by Guy Antibes
“When have I shown that?” Ricky asked.
Loria blushed even redder. She rose and was about to walk away, but Ricky grabbed her wrist.
“I haven’t, and you know it. I was angry, but it quickly turned to sadness when Benno stepped in and undoubtedly helped to turn your mind against me.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Her face contradicted her words. Ricky could tell she wasn’t telling him the truth.
“If Benno wants to be with you, then tell him that you can’t talk about the project. The Dean knows, and your father knows what we are doing. We are not alone. If he can’t deal with that, then he can make whatever decision he feels is appropriate. I will say that I want you to continue on the project. For whatever reason, we have more affinity than any of the others, and that makes your participation vital to our success.”
“You really do want me on your team, don’t you?”
Ricky nodded. “It has nothing to do with Benno.”
She looked into his eyes and finally nodded. “I believe you.” She straightened her dress and clasped her hands. “I will have to think about what I told you.”
“Can I go?”
Loria nodded. “I’m sorry I disturbed you.”
“If it’s about the project, feel free to disturb me anytime. I’m sure you’ve been bored in the first year sorcery class anyway.”
“I have.”
~
Ricky showed up on the practice field. Effie walked along a line of older boys in the class. She held a thin stick that she used to correct the positions of the weapons.
“You have to be precise in all your movements as you learn.”
Saganet had given him the same advice, but he hadn’t worked on the forms like this. He leaned against a table full of weapons and observed her teaching. Ricky wanted to pick up a practice sword and show Effie that he knew his forms better than these boys. None of them had spent the hours of practice that he had.
His guardian walked up beside him. “A disciplinarian. Effilia has been like that all day.”
“You aren’t calling her Effie?”
Saganet shook his head. “I was instructed to keep my mouth shut if I didn’t address her correctly. Actually, I think it’s kind of cute.”
“That is one way to describe it,” Ricky said.
“What are you doing here?”
“Today’s session was canceled. Loria had Benno problems.”
“Like you had Loria problems?”
Ricky nodded his head and folded his arms. “Exactly.”
Saganet laughed, causing a few students to look their way. “She understands the irony?”
“I rubbed her nose in it,” Ricky said. “I still like her, and it’s obvious she still regards me in some fashion. The project sort of proves that. I won’t say any more about it.” He pointed towards Effie’s class with his chin. “Is she like that with everybody?”
“She is.” Saganet picked up two practice swords. “For your self-defense, why don’t we review some forms?”
That made Ricky smile. “I’d like that.”
They found a space and worked together as they had earlier in the year.
“Now let me watch you,” Saganet said.
After watching Ricky move, Saganet clapped. “I’m sure she’ll find something to complain about, but I didn’t. I have to finish up and then you two can get started.”
Ricky nodded and jogged around the practice field and stretched. It felt good to do something physical after his hasty meeting with Loria. By the time he finished, the grounds had emptied except for Effie and Saganet.
Effie eyed Ricky up and down. “Take off your shirt,” she said.
Ricky looked at Saganet, perplexed by the request, but he didn’t see a problem complying, so he did as she requested.
“Turn around with your arms out.”
“I feel like I’m a horse about to be sold,” Ricky said.
“No backtalk,” Effie said, swatting him on his rear.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She grunted as she continued to walk around him. He could feel the tip of the stick touch his skin and poke and then move down his arm and his back.
“Put your shirt back on. I wanted to assess your physical condition before we begin.”
“Do I pass?”
“For a fourteen-year-old boy, you are in exceptional condition, but that might waste away as adolescence ravages you with the growth you need to attain an adult body,” she said.
“We will work on forms. I thought I saw you working with Professor Crabacci.”
Ricky nodded.
“Good. Show me what you know…take it very slow, and when I say stop, you stop. Understand?”
“I do,” Ricky said.
He went through the forms he had worked on with Saganet. She kept halting his movements and made minor adjustments with the edge of her stick, moving Ricky’s arms and legs, as well as the position of the practice sword.
She stepped back when Ricky finished. “You are well-trained.”
“I owe it all to Saganet.”
“You will refer to him as Professor Crabacci while I work with you on the practice field. I am to be addressed by my last name, Asucco.”
“Yes, Asucco.”
“Teacher Asucco,” she corrected.
“Yes, Teacher Asucco.”
“We will spar. Feel free to hit me.”
Ricky nodded as she raised her stick to Ricky’s sword. He realized that he was outmatched weapon-wise. He had superior reach, but she could flick her switch much faster than Ricky could swing his blade.
“This is unfair,” Ricky said.
Effie narrowed her eyes. “Are you stating you have too great an advantage over me?”
“No, not at all. Your stick allows you much greater speed. Since this isn’t a real match, I won’t go at full speed, but you can hit me all you want.”
Effie’s lips turned up into the simile of a smile. “Good for you to understand that. Most of those I have trained don’t get it.”
Ricky nodded. He thought she would pick up a practice sword, but she didn’t.
“Fighting is often unfair. Opponents in a real fight do so with different skills and different weapons. We will proceed with our little match.”
