‘Shut up, Ahla.’
‘I have a feeling that they won’t be showing up,’ Dassem said.
‘Enough from you!’ the crossbowman snarled, his hands tightening on the weapon. Dassem shifted sideways, putting the swordsman between them. Even as the crossbowman swore, Dassem kicked the swordsman backwards into him then shifted sideways again, putting them between him and the woman who was swinging her crossbow over to track him. He twisted the swordsman’s wrist, holding the weapon aside, then snapped up the crossbow to smack the spokesman in the face; he went down mewling in pain.
The woman with the rapier displayed good form; she lunged to impale but he was faster, sidestepping with the swordsman, who was pulling on the blade to release it. Dassem allowed the man to pull but directed the movement upwards, pushing, adding to the force, and the man butted himself in the face with the iron pommel. His knees gave and he went down.
The duellist thrust again and he spun, closing, and took her arm, bending the wrist backwards. Gasping, she released the blade, which he then raised up under her chin. She rose to her toes and he held her before him and marched for the woman with the crossbow. She retreated, searching for a clear shot, but he closed quickly and reached out to swat her trigger bar with his free hand.
The bolt disappeared harmlessly into the brush.
He faced the two women with the rapier and motioned away to the hillside. The women gritted their teeth, furious, but they grasped the arms of their limp compatriots and dragged them off into the bushes.
A few moments later Shear appeared, her small painted half-mask at her face, her swords sheathed at her sides. She halted, frozen for an instant, her hands twitching, then she rested them on her grips. She studied the much trampled dirt and mud of the track. Slowly, her unreadable shielded gaze rose to him.
He gave a small shrug. ‘We are ready to move on, perhaps?’ he asked. She said nothing, her head tilting ever so slightly to one side, and marched off.
It took a while, but eventually the caravan got moving once more.
*
Two days later he was walking next to his horses when Shear came down the line of the rumbling carts and wagons. She carried two long staves, one under an arm, the other in a hand. The one in her hand she threw as she came and Dassem caught it.
He sighted down it; fairly straight. He flexed it. Not too dry – still holding a degree of suppleness. It was, not coincidentally, the length of a sword.
As they walked along Shear sighted down her wooden stave then drew out a short knife and started shaving off small strips.
Dassem went to the cart, found a knife, and started on his.
They passed the day shaping the pieces. Neither spoke.
Towards the end of the march Dassem gathered up a handful of sand and used it in his fists to roughen up the grip of his piece. He noticed Shear doing the same with hers.
Then she held it in a two-handed grip, the length of one fist between her hands, and tried a few experimental overhead cuts. She looked at him and he nodded. She gave the smallest slight inclination of agreement then headed off for the front of the caravan.
He spent most of the next day practising with his new training bokken.
That night he crouched next to his small campfire, boiling a pot of pigs’ trotters that a trader’s wife had offered him. He had a few wild potatoes to add and was trimming them when Shear emerged from the dark. She carried only her own wooden bokken, thrust through her belt, and two unlit torches.
He took the pot off the fire, dropped the potatoes in, and set it aside for later, then thrust his bokken through his belt. Next, he looked in on Nara; as usual at this time, she had fallen into that strange spell or suspended state that Hood had set upon her, and so he let the canvas fall and tied it off.
Shear tossed him one of the torches, which he lit from his fire, and they walked off into the woods. And still neither had said a word to the other.
They found a relatively clear meadow among the woods, bright and monochrome silver under the moon. Dassem set his torch at one edge; Shear hers at the other. They then set to sweeping down the taller grasses and weeds. Satisfied, they faced one another and bowed.
Shear struck a ready stance, her body held slightly sideways, her right foot forward; he mirrored her. Watching her, he found the alien conceit of the painted half-mask distracting. He wasn’t used to facing masked opponents; it disguised the eyes. Yet eyes can lie, and so he mentally dismissed the detail.
They touched bokkens, pressing in ever more strongly until the wooden blades slid apart. Dassem adjusted his footing on the dirt and didn’t like what he felt. He raised a hand for a pause. Shear slid backwards out of the kill zone, beyond the length of his weapon. He knelt and tightened the lacing on one moccasin. Shear swished her blade through the grasses, waiting.
Satisfied, he straightened, ready. She began edging in by sliding one foot forward at a time, and then their blades met with a sharp clack that echoed about the meadow. They met again, rebounding with staccato cracks that steadily picked up pace, ever quickening, until the clatter became a noise that rose and fell like a steady waterfall of thrumming.
After this long slow increase of probing – itself a basic testing that nine out of ten of his opponents failed – Dassem slid back and offered a nod of acknowledgement. Instead of answering the nod, Shear snapped her blade in a lightning cut that set him on the back foot and she kept on pressing, forcing him to retreat across his half of the meadow.
Before running up against the brush Dassem managed to circle round until she was the one held against the forest edge. At this she disengaged and offered a small acknowledging nod of her own. Dassem wanted to salute but dared not raise his weapon out of position. He slid backwards to the centre and awaited her there. She followed, swinging her arms, stretching, and rolling her shoulders.
They pressed blades together once more and began again.
Only when the moon set below the tree-line and it became quite dark did Dassem raise a hand to call a halt. It had been his best testing in years and he was sweating, though he was careful to maintain even breaths – as his teacher had lectured him, never allow your opponent to see your breathing change.
Shear straightened, and touched her splintered bokken to her brow. He answered the salute and noticed how sweat gleamed on her bare arms, chin, and neck, although her breaths also appeared completely even.
She tucked the bokken up under an arm, and said, ‘Perhaps next time you’ll really try.’ Then she walked away.