“No,” lied Wichtig. “Now do it.”
Opferlamm grumbled something under her breath and glared at the rock. “It’s grey?”
“Stop asking and tell.”
“It’s grey.”
“Oh, wow,” gushed Wichtig, dripping sarcasm, “I love grey. Do better.”
“That part there juts out like an erect—”
“Don’t mention cocks unless you can be funny.”
“I…” Opferlamm tilted her head as if examining the rock from another angle might help. “It kind of looks like a fat woman lounging in a mud bath.”
“Gods, you’re terrible at this. Stop before I change my mind about this entire apprenticeship thing.” Bedeckt might be a block of wood, but at least he understood Wichtig. Even if he pretended not to.
“I am really very, very good with a sword,” said Opferlamm. “That must count for—”
“Nothing.”
“But it’s the Greatest Swordsman—”
Wichtig waved her to silence with a slash of his half-hand and slid from Bl?d’s back. The horse grunted a contented sigh like carrying him was some crushing burden on its soul.
“Shut up,” Wichtig told the horse. He gestured for his apprentice to dismount. “I’m going to show you how useless your skill with that sword is.”
“We’re going to practice? Finally!” Opferlamm dismounted, drawing her sword. She turned to face Wichtig, taking a guard position. When Wichtig didn’t draw steel she said, “Um…are you going to…”
“No,” said Wichtig, waving Opferlamm forward. “Come try and stab me.”
“Um…okay.” She shuffled closer, alert for the trap she knew must await.
“One thing,” said Wichtig.
Opferlamm stopped. “Yes?”
Wichtig stared her down with flat grey eyes, drove his Gefahrgeist power against the youth’s mind. “When you get close enough, I’m going to kill you.”
“I—what?”
“I’m going to leave your corpse here.” Wichtig glanced toward the farmer who had stopped hacking at the mud to watch the two Swordsmen. “Maybe he’ll bury you.” Wichtig shrugged. “Or maybe they’ll eat you. They look hungry.”
Opferlamm licked her lips. “I don’t think—”
“Come.” Wichtig again waved her forward.
Opferlamm shook her head, retreating a step. “I don’t want to die here.”
“See,” said Wichtig, bowing with a flourish. “I beat you without even drawing my sword. How valuable was my skill with steel there?”
Opferlamm accepted this with a glum nod. “I understand.” She brightened. “But sometimes Swordsmen really do have to fight. You can’t beat everyone with words. And I really am quite good.”
“Don’t move.”
Opferlamm stood motionless as Wichtig hunted the soil for a stick. When he one, he turned to face his apprentice, brandishing it like a sword. “Come at me.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Opferlamm asked.
“Of course not. I was lying about that.”
“Oh.” Opferlamm shuffled forward, sword ready. She stopped. “Are you lying now?”
“One way to find out.”
She eyed him for a moment and then shrugged and resumed her advance.
Wichtig disarmed his apprentice a dozen times, each bout ending with the youth sprawled in the mud. He called a halt when the girl looked ready to pass out from exhaustion.
“What’s the lesson?” he demanded, standing relaxed.
“You’re a better Swordsman than I,” said Opferlamm, climbing to her feet and brushing the worst of the muck from her clothes.
“I wasn’t using a sword.”
“But…” Opferlamm blinked, looking lost.
While they sparred, the dark clouds went from looking like bruises to something closer to a swirl of bog water stained with dysentery. A sharp wind, cold and damp, raised goosebumps on Wichtig’s arms and tried to muss his hair. He changed positions to ensure the wind worked with him. With a blinding slash of lightning, the sky dumped hell on them, a torrential downpour of icy rain.
“Let’s go,” said Wichtig, yelling to be heard over the rumble of thunder.
They rode toward Gottlos, hunched against the biting wind, Wichtig leading, Opferlamm following in his wake. Wichtig caught snatches of muttered conversation as the lass talked to herself, trying to describe everything they passed, struggling to make it beautiful.
Give it up, kid. We’re in Gottlos.
Scowling at his bandaged hand, Wichtig ignored the girl. The missing fingers itched. The bandages wrapping his ruined left ear left him deaf on that side and feeling perpetually off balance. His face—his once beautiful, flawless face—felt like ground chuck.
He distracted himself by replaying the sparring session with Opferlamm. There wasn’t a real lesson. He only wanted to know how it felt, to see if he could fight like that ugly old man from his dream. He could.
Glancing over his shoulder Wichtig saw Opferlamm, brows furrowed in concentration, as she thought about gods knew—and no doubt didn’t care—what.
She reminds me of me. Just not nearly as attractive. Wichtig bared teeth at the rain. Not as attractive as I used to be.