AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It worked!”
I arched an eyebrow. “Of course it did.”
“Hey, who do you think you are, mate?” the defeated soldier bellowed and he brushed himself off as he straightened, looming above me.
I wasn’t a short man, but this brute towered over me as if I were.
I smirked and shrugged. “Just a curious observer.”
Not far away, one of my High Cliff soldiers who’d been standing among the crowd of spectators snorted under his breath.
“A curious observer who just gave my opponent an unfair advantage,” the brute snarled.
I glanced toward the man he’d fought. Then I returned my gaze to him and pleasantly offered, “I’d be more than happy to give you a few pointers too, if you’d like.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Think you’re all that, do you, preppy pants?”
Preppy pants? I glanced down at my trousers. Huh. They were actually the least pretentious pair I owned. When I lifted my face, I shrugged. “I think I know my way around a sword fight, is all.”
“Then, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and give it a go with me, eh, mate?”
“Sounds fair enough.” Stepping forward and rolling my shoulders, I entered the fighting ring, suddenly eager for a brawl.
I needed to beat the hell out of someone. I needed it badly.
“Get him a sword,” my antagonist called.
But I lifted my hand, answering, “No need. I’ll just take yours from you… Mate.”
He smirked, shaking his head. “Ah, now you’re just getting cocky, boy. But have it your way.”
Drawing his sword back to lunge at me, he began to run full bore in my direction before he swung with all his might, directly at my head. I ducked and leapt nimbly out of the way, causing him to stumble into the catcalling soldiers watching us.
A couple men caught him before he landed face-first into the dirt. When they swung him around to face me, he straightened himself with a foul curse, no longer amused. Chest heaving as his anger exploded across his features, he roared out his battle cry and once again came at me with everything he had.
This time, when I jumped out of his way, I turned to plant my boot in his ass as he passed, ensuring he went straight to the dirt before anyone could catch him. I had his sword in my hand a moment later and was holding its blade flush against his throat. I could tell when he swallowed; his Adam’s apple pushed against the steel length.
Slowly, his gaze lifted to mine.
I grinned and pulled the sword away congenially. “That was delightful. Fancy another round?”
“How the hell did you do that?” he asked, amazed, as he took my hand when I offered him help back to his feet.
When I explained to him what he’d done wrong, he simply scratched his head. “Huh. I never noticed I did that.”
“Well, now you do. And that one…” I pointed back to the first soldier I’d given pointers to. “Can’t keep track of his feet. If you make him circle and move enough, he’ll trip himself up and go down without a single strike from you.”
From that po
int on, pretty much every man present wanted me to either watch their fighting strategy and give them advice, or they wanted to try to best me themselves.
It was a long, satisfying afternoon, winning every round I participated in and instructing the willing students. Sweat soaked my clothes, and my body felt worked over hard.
I blew out a gratified breath during one water break and rested my hands on my knees before squinting up at the position of the sun in the sky. Then I grumbled and dumped the last of the ladle-full of water a page had handed me straight over my head before I straightened and announced, “Thanks for the fun, fellows. But I best be going. The queen gets her nose all out of joint when I’m late to supper.” I rolled my eyes to let them know what I thought of that, but they were too busy ogling me to respond.
Finally, the first big brute I’d fought said, “What do you mean, the queen? You honestly think you’re having supper with the queen, do you? Just who are you, anyway, mate?”
“Oh!” Realizing I’d never properly identified myself, I bowed to the soldier, grinning when I straightened. “Sorry about that. Urban Bjorn at your service.”