Ricky looked at Saganet, who clearly moved his eyes away from Ricky. If that were the way she wanted to fight, then Ricky would do just that.
They faced each other. Effie’s face was impassive, but she looked Ricky in the eye. He knew she did that to gain an advantage. Ricky looked at her body. Where were her arms, her legs, her hips? Those would tell him where she would attack.
“What are you waiting for?” Effie said just before striking out with her switch, quickly hitting Ricky’s wrist. He held tightly onto his sword and swiped at her. She lithely backed up avoiding his slash.
He thrust and barely got his sword up in time to parry a slash of her own to his face. Ricky had to assess what advantages he had over her before he could strike. He flicked her next thrust away when he realized there was no handguard on a stick.
Effie kicked out with her foot and landed a blow to Ricky’s knee that sent him spinning to the ground. He scrambled for his sword, but not before she slapped the stick across his back. The blow stung, and Ricky was sure she had cut through his shirt. He had to roll out of her way and slip to his feet just before he placed his sword out to protect another whip to his thigh.
He began to thrust and parry and slash. Each movement made Effie back up half a step before he took his sword and swung down at the stick. His sword slipped down the length of the thing and slammed into Effie’s hand.
Her eyes went wide as she dropped her weapon. Ricky continued to attack but was overcome with leaping kicks and quick jabs with the edge of her hand. She slipped into his guard and used her open palm to slap Ricky’s chest. He couldn’t believe the force as it drove the air from his lungs.
He threw down his sword, gasping for air. �
��I disarmed you,” he said. The match couldn’t have taken more the two or three minutes.
“Did we spar with any rules?” Effie said, with her hands outstretched, signaling the match ended.
“No,” Ricky said.
“Were your precise forms of any use?”
“Yes,” Ricky said.
She furrowed her brow. “How?”
“I used them while I tried to think how to defeat you.”
She laughed in his face. It wasn’t a charming sound. “And who defeated whom?”
“Is there any question? You did, Teacher Asucco,” Ricky said, his chest still heaving. Her breath hadn’t returned to normal either.
Saganet walked up to them, clapping. “That was fun to watch. What do you think, Effilia?”
“He is well-trained, but more than that, he thinks well as he fights. Contrary to my initial misgivings, I believe he has the proper kind of raw material.”
She looked at Ricky and picked up his sword. “Fifteen laps, and that’s sufficient for today,” she said.
Ricky nodded. “What about the field?”
“I’ll do it. No student has ever disarmed me before. I need to perform some kind of penance.”
~
Loria looked up as Ricky entered the conference room. Today’s session included all five of the team members, quite a difference from the day before when Loria hadn’t shown up.
“I thought everyone needed to be here since only Ricky and Betti showed up yesterday. I want to emphasize that everyone’s presence is required to share in Baron Mansali’s benevolence,” Merry said.
Her tone made Ricky think that no one would dare not follow her advice. He wondered if this was how she acted when she had to get her productions going.
“Let’s review our progress and make sure we all understand what is expected. Dari?”
Professor Calasay had prepared a summary of the project to date. After reviewing their progress, she pointed to a stack of five books on the table. “Loria needs to get through these texts to catch up to Ricky in her basic understanding of sorcery if she is to understand the theory behind the practice of power linking.”
Loria sighed in complaint, but she pressed her lips together. “I will do what I have to do,” she said. She flashed a glance at Ricky and nodded to Professor Calasay.
“As I had initially intended, Ricky, and now Loria, will work with Professor Garini over the summer.”
“No summer break?” Loria said.
“You won’t be required to live at the academy, just to attend our project meetings and sessions with Petrolo Garini,” Merry said. “Those will start in a few weeks when the academy empties out for two months.”
Loria took a deep breath. “So I don’t need to read these during the summer?” she said, her gaze resting on the books.
“No,” Professor Calasay said. “You need to read these before the summer break.”
Loria pursed her lips but nodded her head. “I will get extra credit?”
“If this project is successful, and we’ve made greater strides than I thought possible when Ricky came to me with the idea, Ricky and you will be getting university-level instruction for the rest of your time at Doubli,” Merry said.
“Amazing,” Loria said. She looked at Ricky and gave him the ghost of a smile. “I don’t have to keep the tutoring secret?”
“You will until we finish this project, which we hope to have mostly complete before winter,” Merry said. She looked at Dari. “Do you see an issue with that?”
Professor Calasay shook her head. “It’s not that we haven’t had students do extra credit in the past, but it’s mostly been for promising performance sorcerers.”
Merry thought for a bit. “Then we will work on a bit of misdirection and teach Ricky and Loria a routine. We can say they will enter the novice competition at the Tossa Sorcery Festival. What do you think, Betti?”
“A competition number? Can I create it?” She looked excited.
“I don’t see why not. While working on some ideas, Ricky can take a week or so off while Loria does some reading,” Professor Calasay said.
“I need to make arrangements for the summer,” Betti said, “so that will work deliciously for me.” She beamed at them all.
“What is the Tossa Festival?” Ricky asked. They all looked at him as if he had three heads. “Anybody?”
