The Spark

by David Drake

  “Sure,” I said. I thought of my original weapon, the one I’d rebuilt from a rock drill. I didn’t think even Clain could have survived a thrust from that one, but of course I could never have gotten close enough to Clain—or anybody competent—without being chopped to doll-rags.

  “But from observing your jousts,” Louis said, “we’ve noticed that you prefer to use the edge. Are you aware of that?”

  “Well, it works out that way,” I said. “I’ve been using Buck’s brain to predict the motion of the other guy’s weapon and deflect the stroke with my own. Getting a little jump, I guess. And because I’m slashing to turn his stroke away, it’s generally easier to slash when I attack.”

  “Yes,” said Louis. “Your weapon was almost perfectly balanced between thrusting and slashing. What we have done is to adjust it so that ninety percent of the effort goes into slashing and only a tenth toward the thrust.”

  “So long as you’re able to anticipate Lord Baran’s blows,” Guntram said, “you’ll be able to turn them. He won’t be able to weaken your weapon by repeated hammering—yours is as strong as his.”

  “This would be terrible design for ordinary use,” Louis said, disgust obvious in his tone. “I would never let something like this out of my shop. But as my teacher said, it’s the only way we could find that might allow you to survive the trial. And thus allow the Consort to survive.”

  He shook his head. “And without Jolene, whatever I may think of her personally,” he went on, “I’m very much afraid that the Commonwealth will have lost its center. Jon hasn’t been able to work since this whole foul business blew up.”

  “Do you think Baran will be willing give up the prosecution if we fight through the day?” I asked. Guntram had said that my weapon would take a full day’s hammering by Baran. I wasn’t at all sure that I could take that, but at least I wouldn’t be around to know if I failed.

  Louis shrugged. “If the first day is inconclusive,” he said, “the Leader can halt the proceedings. He’s done that before.”

  “I see,” I said. That might work. I was sure as I could be that Baran wouldn’t willingly accept a draw, but not even he could expect to fight the whole Commonwealth. Any two of the Champions together could handle Baran. Though they wouldn’t stand up for Jolene, they’d surely support the Leader giving a proper order.

  “I suppose it’s obvious that you can’t actually defeat Baran,” Guntram said. “We’re just making it possible for you to survive.”

  Louis snorted and said, “Well, lightning might strike Baran during the match. Are you religious, Lord Pal? You could pray for that to happen.”

  “Sir, I’m not that religious, no,” I said. “I’ll just keep practicing until the match, using the weapon like it is now.”

  I felt myself smiling. “During the match, I’ll probably pray,” I added. I felt better for making a joke, even a pretty feeble one.

  “Now, I believe,” said Guntram, “we should all have something to eat and drink.”

  To my surprise, I wasn’t noticing my wrist anymore—not to speak of.

  I had a chance of survival after all. For somebody who’d been living under a death sentence from the time I first fought the image of Lord Baran on a practice machine, that was a major improvement.

  * * *

  I’d spent a long time in the steam room, then had dived into the plunge bath. I didn’t swim—I’d never learned to on Beune—but I splashed around a little. I walked into the waiting room of the bathhouse at the southeast of the castle. Baga was there as I expected—I’d told him to come back after he’d carried Buck down to the boat.

  I didn’t expect Maggie, but she was there too. And I really didn’t expect Lady May to be with them, which she was.

  I stared at the three of them, figuring I had to say something but not having a clue about what that was. Baga said, “Ah, boss—”

  That was all he got out before Maggie stepped in front of him. She took a deep breath and said, “Lord Pal, her ladyship here—”

  She nodded. May actually stood in back of her, but I got the idea.

  “—came to the boat to bring you some clothes. I brought her up here myself, but we left the clothes in the boat. Buck’ll be all right till you get back there.”

  Buck pretty much slept all the time there wasn’t somebody with him, putting him through his paces, so I didn’t doubt that he’d be fine. I hadn’t been planning to go straight back to the boat, but there was no reason I shouldn’t.

