The Deed of Paksenarrion

by Elizabeth Moon

“Yes, sir.”

  “Have you used a bow?”

  “In training, yes—it’s not my best weapon.”

  “Polearms?”

  “Only in training.”

  “Mace? Axe? Crossbow? Siege weaponry?” At each shake of her head, his lips seemed to tighten. Paks wondered if he really thought all of those important. She had trouble keeping up with his long sweeping strides, and noticed little of the building around them—only rows of doors, open and shut, and the stone flags of the hallway. They came out into a small court surrounded on three sides by stables; a pile of dung centered the court, and two youths were shoveling it into a cart. Past a row of box stalls, each holding a massive warhorse, the Training Master ducked through a narrow archway into another passage. This time they emerged on the edge of the walled field Paks had seen from her windows. On their right, the stone building sprouted a long finger; the Training Master turned toward this.

  It was a single room, and resembled a small grange except that it had no platform and no doors at the far end, only the one on either side. It was empty at the moment, but Paks could hear grunts and the clash of weapons from the far side. The Training Master led her through it, and out the other door.

  Here were perhaps a score of fighters, all in training gray, practicing with swords and—Paks was surprised to see—hauks. To one side a burly man in blue watched them closely. He glanced over at the Training Master, and waved. Paks followed as they walked around the training area to meet him.

  “This is Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter,” said the Training Master abruptly. “The Marshal-General has assigned her to this class.”

  Sharp black eyes met hers. “Ha. She’s no novice.”

  “So I understand. If you can spare her for more time in other studies, Cieri, do so.”

  “Am I to hood hawks so they may learn music?” Paks thought by the tone that this was an old argument begun again. The Training Master’s face relaxed.

  “There are other skills of war, Cieri—”

  “Oh, and so there are, but none of them any good if you can’t keep a blade from your guts.” He shook his head. “Never mind, Chanis, I know what you mean, and the Marshal-General too. If she can spare the time, I’ll see to it. But only if, understand that.” He cocked his head at Paks, and looked her over.

  “See that she knows where to go, when you’re through,” said the Training Master. He turned to Paks. “Gird be with you, Paksenarrion. If you have any need, come to my office at any time.”

  “Thank you, sir,” said Paks, still ruffled.

  “Well, now.” Cieri, the weaponsmaster, was walking around her. She turned to watch him. “Where have you fought? What weapons? I see marks of a longsword on your clothes.” For the third time that day, Paks outlined her training. Cieri, at least, showed no doubt. “That’s good. Three fighting seasons with Phelan—that means you know your way with short-sword and formation fighting. And you’ve used a longsword since—very good. Many who come to us with your background cannot fight without the others in formation. Not until I’ve trained them, that is.” He grinned broadly. For all that he was younger and heavier, he reminded Paks of Siger. “What about unarmed combat?”

  “I’ve done it,” said Paks cautiously. She knew that Siger himself had mastered only a few of the many styles.

  “Can you fight mounted? I know Phelan has infantry.”

  “I have, some. Marshal Cedfer in Brewersbridge was teaching me, and I fought a little with a sword.”

  “Without cutting up the horse? Good. I see you’re wearing mail—Chanis didn’t give you time to change, eh? But we don’t wear mail in practice sessions—you must not come to count on it. Today I’ll test you, but tomorrow you show up in training uniform, right?”

  “Yes, sir.” Paks noticed that the others were watching covertly, slowing their own practice to see what she was doing. Cieri noticed that too, and bellowed at them.

  “Gird’s gut, may the ale hold out, you dolts keep gaping like that and I’ll run you all around the field ten times before supper. D’you think an enemy’d let you gaze all around like a bunch of calves in pasture? Get to your work, or—” But the tempo had speeded back up at once. Cieri picked up two swords from a stack near the edge of the practice area. “Here—we’ll start with what you’re comfortable with.”

  Paks took a sword, and moved it, testing its balance. It was heavier than her own, and broader across the blade. Cieri stood casually, touched her blade with the tip of his, and leaped in so fast that she almost missed her own stroke.

