Voyage

by E M Gale

  ‘Good idea, tin-head.’

  “OK, let’s go.”

  “Well, Clarke, fascinating though it wasn’t to watch you practising spaceflight, I think I don’t really want to watch you practise duelling.”

  ‘Wow, I’ve managed to bore a robot!’

  “And anyway, most vampires aren’t keen on robots.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they can’t sleep with them, drink their blood or fight them.”

  I laughed at that.

  ‘We’re not so bad that we’re uninterested in everything else, are we?’

  “OK then, robot, I’ll see you later. I’m sure that Rob would appreciate your company.”

  “’Bye,” said the robot before trundling off.

  I headed up to level forty, and wandered into what I now know was a duelling hall.

  The interior was a large room, unsurprisingly not unlike a gym, with a few purpose-built seats overlooking the central area and door to other duelling areas. There was a large rectangular area marked on the floor and people gathered around it, some standing at the edge, some seated behind on the seats watching or ignoring the action. At one end of the room, high above everyone and lit up by a spotlight, was a large square flag that was affixed to the wall like flags often were in martial arts dojos. But I’d never seen this flag before.

  The flag’s background was white and there was an equilateral triangle design on it. The triangle was divided into three equal areas, each including one of the points of the triangle. The top area contained a large infinity symbol on a blue background. The two lower areas contained two more Greek symbols: the letter A or a capital alpha on a yellow background on the left and a capital omega on a red background on the right. The infinity symbol was obviously more important than the alpha and omega or whatever they stood for, since it was placed above them in the apex of the triangle.

  ‘It’s all very Greek. Why do vampires like Greek? Did they all get a classical education or something? Infinity, alpha and omega. Forever, the beginning and the end. Weird, but very vampiric.’

  The colours were interesting. Red, blue and gold–it would be gold or ‘Or’ rather than yellow, if the flag was designed on heraldic principles. It looked like a heraldic flag, except that they were usually shields or squares divided up into two or four or six or higher even numbers, rather than a triangle divided up into three.

  I walked around the edge of the room, keeping to the shadows. The room was not well lit for a normal human, but pretty well lit for a vampire. Around the edges were many vampires. Interestingly, there were several humans here in amongst the crowd.

  ‘What are these? Wannabe vampires? Dates?’

  I shrugged.

  ‘Well, I suppose vampires are not all that secretive if they allow humans to see them duelling.’

  The vampires were, I thought, mostly young, but I wasn’t sure what it was that gave me that impression.

  ‘There must be some way to tell, Hemmingway could, but I’ve not quite gotten the hang of it yet.’

  In the centre of the room a duel was going on. Two male vampires armed with swords were alternately attacking each other and blocking. The clang of sword on sword echoed around the room over the conversation of the uninterested and the cheers of the over-eager. One vampire cut the other–I could smell the sudden, sharp tang of his blood, and I had to concentrate to stop my teeth from growing, although several of the watching vampires didn’t.

  ‘How… gauche.’

  The losing vampire got down on one knee in a extravagant medieval style–not unlike what I had done when I’d sworn not to mutiny–and the other bent over him to drink from his throat.

  ‘How… domineering. Well, that way we all know who won.’

  The duellers stood up, embraced and headed off into the crowd.

  ‘Do we all have to embrace, or are those two friends or lovers?’

  The next pair walked into the arena: a young male vampire and a slender young female vampire. This was interesting. The guy was kinda nondescript and dressed in a preppy, sporty style. The woman was dressed in loose black combat trousers and a flouncy white shirt that was pulled in by a black waistcoat.

  ‘Very vampiric, very piratey.’

  Her hair was red and cut short with a fashionable diagonal slant, she had delicate bone structure and she lacked any pirate hats or eyepatches over her blue eyes. Still, the piratey look suited her. The voluminous shirt served to make her look fragile; the tight cuffs only emphasised the slimness of her wrists, the mannish waistcoat only emphasised her waist.

