Kovos nodded and placed the stave on the ground and drew his real sword, holding it in the palm of his hand and presenting her with the handle. She wasn't expecting the weight. Somehow, when he'd been using it with so much speed and accuracy, she thought it must have been very light, but it wasn't.

"Ok, you need to learn what everything is so that way when we're working you'll know what the hell I'm talking about, ok?"

"Isn't this the blade, the handle and the pommel?" she said, pointing at different parts of the sword.

"No, that's not what it all is. You got parts right, but that's not just a blade," he said, a little exasperated.

"It's a long piece of metal that cuts things. How is that not just a blade? Don't get me wrong, it's very pretty . . ." she said, a little confused. Kovos looked scandalized.

"Just a blade?" He stood looking at her, mouth gaping. How was she supposed to know what everything was called? It cuts stuff, right? That was a blade to her.

"Sorry, I didn't know there was more to it than that."

"And pretty?" he said.

Legon broke in, "But Kovos, it is pretty. I like the flames a lot."

Arkin joined in. "You put flames on your sword?" He was starting to smile. Sasha knew the carpenter-spy or whatever was about to lose his composure. "Like the ones you put on the staves as a kid?" Arkin started to laugh hard at that.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up, real funny. I'm a trendsetter, just you wait. In a few years everyone will have swords with flames on them, and I will be rich and famous." Arkin was on the ground, having a hard time breathing, and it was this more than anything else that made her start to laugh. It felt good. She put her hands on her knees and could feel her eyes water. She could see Legon pointing and laughing at Kovos, who was now starting to join in. The scene must have been too much for Keither, who gave a small chuckle and then put his hand on his side with a grunt. This elicited more laughter from all of them.

"Stop making me laugh! Ouch! It hurts! It's not funny you guys," Keither said.

It wasn't that funny but the stress of the last few days was finally breaking, and Sasha could feel her anxiety leave as the fit stopped. Kovos was shaking his head, telling everyone just how much he hated them all, and that they would regret making fun of the flames and went back to teaching her.

"Oh my. Ok Sash, here's what everything is named. Just try and remember, ok? On the blade there are a few parts. This first is the tip here, it's called the Foible. Next is the mid-blade, then the forte is the part closest to the handle. Got that?"

"Foible, mid-blade, and forte. Got it."

He pointed to the edges. "This edge, the one your knuckles are on, is the leading edge of the blade, and the other side is the false edge. The parts on either side are the flats."

"Ok."

"Now this cross part here is the cross guard, then the grip and the pommel. This whole part is the handle of the blade. Got it?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Ok, good. Now we will go over how to hold the sword."

"Ok." For the next hour she learned how to hold the sword and the basic names of moves.

After that, Arkin brought a stop to it. She was getting into it. For some reason this stuff was interesting to her, and now she was beginning to understand a lot of the conversations she had with Legon growing up. He was always talking about "parry" this and "thrust" that, but she never really had known what he was talking about. She just smiled and nodded to be nice. She didn't even remember hearing Arkin and Legon, who both were covered in sweat.

Arkin stood across from Legon. He was going to start learning better deflections so he could use his opponent's momentum against him. The staves were perfect for this kind of training. They couldn't take full blows without cracking, so this would force him to deflect with one sword and then strike with the other. Arkin came at him again and again, doing the same move until Legon would deflect it correctly and then he would move on to a new one. He'd been used to two-handed fighting before, but was never totally comfortable with it. You didn't have as much power with just one hand, so someone could get an advantage with just pure strength, but he also knew that people who did know how to fight well with two swords usually won, so he would put in the time.

Arkin held one stave, and it was the same size of a standard hand and a half broad sword. He swung at his side, splitting the air with the sound of smacking wood, sending a vibration up the stave to his hand. Legon turned, catching the stave with one of his own and turning his back to it, using his body to help it make its way up and over him. This exposed Arkin's side. As he did this he stabbed with the other hand, catching Arkin in the side. It felt awkward but was still effective.

"Good job, Legon. Now again, but less sloppy. Make it a more fluid movement."

"Ok. Hey watch me do it on my own and tell me where I'm sticking."

They continued until he was getting very good with the two-handed technique. He was good with one-sword combat, and in truth you didn't use both hands a lot of the time, as you were constantly switching hands to help with endurance and to get your opponent off guard. All you needed to do was add in a sword on the other hand and for the most part you didn't need to learn that many new moves, so it didn't take him long to get the hang of it.

After they were done, Arkin took Sasha and him aside and began to teach them the Jezeer, which was basically learning how to master each muscle in your body. The hard part was isolating just one muscle. It seemed that you couldn't move just one without all the others joining in. This training would be hard. The way they learned was with different poses, contorting their bodies to stretch and isolate different groups of muscles. By the end Legon knew that he wouldn't be sore from fighting, but from the Jezeer. He also realized that he wasn't as flexible as maybe he once was. Sasha was better at this part of this than him, but he still heard the occasional groan from her straining herself.

"That's good. Tomorrow we will do more, and you will start to work with Sasha on basic hand-to-hand combat. Nothing major, just enough to get her out of trouble-wristlocks and things like that."

