The next end-week was designated as the time to decide the team for the murderball match. Captain Tolbeck had been asked to manage this and had organised the students into four mixed teams so that he could assess the students. Although the competition didn’t mean anything in itself, everyone was talking about it and each of the groups grabbed as much time as possible to discuss tactics and practice.
The rules of murderball are extremely simple. A ball of rags is placed on the bank of a stream midway between the two teams. When the official shouts ‘start’ the two teams, normally of eleven players, are allowed to use any reasonable means to get the ball to the starting point of the other team. All team members wear shirts and shorts and are not allowed to bring anything else with them. No team member is allowed more than ten feet away from the stream. If he goes beyond that distance then the other team is given the ball and a ten-yard advantage. The length of stream can be anything between one and two hundred yards. The team wins if they score three points or have scored more points when time is called. The game is generally thirty minutes long.
Normally the team that has the biggest and strongest players win as they just push their way past the opposition, or even pick the opposition ball carrier up and carry him or her backwards. Sometimes the speed of the smaller player allows them to dodge past the larger, slower player and make progress that way. Then there are the advantages of kicking or throwing the ball or even just throwing it in the stream if you are an upstream player.
Nedric had ended up on the same team as Rialto; his other team members were a lad called Marryn who was probably the least athletic member of their year group and a girl called Carenda who was almost as big as Nedric. The other eight team members were from the lower year groups and Nedric knew next to nothing about them. He had been chosen as captain almost entirely because he was the biggest, although having Rialto’s support was helpful. There were twelve in each team as there were sixteen people in each year group. Only eleven of the forty-eight students would be chosen.
The team had decided to meet at the point where the stream emerged from the woods. Nedric thought that if they came up with any good tactics then they could practise them under the cover of the trees. He split the group in half, with Rialto on his side and tried to determine where his group’s strengths and weaknesses lay. It soon became apparent that his twelve were fairly fast (with the exception of Marryn, and to a lesser extent himself) but were not particularly strong. Nedric decided to get his group tackling one person in pairs and then had them working out ways to move the ball around quickly. Finally, when he was sure that nobody else was around, he let the others know his idea for not losing and possibly even winning.
* * *
The day of the matches finally dawned. Nedric and Rialto were up early and after breakfasting, rounded up their group. The biggest area of dissension amongst the group had been what to call themselves and this was still not settled. Nedric was going for the ‘nihalators’ in the hope someone would ask what one was. The general group weren’t too keen on this and were at the moment arguing whether they should go for something that reflected their abilities.
“How about the ‘Evaders’?” suggested Carenda.
“What about the ‘Dodgers’?” added Marryn.
“No-one would call a team the ‘Dodgers’” Carenda replied scornfully.
“Well it’s better than Evaders!” was the reply.
“How about the ‘Dashers’?” suggested Rialto.
“That will do if we can’t come up with anything better,” said Nedric. He didn’t really care what the name of the group was, just that they did well.
All too quickly the call came for the teams to make their way to the streamside. Quite a crowd began to gather to watch the matches, off-duty guards and their partners, various maids and valets, even most of the masters. Nedric was not happy to see that some of the villagers were there as well. It meant that they would have the advantage in the upcoming match.
The first match was between teams that had Strawn on one side and Rhianna on the other. It was clear from the start that Strawn was an outstanding player. Despite his size he moved quickly and reached the ball first. He raced towards the other team and ploughed straight over three of the younger ones. This created a gap in his opposition’s defence, which he exploited neatly and raced further along the watercourse. When the opposition came into the stream to stop him, he switched to one bank and when they tried to mass on that side he jumped to the other. Before his opponents knew what had hit them, he was holding the ball in front of the score line. As they rushed towards him, he gently rolled the ball over the line to score the first point. It had taken him less than a minute in a fine, solo effort.