  The duellers stood about twenty paces from each other. They were armed with short swords, but there was a whole collection of other weapons lying around. They both said, “Short swords, physical attacks only,” and then went into a fighting stance.

  ‘What do they mean by ‘physical attacks only’? What other types are there?’

  The duellers cautiously began moving towards one another. The woman had her sword held high above her head, pointing forward diagonally forward, ready to sweep down, in a style favoured by the ancient Chinese army. The man had his sword in front of him, held out diagonally across his body to guard from attacks, in a more standard fencing style.

  The woman was advancing, but her first attack would be easy to spot. I expected her to sweep her arm down diagonally across her body to knock her opponent’s sword out of the way if defending and to cut him outside his sword guard if attacking. She might even be able to cut his neck if she were good enough. If he understood this, he would be ready to defend to the outside and up, or ready to attack as quickly as possible. It would take her time to move her sword down, his was already in position, and a quick slashing attack could get in and out of the way before she could respond.

  The woman got close enough. The male vampire lunged forward to stab with his sword.

  ‘Too slow, mate, too obvious.’

  She dodged it easily, and pulled her sword down in the attack I had guessed, but her opponent was overcommitted and unguarded, so she cut his neck easily. It was just a scratch, mind you, but she spilt enough blood for us to smell.

  ‘I guess we vampires are pretty good at smelling blood then, eh? Not surprising.’

  The male vampire shook his head in dismay, then got down on one knee. The woman crouched down to bite his neck politely.

  ‘Heh. OK, second go.’

  They stood up, turned their backs on each other and walked away for twenty paces.

  ‘Ah, cute, but since you’re not using guns, you’ll just have to move back across that space. But vampires are so fast that it’s a good idea to make them stand away from each other.’

  They arranged themselves opposite each other, same stances as before. This time the woman advanced.

  ‘Will the guy be clever enough to pick a different tactic?’

  Suddenly he ran towards her. She dodged to the side and brought the sword down as he passed her, cutting him across the back. I blew air out of my mouth in an annoyed manner.

  ‘Honestly, he could have done better than that! Granted it is an odd stance that she’s using, but still…’

  The winner took a little more of the losing vampire’s blood, then stood up and shook his hand.

  “Nice one, Emma,” called one of the crowd to the winning vampire. “Clarke herself couldn’t have done any better.”

  “Really?” Emma looked impressed with that, and then smiled shyly at the speaker. “You know, Clarke’s kinda my hero,” she said as she walked out of the centre of the arena.

  ‘Oh, dear, is that why she’s dressed in such an odd way? OK, black combats, that is my look, but not with a flouncy white shirt! And anyway, ’hero’? I’m not anyone’s hero. I’m sure there are plenty of female sword-fighting vampires for her to look up to. Why me? And more to the point, I don’t wear silly shirts like that!’

  “Oh, is she?” said another member of the crowd with a grin.

  “Oh, yes, I would love to meet her,” she g
ushed.

  ‘Oh, bloody hell, as if Cliff wasn’t enough.’

  “Well, she is standing over there,” said someone who was more observant than Emma, pointing at me. If they didn’t know me personally, they must have noticed the heartbeat.

  Emma looked over at me, her eyes widening. I grinned at her.

  “Oh, no!” She looked mortified. The next duel started–two female vampires, both using a standard one-armed, single-sword-across-the-body stance. Emma walked over to me. I watched the combatants.

  ‘Pretty standard tactics there, I think. Nicely executed though. They are much faster than the marines and pirates I’ve fought so far; would I be able to fight these vampires?’

  “Hi,” said the vampire, looking horrifically embarrassed. “I’m Emma,” she said, holding her hand out to me. I shook her hand. It was cool, like all vampires’ hands.

  “Clarke,” I said by way of introduction. “Nice sword-fighting.”

  She beamed.

