Swaying backwards, Linara barely dodged the sharpened tip of Rilren's blade as it sliced through the air where her face used to be. Carrying the momentum of the motion, she fell over backwards, placing her hands on the ground, still holding her spear, bent her arms, and then pushed. Propelling herself forward, she flew feet first through the short distance separating her from her opponent. Rilren took her full body kick on his shield, stumbling backwards as she bounced off and landed on her feet.
Gone were the blunted weapons of her sparring lessons with Senral. The dirt field, now cleared of the wooden passage, held a spectacle. Linara, Hatharen Envoy, the Crown Prince's personal armsmaster and trainer, squared off against Rilren, the Captain of the Knights. Both wore full armor and held real weapons – Linara her spear and Rilren his sword and shield.
Experimentally flexing his shield arm, Rilren stood up again, pointing his sword towards Linara. The man could not match her in height, but his combat prowess kept her moving, forcing her to come up with new ways to deal with every attack he threw at her. Slowly, confidently, he strode forward, his eyes locked on hers. Linara poked lightly with her spear, straight forward, pulling the weapon back right before he could slap it aside with his shield. Rilren did not attempt to intercept it, instead walking forward as Linara stepped back after her unsuccessful feint.
She tried again, putting more force into the attack, but still pulling back at the last moment, and Rilren still ignored it, walking forward as she took another step back. She immediately did another thrust, stopping in the same place as before, but instead of pulling back she swung upwards, rushing forward with the other end of her spear. Rilren reacted to this, raising his shield and pulling his sword back, ready to block and make a counterattack.
When the butt of her spear made contact with his shield, the blow connected at an angle, instead of head-on, sliding along the curved surface of the shield instead of bouncing off. Linara followed through, slipping to the open space to Rilren's left side as he pushed the shield against her, turning as they passed with his sword raised to strike.
At that moment she spun, facing her back towards him and bringing the bladed end of the spear around to strike at him on his right side. He barely managed to adjust his swing to block the blow, but the last second adjustment hit at an angle that ripped the sword from his hand. He quickly recovered his balance, stepping away and bringing his shield up, but Linara did not follow, standing still with her foot on his sword, smiling.
The onlookers erupted to cheers and applause. The majority of them were regular soldiers from the army, with a sparse sprinkling of city and palace guards, and even a trio of Rilren's knights. The two fighters bowed towards each other, and then Linara picked up and returned the fallen weapon. The two of them walked off the field, into the shaded area at the side. A pair of soldiers stepped out, bowed towards each, and started maneuvering for advantage.
“Do you have any idea what the princess has planned for you tomorrow?”
“Not a single hint.” Linara smiled back at the question. “I think it will be exciting.”
“Confident?” He asked.
She smiled, but did not answer. Rilren rolled his eyes. “Is the king really going to step down?” She asked.
Rilren nodded. “You didn’t know him before. The Queen’s passing changed him. He sticks to his duty, but you can tell he wants to get away from it. Letting Prince Senral take the throne makes sense for him. Do you think he isn’t ready?”
“It isn’t my place to say. My people do not have kings.”
“You are respected by everyone here. You’ve trained the prince and you know him better than anyone else.”
Letting out a breath, Linara nodded. “With the right people around him, he’ll do fine.”
“And our queen to be?”
“I don’t have a high opinion of her.”
Rilren frowned, but didn’t press further.
The Royal Wedding involved a lot of fanfare. Olentor’s Palace grounds were filled with wooden constructions adorned with colored cloth. Flags and banners of both Olentor and Wellant were everywhere Linara looked. Human industry shocked her. Toys, food, trinkets, and various other good were hawked at visitors and residents. The people of the city surrounding the castle were joined in attendance by villagers from all over Olentor, as well as the citizens of Wellant, eager to see the final step in formalizing the alliance between the two countries.
After a brief tour of the overly crowded outside, Linara retreated back into the castle, readying herself in her own room. As she tightened the straps on her breastplate, she heard the sliding of a door behind her. Turning, she found Senral leaning against the side of the formerly hidden passageway, smiling at her. She gave him a pointed look.
