A Warrior's Knowledge

by Davis Ashura

  “It still seemed a bit much,” Sign said. “You want to work off some of that frustration?”

  “What do you have in mind?” Jessira asked.

  “How about a quick match? We haven’t had a chance to spar since you’ve been back.”

  Jessira tilted her head in consideration. What she really wanted was a long, hot soak, but a quick spar might also do her some good. If nothing else, it could help clear her mind.

  Before she’d left for patrol, she had looked in on Rukh a few times. They had issues to discuss, and while he had noted her presence, he had still insisted on avoiding her. At least he had seemed content, which was a surprise given that he was a proud Kumma warrior reduced to cleaning latrines. Of course, she wasn’t sure just how happy he could be since over lunch today, she had learned that Farn Arnicep had left Stronghold about a week ago. It meant that Rukh was all alone now.

  Jessira worried for him. His predicament reminded her of her own time in Ashoka. Back then, she had accused Rukh of being a coward, of abandoning their friendship because of fears of what his society would think. But hadn’t she done the same thing? Of course, Rukh had tried to push her away, farcically claiming they were nothing more than traveling companions, but she had been all-too-willing to follow his lead. She should have fought harder for their friendship.

  “What’s wrong?” Sign asked. “You look like something’s bothering you.”

  Jessira forced a smile. “Nothing a good spar won’t cure,” she said.

  Mercifully, Sign dropped the matter as she and Jessira gathered their gear and headed toward the training rings.

  “Do you still plan on ending your engagement with Disbar?” Sign asked.

  Jessira nodded. “Would you marry him?” she asked. “After learning the kind of man he really is?”

  “I wouldn’t have wanted to,” Sign said. “But I don’t know if I’d have your courage to simply end it without any explanation.”

  Jessira grimaced. “It’s not courage,” she said. “It’s just something I have to do, no matter how much trouble it’s going to cause me.” Jessira was no longer concerned about the damage she would do to her reputation as much as she was about how her parents would react when they found out what she intended. They would be furious.

  Sign eyed her askance.

  “What is it?” Jessira asked.

  “Before we left on the mission, people were talking,” she said. “This will only feed those rumors.”

  “What were they saying?” Jessira asked, glancing Sign’s way with narrowed eyes.

  “That you and Rukh are … ” Sign trailed off, apparently not wanting to spell it out.

  “They think Rukh and I are together even though I am still nominally engaged to Disbar. That doesn’t sound so bad,” Jessira said, thinking aloud.

  “Are you?”

  “Of course not,” Jessira replied in astonishment. “I’m ending things with Disbar later today. After that, I have to figure out what I want for myself.”

  “A tall drink of Kumma?” Sign asked with an unrepentant grin.

  Jessira laughed. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “And I’m quite clever.”

  Jessira sobered. “What else are people saying?”

  Sign’s mirth left her as well. “That’s about the gist of it,” she said, wearing a guarded expression.

  From her cousin’s cautious demeanor, there was likely much more, but Jessira wasn’t in the mood to hear it. “I’m sure I’ll learn the rest later,” she muttered before glancing Sign’s way. “Do you mind if we changed the subject. I’ve worried about this enough as it is.” She shuddered. “I hate to think what Amma and Nanna will say about it. Or Kart. He’ll be the worst.”

  “He usually is,” Sign agreed. “But if you want to change the subject … who do you think is going to win the Trials?”

  “I don’t know,” Jessira said. “Has Wheel Cloud decided to try for three in a row?”

  “He has,” Sign affirmed as their feet crunched along the gravel paths demarcating the training rings.

  “Then I’d take Wheel. He crushed everyone last time.”

  “But he’s old.”

  They reached an empty ring and dropped their gear just outside its soft dirt confines.

  “He’s in his early thirties,” Jessira protested as she reached for the sky, arching and stretching her back. “That’s not old. He’s probably got more than enough to win again.”

