Chapter Eleven
"Do you really think you could beat me in a fight?"
"What?"
"You said you could probably beat me in a fight. Did you really mean that?"
They had been walking for two days. For those two days, when Jander wasn't feeling sorry for himself, he had been wondering about the truth of that statement.
Pa'das blushed. "Well, yeah. I think I could. Maybe. I really don't know; I haven't had much practice lately."
"Did you mean me as an elf or me as a vampire?"
Pa'das blinked. "I…I don't know. I wasn't really thinking about that. I…I guess as a vampire. I don't know. Why?" Pa'das was beginning to get nervous. Sarrasor had always told her that no woman should be able to fight better than a man, and she was a freak. That wouldn't happen now, would it?
"Just curiosity, I guess. And, honestly, I need practice with my sword. Eckerd can't swordfight to save his life, so he's useless."
"I heard that!" Eckerd was behind them, looking at some plants, holding Korrieana, and apparently listening to their conversation.
"So, I was kind of hoping you would be willing to put that idea to the test."
Pa'das sighed with relief. Her ungrounded fears were just that, ungrounded. "Now?" Pa'das hoped he wanted to start now. She dearly needed practice, too, and the outcome of the friendly contest would be interesting.
Jander, of course, mistook her sigh of relief for one of reluctance. "Well, not unless you want to. And, I mean, if you don't want to at all, then forget about it."
Pa'das rolled her eyes. "You need to learn to tell the difference between a sigh of reluctance and a sigh of relief."
"Sigh of relief? Why are you relieved?"
Pa'das bit her lip and swore softly to herself. She had opened her big mouth again. There was something about Jander that made her talk, and she found herself answering his question.
"Sarrasor always said that any woman who could fight better than a man was a freak of nature. I was worried that may be happening again." She blushed because she knew Jander would never think that. His horrified expression told her without a doubt that she was right in feeling ashamed for thinking that.
"That's horrible!" he exclaimed. "And very untrue. He was just jealous. Nobody in their right mind would ever think that."
"I know that now, but I can't keep old fears from surfacing."
"That's a sick, sick man," Jander muttered.
"You don't know the half of it," Pa'das said with lots of feeling. Jander wondered what else that bastard had done to her, but didn't ask.
"So," she said with a wicked grin, "want to see who's the better fighter right now?"
"Let's see if you really could kill a vampire," Jander told her with a grin just as wicked.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. Just don't kill me, of course."
"Well, obviously. Hey Sarrasor! Watch Korrieana for a while, okay?"
"What do you think I'm doing now? Besides, us and Soorefina are watching this."
Eckerd sat down well out of the way and made himself comfortable. He sat Korrieana on his lap and Soorefina settled beside him.
Don't kill each other, she warned them, and Pa'das relayed her message to Jander.
"Padded blades?" Jander asked.
"Do you have any padding?"
"No," Jander said sheepishly. "Dumb question."
"Ready to start?"
"Ready to be beaten?"
"Let the fun begin," Pa'das said with a devilish grin.
They drew their swords and circled each other. Jander's sword was ancient and very well taken care of. It hissed out of its well-oiled scabbard, glinting in the sunlight. Pa'das' sword was no less well taken care of, and only a little younger. Its hilt was studded with gems, enough to make it beautiful and give it perfect balance, but so many that they got in the way of fighting and it became unwieldy.
"Where did you get your sword?" Jander asked her. It would have fetched a fair amount from a weapon-collector, and most people would have sold it to buy a better weapon.
"It's a family heirloom." She lunged, testing his defenses. He easily parried, and launched an attack of his own. It was a simple, straightforward jab. Pa'das batted it away disdainfully. They tested each other some more, with Pa'das growing more and more disgusted. He was going easy on her. She finally decided to show him just how good she was. Her blade whirled in a complicated dance, forming a perfect optical shield for her opponent. Most wouldn't have known this, and the dance would have intimidated them. Pa'das hoped Jander would know the ghost-step. He did, and stepped around to her back, using the optical shield so she wouldn't see him move. He fully expected to win then and there, but Pa'das was ready for him. She batted away his attack, to his surprise, and slapped him on the cheek with the flat of her blade.
"Come on," she taunted. "You're going easy on me. Forget that I'm a girl and human and your friend. Show me some of that fighting you elves are known for."
Jander realized that, although he hadn't intended it, he was being easy on her. Chagrined, he threw himself into the fight.
Their blades flashed in the sun and the clash of steel filled the air. Each of their defenses and attacks was impeccable. Neither could score a hit on the other. Pa'das was beginning to tire. She realized that if she didn't defeat Jander soon, she would probably collapse. One of the benefits of being a vampire was you never tire. Jander could have kept going forever.