  “Aha!” he said. “If you were that slow with enemies, you would have more scars than you do. Don’t hold back, girl—I’m better than Cedfer, if you want the truth of it.” Indeed he was, and Paks found herself working hard to keep his blade from clashing on her mail. She had gotten used to the delicate balance of the magic sword—that responsive light spring—and she felt, at first, that she was fencing with a length of iron firewood. Several minutes later, sweating freely, she found her balance, and tried offensive strokes as well as defensive. Cieri countered them easily, but grinned even more widely. “You’re learning,” he said. “You’ve got a reach on you, too. And reasonable speed.” He tried one of the tricks she knew about, and she thrust it aside, lunging quickly to mark his tunic. “And you know something. Very good. You haven’t wasted your time.” But in a flash he shifted his blade to the other hand. Paks, confused, missed her parry, and felt the sharp blow along her side. Another, in the same place, and then she countered with a blow that drove him back a step.

  She had forgotten that he wore no mail, until after a fast exchange of heavy blows she caught his arm and blood darkened the tunic. “Hold,” he said, but she had already lowered her blade. He glanced at his arm, and then at her with new respect. “You do know something. By Gird, we may have a swordsman in this class after all.”

  “I’m sorry—” she started to say.

  “No matter. In a Hall full of Marshals, little wounds like these are no problem. Look here—” He pulled aside the ripped sleeve to show a narrow jagged wound already closing. “You must all learn to fight, and strongly, and therefore I take a lot of healing.”

  Paks was startled. “But I thought—”

  He looked closely at her. “Oh. You’re not Girdish, are you? Most are. With an arm like that, you should be. It’s nothing, here—Marshals can heal themselves as well as others, and Gird does not begrudge healing to weaponsmasters.”

  “Then you’re—”

  “A Marshal, yes. You didn’t know? Most of your instructors here are Marshals.”

  “Oh.”

  “Now put away that sword you obviously know how to use—not that you can’t learn more—and let’s see what you do with staves.” Paks had never fought with staves before, and collected a quantity of bruises proving her incompetence. Cieri then tried her in archery; her form, he said, was passable, but her ability to judge windage was abysmal. She could not throw a javelin at all, and when he saw her grip on a battleaxe, he told her to put it down at once. “And I won’t have you try unarmed combat in mail just yet—tomorrow will do for that.” By this time Paks was sweaty, tired, and sore enough to be glad of a rest. “You’re beyond most of the class in sword handling,” he said, after thinking a few moments. “Some of them have had lessons for years, but no actual fighting. That’s what makes the difference. You’ll need regular practice with the sword, but instead of new tricks with it, I want to improve your other weapons skills. When you finish, you should be able to instruct with at least five weapons. More if you’re interested. Tomorrow morning, come with the others for mounted drill—do you have your own horse?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Well, you can ride your own horse tomorrow. If it’s trained enough, you’ll bring it to every session, but we switch around. Marshal Doggal takes most of the mounted classes. Mounted work first thing in the morning, then your other studies, before and after lunch, then drill here. Is that clear?”

 
“Yes, sir. But—what about my horse? Where is he, and what about grooming—”

  “You’ve been caring for your own? Good, good. You won’t do that, for awhile—this autumn session, we keep the class busy enough without, but in the spring each student is assigned a mount to care for. Just show up at the right time in the mornings, and saddle up.”

  “Oh.” Paks thought of explaining Socks’s character, but decided not to.

  “Now—” He looked at her closely. “I don’t mean to insult you, but the order provides adequate clothing. Leave your soiled things near the door each morning, and they’ll be cleaned.” Paks nodded. “You look to be in fair condition, but you’ll be sore and stiff with the schedule you’ve got. Hot baths are available each night. Many students prefer to bathe and change before supper—if they have time.” He looked around at the rest of the students, and shook his head. “Nearly time to quit, and they know it. As you’ve come in from traveling, and are wearing mail, I won’t send you—but we end with a run most days.” He turned to the others, and raised his voice. “Rufen!” A young man with dark brown hair stepped back from his partner, and came forward. “This is Paksenarrion; she’s a new member. Take her back to the House, and show her where things are. She’s got a horse for tomorrow, but doesn’t know where it’s stabled.”

