The voice startled me from my reverie. I looked to see a woman next to me with a questioning glance on her long, squarish face. Her brown hair was cut incredibly short, sweeping down over her forehead and left eye but otherwise standing in tufts and spikes. Her brown eyes were hard, one brow raised. She seemed a bit abrasive and standoffish.
She cocked her head to one side and added: “Is there a reason you’re staring at my house?”
Herhouse?
WasthisSera?
She was so young! For some reason I’d assumed she must be at least in her forties, if not elderly. I also assumed that was why I’d never heard of her, if she’d been granted status as a noble or granted this land before I was born, but this woman… She looked to be no older than thirty.
Caught off guard, I stammered, which wasn’t like me at all. I finally managed to eke out the words: “I’m Leo.”
“I’m Tisera. I repeat, can I help you with something?”
Tisera, not Sera, interesting. Perhaps she was the daughter of the woman I sought?
But again, words stuck in my throat. When they did come, they were utterly ridiculous: “I want to fight… with… your mother?”
The woman’s confused and questioning look grew more pronounced and a bit disgusted. “My mother is long dead,good sir.” Her inflection suggested that I was not — in fact — agood sirand vexing her.
Her mother was dead, but then…
“Are you Sera?” I asked.
Her face turned hard. “Don’t call me that.” She turned and began stalking toward the laneway. But she stopped after only a few paces, her head cocking further to one side. “Did Kel send you?”
Kel? Oh… Kelric Drakoson. “Ah… yes.”
Without turning she asked. “You want to fight me?” Her shoulder lurched in what I guessed was a laugh. I wasn’t sure that was entirely called for.
“I want to learn to fight,” I said, finally managing to get out the right words.
Those same shoulders fell a little with a sigh perhaps. “Ah.” She turned back. “You’re noble, yes?”
I nodded.
Good, she hadn’t figured out who I really was.
“Too much coin for your own good, sort of noble?”
I quirked a smile. That was definitely true. “Yes.”
She looked me up and down as if I were some aged nag of a horse she was considering buying. “Do you have any experience with a sword?”
“Some.” I quickly added: “But, assume I know nothing, I’d start from the beginning.”
She raised a brow at that. “Good, you’re that smart at least.” She gave another heavy sigh. “I don’t usually train others, so my rates are high. One strip. How’s that sound?”
A strip of silver? That was nothing. “For how many sessions?”
She laughed. “One.”
Ah… well this could add up then, but that didn’t matter. “Done.”
She seemed surprised, but then nodded. “Come this way, good sir Leo.” She turned and began walking down the laneway.
I hurried to catch up.
She was tall for a woman. I only just looked over the top of her head so my long legs could easily keep pace with hers, but still, she walked briskly.
