A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! It really makes my day. :-) And Runner NDA... ooh, do you know you have semi-foreshadowing abilities? ;-)
"Today we will be starting the art of the sword," Lord HaMinch said. "It is the knight's most noble weapon, and I have the honor of teaching it to you." Two weeks had passed, and Kimi still had morning lessons with the Shang Falcon. Grudgingly she admitted she had improved, and even the instructors and pages began to see the change.
"It's important to know my methods. Wooden swords are useful for first learning techniques, but they are nowhere near the weight of a real sword. So next week, after we have learned the basic techniques, we will begin to use these." He held up a blunted sword. "Once you begin to get used to these, you will need to find your own blade that works for you. This personal blade must stay with you night and day, for a knight should never be weaponless." He stared at each of them in turn, trying to ingrain the message into them. "Now, pick out your wooden sword and we begin."
And so sword fighting began; how to make the sword, the proper stance, the correct way to hold it, lunges, blocks, parries, thrusts, everything. Kimi picked it up surprisingly easy over the next week. Her gracefulness made her seem like a natural, but she came to trouble when they reached the heavy blunted sword training.
"You have all achieved basic techniques. Congratulations. But now we must use the heavier swords." Lord HaMinch picked up one of the swords with ease and began checking the balance on it. "This sword is sound, and the balance is good." He flipped it over and offered the hilt to Ulric. "Pass it around and remember what it feels like. It is important to recognize when you pick your blade." Ulric took it from him and gave it a few swings. HaMinch then picked up another blade that had been set to the side. "The balance is off on this one. Pass it around."
When the balanced sword came to Kimi she knew she was in trouble. It looked much lighter than it actually was. She swung it around, feeling her muscles protest as she held it straight out in front of her and felt the balance. She passed it on, and tried to resist the instinct to rub her arm.
When both the swords had been noted by the pages, Lord HaMinch let them come forward and pick their swords. He then made them practice for an hour. Kimi's arms were screaming at her in agony by the end, and she gave an inward groan every time she had to raise her arm high.
"Very good, all of you," Lord HaMinch said at the end of the lessons. "The added weight has not affected you as much as I thought it would. It pleases me very much." Then he dismissed them and turned away. The pages visibly shrank.
"It's so painful," Mortimer cried. Kimi smiled. She was so worried that she'd be the only one in pain, but it was clear the other pages were feeling it too.
"Off to combat training," she said cheerfully, and the first year pages glared at her.
"Don't remind me," said Jon. He rolled his eyes at her when she opened her mouth to say it was too late, and she grinned.
Hatsumomo studied them thoughtfully – as she did every day – contemplating what lovely tortures to bestow on her students. Or that's what the pages believed anyway.
"Today," she said crisply, "we will work on our freestyle fighting. Divide up into pairs." Kimi turned to Jon, but he was already paired up with Jiri. Kimi quickly went down the line with her eyes, but everyone was in a pair except…
Her eyes closed and she thought herself as a peaceful lake. She took a deep breath to calm herself as Hatsumomo called, "Everyone has a partner?"
"I don't," said Frantisek.
"Who else doesn't have a partner?" Hatsumomo demanded.
"I don't," Kimi said and moved next to Frantisek. He had a twisted smile on his face that caused a chill to rush up her spine.
"That is everyone? Good." She made certain all the pages were listening before continuing. "This is freestyle, but I want a nice clean fight out of every one of you. You know the rules of honorable combat, and I want you to hold to them. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Mistress," they replied.
"Turn and face one another and shake hands." Frantisek did not offer his hand, and Kimi knew better than to offer her own.
I hate him, she thought venomously, I want to make him mad. The idea came to her, and she bowed to him, Yamani-style, like she did to Hatsumomo every morning before they fought. And she was right, it made him mad. Very mad.
"You savage," he whispered to her. The hatred in his eyes was locked onto her and burning. "I am going to make you wish that whore of a mother who birthed you had drowned you instead."
She smiled a polite Yamani smile at him while Hatsumomo yelled, "Start!" Frantisek was already lunging forward at her.
It was a furious battle. Frantisek was older, heavier and stronger than Kimi, but Kimi was quick and knew a different style of fighting than the one taught to Frantisek. He stayed more with upper body strength while she relied more on kicks to deliver blows.
