Homage and Honour

by Candy Rae

  “Kolyei.”

  “Really?”

  “Surprised me too.”

  “Is he a descendant of the original Kolyei and Tara?”

  “He might be,” Hannah shrugged, “but if he is he hasn’t said.”

  “Where d’ya hail from?” asked Tana who thought she recognised the accent.

  “North of Stewarton,” answered Hannah, confirming Tana’s guess. “My family are farmers.”

  “Same as Jess here then. Her family are farmers too but time’s a wasting. Jen said she had taken you to get your uniform?”

  “Er, yes,” Hannah said, “but there’s a bit of a problem there I fear.”

  “Don’t they fit?” asked Beth in her slow drawl, thus entering the conversation for the first time, “from what I’ve seen they’re either made for very tall and thin people or very short and fat people.”

  “And I am neither,” laughed a rueful Hannah.

  Jess and Tana forbore to comment. Their new acquaintance and fellow cadet had what could only be described as an ample frame. She was as tall as Jess, true, but nobody could say she had a similarly lithesome figure.

  “We’ll just have to start sewing again,” said a resigned Tana, “stars, we’ll be up all night.”

  “T’won’t be as bad as all that,” said Beth, “we’ll get one uniform ready and do the rest tomorrow.”

  By the time Jen returned after delivering Robain and Balindifya, the four were hard at it. Tana and Beth were busy pinning one of Hannah’s new uniform tunics. Jess was grooming Kolyei and generally making herself useful putting all four of the quartet’s cubicles to rights.

  With a rueful laugh Jen settled in to help. She proved to be a more than competent seamstress and before eleventh bell struck Hannah had one uniform ready to wear and another almost there.

  They tidied away the pins, threads and needles and Jen advised that they all settle down to sleep.

  “You’ll have a busy day tomorrow,” she informed them, “first day always is. I’ll not be able to help. I’ve got early cookhouse duty, which means crack of dawn. At sixth bell get up, wash, get into uniform and get your breakfasts. Remember to make sure that your cubicles are ready for inspection too. They might not inspect, it being first day and all that but it’s best to get into the way of it from the first. What’s your first class?”

  “Riding practice,” answered Jess.

  “Fair enough. You know where?”

  “Low practice field,” said Jess, after a quick check of the timetable she had copied out and attached to the wall above her battered table. She had studied the timetable until she knew it by heart but it was as well to make sure.

  Jen tried without much success to hide a grin. She remembered well her and Trnslei’s first class.

  “I’m looking forward to it all so much,” declared an enthusiastic Tana.

  “Remind me to ask you this time tomorrow if you’re still of the same mind,” laughed Jen, “I hated it all at first as a junior, exited the first class tip to toe in burgeoning bruises from the tumbles I took.”

  But the optimistic Tana wasn’t to be put off. Hannah was looking more than a little nervous and Beth terrified.

  “Except for the journey here, I’ve hardly ever ridden,” she confessed and Hannah nodded in agreement.

  “Neither have I except for the farm horses back home. How bad is it really?”

  “Well, it’s not trotting round in circles,” answered Jen, “They’re teaching us how to fight and as Ryzcka Ranolf will tell you, we must be able to stick on our Lind’s backs like glue. The riding straps help but Ranolf doesn’t allow you to use them at first. In a fight the straps can spring loose and the pirates, they try to cut them and so dislodge the rider.”

  “Have you been in a fight?” asked Tana.

  “Not yet,” admitted Jen, “I’ve just become a Senior Cadet and it’s only seniors who spend some time on patrol with one of the Ryzcks. I expect me and Trnslei will be doing our first attachment sometime soon.”

  “How long do they last?”

  “Well, let me see, a normal patrol period is three months, which doesn’t include travelling to and back from the sector. I think an attachment lasts about half that long.”

  “Any idea where you’ll be going?”

  Jen shook her head, “nary a one, some sectors are better than others of course. I’ve been told that the ones in the mountains, especially in winter, can be very unpleasant. I don’t think cadets are sent up there, at least not in Argyll. Takes too long to travel I suppose.”

