Homage and Honour (13 page)

“Course I do.
We can’t all be good at everything and in the knife-fighting
movement classes you’re better than Tana! Correct me if I’m wrong,
but I thought you had received a fair commendation last
lesson.”

Beth had
forgotten this and began to feel better.

The Quartet
made their way towards the practice fields, Hannah and Beth peeling
away to go to the salle where Danal, the Weaponsecond would
continue to drill them in the art of basic sword-work while Tana,
Tavei, Jess and Mlei continued on to where Weaponsmaster Rhian and
Ryzckas Melody and Ranolf were waiting for them.

Tana and Jess
were one big thrill of excitement and Tavei and Mlei not a whit
behind them. Mlei was visibly shaking as his battle adrenalin
started to kick in.

The three
trainers were waiting alindback and watched with inner amusement as
the eighteen excited first years formed up in a line in front of
them dressed in their battle armour for the first time, Rhian being
a firm believer in the tenet that they should learn dressed in the
real thing.

“Primary rule,”
she announced in a stentorian voice, which could carry for miles,
“is to try to remember that your Lind will bruise if they get hit
so be careful, drop your swords immediately if you think it is
going to hit them. As you grow more proficient the chances of
accidents will reduce. You cadets however,
are
wearing
armour so there are no such inhibitions. You are training for war
and will have to learn to cope with knocks and bruises.”

There were some
apprehensive looks between the cadets, their excitement dimming
with the realisation that learning to fight alindback had its own
dangers and that they were about to begin to learn how to put the
often intricate set moves they had learned in the salle into
practice. They had taken enough knocks there.

Tana’s face was
resolute with determination and Rhian, glancing at her, felt her
lips twitch. “We’re going to split you into three groups of six,”
she informed them and told them off into their sixes.

Tana and Tavei
found themselves in the group under Rhian and Tadei, together with
Tamir and Whalya. The other four pairs she didn’t know so well but
she noticed that they were all boys. She was the smallest but that
was nothing new to Tana although Tamir wasn’t much taller.

They followed
Rhian and Tadei to a corner of the field where they formed up
around them. They concentrated hard as Rhian explained some of the
basic facts about fighting alindback. The Lind listened hard, to
Rhian
and
Tadei, the latter giving out further instructions
telepathically.

Rhian split the
six into three groups of two and Tana found she was facing Tamir
and Whalya.

“Now,” Rhian
instructed, “walk towards your opponent. A lindlength away raise
your sword and bring it down on that of your opponent with a mutual
check.”

Soon Rhian and
Tadei’s corner of the field was filled with the clack of wooden
sword hitting wooden sword as they did this again and again. They
then performed the manoeuvre whilst trotting and running. It was
harder than they had thought.

Once they had
mastered this, albeit with varying degrees of success, Rhian called
Tana and Tavei out and began to demonstrate how to disarm an
opponent, bringing down her sword with a flick of her wrist again
and again whilst Tana tried and failed to parry it. Each time Tana
lost it Rhian waited for her to dismount, pick it up and prepare to
meet another.

Rhian repeated
the exercise with the other five duos. She was unstinting with her
corrections when she felt that her pupils were not concentrating.
The corrections hurt.

: This is a
lot harder than I thought it would be :
Tana ‘sent’ to Tavei as
she watched Tamir being put through his paces.

: Wait until
we’re doing it at the run :
he answered with a mental
chuckle.

: I’m looking
forward to it :

Tana’s natural
enthusiasm was not dimming one whit.

Towards the end
of the lesson Rhian permitted them a short spell of trying to
disarm each other and Tana found this a lot easier, only losing her
sword once to Tamir’s nine but she knew that, until she could
disarm Rhian, she would not be happy.

The bell
signifying the end of the lesson came too soon for Tana although
even she had to admit that she was aching all over and couldn’t
have gone on for much longer.

“A hot bath
will ease your bruises. Class dismissed.”

Tana left with
the others, determined to persevere and undaunted by Rhian’s words.
She decided then and there that she would be the first amongst her
yearmates to watch as Rhian was forced to dismount to retrieve her
sword from the ground.

A History
Lesson

Rob was the
teacher at Vada who was, as he put it, charged with the duty of
installing a modicum of learning into largely unresponsive brains.
This day he decided that history should and would be studied.

History at the
Stronghold was taught by the direct method, with students being
given a topic to research and then demonstrating their knowledge or
lack of it with a bell filled with questions, answers and
explanations.

This season,
the first year cadets were studying the first fifty years after
mankind had arrived on the planet.

On the whole,
the cadets were finding the subject interesting. To most it was not
new. Those brought up in Vadath were all well versed in the
stories, as were those who had arrived from Argyll although they
had been taught with a different bias.

To Beth and a
few of the others the topic was
all
as new as the dawn sun.
She was enjoying learning about the early years but was struggling
with the bookwork as her reading skills were still at a rudimentary
level.

Rob had
appointed an unofficial tutor to her from amongst her year group,
Tamir, a young man who was well advanced on the lessoning front.
Jess, who would have liked to have been the one allocated to Beth,
had been appointed as helper to one Petar who had come from one of
the northern religious communities and whose studies to date had
been restricted to holy tracts and books. She found the task
tedious at times but she liked Petar and that made her task
easier.

She settled
down at her desk and prepared to enjoy herself. History was her
favourite general studies subject and Rob was an interesting
teacher. With his vivid use of language he made the subject come
alive somehow, the people became real people, with thoughts and
dreams and not just characters in a book.

