Techromancy Scrolls: Soras (27 page)

I spun under a strike, Hera and Anadele whirling about me in a series of blocks an parries as I instinctively stopped and deflected each deadly strike from my three opponents. Two bladed combat was becoming easier and easier to me.

I crossed my blades in front of me to stop a pulverizing downward strike from a heavy double-handed sword then I spun away below a lunging attack from another attacker, ending in a low crouch with Hera behind my back, to deflect the blow I knew was coming. The other two had been pulling my attention with their sustained attack, allowing the third to get behind me to strike.

It all happened so fast, and my own ghost images blurred to catch up with me. I stood and extended both blades to my sides and slowly turned, forming a circle of mist I dared my opponents to step into. It also served to give myself a feel for my range.

I bobbed down, slipping left, then right, blurring with the motion as that double-handed sword sliced down through the afterimage and sparked on the ground with a solid clang where I had feigned to be moving.

Tennison laughed. “Hold still damn you. It's bad enough you are such a small target, but your bizarre afterimage blurring is disconcerting.”

I giggled as I stopped a whirling backhand from Brenda and deflected Verna's Gertrude away with a glancing parry. I rasped, “Not likely big man. You'd destroy me in seconds flat.” For once I didn't feel outclassed and fighting for my life, this felt almost like an elegant and graceful dance to me this day. Was this how Celeste felt every time she was in battle?

Verna growled, “At least remove that vexing cloak so the effect isn't so pronounced, I can barely tell which one is really you. I have to watch your shadow on the ground so I can't get in my best strikes.”

I chuckled as I spun while sidestepping, eliciting a triple clang of steel on steel. Anticipating the move because it was a classic Celeste maneuver to gain some distance, I almost ran into Tennison's broad chest.

I gleeped, then felt cold steel on my neck and Brenda chuckled out, “Got you, you slippery little sneak.”

I lowered my blades and we all backed up and sheathed our weapons.

Celeste came walking up and nodded at me grimly. “Better, you still need to remember to have one high guard and one low as you do that. Remember, the idea is to create space. If you had a low guard with Hera, it would have forced Tennison to take a step back and you wouldn't have been trapped like that.”

I nodded as Verna told me, “You improve by the day Laney. I think the balance you gain from the weight of each blade makes you a little more sure of your moves. Though your foot positioning still needs work.”

Then she added with a voice full of mirth, “At least I think it does if I can figure out which blurry Laney is the real one, that is almost an ultimate defense as long as you keep in motion.”

I turned to the sound of another nearby sparring match. Sarafine was grace in motion as she slapped a blade away from one of the two new squires with a leather gloved hand. Both new recruits were young Techno Knight ascendants.

Young? They were only over two years my junior, just past their age of majority at nineteen. Had I ever been that young? It seemed another lifetime ago.

I had to grin at the boys, both commoners taken on by Knights of the Realm under the new Wexbury Spark Program for serfs like me who developed the affinity for magic. My mother, Lady Margret, and I had convinced the nobles to adopt the concept and had the program instituted last year.

Instead of detaining and imprisoning and disappearing commoners who developed a spark, Wexbury instead embraced them and gave them a choice. Either they join the ranks of nobles as a Techromancer scholar, or they can be squired by a Knight of the Realm to defend Wexbury and its allies with their gift.

Since then, three commoners have ignited, all more powerful than me of course. Valerie Thatcher chose to pursue the academic training of a scholar under the tutelage of the Queen of the Scrolls herself, Emily.

Jerry Weaver and Seth Weaver both wanted to follow in my footsteps as Techno Knights, to defend those who could not defend themselves. The identical twins had ignited on the same day, just months before they turned the age of majority at nineteen. Just weeks after the new program was announced to the population.

The two were practical jokers and consistently tried to confuse the knights as to which one was which. They were always grinning with mischief, their shaggy auburn hair hiding their chocolate brown eyes. Celeste and I could always tell, though, I'm not sure how, but I think it may be the subtle differences in the taste of their magics.

Sara was busy teaching them the proper way to thrust and sweep. Both boys kept leading with the wrong foot. The Weaver boys were both infatuated with the exotic looking Gypsy woman, so I'm pretty sure they screw up on purpose so they get to interact with her more.

She often joined us in the courtyard for training sessions, because “This cultural exchange emissary position is so much bullshit.” She learned that word from Bowyn and has adopted it as her go to profanity.

She looked almost elegant in her light leathers, her hair braided and tied around her throat. She caught Seth's blade as it slashed past and she yanked it out of his hand. Shook her head at him, not even bothering to correct him again about using a loose grip on his hilt, it can see you disarmed easily, and in a fight, disarmed is as good as dead.

She tossed his blade back then started blocking and parrying their best shots at leisure without looking as their Knight, Perry, chuckled. Sara looked back at us and said with incredulity in her voice, “Defense, defense, defense. That is all you are drilling into Sora Laney. When will you teach her to attack?”

I winced and squinted an eye and the chorus of, “Never!” Came from all the knights in the courtyard, followed by chuckling as Celeste squinted and pointed, sweeping her finger across the courtyard. Well fine, she didn't exactly point with that particular finger, but it sounds more ladylike than her actual action.

When she looked down at me to see my cocked eyebrow, she just smiled and engulfed me in a warm hug. I melted. I never wanted out of my fiancee's arms.

Now that was an ordeal, when she finally asked a couple months back, on the last day of the Lupei's month of Carnival at the Keep. Mother and Donovan were gushing over us, making me think you could actually die from blushing so much. But it got worse.

