Chapter Ten; Early rising.
The next morning Thom woke Alanna early and hurried her into a pair of breeches and shirt before leading her, still in silence out the door. They hurried down one of the corridors, as the palace servants began their jobs. Eventually they exited the building and crossed the dew soaked lawn. Thom finally spoke,
"Sorry about the rush, but we're late."
"Late for what?" Alanna asked. Thom just smiled and tapped his nose.
"Brother dear, what are you hiding?" Alanna broke of her questioning as they came to the practise courts. Raoul and Gary stood in the middle of the nearest court, swords crossed. Jon held the blades high with his own as he cried
"En garde!" He jumped out of the way as the two large knights attacked each other. He smiled as he saw the twins waited at the fence. Alanna's eyes were fixed upon the duellers while her brother's gaze wandered around aimlessly. Jon sat on the fence next to where they leaned, taking in Alanna's unusual attire as he did so. Alanna was absorbed in assessing the two fighter's qualities. Gary had a slight advantage of speed over the more sturdy built man, but Raoul had more strength behind his blows, overall they were pretty evenly matched. As they slowly realised Alanna and Thom were watching, Gary ducked away from a spinning blow and the two came across to greet them.
"Hello." Raoul said as they halted before the fence
"Why are we here?" Alanna asked. She cast a sidelong glance at her twin. "Thom is being secretive."
"We said we wanted to see your sword play. Here's our chance." Jonathon explained. Alanna grinned and jumped over the fence, than paused.
"I don't have my sword." She turned to see Thom offering the hilt of a spare sword to her. She accepted it then turned to face all the boys, a grin on her face.
"Who's first?"