Faron stepped back, returning to the position where he had just blocked Kaila's attack. "If your opponent is driving your blade aside you no longer are guarding the center. You must be regaining it. Kaila."
Kaila shifted her weight and drove her own sword forward, this time pushing Faron's back and out. Faron responded by stepping back and to the side. Once again, he had his sword square in front of him, guarding his center line and Kaila was suddenly in a position where she would find it difficult to defend against his attack. Kaila responded with a circling movement of her own and, once again, they faced each other.
"Continue," Faron said.
Kaila moved, striking with serpent-like speed. Faron moved, giving ground before her superior strength and speed. Yet always she found the path for her sword blocked. Mindful of Faron's words, Kreg saw new complexity in the movements, a dance far more elegant than the simple bashing of metal bars that he had thought swordplay to be.
At length Faron raised his blade in salute and bowed to Kaila. He returned the sword to Kreg.
"That is enough swordplay for tonight, I am thinking," Faron said. "There is something else I would see."
He studied Kreg, "Kaila is telling me that you have some skill without arms. This I would see."
"I thought you might," Shillond said as he ambled up to them. "I have seen the way Kreg fights and so I've cleared an area of stones. I think neither of you will damage the other more than my ability to heal."
Kreg hesitantly followed Shillond to the area he had prepared. He had marked a circle in the grass about 20 feet across. Faron took a position at the edge of the circle and Shillond indicated to Kreg that he should stand at the other. He then waved Kaila to the center.
"This contest shall be by tournament rules," Kaila said once she had reached the center. "It shall be ended when one cries 'Hold! Enough!' or when it seems to me that one cannot continue."
Kreg looked at Faron warily as Kaila backed toward the edge of the circle. He was older, perhaps not as old as Shillond, but clearly at least in his fifties. Even so, he was still strong and fast. His bout with Kaila had proven that. He was shorter than Kreg, but broader.
"Begin!" Kaila called from the edge of the circle.
Kreg stepped cautiously forward. Faron charged across the circle at him and caught him around the waist with both arms. Kreg felt steel in those arms as they closed around him, cutting off his breath.
Kreg stepped back and bent at the waist, letting his chest press down on Faron's shoulder. He reached down and took his own grip around Faron's waist, then let his weight fall backward while heaving upward with his grip around Faron's body.
Faron lost his grip as his feet left the ground. He landed hard on his back behind Kreg, the breath knocked out of him.
Kreg rolled to his hands and knees but saw that Faron had recovered quickly and he, too, was rising to his feet.
This time, Faron approached more slowly. From a distance of just beyond an arms length away, he stepped forward suddenly, hands outstretched to grab Kreg's tunic.
Kreg deflected Faron's hands while catching his own grip with his left hand on Faron's right arm and stepped forward himself. He reached forward with his right leg, intending to sweep Faron's left leg from under him, but striking that leg was like striking a tree. Kreg shifted his weight and swung his foot back across to the left. He caught the back of Faron's right heel with the inside edge of his own foot. Faron's foot skidded forward and Kreg's pull on Faron's right arm combined with a push against his left shoulder twisted Faron so that he fell hard on his back again.
Before Faron could recover, Kreg dropped to the ground beside him, still retaining his grip on Faron's arm. He used his legs to immobilize Faron while trapping his upper arm between Kreg's thighs. He brought his right hand up to join his left in grasping Faron's arm. Kreg pulled on the wrist, extending Faron's arm straight and beyond, increasing the pressure against Faron's elbow.
Kreg had just decided to release his hold, not wanting to injure Faron's arm regardless of what Shillond might have been able to do with his healing, when Faron called, "Hold! Enough!"
Kreg released his grip, untangled his legs from around Faron and stood.
Kaila clapped at the edge of the ring. "Splendid."
Faron came to his feet and held out his hand to Kreg. "You fight well, youngling."
"'Well'?" Kaila said. "Kreg, know you that Faron was five years the champion wrestler in all of Aerioch."
