Finnvid managed a grin, and lifted his arms a little to flap in demonstration. “Falcons.”
“They fly away, find game, and come back to you?” Finnvid nodded, and Theos said, “I’d like to see that someday.” Finally, the Elkati civilization had produced something interesting. “When we take over the valley, I’ll have to make sure the— Where do the falcons live? Are there people who work with them full-time? How many of them are there?”
“They live in a mews—it’s a small building, like a henhouse. There are full-time falconers. Not many, because it’s not the most efficient way to get meat, so hunting with them is a bit of a luxury. But there are a few. And I think there are about twenty falcons in the mews, last time I checked.” He raised his eyes. “Any more questions?”
“Well, having found ones that you’ll answer, I suppose I’m a bit overexcited.” Theos thought for a moment, then nodded decisively. “Yes, when we take over the valley, I’ll have someone show me the mews, and I’ll make sure they’re protected. I’d like to see the falcons at work.”
“And that’s within your power?” Finnvid asked. “To protect something your compatriots have just conquered?”
Theos shrugged. “Not if it were strategically important, or something really valuable. But if I decided to guard a little building and some birds? Nobody in authority would object to that. And I can look after myself if it’s just other soldiers causing trouble.”
“I’m sure you can,” Finnvid said. He didn’t sound sarcastic, but who could ever know, for sure?
Anyway, it was time to get back to business. “So you can’t use a bow. You’re obviously not much good at hand-to-hand. Do you haveanysword training?”
“The basics.” Finnvid frowned, then shrugged. “Even in the Elkat valley, I’m not known as a great swordsman. Here . . . I suppose here I’ll be even lower in the rankings.”
“I expect so,” Theos said mildly. “I can teach you a little, but, really, you’ll probablyalwaysbe low in the rankings, here. You’ve wasted too much of your life.”
“Wasted my life? Learning languages and rhetoric and philosophy? Improving my brain?”
“Aye.” For someone with an improved brain, Finnvid asked a lot of stupid questions. “You’ve wasted your life.”
“Was the time I spent learning abouthealingwasted? Would Andros say that it was?”
“No,” Theos conceded. “Thatmight actually be a bit useful. It’s all therestthat was a waste.”
Finnvid shook his head. “It’s impossible for me to even explain all that you’re missing, because one of the things you’re missing is the ability to understand my explanations.”
“That must be very frustrating for you.” Theos turned and strode off toward the small pond at one end of the field, speaking over his shoulder as Finnvid tried to keep up. “I think we’ll start with basic footwork. Balance and mobility are the keys to almost everything else you’re going to be working on.”
“Balance and mobility,” Finnvid said, apparently leaving his haughtiness behind at the promise of learning something. “Okay. What do I do?”
Theos took the Elkati over to the floating logs in the pond. “The bigger the log, the easier. Start with the biggest. When you can make it from one end to the other without falling in the water, shift over to the next smallest log.”
Finnvid squinted at the water. “This is how you train soldiers? With logs?”
“We train soldiers with everything. This is somewhere to start.”
After a moment, Finnvid stripped off his tunic and bent to tug at his boots. “Okay,” he said, his voice full of determination. “Start at the biggest log, move to the smaller ones.” He jogged purposefully toward the water.
Theos waited for the first splash, which came when Finnvid was only a few steps on to the bobbing, spinning log. “Keep at it,” he ordered when Finnvid’s head bobbed to the surface. “I’ll come back in a while and check on you.”
Finnvid looked as if he was fighting the temptation to rebel, but finally he dragged himself out of the muddy water and started back toward the logs.
Theos headed for his own training. He heard the next splash but pretended he hadn’t. The boy was trying, and Theos wouldn’t laugh at him, no matter how tempting it was.
So he went down to train with the wooden swords, and if he was a little less focused than usual, it didn’t mean anything. Maybe he was still tired from his time in the field, or maybe the distractions of trying to deal with the political situation had gotten to him. Maybe he shouldn’t have had the third mug of ale the night before.
Any of those reasons were better than admitting that maybe his mind was somewhere else. That maybe he was thinking about a stubborn Elkati, and what it would have felt like if Theos had extended a hand to pull the boy from the pond. Maybe they would have stumbled a little, and fallen into each other, and Theos could have discovered whether Finnvid’ssmooth skin was still warm from exercise or whether the water had made it cool and slippery.
No. He wasn’t thinking about any of that.
When he finished his drill and went to check on the boy, he walked quickly because he wanted to get things done that day, not because—not because anything! He wasn’t hurrying because he wanted to see Finnvid. He didn’t want anything to do with him.
And when he saw Finnvid on the second-largest log, scrambling from one end to the other like a drunken otter, the warmth he felt was just . . .
Damn it. He had an itch for the Elkati. The sullen, spying, lying Elkati virgin bedwarmer. Theos wanted the boy, and the boy didn’t want him back. Finnvid thought Theos’s urges were unnatural and shameful.
