Chapter three.

"When were you planning on telling me" DeVir asked, a hint of steel in his voice. The two of them were once more in the Hall of scars, taking a break after a furious fencing session that had seen the master fighting with an aggression that Ben had never seen in him before.

"About?" Ben tried, innocently.

" Don't give me that" DeVir replied, temper flaring. "You know fine well!"

"Aye" Ben replied after a moments silence, "yes I do, and I don't know."

"You don't think I have a right to know?" demanded DeVir mollifying slowly.

"I guess" Ben replied, making a show of wiping his foil so he didn't have to meet his master's eyes.

"You guess!" demanded the fencing coach, his blood back up. "I should expect a little more than that!"

"What can I say?" replied Ben, facing his master with fire in his own eyes. "That I'm sorry? Well I'm not. That I should have known better. Well I did, but when it came down to it what choice did I have?"

" Do you even know how well connected that boy was?" DeVir demanded, "Or how many enemies you made by running him through?"

"No and no!" replied Ben, "But what could I do he didn't leave me any choice. It was him or me, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be me." He and the older man locked glares for a long moment before DeVir backed down, softening his face.

"You had better tell me how it happened," he said. Ben nodded.

"It all started just the way I thought it would, you know snide comments about having people's leavings and stuff. An I was prepared to let that stuff go, I mean like you said they had a point. But then Dooblemien has to push it further. He… well he was really rude you know. So I told him to stick it. Well he laughs it off and so I think that's the end of it.

"But it ain't, the next day he starts again, only this time he's got this bruiser with him. A big broken nosed guy who earns his money breakin' folk's legs. Doobleheim-"

"That is Doublay-Heim" DeVir interrupts, "It is a very old name from the Breton border, one with a lot of pull in the Empire."

"Yeah well" Ben continues, "Doublayheim he asks what I'm going to do now. Saying that I can't handle a bit of my own filthy style or something. So I step up, punch thug-boy in the solar plexus, bust his nose and put him out with a right cross. By now Doobleheim is filling his hose, thinking he's next. But I remember what you said so I don't just lamp him as well."

"You challenged him?" DeVir guessed. Ben nodded.

"Yeah, I challenged him. And yesterday we met. I used one of the Myrmidians as a second-"

"Because you didn't want to ask me," DeVir supposed.

"Yes," Ben replied, "We fought. He was a lot quicer than I thought but I cut him. Only he wouldn't let it lie."
"Well he wouldn't" DeVir responded, "Being as how he was the best of my students before you came along."

"Oh" Ben replied, things falling into place.

"So?" DeVir prompted.

"So what?" Ben asked.

"So how did that lead to a young man on Morr's slab?" DeVir demanded.

"He just kept pushing it," Ben responded. "I tried not to but he wouldn't call it quits."

"And so you ran him through?"

"Yes" Ben replied, "he didn't leave me any choice. You can ask the Myrmidians. Or for that matter Dooble's second, even he must have seen it."

"He did" DeVir replied, "Unfortunately he is telling a different story."

"Like what?" Ben asked.

"Like that you took Dooble apart piece by piece and then ran him through without a hint of regret or any thought of mercy."

"It wasn't like that" Ben objected vehemently, "You can't believe that."

"I don't" DeVir replied. But even though he didn't add the phrase 'not any more' they both still heard it.

"I should go" Ben said quietly.

"No" DeVir interjected, stopping Ben as he was removing his jacket, "you shouldn't. I thought wrong of you and I should apologise," the older man finished with sincerity. Ben Nodded. The master watched him for a moment then spoke again, "I guess I'm a little more of a 'city-folk' than I thought" he finished copying one of Ben's favourite curses.

"Apology accepted" Ben said, turning, "and it's a good thing for you too!" he said with mock venom. DeVir responded with mock indignation and soon the two were battling across the hall again.

o

o

"I take it that it didn't go too well then" Master DeVir observed as the downcast Cromwell limped into his hall. It was another week later, the last day of the Tourney. The normally irrepressible young man was waling in shamefaced and obviously sore. His left arm was wrapped in a large black bandage, which secured it across his chest, and his left leg seemed to be giving him more than a little trouble.

"Yeah" Ben replied, "You could say that"

"So?"

"So I'm sorry I ain't gonna be able to train with you no more" Ben responded ruefully. "I can cover the lessons up till now if I sell the horse but I'm gonna need all the money I won from the foot lists to cover my rent."

"What happened" DeVir asked, sitting down and waving a hand to invite Ben to do the same.

"Came in fourth" Ben said in a small voice.

"In the foot?" DeVir asked, impressed, after all he knew what sort of competition had gathered.

"Nah!" Ben replied, indignant, "I won that! Just me leg got a bit beat and my shoulder gave up so when I-"

"You won the foot?" DeVir interrupted, incredulous, "and then you went on to compete in the lists?"

"No" replied Ben, "I was doing one match ion each as I went" he explained, "had to run from one to the other, but only nearly got disqualified."

"You won the foot lists?" DeVir repeated.

"Yes!" Ben replied, "What's so strange about that, I told you I was good!"

"You're seventeen!" DeVir replied, "There were people there with twice as much experience as you!"

"Yeah! An' some of them were pretty good" Ben replied, not getting his trainer's point, "Had to sacrifice the leg to beat the Middenlander, and the Marshal guy bust me shoulder up a treat when I fed him that to take him down."

"That Middenlander was the Eternal Champion of the city!" DeVir replied, "possibly one of the finest knights the Empire has ever produced!"

"Tell me about it," Ben groused, "Guy made me look like a complete novice in the joust."

"You are a complete novice in the joust!" DeVir replied amazement in every word. "There is no way you should have been able to get that far!"

"What are you saying?" Ben demanded, eyes narrowing.

"I am saying, my young friend" DeVir said with a smile and a pat on the back, "That every time I think you have pulled out your last trick you find a new way to amaze me."

"Well heh" Ben said, embarrassed, "I told you I'm good at this sort of thing."

"So what do we do with you now?" DeVir asked.

"I really don't know" Ben replied, "I was counting on that money. Teaches me, doesn't it."

"A good lesson" DeVir replied. "Don't worry we'll think of something," the man added squeezing his protégé's good shoulder. "In the mean time how about you come over for dinner tonight?"

"I'd be honoured sir" Ben replied honestly.

"I'll see you at eight then" the master offered, and received a smile in return.

o

o

It was perhaps then that the two of them really began to realise that they had become more than just master and student, they were friends.