  “How often, once we’ve graduated to a Ryzck that is, are we expected to be on patrol?” asked Tana.

  “Fountain of questions, aren’t you?” teased Jen.

  “I like to know,” replied Tana, refusing to rise.

  Jen sighed, “three months on then two off is normal but you’ll learn all about it during lessons never fear.” She turned to Hannah, “you’ll be pleased to know that young Robain seems likely to settle down at the domta. He’s most disgruntled by the fact that he’s too young to start his cadetship at once.”

  “Do the younger ones get training?” asked the persistent Tana. She hadn’t realised that some children younger than fourteen became vadeln-paired with a Lind.

  “How many are there?” asked Hannah, determined that Tana should not monopolise the questions, “I promised his parents that I would write and tell them how he and Balindifya are getting on.”

  “At the moment there are more than twenty of them,” answered Jen. “They’re not cadets so don’t come under military discipline like we do. They do general lessons and some basic weapons work but the domta itself is more like a large family unit than anything else. I should know, me and Trnslei spent two years there. My Trnslei couldn’t, wouldn’t wait until I was fourteen.”

  “Who looks after them?” asked Jess.

  “An older couple, man and wife. Jadred’s retired from the Vada, his Lind was badly mauled some years ago and they can’t serve with a Ryzck any more. His wife Maria never did pair. Don’t worry about Robain; Maria has children of her own and a generous heart. They get all the parenting they need and they can visit their own families twice in the year, not that all of them do, some Argyllian families disown their children when they bond with a Lind.”

  Tana thought of her own father who, if he hadn’t exactly disowned her, had not been best pleased. “I hope he settles down and is happy,” she vouchsafed.

  “I’m sure he will and Hannah and Kolyei can take him home first leave time. Now, we’ve been talking for ages and I really must get to bed. You may have a riding class first thing but me and Trnslei have mounted arms practice with Weaponsmaster Rhian and that class is the most backbreaking of them all.”

  “It’s not that late,” protested Hannah.

  Jen grinned. “You’ll learn you can’t go burning the candle at both ends and keep up with all you have to do. The instructors will know if you are, believe me, and they will take steps.” She spoke as one who had learned through bitter experience.

  Jan grinned and left. The four juniors looked at each other.

  “That’s it then,” said Tana, “from tomorrow we begin the first day proper of the rest of our lives.”

  “I’m scared,” mouthed Beth.

  “We’ll get through it together,” Jess promised.

  Jess placed her hand, palm downwards in front of the other three. Tana followed suit, placing her tiny hand on top of Jess’s long-fingered one, then Beth’s soft white one and last, Hannah’s larger one.

  “Together,” they promised.

  * * * * *

  When the rising bell sounded out shortly after dawn Tana tumbled out of bed. She grabbed her bathing robe and was on her way to the ablutions block before Tavei had the chance to bid his life-mate a good morning. He sighed and his telepathic greeting followed her as she ran towards the block. He was getting used to the fact that Tana was always on the go.

  She met the other three on her
way back to her cubicle. They were progressing in a far more decorous manner, not that there was time for a leisurely stroll but, as Jess said to Beth and Hannah as Tana passed in a blur of blue, what was the point of exhausting oneself right at the beginning of what was likely to be a very busy day?

  Consequently, Tana was ready and waiting at the barracks’ door long before the other three had donned their uniform tunics of maroon with white piping and laced up their boots. She skipped from one foot to the other with impatience as one cadet after another emerged and began to make their way to the cookhouse for breakfast and still her three friends did not appear.

  Jess, Beth and Hannah were amongst the last to emerge and the four had to run to reach the cookhouse in time. As had been pointed out to them on numerous occasions since their arrival at Vada, breakfast was a Parade with a capital P. If they were late, or horror upon horrors, missed it completely, they might well be put on a charge and marched in front of one of the Cadet Ryzckas and awarded an unpleasant punishment.

