"I want the female to go against Mardis." The High Commander was pushing his agenda, now.
"Liss, are you sure?" Solis asked again.
"Most definitely," I nodded. Mardis deserved to die. He wasn't expecting to do anything other than kill whoever came against him and then hand total control of both armies to the High Commander. He had his sights set on Solis, who was the General's best swordsman.
"Bring Mardis," the High Commander smiled. Torches were brought, as was Mardis, and a fighting square was set by placing a torch in each corner. We had to stay in that area to fight. I was learning the High Commander's rules—if you stepped outside the square, you were declared the loser and beheaded as a coward. He had some fucked up rules, all right.
Solis, Cordus and Desmun all pulled me aside to talk to the General. "I'm not familiar with your skills, Liss, and I am placing my trust in you over this," he said softly. "If you are able, take him down swiftly."
"How fast do you want this to be?" I asked.
"As fast as possible." The General wasn't comfortable with this, I could tell. I could see the concern in his face, and that surprised me. The concern wasn't for what this might do to his command if I lost—the concern was for me.
"I'll make it fast," I nodded. Solis walked with me to the edge of the square. Mardis, wearing trousers only, was already inside the fighting square. He made quite a show of flexing bare arms and shoulders. Well, if there was a bigger asshole on Vionn, I hadn't met him yet.
I drew both my blades and checked them over, just to have something to do. "Think you to frighten me with two?" Mardis snorted. I didn't answer him. I was tempted to launch into a diatribe over what filth and scum he was, and that wouldn't do. Dragon and the other Falchani let their blades do the talking. Mine were about to sing.
"On my signal," the High Commander stood on the perimeter of the fighting square, as did the General and the Captains from both sides. I watched Mardis. There was no way I wanted any surprises from this asshole. I watched his left hand (which was gloved and clenched), and then noted where he was standing, extrapolating the movement he'd have to make if he threw something in my eyes. Yeah—he was a jerk on top of being an asshole. A deadly jerk.
The High Commander shouted and Mardis moved swiftly to fling his handful of pepper flakes, but not swiftly enough. I had enough time to close my eyes against the pepper he'd tossed in my face, but his head was already severed. I stood there, sneezing violently as our audience watched Mardis go to his knees and then topple over, his head rolling out of the fighting square.
I was led away between Solis and Desmun, still sneezing, my eyes watering from the pepper flakes that clung to my skin. I'd sheathed my blades, but I'd have to clean them when I could see properly again.
"Here," Solis handed a small towel that he'd drenched in water to me.
"The calf-brained idiot planned this," Desmun swore and paced along one wall of Solis' tent.
"More than likely with the High Commander's blessing," Solis agreed quietly. "Keep your voice down, Desmun. Do you want the spies to hear?" Solis watched me as I blinked; I was finally seeing better after washing my face twice. The sneezing had stopped, thankfully.
"Who taught you how to fight with blades?" Solis asked when things settled down and Desmun's curses had softened.
"My father-in-law," I answered honestly. If I'd done things my way, I'd have gone to mist, those pepper flakes would have gone right through and my claws would have severed Mardis' head.
"You're married." Solis said it flatly.
"Yes. Is that a problem?" My answer caused Solis to look up at Desmun.
"I'll never tell," Desmun muttered. "I've never seen anything like that. Those skills don't need to be hidden away in the home."
"Were you not aware that married females aren't supposed to join the army?" Solis was grinning at me, now.
"Had no idea. If it becomes a problem, though, just let me know. There are other things I can do." I could go to the opposition, to sit and wait for everybody to clash together before I made my final decision.
"I don't think I want you anywhere except right where you are," Desmun said. Solis nodded in agreement.
"We may move you over to the General, though," Solis said. "Warn, his bodyguard is good, but he's not the best. I can trade off and take Warn for mine. Shouldn't be a problem."
"Message for Captain Solis," a runner stood outside our tent. Desmun went to pull back the tent flap, inviting the young man inside. He handed the rolled-up scroll to Solis, who broke the seal.
"The General is thinking the same thing," Solis said, standing up and stretching. He and I had been sitting on the two campstools he had inside the tent. "Come on, Liss, you'll be guarding the General from now on. Mind you, if he isn't kept safe, you'll answer to me." I gathered up my things and followed Solis and Desmun from the tent, the nearly forgotten runner trailing behind us.
