Chapter 9 - Elementary My Dear Savate
“No one wishes to face a Mage on the field of combat. Even the weakest and least martially inclined can be a dangerous opponent. However, none of Her Eternal Majesty’s enemies can hope to stand up to the power of a true Battlemage. Their incomparable skill in the martial applications of magic allows them to devastate entire armies, or hunt down and defeat even the most powerful enemy magic users in single combat. If the Undying Queen’s armies are Her spear, Her Battlemages are its tip.”
Two Thousand Years of Empire by Jahangir Amini
=====
“What do you mean, my lady?” Ester felt wonderfully transgressive as she shrugged nonchalantly at Sergeant Etroan’s question.
“Well friends help their friends.” It was the sort of thing she’d heard people say in stories. She deliberately looked him over, letting her eyes linger on his armour. “Have you heard the stories about the Fists of the Throne?”
“Of course my lady.” She felt a wave of relief when Sergeant Etroan nodded. Everyone should know about them, but she’d been surprised enough times by Vass Karan. He seemed intrigued too, just where she wanted him. Ester couldn’t help the triumphant smile that spread across her face.
“Well perhaps we can help each other.” She paused, but he didn’t seem to have quite worked out what she was implying. “How would you like to have armour like theirs?”
The sergeant’s eyes widened. “You mean swords and spears would just bounce…” He hesitated and then spoke slowly, like he hardly believed it. “You can do that? My lady.”
“Yes. Probably.” She’d spent most of a day thinking about how to do it. Yet another frustrating omission from her education. Steel was difficult too, she’d never had to work with it at the Academy, but she’d heard enough. Still, she was fairly sure she could do that.
“So you’ll be wanting training in return for that?” He didn’t need to sound so resigned! It was a ridiculously good deal. Ester wasn’t sure how much her work would be worth, but she strongly suspected it would be measured in crowns not deniers. It was probably sensible of him to be cautious though, she was making this up as she went along after all and it wasn’t like she had much experience in general.
“I’m just saying that if you’d be willing to do me a favour then I’d feel obliged to do one for you too.” The sergeant gave her a long look and then sighed.
“I’m probably going to regret this.” He muttered the words and then spoke more loudly. “Fine. Fine… But there’s a condition, if you want me to train you then you need to act like a trainee. That means doing as you’re told, my lady.” Ester shrugged at that, she’d expected it. That was how being taught something dangerous worked after all.
“Of course. I know how to learn.”
“And don’t tell the Commander what you’re doing.” The sergeant hesitated, worry flashing across his face. “I don’t mean lie to him of course. If he asks and all. But maybe keep this between us unless he asks?” Ester forced herself to nod solemnly and not to giggle with nervous excitement.
“Not a word.”
“Alright…” He glanced up and then back at her. “I’m on patrol tomorrow. Come by the day after at dawn and we can get going.”
Ester nodded firmly, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach. It was actually happening! Then her mind caught up with what he’d said. “You’re on patrol tomorrow? Give me your breastplate.” It wasn’t like anything was likely to happen to him overnight, but she couldn’t quite get rid of the worry that he’d go and get himself killed right after she’d successfully negotiated their deal.
=====
Sergeant Etroan resisted the urge to goggle at the girl, no the Mage he reminded himself. “What, right now?”
“Yes, come on. You don’t need it to play cards do you?” She seemed to have switched from smug to commanding with no in between and he found himself unstrapping his breastplate almost without thinking.
As soon as he had it off she pointed at the table. “Put it there, yes perfect. Now, this might take me a little while. So… you might have to find a new table for your card game.” Her voice lost some of its confidence for a second, before it returned with a vengeance. “Don’t distract me while I’m doing this. You can watch if you keep quiet though”
Etroan was about to protest at the way she’d just taken away his armour and was ordering him around, but decided perhaps silence was a better idea. Who knew what madness she might cook up otherwise.
She stood over his breastplate, staring silently at it for a few seconds. Then she started to mutter. It all sounded like nonsense to Etroan, although he was sure it meant something very clever to Mages.
“It’s steel, so I need to compensate for impurity. Conductivity should be good, but there’ll be fluctuations in the matrix, difficult. Hmm, I wonder if they use something purer for conduction as part of the Schema when they’re making… no, it doesn’t matter, I can do this. Perhaps if I…” She jerked her head up. “Ha! Yes. That’ll work. First though…”
She took a breath and extended her hand over the armour. “Exbal.”
At her word it was like a wave went over the armour. It was battered, but Etroan kept it in good condition, of course. He wouldn’t have survived as long as he had in the Watch if he didn’t, but every mark on the surface vanished under that wave. It left the breastplate looking like shining silver rather than slightly tarnished steel.
“Great Spirits!” He took an involuntary step back, but couldn’t help craning his neck so he could still see what the girl was doing.