  Once the barracks was empty of its human inhabitants, the Lind emerged to make their way to the water sluices for a drink. The Lind did not eat as the humans did. One large protein-rich meal every three days or so was the norm for an adult Lind, supplemented by smaller snacks, the Lind called them rdhas, in between.

  Breakfast over, the cadets ran back to the barracks to groom their partners and to fit the riding harness. It was made of supple zarova leather, buckled into place and the saddle attached. The saddle used by the Vada was a masterpiece in design. It had to be flexible enough so as not to restrict movement in battle yet still be able to give enough support for the rider when he or she was fighting. In a battle situation the rider was strapped and harnessed to the saddle for security but the junior cadets had not yet been issued with these straps. Tana watched enviously as the senior cadets fitted the fighting harness as she scrambled up on to Tavei. Jess mounted Mlei with ease, an ease born of much practice mounting her father’s farm horse (and his riding horse when he wasn’t looking). Hannah managed quite creditably for someone of her build and stature. Xei had to hunker down so that Beth could climb aboard.

  The eight of them made it to the practice field with only a few heartbeats to spare, falling into place at the end of the second row. Ryzcka Ranolf said nothing, perhaps he realised the difficulties some of the new cadets were experiencing this, their first morning of training proper.

  He reviewed them two-by-two, walking along the lines and adjusting harnesses and saddles here and there.

  Then work began. They were ordered to form a circle and set to walking round as Ranolf corrected seat and leg positions. He was not sparing in his comments. He told Hannah that she sat like a sack of white-roots and that if Beth continued to sit like a hardwood board he would go and get a long pole and shove her off Xei. Jess he criticised for riding Mlei as she would a carthorse and told her to relax. Tana and Tavei he brought into the circle where he forcibly pulled Tana’s lower legs forward as he explained in a loud and carrying voice that if anyone sat perched forward as Tana was doing they would tumble over their mount’s head as soon as he began to gallop.

  Once Ranolf was satisfied that the cadets were more or less in the correct position, the Lind edged out of a walk and into a trot and, if they thought walking was bad, trotting was a hundred times worse. Their thighs ached with the strain of gripping and Tana especially began to long for the bell signalling the end of class. Being on the small side and Tavei so solid, she was finding the situation difficult. Nor was she the only one, Beth and Hannah were in tears and Jess’s face was set and strained.

  Their legs protested when Ranolf ordered them to dismount. Tana’s buckled under her as her feet hit the ground and she had to hold on to Tavei’s neck for support. Beth crumpled to the ground with a stifled sob.

  “You’ll have to do better than that,” declared Ranolf, “now there’s the bell, same time tomorrow,” and he watched, with barely concealed amusement as the cadets limped out of the practice field on their way to their next class. It was always the same and the cadets wouldn’t thank him at this moment for telling them that, within a short tendays, their muscles would begin to get accustomed to the exercise. The first tenday was always a painful one except for those lucky few who had paired at a younger age and had been taught basic riding skills while living at the nursery domta.

  The cadets forced their trembling legs to walk up the shallow hill to the barracks where they unsaddled their Lind. It was with relief that they entered the classroom and settled down to two bells of book learning. It would give their protesting muscles the chance to recover.

  After lunch they headed to the salle where they were to begin their tuition in sword-work, not a few of them expressing audible relief that they would not be undergoing mounted arms-practice yet. A good half of their Lind accompanied them to watch although they had not been ordered to do so. It was, however, encouraged and many wanted to know how their human partners were likely to handle a weapon.

  Of the quartet, Tana fared best, drawing a commendation from the Weaponsmaster as she displayed proficiency with the wooden practice blade despite it being much longer and narrower than she was used to. Argyllian infantry fought with a short flat stabbing blade unlike the rapiers Vada used. Jess and Hannah were no better or worse then the majority of the others.

  Beth soon proved herself to be worse than useless and was relegated to a corner of the salle with three others who were also rank beginners under the tutelage of the Weaponsmaster’s Second who had, as Weaponsmaster Rhian knew, far more patience than she had with the kura-handed.

