Torvola sat for a while in the courtyard, letting the warmth of the sun and the gentle fragrance of the roses calm her. Her thoughts raced still: was she spending her life running from her pain? Would she go with Venera back to the coast? And if she did, what would happen afterwards? Would she return to the quiet village and try to heal from the painful memories of that night?
She wasn’t running, right? Life’s circumstances had caused her to walk this path. Her father was killed by the corrupt king and forced her to leave Flintshire to avenge him. She was all over the continent then helping Venera gather the support and army she needed to retake the throne from her mad father.
After the war she had to leave the castle she had spent years trying to take. Had to leave the woman she loved. The lords were getting restless and Torvola couldn’t bear to be another reason for Venera’s headaches. She wasn’t running from the pain, nor was she running from the fact that every time she looked at the queen, she saw blood and ruin rather than the woman she loved.
Maelesea had been a perfect location: Close enough to Flintshire where her cousin now ruled but still separate and quiet enough for her to find some peace. All she wanted was peace.
“Lady Torvola!”
The loud call behind her snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned to see Guin standing at the entrance to the courtyard. Her energy was practically radiating off of her as she strode over to the old knight, “I’ve always wanted to test my might against the Champion of the Iron Rose herself.”
“Are you challenging me to a duel?” Torvola stood and couldn’t help but look Guin up and down, sizing her up. The captain had a good few inches on her and if her arms were anything to go by — she was absolutely ripped. Would she rely on strength alone? Or was she quicker than she looked? With her height she’d have the advantage in range.
Guin shrugged, “Not exactly a duel. More like a friendly, non-lethal fight. You don’t have to accept…”
She paused for a moment and then said with the slightest of smirks, “I know you’re probably out of practice.”
If Torvola had any reservations about fighting, they disappeared as soon as those words left Guin’s lips.
“Lead the way,” Torvola said.
The training yard was a large dirt field just within the walls. Along one edge of the field sat a large, wooden shed and an adjacent stone building. The field itself was surrounded by wooden fencing, divided between an archery range and a sparring ring. In the ring, a man was instructing a young boy on how to wield a sword and shield.
“Keep your shield raised,” he called out as he struck with his sword. The dull wooden blade slammed against the wood of the shield with a loud clash. Torvola could tell that the man was holding back, walking the line between challenging the young boy but not overpowering him. She could see a few openings in the boy’s stance and his trainer seemed to notice because he quickly retracted his sword and struck at the boy’s unprotected leg.
The blade slapped against the leather armor on the boy’s leg with a thud and the boy reflexively jumped back.
“Your leg was too far out,” the man said, “Try not to do that next time.”
He noticed Torvola and Guin’s arrival and straightened up, “Captain.”
“We need the pit,” Guin said, “I’m about to kick the Hero of Irozia’s ass.”
Torvola shot Guin a look, the captain reminded her rather painfully of Caleste. The man’s gaze drifted to Torvola and he nodded, giving a respectful bow, “It’s an honor to meet you Lady Torvola.”
He ushered the boy away and Guin walked up to a weapon rack that sat in a small shed on the edge of the fighting ring, “Take your pick.”
She caught the attention of one of the guards, “Get some armor that’ll fit her.”
The guard looked Torvola up and down before jogging off to the large shed.
Torvola looked over at the weapons rack, she had been practicing with her arming sword the most in the past few years — solo drills weren’t fighting but it was better than nothing. She selected an arming sword from the rack and a beat up heater shield.
“I thought you’d take a polearm,” she said, “Get some reach.”
“I’m not winning the range game in this one,” Torvola said.
The guard returned with a worn old gambeson and a few hardened leather pads. The armor was a little large on her but she couldn’t exactly complain. The helmet had more than a few scuff marks on it and the padding on the inside smelled but it looked sound enough to protect her from any blows.
As they prepared for their match, they started to attract an audience. Torvola noticed Uthred had joined the growing crowd of onlookers. Guin selected a sword and shield of her own and hopped the fence into the ring.