"That was being many years ago, child," Faron said. "Still, I am thinking few could be besting Kreg in such a match."
#
Although they had seen no hint of any pursuit by the army that had besieged Elam, they had set watches through the night. Kreg had the last watch and so, as the sun began to peer into the valley in which they camped, he used took advantage of the time to stretch the soreness out of his muscles and to begin packing their gear for the day's climb.
As Kreg had surmised, the step along the fault line was their path to the top of the cliff. It was only wide enough for them to pass up it single file, each leading a pony. Once the four had reached the top, Kreg and Kaila descended the cliff again to bring up the pack ponies.
The streambed at the top of the cliff was narrower and more rocky than it had been below the cliff. The valley was also narrower and the walls on either side steeper. Tufts of grass were more scattered, seeming almost defiant in the rockier terrain. Occasionally, smaller rivulets would trickle down the walls on either side to join the stream.
Soon after Faron had left them in his daily hunt for meat, Kaila reined in her pony and dropped back to Kreg’s side.
“I have been thinking on the shaman’s words,” she said. “He said I must learn the lesson of bending.”
“I remember,” Kreg said.
“You say your fighting style is called the Way of Yielding. Perhaps that is what he meant.”
“I don’t see how,” Kreg said. “My fighting training never came up while I was with them.”
“But if the Gods spoke to him through the smoke?” She shook her head. “Such things are beyond me. Could you tell me of this way of yielding of yours?”
Kreg shrugged. “If you wish. On my world the Far East is famous for having many organized fighting styles. On one small nation there were many styles which had an element of softness, of yielding, to them.”
“What do you mean by softness?”
“Basically, it means moving along with your opponent’s actions. Think about when Faron attacked me in the circle and grabbed me around the waist. I stepped back, in the same direction he had been moving. This pulled him off balance and kept him from picking me up. I kept moving, rolling backward and was able to throw him to the ground.”
“But what does my knowing this have to do with saving untold numbers from suffering?”
“I don’t know, but the founder of the The Way of Yielding said there were two great principles to the art. One was mutual welfare and benefit. The other was maximum efficiency with minimum effort. The principles were supposed to go beyond the fighting art itself. Students were to take them into their lives. Perhaps that’s what the shaman meant.”
“But...bending? My mother survived because she didn’t bend.”
Kreg leaned forward in interest, “Your mother?”
“She was married when she was very young,” Kaila said. “Raiders came across the border of Zantor on her very wedding day. Her husband, the Duke of Zantor, rode that evening, before even he could bed his new wife.”
When the silence had dragged for several seconds, Kreg said, “and then?”
“The Duke’s army was ambushed. Archers on horseback, much like your nomad friends, attacked from the trees. The Duke fell in the first attack. The Duke’s forces fled. The raiders harried them all the way back to the castle.” Kaila’s pony started at some falling rocks and she reached down with one hand to soothe it. “I know not what would have happened had my mother not been there. She spoke defi
ance to a council frantic with fear. And people rallied to her voice. She was...small. And yet her courage and will spoke to people’s hearts. Or so I am told. And when the remaining forces sallied against the raiders, my mother rode with them. She was barely able to sit a horse or lift a sword, but she rode facing death alongside those she sent into battle.”
They rode in silence for a bit then Kaila said, “They were unable to break the siege themselves. The forces remaining to Zantor were too weak, the raiders too strong. Still, each time they sallied, my mother rode with them. And each time they returned to the castle, she rode back. In time, an army came from Norveth, the capital of Aerioch. Shillond rode with them. The raiders had no wizards of their own and so Shillond was able to drive them away.”
“And your mother remained as Duchess?” Kreg asked.
“Things are not so simple,” Kaila said. “There was no heir to the duchy. Zantor had always been first in battle and so many of its men died young, courageously, to be sure, but leaving no heirs. Indeed, my mother’s father had perhaps the best claim to the Duchy but no one is certain. In the end, it was Shillond who decided the matter. He was smitten, you see, with my mother and prevailed on the King to rule that my mother would hold the Duchy until she produced an heir of her body to become the new Duke.”