When the ball was dropped for the second time, Strawn reached it first again. This time the opposition held back a bit and advanced towards him as a group. Seeing no easy way through, Strawn threw the ball to one of the smaller boys on his side and motioned for the bigger players of his team to move up. With Strawn at point and four others moving with him in a wedge, they forced their way along the streambed. The small boy with the ball sheltered behind the wedge and the rest of Strawn’s team prevented the opposition from coming around the sides. Once again the score came quickly and Rhianna’s team were left looking incompetent. The redhead by this point was getting furious and was shouting to her team to sort themselves out and take Strawn down.
At the third start, Rhianna’s team decided to advance in a line, although Rhianna herself stayed back to try and stop anyone if they got past the line. Strawn again reached the ball first and ran along the bank towards the opposition line. As he reached the line, he dove over one of the smaller members of the opposition. He curled in flight and rolled as he hit the water, running towards the score line before the other team could turn. Only Rhianna stood in his way.
The redhead thought about going for Strawn’s ankles but reconsidered when she remembered how quick to react Strawn had been. Instead she stood right in his way and braced herself. Strawn came straight towards her. When he reached her he stopped long enough to pick her up with one arm and carried her and the ball towards the score line. As he reached it, Strawn let the ball gently roll across the line as he tried to protect himself from a furious Rhianna. The redhead felt humiliated and was extracting revenge by flailing at Strawn’s head.
The crowd was cheering loudly for Strawn and his teammates came up to congratulate him. Rhianna was left on her own to control her emotions and to decide how to deal with her so-called lover.
The second match saw Nedric’s team have an equally one-sided win. The difference however, was that his team won as a team. The speed and passing ability of his group left the opposition standing. By the time they reacted to where the ball had been, it had already been passed to the next team member. Nedric’s team avoided the stream itself and ran along the banks, as they were faster. Only when their opponents came up the banks to block them, did they venture into the water and only long enough to get past the blockers.
On the third point, Nedric’s opposition held back and waited as a group in front of their score line. At this point Nedric got Merryn, who was fairly heavy, to run straight at the middle of the group. He followed Merryn, creating a gap through which Rialto could dive and cross the score line. The cheers from the crowd were almost as loud as they had been for Strawn.
Captain Tolbeck called Strawn and Nedric’s teams over and informed them that the final match would occur after an hour’s break. Nedric told his team to relax and spent the time with Rialto trying to think of ways of neutralising Strawn. They didn’t think of anything they hadn’t discussed before but they were fairly confident.
After the hour was up Strawn and Nedric went up to the captain to determine ends. It hadn’t made much difference in the previous matches but there was a definite advantage starting upstream. Tolbeck tossed a coin and Nedric called heads. It landed tails and Strawn went to the upstream end. Nedric gathered his group and headed downstream. As he walked, the tension of the moment began to grip his stomach.
Tolbeck dropped the ball and the two teams sprinted for it. Rialto was rapidly out in front of his team and Strawn left his team behind. The two boys raced to get to the ball first and it was Rialto who got his hand to it. Strawn crashed into him and the ball went flying.
It was a member of Nedric’s team who got his hands on the descending ball and quickly passed it to Nedric. Nedric threw it to Carenda, who ran with it past a rising Strawn. Strawn leapt for her and she passed the ball to Rialto who was now part way up the other bank. Rialto started to run upstream and stopped when he saw the formation of the people in front of him. Strawn had placed his players so that he had his four largest players, two each side, on the banks. Between them were two of the smaller players and the remaining five were spread out about twenty yards behind this line.
Nedric sent three of his team to keep Strawn out of the way and threw himself at the two players in front of Rialto. The three of them went down and Rialto was able to clamber over them without being caught. Carenda and a puffing Marryn also got past and both of them tried to catch up with Rialto who was dodging the second line of defenders. Carenda ploughed into the person who was trying to grab the ball from Rialto and Marryn knocked the person in front of him over. This left Rialto with three people between him and the score line, two on one bank and one on the other. Taking the opportunity he went for the gap in the middle and just managed to avoid a flailing hand. With ball held to his chest, he sprinted over the score line. First blood had gone to the ‘Dashers’.
