Shadow Knight

by M. H. Johnson

  “By Justice, Malek, we did it!” Jess’s exuberance came out as little more than a breathless pant.

  She could feel Malek nod. “By the gods, we did. Oh by all that’s holy, Jess, I think I could sleep for a week.”

  Jess nodded, dearly wanting to put her head on the ground and doze in the sun, so weary she felt. Together they relished the cooling air caressing their sweat soaked brows even as they breathed deep of the fresh sun-kissed air, free of the ever-present stink of their helm and visors. Jess felt herself smile like a cat as the gentle sunlight caressed her tired form and she felt herself almost fall into the lightest doze. Happy and replete on the field of battle.

  “Jess. Awaken. Now is not the time for rest.” Counseled a cautious twilight, even as he poked her thigh, normal armor being absolutely useless against his claws if he wanted to make a point, Jess had long ago found.

  “Ouch, Twilight, quit poking me!”

  Malek shuddered. “By the Hells, Jess. I think he means to duel us still!”

  With an aching groan Jess looked up and caught the image of an implacable looking Eloquin slowly striding toward them. About their incredible feet of skill, endurance, and coordination, he said nothing, even as he checked his wrist straps. Turning his helmet to them. “Get up.” His voice was cold, like ice. “Did I call the match finished as all matches are on this field? Have you and your companion safely retreated to a secure location amongst friends and allies? You have not! How dare you think the battle over just because the opponents you see are down. Taking off your helmets on the field of battle like fools! All it takes is one lowly conscript with a grudge and a knife, just one, and all the glory means naught when his pathetic untrained wrist slices your jugular. Fat lot of good all the hours of training I gave you if your life is traded so cheaply for that of a single starved peasant. Now GET UP!”

  Eloquin’s voice crackled with fury, and Jess and Malek lurched to their feet. “No, your helmets OFF! For that is how you presented yourselves as danger strode to you, how lucky you are he is so confident as to announce himself at all.” His body trembled, eyes crackling like icy flame, and Jess found herself shaking. Never had she ever seen her master in such a fury. Never. “This match will not be to touch but to submission. I will break you of your bad habits even if I have to crack your skulls to do it!”

  With that he roared and charged with a series of blows that Jess did all she could to desperately counter, stepping back madly to keep him at range, a desperate pace away, giving her an extra split second to parry and dodge as he relentlessly drove her backward, their enraged instructor countering Malek’s now badly coordinated strikes with contemptuous ease. Their former rhythm, that almost supernatural grace and ability to fight as one had been shattered by exhaustion and Eloquin’s unexpected fury, and they strove desperately just to keep from being battered senseless by their master at arms.

  Try as she might, Jess could not regain the initiative, her one attempt to double her displaced blow had resulted in her almost losing her blade as Eloquin savagely countered, simultaneously parrying her strike near the hilt while savagely thrusting his point into her gut. Even as she gasped for breath, stunned, she couldn’t help but admire the perfection of her master’s Absetzen maneuver, having near simultaneously countered her blow while trapping her blade high, then immediately thrusting into her exposed torso. Parrying and striking so fluidly it was almost one motion.

  And even as Jess was lurched back, momentarily breathless, Eloquin was showing her shieldbrother no mercy, pivoting around and blasting through Malek’s frantic Krumphau sequence with a fierce blow right to Malek’s groin, even as he then slammed his armored fist into her shield brother’s nose. Jess was shocked at the fountain of blood and felt her body roaring with a fiery heat.

  “Is this all you have?” Eloquin’s voice was almost contemptuous. “I had hoped for more! We need more! How dare you be so weak! Where is your terrible dance now, children? You fight like disjointed marionettes!” Eloquin spat his contempt. “Where was synergy I saw you two embrace with such overconfidence but moments ago? Is your connection shattered so easily? Pathetic! I need more from you! We need more! Get up, Malek. How dare you groan like a lord’s pampered son! Failed your father, now you dare to fail me? Your bloody nose is nothing compared to the death that you and your friend dance with so cavalierly, risking yourselves so stupidly! Are we so desperate as to rest all our hopes on you? This is pathetic!” Eyes blazing, he spun about to face an utterly shocked Jess with a look of disdain. “And Jess! Stop standing there like an open mouthed fool! I rail against your shattered friend and all you can do is gaze hot tears at me like a peasant wench? Show me your fire and fight!” With that he roared and charged Jess.

