its own kind. That woman is not queer." Ufalla watched as a big grin covered her friend's face. "So at least one of us won't be loving in vain."

* * *

Derek watched as they lined up and the head count was done. The Kartik children apparently had no idea what standing at attention was and were talking and shoving each other. They weren't fighting they were just a very physical people Kartiks. They talked with flamboyant hand gestures and the way they pounded and shoved their friends you sometimes felt sorrier for them than you did their enemies. He ignored them; for the moment they were fine. What he couldn't disregard was the way Kasiria ignored her men as they taunted her in whispers under their breath. They had no respect for her what so ever. They were supposed to be her unit, she was supposed to be in command, and she obviously couldn't control them. What was worse was that she didn't seem to really care.

Three of her men had been killed. Not just three soldiers but three Sword Masters, men the country had put time and effort into training, and the princess cared not one rot.

If they had really been working as a cohesive unit it wouldn't have, shouldn't have happened. True when the chips were down it was Kasiria alone that had saved them, but she shouldn't have had to. If she had been able to command them, if they had been more intent on looking for danger than taunting her, they might not have been ambushed in the first place.

And none of them had learned their lesson. Kasiria wasn't trying to control them and they weren't showing her any more respect than they had.

Kasiria was the king's favorite child, not destined for the throne of course, but definitely number one in her father's heart. Persius was trusting Derek to keep Kasiria as safe as possible but it looked like in order to do that he was going to have to strip her of rank and take her out of command. That wasn't likely to go over well with the high-spirited Kasiria or her father for that matter.

Kartik words were screamed out suddenly, and the bigger of the two Kartik girls sent the other one flying a few feet backwards into Harris's son who shoved her back. As Hestia's daughter tried to slap the bigger girl's face and found first one and then the other hand held at the wrists, she kicked and squirmed and continued to scream out what he assumed were curses at the bigger girl. Then she hauled off and kicked her in the crotch, which made the bigger girl let her go and scream back at the princess.

"Enough!" he bellowed, pointing at them. They all looked at him. "Get in the line." They all looked at him like that was the stupidest thing they'd ever heard. In fact, Harris's son had to suppress a laugh, but they got in the end of one of the lines. "Now be quiet." They all looked at him and nodded. Then they looked at each other and it was obvious that they were all fighting their laughter.

They were never going to fit in here or in a unit on the road, they were just too different. Young Jestia was obviously a child of privilege but now that he thought about it so were the others. Jabone was the son of the Katabull's Great Leader, the character of legend Tarius the Black, Ufalla and young Tarius the children of Tarius's right hand man Sir Harris. In their land they no doubt took orders from no one save their parents. He looked at them even now looking at each other and making faces, no doubt because they thought being called out lined up and counted was silly.

Derek sighed.
Everything was just clipping along so smoothly. I gave up being Captain of the Gaurds at the castle to take a post at the Pearson Garrison at the edge of the territory. It was supposed to be a semi retirement for me. I was just going to train a few fighters, spend time with my wife, and watch my daughters—hopefully—find nice Sword Masters get married and settle down, play with my grandchildren and basically just be left alone. Now I've got Amalites crawling out of nowhere and sacking entire villages and the king sends his wayward, sword-slinging daughter here with visions of grandeur hoping to be Tarius the Black, and Tarius the Black sends me her son and the rest of these Kartik thugs, and what the hell am I going to do.? I don't want to incur my king's wrath and I sure as hell don't want to incur the wrath of Tarius or Harris or Queen Hestia for that matter. And the girls—they have no idea what they are doing to the men. They are beautiful, and young men are young men, easily distracted by a pretty face. It is for this reason I have my own daughters stay close to the house, and now I have these three in amongst the men. If I'm not very careful we could easily have an international incident on our hands just because a bunch of children want to play soldier.

When he looked up the Kartik children had lost their battle and were just laughing out loud and Kasiria was ignoring her unit looking back at them and smiling, and a strange idea started poking at the corners of Derek's mind.

* * *

Kasiria watched as Ufalla spared with Thomas and stopped her self short of laughing out loud as Ufalla laid him out time after time after time. And it wasn't because they didn't want to hit her because she was a girl. Kasiria had broken them of that when they'd all been in the Sword Master's academy. Even Jestia proved to be too much for most of her unit, and Jabone, well there was no one here or maybe on the planet who could best him, of this she was sure. He had made fast work of her and taught her more with a few words and blows than she'd learned in three years at the academy.

