CoJ chps 13 & 14

[JasonPratt]

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[size=150]Chapter 13: Weeds And Oaks[/size]

___Only Othon waited in the glade, at the bottom of the hill, when Seifas and Gaekwar arrived.
___“Hey,” Gaekwar called as he walked past. “Any sign of our glorious predecessor?”
___“Gone fishing,” the big man rumbled; the lanky subcommander laughed in reply. “For you-all,” Othon clarified.
___“Fine with me,” Gaekwar announced, as he settled his scrawny frame into a cranny near the stream. “I guess I’m where he least expects!” He started cleaning his disker once again.
___Othon, meanwhile, recommenced his careful pace around the small glade’s arc. Seifas amused himself by trying to guess which tree the giantish man would choose today. He narrowed the probabilities down to three, before he heard the missing subcommander coming.
___Dagon, in his official black-and-red garb, charged into the clearing at a walk.
___“Finally!” the Krygian huffed. “I do have other things to do than lie around all day!”
___“Drat!” Gaekwar grumbled good-naturedly, as he leveraged out of the crevice. “I guess this means I’ll have to do some work around here after all.”
___“By all means,” invited Dagon, “stay here instead, and play by yourself. More room in her tent that way.”
___Actually, Seifas mused, there had been plenty of “room” in her tent, since well before Midsummer’s Eve…
___“You can keep that fickle vixen to yourself…if you can,” replied the ‘cowherd’, as he ambled back across the glade. “When she wants me, she can find me; and I’m not overly worried that you will be able to change that fact. How many nights have you ‘played by yourself’ in her tent, eh?”
___Despite the thin man’s casual saunter, Seifas could see his tendons tensing. Gaekwar didn’t have his leafcutter handy, and Dagon did have his falchion. Furthermore, Seifas reluctantly had to admit, Dagon was not a completely incompetent fighter. Yet Gaekwar was gently lifting his disker into position.
___But, in the small glade, a long lunge with the talon-shaped sword of the Krygian could negate any distance advantage offered by Gaekwar’s unorthodox weapon.
___It would happen, Seifas judged, in the next few moments, as Gaekwar passed by Dagon. Would he shoot first? Seifas didn’t know—Gaekwar’s idea of honor was somewhat different from that of the Guacu-ara.
___Would one, or both, strike at the point of closest approach? Dagon’s hand was twitching; but the Westerner could parry with his forearmed weapon, and for close emergencies he could extend a short triangular blade below its mouth. And at this range, a disc might sever a neck altogether.
___Or, if Gaekwar made it past, then there was Dagon’s favorite tactic to consider…
___All eyes slid sideways, to the clearing’s edge, as a tree was stripped from the soil with a rippling crunch!
___Othon grunted, then lightly tossed the sapling to the side, for one of his squads to drag to their fires in the evening. His habit of expanding their small clearing, helped to keep his hulking body fit.
___The habit served some other purposes, too.
___“Weeds,” he muttered, not looking at anyone, but with evident satisfaction. “Some weeds think they are oaks.” He dusted his hands, clanking the gauntlets he’d donned for the ‘gardening’.
___Seifas managed not to smile, as the man from Manavilin Island lumbered out of his improvised lumberyard, holstering those menacing gloves in special loops on his belt.
___Dagon swallowed sharply, and then stomped off at a tangent; so he wouldn’t seem to be following Othon, Seifas figured. Gaekwar, on the other hand, cocked his eyebrow as he caught the eye of the juacuar, and chuckled—though very softly!
___Seifas finally let himself smile.
___But he also sighed. How many men around him hid their souls behind a screen?

___…and, did he?

[JasonPratt]

[size=150]Chapter 14: Parries And Ripostes[/size]

