Chapter 7
"Who wants to read now?" Horace asked at the group.
"I will." Pauline had her elegant hand outstretched and flicking to the right pages she continued reading in a voice as smooth as glass.
THEY WERE ON THE ROAD AGAIN BEFORE THE SUN WAS barely clear of the horizon. The clouds had cleared now, blown away by a fresh southerly wind, and the air was crisp and cold as their trail started to wind higher into the rocky foothills leading to the border with Celtica.
The trees grew more stunted and gnarled. The grass was coarse and the thick forest was replaced by short, windblown scrub. This was a part of the land where the winds blew constantly, and the land itself reflected its constant scouring action. The few houses they saw in the distance were huddled into the side of hills, built of stone walls and rough thatch roofs. It was a cold, hard part of the kingdom and, as Gilan told them, it would become harder as they entered Celtica itself. That evening, as they relaxed around the campfire, Gilan continued with Horace's instruction in swordsmanship.
"Setting the scenery I guess." Cassandra sighed. She was more of an action adventure type of girl and hearing the older courier read reminded her of why she had no patience for books. She was also beginning to wonder when she would arrive in to the plot. Horace sensing her distress held her hand from underneath the table and made smooth circles in her palm with his thumb.
"Timing is the essence of the whole thing," he said to the sweating apprentice. "See how you're parrying with your arm locked and rigid?"
Horace looked at his right arm. Sure enough, it was locked, stiff as a board. He looked pained.
"I probably would look pained if I was being forced to fight after a long days ride in the saddle." Arald said comforting the young knight in front of him.
"Of course you look pained anyways whenever you get on the saddle." Halt said dryly. Many of those in the room sniggered at the remark though Arald's face stopped them from going any further. Only Halt seemed unperturbed by the anger etched on his features.
"But I have to be ready to stop your stroke," he explained.
Gilan nodded patiently then demonstrated with his own sword. "Take a swing at me."As Horace did so, Gilan said, "Look…see how I'm doing it? As your stroke is coming, my hand and arm are relaxed. Then, just before your sword reaches the spot where I want to stop it, I make a small counter swing, see?"
Butterflies, buttercups and daisies and maybe also a rack of lamb. Should I add more salt or a little less turmeric? Maybe I'll do a vegetable dish next time…
"Jenny? Jenny? Are you listening to the book?" Gilan's sweet voice rang out to her and snapped her out of her daydreaming. She looked at his disappointed face and knew he knew the truth. Truth was, anything to do with fighting she zoned out on and it didn't help that she had to zone out when her boyfriend was teaching. She would have to make it up to him the next night. A blueberry pie would most probably do the trick.
He did so, using his hand and wrist to swing the blade of his sword in a small arc. "My grip tightens at the last moment, and the greater part of the energy of your swing is absorbed by the movement of my own blade."
"That sounds impressive. Go counter swing." Jenny said with an enthusiastic expression. Gilan huffed and turned the opposite direction, then hearing Jenny sigh in defeat he turned back and pulled her to him. Others in the room pretended to be busy or were murmuring to one another to give the couple some privacy, apart from Will who seemed to have no common sense in that area and continued to gaze at them till Alyss pulled him away.
"Don't worry I understand, I mean if it was me I'd probably have killed myself now if I had to read any recipe books." He joked, though it seemed to have the wrong effect on Jenny.
"Killed yourself? Why? Recipe books are fun you get to learn how to make all these different dishes and experiment with them, dabble in a bit of this or a bit of that mix it up bash it up and…" She could have carried on into her own little universe but everyone was looking at her oddly and so she stopped talking.
"Right I was just trying to empathise with you dear but it doesn't matter now." Gilan looked at her for a moment then stopped as Pauline began reading.
Horace nodded doubtfully. It seemed so easy for Gilan.
"But…what if I miss-time it?"
Gilan smiled widely. "Well, in that case, I'll probably just lop your head off your shoulders." He paused. Horace obviously wasn't too pleased with that answer. "The idea is not to miss-time it,"Gilan added gently.