  At the end of the class they were all gathered together and informed that from now on the class was to be split into three groups.

  Tana found herself in the smallest group of the more able whilst Beth was to remain with the beginners until she could be promoted to join in with the majority.

  After arms-class their formal lessons for the day were declared over, the authorities, after a century and a half of training youngsters, realised that they would have had enough by this bell-time. They were told that, as term progressed, more classes would be added until their timetables were full.

  “Use the time to get ready for tomorrow,” advised Rhian, “and have a hot bath. It will help.” Rhian knew that all their muscles would be aching, “and use the green salve,” she added for good measure.

  “I feel that I’m going to die,” moaned Hannah as they left the salle.

  “Me too,” Beth was as white as a sheet, “I didn’t realise I could hurt so much and still be alive.”

  “The Weaponsmaster and Ryzcka Ranolf are right though,” said Tana, “a hot bath will make all the difference.” Tana was also aching, “we’ll all be sore and stiff tomorrow. Best thing is to keep moving lest the muscles tie up. We should all go out for a ride this evening.”

  “You’re joking,” exclaimed Hannah.

  “Not in the least,” answered Tana cheerfully.

  Jess and Hannah looked at each other and groaned, but after due consideration, decided that Tana had the right of it and joined her.

  Beth groaned too but decided she couldn’t face another ride. Next morning she wished she had.

  The second evening the four girls who were already becoming known as ‘The Quartet’ went on an evening run then did muscle relaxing exercises in the squashed privacy of Tana and Tavei’s cubicle. They continued this self-imposed regimen during the days that followed. It made them fitter and more supple but it didn’t do much to make Beth’s sword-work any better.

  * * * * *

  Nemesis (2)

  Lady Eloise, Duchess of van Buren was in both a quandary and a state of nervous collapse. The most important of the wedding guests were approaching at the manor gates and her husband was not here to welcome them. He had sped off to the ricca fields that dawn in response to an urgent call from the Chief Overseer and she had heard not a word from him since.

  Custom and protocol demanded t
hat it should be the Lord of the House that must welcome honoured guests and not the Lady.

  The Brentwood family had arrived the previous day and Eloise had housed them in the Dower House, some miles from the manor proper. The Crown-Prince’s party was to lodge in the manor itself and Eloise and her servants had been working hard to prepare the accommodation. It was no mean feat to arrange suitable rooms for the numbers expected and the manor was not the largest of the van Buren residences.

  What was she to do? Her son Raoul was with his father and neither knew that the Crown-Prince had arrived sooner than expected.

  Her daughter was bobbing with excitement at her side and Eloise hushed her with a look.

  Her uncle-in-law limped towards her, calming her, settling the nervous servants. He even went as far as to prod the younger Eloise with his walking stick. Eloise stood still immediately.

  “That’s better,” he growled, “don’t show us up girl.”

  He addressed Duchess Eloise, “since my nephew is detained, I believe I’m the only one of the family here to do the honours.”

  “Would you?” gasped Eloise with relief, “I don’t know where Raoul has got to and this marriage is so important to him.”

  “I’ve been watching my relations doing this for years now, first my grandfather, then my father, brother, nephew. Nice to get the chance myself before I’m too old and stiff to manage a bow without falling over.”

  He looked at his mother, the Dowager Duchess Anne and laughed, it was an old joke. He was fifty-six, his mother eighty-one, he walked with a stick and she had none, being as spry as she had been at fifty and contrived to look very like her great-granddaughter, despite the difference in age.

  It was a large party approaching the manor, not only Crown-Prince Elliot, his wife the Crown-Princess Gemma and their four children, but also Prince Elliot’s uncle Prince Brandon, his wife Princess Jennifer and their two children, Brandon and Jennifer. Also accompanying them were ladies-in-waiting and gentlemen-of-the-bedchamber. When you added the servants, no wonder Duchess Eloise had been hard- pressed to fit them all into the manor. The old wing that had not been used since King Elliot the Third’s time had been pressed into service.