The teams retreated to their respective ends. The crowds were cheering the ‘Dashers’ and Nedric was happy. Just the look on Strawn’s face was enough for him at the moment. The second ball was dropped and the sprint began again.
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This time it was Strawn who reached the ball first and quickly dodged Rialto’s tackle. He looked up to see another of the Dashers about to tackle him and quickly threw the ball back to one of his team. Strawn’s team formed a wedge and started pushing their way downstream. Strawn joined them and blocked Nedric’s attempt to tackle the front of the wedge by tackling Nedric first. As Nedric tried to rise, Strawn brought his elbow down on the back of Nedric’s head and Nedric fell to the floor again. He managed to get back up just in time to see the ball carried over the line to equalise the scores.
The third point was almost a repetition of the second. Strawn reached the ball first and then dodged Rialto. When passing the ball back, he managed to step on Rialto’s left calf. The wedge took over and ground the Dashers backwards. It was a slow process but finally the ball crossed the line and the Dashers were left to limp back to their starting positions.
“How’s the leg?” Nedric asked Rialto as they waited for the ball to be dropped?
“Hurts, but I’ll survive!” came the reply.
“Why does he need the dirty tactics? His team are beating us anyway.”
“Who knows?” Rialto shrugged.
The ball was dropped and they started off again. This time one of the younger members of the Dashers managed to get to the ball first. He passed it to Rialto just as Strawn came flying towards him. Strawn hit the youth hard and he went down. The Dashers were doing better. They kept the ball moving between the team, not moving forward much but gradually inching forward as people slipped past Strawn’s team caught the ball and then moved it on quickly. Nedric wasn’t really watching though. He had gone over to the lad who had been tackled by Strawn and was trying to get him to move. The lad was slow in coming around and Nedric worried about him until he finally stirred. By this time the rest of the team were at the top of the stream and it was to everyone’s surprise that Marryn was the person who used his bulk to force the ball over the line.
Nedric helped his team member off the course and told him to rest. The lad wasn’t in any condition to argue and just nodded. As he walked back to his team Nedric was seething.
“All right everybody, I’ve had enough, let’s use the back-up plan!” Nedric told his team.
“I still don’t think it’s fair,” stated Rialto.
“Strawn needs to be taught a lesson!”
“Fair point. All right, let’s do it!” Rialto grinned.
The ball was thrown in and the teams raced towards it. Again, the Dashers got to it first and tried to take it up stream. Their opponents did a good job of blocking the way and the two teams seemed to have stalemated. Nedric was passing the ball across to Rialto when Strawn leapt and intercepted it. Suddenly it seemed that the Dashers couldn’t lay a finger on him. They were trying to tackle him but he eluded them all and was close to scoring.
At this point Nedric and Rialto suddenly turned on one of Strawn’s teammates and pushed him out of bounds. Tolbeck whistled to stop the game and Strawn, who was just about to cross the line, turned around in disbelief. When Tolbeck took the ball and passed it over to Nedric, Strawn just looked on in disbelief. He didn’t even manage to get in a protest, before the Dashers were off and running with the ball. They easily outmanoeuvred their demoralised opponents and most of the team were able to cross the line with the ball.
Strawn came up to Nedric and shook him by the hand. Nedric was a little surprised by the good sportsmanship shown until Strawn whispered, “You’ll pay for that!” and walked away his head held high. Nedric wasn’t too worried by Strawn’s threat. Strawn already made his life miserable whenever he had the chance so Nedric couldn’t see what Strawn would do differently.
* * *
As the students were heading back into the keep to get changed, Nedric noticed Captain Tolbeck walking towards him. He slowed down to let the Captain catch up wondering if he was going to be told he was in the team.
“Good match that! I liked the way your team worked together.“ the Captain began. “I might put a fair few of them on the team. That isn’t why I wanted to talk to you though. You remember that body you found?”
Nedric nodded, although truth to tell in the rush to practice for the murderball match it had fled his mind.