  Rufen bowed, giving Paks a quick glance. She thought he was several years younger than she, half a hand shorter, and more slender. As he led her away, back through the empty armory, he looked at her again. “You’re not a Girdsman?” he asked. Paks could not place his accent, which seemed slightly melodic.

  “No,” she said. She was not going to explain everything all over again. Not then.

  “You fence well,” he said, with another sidelong glance. “I’ve never seen Cieri move so fast, except against the knights. What kind of horse have you?”

  Paks answered stiffly, suspecting a joke. “Just a—a black horse. Warhorse.”

  They were in the stable courtyard by then, and he asked one of the workers. “That black with the stockings? And a wide blaze? He’s in the new court stables.”

  “That’s where guest horses are housed,” explained Rufen. “I expect they’ll move him in here, if they’ve got a free stall.” He led the way through a tack room full of racked saddles into another, larger, stable complex. Before he could find someone to ask, Paks heard Socks, and saw his wide head peering out over a half-door. Rufen looked startled when she pointed him out. “That’s yours? If he’s not Pargunese-bred, I’ll take up the harp. Look at the bone of him.” By this time they were at the stall, and Socks had shoved his nose hard into Paks’s tunic.

  “I don’t have any,” she said sharply. He seemed in good shape, and had obviously been groomed carefully; no saddle marks showed on him. Rufen hung over the door, still talking.

  “Great gods, what a shoulder. How’s he trained? Did you train him? Do you have a pedigree? No speed, I’d say, but a lot of bottom.” Paks had no chance to answer; the questions came too fast, and Rufen wasn’t paying attention to her anyway. A groom came up.

  “This horse yours?”

  “Yes.”

  “He don’t like his hind legs messed with, do he?”

  “No—did he kick?”

  “Kick! Look there at that board—” the man pointed. It had split along its length.

  “He was hurt before I got him,” said Paks. The groom eyed her sourly.

  “That’s what they all say,” he said. “Hurt before I got him, pah! Could have trained him out of it, couldn’t you?”

  “I did,” said Paks, suddenly angry again. “Look.” She jumped up on the stall door. Socks threw his head up and snorted. “Be still,” she said firmly, and slipped onto his broad back, then down to stand beside him. She ran her hand over his massive rump, down the hind leg, and chirped. He lifted his hoof obediently into her hand, and she tapped the sole, then put it down. “There, you see?” The groom nodded.

  “All right. Now tell that beast to let someone else do it.”

  “Come on in.” The groom opened the stall door. Socks stiffened his ears, and clamped his tail. Paks soothed him with a hand, and the man followed her gesture and picked up the other hind hoof. “I suppose, come to think of it, that no one’s handled his legs but me since I got him,” she said.

  “I hope he’ll remember this,” said the groom.

  “Try apples,” said Paks.

  “Bribe a horse?”

  “That’s what I did.”

  “It works,” put in Rufen. “They’re such greedy-guts, horses are. We use apples in our training.”

  “Yes, my lord,” said the groom, with a slight bow. Rufen colored, glancing at Paks. When the man had left, and they were walking back across the stable court, he sighed.

  “I suppose you know we use only one name here?”

  “No—” Paks hadn’t thought about it.

  “Well, the—the servants and all, they know our full names. But don’t worry about it. Just call me Rufen.”

  “And I’m Paks,” she said. He nodded, and led her back into the maze of buildings.

  “It’s simple, really,” he said a few minutes later, after taking her to the Low Hall where they would eat, and then to the bath house and past some of the classrooms. “The High Lord’s Hall opens into the Forecourt, and directly across from it is the Marshal-General’s Hall. Her quarters are upstairs, but they hold large meetings downstairs. And several other Marshals live there as well. Where you came in—that archway—that’s all quarters for the gate guards and some of the servants. The other side of the Forecourt is the Training College—where we live and meet for classes. It used to be quarters for the Knights of Gird, but when the order grew too big for it, they converted it for us. The ground floor is much larger—rooms on the back side look over the roofs. That’s because it doesn’t have cellars; all the storerooms are above ground.”

  “Why?”