She bit her bottom lip and spoke again, her hand twisting briefly. “Railati.” An angular symbol carved itself into the hardened steel before his eyes.
She studied it for a second, completely oblivious to him and Peren by that point, and muttered something to herself before going back to her study of it. Etroan saw Peren about to say something and gave him a discreet kick before he interrupted her.
Eventually she spoke again. Just one more word. More time staring at the breastplate and then another. Each time she spoke, one more symbol carved itself into the inside of the breastplate. He tried to count along, but gave up when he got past 30.
Etroan wasn’t sure how long she stood there. He ended up needing to go and relieve himself at one point and when he returned she was still at it. However, it was definitely well over an hour, maybe more than two. The inside of his breastplate was now covered in the odd symbols. They weren’t organised into any shape he could recognise, but he could swear there was a pattern to them even if he couldn’t quite make it out.
Eventually the Mage looked up from his armour, blinking as if she’d suddenly realised where she was. She smiled faintly, was she swaying?
“There, done.” Her voice was a little faint. “Let’s give it a try. Put it on and we’ll give it a test. Your friend can try to hit you.” Etroan’s eyes widened.
“What? Now?” Was she mad? He wasn’t going to just let someone take a swing at him. Not that he doubted a Mage, of course not, he mentally added. But why take the risk? “Is that a good… Maybe we should just call it a day.”
She frowned at him, the movement marring the perfect smoothness of her highborn skin. “Of course it is a good idea, how else can I be sure it worked… Oh.” Realisation dawned on her face. She sighed. “I understand completely. I will wear it and you can test it on me.”
Etroan did his best to ignore the horrified gasp, he wasn’t sure if it came from him or Peren. “Absolutely n…” He corrected his language, “I mean I’ll happily wear it my lady, I trust your work.” If her spell failed and she got hurt when he hit her he’d be lucky to only be drummed out of the Watch.
“No, no of course I do not mind wearing it.” Etroan ignored her attempt at grabbing the breastplate from him and, clenching his jaw, quickly strapped it on. It didn’t feel any different to before.
“Peren, grab one of the practice swords over there and come over and give me a smack on the chest.” At least Peren was probably sensible enough not to hit him too hard.
“Oh, I should say, it will only stop blows that are hard enough to injure you. If something is too slow or light it will not be stopped, otherwise you would not be able to touch anything.” For fuck’s sake. Etroan resisted the urge to groan out loud. Fine. This had better work or he was going to start a rumour about her and… he checked the thought. It would all be fine and, even if it wasn’t, he certainly wouldn’t do that.
“Better give me a good whack then Peren, on the breastplate mind.” He forced some cheer into his voice.
“Oh it should work for your whole body, you could hit him right on the head. If I did it right.” Would she not shut up?!
“Let’s keep it to the breastplate for now, eh Peren?” He hesitated as Peren lined up the wooden practice sword and pulled it back for a big swing. “How many of these have you done before my lady?”
“It is the first one, they said weapons were men’s work.”If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Fu…” Crack! The world vanished in a flash of light. Etroan was left blinking stars out of his vision as Peren stood there rubbing his eyes, holding half a practice sword in his hand. Had it worked? He glanced at the Mage, she was blinking rapidly too, but grinning widely. She looked more than excited.
“Yes! It worked!” She practically jumped in the air, before suddenly gathering herself. “I mean of course it worked, but I am pleased.”
“Was… was it meant to make that light my lady?” Etroan glanced down at the breastplate, which still seemed to be flickering faintly. He wasn’t even sure if that was just his own eyesight recovering or something real. He didn’t remember anything about bright lights from stories about the Fists of the Throne.
She glanced down at the floor and hesitated. “Yes. Definitely. It will distract your enemies and give you the advantage if they hit you.” She gave him a firm, yet unconvincing, nod.
Well, he wasn’t sure about the flickers. Or the blinding light come to think of it, but he wasn’t going to insult her by rejecting her work. To be fair, it seemed like it would do exactly what she’d promised. He’d had too many friends die over the years and it was probably worth literally years of his salary. What was a bit of light and some lessons for a Mage compared to that?
“Thank you my lady.” He bowed low. “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes! Oh, by the way, I will need to take a look at the breastplate every now and again.” She thought for a second, muttered something about impurities and tarnishing and then continued. “Make sure you keep it polished, on the inside I mean where the Schema is, then… call it two months to be safe. Yes bring it to me in two months and I will see if the Schema needs to be renewed. Also, if you get hit more than three or four times. It will survive a fight, but it will not last forever and every time it protects you it will wear out more.”
=====
It was with some excitement that Ester made her way back to the Watch’s training grounds two days later. It was a grey, cloudy dawn, but most mornings in Vass Karan seemed to be and she didn’t let it affect her mood. Nor did she let the poorly fitting Watch uniform spoil it. It was as uncomfortable as ever, but seemed more appropriate than a dress.