“Am I not allowed to visit my personal trainer before she goes to duel for her position?”
“Is that all this is? You are going to be married today, and you are alone with another woman.”
Senral made a show of pouting, but then met her eyes with a serious look. “Are you going to lose on purpose? To give yourself a reason to leave?”
“I have never lost a fight, and I don’t intend to lose this one. I said I will evaluate my prospective replacement. My standards are high, but not impossible. If the applicant does well enough, they can have the job.”
“And you will leave, never to return.”
Linara nodded. Senral looked at her, his face going through several emotions. He didn’t try to hide anything with her. She could see the sadness, the desire to say something.
“I’ll miss you.”
Linara nodded, keeping her face blank, but then reconsidered. “I’ll miss you, Senral.”
The two of them stared at each other. Linara smiled slightly, and Senral pushed his lips together, as if trying to hold back words. He failed. “I wish it were you.”
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“So do I.”
He opened his mouth, ready to say something else, but then closed it. Nodding once, he turned and ducked back into the passage. The fake stone slid shut behind him, leaving Linara alone in her room once more. Picking up her Hatharen knife, she strapped it to her hip, then grabbed her spear. Soon, she would fight.
The roar of the crowd was deafening.
Linara’s practice duels were not a public affair, but word of them had slowly spread throughout the city, and from there the entire kingdom, during her years at the castle. The Hatharen warrior that never lost, not even to the captain of the knights. Stands had been erected around a large square arena, and the seats were packed. Inside the square was a platform raised knee-high, circular in shape, covered in dirt. Linara stepped onto it, standing in full view of the crowd as they shouted and cheered.
A second platform, even higher, jutted out from the stands. Princess Yenra walked out to even louder cheers, wearing a very uncharacteristic outfit. Rather than a long, flowing dress, a short skirt hung from her waist, showing off her armored boots. She wore two slightly oversized pauldrons on her shoulders, and that was the end of her armor. A golden piece of cloth wrapped around her torso, in stark contrast to the armor, leaving her cleavage exposed, as was typical. In her right hand she held a small shield, and in her left she held a short sword. Stepping to the very edge of the raised platform, she stared down at Linara, before pointing her sword at her and lifting her shield into the air. The crowd fell silent, watching.
“The current master of arms gave me a challenge: Find a man from my people capable of taking her place as the Prince’s personal trainer.” A few murmurs from the crowd met this statement. Yenra waited, holding her dramatic pose, letting them die down before continuing. “I searched far and wide in Wellant, searching not just for a master of weapons, but for someone who could defeat this supposedly unbeatable outsider.” She paused here, and yelling started. Smiling, Yenra took a more relaxed pose, looking out over the crowd. They quieted at this, letting her continue. She turned back to Linara. “Are you ready to see your challenge to a conclusion?”
“I am.” Linara spoke loudly, calmly, back, taking her place in the theatrics. “I see you came here prepared for a fight. Are you going to take the challenge to me yourself, Princess?”
The crowd roared. Yenra smiled down at Linara, and waited for silence. “Surely you are more eager to fight someone your own size, Master Linara. Your opponent today will be Edmon of Wellant, not a knight trained by knights, but a common man, of the people, who has fought battle after battle, and made himself into a master of weapons on his own terms.”
From behind her, a man stepped forward, wrapped in cloth with armored plates sewn in, a weapon in each hand. In his right hand held a short-handled axe, and in his left he held a broadsword. Vaulting off the princess’s dais, he landed on top of the circular arena across from Linara, as the crowd roared in approval.
Linara smiled at Edmon. The man’s face was heavily scarred, topped by a short cover of brown hair. He nodded back at her, giving the impression of a very serious individual putting up with the theatrics. He was here to fight.
“The two of you may fight until one yields. Please, start whenever you are ready.” Yenra called out. Edmon immediately stepped forward, moving aggressively but not committing to a swing with either weapon, ready to parry any attempt Linara made at intercepting his approach.