Kaila laughed. “How disappointed the nobles at court were that my mother soon wed Shillond and, one year later, their firstborn child was me. My mother had continued to take up arms and received training with the best arms masters in Aerioch. Soon after I was born, she left me with a nurse and rode with a peace envoy to Shendar. One of the Barons of Shendar struck the envoy most treacherously. A witch in the service of the Baron captured Shillond and all thought him dead. The rest the Baron and his men slew, including my mother. And so there was no heir of her body but me. The King, nevertheless, held to his sworn word and I became Duke and a peer of Aerioch.”
From a bit ahead of them, Shillond called, “Kreg, Kaila, we’ll be camping here.”
“There are still hours of daylight left,” Kaila called back.
“The trail is more difficult up here. There’s no guarantee we’ll find a suitable spot before nightfall.”
“As you will, father.”
Before Kaila could ride away from Kreg, he reached out a hand and touched her arm. “Thank you for telling me that.”
Kaila smiled, and then her face grew stern. “It is as well that we stop early,” she said. “Once camp is set we will continue your training.”
#
Six days after they had topped the First Stair the stream ended. Another cliff loomed before them. Water seeped as a spring from a thick layer of sandstone between two darker layers of shale. The cliff, along with the valley walls of the stream, formed a narrow box canyon. One corner of the canyon angled upward steeply. To Kreg's untutored eye, it nevertheless looked like the ponies could go up that corner. The path would take them to the top of the wall on that side and around the east edge of the cliff that faced them.
The canyon had been too steep on either side for Faron to go on his hunting expeditions for several days. He pointed to where the Kreg had been looking. "Harrow's Perch."
"We camp here tonight," Shillond said. He looked at Kaila. "And we rest. It will be a difficult climb tomorrow to get the ponies past the Perch. I would rather release them here to let them make their own ways back down the stream, but we shall need them once we reach Shendar."
Kaila nodded. "Tonight we rest."
#
Kreg had the second watch that night. Although the sky was clear above where they camped, Kreg could see thunderclouds looming to the North. They did not seem to be approaching, almost as if some force held them back.
The scant brush they had found had provided a small fire to warm the jerked meat and bread that had been their evening meal and a small store remained to do the same for their morning meal. The herb drink that Shillond had prepared had long since cooled in its pot and gave Kreg no warmth as he sipped it. He sat with his back against a smooth boulder that still retained some of the heat it had absorbed during the day. His scabbarded sword lay on the ground at his side.
Both moons had dropped below the horizon leaving only starlight to illuminate the valley. No wind stirred the scattered growth. The only sound was the gurgling of the stream and the occasional soft movement of sleeping humans and ponies.
Something clicked, as of stone striking stone.
Kreg's breath caught. He licked suddenly dry lips with a tongue almost as dry. He squinted as he peered into the darkness, his chill forgotten.
Kreg drew his legs underneath him and shifted his weight forward until he balanced in a low crouch. With his left hand he grasped his sword. He rose to his feet.
A glint of light caught his eye in the distance, so faint he almost thought he imagined it. He stepped forward, clear of the boulder, his right hand coming around almost of its own accord to grasp his sword hilt.
He suppressed a shout as he whirled at a sound behind him.
"It is I," Kaila said softly. "What do you see?"
"I don't know," Kreg said, just as softly, "maybe nothing."
"I think not," Kaila said. "I think we are followed and I think it is someone that means you harm."
"Me?"
"Aye," Kaila said. "Twice in Trevanta I espied someone who sought to lay hands on you by stealth. Both times, they fled when they saw my gaze upon them. I had thought to speak to Shillond but..." She sighed. "Much has happened and the thought fled my mind."
"What should we do?"
Kaila raised her sword before her. "Rouse Shillond. Rouse Faron. Let us show yon skulker the error of his ways."
