Inaba names a ridiculously low figure, and I shake my head. “Every workman deserves his due. That is not nearly your due. I am not familiar with your style of weapons or armor, but even so, it’s clear to me that all of you are worth far more than that. I will not see you shipped home in crates in the cargo hold. The amount you named will scarcely cover even that. Let me offer you what I can.”
Inaba considers this and nods, so I make my offer. “We will buy each of you a horse, which you can sell in Varpua or whatever port you decide to leave from, when the time comes. While you are here, you will be under my roof and have room and board. The one hundred fifty ducats you mention will be your monthly allowance for incidentals. There will be things that you will want or need that you can buy for yourselves from that. Since my wedding seems to be turning into an official political event here, your fee will be a thousand ducats per month, and you will stay until at least one month after the wedding.
Inaba leans back and studies me. “That is generous,”
I smirk. “I suspect that I am still undervaluing you. By quite a lot, unless I miss my guess. I doubt I could have found more capable protectors anywhere else in this place.”
Laughing, Inaba agrees. “If the fighting men we have seen so far are any indication, you are quite right. You will forgive me for saying this, but the men you travel with now seem…lackluster.”
Sighing, I nod. “I tend to keep my thoughts on that to myself, but I will be schooling Lord Kenric since he’s one of the few men here willing to listen to me.”
Inaba nods thoughtfully, “I think you will be well worth serving, Lady. You have dealt with us fairly so far. We accept your offer, with one condition. Hagiwara wants to get you into a ring right away, as that’s the easiest way to settle Yoshi’s and Usami’s doubts about you.”
Smiling, I nod in agreement. “Let me tell Kenric what we’ve agreed to, and I’ll see if I can set that up. Just don’t be too surprised at how I arrange it.”
Inaba looks intrigued as I explain to Kenric what the agreement involves. Kenric agrees without hesitation.
“A horse each and only a thousand a month for all of them? It does solve the problem of what to do until you can get your ladies in place. Easily done. I’d gladly spend that on you, and your ladies will likely cost just as much since I have to cover their clothing allowance while we’re stuck at court."
With Kenric’s agreement, I turn back to Inaba. A flick of my wrist, and we’re inside a bubble. Kenric is included in the bubble, as is the Sergeant. I gesture for the Sergeant to join us. Inaba nods. “Your warning about magic applies to you, too, does it not?”
I nod. “Anyone on the outside will only see us talking. I stay somewhat aware of what’s happening, and if they call for any of us, I can drop the bubble.”
Inaba nods at this explanation. “And your armor and weapons?”
I flick my wrist, and my frilly dress disappears, replaced by my armor. I flick my wrist again and raise my shield. I look at Inaba and Oshida. “Any advice?”
Oshida rattles something off to Inaba. “This is why you are not overly concerned about your weaponry. You can summon it. That must be very convenient.”
I nod, and Inaba relays the comments from Oshida. “Oshida says to tell you that this is not like a regular practice. He will try to best you, and he expects you to try to best him.”
I draw Lantecari and begin to sing. Since I don’t really want to kill this man, and we do not sing dirges for the living, I pick an old ballad. It’s about an older man looking back on all the things he regrets in his life. I prowl toward Hagiwara, observing him. He still hasn’t drawn his weapon. I stop and observe him for a moment. I wanted to see his sword since it’s a type I’m not familiar with.
That would give me a better idea of what counters and other tools I can use against it safely. No matter. I’ve fought plenty of unfamiliar opponents before. This time won't be any different. I prowl forward a little more. He moves quickly, drawing his sword and aiming a downward stroke at me, which I block. We push back and forth as he tries, for a few moments, to disarm me. He swiftly backs up and comes in with a swipe, which I dodge. I feint to my left but shift to my right, dodging another downward strike. I jab with my own sword as he moves past me, and Lantecari skitters across the lacquered surface of his armor.
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He spins swiftly and executes a double downward strike. I block the first with Lantecari, and the second hits my shield. He retreats, and we circle each other for a moment. Suddenly, he lunges forward again with another downward blow. I block it with my shield and swing Lantecari at his side. It bites into his armor but almost gets stuck. I yank it free with a strong pull, then duck and roll to dodge another strike from Hagiwara. I roll to my feet and push him back with my shield.
He’s forced back a few steps, and this seems to surprise him. I decide I need to seize the offensive. I start raining down strikes designed to keep him off balance and force him to keep parrying them. I am blazing fast, even by Fey standards. I can sense he’s tiring and won’t be able to maintain this pace much longer. Finally, he raises his hand and says something to Inaba. Inaba laughs. “He says you can stop now. You’ve made your point. Usami makes a most humble and abject apology for doubting you. Yoshida says that if you wanted to leave this place and join us, he would welcome you as a companion.”