Instead of stopping him, Linara stepped to the side, circling him as he moved closer and closer to her. When he finally made his move, they were both close to the side, allowing Linara to dodge sideways, towards the center. Once there, she swung her weapon, the spear swiping through the space where Edmon stood as he moved backwards, stepping out of her range. He started circling her now, eyes locked on hers as he waited for an opening. Linara held the center of the ring, turning to study him as he stalked in a full circle around her. Finding no openings, he stepped forward again, slowly.
Linara jabbed at him with her spear, a quick, light thrust. Edmon slapped the strike aside with his sword, rushing forward while swinging his axe. Bringing her weapon in front of her, Linara used the haft of her spear to block the attack, catching the handle of the axe and pulling upwards, yanking the weapon out of his hands from the head. Edmon let go, moving to attack her at close distance with his sword. Linara shoved him away with the body of her weapon, separating them but losing her place in the center of the arena.
Both fighters started circling now, Edmon swapping his sword to his other hand, and then back, his eyes scanning Linara’s body. He was nervous now, she could see that. Trying to use two weapons to overpower her spear didn’t work out. She could easily end the fight now, or she could give the crowd a show. She thrust at him again, and Edmon parried the strike at the last moment, trying not to fall for any feint. Then Linara charged forward, ready to finish the duel with a powerful swing, designed to knock him down.
Something felt wrong. Edmon’s stance, his expression, his nervousness. It spoke of someone unused to being in this position. But his armor, his scars. Someone like that didn’t go through life without being outmatched at least once. He was too hesitant, rather than getting aggressive when put at a disadvantage he became more defensive, when he was already cautious to begin with. Almost as if-
Linara twisted, shifting the target of her swing from his chest to his leg. The maneuver cost her most of the force of the blow, but it did connect, despite Edmon moving at the last moment, turning his entire body into where the attack was supposed to be, raising his free hand and punching at where Linara’s face would have been.
Linara stepped away, trying to create distance between them, as Edmon charged forward, following her, attacking with both his empty fist and his sword. As the crowd roared in excitement, Linara dropped her spear to the dirt floor and drew her knife. The duel became frantic, blade against blade for a moment before Linara managed to disengage, finally putting some space between them.
Edmon smiled now, assuming a low stance, his sword held in front of him, ready to advance on her. The serious demeanor gone, raw aggression emanating from him instead. She realized she had fallen for his trick, almost enough to lose to him. The man was dangerous, in an entirely different way than any of her usual opponents.
She threw her knife at him.
Edmon looked surprised for a moment as the weapon flew past his face, flinching away from it saving him from losing an eye. That opening was all it took for Linara to kick her dropped spear upwards, grabbing it out of the air and swinging it at him. Instantly on the defensive, outside of his own effective range, and off-balance, Edmon quickly lost ground, blocking attack after attack as he was driven to the edge of the ring. Linara gave him no room to counterattack, finally ending the match by feinting a thrust at his head only to sweep his legs out from under him. As he hit the ground, he found the tip of her spear pressed against his neck.
“I yield.”
“I think he’ll be great.” Linara said. Yenra’s sour expression did not soften, but she nodded. The future queen still wore her impractical battle outfit as the two spoke in Linara’s room inside the castle.
“You are leaving, then?”
“I never wanted to stay.”
Nodding again, the princess turned and left Linara alone. As soon as the other woman left the room, she collapsed into a chair. Once the excitement from the duel wore off, Linara found herself more exhausted than any training session. She had been pushed to her limits, which she was finding were a lot lower than they used to be. Living in a posh castle had made her soft. She looked around the room, filled with things collected over the years. Clothes, furniture, jewelry, pens, stamps, a small collection of paintings, a single tapestry. As much as she hated the life she left behind in the Hatharen stronghold where she grew up, where she learned to fight, the decadence of human life made her feel a similar disgust.
Throwing a change of clothes into a sack, she stood up, grabbed her spear, and walked out the door.
Senral would miss her. She wanted to see him, to say goodbye to him, but at the same time she wanted so many other things. She wanted to ask him to come with her, more than anything else. The two of them could start a new life somewhere, with just each other to worry about, no kingdom, no royal bloodline, or any of that to worry about. She couldn’t ask that of him. It was better to just leave. To set out on her own, and find something else to do with her life.
Before she knew it, the castle was far behind her, and the world was in front of her.