Now, how did you know about that?" the man said, and this time there was no mistaking the threat in his voice. He laid his hand significantly on his sword hilt.
"It's my business, as you said." I tried my best to sound assured, waving my sodden arm airily in my best Court mode.
The woman bowed with exaggerated politeness. "And who might you be, Your Royal Highness?" she asked loudly.
The leader, and the third and fourth drivers who had just joined the merry group, guffawed.
"I am Meliara Astiar, Countess of Tlanth," I said.
Again the smiles diminished, but not all the way. The leader eyed me speculatively for a long breath. "Well, then, you seem to have had mighty good luck in the past, if half the stories be true, but even if they are, what good's your luck against forty of us?"
"How do you know I don't have eighty-one armed soldiers waiting behind that rise over there?" I waved my other hand vaguely mountainward.
They thought that was richly funny.
"Because if you did," the female said, "they'd be out here and we wouldn't be jawin'. Come on, Kess, we've wasted enough time here. Let's shift her majesty off our road and be on our way."
The man picked up his sword and vaulted down from his wagon. I yanked my short sword free and climbed down from my pony. When I reached the ground, the world swayed, and I staggered back against the animal, then righted myself with an effort.
The man and woman stood before me, both with long swords gripped in big hands. They eyed me with an odd mixture of threat and puzzlement that made that weird, almost hysterical laughter bubble up inside my shaky innards. But I kept my lips shut and hefted my sword.
"Well?" the woman said to her leader.
They both looked at me again. I barely came up to the middle of the shortest one's chest, and my blade was about half the length and heft of theirs.
The man took a slow swing at me, which I easily parried. His brows went up slightly; he swung again, faster, and when I parried that he feinted toward my shoulder. Desperately, my heart now pounding in my ears, I blocked the next strike and the next, but just barely. His blade whirled faster, harder, and that block shook me right down to my heels. The man dropped his point and said, " the one that whupped Galdran Merindar?"
Unbidden, Shevraeth's voice spoke inside my head: "You have never lied to me…" I thought desperately, And for a brief moment I envisioned myself snarling Except it wasn't going to stop them; I could see it in their eyes and in the way the woman gripped her sword.
"No," I said. "He knocked me off my horse. But I'd taken an oath, so I had to do my best." I drew in a shaky breath. "I know I can't fight forty of you, but I'm going to stand here and block you until you either go away or my arms fall off, because this, too, is an oath I took.
"It's my business, as you said." I tried my best to sound assured, waving my sodden arm airily in my best Court mode.
The woman bowed with exaggerated politeness. "And who might you be, Your Royal Highness?" she asked loudly.
The leader, and the third and fourth drivers who had just joined the merry group, guffawed.
"I am Meliara Astiar, Countess of Tlanth," I said.
Again the smiles diminished, but not all the way. The leader eyed me speculatively for a long breath. "Well, then, you seem to have had mighty good luck in the past, if half the stories be true, but even if they are, what good's your luck against forty of us?"
"How do you know I don't have eighty-one armed soldiers waiting behind that rise over there?" I waved my other hand vaguely mountainward.
They thought that was richly funny.
"Because if you did," the female said, "they'd be out here and we wouldn't be jawin'. Come on, Kess, we've wasted enough time here. Let's shift her majesty off our road and be on our way."
The man picked up his sword and vaulted down from his wagon. I yanked my short sword free and climbed down from my pony. When I reached the ground, the world swayed, and I staggered back against the animal, then righted myself with an effort.
The man and woman stood before me, both with long swords gripped in big hands. They eyed me with an odd mixture of threat and puzzlement that made that weird, almost hysterical laughter bubble up inside my shaky innards. But I kept my lips shut and hefted my sword.
"Well?" the woman said to her leader.
They both looked at me again. I barely came up to the middle of the shortest one's chest, and my blade was about half the length and heft of theirs.
The man took a slow swing at me, which I easily parried. His brows went up slightly; he swung again, faster, and when I parried that he feinted toward my shoulder. Desperately, my heart now pounding in my ears, I blocked the next strike and the next, but just barely. His blade whirled faster, harder, and that block shook me right down to my heels. The man dropped his point and said, " the one that whupped Galdran Merindar?"
Unbidden, Shevraeth's voice spoke inside my head: "You have never lied to me…" I thought desperately, And for a brief moment I envisioned myself snarling Except it wasn't going to stop them; I could see it in their eyes and in the way the woman gripped her sword.
"No," I said. "He knocked me off my horse. But I'd taken an oath, so I had to do my best." I drew in a shaky breath. "I know I can't fight forty of you, but I'm going to stand here and block you until you either go away or my arms fall off, because this, too, is an oath I took.
( Sherwood Smith )
[ Court Duel ]
www.QuoteSweet.com