  “All right,” I said. “We can head there now. I want to talk to Guntram about today’s session, but that can wait a bit.”

  “Lord Pal…” said Maggie, her voice sharp. She was looking at—glaring at—her husband. “Baga and me are going to stop in at the Swan Tavern. You know where that is? The south end of Castle Street, near to landingplace. When you’re done with your business at the boat, you can stick your head in and tell us. It’s right on your way.”

  “Well, there’s no need for that,” I said. I hadn’t looked straight at May yet, and so long as I kept talking to Maggie I wouldn’t have to.

  “There’s every bloody need if my husband knows what’s good for him,” Maggie said. “Baga, we’re going to the Swan now, you hear.”

  “Yes, dear,” Baga muttered, his head down. They went out together.

  “I thought we could sit out in the shade of your boat,” May said. “And I brought a leather ball along with the suit. We could throw it for Buck.”

  I gestured her to the door and followed her out, past the goggling attendant. God knows what he was thinking about the visit of a Lady to the bathhouse. I wasn’t sure what I was thinking about it either.

  “Buck doesn’t chase things,” I said as we started down one of the lanes that run toward landingplace alongside Castle Street. “He’s been trained out of it for work. We can rub his ears, though. He likes that.”

  I grinned. “He’s got kind of a nose for artifacts out on the Road, too,” I said. “I don’t know how he does it, sees them in the Waste or sniffs them or for all I know hears them. I guess if you wanted exercise, we could go up the Road looking for artifacts.”

  “I think rubbing Buck’s ears is exercise enough,” May said. She looked straight at me as we walked along. She said, “Pal, are you all right? You don’t look…”

  “I’m tired,” I said, smiling again. “Very tired. I just spent six hours on the machines. But believe me, I couldn’t have done that if I weren’t in good shape.”

  “Oh,” said May, looking away again. “Ah, is it going well? The practicing? That is, if you don’t mind…?”

  “I don’t mind,” I said. I was actually kinda glad to talk about it with somebody besides Guntram and Louis. They made me think about doctors talking about a patient; a really sick patient.

  “I’m practicing against a machine that fights the way Baran does,” I said. “Ah, I don’t suppose you’ll be talking to anybody who’d go to Baran with the story—or even that Baran would care. But, you know, I’d rather that he didn’t know that.”

  “I won’t tell anyone,” May said. “Even Jolene.”

  She hadn’t objected that she wouldn’t do anything like that, or object to my tone or any of those things I’m used to people saying when I warn them about something. May was really a lot nicer—and smarter—than most of the people I’d met.

  “So I’m trying new tactics, to wear him down,” I said. I didn’t mention the changes to my weapon because I didn’t figure it’d mean anything to May. “I lost—I would’ve been killed—after two hours in the first run today. In the second run I lasted four hours, but I was starting to come apart and it wouldn’t have been long. Guntram asked me to stop so that he could work on my shield. He had some ideas.”

  “Fighting for four hours is really good, isn’t it?” May said.

  “It’s a lot better than I’ve been managing,” I said. “I’ve got another week to practice. And Guntram and Louis are polishing my equipment. Anyway, after
that I took a hot bath. It’s not just getting clean—a dry shower in the boat would do that even better. But for the muscles.”

  “Jolene is really lucky to have you, Pal,” May said to the path at the end of the cobblestoned lane. “I’ll make sure she knows that, though I won’t tell her any of the details.”

  “If the Consort is really lucky,” I said, “Lord Clain will arrive before the trial.”

  And I’ll be even luckier, I thought, but I didn’t say that. If Jolene and her household could be happy for a week, that was a good thing.

  We came onto the landingplace. Buck saw me right away and came bounding over to us. He doesn’t jump up, but he rubs my legs hard enough sometimes that I have to step back or he’d knock me over. Despite the six hours we’d spent at the practice machines, this was one of those times.

  “Hey, it’s okay, boy,” I said as I rubbed him. “I’m back. Heavens, you’d think I’d been gone for a year.”

  “He’s worried about you,” May said.

  “Well, I’m still around for now,” I said.