"Warn, I trust you don't mind acting as bodyguard to Captain Solis," the General said.
"Of course not, sir," Warn dipped his head to the General.
"Take your things to my tent," Solis said, and Warn nodded to him as well before leaving to gather his belongings.
"Desmun, go out and see what the Regulars are saying about Mardis' death. I want to know if there are any rumors we need to dampen," the General ordered. Desmun nodded and left the tent. "I'd like to know what Red Hand is saying as well, but they've tightened their perimeters and we can't get a single spy through right now," the General raked a hand through his hair with a sigh. "Now, young woman, I want to know where it is you learned to fight like that."
"Her father-in-law taught her," Solis grinned.
"Laws were made to be ignored, eh?" The General laughed.
"I think I might be able to sneak over, if you really want to know what Red Hand is saying," I told Solis and the General.
"Liss, that could cost you your life and I wouldn't be able to stop them if they caught you," the General said. "Maybe in a night or two, when things have settled down. They have spies, I have spies. It's a terrible world when you can't trust your allies, isn't it?"
"Allies," Solis snorted. "This is the cat inviting the tiger to help him hunt the mouse. It's not just the mouse in danger, here." I felt the same way, but I wasn't about to voice my opinion and I wondered why these two were suddenly discussing everything so freely in front of me.
"We have a weapon against you, should you turn against us," the General smiled grimly. "You can be put to death for enlisting as a married woman."
"Oh, that's just lovely," I muttered. Well, if they tried to kill me, they might have some angry Larentii to contend with, not to mention an angry Lissa.
"You'll be all right, Liss," Solis patted me on the back and stood up. "I'm not looking forward to Warn's snoring." He yawned as he walked out of the tent.
"Get some sleep, Liss. We'll be up early tomorrow." The General stood as well. I nodded and left his portion of the tent, going out to my front section. At least it was bigger than what I'd had with Solis, but I didn't have very much to fill it, anyway. That night, I placed a larger shield around us and included the officers' tents, after checking all of them for any sign of taint. One bodyguard was missing when he should have been inside the tent, but after Looking, I found him with one of the camp followers, having a good time. I withdrew quickly—didn't want to see more of that than I had to.
* * *
If the High Commander was surprised by my sudden appearance at the General's elbow at breakfast the next morning, he didn't show it. He just kept eating at his table with two of his Captains. I tasted my morning tea and grimaced.
"Something wrong?" The General had laugh lines around his eyes. He looked to be in his mid-forties, with slightly graying brown hair and green eyes. He was straight and fit, though, and I figured he'd earned his rank.
"This tastes like mud," I grimaced again. I don't know what kind of tea the General liked—they'd served me the same thing and expected me to like it. Solis liked his tea lighter and it was palatable, at least.
"The stronger the better," the General smiled wider and sipped his tea.
"Whatever you say, sir," I shuddered and set my cup down with a thump. He laughed. Solis, Desmun and Captain Nord came in to sit with us and they were served better tea, I just knew it. Warn was with Solis, Desmun's bodyguard, Maks, was right behind him, and Nord's bodyguard, Ander, was at his elbow.
"I think you grew two heads and four arms after last night," Desmun said, looking at me. I was trying to chew the bacon I'd been served—I think the pig was at least a hundred years old before he died and then they didn't butcher him for days after that. It was the toughest bacon I'd ever had.
"I don't think my blades would cut this stuff," I set the slice of bacon on my wooden plate with a sigh.
"You'll get terrible food for a few days; I had to send the cooks back to the castle in chains last night," Cordus came over and sat down, his bodyguard, Gus, with him. "They'd been paid off by Red Hand spies."
I wondered what Red Hand had paid them to do, other than listen to the General's conversations with his Captains over breakfast, but like the other bodyguards, I kept my mouth shut. All the bodyguards were kept out of the General's tent later while he had a private conference with the Captains. The other two Captains, Blade and Grip, had shown up, finally. They could be excused for being late, though—they'd been up part of the night with the Sergeants, quelling a disturbance or two among the Regulars.
"I hope I don't have to tell you not to let him down," Warn was in front of me suddenly while I was watching The Red Hand troops, who were camped just north of us. The High Commander was sending a couple of men away on horseback. That made me frown. "Look at me when I'm talking to you," Warn demanded, jabbing a finger in my chest.