  “Well, my money is on Toth Shard or Strive Loane,” Sign said, joining Jessira in limbering up. “They’re both five years younger than Wheel and just as skilled. That has to count for something.”

  Jessira smiled. “Less experience?”

  Sign grinned wickedly. “Care to put a wager on it?”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “If Toth or Strive advance further than Wheel, you have to do my labor at East Lock for the next month.”

  “And if Wheel does better, you’ve got mine for two,” Jessira said.

  “What! How’s that fair?” Sign protested.

  “You chose two warriors. I only got one. You’ve got a better chance to win than I do.”

  “Then choose someone else.”

  “Who else is there?”

  Sign gave her a knowing smile. “Rukh Shektan. Cedar convinced Peddananna and Peddamma … ” Jessira’s Nanna and Amma … “to sponsor him.”

  “Rukh?” Jessira inhaled sharply. Her heart was suddenly beating too fast.

  Sign laughed. “You’ve made your choice then? You want the Kumma.”

  “I’ll take Rukh,” Jessira said, ignoring the double meaning in her cousin’s statement. She thought back to all the times she’d seen Rukh fight. He had been fast, strong, nearly unstoppable. From what she’d gathered, even amongst his own kind he was considered a prodigy. Then again, there was his arm. Jessira had heard it had been Healed, but was it fully recovered? She also realized that it didn’t matter. Even injured, she’d still take Rukh. He was that good.

  “You’ve got that look on your face again.”

  “What look?”

  “The one where you’re thinking of something you want and don’t want at the same time.”

  “The word you’re looking for is conflicted.”

  Sign snapped her fingers. “That’s why I like being around you. You always know the right word to say. So why are you conflicted?”

  “Because Rukh will kick everyone’s ass, and I don’t know how our warriors will take it,” Jessira lied.

  “Right. And I’m the First Mother,” Sign said with an eye-roll. “Look, I like Rukh. He’s funny and charming and easy on the eyes, but he’s a man like any other. You, Cedar, and Court say he’s amazing, and I’m sure he is, but he can’t be that amazing.” She nodded her head, looking sure of herself. “You wait and see, one of our warriors will get him.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll take Rukh, and you can have Strive, Toth, and Wheel. Only you’ll have three months of cleanup detail.”

  “Done!” Sign crowed. “Easiest victory I’ll have all year.”

  It was Jessira’s turn to roll her eyes. “I thought you wanted to spar,” she said. “Not talk all day.”

  “I’m more than ready,” Sign answered, wearing a confident grin.

  In the past, most matches between Jessira and her cousin had ended with Sign as the victor. But that was the past. Today was a new day. Jessira was better than Sign remembered. Much better.

  Jessira readied her shoke, studying her cousin’s posture. Speed and skill were important but understanding an enemy’s intention was even more so. It was the key to victory; a lesson drilled into her head by every Kumma Jessira had ever met. From posture and balance, a skilled warrior could glean an opponent’s goal before the first blow was even struck. Jessira studied her cousin, and in a moment she knew what Sign intended. “Begin,” Jessira called out.

  Four strokes later, Jessira’s shoke lay against the side of Sign’s neck.

 
Sign grumbled something under breath, and the two women readied themselves once more.

  The next pass took five strokes.

  The one following took seven.

  “How in the unholy hells are you doing that!” Sign complained.

  “A lot of practice and a lot of training,” Jessira said with an easy grin.

  “With who? I want a chance to train with him.”

  “Rukh … amongst others.”

  Sign glared before curiosity took the place of annoyance. “Is he really as good as you and Cedar say?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” Jessira said. She unknowingly wore a sad smile until Sign pointed it out.

  Sign studied her through narrowed eyes. “You miss him,” she guessed.

  “Who?” Jessira asked, feigning ignorance.

  “The Pureblood. You still have feelings for him. It’s why you looked conflicted earlier.”

  Jessira’s hackles rose. Why did Sign have to be so perceptive? “Be quiet,” Jessira hissed, shooting a glance all around. “You want everyone to hear.”