“He’s causing us a bit of a problem. We’ve asked down in the village and nobody says that anyone is missing. None of the guards know who he is either and basically we’re stumped. I sent Bronn back to that glade the next day to look around. He did come up with one thing; there was someone there after us, either that night or the next morning. Their footprints were clear where they crossed the stream. From the size of them it was either a woman or a youngster. They were wearing fairly good footwear by the marks they left so they might well have come from the keep.”
Nedric looked interested at this information and asked “Do you think it could have been one of the students then?”
“It’s a possibility and more likely than most of the options we’ve come up with. Although why a student would be wandering around the woods at night, meeting up with a strange noble I have no idea.”
“Shouldn’t whoever was on guard have seen a student leaving the keep at night anyway?”
“That’s true. The guard on duty swears that no one passed him all night apart from a group of older students heading down to the inn. Could you find out for me who went out that night?”
“Why don’t you just ask them?”
“If I start making enquiries it becomes big news and the whole keep starts talking. If there is someone in the keep who knows something about this dead man I’d rather not have them clamming up. We haven’t got any proof of anything anyway and some of the merchant parents of these students can get very upset if we start accusing their children of anything.”
“I’ll do my best sir.” Nedric said.
“That’s all I can ask,” replied the Captain and moved off.
Nedric wondered whom to approach to find out the information. He and Rialto had been absent from the group as they had been working on an extra assignment given to them by Andern when they had talked too much in his lecture. Nedric didn’t particularly like the way that most of the boys curried up to Strawn and therefore was left with the girls or Marryn. He decided it would attract too much attention if he tried to take one of the girls aside to ask her anything. He set off to find his erstwhile teammate.
* * *
The next day was spent in lessons. Nedric appreciated learning the geography of his country but he really wasn’t interested in most of its history. Partially this was because he couldn’t see the relevance of this knowledge to himself but mainly it was due to the master who taught it. Why master Ernick had been chosen by the Duke to be one of the instructors Nedric just didn’t know. Although he was one of the younger masters, barely having entered his middle years, he was in Nedric’s opinion the most boring. Just the sound of his droning monotone was enough to get Nedric’s eyes closing. It was bad enough that he taught history but he was also the master who lectured the students about economics. This to a bunch of students, more than half of which were from merchant families!
Ernick was talking about the role that the Dukes of Setherland had in the running of the country and the historical reasons that brought them about. Living, as they did, in one of the residences of the Duke of Asgril this should have been of interest to Nedric but his eyes had glazed over in the first few minutes and he was now watching a bird that had perched on the ledge outside the window of the room in which they sat. The bird was fairly small and had landed on the ledge struggling with a rather large worm that it was carrying in its beak. Nedric was fascinated by the attempts of the bird to eat the worm and the worm’s attempts to get away. Finally the worm managed to wriggle off the ledge and the bird went flying down to follow it. Nedric turned his attention back to the lesson.
History was followed by mathematics. Master Andern taught this as well as geography. Nedric found the subject enjoyable, partially because he was quick to grasp the subject but also because he enjoyed the way that the subject built upon itself. He found that different bits linked together so that learning about one area helped in other areas. The best thing of all was that it was logical. Nedric wasn’t happy with explanations such as ‘it works that way because it does’. He found that particularly true of the few alchemy lectures they had been given.
The mathematics lesson was about variables, how one symbol could be used to represent more than one value. To Nedric this seemed simple enough but a lot of his group struggled. The example that Andern gave was about the price of an apple.
“Let A stand for the price of the apple,” he began. “Now the price of an apple alters depending on where you buy it, so the number that A stands for also changes. If we are told that the price of a number of apples is a certain amount, then we can work out the price of just one of them. Strawn, if you went into a store and was told that the price of fifteen apples was thirty coppers or three silvers, what could you tell me?”
“That apples are overpriced and that I should go elsewhere!” Strawn looked pleased with himself at the ripple of laughter that went around the room. Andern just looked mildly put upon.
“You might have told me that the price of one apple was two coppers. That was if you were actually thinking about the problem rather than trying to show off. Rialto, if eight apples cost me two silvers and four coppers how much is an apple?”