Torvola was slightly slower in getting into the ring, ducking under one the wooden rail to enter the ring. The two women faced each other, Guin slapped the flat of her sword against her shield with a loud bang, “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
They circled each other carefully, shields raised, swords poised, and looking for any openings. Torvola kept her distance, though she knew she’d have to move in close at some point, preferably to a point where Guin’s reach advantage wouldn’t matter. If she wanted to win, she had to take the initiative and make the first move before Guin could set the fight at her own tempo.
Guin’s posture was relaxed, and Torvola wondered if she was trying to look like she wasn’t taking this seriously or if she was truly that cocky. Did Guin think she was going to be slow in her movements? Impeded by her aging joints? If so: she was about to prove the younger woman very wrong.
With a sudden burst of alacrity that Guin was certainly not anticipating, Torvola pushed forward and was in striking distance of Guin almost before she could react. She raised her shield just in time to block a blow to her head. Torvola’s sword collided with the rim of Guin’s shield with a crack. Guin tried to back off, to get some distance and regain her balance but Torvola pressed the attack and kept her on her back foot. Their shields clashed with a force that sent vibrations up Torvola’s arm.
Strangely, she found herself rather enjoying this.
A fire lit in her blood that she hadn’t felt in a long time, and she cracked a small smile as she withdrew her sword to strike at Guin’s undefended side. Guin barely had time to dodge the blade as she finally gained her footing. It was at that point that she seemed to make the decision to simply overpower the smaller woman.
Torvola knew she had that advantage over her. Rehni had been right when she had told Torvola that she was skinny. Sure, Torvola was still fit but she was not in fighting shape, and she wasn’t exactly eating like royalty in her years away. Guin managed to shove Torvola back and she reeled from the force of the attack. She backed away several steps before regaining her footing. She stared down Guin who only grinned in response.
“That all you got?”
Thoran she was really reminding her of Caleste. That thought sent a pang of annoyance through her body that slowly turned to an anger that settled in her gut.
Oh, she was going to take Guin down a peg.
“No.”
Torvola pressed in for another attack, using her agility to her advantage and moving around Guin to strike at her side once more. Guin barely kept up with the attacks, spinning to meet Torvola but unable to strike back before Torvola forced her to block another blow.
It was a dog barking that did her in.
In a moment she wasn’t sweating in ill-fitting armor while facing down an opponent in a friendly fight. She was back on the hilltop, shivering and staring down the Elder that was about to kill Saxus. Her blood froze and her shield arm dropped as Guin sent a savage blow crashing down on her.
The explosion of pain in her shoulder brought Torvola back to the present but not fully. Guin had immediately pulled her blow when she noticed Torvola’s guard dropping, though it still hit with a force that caused herself to flinch, “Shit.”
The training field and the whole context of the fight disappeared. All Torvola saw was a threat and she had to destroy it to survive. Guin had lowered her guard, thinking the fight was over and concerned with Torvola’s shoulder. She dropped her sword to reach out to Torvola who was still hunched over slightly.
She was certainly not expecting the sudden blow as Torvola slammed her shield bodily into her midriff. The hit knocked the air out of her lungs but thankfully her armor seemed to have absorbed the worst of the impact. Guin wheezed as she backed away, shield arm hanging limply at her side. She didn’t have the wherewithal to raise it to protect herself from Torvola who was now moving on her with a ferocity she hadn’t seen before.
She winced as Torvola’s sword came crashing down on her helmet, the wood splintered with the force of the blow. Guin went down to one knee and tried to blink away the stars in her vision. Her ears rang, whether it was from the blow to the head or from the sound of the helmet getting hit she wasn’t quite certain.
Uthred was over the fence the moment he had seen Torvola attack his sister. He stepped in front of Guin, forgetting that he was considerably less armored and Torvola was still on the attack. It was only due to a pair of guards tackling Torvola that he managed to avoid getting hurt or worse.
Torvola struggled against the two guards that pinned her to the ground and held her arms behind her back. She wasn’t even aware of what they were yelling at her, only relenting when her strength finally failed her, and she was brought crashing back into reality. As if sensing her finally calming down, the guards released Torvola and she sat up. Her gaze snapped to Guin who was sitting on the ground, helmet off, and rubbing her aching head.