  “No one’s around, and I’ll never tell anyone about it.”

  “Just let it go,” Jessira growled. She ducked her head, flushing with embarrassment at her traitorous feelings as she gathered her gear.

  “What if you hadn’t been engaged to Disbar? What would you have done then with the two of you alone in the Wildness?” Sign asked, waiting until they were alone in Hold Passage East.

  “Then things between Rukh and I might have turned out very different,” Jessira answered.

  *****

  Disbar approached the bench upon which Jessira waited with a sense of hope and trepidation. They had agreed to meet in the courtyard of Crofthold Lucent, the site of their last conversation before she had left with the Shadowcats. Disbar hoped today’s discussion would go better than the last; that the time away had allowed Jessira to come to her senses. They couldn’t argue all the time, not if they wanted to have a happy marriage. And while … Disbar could bend somewhat and find a way to trust her — he’d try — but she had to as well.

  She could start by disassociating herself from the Kumma. Just this afternoon, Jessira’s first day home after weeks in the Wildness, the first place she had gone was Crofthold Lucent’s dining hall. There, she had inquired about Rukh.

  Disbar gritted his teeth. What hold did the Pureblood bastard have on Jessira? Why couldn’t he take a hint and leave her alone? His cousins had tried to deliver just such a message to the Kumma, but each time, he had apparently been surrounded by laborer friends of his. Disbar didn’t know all the details of what had happened, but clearly the situation had gotten out of control since a few of his cousins had ended up in a hospice.

  Disbar scowled. One day the Pureblood would find himself alone and …

  He wiped the frown from his face and forced a smile as he neared Jessira. He noticed when she took a deep breath, seeming to master some emotion, before she turned to him with a look of determination. Upon seeing her expression, a trickle of worry worked its way down his spine.

  “You’re back,” Disbar said, recognizing too late how inane his words sounded.

  He moved to kiss Jessira, but she rose to her feet and stepped away before he could deliver it. “We need to talk,” she said, her tone firm and business-like.

  The trickle of worry thickened. Jessira was stone-faced and somber, and Disbar had to clear his throat before he could speak. “What do you wish to discuss?”

  Jessira looked him in the eyes. “I am ending our engagement,” she said. Her voice and carriage were as certain as an avalanche and crushed into Disbar with the same impact.

  It took him a moment to stop from gaping at her as he tried to make sense of what she was telling him. She couldn’t be serious. “What is this?” he demanded. “Some twisted jest?” His jaw clenched. “It is in extremely poor taste.”

  “No jest,” Jessira said. “It is the truth. I no longer wish to marry you.” Her tone brooked no dissent.

  Disbar studied her face, hoping to see some hint of flexibility, but her stolid features told him otherwise. “Why?” he asked. “What reason could you have to do so?” His voice rose and others in the courtyard turned to look at them.

  Jessira shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Nothing I say will bring you satisfaction.”

  “You owe me the truth!” Disbar hissed. His fists clenched. “Or should I guess? It’s about the Pureblood, isn’t it?”

  Jessira’s only reaction to his question was to cross her arms. “This has nothing to do with Rukh,” she replied. “You and I would have never been happy in marriage to one another. I think you know that.”

  “What I think is that you’re deceiving yourself if you believe I’ll simply accept this farce without an honest accounting. I will not be made to look a fool.”

  Jessira sighed. “No one will think that of you.”

  “If you truly believe that, you’re delusional.” Disbar snorted in derision. “Engagements aren’t ended in this fashion. People will talk. They’ll wonder. Ugly rumors will be said.”

  “Not if we end things amicably.”

  “That will only happen if I know why it has to end,” Disbar said.

  Jessira hesitated. “We aren’t the people we once were,” she answered. “Why don’t we just leave it at that?”

  Disbar sneered. “That is as vague as saying nothing at all,” he replied. “Have you considered what you’re giving up? What will happen to your family’s reputation if you leave me in this manner?”