"Ready to give up yet?" he asked. He could see she was tiring, and almost ready to keel over. Pa'das just glared at him in answer and then grinned. She couldn't waste her breath talking.
She made a last ditch effort to disarm Jander. She went into a screw attack. She had learned it from Sarrasor, who had learned it from the famous assassin Artemis Entreri, who, in turn, copied it from Drizzt Do'Urden. Pa'das thoughts drifted for a moment, something that would never happen in a real fight, her motions continuing mechanically. She wished she could go to Icewind Dale and meet the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden. Pa'das snapped out of her thoughts quickly. Even though this wasn't a real fight, she still needed to concentrate. She would beat the elf! The screw attack was a complicated one, made even doubly so because she only had one blade to work with.
Jander had to work hard to parry the quick-coming blows. He managed it, until Pa'das switched her attack in mid-blow, something he would have never thought possible for a human to do. She slapped his blade as hard as she could. Since it was a sudden move, it took Jander by surprise, and it worked. His blade went flying, flashing in the sun to land in the bushes.
"Continue?" Jander asked. "Sword against vampire?"
Pa'das nodded grimly. She was too tired to talk. Jander advanced slowly on her, his eyes flickering around, looking for weaknesses in her defenses. Pa'das was positive there were many, but, in truth, there were still none. She was exhausted, but it was still impossible to get past her whirling blade. Jander would have to rely on her slowed reflexes.
Pa'das' eyes flickered around, looking for a heavy stick. She would finish this in style. Once she found a likely looking one, she slowly moved the fight over to it. As Jander advanced, she backed away, moving towards the stick. Jander wondered what she was doing. Going in that direction would put her on lower ground, giving him more of an advantage. He lunged a couple of times, avoiding the sword, but she easily danced nimbly away, even as tired as she was, always moving backwards.
Once she was beyond the stick and Jander was close enough to it - only three steps away - Pa'das put her plan in motion. She threw down her sword and dived into a forward roll, coming up right in front of Jander, the stick in her hand. His hands flashed, and one grabbed her wrist, the other shot for her throat. Pa'das pivoted, and, using his own strength against him, threw Jander over her shoulder. She was on him in a second, the stick flashing down for his chest. She heard a gasp from Eckerd, and, in that split second of time, Jander prayed she would stop the stick before it pierced his chest. It stopped a mere hairsbreadth from his shirt.
"I…win…" Pa'das panted. She threw aside the stick and slumped back, flopping onto the ground.
"Brilliant," Jander whispered as he sat up.
"Thanks," Pa'das gasped. He chest rose and fell rapidly as she gulped in breath, trying to satisfy her bodies screaming need for more air.
"That was awesome!" Eckerd exclaimed. He stood up, hunting for a waterskin, while Korrieana crawled after Soorefina, who was going to Pa'das. "That was…wow. An intricate dance."
It was beautiful, Soorefina told her. It was like the dance of wolves.
Pa'das grinned at the compliment as she tried to sit up. Praise from Soorefina was not lightly given, nor easily earned. Eckerd finally found the waterskin and tossed it to Jander, who gently helped Pa'das sit up. Her shirt was soaked through with sweat, and she was so physically exhausted that he could feel her trembling against his hands. How she had held out that long, he couldn't figure out. He gave her the waterskin, telling her to drink slowly. She did, taking small sips with long pauses in-between. Her breathing slowly returned to normal and she stopped shaking. She grinned at Jander.
"That has got to be the best fight I have ever had. You are good. Very, very good."
"But you are better. That was amazing. It was like you were always one step ahead of me, knowing exactly what I was going to do next. And even when you were on the verge of collapse, you could still…. And then at the end! That was beyond description! I couldn't figure out why you kept moving the fight. Nobody else would have thought of going for that stick. And how in the world did you manage to flip me? I thought I had you. I was so sure I had you, that I was going to win, and then all of a sudden I was on my back, praying you could stop the stick in time."
"I'm not that good," Pa'das said, blushing. Praise from Jander was worth almost as much to her as praise from Soorefina. Perhaps it meant more in a different way.
"No, you're better than that. You really can take care of yourself." Jander was in complete awe of Pa'das. This just made her a hundred times more attractive in his eyes, a hundred times harder to resist his feelings for her. "Where did you learn to do that flip thing?"
"Tabotan monks, when I was little. They taught me a whole lot more, too."
"Wow." Jander smiled at her, then glanced at the setting sun. They had been fighting for most of the afternoon, oblivious to the rest of the world. It hadn't seemed that long to Jander. "How about sleep? You still look tired."
"I still am. That was a good fight. Thank you."