  Baga and Maggie had set up a table and bench outside the boat, since they were living here while we were in Dun Add. I patted one end of the bench and walked down to the other end.

  I hadn’t really thought about what would happen to Buck if Baran killed me. I mean, back in Beune I always knew that I could die—plenty of people have gone into the Waste looking for artifacts and not come back—but I didn’t think about it.

  Now I had to think about it: there was a better than fair chance that I was going to be killed when I fought Baran. I wasn’t near as good as him, and he was going to be coming at me with all he had—not for me, he didn’t care about me, but because I was in the way of him getting the Consort.

  Let him bloody have her!

  But I didn’t really feel that way. I’d become a Champion to help bring justice, Justice, to Mankind, and it wouldn’t be just to let Jolene die for something she hadn’t done. For all that I didn’t much like her, and her having an affair with Lord Clain seemed to be going a long way to tearing up the Commonwealth.

  I’d been rubbing Buck behind the ears. He’d flopped his head in my lap when I sat down. I realized I hadn’t said anything for a while and looked up. May was watching me, but I wasn’t sure about her expression.

  “Maggie said something about clothes?” I said. “I didn’t know what she meant, but I forgot to ask with all the rest going on.”

  “Lady Jolene sent you a suit,” May said. She smiled, but it kinda lost shape after a moment. “Maggie and I set it in your chamber, but—would you like me to bring it out and show you?”

  “Sure,” I said. “But I wasn’t expecting anything like that.”

  May whisked into the boat. Buck turned his head to watch her, but he didn’t trot after her like I thought he might. She was back in just a moment, carrying a bundle of white cloth and a small packet wrapped in paper.

  She put everything on the table, then unfolded the top piece of cloth into a tunic of shiny white material, picked out with gold buttons and gold-embroidered flowers and hummingbirds. I stood and stepped closer, though I didn’t touch it because I’d been petting Buck.

  “Is this silk?” I said, looking up at May. “It’s lovely.”

  “We made it ourselves,” May said proudly. “The Consort’s attendants. Jolene bought the material. It gave us something to focus on, which was good—especially for Emma. She was Ziga’s best friend. She didn’t expect anything like this, of course.”

  “It’d have been simpler if Ziga had just hung herself right off,” I said, saying the words I was thinking. From the way May winced, I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

  She squeezed out a smile and said, “We thought you could wear it for the trial. That is, if you want to. We just wanted to…”

  May didn’t know where to go with the sentence, so she let it trail off.

  “Thank you,” I said. “And thank the other ladies. And Lady Jolene, of course.”

  “You needn’t worry that it won’t fit,” May said. “We were all brought up to be ladies, you see. We sing and play instruments, and we do needlework.”

  She coughed. “It’s cut a little loose,” she said. “For the purpose, you know.”

  I nodded. “Thank you,” I repeated. The white was going to be a mess if Baran cut me open, but that wouldn’t hurt me. Or anybody, I supposed.

  “There’s another thing,” May said. She turned and folded the tunic back on top of the trousers. Without facing around again, she continued, “You know that it’s traditional for a warrior to wear the favor of the Lady he’s fighting for?”

  “I’ve heard that,” I said. The literature we got in Beune made jousts a lot more romantic than the reality of the fights I’d been in, but they pretty much all talked about the Lady’s favor.

  “It wouldn’t be proper for you to wear Jolene’s favor at the trial,” May said, still not looking at me. “Because she’s the Leader’s Consort, you see. Even if Lord Clain had returned, he wouldn’t wear her favor.”

  “I see that,” I said. Actually, I was glad to hear it. I guess everybody in Dun Add knew about Clain and Jolene, but it still wasn’t right to rub the Leader’s nose in it.

  “But we were thinking, we girls you know,” May said. “That a friend, a close friend of the Consort’s, could give you a favor and that would be all right. We didn’t want you to go out and have it look like nobody cared about you. Because we all do. We care really a lot.”

  “That would be nice,” I said. I got the words out without choking but I swallowed hard afterwards. Buck was whining but I ignored him.