Uthred was knelt beside her with his hand on her shoulder and calling for a healer. Torvola’s gaze finally met with Guin’s, expecting to see anger but only seeing confusion and fear. Torvola looked away, shrugging off the grasp one of the guards still had on her arm and walking off. She ripped her helmet off and tossed it on the ground before hopping the fence and walking towards the castle through a crowd that quickly parted to let her through.
Guin looked at Torvola’s retreating form and finally spoke, “What the fuck?”
–
Torvola’s quarters were empty when she arrived, a small mercy the fates had thrown her way as she was not sure what she’d do if there was someone in her room at that moment. Her body was growing sore from the fight and her shoulder throbbed painfully with every beat of her heart. She slowly peeled off the rest of her armor and gambeson, sitting on her bed in her tunic that was soaked through with sweat. She was still calming herself down but was finding it hard. Her body still wanted to fight the threat.
Except there was no threat.
She squeezed her eyes shut, her right hand clenched into a fist and beat against her brow. This had been the first time in a long while that something like this had happened, that she felt like she was facing a threat that wasn’t even there. This was the first time she had managed to hurt someone.
‘Get it together.’
A light knock at the door caught her attention and she looked up. Briefly she considered whether or not she wanted to let anyone enter her room right now. However, it would be rude to refuse entry, “Come in.”
Rheni carefully opened the door and stepped in, in her hands were a bucket and a few rags, “I heard you and Guin were sparring, and you got hurt.”
“I’m fine,” Torvola said, “How is Guin?”
“Oh, she’s fine,” Rheni said as she set down the bucket by a chair and motioned for Torvola to come over, “Her head’s harder than the castle walls.”
Torvola stood up slowly and walked stiffly to the chair; the fight had taken more out of her than she cared to admit, “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“I know you didn’t,” Rheni said, “Accidents happen — now take off your shirt.”
Torvola pulled the tunic over her head, wincing when the motion aggravated her shoulder, “I shouldn’t have left. I should have gone and apologized.”
“You’ve plenty of time to do that.”
Rheni dipped a rag into the water and wrung it out. She gently wiped the dirt and grime off Torvola’s face and moved to her neck and chest, “I believe she and Uthred have retired to their quarters for the afternoon. She’s not hurt badly but you certainly gave her a headache.”
“Ugh,” Torvola groaned and hung her head. Rheni dabbed the cloth on the growing bruise on her shoulder and she flinched away.
Rheni tsked and put a hand on Torvola’s other shoulder and held her firmly in place. Her other hand came up to gently rest on the bruise and her brow furrowed in concentration. A blissfully cold feeling spread over the area and Torvola couldn’t help but lean into the touch. She had forgotten Rheni had learned some healing magic, it was a byproduct of her accompanying Venera on her campaigns in her youth.
Rheni was not much older than Torvola and yet she reminded her of a mother: always fretting over her charges and somehow knowing the right words to say to comfort. The pain ebbed away into numbness.
“It doesn’t appear you’ve broken anything,” Rheni said, “I’ve never heard of the great Torvola letting down her guard like that in a fight. If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”
Torvola was quiet for a long moment; part of her wanted to tell Rheni about the dog and about how she had lost Saxus. That bark had distracted her, had brought her back to that night on the hill. However, when she opened her mouth to speak, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words out loud. Finally, she managed to say, “I suppose I’ve lost my touch.”
Rheni made a noise indicating she did not believe a word Torvola had said but only replied in her calm manner, “I suppose it has been a while since you’ve fought anyone.”
“Yes,” Torvola’s shoulders sagged as Rheni let go. Exhaustion hit her like a wall and she wanted nothing more than to sleep, “I believe I’ll rest for the remainder of the afternoon.”
“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Rheni said, “Would you like me to make you some tea?”
“No, thank you,” Torvola said, “Please summon me for the feast if I haven’t woken already.”
Rheni nodded in assent; she packed up her things and made to leave but hesitated at the door.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” she said, “Perhaps we should find some time to sit down and talk, if you are up to it?”
Torvola managed a weary smile at her old friend, “Perhaps.”