Dragonquest - Donita K. Paul [46]
Kale scowled. Where have I seen someone move like that? He wasn’t an o’rant. Not a marione either. At Lee Ark’s! Two emerlindians did a demonstration match.
Kale stood and moved closer. She curled her toes against the chill of the dew-drenched grass. The moonbeam cape kept her body warm, but still she wrapped her arms around her torso.
Lee Ark and Leetu also approached the impromptu training field from their tents. Even before they reached Kale’s side, Leetu cheered when Bardon lightly jumped over Dar’s low swung sword.
“Dar, vary your approach,” ordered Lee Ark. “You’re too predictable.”
Fenworth strode over the rise and advanced upon the two practicing with swords. “Let’s see what Bardon does with a pole.”
Kale had been among Paladin’s soldiers long enough to know that the emerlindians, not o’rants, were masters of the pole and longbow.
Startled, both Dar and Bardon turned to the old wizard. Fenworth held a six-foot prime-pole in each hand. He extended one arm to offer a weapon to Bardon.
Dar looked up with a grin on his face. “Do it, Lehman. I bet you’re good at it.”
Bardon’s usual stoic mien relaxed. He clapped Dar on the shoulder, handed the doneel his sword, and took the weighty pole from the wizard.
“What are they doing?” asked Toopka, clinging to the leg of Kale’s trousers.
Kale put her hand on the soft fur between the little girl’s ears. “They are going to battle with prime-poles. If they had two shorter sticks, that would be lackey-canes. And shorter lackey-canes that have a strap attached to one end are called dodgerods or dodders.”
“I want a dodder.”
“They’re for fighting. They’re dangerous.”
“I want to be dangerous.”
Kale looked at the big brown eyes staring up at her. She clamped down a grin that would betray her amusement, but she couldn’t help teasing.
“Should a bisonbeck warrior ever catch sight of you with a weapon in your hand, he’d turn tail and run for the hills, howling all the way.”
Toopka’s expressive eyes widened for a fraction of a second and then narrowed. “Harrumph.” She turned back to watch Bardon and Fenworth readying.
The tyke sounded so much like old Wizard Fenworth that those standing close enough to hear burst into laughter. Toopka put her hands on her hips and stomped a foot.
Lee Ark, who had many children at home, swooped the tiny doneel up into the air and settled her on his shoulder.
“Watch, little one,” he said. “The men are wrapping soft leather around the knuckles of each hand. That’s to protect against blows.”
“Will Bardon beat the wizard? Bardon always beats Dar.”
Lee Ark tilted his head to look up at her. “He’s never beaten me.”
“You fight with swords and those hadwig thingies.”
“Still, he’s never beaten me.”
“But you are only old. Wizard Fenworth is oldest.” The marione general chuckled and patted the doneel’s knee with his large, broad hand.
Kale gave Toopka a hard look. Sometimes she suspected the child said things more out of orneriness than innocence.
Toopka, how old are you?
Toopka’s head jerked around to find Kale. “I told you I don’t know.”
Did you mean to be disrespectful to General Lee Ark? You should know better than to tell a person he’s old. It’s not polite.
Toopka’s lower lip jutted out in an angry pout. “I don’t think it’s fair for you to expect me to know things that we didn’t learn on the streets. No one ever talked about being polite. We talked about which shopkeeper had too much fruit in his stand, and when the brown spots were coming on, so we’d know where to forage.”
“Watch now, Toopka,” Lee Ark said, unknowingly interrupting. “They’ll touch their poles once at the top and then once at the base, then the match will begin.”
Wizard Fenworth and Bardon stood straight, gave a ceremonious salute, nodded solemnly, and shifted their feet into the fighting stance. Each man tilted the top of his pole forward. A sharp snap echoed across the meadow as the wood made contact. The men then angled the bottoms