“Fourth Squad, report.” Bidlack went on after a long pause.

“Fourth Squad, all present and accounted for.” Their squad leader yelled.

“Platoon, fall out for Physical Training. Not you third. I want to talk to you.” Bidlack said, marching over to us.

The rest of the platoon went with their instructors to exercise. Third Squad stood. “Anything you want to say Mike?” Drill Sergeant asked.

“Being honest, not really Drill Sergeant.” I shook my head.

“Oathbreaker!” Floated faintly over the parade ground. Bidlack looked towards the gate. Falaise’s ears went flat against her head.

“Think that’s related to this?” The magic instructor pointed at Deniz.

“Uh, yes. I believe it is Instructor.” I answered.

“Let’s go see what’s going on. Third Squad, fall out and follow me.” Drill Sergeant told us. We left the rigid line of the formation and formed a gaggle that tagged after him and our instructor.

“Send out the oathbreaker!” It was louder this time.

We all arrived at the main gate and jogged up the tower stair. Izzy leaned on my shoulder she was so tired. I was so tired her small amount of weight made me feel like the stairs would never end. I could see Jackson up ahead of me using his arms on the rails and scrubbing his shins against the stone of the steps.

The squad got to the top and looked down. Outside the lower curtain wall on the village side Caltrim stood, shield and spear in hand. His chest was heaving as he yelled. “Send out the oathbreaker!”

The guards had gathered and held bows with arrows near but not nocked. Drill Sergeant looked at us. “Do any of you know this man?”

I sighed. “I do drill sergeant?”

Bidlack’s eyes bored into my soul. “Any particular reason he’s screaming at my castle?”

I scrubbed at my eyes with the heel of my hand. “I, uh, accepted guest rite and the rest of my team attacked him.”

“And the reason for this was?” Drill Sergeant asked.

“Deniz ran.” Niobe said, standing beside me. She put her paw on my shoulder. “We had to track her through the woods to get her back. She was sheltering with that man and the woman he was guarding when we actually made the snatch.”

“Deniz, the dead lizard littering my parade ground?” Bidlack asked emotionlessly.

“Yes, Drill Sergeant.” All four of us said in unison.

He nodded and looked back down at the screaming tribesman. “Well, are you going to answer him?”

I took a deep breath and stepped up to a gap in the crenelations. “Caltrim, I’m here. I want to apologize to you.” I yelled.

“Come meet your fate oathbreaker!” The fighter pointed his spear at me.

“I’m not coming down there, but please know that I’m so, so sorry.” I held out my hands in an open gesture.

“Your man killed my trader!” Caltrim screamed, getting visibly worked up. “You broke bread. You sheltered at my fire!”

Jackson stepped up, looking over the crenel. “That was my bad. I just got that charge ability and got kind of excited to use it.”

Caltrim tore at his hair, screamed incoherently and pointed his spear at me again. “I name you anathema! In all the halls of the mountain people the name Mike Resnick shall be as a curse. We shall slay you and we shall dig up your bones that they may be scattered by beasts!” He cut himself across the chest with his spear. “By my blood I do vow it! The Iron Turtle Kindred and all others I may bring against you are your enemies!”

“You really know how to win friends and influence people, huh Mike?” Drill Sergeant asked.

“Yes, drill sergeant. I suppose I do.” I told him quietly.

“Well, that’s enough fireworks for the morning. Go to training.” Bidlack told us. As we began to file down the stairs, he looked at the guard sergeant of this tower. “Kill him.” And they drew back their bows.

After our exercise period, we did hand to hand combat. This time we broke down by race. That put all the dwarves in the same group, taught by Goldo. I was so tired I could barely adopt the stances.

“Did your group really kill Deniz?” Hera asked between sessions.

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“I did.” I gasped, hands on knees, just trying to breathe. “It was me. Jackson was carrying her and she got loose. I was running behind him and slammed into her. I could feel her bones shatter.” I shuddered at the memory.

Bron put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him. The bronze dwarf patted me and went back into position for the next round. It looked like his beard had some tarnish on the wiry hairs. I made a mental note to say something later.

“That ties into our lesson very well.” Instructor Goldo told the group of dwarves. “Our weight is a weapon.” He paced back and forth as he spoke. “Mike has used this in the caverns and apparently in the forest as he recovered Deniz. Hera used it fighting the guards when we recovered Niobe and issued mass punishment.”

All of us went quiet at his mention of the mass punishment. That wasn’t a particularly fond memory. “How do we maximize it?” El Tar asked in his deep, resonant voice.

“So glad you asked.” Goldo answered and raised his hands in the air, clapping twice. Four guards walked all. Two of them were human and two were midniss. The humans wore solid steel clamshell breastplates with steel leg and arm coverings and carried kite type shields. The midniss wore loricated Roman style armor with war skirts and steel coverings for their arms and legs and round shields.

“These warriors have volunteered to be your training partners for this exercise.” The instructor told us.

“Volun-told more like it.” One of the humans grumbled.