Rialto paused to work out the answer before answering, “three coppers.”
“Well done! Now let us make it a little harder. Marryn, if I have two apples and a pear and the cost is five coppers how much is an apple?”
Marryn was a fairly bright student and didn’t take long to answer. “I can’t answer that sir!”
“Why not, are you bereft of wit or something?” asked Andern.
“No, because you haven’t told me enough information. Apples could be one copper or two.”
“Well done! I hope the rest of you realised that. We need to have as much information as there are things to know about. If I told you the price of a pear then you could tell me the price of the apple. You could also tell me the prices of both if I gave you another piece of information that included both apples and pears. That however is for a later lesson. Elsebeth, the price of a pear is four coppers, how much is an apple?”
“Half a copper” she replied.
“Again, well done! Now what I’m going to do is to write some problems on the board. Instead of writing apples I shall just write A and for pears P. For each problem I want to know the price of the apples, is that clear?”
There was a murmur of assent and the lesson continued.
* * *
The final lesson of the day was impressing. This was taken by a number of the masters, this time the students found that master Karik was taking it and almost as one as they walked into the room they smiled. Master Karik must have been late middle-aged but he didn’t act that way. He was enthusiastic about everything and everyone. His smile rarely left his face and it took somebody doing something really stupid to upset him. Not that anyone wanted to do so. As much as it is possible to be, he was universally liked. At some time Karik had been a guard, it still showed in the muscularity of his arms and the rigid way he held his back. His hair, which had started to grey, was cut short and gave him a distinguished appearance.
Karik started the lesson in much the same way as the other masters, the students were asked to sit cross-legged on the floor and told to visualise a black square on a white background. They had been doing this sort of exercise for almost three years so it came easily to them. They were then told to concentrate on their breathing and again it was easy for them to slow this down until they were taking about one breath a minute.
Recently they had been working on isolating various parts of their bodies and moving individual muscles or small groups. This time they worked on their feet; the task was to move the little toe on their left foot without moving the other toes. Nedric had no idea what this actually had to do with changing the properties of wood but as all three masters were consistent on what they expected the students to achieve in these lessons there must have been some point to it.
In all, the students must have spent about two hours struggling to achieve the set goal. About half the class had been successful and strangely enough this corresponded roughly to the better mathematics students. Master Andern in one of his lectures had suggested that this was because it had to do with being able to visualise things well. He had gone on to talk about abstract and concrete thought and lost the class completely in his explanation.
As the lesson finished, Nedric managed to get into a conversation with Marryn.
“Where do you think they are leading us with all this muscle twitching?” asked Nedric.
“I’m not really sure.”
Nedric decided that if Marryn, probably the most intellectual of the students, didn’t know what was happening then he didn’t have a chance.
“Switching subjects, are you getting the star treatment after scoring yesterday?”
“Not a chance! Rhianna was almost rude to me about it.”
“That’s odd, I would have thought she would have been happy seeing Strawn beaten after the way he treated her,” said Nedric.
“I don’t understand her either, of course she and Strawn have been very friendly for quite a while and she might just have forgiven him.”
Nedric was of the opinion that Rhianna was not one to easily forgive a slight. That she and Strawn had been an item for so long had puzzled him greatly and he couldn’t see it lasting much longer.
“I heard that they were arguing in the tavern the other day but I was reading so I don’t know what it was about.”
“She was complaining that Strawn wasn’t showing enough interest in her anymore. Since he doesn’t look at any other girl it didn’t make any sense to me. They disappeared into one of the darker corners after a while and when they reappeared they were all smiles again.”
“What were the rest of you doing? Just drinking?”
“Mainly, there was a bit of an arm wrestling match between us and the villagers and we were doing all right until Calped came in. No one other than Strawn stood a chance and we didn’t want to disturb him.”
“Did anyone wander off? I heard that one of the villagers was seeing someone at the keep.”
“I didn’t notice anything but anyone could have disappeared for a while and no one would have been any the wiser.”