  Shaken, horrified, feeling a cold fury burn and boil through her she met his mad surge with a desperate speed she didn’t know she possessed. It seemed as if he had purposely slowed down his blows just enough so as to let her parry, even as they smacked into mithril mail just enough to sting. His angry contemptuous gaze was that of someone who wanted to hurt her, punish her, as he had broken and shamed Malek. In that flash of time Jess could see her shieldbrother’s bruised face and distorted nose, gazing at her in confused exhaustion. And in that split second of distraction Jess felt the fierce blow of Eloquin’s blade smacking into her skull.

  Jess stumbled to her knees with a sudden lurch, some part of her mind aware that she had been stunned even as her thoughts became loose and disjointed, and she struggled to hold onto her awareness, gazing up at general Eloquin who was even at that moment shaking his head, lowering his blade ever so slightly, his normally fierce glare almost gentle as he spared her a single glance before turning to face the students all gazing at Jess and Malek’s defeat with looks ranging from disbelief to outright awe.

  Desperately, she clung to consciousness, feeling a dark wrath roar through her like a shrieking gale, snapping her awareness back into place, filling her with a terrible sense of fury and purpose.

  “Jess! At ease! There are no enemies here.” And Jess felt her fury fade to nothing, blinking in confusion under Twilight’s sapphire gaze. She then looked down at her own furiously trembling fist, realized she was on her feet, and before her stood master Eloquin, addressing all of his select students who had witnessed the bout, and indeed, been a part of it.

  It was only then she registered what Eloquin was saying. He was not condemning Malek and herself, for all that he had shamed and humiliated them, castigating them with his words like whips even as he had charged into them. Rather, his words were ones of praise, and caution.

  “And so you see, future commanders of Erovering, just how deadly an adversary a Delver can be! The most skilled and adroit of adventurers learn not only to channel their abilities to deadly effect, but to work in perfect concert with their companions, allowing them to be truly fearsome in tandem, far more so than as individuals. Under ideal conditions, they are hard to beat. But so too, should you ever face such foes in future battles with our enemies, you now know the secret to defeating them!

  “Break their rhythm. Disrupt their flow. Just as I castigated Jess and Malek at the height of their relief and ease, leaving them too flustered to work in tandem, shaming them out of using their helmets, leaving them feeling humiliated and furious, utterly out of sync, even as I struck. And that is how I, a lone man, managed to best two of your brethren who, working in concert, had managed to best the entirety of your class!”

  “Of course it doesn’t hurt that you’re probably the deadliest bladesman Erovering has ever seen, if not Brother Autumn himself!” Quipped Neal even as the class entire gazed speechless at their fellow, awed by his temerity, yet their instructor did naught but chuckle softly.

  “It doesn’t hurt at all to earn such a fearsome reputation, young Neal. Just one more tool to cow our foes. But all you have to do is look around you at the turning of the seasons to see that rumors of an endless summer were just that. Rumors. And the fact remains that many o
f you hold the double crossed blade pins of expert swordsmen, and a few of you will soon be ready to challenge me for your master rank. Yet how many of you even got close to besting our Jess and Malek?”

  Eloquin gave a slow shake of his head. “Tell me, future commanders, what are the three fundamental rules of warfare one must master if one hopes to seize the day? The achievement of those goals being every bit as important as individual skill at arms?”

  Jess and Malek, bruised, battered, and grinning, spoke in unison even as Eloquin spun around to face them. “To know your enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, to divide and conquer, to rob your foe of the will to fight.”

  Eloquin's stern features broke out into an approving smile. "And there you have it, class. From the mouths of the very pair I bested, all the wiser for the lesson, I should think."

  Malek chuckled softly. “Never remove your helmet and take your ease on the battlefield, not until you are sure all your enemies are dead or routed.”