Kimi kicked at his side and met with soft flesh, but Frantisek grabbed her leg and twisted it around. She let him twist it, and threw her body into the motion, knowing that if she resisted he'd sprain her leg or worse; and dropped to the ground and rolled away when he lost his grip. Only then did she realize most of the other pairs around them had stopped to watch. She had to admit Frantisek was an excellent fighter, and she was doing moves that most of them had never seen before. Most of it was Yamani fighting, but some of it was Shang that she had picked up from morning workouts with Hatsumomo. She got to her feet and looked around the sea of faces for the Shang Falcon.
"Where's Mistress Falcon?" she asked. She ignored Frantisek and moved away when he got closer. "I mean – Hatsumomo?" She had forgotten that most of the pages called her by her given name.
"She took Jonathan and Jiri to my Lord HaMinch because Jiri hit Jonathan below the belt," Furtan explained. "Where do you learn all that?"
"She's a cheat!" screamed Frantisek. Kimi noticed with some satisfaction that he looked worse than she did. "We never learned that! She had no right to use it!"
"It was freestyle, Frantisek, she was allowed to use it," Furtan said patiently. The rest of the pages watched with wide eyes when Frantisek dashed forward and grabbed Kimi's hair.
Kimi was taken off guard by this sudden attack and clawed uselessly at his arm. He threw her to the ground and kicked her cruelly in the stomach and face. "This Yamani slut has no right to be here," he screamed. "If we don't do anything to stop her now, this whole place will be overrun with sluts like her! With half-breeds just like her!" Kimi struggled to her feet but was kicked down again by Frantisek. The pages were frozen. "Don't you see? Our fame and the reputations we will have are ruined by the likes of her! She will take all the fame and all the glory that should be ours. She will populate Tortall with bastards of savage blood and call them nobles! Don't you see? She will take our chances to make a name for ourselves once we become knights, and it will be just because she's a girl! A stupid whore!"
Kimi curled into a ball on the floor and concentrated on healing her broken nose. She kept very still during the rest of his rant and gathered up her strength in case he came at her again. She saw two figures move forward and stand between Frantisek and her when Frantisek moved to kick her again.
"Don't you dare call her that again," Kimi heard Patrik said quietly.
"Call her what? Whore, slut, half-breed?"
"I warned you." Kimi heard several heavy thuds and a loud snap, and Frantisek gave a cry of pain. Everything went black for a moment.
"Kimi, are you all right?" Gary was kneeling before her with concern in his dark eyes.
She gave a gasp as the bone of her nose finally settled into place and she nodded. "What happened?"
Theo sat down next to Kimi and helped her sit up. His green eyes were dancing with excitement. "Furtan broke his arm. Frantisek's, I mean. Patrik punched him in the nuts and nose then Furtan snapped his arm over his leg. It was amazing. Furtan's going to get in so much trouble."
Kimi blinked. "I didn't realize Furtan was so strong." He was always so patient and gentle.
Theo stared at her like she was crazy. "Don't you know? Furtan's the strongest one here. Easily."
"Oh," Kimi said. She watched Furtan walk back and realized he must be strong. He had big arms that hung loosely around his tall and large, fourteen-year-old body.
"Thank you, Furtan," she said quietly when he came over to them. Furtan smiled at her.
"Kimi, are you all right?" Patrik had just returned from the healers. Kimi knew he was the best actor, so it had been reasonable for him to be sent. She wondered what tale he had fed the healers about Frantisek's arm.
"I'm…" But she couldn't say. She didn't feel good emotionally or physically. "Thank you, Patrik."
"You don't mean it," he said. When she glanced up at him in shock, he explained. "You wish you could have finished him yourself."
That was true, and Kimi said nothing. She was in a maelstrom of conflicting ideas and emotions. Anger at Patrik and Furtan for not letting her take care of it, thankfulness that they did, loved that they cared enough to get involved and in trouble for her sake, sadness that none of the other pages – even those she thought as friends – had defended her.
"You need to see a healer, Kimi," Furtan reminded her.
"My father's not here anymore," she said quietly.
Furtan looked confused. "So?"
"I wish I could talk to him, that's all." She let Furtan guide her to the palace and to the healers.
"You did a good job with this nose healing," said Verchi of Draanen, the new Head Healer. He admired the nose appreciatively. "I can't even tell that it's been broken." Kimi smiled at him.
"It's been broken times before. I've had good healers, and teachers." She thought sadly of her father. I should write him a letter, she thought as Verchi healed the bruises on her stomach. I haven't done that in a while. No, ever. The thought made her tear a little.
"There, there. The pain will be gone soon," Verchi said, misinterpreting her tears. Kimi hoped so.