___As Seifas hiked uphill, to their commander’s tent, he saw that Dagon would be passing near to Jian.
___Children often would gather, after their chores were done, to play with Jian. This afternoon, a group of the older boys had brought some practice sticks, while younger children scampered on one of the earthen berms encircling round the hillside.
___“You might think,” the fair man said to them, “that parries should be wild and swooping. Instead you’re more likely to flail around, if you aren’t thinking!” This inspired a few laughs. “Really, the best kind of parries do the job with minimum effort, allowing you to conserve your strength for punching past the other fellow’s defenses. I think the best commander to watch, in order to learn how to parry, is…Othon!” This earned a few more laughs, though incredulous ones. “Now, can anyone show me how Othon attacks?”
___Jian and all the children laughed aloud, as the training boys—and even some younger children—mimed the massive subcommander, in exaggerated swooshes.
___“True!” Jian agreed. “That is how he attacks. But—how does he defend?”
___Some of the boys attempted to carry on clowning for laughter, but, “No!” Jian snapped, jolting them in surprise. “Watch,” he smoothly continued past the reprimand, showing how Othon would inward-draw his arms for parrying, keeping the moves of the edged mace controlled and tight, “…until he’s in a proper position…to STRIKE!” Jian launched an Othon-ish two-handed chop.
___The children laughed again. Seifas chuckled, too—but, he also easily recognized the principles being used.
___“That is what I want to practice today,” Jian declared. “I’m going to work on keeping my parries tight. Now, would anyone like to help?”
___“Me! Me!” Dagon mocked, a high-pitched squeal, causing the boys to jump again; some of the youngest squeaked in shock nearby.
___As Dagon continued his condescension, Seifas saw the scowls on the faces of Jian and the boys were perfectly matched. “I’m a punkie loser and I can fight pathetically, too!” Dagon chirped. Abruptly switching tones, he growled, “But when I grow up, I’m gonna learn how to fight like a winner!” And drawing his falchion, he launched into a competent series of cuts and parries, slicing the air with his talon-shaped scimitar. “Come see me when your mothers decide to let you off their apron-strings,” he sniffed, “and when you’re worth a real soldier’s time to teach.”
___“Yes,” drawled Jian, turning back to the children, “you also can learn to fight a man by waiting until he’s fighting someone else, then cutting him down from behind.” To Dagon’s shock—and the delight of the audience—Jian sprang into a clownish but accurate representation of Dagon’s favorite tactic! “Punkie losers need not apply,” he growled in a gravelly Dagon-voice, as he tiptoed from one imaginary fight to another. Seifas thought the children would belch out their lungs, from laughing so hard.
___Snarling, Dagon threw a parallel slice that could have laid a kidney or backbone open, had he connected; but Jian spun away from the cut, and followed it with a parry.
___“As you can see,” continued Jian, while Dagon stood frozen in place, “Dagon prefers to cut low and behind from the side. It might have even worked, had I been fighting for real, rather than just pretending. Fortunately,” he grinned, “a long thin pole is currently sticking in Dagon’s ear, which gives me a chance to discuss his cut.” He winked at Seifas; the children resumed their giggling.
___As Jian stepped away, the juacuar removed his weapon gently out of the ear of the Krygian, wiping the wax on Dagon’s jacket-shoulder.
___“You should also notice my parry was tight and controlled, unlike the usual parries of some people I could name such as Dagon but won’t…” Jian bowed to the clapping and cheering children.
___“I can parry anything a clown like you could throw against me!” Dagon snarled. “That is,” he regained a veneer of civility, “if you’ll accept a friendly wager.”
___Jian weighed him from the corner of his eye, still smiling confidently. “Terms?” he tossed behind him, as he turned away from Dagon again.
___“Since you don’t even have a halfway decent sword for paying the bet, perhaps a service then. Clean my boots with your tongue!”
___Jian rubbed his beard in thought and gazed downhill. “Then I wager you…a kiss!”
___He turned once more to face his astounded taunter.
___“Only Tumblecrumble,” clarified Jian. “On the mouth.” The children were giggling again. “Fair?”
___“I accept!” bit Dagon through a ferocious grin. Sheathing his falchion, he held out his hand—but Jian walked right on past.
___“If you think I’m fool enough to shake a backstabber’s hand, you’re going to be horribly disappointed later tonight,” the fair man snorted. “Come along children! I’m sure that Commander Dagon has a meeting to attend, before we settle our bet.”
___The Krygian twisted his face in some different directions, trying to cobble together an angry reply…!
___“You should probably wait to speak—until you’re out of earshot,” suggested the juacuar; whereupon Dagon swallowed, turned, and harrumphed up the hill.

Next two chapters

[JasonPratt]

Notes from the real author…

These two chapter were short enough, and topically related enough, I decided to post them together for subsequent commentary.

Originally they were significantly longer, but I cut a lot out of the first two Sections back during pre-production editing, in order to move things along more briskly. Unfortunately, one of the things I cut out reference to was Seifas’ ruminations on Portunista’s habits regarding her subcommanders–some of the information still exists, but other portions won’t turn up until later now.

But since I can rectify certain inequities in the commentary notes… When Portunista first started pulling together scattered clumps of soldiers and vendors who were looking for a maga to protect them from other wandering magi, she didn’t have any experience with managing troops (although as will be revealed in later books she does have some managerial training of a sort thanks to her family business), so she chose the most imposing soldier handy and promoted him to subcommander: Dagon.

That turned out to be problematic, because Dagon is a vain and blustering man. He could bluff small numbers of troops, and be reinforced somewhat by the threat that Portunista would protect him, but he wanted to be in charge. Portunista decided the easiest way to manage him was to sleep with him, because she knows a technique of magical suggestion connected with that. (A technique that will turn out later to be rooted in basic human magical capability.) Strictly speaking, magi aren’t supposed to use it, but it’s also more-or-less harmless, so other people warily accept it happens.

Still, not a great situation; but then Othon came along: a much better leader and someone whom Dagon was afraid to challenge. Portunista went to work on him, too, but didn’t feel quite right about it (for reasons which will be revealed sometime after Book 3), so when Gaekwar showed up, she moved her habits to him. That was quite satisfactory in several ways, since Gaekwar isn’t ambitious (nor Othon) but manages his troops well (as does Othon). But then she started to get bored.

Then Seifas arrived in camp. Portunista was scared to try the same techniques with him; but she had grown too accustomed to having some kind of psychological advantage over her subcommanders in order to protect herself.

Dagon meanwhile knows his position is increasingly precarious: he knows by now that Portunista was never really attracted to him, and there are plenty of more competent subcommanders now (all of whom Portunista has a higher personal opinion of, albeit in varying ways), and dang here comes a whole other new guy in camp (Jian) who also seems competent and whom the Commander seems attracted to, too! Argh!

Dagon naturally thinks his best chance at keeping his position is to bully Jian into submission as soon as possible.

Which allows me to increase the few minor action scenes of this Section. But first, it’s time to set up what the plot of this book is going to be about.

(Incidentally, I had originally taken the opportunity to introduce the little turtle-shaped pillow toys known as Chiam with the younger kids watching nearby in the parry-training chapter; but it got nixed during trimming.)