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Move your feet, you idiot!
The clank of swords filled the training yard. Having earned a short break, I watched the other men train, their swords flashing in the bright sun. I had the fortune of experience with a sword. My father, a minor noble from Palaxau, had had me schooled swordsmanship from youth. Others were not so fortunate.
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Didnt I just say to move your feet? Youre not paying attention!
Yet by and large the men being trained turned out well, and even those who had no experience at all would soon become hardened swordsmen. The Kehex army was not in any way a forgiving organization, as I had learned. And, of course, it was growing rapidly now. Some said that the Queen feared for the safety of her small nation. Some put it down to a womans weakness. Others said we were going off to war, though surely we would have some word of it yet if there was to be war.
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Better, better. Now. Im going to come at you, and you will parry my blows. Dont move forward this time, and dont reach out with your sword. Youre fighting defensively, holding the line. Go.
I suspect that I know the answer to the question of why, however. It has little to do with the small size of Kehexou, though indeed we are a nation struggling daily to avoid being swallowed up by greater powers. It has little to do with a womans weakness, or with future wars. The Queen wishes to see our nation restored to its power for her son, and, in that time, protect him.
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Youre moving your feet, stepping backwards, giving ground! Didnt I just tell you not to give ground?
I saw the Queen only once, and from afar. She was as a beautiful as they say, and with her was her young son, the crown prince. I watched from afar as the Queen sat down on the ground and shook smooth stones out onto the ground. She sat and played stones[1] with her son in full public, though far indeed from where I stood. I saw then that cares deeply for her son, deeper than my mother cared for me. It is refreshing to see a heart in the coldness of nobility, and it is because of that chance meeting, from a distance, that I feel I know what is in the Queens heart.
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An improvement. We have little time left before this training session breaks, but I would to show you one more thing. I will come at you with this weighted axe. Do not try to parry it. An axe can destroy a sword at a single strike. However, an axeman is slow. Dodge, and try to tap me with your wooden sword.
I was done watching the men training in the yard. The captain would soon arrive and end the training session in any case. I stood up and entered the doorway behind me.
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[1]Not, as in many stories, another name for Go. Stones is more like tiddly-winks: a childs game.
Lengels killed lots of people. It's not hard to imagine what people will think of them much later.
At least, too many of them...