  “Interesting choice of stance. A Chinese style, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, uh…” She trailed off and looked like she was searching her mind for something intelligent to say. I wasn’t accustomed to people acting starstruck around me, even after meeting the orcs and Cliff.

  ‘How does my future self cope with it? Can you ever get used to this sort of thing?’

  The first fight was over. The two female vampires were roughly evenly matched in skill, so were trading attacks and blocks with each other, neither cutting the other. This probably looked more interesting to the crowd than Emma’s fights, which had been more or less over in a heartbeat.

  “May I ask why I am your hero?” I said to her whilst I watched the fight.

  ‘I really ought not have asked. I didn’t mean to say anything about it at all.’

  “Oh, because you’re the best sword fighter!” she gushed.

  I shook my head and scratched the back of my neck rather awkwardly.

  ‘Oh, dear. Well, not now I’m not.’

  “Y’know, having heroes is a bad idea. No one is perfect. They’ll just disappoint you.”

  She was nodding and smelt rather embarrassed.

  “And I am not very heroic,” I added for good measure.

  ‘She doesn’t look very happy, but I really don’t want to have to live up to anything or anyone.’

  I sighed and shook my head. There was a heavy and uncomfortable silence which she eventually broke.

  “Clarke…”

  I looked at her. She was nervous.

  “Uh… would you duel with me?” she asked, colouring.

  ‘Ah, crap. I ought to have seen that one coming a mile off. She’s a pretty good fighter, and I’ve never fought a vampire before, or even used this sword before. I can’t possibly fight her.’

  I looked at the sword.

  ‘It is, thankfully, almost the same length as the short silver swords I’ve been training with, but lighter. Surely I should start off fighting the vampires who would be easy to beat? Not someone competent and capable of using unusual tactics.’

  ‘But then again, caution isn’t really me, and I’m not going to learn how to duel by watching others. Hopefully, the young vampires won’t notice too much of a skill disparity between me and my future self. Perhaps they may think I’m going easy on them if I’m no good?’

  “Of course,” I said.

  ‘Meh, that was stupid. Still, it’s the best way to learn, Clarke.’

  We walked over to the edge of the duelling area. Emma laid her sword down next to another on the floor.

  ‘Oh, I see, it’s just like pool tables in a pub. Where the next person to play is whoever the front coin in the queue belongs to, except with swords, which are far more individual than pound coins.’

  ‘Neat. Plus if ever there is a disagreement as to whose go is next, they’re in the right place to sort it out.’

  There was another duel to be fought in front of us. I watched them and thought about her opening move.

  ‘I think a fencing attack would be good. Using speed, power, and precision to get in before her downwards slash attack.’

  ‘I wonder if there are any rules about duels I need to know? Can I change stance, or pick whatever stance I like?’

  I was thinking and chewing on my knuckle. Emma smelt nervous.

  ‘I wonder if she’d be so nervous if she knew that she wasn’t fighting the two-hundred-year-old future-me, who apparently loves duelling, but a few-month-old me who has never fought a duel before?’

  The duel ended and we were up next. I got the feeling that the young vampires were interested in this.

  ‘Have they not seen me fight before?’

  I could tell that they respected Emma and thought that she was good. There was a muttering and a few people were elbowing their neighbours and pointing at us as we walked into the centre of the floor.

  ‘Oh, well, here goes nothing.’

  We stood back to back in the centre then paced out the correct distance. We turned and eyeballed each other. “Swords, physical attacks only,” we both said. She went straight into her high stance, her sword gripped in one hand, held up to the right-hand side just above her head, pointing forwards. I stood in exactly the same stance as the guy she had been fighting had done, sword in my right hand, held out in front of me, tilted slightly to the left and slightly forward. I even included his sloppy placement of his feet. I grinned at her. I hoped that she would assume I would be as stupid as her earlier opponent.

  She advanced on me exactly as she had done on the guy in the duel before. She was nervous, but used the tension to hold her form well.

  ‘Nice.’

