“Thanks,” he said, glancing back over at him. “Should we practice more?”
They played keep-away a few more times, Jerah making it progressively more difficult. He started by making Florian unable to move; then Florian was unable to see the figurine; then Jerah even prevented him from speaking entirely.Thathad been especially difficult to break, and in the end it felt as if he were just brute forcing his way through it, trying to press his magic through a mouth that was clamped shut.
When he finally seemed to break through it, there had been a painful, tearing sensation in his lips, as if they had been stitched together and he had ripped through the threads. Though he pressed his hand to his mouth with a yelp, there was no blood, nor any evidence that he'd been physically harmed.
“You alright?” Jerah asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow. “I'm surprised you broke through that. Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you.”
“Well, it hurt,” Florian groaned, still checking his mouth to see if he was bleeding. Though his hand came away clean, his lips still tingled uncomfortably. “How else was I supposed to deal with it?”
“Truthfully, I wasn't sure if you'd be able to at all,” Jerah said, and Florian glanced up at him with a glowering look. “No, I'm serious. A silencing hold like that is tricky to break through even for those who are trained in magic. How did you get around it?”
“I don't know,” he said, shaking his head. “It felt like just... strong-arming it, I guess. Just forcing it through until it broke.”
“Interesting,” Jerah said, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Interesting. Well, I don't want to use up too much of your energy. Kade should be expecting you down in the courtyard soon.”
“Right,” Florian stammered, but truthfully he'd nearly forgotten. “What time is it?”
“You'll have just enough time to grab lunch if you'd like,” Jerah answered, grinning. “But I wouldn't dawdle if I were you.”
Florian hurried down to the dining hall, where a small charcuterie spread with different cheeses, meats, breads, and fruits had been set out. He threw together a little sandwich and ate it as he walked through the castle and out into the courtyard, starting to feel nervous again. He had no idea what to expect from Kade now. Would they fight as wolves? Or would he be using a sword, like the one he'd carried on his back when they were traveling? From the size of it, he wasn't sure if he could evenlifta sword like that, much less hit Kade with it.
When he arrived in the Moon Garden, Kade was already there, sitting on one of the benches with two wooden poles in his lap. He glanced up as Florian approached and got to his feet before tossing one of the poles at Florian, who barely managed to catch it.
“Right on time,” he said, eyeing Florian. “We're starting with the basics. Do you have any kind of combat training? Martial arts?”
“Not really,” Florian replied nervously, looking down at the pole. Now that it was in his hand, he could see there was a slight curve to it and a sort of handle with a rougher texture than the rest of the wood. Clearly it was meant to be a wooden training sword—there were no sharp edges, but he could tell from the weight that a hit from it would still be quite painful. “I mean, I took a few karate lessons when I was little, but I don't really remember any of it.”
“Any sports?”
Florian laughed at that. “No, I've never been much of an athlete. The closest would have been when I did track in high school.”
“So you know how to run,” Kade said flatly, and Florian laughed again, though he was unsure if he had meant to make a joke or not.
“Run away, maybe,” he agreed, more to himself than to Kade.
“Don't sell yourself short,” Kade said. Florian frowned, flushing slightly with embarrassment. “Stamina is just as important as strength. There's no use trying to hit someone with a sword if you can't swing it more than a few times.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Florian said. Kade looked at him for a moment, his expression unreadable. He had no idea what to expect.
Finally, Kade broke the lingering silence, clearing his throat.
“We'll start with a few basic guards,” he said. “You'll need to know how to defend yourself more than anything else. Jerah and I can handle most of the fighting.”
“I want to be able to fight too,” Florian protested, frowning. Did they really think he wouldn't be able to pick it up?
“You will,” Kade said flatly, nodding. “But you need to know how to protect yourself, first.”
Florian scowled. It felt childish to continue protesting, but somehow he felt like his pride was wounded. “Fine,” he sighed, gripping the wooden sword harder. “What are the guards?”
“I'll show you four different forms,” Kade said, taking a step away from him. “We can practice those for a while, and once you've gotten them down, I'll show you four more. First an upper block. Use both hands.” He demonstrated, lifting the sword above his head so it made a straight horizontal line above him. Both of his hands clenched the handle with an iron grip; looking at them so closely, Florian could see they were calloused and scarred. Florian mirrored him, lifting it above his own head.
“Like this,” Kade started, stepping toward him only to stop with his hands hesitating in the air between them. “Is it alright if I touch you? To correct your form.”
Florian felt his face burn with heat at the question. But it was perfectly innocent, he told himself quickly; and if he didn’t learn it right the first time, it would be much harder to fix later down the line.
“Yeah, that's fine,” he stammered, the words coming out in a flood that only made him more embarrassed. But Kade seemed totally unfazed, nodding once before taking a slower step toward him.
From his size and strength, Florian had expected him to be rough—to pull him hard or grip him tightly. But Kade's fingers on him were feather-light, closing around his shoulders and exerting only enough pressure to pull them back, before moving to his elbows and giving them a gentle push to lift and straighten them slightly. Somehow, Florian thought, the gentleness wasworse, creating a sense of intimacy that was certainlynotwhat Kade intended.