  Jess nodded. “We should have plopped our helms on despite your bluster, and we shouldn’t have let your words get to us.”

  Eloquin gave an approving nod. “Well said. And you are both correct. But make no mistake, I meant what I said. I’ve spent far too many hours training you both to have you waste your lives in a moment of stupid carelessness.” He turned to face the class entire. “That goes for all of you. None of you are to remove armaments or relax your guard upon the field of battle, no matter how exhausted you are. And on these training grounds, you wait till I blow the whistle! If you’ve taken or spotted serious injury, you signal for a healer and we pause the training, so long as you realize that in war itself there is no mercy or pause, just a mad struggle for your very lives.”

  “Yes, commander Eloquin.” The class murmured as one, Neal blushing under Eloquin’s glare, and Jess immediately understood why; the favored fourth year protégé of Eloquin’s having taken off his helmet and establishing bad precedent, for all that Jess knew that she and Malek were of course responsible for their own lapses in judgment.

  Master Eloquin instructed all those students who had taken a serious blow to speak to the white-robed healer even then walking among them, a well-practiced routine as they had learned to fight all out in their numerous furious mock battles, Eloquin striving to make their training as true to life as possible. For any serious student of their deadly arts would agree that contusions and minor breaks were small prices to pay, if the tradeoff was learning how to survive and hold one's unit together, even trapped within the most violent of battlefields, cut off and without hope of reinforcements.

  Jess felt a curious tightness to her chest as Lord Eloquin then focused the full weight of his hawk-like gaze upon her and her shieldbrother both, at last giving them a nod, and Jess was near amazed to find him actually smiling.

  “You two did well this day. Quite well. Should you silly gits actually remember to keep your helmets on while in Shadow, and not let down your guard for even a moment, you both might actually survive a season or two as adventurers.”

  The general then turned to face the white-robed man approaching them, and Jess grinned to see it was none other than master healer Sir Jevons himself who approached, silvery hair billowing gently in the wind. "Greetings, Lord Eloquin." He allowed with a respectful bow of his head, gazing at the three with his customary gentle smile.

  Lord Eloquin gave a respectful nod of his head. “Sir Jevons. Glad you are here.” He turned his gaze to meet Jess and Malek’s own. “Few people are more important to the well-being of an army than a good healer. Second only to a good tactician in importance, as I’m sure our class appreciates most viscerally, this morning.” Eloquin flashed a bleak smile.

  Sir Jevons laughed politely. “Well said, sir. It seems your students have received quite the workout this day. I believe my associates have the contusions suffered by a few unfortunates well in hand, though fortunately most suffered only injuries to their pride. It does appear, however, as if young Lord Sousel here will need his nose set, if he does not wish a crooked countenance for the rest of his days."

  Lord Eloquin gave the healer a respectful nod. "Then I will leave you to tend to your duties as you see fit." He turned to Jess and Malek, hard earned smile still in place. "Again, well done, you two." He laughed softly. "All things considered, it is not hard to appreciate why lord Hyve insisted you two be withdrawn from the tournament. Not hard at all." At which point, Eloquin proceeded toward the college proper, firmly reminding everyone to prepare diligently for the tournament that would soon be upon them, minor bruises or no. Amazingly, far more students cheered than groaned at the prospect, giving their commander a salute as he passed by.

  The kindly healer then bent down and gave Jess and her shieldbrother an understanding smile. “Well, I’ve heard any number of accounts from your peers assuring me you are both unstoppable hellions, infused with all the power of Shadow that an adventurer could ever wish for.” The three shared a wry chuckle at the thought.

  “If that were true, we would have hardly been so thoroughly trounced by our master, Sir Jevons," Malek observed.

  The kindly healer smiled and nodded his agreement. "Grateful as we all are for your talents, Lord Malek, Lady Jess, battle prowess alone won't spare you injury, though from what I gather, you two are remarkably resilient as well. I've seen the work of Lord Eloquin's mailed gauntlet against more than one pugnacious nose as a result of a drunken brawl, and I must say you’ve gotten the better end of that bargain, for your skull is obviously still intact.”

