Chapter 15
From Toreas
Zara slapped the sword away with her own. It had nearly sliced into her side. She tried to stab the attacker in the leg and only pierced air as he stepped backwards and to the side.
Sweat was building on her skin. The attacker feigned twice, then swung his blade towards her chest again. She brought her blade up, blocked and pushed back, before the man could take a second swing at her.
She leaned to one side and got the desired effect. He attacked her thinking she was side stepping, instead she lowered her body a little and let the other blade glance off on hers. With new vigor, she used the opening, trying to stab her opponent. But the man moved a lot faster than she thought, whirled around and brought all his weight on her extended sword repelling it from her hand.
As the sword clattered loudly to the ground the attacker pointed his sword at her, the tip just a couple of finger widths away from her chest. She swallowed hard.
"I yield", the princess acknowledged.
Her opponent sheathed his sword then bowed slightly before her.
"You did very well today, princess. I think your father would be proud."
"That is too kind general. But very well wouldn't do against a real opponent."
The general nodded with approval.
"You are correct, princess, but then against a real opponent, who was truly attacking you, your mind would be different as well. Your body would find new strengths you didn't know you had. A real fight is always different. And I sometimes have the feeling you are just taking it lightly on an old man such as me."
An old man, yes, Zara thought to herself. But his grip felt like an iron band was wrapped around your hand and he was very fast and nimble for someone his age. His hair and beard both were short cropped and sprinkled with gray and white hairs between the black ones. He had a round, kind face, that smiled often in her presence and could produce surprisingly loud laughs at times. His built wasn't very tall, but he was lean and muscular.
"You are far from an old man, general Wellton. There are few who have your skill with the blade and I think it is you who is toying with me."
The man smiled at her.
"May your wit always be as sharp as your sword princess," he said, bowing deeply.
She gave him a respectful nod in return. Placing the swords back on the rack, they left the otherwise really barren training room and returned to the more richly decorated hallways of the castle. Their boots made faint clacking sounds on the stone.
"My father is going ahead with his plans to attack the southern kingdoms, isn't he general?"
"I'm afraid so, princess. He feels that if they grow so bold as to kidnap you, he needs to show them strength or they would just terrorize the country side."
"But they already do that, general. Eric told me how our patrols are very ineffective in the south."
The general looked at her from the side.
"I have heard such rumors, but I'm sorry princess, who is that Eric you speak of?"
"He.. He is the man who brought me back here."
"My apologies princess. I heard about it, but I was not privy to the mans name. Tragically how he tried escaping and killed himself in the process."
She sighed.
"I don't know why he would kill himself like this. Father was angry and wanted to throw him in the dungeons, but I'm sure he would have seen reason if I had the time to talk to him. If the worst happened, he might have spent the night in a cell. His reaction, his flight and his suicide all makes no sense to me general."
"Some people, princess, are fighters. They believe in freedom and will fight to the death to preserve it. From what I heard that was what your acquaintance was. He escaped four seasoned guards inside the throne room, broke down the door, escaped the grasp of two more guards outside, jumped over roofs and walls and defeated another patrol on the walls. Although my swordsmanship is good, I doubt I could have repeated that same feat, even if I had a few less years to my name. He might have killed many people if he wouldn't have been stopped at the harbor."
"Soldiers are trained to kill, not injure, am I right, general?"
"Yes princess, that is what all soldiers are being taught."
"How come that, although you think him a fighter, he had not killed one of your men in the process, where he clearly had the opportunity and possibly the skill. I've seen him kill a scout with throwing knives while he was bearing down on him with a horse. Some guards in his way would not have been insurmountable to him I'd think. It would also have been easier for him to just throw a guard off the wall, yet he didn't, why?"
"That is indeed a conundrum, princess."
"Faced with the same situation, how would you have reacted?"
"I would have submitted to the Kings rule."
"But if you had run, would you have killed someone?"
The general was thinking hard about the question, the thumb on his right hand played over the knob of his sheated sword.