Once they had
settled down, no mean feat for some of them after their
weapons-practice, he began, “we shall continue with our study of
the events that led up to the Battle of the Alliance in Anno
Landing Two. You should have read and inwardly digested the chapter
I gave you for homework.” He scanned his class with violet-blue
eyes as one or two wriggled uncomfortably, “so we shall leave the
questions and answers for now and I will tell you about some
aspects of those months that are not included in the chapter.”

The young faces
before him brightened at this; perhaps, like the other day, Rob
would get so engrossed in his storytelling that he would forget
about the questions. Rob’s eyes twinkled and rested for a moment on
the small group of Lind sitting at the back. They liked to attend
some of his history classes. Their oral traditions about these
years often presented a different perspective on the events. Rob
encouraged their involvement; they had, in the past, shed light on
certain aspects of events that were unclear, even to him.

The class
settled down to listen and Rob began, “as you know, it was quite a
shock to our ancestors at Settlement when they found out that they
were not alone on the planet. Indeed, Commander Stuart MacIntosh
said as much in his diary. This diary, we have a transcription in
the library if anyone is interested enough to want to read it, is
not one primarily of his personal thoughts, but of facts. It is one
of our main sources of information pertaining to these months. Now,
think back to our very first lesson, what type of source is
it?”

A number of
hands were raised and Rob made his selection.

“Tamir?”

“It is a
primary source,” Tamir answered.

“The other
type?”

“Secondary.”

“And who can
tell me the difference between these two types of source
material?”

Beth raised a
tentative hand; the first time she had ever volunteered information
in class. Rob was quick to notice. “Beth?”

She recited it
parrot-fashion, Tamir had drilled the information into her so that
she was word perfect, “a primary source is a document or physical
object which was written or created during the time under study.
The people who wrote them were present during an experience and
offer an inside view of a particular event. A secondary source
interprets and analyses primary sources. These sources are one or
more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may have
pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them.”

“Excellent.”
Rob beamed at her, “so the diary is very important because it is an
account of events
as they happened
and by someone
who was
there
. Keeping that in mind let me read to you a short
passage:

Cold. Frost on
high ground.

Jim Cranston,
Thomas Wylie, Tara Sullivan return today with news much to the
relief of the families of the missing children, with four creatures
who call themselves Lind. Planet has hidden dangers. Their leader
is one Afanasei, huge wolf-like creature as big as a horse, very
civilised, urbane and with an intelligence at least matching ours,
perhaps greater. Mystery of what happened at Armstrong farmstead
solved. Looks as if we will have to fight to survive here.
Settlement situated in direct path of vicious and warlike creatures
called Larg who have home in the continent to the south. Afanasei
tells us they will attack in summer.

News of
Electra, the prison ship that was part of the convoy. It too
survived cosmic storm and found way here. Fate of crew and families
unknown.

Everyone in
state of shock. Panic in certain areas.

Must find out
what Electra prisoners are doing.

Speak to
Robert Lutterell about weapons.

Defensive
walls.

Move to
islands?

Armour.
Swords? Bows and arrows?

How to kill
the Larg.”

He stopped.
“Has anyone any comment to make about what I have just read?”

“He’s not very
expansive,” ventured Jess at his nod.

“He was not a
natural storyteller,” explained Rob, “he was a Spacefleet Officer,
more used I would imagine, to writing reports than keeping a diary.
Anything else?”

“He doesn’t
mention about vadeln-pairings,” she said, finding this omission
very thought provoking.

“Perhaps he
didn’t think it important,” suggested Rob, “he is more concerned
about the survival of the people under his command. This concept is
something you should keep in mind when reading source material,
what one thinks important might be omitted.”

“I still think
he should have written more about what he thought about it all,
deep inside. It would have helped us get a better feel about what
it was like in those days.” Jess sounded disgruntled.

“One person
did,” said Rob, “wonder if anyone can guess who?”

“Tara
Sullivan?” suggested Tamir.

“She did, but
later,” he answered, “remember that at this time she was only about
twelve years old. Her recollections she wrote when she was in her
thirties and her words must be influenced by what happened
afterwards. Still a primary source, but one that has to be used
with care. Try again.”

“I know,” Jess
beamed at him.

“Perhaps you
would share your knowledge with your classmates,” teased Rob.

“It
has
to be Winston Randall,” she said, “he’s a sort of ancestor of mine.
I know he kept a diary. I’ve never read it. My grandmother told me
about it.”

“It has never
been published,” Rob informed the class. “I have, however, managed
to get hold of a transcription. He was not so much concerned with
the dangers our ancestors faced but with the blossoming
partnerships developing between his fellow colonists and the Lind
and with the opportunities it presented.”

“Please could
you read us some of it?” pleaded Jess.

He shook his
head, “I think that must wait until next time.”

There were
sighs of disappointment but, despite further pleadings, Rob would
not be moved. “Next lesson and that’s a promise, as long as you all
hand in a short essay about what
you
think the reactions of
the colonists were when they heard the news Jim Cranston brought.
Now, as we’ve got some time left let’s revise your homework. Jess,
can you tell me the names of the twelve children who went missing
from Settlement?”

Jess could and
did. The question and answer session continued until the bell rang
and the cadets fled to their chore duties.

A Chore
Duty

Anton had been
Chief Cook at the Stronghold for a number of years. He had the
honorary rank of Vadryzka as had the Chief Cooks before him. He had
snow white hair and a wrinkly face with laughter lines round his
eyes and mouth. Unlike most of those who worked in the cookhouse he
was vadeln-paired. He was not a native of the Northern Continent.
No-one knew why or how, all these years ago, he had arrived in
Vadath where he had paired with Susya. He had disclosed little
about his early life to anyone, until, that is, he met Beth.

In fact, he
originated from one of the more southerly islands in the Great
Eastern Sea, one that was allied to the Kingdom of Murdoch.