"No, thank you. It was an honor to fight against one such as you. And an even greater honor to have you as a friend."
Pa'das smiled. "No, the honor is mine. Now I'm going to bed." She grinned and laughed as she tried to stand up and utterly failed. "Or maybe not." Jander scooped her up as Eckerd unrolled her bedroll. "One lousy fight, and I'm out of commission. How sad is that? You guys better be around if I ever have to fight like that again. Otherwise I'll kill the guy, and then die myself from exhaustion and dehydration."
Jander laughed. "That was no 'lousy fight', but a close, grueling battle. Very close and very grueling. Will I be able to look forward to practicing with you in the future?" He laid her down gently on her bedroll and covered her up.
"As long as they're only practice, not battles like those." Pa'das yawned, already slipping into the realm of dreams.
"Deal struck and deal made," Jander said softly. "Sweet dreams." Pa'das did not hear him - she was already asleep.
* *
* * *
Eckerd and Jander sat by the fire while Pa'das slept.
"That was brilliant swordplay on both your parts." Eckerd was still amazed. "Why, with that sort of talent plus wild magic, Pa'das should be almost invincible."
"She's almost invincible now, for crying out loud!" Jander laughed. "Eckerd, she just kicked my butt. I was one of the better fighters on Evermeet, and I'm a vampire to top it off. If she can beat me, then she can beat most other men - if not all - within minutes. With one hand tied behind her back."
"And you love her all the more for it."
"Eckerd, stop it." Jander glanced at Pa'das, afraid she would wake up and hear.
"Jander, she's sound asleep and not going to wake until morning. That fight exhausted her. And it was an absolutely brilliant performance. Have I mentioned that yet?"
"Yes, you have," Jander said with a grin. "Many times. Thank you."
Eckerd grinned back. "I'm telling you, my friend, she cares deeply for you."
"Yes, for me as a friend."
"No, no. She loves you as more than a friend. Much more."
"I've got to much to lose if you're wrong."
"But I'm not. Are you so blind? Don't you see the way she looks at you when she thinks no one's looking? Didn't you see her start to fairly glow at your praise? Will you let the mask of fear blind you forever?"
"Very eloquent, Eckerd. And the answer is yes, I will. Unless she makes the first move, I see no need to take the risk. End of story. Forever."
"Alright. You want me to keep my mouth shut and never mention this again, fine. But I'm telling you, you're crazy. You are completely nuts not to take the chance. Look at her. She's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's witty, she's kind, she's one hell of a good fighter. She's the girl of any man's dreams."
"Enough, Eckerd."
"Okay, okay. I'm done. But…"
"Enough!"
* *
* * *
The vampire hunters and Sarrasor were getting close. The trail they picked up was less than a week old. They would catch up soon, and plans were being laid.
"Here's what we found out from that dinky little village," the leader said. "The vampire is traveling with the girl and the baby. There's also a mage traveling with them. We'll need to get rid of him first. Now, if we trap them in Garumn's Gorge, then we can get rid of him quick, before he starts to cause trouble.
"How?" Sarrasor asked. The four vampire hunters' heads snapped around to glare at him.
"With a small bit of smoke powder," one of the hunters deigned to explain, "we can bring the big mound of dirt at the mouth of it down on the mage, effectively crushing him."
The leader continued his explanation if the plan. "Now, if we kidnap the babe, the girl will come after her child. So you will have your toy back." At that statement, the smallest of the burly men grimaced a little. "You're too soft, Josiah. She's only a girl. Anyways, according to the village elder, the vampire has a strong sense of honor and loyalty. So he'll come after the girl. We can trap him in this cabin," the leader drew the cabin on the map he was drawing in the dirt, "and then get rid of him. Understand?"
The three other hunters and Sarrasor nodded.
"And you all understand your parts?"
They nodded once more.
"Good."
* *
* * *
"Mama."
"She said her first word!" Eckerd exclaimed.
Jander, standing behind Eckerd, smiled indulgently at his back. Pa'das saw the smile and grinned. She thought she knew what Jander was smiling about, and decided to enlighten Eckerd.
"Mamamamamamamama."
"No, it's not," Pa'das told Eckerd. "All babies make those noises first. That's why they are the universal words. Mama, dada, papa, baba, nana: they all mean the same in every language. It's still just baby babble. Even when she associates them with people, I don't consider them real first words. None of the "ah" words really count."
Jander smiled at Pa'das. She really was very smart. "I thought only elves realized that."
"Well, some humans are smarter than others." Pa'das aimed a purely superior - in a friendly, joking way - smile at Eckerd.
"I do believe I detect an insult in there somewhere." Eckerd said with a grin at both of them.
"Mamamama."