Goldo grinned. “That’s what I meant. Now, since you have so much extra energy to complain, you’ll be my demonstrator.” The combat teacher grabbed an axe and a round steel shield. The axe had a long beard that made it look like something a viking would carry.

The human, who was a long bearded young man with a scar cutting across his lower cheek, stepped forward and raised his shield and blade. “Okay students,” Goldo called out as he moved forward to engage. “Notice the way he holds the sword. That means a cut is going to menace my head more than most of my body.” He nodded at the human.

The bearded man sliced at half speed. Goldo Raised his shoulder, and the built up pauldrons of his armor took the blow. “If you’re moving forward into melee, then engage his shield with yours.” The gold dwarf leaned forward, forcing some of his weight onto the shield. The human flexed his knees and pushed back. “Notice the way he’s pushing back against me, having to use more force than I’m putting into moving against him.”

They held that pose for a moment, then the instructor swept around with his axe using the beard to hook the humans fore leg. He pulled it forward and stepped to the side. The man crashed to the ground. “Once he’s pushed his weight forward to go against your shield, hook the knee. If his weight is actually on the forward leg, then your opponent will fall.”

“What’s the counter to that?” The human asked, getting up onto one elbow.

“For a man versus a dwarf?” Gold asked. “You’re more naturally agile than we are, so you have to get us moving around. Shield wall versus shield wall dwarves will win nearly every time. In a shield wall, don’t take on the dwarf to your front. Take the one to the front of your comrade on the right or left.” He held out a hand and hefted the human in full armor up to his feet without apparent effort.

“What about uss?” hissed one of the midniss.

“You’re an extreme case. Because you are so tall and so much more agile than we are, then we must use our weight. Let’s show them.” Goldo got behind his shield and moved forward, axe at the ready.

The midniss raised his round shield, but he stood with his weight back. The instructor leaned forward, putting his weight against the lizard man’s shield, and the sauroid gave way. “See what he’s doing? They don’t train on shield wall tactics.”

Goldo started doing a step, then slide with his feet. He’d step forward and slide the rear foot, keeping his weight on it. He engaged the midniss with a crash, but the lizard kept backing away, his scimitar flickering out. “So you switch. The shield becomes the weapon.” He did an overhand chop with his bearded axe and hooked the top of the shield with the hook of the beard and pulled, leaning his weight forward on the axe. The shield came down out of the way and the instructor hit the reptile in the face with it.

The two combatants broke apart. The midniss’s nose was clearly broken. “Ouch.” He hissed.

“Sorry about that. We’ll get you healed before you leave.” Goldo told him. Turning to us, “Did you see the axe work?” We all said we had, then he paired us up.

Bron walked up to the instructor, “Don’t use shield.” He said, showing Goldo his giant two bladed axe, as if there were any way to miss it.

“There’s always one.” The instructor flashed that quartz smile. He waved one of the humans over and took the axe from Bron. “Once you can afford it, get some dwarven modified armor. It will build up the pauldrons.” He said, tapping his shoulders.

The human stood behind his shield. Goldo came up to him with the double-bitted axe. “Okay, I don’t have a shield, so I have to be more careful.” He batted away a tentative strike from the man. “Come on, hit me.” The instructor said sternly.

“You asked for it.” The man told him and swung. These were dulled training blades, but being hit by them still left a bruise. The short bearded, black-haired human swung hard at the dwarf’s head. He got a grin and a nod. Goldo blocked it with his built up pauldrons and shoulder blocked the man’s shield.

The impact rocked the human back, slightly off balance. The instructor whipped the huge axe down and hooked the man’s knees, bringing him to the floor. Our combat teacher tapped him on the head with the dulled blade of the axe.

The human scowled but took Goldo’s outstretched hand and was helped up, then clapped on the back. “Remember everyone, if they don’t go full speed in training, they don’t respect you.”

“Crossbow is my main weapon.” Bron said, holding out an ugly, heavy crossbow.

“Did you make this yourself?” Goldo’s eyebrows climbed his forehead. Bron just nodded. “You’ll get better.” The bronze beard scowled.

The instructor held up the heavy crossbow. It had a metal limbs and a sinew string. The thing looked like it would take an industrial press to cock it back. “This is a crossbow. All of you should get a racial bonus to firing them. We’ll make some time for range day in the future.” He set it down and took off his thick boots.

“For what I’m about to show you, I should be wearing soft boots. Bron, get some. You’ll need them for sneaking and for this.” Our combat arts teaching threw the crossbow across his back so it rested on the lanyard and reached up on the wall. He scurried up it like a spider. Once he was about ten feet up, he stopped and swung one arm and one leg out so half his body dangled over the air.

“This actually uses the Disable Device skill, so Bron, be sure and take that.” He grabbed the leather ring that hung on the front of the bow with his foot, then the sinew string with his hand. Goldo pulled, clearly using the muscles in his back and leg. And cocked the crossbow. He dropped a quarrel in it and shot a barrel.

That was amazing! We all cheered.