One hundred eighty-six cycles later
Tau stumbled as he avoided the Petty Noble's swing. He tried to regain his
footing, but Jabari was on him, and he had to hop backward to survive the
larger man's attack.
"Come on, Tau! You can't always run!" Aren yelled from outside the
fighting circle, the words made indistinct by the booming of the ocean
below.
Tau's sword arm was numb, and he couldn't wait for the day's training to
be done. "I'm baiting him," he lied as Jabari pushed him closer to the cliffs.
Another step and Tau would be out of the fighting circle, losing him the
match.
For Aren's benefit and to prove he'd learned something that season, Tau
made a half-hearted attack, cutting for Jabari's leg, but Jabari bashed the
sword aside and launched a counter, catching him on the wrist.
Tau yelped and, having had enough, was about to step out of the circle
when Jabari leapt forward, swinging for him. Tau threw himself back,
hoping to avoid being hit again, but his heel hit one of the stones marking
the circle's boundaries and he went down with enough force to wind him.
He was on his back, near the cliff's edge, and the ocean was loud
enough to set his teeth chattering. He glanced down and wondered if rolling
over and letting himself fall could hurt any worse than his wrist and bruised
ribs already did. Far below, the water roiled like it was boiling, crashing
against itself and spewing froth. Tau knew falling into the Roar was death.
"Get up, Tau," Aren said.
He did, slowly and without enthusiasm.
"Look," Jabari said, pointing to the water.
Tau saw it then. From the ground, he'd missed the boat.
"Are they mad?" asked Jabari.
"What is it?" Aren asked.
Jabari pointed again. "A boat."
Aren Solarin, Tau's father and the man in charge of Petty Noble Jabari
Onai's training, walked over. The three men watched the small watercraft
bob in the churning waters. "They'll be lucky if they don't drown," Aren
said.
"Can you tell who they are?" Jabari asked Tau.
Tau was known for his sharp eyes. "Doesn't look like one of ours…"
Aren looked closer. "Hedeni?"
"Maybe," Tau said. "I don't see anyone on it. It's heading for the
boneyard…"
Waves drove the abandoned ship against the group of rocks, and it was
dashed to pieces.
Jabari shook his head. "How did we do it?"
"Do what, nkosi?" said Aren, using the Petty Noble's honorific as he
scanned the sinking wreckage.
"Cross it," Jabari said. "No ship we make now can sail more than a few
hundred strides from shore. How did we cross all of it?"
"Nkosi, perhaps we should save the deep thinking for your tutors," Aren
said, still trying to pick out details that might identify the boat as theirs or
the enemy's. "My concern is your sword work. Let's go again."
Boat forgotten, Jabari smiled and moved to the opposite side of the
circle, swinging his sword in looping circles. He loved fighting and couldn't
wait to join the war effort.
Aren walked over to Tau, grabbed at the sword belt he was wearing, and
pretended to be adjusting it for him. "You need to give everything to this,"
he said, almost too quietly for Tau to hear.
"To what end?" Tau asked. "I won't win. It'll only drag out the loss and
end the day in pain."
"I'm not asking you to win. That's not solely in your control," Aren
said. "I'm asking that you fight to win. Anything less is the acceptance of
loss and an admission that you deserve it."
As Tau nursed his wrist, already swollen and likely to welt, his father
finished tightening his sword belt, then stepped out of the fighting circle.
"At the ready!" Aren shouted.
Tau looked to the man he was about to fight. Jabari was taller, stronger,
faster. The Petty Noble was born that way, and Tau couldn't see the point in
giving his all to a game he knew was unfair.
"Remember, both of you," Aren said, "by attacking, you push your
opponent to defend."
Tau wasn't listening. He'd spotted Handmaiden Zuri. She'd just crested
the hill, arm in arm with Handmaiden Anya, and he was caught in the sway
of Zuri's hips. It didn't hurt that the knee-high slit in her dress offered
glimpses of calf. Tau smiled and Zuri's brown eyes danced as she raised a
questioning eyebrow at him. Anya squeezed Zuri's hand and giggled.
Aren raised his fist. "Fight!"
Wanting to impress Zuri, and against his own better judgment, Tau ran at
Jabari. The Petty Noble looked surprised by the aggression, but he rose to
the challenge and attacked high, too high.
It was a rare opening, and thanking the Goddess for his luck, Tau
lunged, sending out a strike that would have disemboweled Jabari if they
were fighting with real swords instead of dulled practice ones. The attack
didn't land. Jabari had baited him, expecting the reckless thrust, only to
whirl away and off the killing line.
Hitting nothing, Tau stumbled forward and was still trying to get his feet
under him when Jabari's sword belted him below the armpit. The blow
knocked Tau further off-balance, drove the air from his lungs, and sent him
tumbling, his fall accompanied by Handmaiden Anya's tittering.
Embarrassed and battered, Tau looked up to see that Zuri, though not
laughing, hid a smile behind her hand. Worse, his audience had grown. A
High Harvester was standing with the young women.
"Nkosi," said the Harvester to Jabari, sparing not even a glance for Tau.
Tau thought this one's name was Berko. He was from the mountain hamlet
of Daba, where they grew potatoes, tiny, misshapen potatoes. "I've come
from the keep. Umbusi Onai as well as your father and brother are looking
for you.