  May opened the paper packet and faced me, holding out the muslin sleeve of her light blue sundress. “Would this be all right?” she whispered.

  “I would be honored to wear it,” I said. “I’ll hope to be worthy of it.”

  May set the sleeve on top of the suit and clutched all the fabric to her chest. “I’m glad,” she said. “I’ll take these back to the castle and have them delivered to Master Guntram’s chambers when I’m finished. I’m a very good seamstress.”

  Then she said, “You’ll want to wash up now.”

  She strode off briskly. “Don’t forget to stop at the Swan,” she called without turning her head.

  I watched her until she disappeared among the horse chestnuts. I thought about the first time I’d met her.

  Then I went into the boat to wash my hands.

  CHAPTER 35

  The Trial

  The sky was overcast, but it was a muggy day and already hot by mid-morning. Things were supposed to have begun by now, but there was some administrative problem.

  I really, really, wanted to be out on the field and able to do something. The longer I sat on a chair under a marquee, though, the less time I’d need to stand up to Baran’s attack. This was better.

  Anyway, I didn’t have a choice. We’d get going when the Sergeant of the Court said so.

  “More to drink, boss?” Baga asked.

  I glanced at the mug on the side table and saw it was still half full of ale. I opened my mouth to snarl at Baga not to bloody badger me when I was tense enough already. Then I remembered Baga was nervous too, and screaming at people didn’t help. It certainly wouldn’t make me calmer.

  “No,” I said, getting to my feet. “But I’ll stretch my legs a bit.”

  I’d planned to speak with Guntram—mainly to get away from Baga and his fussing—but when I looked toward him, I saw Garrett and behind him Welsh trotting up from landingplace. They had dogs with them as well as a pair of attendants who held the animals when the warriors—my vassals—approached.

  “Garrett!” I called. “Welsh!”

  I started toward them, then decided I shouldn’t move from under the marquee. I was pretty sure it’d be an hour before they got things going, but it’d be my luck that they’d call the trial and I’d have to run an extra hundred yards to meet Baran. I waved, but right now I’d let my
friends do all the walking.

  As the defender, I’d been placed on the north side of the field. Baran was on the south. Ordinary folks from Dun Add were mostly on my side because it was nearer the town and the castle, but I could see forty or fifty of the Champions clustered around Baran’s marquee. Most of the Champions who weren’t with him watched from the east end, where the Leader and his court officials were.

  Lady Jolene sat at her husband’s side. That was proper, but I probably wasn’t the only person watching who thought it looked funny. Where else should Jolene be, though?

  The Consort’s servants and her Ladies stood beside her seat. I couldn’t make out faces from where I was, but one of the women wore a blue sundress with only one sleeve. I smoothed the muslin which loosely covered the white silk of my own right sleeve.

  Welsh and Garrett were breathing hard when they reached me. “What’re you fellows doing in Dun Add?” I said. I didn’t figure it was bad news or else they wouldn’t both have come. Unless it was really bad news.

  “Guy from Dun Add came to us looking for Lord Clain,” Garrett said. He was puffing from the recent run, but he looked a good deal better than he had when he led settlers out to Castle Ariel.

  “What would Clain be doing out in the sticks with us?” Welsh said. “But the thing is, the guy was a messenger from the Leader. He said that unless they got Clain back in time, you were going to be fighting Lord Baran. So we come to find you.”

  “Didn’t get here any too soon, did we?” Garrett said. “Well, we made bloody good time anyway. We figured you might need a couple sidemen, but you seem to have that covered pretty well.”

  I stepped forward and hugged them both at the same time. I hadn’t dreamed that they’d come if they heard about the trial.

  “Bless you both,” I said. “Bless you for coming all this way.”

  “Well, you’re our lord,” Welsh said. “It’s our duty.”

  “Who is this lot?” Garrett asked, looking past me toward the dozen attendants standing under the marquee with me. Most of them were eyeing me and the warriors, but nobody was crowding closer. “I don’t recognize any of ’em except the Makers. And Baga, of course.”