Eric had walked into the ring with Tarius. His nose was still swollen and his eyes were going black from his injury.

Eric was considered one of the best and he was easily twice the size of the Kartik man.

Eric attacked with aggression and Tarius was all over him like a bad rash.

Kasiria heard laughter at her shoulder and turned to see Jabone. He smiled. "Your big friend doesn't understand. Tarius has always been too aggressive a fighter. Time and time again my madra would scream out, 'I will punish aggression!' and then lay him to waste when he was aggressive. What you learn the best is how to combat your own mistakes. The more aggressive Eric becomes the more badly Tarius will beat him, because Tarius knows nothing better than how to fight himself."

As if Derek had heard him—which he couldn't from where he was standing—he cried out, "Do you want him to teach you anything or do you just want to try to hurt him?" Eric seemed to calm some.

"So, do you ever make any mistakes?" Kasiria asked Jabone.

Jabone blushed with embarrassment at such praise, but on his dark skin it was only a slight change of color. "Everyone makes mistakes. I will not tell you mine, you will have to find them for yourself."

"He rarely watches his legs," Ufalla said helpfully at her shoulder. "But even that isn't much help because he doesn't watch his legs because he moves them away from blows instead of blocking them. He knows from where your shoulders and wrists are where your blows will fall, and he rarely blocks with his blade he just moves his body out of the way. And just as your blow misses he will hit you because his blade is rarely tied up with yours."

Ufalla walked away then and into the practice ring to fight another young man.

"Are there really so few women fighters here?" Jabone asked with a wave of his hand at the crowd of men assembled.

"Few!" Kasiria laughed though obviously not from joy. "I'm it. No other woman has joined the academy or the army in the twenty years that it has been legal to do so. Just me, so your mother was a sword woman?"

He seemed to take a moment to think and then said, "Yes, my fadra too, great fighters all my parents, but my madra, she is the greatest fighter of them all."

"I thought myself quite good 'til you all got here. I think even Jestia could beat me."

"I doubt that, she has no will for the sword, no real passion for it. The only thing that saves her is that she really, really doesn't like to get hit," Jabone said with a smile.

"And yet she is still beating some of our best."

"That is because she is hard headed and competitive, not because she has a passion for steel," Jabone said with a smile. "And she has had the best trainers that money can buy."

"She comes from money then?"
"Oh aye."

"Then . . . Why come here to fight?"

Jabone smiled. "Our friend Jestia becomes bored very easily. She can have anything she wants so she wants only that which she can not have."

Kasiria wasn't quite sure she knew what that meant. He seemed to talk in riddles at times, not unlike Hellibolt.

"She wants an adventure. To be quite honest, that's what brings us all here. Well, that and to slay our parents' enemies the Amalites." He spit on the ground and then blushed even redder than he had before. "I am sorry. We were told last night that's not proper."

"That's quite all right." Kasiria laughed. "I may start to do it as well before the year is done."

"I must fight now." He walked off towards the practice ring where Ufalla waited and Kasiria saw the first good fight of the day. They were well matched although Jabone obviously was the better fighter. Of all the people he had fought that day, Ufalla was the only one to touch him, and Kasiria found herself jealous of the woman's skill. Kasiria watched carefully. Ufalla faked a blow to Jabone's legs. When he moved and slung his blow she was no longer where she had been so he missed and she hit him in the head. Jabone stumbled backwards, rubbing his head and laughing. He said something to Ufalla in Kartik and she laughed, too. The next time she tried this shot it didn't work, but when she bluffed his head and then hit his leg it did. But Ufalla's bluffs only worked because she was very good at them. Kasiria would have thought the blows were going to land in the one place, be sure of it, and then with a flick of Ufalla's wrist they would land somewhere else.

Kasiria didn't know how they did it, but every one of the Kartiks seemed to just be able to sneak up on her without being noticed every time. She found it more than a little unnerving. "She's beautiful," Jestia said at her shoulder.

"What?" Kasiria asked, not taking her eyes off the fighters.

"Ufalla. She's a beautiful woman and rumor has it quite a good lover. She's really not mine if you want her."

Jestia had her attention then. "Let me guess, the men have been telling you that I'm queer."

"Yes, and you may have her if you want her."

Kasiria laughed. "I'm not queer. I don't want any of
them,
but I'm not queer."

Jestia smiled then, a smile almost too big for her face and said, "So then it is Jabone that you're swooning over." She sounded relieved and Kasiria had to wonder why.