I nod in acceptance. I salute Hagiwara and sheathe Lantecari before bowing to him formally. He drops to one knee, bows his head, and offers his sheathed sword with flattened hands. I pause for a moment, trying to decipher what he’s offering me. I believe I understand, so I reach out and guide his hands around his sword. His head snaps up, and I smile at him. His eyes widen slightly in surprise, but he nods. He quickly stands, returning his sword to its place in the sash around his waist.
He snaps a smart salute, and Inaba laughs. “That was well done. He has accepted you as his commander. He offered you his life, and you have returned it to him.”
I nod. “I had assumed that. My own people do something similar. There are sixteen of us still alive with whom I share a similar bond. We fought together during the border wars in the same war band.”
Inaba considers this and passes it on to the others. “Where did you learn? Who taught you?”
Sighing, I nod. “We taught each other. Our king was notoriously cheap about everything, including our training. One of the neighboring war bands was assigned a male who was the son of a palace guard. His father taught him before he was conscripted. He then taught the rest of us much of what we were missing. After that, we looked for anyone who could teach us something. Whatever useful knowledge any of us gained was shared with the rest. Because of my size, I had to adapt much of it, but it works, at least for me.”
Inaba nods, “Adapting it to your smaller size was a smart choice. You don’t like to talk about these wars or your companions. Why?”
I grimace. “The things we fought against still haunt me. There were four hundred and eighteen of us when we were conscripted, and only eleven are left alive.”
Inaba tilts his head. “Things? Not men?”
I laugh bitterly. “I wish they had been men. It would’ve been easier. No, they were things. Things that resembled big cats, but walked on two legs and had extra arms, casting spells. Things that looked like dogs but breathed smoke and fire, and their bites burned. Things that looked like a cross between a giant grasshopper and a scorpion, dripping ice. Things are the best way I can describe them.”
Inaba nods and asks a question. “How do you kill such things?”
I sigh but explain. “Mostly by taking their heads off. A few had to be burnt to ash or doused with acid until they dissolved, but mostly it was cut off the head. Sometimes, with the things we fought, the trick was finding the head or even all the heads. Be sure to remember that if you ever encounter anything like that. Otherwise, they come back, even angrier.”
One of the others asks a question, and Inaba turns back to me. “Oshida wants to know if you always sing when you fight.”
That is a good question, a better one than perhaps Oshida realizes.
I launch into my explanation. “You probably won’t like the story much better than my friend Mirthal does. He hates my sword and despises that I continue carrying it. I feel the need to sing every time I wield it.”
I tell them the story of the scorpion-like creatures, losing my own sword, and running until I found the cave. Once I found the cave, I needed to rest for a bit because I’d been running for a long time. I ducked inside to hide and rest, and I found Lantecari.
I describe finding the sword beside the bones, asking permission to take it, and stepping out to face those creatures, feeling an overwhelming urge to sing a dirge. While I’m talking to Inaba, I reach over to repair Hagiwara’s armor and heal him. He was standing there, patiently bleeding. These men are a marvel of training and discipline. They’re worth a thousand times what we’re paying them. Inaba translates all this, and some are frowning and muttering among themselves as they discuss it.
Hagiwara glances down, touches his side, and looks at me before bowing his head in acknowledgment. Inaba asks to see my blade, so I unsheathe it and hold it out flat across my palms. They cluster around, examining it. One of them wants to flip it over, so I turn it so they can see the other side of the blade and hilt. I have never seen anything like Lantecari, and no swordsmith or arms dealer I’ve shown it to has either. I have no idea how long it was in that cave or why it survived when almost everything else, except the bones, did not.
These strange warriors chatter among themselves and finally seem to agree. Inaba gestures for me to sheath it, which I do. “We think your blade is either blessed or cursed, or maybe both. We think that your urge to sing is part of this and might be connected to the man you found it with. Why does your friend Mirthal hate this sword?”
Sighing heavily, I chuckle and roll my eyes a bit. “Mirthal believes many strange things. He’s quite superstitious. He likes to sprinkle salt everywhere and won’t sleep until he can turn in a clockwise circle three times. I can’t fault him for it, since he’s one of the eleven of us that still survive, but much of it seems like nonsense to me. He was there, in our camp, when I came staggering in from my mad two-day run. He was horrified that I’d taken up a dead man’s blade and used it. He was even more horrified that I’d brought it back instead of leaving it where I found it. He’s hated it ever since.”
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