"But…" the boy began.
"And the way to develop your timing is?" Gilan interrupted. Horace nodded wearily.
"I know. I know. Practice."
"Huh doesn't it suck?" Duncan boomed.
"It sure does, but once you get the hang of it, it helps save your life." Gilan added.
Gilan beamed at him again."That's right. So, ready? One and two and three and
four, that's better, and three and four…No! No! Just a small movement of the wrist…and one and two…"The ring of their blades echoed through the campsite.
Will watched with some interest, heightened by the fact that he wasn't the one who was workingup a sweat.
"Of course you would be happy I mean how selfish Will." Alyss scolded him while he shrugged sheepishly.
"Oh don't worry Alyss that changes, I make him change." Gilan said with an air of boastfulness about him.
"Why didn't you make him change before then?" Halt asked. He wanted to pop the bubble of assurance surrounding him. Gilan stuttered then signalled Pauline to keep reading so Halt could be distracted.
After a few days of this, Gilan noticed that Will seemed a little too relaxed. He was sitting, running a stone down the edge of his sword after a practice session with Horace, when he glanced quizzically at the apprentice Ranger.
"Oh no! You can tell this is where the trouble starts." Cassandra laughed. Will smiled at her then answered back.
"That's an understatement." He glanced at Gilan who had a shocked expression on him.
"It helped you in the long run." Gilan pointed out wisely.
"I know but at the time it didn't feel like it." Will sighed.
"Has Halt shown you the double knife sword defence yet?" he asked suddenly. Will looked up in surprise.
"I can not believe you hadn't taught him that yet. It's shameful Halt." Gilan said with disappointment ringing in his every word, though his eyes held a light of amusement.
"I was getting to that part." Halt said calmly.
"Sure you were, Will's lucky I was there to help him out otherwise he would have missed half the important skills he needed to become a Ranger." Gilan proudly announced while Halt and Will frowned.
"I think Will doesn't appreciate the both of you talking about him as if he isn't in the room." Will raised his eyebrow. Horace looked in amazement at this revelation. Recently since he had been married and was able to afford a mirror he had seen how off target his eyebrow raising had become and since then had sought to improve it. Seemed like Rangers managed to do it naturally he sighed.
"The double knife…what?" he asked uncertainly. Gilan sighed deeply.
"Huh typical Will." Cassandra muttered.
"I had my work cut out for me you know." Gilan sighed. Others in the room of course chuckled at Will's ignorance.
"Sword defence. Damn! I should have realized that there'd be more for me to do. Serves me right for taking two apprentices along with me." He stood up with an exaggerated sigh, and motioned for Will to follow him. Puzzled, the boy did.
"Imagine then how I must have felt taking you on. You're worse than five apprentices put together." Halt commented. Will and Horace laughed at Gilan's expression after all the both of them were under Gilan's leadership at the time and wanted him to feel exactly the way they felt.
Gilan led the way to the clear ground where he and Horace had been practicing their swordsmanship. Horace was still there, making shadow lunges and cuts at an imaginary foe as he counted time to himself under his breath. Sweat ran freely down his face and his shirt was dark with it.
"There's maximum dedication for you." Alyss said smiling at Horace. He reflected that there was once a time when the tall young diplomat hadn't liked him much at all and he thought he knew the reason why. After his immediate friendship with Will after the boar attack she had been acting a lot kinder to him, looking back at it now he didn't know how he overlooked her obvious liking to his best friend.
"Right, Horace," called Gilan. "Take a break for a few minutes."
Gratefully, Horace complied. He lowered the sword and sank onto the trunk of a fallen tree.
"I think I'm getting the feel of it," he said. Gilan nodded approvingly.
"Good for you. Another three or four years and you might just have it mastered." He spoke cheerfully, but Horace's face dropped as the prospect of long years of weary practice stretched out in front of him.
The knights and everyone else including Lady Pauline had to laugh at Horace's facial description. It was the face everyone in this room had used plenty of times when they were in shock.