The next day they made their final descent out of the mountains and to the split in the road. They went south, heading for the town of Salkay where they could sell the horses they didn't need and buy supplies. The land they were in was all rolling hills with large fields and patches of trees. Closer to the mountains the forest got thick, but otherwise they were in open spaces. Within a two day's ride they would reach the Kayloose River and the town of Salkay. Spring had taken a much firmer hold on the lowlands than it had in Salmont. The road was clear, but right off to the side the grass in the field grew up to the horses' bellies, and there was the soft sound of birds singing and the occasional bug going by their heads. The scent of wildflowers dominated everything. They tried to figure what each cloud looked like and were having a good time. Everyone was in high spirits by lunch. They sat in the shade of a tree to eat and let the horses graze on their own. Keither seemed to be out of his element. He was terrified of bees and other insects. It was obvious that he didn't spend much time outside.

Keither knew the others were crazy. How could they possibly be enjoying themselves? "There are bugs everywhere, and the bees..." he thought to himself. There was a reason he stayed in the house all day, and this was it. What if one stung him? Could he die from it? He didn't know, but he heard one time that someone had died from a bee sting. They stopped breathing and everything. Did these morons not know that? He kept his head down all day and he didn't answer too many of the questions that Arkin would ask Legon and Sasha, not that it mattered anyway. He spent most of his time telling them to clear their heads and stuff like that. When there was a question he almost always got it right, even if he didn't answer. They were easy really, all hypothetical questions, not unlike the stuff he thought about on his own all the time. He was amazed they didn't know how to solve them. Didn't everyone think about this stuff? Not everything was bad though. Sasha was an amazing cook. Even when she didn't do anything to the food it was better than home.

He reared back and swatted at a black flying thing. "Whoa that was close," he thought. His ribs hurt and he wondered how long it would take them to feel better. His face hurt too, but that was already starting to do better. He was still going to look horrible in Salkay, but not that it mattered. He looked bad anyway. He was fat and pale. People were always asking him if he was sick. When he said no they asked if he was hurt, and if that's why he was so large. "Jerks," he thought. "Just because I don't spend my day pounding on metal or wood..." He liked to think of himself as the first scholar in Salmont, but now that Arkin was revealing this other side, he thought he might be number two. What was up with Arkin anyway? He sure played his part well, but it didn't make sense to not take Legon back to the Elves where he belonged. No, there was more to this story, and the others should be asking questions but they weren't. They trusted the man to the hilt.

They were riding again. Well the rest of them were, but Pixie was still eating. "Come on, let's go!" He clucked his tongue. This worked for Sasha, why not for him? He tried to kick Pixie's side. She snorted.

Sasha was calling back to him. "Come on, Keither. You're in charge, not her. Kick her sides and she'll go."

No, she wouldn't go. They had been going through this exercise all day-he kicked, Pixie ate. And that name! What were people going to think of him when they found out his horse's name was Pixie? Sasha was heading over now. She looked calm and he knew she was patient, but he still knew this must be driving her nuts.

She got off Murray. "Here Keither, ride Murray the rest of the day. Pixie just needs to be trained, that's all."

He got off and remounted Murray, who seemed to be much larger. Once again, the horse didn't seem to want to respond to him. Sasha got on Pixie and to his amazement, she turned Pixie and started toward the others, clucking just like he had done but this time the horse responded. He grabbed on hard to the saddle as Murray started after Sasha. Clearly, Pixie was not the one in need of training.

Chapter Eleven.

Salkay "It always amazes me that people believe only that which they want to, no matter how absurd. Of course, that being said, people tend to be easy to lead for the same reason, and provided their leader is just, even the truly wicked amongst us can be made into good people."

-Memoirs of the Ruler of the First Dynasty They made camp right outside of the town of Salkay. Kovos couldn't see it, but it was there just over the hill. He could hear the sound of the Kayloose River, one of the largest rivers in the area and the basis for Salkay's rapid growth. Most towns and villages were built near a body of water, be it a river, stream, or lake. This was the case for Salkay. From what he understood, there were mills in Salkay, and mills meant money.

It was cool this morning and he could see his breath when he got out of the tent. He appeared to be the only one up except for Arkin at the edge of camp, looking not toward the town but back up the road where they'd come, sitting on his heels and not moving a muscle. This must have been the Jeesie or Jezeer or whatever it was called. Kovos didn't know and frankly he didn't care. All that stuff was fine for Arkin but not for him.

He began to build a fire. He loved the mornings when he was camping, or at least he loved them when he was sitting at a fire eating. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was small and soft. His heart skipped a beat. Emma? No, not Emma. Sasha.

"Good morning. How are you today?" she said, yawning.

He spoke more to the ground than to her. "I'm fine."

"Just fine?"

"Yeah I'm fine, really, I am." She was giving him a knowing look.

"You thought I was Emma, didn't you?" she asked softly.

"I'm sorry Sasha. How did you sleep?" And moreover, how did she know what he was thinking?

She smiled at him. "Why are you sorry? I'm sure she misses you too."