  Rufen shrugged. “I don’t know. I never wondered; they just told us when we came. Anyway, the Low Hall is more-or-less behind the Marshal-General’s quarters; you saw where the kitchens were, between the steward’s office and the Hall. The stables are really confusing, and I hear they’re thinking of redoing them. Most of our horses—those assigned to training—are stabled in that little court just back of us. But the only way from there to the guest stables is through the tackroom—so you’ll have to ride out the back of the guest stables, and around the smithy. Then the Knights’ horses are stabled on the other side, south of the training armory.”

  Paks was still confused, but hated to admit it. “There are other armories, then?”

  “Gird’s teeth, yes. Each order of knights has its own, of course, and the paladins have theirs—and by the way, don’t even think of trying to see what magical things they’ve got. Elis of Harway tried that, a year ago, and was knocked senseless for two days by the guard power they’ve set.”

  “Oh.”

  “And the Marshal-General chewed her out when she came to, and had her assigned to be Suliya’s servant for a week.” When Paks looked blank at that, he explained. “Suliya’s a paladin—she—well, she stays here now.” Paks said nothing, since he seemed uneasy. Finally he went on. “Sometimes, they say, even a paladin is defeated. You think of them dying, but sometimes—” He shook his head. “Of course, I’ve never seen her. Elis said it was—well, she said she’d fight any of us if we tried violating paladin secrecy. You don’t know Elis, of course.”

  Paks began to think she’d like to know Elis. She was about to ask which of the students was Elis, when Rufen went on. “You won’t, anyway, unless she comes back before you leave.”

  “Was she dismissed?”

  “Elis? No, but her father died, and she was the oldest. She had to take his place. As soon as one of the others is old enough, she wants to come back. And she will. In the long run, if Elis wants it, she gets it.”

  They were now in the passage outside Paks’s room. A neatly lettered card fitted into a s
lot she had not noticed before, so that anyone would know it was her room.

  “I’m down four doors, across the passage,” said Rufen. Paks finally found words for something that had puzzled her.

  “How did you know about Elis? I thought the Marshal-General said the new class had been here only a few weeks.”

  “Oh, them.” Rufen laughed. “There are—oh—a dozen of them. They’re all younger than you. I’ve been here a year and some.”

  “Were all those in practice with you?” Paks did not want to reveal how unskilled they had seemed to her.

  “No—we train in groups according to skill. That’s the most basic group, in sword-work. My father, you see, planned for me to be a scholar. I had a badly broken arm, as a boy, and he thought it would never hold up to fighting. I thought differently.”

  “Oh.” Paks found his composure as interesting as his story. He did not sound angry, or defensive—he might have been talking about the training of a horse.

  “You won’t do your sword-work with us, I’m sure. But then Aris and Seli won’t do staves with you. By Gird, I’ve never seen anything so clumsy as your grip on a staff.” Paks flushed, but he obviously meant no insult. “It gives me hope for my swordwork, for I was just as clumsy to start—perhaps you were so with a sword, and yet you’ve learned great skill.”

  “Well—I’ll work hard,” said Paks, trying to copy his calm.

  “Oh, you’ll learn. Cieri could teach a cow grace, if he wanted to. And he likes you somewhat—not that that will take the sting out of his blows. But if we want baths before supper, we’d best get going. The rest of them’ll be crowding in soon enough.” He went in his own room, and Paks turned to hers. Already two complete sets of gray tunics and trousers were folded neatly on her bed. She took off her mail, and her sweaty clothes, and put on the loose bath-gown of heavy gray wool. A knock on her door. Rufen called from outside. “I forgot to tell you—lots of us don’t wear the uniform to supper. It’s up to you, but don’t wear mail, or weapons but the dagger.”

  “Thanks,” she called back. She rummaged among her things, and decided finally to wear her second-best shirt from Brewersbridge. Perhaps they would think it strange if she showed up in students’ gray at once. Then she thought of the Training Master, and wondered. It seemed that she could be wrong either way. Why hadn’t they told her exactly what to do? She was willing to do what she was told. She looked from one stack of clothes to the other, biting her lip nervously, trying to remember exactly what the Training Master had said. At last she took up her own shirt and trousers, and headed for the bath house.