Merry giggled. “It is the most prestigious amateur competition for performance sorcerers outside of Sealio.”
“Sometimes the King even attends,” Professor Calasay said. “No one will question your summer work if that is your intent.”
Ricky began to sweat. “You want me to perform? In front of a lot of people?”
Merry giggled again. “That is what I am supposed to say. The answer is yes. Betti will make sure the magical effects she specifies are within your capabilities. Don’t worry. No one expects theater-level performances from novices.”
Loria’s eyes lit up. “My father will be livid!” She clapped her hands. “But I love the idea.”
It looked like Ricky didn’t have a choice against four women.
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Six
~
R icky looked into the baleful eyes of the fifth fierce woman in his life. Effie glared at Ricky. She carried a longer switch, and he hefted a staff.
“Are you sure you want to fight Ricky with that?” Saganet asked the woman.
“It is a challenge, but I gladly pursue it.” She closed her eyes and opened them slowly. “This will not be a fair fight,” she said.
Ricky gulped involuntarily. She could toss the switch away and fight him with hands, feet, and teeth if she wanted to. He had been bruised and beaten for a week since his first encounter with Effie. Saganet kept telling him to ignore the fact she was a woman and fight as if Effie was a thug wanting to kill him.
They faced each other, waiting for Saganet to signal the beginning of the match. This time there were about thirty of Saganet’s students who stayed after class to see the pair of them fight. None of their previous rounds had lasted more than five minutes.
“Go!” Saganet said.
Effie whipped the switch up and slapped it on Ricky’s cheek. He could feel the trickle of blood amidst the intense sting of her blow. As he thought, she dropped the switch, thinking the fight was over. Ricky stood for a moment, his staff ready to strike when something snapped inside him.
He threw the staff into the crowd so Effie couldn’t retrieve it and ran towards Effie with his head down. He wrapped his arms around her knees and threw her over his back and stood up dumping her behind him.
She scrambled away. Ricky picked up the switch. She had no weapon to defend against him. Ricky began a series of blows. One cut into her shirt before she rushed him, just as he attacked her, except Ricky expected her to duplicate his attack and he slid aside, slapping Effie on her bottom.
She stood up, her eyes watering, and raised her hands. “I yield,” she said, grinning.
The spectators stood silently as they realized that Ricky wasn’t the one beaten. They broke apart and walked off the practice field. None of them congratulated Ricky. Among the spectators Ricky noticed Benno, looking back surreptitiously with an expression of disappointment.
Ricky was under no illusion about his victory. He would have no chance beating Effie in a real fight. The woman was too experienced, but Ricky would enjoy any victory he could achieve. Saganet’s abilities, even with his lame leg, far exceeded his own, but Ricky knew he could now defend himself against common thugs.
When all the boys left, Effie dipped a towel in a bucket of water and cleaned her arm wound before seeing to the slice on Ricky’s cheek.
“I waited all week to get you to fight me, and it took a stinging blow, but it was worth the effort.”
Ricky looked at Saganet, whose grin matched the woman’s. “She’s right. You beat her fair and square up to a point. That’s a hint.”
“She could have pulled
a knife or some other kind of weapon. I know that, but she didn’t have anything else on her that I could see. We still fought by some rules,” Ricky said.
“Right. Would you have changed your tactics out in the streets?”
“If I had used a sharp steel sword, your switch would have been cut to pieces. As I said, we followed the rules, unwritten, but rules.”
“That’s right, but you finally showed the passion I wanted to see. I was thoroughly beaten by an unexpected move. What made you throw away the staff?”
“I wanted your switch. When you dropped it, I figured that you would try to disarm me and use the staff yourself. That’s why I tossed it into the crowd. The rush had the goal of getting the switch.”
“And I didn’t even think about you doing that,” Effie said. “Good fighters need to think as they fight. Go on.”
“Then it was all about punishing you. I learned how to use the switch watching you beat me every day.”
“And learn you did, Ricky,” Saganet said. “When was the last time you suffered a beating like that?”
“At the hands of Princess Pira,” Effie said. “I couldn’t fight back then. I’m well-acquainted with the pain of an expertly-handled switch.”
“I’m no expert,” Ricky said.
“Expert, enough. Our real training can now begin.”
“We have been training.”
Effie shook her head. “No. You are going to class to learn to fight for your life.”
Saganet wiped some additional blood off Ricky’s cheek. “I’ll leave you both to it. Effie, I think you earned another turn of the field.”
“I’ll help her,” Ricky said.
“Good boy.” Effie pinched Ricky’s other cheek, hard. “So let’s go over our fight, and then we will use it to talk more about unexpected moves…”
Ricky spent another half-hour listening to Effie discuss the ways a fight could go wrong on both sides. When she was finished, they leveled the field and went their separate ways, but both ended up looking at each other as they approached the infirmary from different directions.
Effie deserved to be seen to first. Ricky hadn’t noticed before, but Effie’s pants had a red line along her bottom where the switch drew blood. She might have a hard time sitting. He knew he should have felt guilty, but he had his own set of bruises.