Once roused, Shillond cast a spell that illuminated the valley almost daylight bright but a search found nothing but a small leather pouch, empty save for a few crumbs of dry bread. The pouch at least proved that someone had been there even if he had long since fled.
"I wish you had spoken to me before, Kaila," Shillond said.
"Aye, father," Kaila said, "I allow that I have erred greatly. Someone there is who follows in our footsteps and someone there is who seeks harm to Kreg. I like it not."
"Wait a minute," Kreg said. "Why would anyone be after me? I haven't been here long enough to make any enemies."
"Like as not," Faron said, "the villain was a bandit. He was seeking to take our measure. When seeing that we were not simple travelers, he fled from us."
"I think not," Kaila said. "What of the events in Trevanta?"
"What of them?" Faron said. "Who could have been following you all this way, through the siege of Elam? Through our stay with the Three Mountains clan? Now into the mountains? No. It is naught but coincidence."
"In any case," Shillond said before Kaila could argue, "we will need to be doubly vigilant after this."
"Agreed," Kaila said.
Faron nodded.
Kreg rubbed at his temples. One effect of the search, the bright light at nighttime, and the worry and suspense was to bring back his headache. "I wonder something," Kreg said. "We've been following this stream for days. If anyone were following us, it would be pretty obvious where we're going."
"I like not the direction of your thought," Kaila said, "but say on."
"Well, suppose somebody got ahead of us," Kreg said, "and suppose they were waiting to ambush us up ahead."
They all turned to look at the perch. Faron had described it as a ledge narrower than the one they had climbed before, running nearly a mile along the cliff face. They would be visible and vulnerable the entire length of the ledge.
"It is to be thought on," Kaila said softly.
#
In the morning, they set off up the steep corner of the box canyon. Seeping water from the sandstone dampened the rocks but the leather soles of Kreg's boots gripped without slipping. The pony Kreg led followed willingly.
Faron led the group, followed by Shillond. Kreg came next and Kaila followed at the rear, leading a string o
f three ponies.
Faron stopped at the top of the canyon wall and shielded his eyes against the sun as he peered north.
"Descend!" he called. "There has been a rockslide. We cannot be going this way."
There was not enough room to turn the ponies on the trail so backing them down it took nearly half the day.
"This pass is closed," Faron said when they reached the bottom.
"So now what do we do?" Kreg said.
"We must be returning to the desert and attempt to pass the army besieging Elam," Faron said. "There is no other way."
"We will be weeks about that," Kaila said. "An' we reach Aerioch at all, the war will like be over. Yon Perch is such a small thing. Is there no other way beyond it?"
"Perhaps," Faron said, "but we'd be weeks finding it."
"There is a way," Shillond's voice was quiet, almost a whisper. "We need not use the pass at all."
Kaila's face went white. "The spell of the winds?"
"Aye." Shillond nodded.
"Shillond, no." Kaila shook her head. "We will find another way."
"Daughter--" Shillond laid a hand on her shoulder. "--there is no other way. All other routes will take too long. Haste is essential."
"The king would rather have you late than dead," Kaila snapped.
"I have survived it before." The barest hint of a smile tugged at his lips.
"'Tis no proof that you will again." Kaila vaulted to her feet and turned away from him.
"No." Shillond stood as well. "But you know that we have no choice."
"What is this 'spell of the winds'?" Kreg whispered to Faron.
"It is being a powerful magic," Faron whispered back. "A wizard may travel at vast speeds through the air. He may be taking others with him. Kaila's fear is justified. The spell is calling up a great storm. Ones that are traveling with the wizard are protected. The wizard is not."
"Aye, Kreg." Shillond interrupted their whispered conversation. "The spell calls up demons that have power over air and over the winds. The demons are compelled to serve. They resent the call and cannot wholly be restrained."
Kreg gulped. Demons? "You're sure there's no other way?"
The Hordes of Chanakra (Knights of Aerioch) Page 8