"Do you think so? I mean, she said that she loved me, but I don't know. Now I'm gone and I bet she has her eye on others. I don't know." He chuckled a bit. "Listen to me, I sound like a moron. You don't want to hear my sob story."

She laughed, and this caught him off guard. "You don't know anything about women, do you?"

Now it was his turn to laugh. "Well no, I guess not."

"I don't think you're a moron, I'm happy for you. It's cute the..."

"Oh no, don't start that *cute' stuff. Emma says that crap all the time when I get all soft," he said pointing a finger at her in a playful way.

"It is cute, and I'm sure she misses you a lot. She even talked to me about you, so there's a sign."

That was definitely a sign. Emma didn't talk to Sasha; none of the girls in town did. They talked about her for sure, but it wasn't kind.

"She did? What did she say? What did you tell her?" She had his attention now; he didn't want Sasha to think he was soft, but this was too good. She sat down opposite him and held her hands out over the growing fire. They didn't even notice Arkin looking at them.

"Well, she came up to me in town and offered to buy me tea. I knew something was up because her parents don't want her to talk to me. We went to the tavern and she started asking all these questions about you. She thought that you and Legon talked about your relationships all the time."

"I want to make one thing clear: We never . . ." Kovos started.

"Yes, I know you're men. Gods forbid you show emotion. Anyway, after a bit she was trying to get me to tell Legon to tell you to propose to her, so I would say she likes you, even loves you. When you go back home she'll say yes. And then her dad will probably kill you," she finished with a smile.

She wanted to marry him. This was great! But something didn't make sense.

"Sasha, I'm confused."

"I'm sure, you're a man."

"Ha ha. If she loves me, why didn't she say it or have you tell me to marry her? Why Legon?"

There was a sympathetic look on her face, the same his mother gave him whenever he did or said something stupid but tried to do the right thing.

"She dropped lots of hints."

"Like what? She never dropped a hint. I'd have noticed."

"She asked you to pick out linens and table cloths," Sasha said with a hint of exasperation.

"Yeah, so what?"

"For your new home together." She was spoon feeding him something but still it didn't click.

"No, it was for her aunt, not our house."

"Oh my goodness Kovos, are you really that thick?"

It clicked.

"What!? That's stupid! Why did she do that? If that's what she wanted why didn't she just say it?"

Sasha rolled her eyes at him. "We don't say it, we hint, and apparently you guys don't get it."

"If you guys want something and don't tell us, then it's not our fault, it's yours."

Sasha chuckled in a bit of a menacing way. "Ha! It's our fault you aren't bright enough to figure it out?" Kovos was about to talk but was cut off by Arkin.

"Kovos, she likes you and that's what matters. Sasha, men are dumb."

"Thank you," she said.

"And so are women," Arkin finished, walking to his tent before Sasha could retort.

Keither thought he heard a debate heating up outside-no doubt Sasha and Kovos talking about relationships. That never ended well. It was a good time to keep quiet. Not that he talked much anyway. The conversation cooled down after breakfast, and Kovos seemed to be in a good mood about Emma liking him.

Keither was happy for him in a way. Except for once, Keither hadn't ever really liked anybody. That one didn't matter though; he hadn't had the balls to talk to her, and the queen's men had taken her earlier in the year. She had been nice, though. She was one of Sasha's friends. Come to think of it, her only friend. It's too bad people were terrified of what they didn't understand.

Keither left his tent and tried to help break camp, but his side was killing him and Legon told him not to do anything.

"I can help," he insisted.

"I know you can, Keither, but your ribs need to heal, and the fastest way for that to happen is for you not to do much for the next few days. Don't worry. Once you can help, you will," he said with a smile.

"Trust him on this one. He knows what he's talking about," Kovos added.

Odd. His brother was being nicer to him than before. Maybe he felt bad about what had happened. It didn't matter; the change was welcome. He knew that Kovos cared about him and only wanted him to be safe and happy, so he didn't really hold it against him when he was mean. Still, this new way was easier to take. When they were ready to leave Sasha walked Murray over to him.

"I want you to ride Murray for a few days while I work with Pixie, and then it will be your turn to be trained, ok?"

"Ok. Sorry I'm not good at this stuff. Thank you for your help."

"Don't be sorry. We all have to learn, and you've never had a reason to."

She was so nice to people. Why on earth was she like that? It didn't make any sense. These thoughts left him as they rode. They were coming over the hill now and that meant Salkay would be in view. He was excited; one of the traveling merchants that came to town said that Salkay was growing due to the new mills they had built over the last few years. Mills. Now that was where it was at. He had never seen one, so this was going to be good. Most people didn't appreciate what mills could do.

As they came over the hill, Salkay came into view. It was larger than Salmont, but not by much. There was a big wall surrounding the town and a road leading to the river, which was wide here. The road split in two, each path leading to the river where it then became a fortified mill bridge. The bridge closest to them had five large wheels underneath. On the left on the bridge and closest to the town were two buildings, both with tall roofs and no smoke. Downriver a bit were a larger bridge with seven wheels and two more buildings, both producing huge amounts of smoke.

"Are those mills with fortified bridges?" asked Kovos.