"Look on the bright side, Horace,"Gilan said. "By that time, there'd be less than a handful of swordsmen in the kingdom who could best you in a duel."
"Well done Gil you're being supportive." Jenny approved greatly.
"Not for long" Horace said remembering their conversation vividly.
Horace's face brightened somewhat, then sagged again as Gilan added: "The only trick is knowing who those handful are. Be most uncomfortable if you accidentally challenged one of them and then found out, wouldn't it?"
"All you Rangers are the same, none of you know how to comfort anyone." Alyss shook her head. Her husband seemed to disagree.
"No we're being truthful and that's helpful to a person." He looked at his wife and she smiled at him. This was one of the many things he liked about Alyss. She didn't care if he had different opinions and she let him still have an individual life without tagging behind him too much. He had heard many stories from his bachelor friends about how women were too dependent and dragged the men down. Nothing could be further from the case in this situation.
He didn't wait for an answer, but turned to the smaller boy.
"Well I wasn't that much smaller." Will said, offended by the book's language.
"Yes, you were a midget Will accept it." Horace said smiling. Will quietened down and after a while smiled back.
"I guess I was pretty short that's why people kept calling me M.B in school." He sighed.
"M.B?" Cassandra asked.
"Midget Boy." Will smiled at the memory. Others in the room looked at him in shock. "I wasn't terribly popular in school at the time." He said. Though that was a story for another time.
"Now, Will," he said. "Let's see those knives of yours."
"Both of them?" Will hesitated and Gilan rolled his eyes to heaven. The expression was remarkably like the one that Halt used when Will asked one question too many.
"I have too much of an effect on my apprentices." Halt muttered.
"No it's just Will, everyone rolls their eyes at him once they realise how many questions he can ask per minute." Gilan laughed. Will played along not in the slightest bit offended.
"I think it was 300 or so per minute." He laughed. Many of the people knew how curious Will could get and how the words tumbled out of his mouth without his intending them.
"Sorry," Will mumbled, unsheathing his two knives and holding them out to Gilan. The older Ranger didn't take them. He quickly inspected their edges and checked to see that the fine layer of rust-proofing oil was on them. He nodded, satisfied, when he saw everything was as it should be.
"Right," he said. "Saxe knife goes in your right hand, because that's the one you use to block a sword cut —"
Will frowned. "Why would I need to block a sword cut?"
"Oh my goodness are you seriously asking that question?" Cassandra said shocked.
"Maybe so that you don't die." Alyss said in answer to the question in the book.
"Wait there's a good reason why I asked that question." Will said calming the two young ladies down.
"There better be." Arald said rolling his eyes to the heavens.
Gilan leaned forward and rapped him none too gently on the top of his head with his knuckles.
"Ouch that can't feel nice I know what you must have felt." Horace said to Will in sympathy. He had been on the receiving end of many of these during his time in apprenticeship. Sir Rodney was a hard task master.
"Well, perhaps to stop it from splitting your skull might be a good reason," he suggested.
"But Halt says Rangers don't fight at close quarters," Will protested. Gilan nodded agreement.
"It's certainly not our role. But, if the occasion arises when we have to, it's a good idea to know how to go about it."
As they'd been talking, Horace had risen from his spot on the log and moved closer to watch them. He interrupted a trifle scornfully.
"You don't think a little knife like that is going to stop a proper sword, do you?" he asked. Gilan raised one eyebrow at him.
"Wrong question Horace wrong question." Pauline said. He nodded ruefully at her comment. Halt snorted.
"How could you even doubt the quality of our weapons? They're probably even better than yours." He said smug.
"Woah hang on a second Halt let's not get too out of hand here we all know knight swords are stronger." Arald said. He also said the wrong thing. The three Rangers ganged up on him and even with the help of his fellow knight comrades, Rangers were used to getting their way. Everybody knew that.
So that's it so far. I am extremely sorry for updating so late really I have no excuse I was just lazy and I apologise yet again but I hope I can finish this book and I'm not going to stop trying! Remember review if you liked and add constructive criticism if you wish I don't mind