  Jessira nodded, appearing weary. “I have, but it won’t stop me. This is something I have to do for myself.”

  Disbar scowled. “If you end our engagement, understand that I will protect what is mine. I won’t be made to look like a cuckold while you cavort with the Pureblood.”

  Jessira’s detached expression finally cracked. She looked to be growing angry herself. “What are you saying?” she asked.

  “I mean that I’ll make sure everyone knows exactly what kind of woman you are.”

  “And exactly what kind of a woman am I?” Jessira asked, her voice growing low and threatening.

  Disbar disregarded her warning tone and plowed on, the anger having a hold of him. He spoke without thinking, seeking to hurt Jessira as much as possible for what she was about to do. “All of Stronghold will know you for who you are: a faithless woman.”

  Jessira slapped him, hard enough to rock his head. A faithless woman was the worst insult, even worse than that of ‘whore’. At least a whore had a sort of honor.

  Disbar’s ears rang, and he tasted blood from where his teeth had cut into the inside of his cheek.

  “I never broke my word to you,” Jessira said. “You were simply too craven and petty to believe me.” With that, she turned on her heel and strode away.

  *****

  Rukh trudged down the hallway, looking forward to his bedroll. His day had begun early in the morning with a session of sword training. Afterward had come work — garbage detail for breakfast followed by latrine cleaning after lunch and supper. The labor had left him reeking like a wild boar, but even then, his day hadn’t been done. Afterward had come a final training session. He grimaced when he scented his own stink. All he wanted was a quick but thorough bath, a change of clothes, and some sleep.

  Fragging unholy hells he was tired, especially of living here. There were friends he had made, good people like Cedar and Court and their family as well as many laborers, but overall, Rukh was ready to move on.

  Farn was gone, a week now, and every day since, Rukh had worried about his cousin. Hopefully, Farn was snuggled up somewhere safe and warm tonight. Rukh took a moment to send another quick prayer to Devesh on Farn’s behalf. Likely the Lord didn’t listen to those of little faith like himself — after all, when had Devesh ever listened to the faithful — but it never hurt to ask.

  Thinking of Farn reminded him of Ashoka, his home. He missed it, more homesick no
w than at any other time since he had been found Unworthy. Perhaps it was because he was more alone than at any other moment since he had been found Unworthy.

  Rukh tsked, annoyed with his self-pity. Whining was an unbecoming habit in even the best of men. He made himself think about something else, something happy like what he would do after the Trials of Hume. The thought drove away some of the melancholy, but it didn’t bring cheer to his heart. He really had hoped to make a home here in Stronghold, but it wasn’t to be. The attacks, the lack of justice — Stronghold wasn’t safe for him.

  His thoughts were distracted, but the moment he opened the door to Court’s flat, he knew he wasn’t alone. Someone was in there, someone not Court. He Shielded almost at the same time that the scent of cinnamon came to him.

  Jessira.

  She flicked on the firefly lantern on the end table next to the couch and rose to her feet. “I understand you’re entering the Trials,” she said to him, speaking without preamble.

  Seeing her again, Rukh froze, unsure what to do. What was she doing in Court’s flat? He didn’t want her here. He’d worked too hard to save her reputation for her to ruin it now. Rukh glanced down the hallway, half-tempted to walk out on her. They couldn’t be discovered alone like this.

  “Don’t go,” she called out. “I only wanted to see how you were doing.”

  Rukh glared at her, but she never flinched from his gaze or looked away.

  Jessira still had her courage. He’d give her that much. She’d always been one to stand her ground. Even the cesspit reek coming off of Rukh hadn’t caused her to flee.

  Rukh glared at her, but she never flinched from his gaze or looked away.

  Jessira still had her courage. He’d give her that much. She’d always been one to stand her ground. Even the cesspit reek coming off of Rukh hadn’t caused her to flee. “I know I should have checked up on you more often, but every time I did … ” Jessira shrugged apology. “You acted like you didn’t want me near you.”