We chose the third anniversary of our meeting, after the turning of the year on the fifteenth day after Three Sisters Conjunction. Pastor Emery has agreed to officiate our marriage. Ranelle informed us that she volunteered to preside over the Gypsy union ceremony so that the People would recognize it as well.

As self-conscious as it all made me feel, I can not wait until the day I am truly Celeste's and she mine. So I think I can suffer through two ceremonies.

We commoners had a much simpler ceremony with neighbors, family, and friends. The two to be married would join hands as each of the parents wrapped a ribbon around their clasped hands. The two would exchange a vow of love for each other then it was done and a party for the neighborhood began. Each person donating what little food they could scavenge for the celebration.

The day the Lupei left to head back to the mountains, they left behind a brand new wagon that looked like a small cottage on wheels like Sylvia's, with no explanation. When we went to examine it, we discovered the crest of the People, the crest of the Lupei, and both the crests of the house of Celeste and house of Laney branding it. We found a letter from Ranelle on the little table by the door of it, stating that it would not do for Soras of the people to not have their own wagon. I took great pride in it, it was another thing I could view as mine. Well, ours. I smiled.

Sarafine's chuckle brought me back to the present, as she turned to the squires, shaking her head at us. With two quick swipes of her weapon she disarmed the twins and then sheathed her sword telling them, “For the final time, mind your grip, or Sir Perry may allow me to start carving little pieces out of you. I'm sure you would learn quickly in that case.”

The two responded in unison, having discipline drilled into them over the past few weeks, “Yes Lady.”

She smirked at the boys and said, “I'm no Lady. Practice and improve and I might allow you to call me Sara.”

The boys beamed as they picked up their blunted practice swords from the ground.

She walked over to us and I leaned in and bumped shoulders with her, whispering, “Must you tease them so? You know they are sweet on you.”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “You say that as if it is a bad thing my Sora. They are of the age of consent are they not.”

I just stared at her in surprise, mouth agape. She chuckled and shoved my shoulder, causing me to arrive back in my Lady's arms. I mumbled in mirth, “No Lady is right.”

She chuckled as Jace came sprinting into the courtyard.

My brother shared a grin with me. He was growing so very fast, mother told me that it only gets faster as time seems to speed along as we move through life. Then he announced loudly, “It is about to begin!”

A murmur of excitement filtered through the courtyard as we all started quickly toward the livery where stable hands were preparing dozens of horses. Goliath saw me coming and trotted over to me, dragging a poor stable girl along in his wake as she tried to restrain him.

I gave her an apologetic look and she grinned toothily at me and stepped back when I ghosted as I leapt and grabbed the saddle horn, pulling myself up into the saddle as Goliath started into motion before I was even fully seated.

The others caught up with me. I tried not to grin at the fact that my beautiful boy and I were first out of the gates. Celeste, Verna, Sarafine, and Brenda caught up and chuckled at me. Sara said to them, “She needs a small head start.”

Brenda nodded. “Just a little.”

I wheezed out as I shook my fist at them menacingly, “All right string beans, no short jokes.”

I saw the procession of knights behind us who were just as curious as I was as to how Bex's latest scatterbrained scheme was going to end up. Brenda followed my gaze then looked back at me and said, “I hope he doesn't break his fool neck this time. I'm sort of attached to it being in one piece.”

I nodded and we all picked up the pace.

The Keep looked like a ghost town, with barely anyone milling about on Lord's Way or the Crossbar. As we approached the main Portcullis, we witnessed most of the population of the keep on both sides of the great archway.

It was like Carnival all over again. The people parted as we knights approached and we headed outside the gates and handed our mounts off to porters.

Celeste gave me her arm and grinned at me. “He certainly is making a spectacle of this. I would say this is simply a folly, but our Lord Bexington has a way with surprising people.”

This made Brenda beam in pride for her man, but I saw the worry too. For every success in his schemes, he has ten failures and they are usually quite spectacular.

I grabbed the nervous woman's hand and gave it a squeeze before dropping it as we made our way through the crowd. Most of the vendors from the market were outside the walls, just like for carnival, peddling their wares. The food carts were popular.

I took a deep breath of the crisp fall air and smiled.

We walked through the crowded, makeshift market, idly looking at all the wares as we passed, when a giggling band of children came winding through the crowd, chasing each other as they had mock-knight battles with the little painted sticks they held.

One turned around as she bumped into me, a little bucket over her head like a helmet that was halfway covering her eyes. She looked up and cutely tipped the bucket back so she could see me and her eyes went wide. I almost giggled at her reaction as she was torn between standing at attention and bowing. She settled for standing at attention and saluting with her improvised sword.

I had to grin down at Misty Cobbler. She had paper armor tied to her with string. My smile grew bigger as I saw the crests she had scrawled on the paper with charcoal. The crest of Wexbury, the crest of the Lupei, and my personal crest.

She gave me an excited smile and said, “When we play knights, I'm always you, my Lady.”

I crouched and grinned at her. She had silver paint on one side of her face, shimmering like my scars.

I asked in my hoarse tone, “Is the Junior Regiment up to mischief?”

The girl was adorable. Since the day I first met the little one, she has aspired to be a knight. She says that she want's to make a difference. Celeste and I have been in talks with her parents, that if she is still adamant about becoming a knight when she turns fifteen, I would like to foster her and take her on as squire.

The excitement on their faces was priceless. That meant that their daughter would attain the rank of noble, as would they. It was a dream all of us serfs shared. One that I had attained by pure happenstance. They cried tears of joy for their daughter, any parent's dream.

So I took pride in the little girl who reminded me so much of myself. And the care and empathy she displayed for her fellow villagers was beyond what someone of her years should have.