  When she was within range, I switched stance to a fencing stance, pulling my left hand back and up out of the way, putting my right foot and arm forward, my sword straight. She looked confused, and then stepped close enough to attack. I thrust my sword forwards, powering the movement with an explosive and sudden lunge from my back leg, the sword tip aiming straight for her throat. I drew blood, then pulled back almost as quickly, sliding my feet and dropping my sword arm down to sweep my sword out of the way of hers as it cut through the empty air in front of her.

  She looked shocked. She healed herself; I had cut her–a little deeper than I had intended, actually. However, that wouldn’t have been fatal for even a normal human. I grinned at her and she got down on one knee.

  ‘Oh… this is weird. It is surely a little… public for blood-drinking, right? I’ve done this in other people’s quarters, dark alcoves of a bar, but not right out in front of everyone! Oh, dear. Oh, don’t blush, Clarke! Think about cabbages or something unsexy.’

  I bent forward and bit her neck incredibly gently, took a tiny amount of blood and stood up, healing her. She stood up too. I could smell that she was embarrassed as well, but at least she wasn’t blushing. My cheeks felt hot.

  We turned our backs on each other and walked apart twenty paces. Since I had drunk her blood, she would be able to feel what I felt and hear what thoughts I allowed her to hear. I had learnt how to close off my thoughts, but she might be able to feel how I was holding my body and what move I was going to do before I did it.

  ‘So, the winner shows off by drinking from the loser, but the loser gains an advantage for the next fight. That’s kinda fair.’

  ‘Now what to do? She’ll expect a fencing move this time. Hmm…’

  She pulled her right arm up high. I frowned at her.

  ‘OK, it is a good, if odd, attack, but if I know exactly what attack she’s going to use and how to defeat it, then what’s the point?’

  I held my sword as I had last time, in front of me in a basic one-handed stance, this time in my left hand, and with the correct posture and footwork.

  ‘Yeah, using the wrong hand will put her off.’

  She advanced on me as before, but because I knew which attack she was going to do, when she swept her sword down, I dodged it by stepping back, but didn’t counter-attack. She was so surprised
she just stood there looking at me, her mouth open. I stood there looking back, quite amused at the whole thing: pirates didn’t pause like that. She was fast and skilled, but had obviously never fought anyone who didn’t obey the rigid rules of her style.

  She shook her head and jumped back out of my range.

  ‘Good idea, that.’

  She pulled herself together.

  ‘Same stance? You have got to be kidding me! Surely, she must have another move?’

  She advanced, but I jumped forwards, slashing across myself. She jumped back.

  ‘OK, vampires are very fast. This is better. I’ll get a better chance to practise fighting like this.’ I grinned.

  She rushed me, the sword held high in her favourite fighting stance. She pivoted and swept her sword down across herself, but I expected that. I dodged easily by spinning in the direction of her sword’s diagonal strike. I spun all the way round, passing my sword from my left hand to my right hand and thrusting it out under her neck, purposefully not drawing blood. The crowd made a different noise to the one they had been making–not that I was really listening, but I think they were impressed. Emma’s eyes focused on the sword point at her neck and she dropped her sword in surprise.

  ‘Hey, did I just switch hands? Cool, there’s a new move. A good one, I think. It means that the sword travels around me faster than I spin, so gets there faster than my opponent expects. And if they don’t expect it, they won’t be ready to defend against it.’

  I didn’t move.

  ‘I can win the duel easily by just drawing blood at this point. She has nothing to defend against my strike and I only have to move the sword forward by about two centimetres. I can just stretch out my hand and win…’

  “Never drop your sword,” I said to her. I pulled mine back from her neck, and then stepped back, so she could pick hers up and be out of my range.

  “What is she doing?” someone said.

  ‘Ah, this might be unusual behaviour at a duel. Oh well.’

  “Attack me again, but use a different strike this time,” I said to Emma. She nodded, gulped and picked up her sword.