  Jess shivered even as she recalled just how forcefully her instructor had rapped her head with that training blade. “Do you think he allowed for that when he struck us, sir?” Jess queried, praying it was so, hating the thought that the man she so highly admired would have risked her life unnecessarily.

  Sir Jevons gave a reassuring nod. "No doubt, Lady Jessica. Did you know he had fought alongside Delvers in Erovering's campaigns against Velheim near two decades ago? I'm not sure how the circumstances actually evolved, since technically adventurers of all nations have taken what amounts to an oath of noninterference in mundane affairs; perhaps some fools actually attacked them, giving the Delvers a pretext to strike their enemies as an act of self-defense. In any event, it was a slaughter, and your commander gave quite a graphic account of just how resilient and effective those Delvers were."

  The healer gave a gentle shake of his head, as if to dispel such grim accounts, for all that Jess found it fascinating. "Nonetheless, I pray that you both will forgive me if I treat you like I would any other injured student; gently, and with care."

  Jess nodded as the man looked her over, placing his hands upon her head with grave solemnity, inhaling deeply, and Jess could sense the lily-white ethereal filaments of power gently probing her skull. Abruptly, she started laughing, lowering her gaze in embarrassment as the healer’s raised eyebrow.

  “I am sorry, Sir Jevons," Jess softly murmured, "but your tendrils tickle."

  The master healer blinked. “How remarkable. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to sense them at all. But from what I can tell, your skull really is as sturdy as a steel bell. Save for a slight bruise which will recede in a couple days’ time, you are fit as a fiddle, your brain quite unharmed, I am happy to say.”

  Jess grinned. Finding out one’s brain was fully intact was always a good thing.

  “Now let me take a look at you, young Lord Malek.” He gazed at Malek with careful consideration before giving an abrupt nod. “If you would be so kind as to brace yourself, Squire of War?” With one of his hands gently cupping Malek’s forehead, he placed his other hand carefully upon Malek’s nose, nodding once to himself even as he gave an abrupt snap, setting the broken bone back in place. The young lord’s eyes were clenched so tight they began leaking tears. He then cried out as Sir Jevons whispered a soft spell, and Jess saw a web of silvery white magic pour out from Jevon’s heart into the still bleeding nostrils.

  Malek gave
the healer a hurt look. “Bloody hells, that hurt! I thought you said you were going to be gentle.”

  Sir Jevons just smiled. “Fear not, my dear Malek. I did naught save set the bone and speed its healing. As long as you leave it be, it should be good as new in less than a week’s time.”

  After that, Jess and Malek thanked the healer, who gently insisted they spend the remainder of the day taking their ease, and proceeded back to their quarters, Jess smiling at the familiar comfort of Twilight settling himself upon his favorite spot, her hand reaching out to stroke his fur even as he gently butted his head against her cheek.

  “You did well, my mistress. And you already know the one lesson you needed to learn.”

  Jess smiled. "Not to let Lord Eloquin leave me flustered?"

  Twilight flashed a very catlike grin as he pivoted his head to lock his sapphire gaze with her own. “I was going to say, always feed your kitty. I could have warned you about Eloquin’s tactics sooner, I’m sure, had I not be distracted by my growling belly.”

  Jess smiled. “That's actually a good idea, Twilight. Come on, Malek, to the dining hall! Let's grab ourselves some lunch.”

  Malek laughed softly. “And fish for your familiar, am I right?”

  Jess nodded, even as Twilight gazed behind them. “And yes, Jess. Don’t let any opponent throw you off your rhythm. Together, working as one, you and Malek are near unstoppable. Allowing anyone or anything to come between you two would be playing right into an enemy’s hands, if they were working towards your downfall.”

  Jess shivered. “Cold words, my loyal friend.”

  Twilight smiled. "Then best you warm yourself up with a nice bowl of fish stew. Oh look, Jera is already at table, waving us toward our customary settings. You really should convince them to leave an extra trencher for me, dearest mistress. But look, two tureens of stew already set at our humble little table. At least Cook knows her duty, even if she always forgets why."