In fact she was having trouble hiding the bounce in her step. Would she learn how to use a sword? Or maybe a spear? She could hardly wait!
When she got there Sergeant Etroan was already waiting, his arms folded and lips pursed in apparent displeasure. Ester hesitated for a moment, but then pressed on. Maybe his teaching persona was just grumpy.
“Good morning sergeant!”
“My lady.” He gave her a bow and looked her over, hesitating for a second. “I suppose it’s practical enough…” He seemed a bit unsure of what to say next so Ester shrugged and smiled.
“I thought it would be sensible not to wear something nice.” She took a step forward. “So, what are we starting with? Swords? Spears?” She fumbled at her belt, “I bought a dagger!”
Etroan took a step back, horror rapidly replacing uncertainty on his face. “Great Spirits no!” He winced and moderated his tone. “I mean, I don’t think that would be wise my lady.”
“Oh.” Ester’s heart sank. It was the same disappointments all over again.
If anything the sergeant looked even more worried. He spoke quickly. “That is to say, I don’t think these are what you’d start with my lady and you need to think about what’s proper and right for you.”
“But you said…”
“You said you’d obey me.” He cut Ester’s protest off, winced, and then barreled on anyway. “What I mean is I’m a man of my word, I said I’d train you. I’ll train you, but you’ve got to be smart, right? I don’t mean what’s proper for a lady, I mean what’s proper for you.”
Ester frowned, she felt like she was being lied to, but couldn’t find anything to argue against in what he’d said. After a moment she nodded. “Very well.”
The way he slumped slightly at her words was worrying. “Thank you my lady. Now, please start by running. Round the grounds if you please. Until I tell… ask you to stop.”
The feeling that she was being lied to redoubled. “Running? I thought I was learning how to fight?”
Sergeant Etroan twitched, his face reddening. “Every trainee has to run my lady.” His words were carefully measured. “It’s an important skill. It gives you stamina to fight and it helps you to escape if you can’t fight.”
Ester frowned, she’d thought she’d be learning to stab things or something similar. But she had promised to obey him and he was the expert.. “Very well.” She broke into a jog and started to make her way round the training ground. It wasn’t so bad really. After a minute she was starting to feel the effort, but hopefully she wouldn’t have to go for much longer.
“I can bloody well walk…” Sergeant Etroan’s shout changed midsentence, “my lady please could you go faster? It’s important that you make the effort or you won’t improve.”
With an internal groan Ester tried to pick up her pace.
=====
The servant bowed low as he gestured for Ester to enter the small mansion at the bottom of the Palatine Hill. “Baron Tutna my lady.”
Ester smiled and gave a polite bow to the sour-faced, elderly man, his bald pate a shining contrast to the unrelieved black of his clothing. He was the second from the list of nobles Commander Savate had suggested she speak to about the thieves.
“Thank you for making time to see me Lord Tutna.”
“No, thank you Lady Mazar.” He ran his hand across his brow. “I am glad that somebody is finally taking the crimes against my house more seriously. We may not be the most powerful of houses in Vass Karan, but that does not mean that we are not without means or friends and I have been shocked at the lack of attention paid to these thieves. The insouciance of the Watch in the face of the outrages perpetuated by the Golden Shadows is more than disappointing. Why, I remember the sacrifices my father made for the Throne and now look at this. House Tutna has been here for uncounted generations and…”
With an internal grimace Ester realised that if she didn’t stop him he was just going to keep going and going. “Of course, I understand. Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
“Oh, yes.” He blinked a couple of times. “Please, have a seat. It was terrible. They stole thousands of crowns worth from us. Yet no one does anything about it. They just shake their heads in mock sympathy and tell me that the thieves will be caught. Why I was saying to Duke Marcni just last week…”
Ester quickly interrupted him. It was that or tune him out and let him rant. “What exactly did they steal my lord?”
“Around one thousand crowns from my treasury. Only a small part of my wealth of course. However, to the commonborn that would be an inconceivable fortune. Far worse though was their theft of a family heirloom. My great grandfather commissioned a Schema, in gold of course, that allowed him to smite her Eternal Majesty’s enemies with magical wrath. It was worth far more than the crowns. No question, not to mention the value as a symbol of my house’s greatness.” Commander Savate hadn’t seemed particularly interested in Ester actually hunting the thieves, but when she’d asked him to point her to people who’d been victims of theirs he’d had an odd smile on his face. She was starting to understand why. The first family she’d spoken to had had nothing interesting to say, about the thieves or anything else, but Baron Tutna was far worse. “Of course I went to my allies and also to the Watch. As I was saying to Duke Marcni, if they brought some real men into the Watch, ones with brains they would solve this quickly. No disrespect intended of course. You are clearly far more educated than the average ape they employ.”