"If my goal was to escape, I would not have been concerned with the lives of the men on the wall. He could have easy pushed one off, or use the sword after he disarmed one of them, yet he chose not to. If it was me up on that wall, yes, men would have died that night."
"I think he did not want to hurt anyone. He just wanted to do as he said, leave and nothing else. I should have listened to him."
She looked down.
"I have been ungrateful to the man who rescued me, escorted me safely back home and then I even caused his death. This is a shame I can never correct i my entire life. With his body washed out to sea, we can't even bury him."
"That is odd, now that you mention it, princess."
She looked up.
"What's odd, general?"
"The currents around the harbor wash anything around it to the beach near the city. Patrols go through there every morning to see if some drunk might have fallen into the ocean at night. We have only found one body in all that time and that was a very old man."
Zara blinked at the general. What she heard took a moment to sink in.
"You are saying he could have survived the jump?"
"I wouldn't know princess, but if he would have died in the waters near the harbor that evening, he would have washed up on the shore by morning. We had last year a time when a couple kids were washed up, terrible sight that was. Some form of courage test among the street rats I think. They scaled the northern gate tower and jumped off the wall into the ocean. Some made it, but two did not jump far enough."
Their path took them outside to one of the larger gardens. It was a nice day, with a lot of sun, but the temperature was clearly dropping fast. She decided to sit down on a bench in the sun and enjoy the little bit of warmth she could before the winter would come. The genral placed himself next to her with respectful distance.
"But you have to consider more things than just the jump, princess. My men were guarding the shores and harbor all night, so his only option was to either swim into the rivers strong pull and be lost at sea, or swim north. But north are a lot of cliffs and rocks, he would have to be sure to not get crushed against them or be pulled out to sea too much, all in the dark night and not very calm sea. Should he have made it far enough north, he would arrive at the swamps. There are very dangerous things in there princess. You know the stories yourself about something living in there that kills anyone daring to venture deeper into the swamp. And going around it entirely would take days. He has no water or food, which would then have been his doom at that point."
She looked down at the leaves on the ground. The general was right. He might have survived the jump but no matter where he went from there, he would die for certain.
"I'm sorry princess to tell you all this, but I don't want you to get any wrong hope. No matter if he survived the jump or not, by now he must have perished or we would have captured him again."
The leaves were still hanging on the trees when they had arrived here. She felt inside like them, dead, crumpled on the cold ground. But something inside her was sparked. He could have made it. He could have.
"Thank you general, you have been very kind to me. I don't want to take up more of your valuable time."
The older man smiled.
"You know I enjoy the company of such a pretty young woman as you, princess. My time is fully at your disposal."
She smiled slightly.
"I doubt father would see it the same way."
"Yes, the king might have a different opinion on that I would think. But none the less, is there anything I can do for you?"
She thought about it. There was one thing.
"Could you send a patrol north, around the swamp? Just a small one to see if he might have made it that far. I really would at least like to give him a proper burial if that was possible."
"Certainly. I will send a few of my best scouts immediately. If he went that way, they will find him."
"Thank you general. Good day."
He stood up and saluted.
"And a good day to you as well princess."
With strong fast steps the general walked away from her, making crunching sounds in the gravel with his boots. It sounded like Eric's boots when they were crossing the sea plain. She clearly remembered the sound the white salt crust had made, crunching under his heel once in a while.
Her mind whirled by all the general had said. Chances were against Eric. But then they had been when he attacked and killed her kidnappers, when they evaded the mercenaries on horseback and when they made it over the plain, through the river and back to the castle. If somebody could beat those chances again, it would be him.
The general did not believe Eric to be alive and had a large number of compelling arguments. She could not give up that easy though. Now she had a glimmer of hope.
She decided then and there, as the wind rustled through the drying leaves, that Eric was still alive. He was somewhere out there and she would find him and reward him in a proper way. And if it just was returning the bundle of clothes she had hidden in her room. Yes that was it, a debt of honor she had to repay him. It had nothing to do with the slight flutter in her stomach or the warmth spreading through her chest when she thought of him. No, it wasn't that at all.