Ester ignored the flash of anger she felt at him impugning a Throne institution. It wasn’t like he had anything intelligent to say either. It wouldn’t do to offend him though, even if she wanted to put him in his place. Not when she needed his information. “The Watch has sent me here has it not?” She kept going before he could start complaining about something else. “So, please my lord, tell me everything you know about these thieves so that I can hunt them down.”
The elderly man gave Ester a long look. “Very well. Sadly there is not so much to say. It was during the night. There were three of them.”
“How do you know that?”
He looked slightly put out at the interruption. “Tetia, one of my maids, came across them while they were in the manor. They left her tied up.”
“So they didn’t hurt her?”
“Nothing too terrible. Servants do complain more than they should.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Anyway, she said… I remember it distinctly. There were three of them. Two men and a woman, all dressed like servants. They would have blended in well, except they had wrapped cloths across their faces. So all I can say is the woman was of average height with light brown hair. One of the men was tall and slim with dark and curly hair. The other man was very tall and more heavily built with blonde hair.”
“No one else saw them?”
Baron Tutna shrugged. “No one. Or else they were well enough paid to forget what they saw. I had the guards whipped of course, but none would admit to anything.”
Ester made herself nod, unable to stop her lips from turning down slightly in distaste. “I see. What were they doing?” So far she hadn’t found anything new out at all and it was more than frustrating!
“They were down in the lower levels of the mansion. Underground. Being such an old house,” he swelled with pride, “our manor extends down below the surface. Almost to the Wasteways.”
“The Wasteways?” That was something new.
“You have not heard of them?” He looked a little surprised. “I suppose you are from Trevayn, so no reason why you would. Vass Karan is an old city. As is Trevayn of course. Naturally, heh. However, Vass Karan has suffered more over the years so it has been rebuilt many times over, layers upon layers of the city, all mixed in with the caves that riddle the hills the city is built on and around. Then there are sewers, abandoned basements and catacombs, digging by past inhabitants. They all add together into a network of tunnels and caves under the city. Few know their extent.”
Tunnels under cities were hardly a new concept. Trevayn had its catacombs and sewers. Ester was sure the other cities of the Empire had their own. “So you think the thieves came into your mansion through these ‘Wasteways’? Is there a reason why you call them that?”
Baron Tutna laughed, “Well, because there is only waste in them, nobody and nothing worthwhile. Fortunately we lords keep them clean and stop the ‘waste’ building up too much, if you know what I mean.” Ester wasn’t quite sure she did, but she nodded anyway. He’d ignored the real question though.
“So why would someone like thieves not come through them?”
“Well, obviously I am no fool. I have guards in the basement of the mansion and there are only two entrances to the Wasteways. One is quite literally for waste, I do not think any person could fit and they certainly would not like to even if they could. The other is locked and guarded at all times and was not disturbed.”
Ester knew he wasn’t going to like it, but she had to ask anyway. “How sure are you that there are no other entrances?” She saw his expression darkening and hurriedly added some flattery. “Your mansion is both large and… historic after all.”
Despite her diplomatic words, Baron Tutna was clearly unimpressed. “Of course I am sure. Do you think I did not have searches ordered? Or that I did not seek to catch these thieves myself?!”
Ester leaned back slightly at the vehemence in his voice. “I am just checking, of course you have looked into it yourself. Did you find anything?”
“Hmph.” He snorted dismissively. “All too little. I hired my own hunters to find them.”
“But they did not?”
“No, they are slippery rats. My men were able to discover that they sold my treasures to yet more criminal scum in Clanis Edge. That was as far as it went. The trail went cold.”
“What is Clanis Edge? A district of the city?”
“No place for respectable individuals like you or I that is for sure. I could not tell you exactly where it is, but down at the foot of one of the hills, not far from the docks. One of those places that the commonborn infest. It floods occasionally I know that.” He sneered. “Personally I would not bother with it. While I have no doubt you would be able to deal with the scum inhabiting that sump, I cannot see it being a productive use of your time. I would suggest you send some of your Watchmen, they will be more familiar with such places. Probably grew up there. Not that the Watch or the nobleborn have any presence there day to day.” Ester was sure that if it had been her father, he’d have spat on the floor. As it was, Baron Tutna just scowled. He didn’t seem inclined to say anything more, so after a moment Ester rose to her feet.
“Thank you for your time my lord. You have been very helpful. I hope to bring these thieves to justice soon.”
“Yes!” He rose too. “Thank you my lady. I may even make a personal visit to see them dance on the end of a rope.” Ester turned away to hide her grimace. Justice was justice, but she’d still be happy never to see that particular sight again. With an effort she moved her thoughts to more productive topics. She now had a couple of things to look into, although it seemed odd that they hadn’t already been investigated by the Watch. She’d speak to the Commander first, but perhaps it was time to visit this ‘Clanis Edge’.