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They had just returned from overseeing the pruning of some of the fruit trees in the orchard. Jullanar Maebh still missed the smells of the sea from time to time, but as winter slowly released its hold on the surrounding woods and fields, she was learning to appreciate the scents of South Fiellan in their turn.
They had just set aside their muddy boots, and Squire Dart - her father; but she still had trouble thinking of him in that direct term - mentioned something about a hot chocolate. But Sir Hamish was only just finishing his own late breakfast, and looked up to tell them that Perry had brought a visitor from Ragnor Bella. "His tutor from Stoneybridge, I believe."
Jullanar Maebh drew a sharp breath. "Domina Black is here?" After hearing all that Perry had to say of the woman, and sharing more than a few long discussions about history where Perry had sprinkled in "Domina Black says..." entirely too often, Jullanar Maebh had read some of the Stoneybridge professor"s work. She had, in fact, encountered some of that work before but had not paid particular attention to the keenness of the mind that shaped it. Once she was paying attention, she could quite see why Perry admired the woman so well.
"Oh, where are they?" she cried. "May I go to join them?" she asked the Squire quickly, and he nodded. "I should change into something nicer," she said nervously, wondering if her Tara robes would be quite appropriate.
But Sir Hamish pointed out mildly, "Perry has often spoken of how practical Domina Black is."
"Not to mention her skill with the sword," the Squire added.
"Ah, yes, she was wearing one, I noticed."
"Oh! Would she be willing to spar, do you think?" Jullanar Maebh had enjoyed practicing with her uncle Perry (scarcely older than herself) and with his friend Mr. Greenwing. And also, when she crept out of the hall on a few quiet evenings, with Roald Ragnor. But she had already been familiar with Roald"s exuberant, incautious style of fighting from their days at Tara, and there was nothing new to learn there. And she certainly was not going to consider any other activities with Roald until he came clean about exactly what game of deception he had been playing at Tara, when he had blown alternately hot and cold with her. She would need plain answers on that before their association could proceed any further.
But Domina Black! Jullanar Maebh had heard about her skills with the sword even before she was exposed to Perry"s eager gushings. If there was any chance of a lesson or even just a few passes, Jullanar would leap at the chance.
"Go on then, get your sword," the Squire said indulgently.
"I believe they are out by the stable," said Sir Hamish. "Meeting Ballory." The unicorn foal had scarcely been larger than a cat when Perry had first found her, but was now the size of a large dog. That did not entirely preclude Ballory coming within the house, so long as one made certain her hooves were reasonably clean before allowing her in. But as the weather warmed, the unicorn had been electing to spend more time outside or in the stables of her own accord, and a special stall had been set aside for her with a number of amenities that she liked and horses did not, including a battered old couch and a selection of soft blankets.
Jullanar Maebh rushed upstairs to belt on her sword and find some boots better suited for fighting than for tromping about in a muddy orchard. Then she hurried out to the stable, slowing her steps as she came around the curve of the building and found Perry, Mr. Greenwing, Mrs. Etaris, and an unfamiliar woman in Stoneybridge robes standing just outside the stable. Ballory was polishing her horn against Perry"s thigh while they all talked, her short tail whapping against Mr. Greenwing as she swung it in circles like a lamb at the suckle.
Jullanar Maebh waited for a lull in the conversation before pressing her hat to her chest (not sweeping it about in any kind of flamboyant gesture like some people did) and bowing graciously to the newcomer.
Domina Black was shorter than she had expected - shorter than Jullanar Maebh herself - with rich coppery skin and shining black hair only barely streaked with grey. Her eyebrows had a sardonic, skeptical cant to them, over piercing eyes that sized up Jullanar Maebh quickly and then glanced to Mrs. Etaris.
"It is quite a common name in this region," said Mrs. Etaris, who also shared the name Jullanar. "No doubt you"ve had a few students by the name over the years?"
"One or two," Domina Black conceded. She looked next to Jullanar Maebh"s sword. "I understand that most people in these parts do not go openly armed?"
"Oh!" Jullanar tried to think of an excuse that would not sound too fawning. "I, er, I heard that Perry and Mr. Greenwing had returned from town, and wondered if they would care for a practice bout or two."
Domina Black"s eyebrows said that she saw through this deception but was too polite to comment on it.
Perry"s laugh said something of the same. "I"ll get a pair of blades for us. You show Domina Black out to the granary."
So Jullanar Maebh led the others to the granary beside the five-acre field, explaining that this was where they had been practicing during the winter, because it was unused this year.
Domina Black looked around the building, still fundamentally intact save for a few patches of crumbling mortar. "Why is no grain being stored here?"
Mr. Greenwing flushed, which was a thing he did quite frequently. Both Perry and Roald seemed to try to elicit the blushes, in fact.
"There was a dragon corpse being stored here from just after the harvest festival," Mrs. Etaris explained, and Jullanar Maebh waited for the story about Jemis" dragon-slaying feat to follow, but it seemed Domina Black had already heard that part of the story, for she merely nodded.
Perry arrived with a pair of blades, one slightly heavier and a lighter one favoured by Mr. Greenwing. He tilted his head to Domina Black to permit her to choose her opponent, and Jullanar Maebh held her breath. But Domina Black said she wanted to see him in action first, "To see if you"ve been keeping up your practice."
"Oh, as to that..." Perry shrugged his shoulder uneasily. "I had a bit of trouble with my arm over the winter. But I did get in quite a bit of work with my left hand during that time!"
Domina Black raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, are you given to switching hands now?"
"He is," Mr. Greenwing said at once before Perry could attempt any modesty. "He"s gotten quite good at it. Shall we show her, Mr. Dart?" He always called Perry "Mr. Dart" even when in the same room as the Squire whom he called "Master Dart."
So the two men got to spar together while the women stood around and watched, a situation that Jullanar Maebh noted sourly. Then Mrs. Etaris gave her a sidelong smile, and Jullanar Maebh suddenly felt as if they were in camaraderie with each other, like parents trying to wear out the small children so that they could have a few private moments with each other later on.
Mr. Greenwing was very fast and accurate with his light blade, though Perry"s strength - especially with the shoulder that had borne a stone arm for several months - could be devastating if he ever connected. Today, Mr. Greenwing was mostly using his speed to draw out all of Perry"s best moves as a show for his tutor. They knew each other too well, laughing and exchanging private jokes instead of truly sparring against one another.
"Right, then," Domina Black snapped out crisply, and drew her sword. "Both of you at once." And she stepped forward neatly into the fray.
In a heartbeat Perry and Mr. Greenwing were side-by-side. With Mr. Greenwing on the right, holding his own blade in his right hand, Perry switched quickly to his left hand. This ensured their sword-arms would not interfere with each other, and they should have been in a good position to pinch Domina Black between them. But it proved not so.
The short, sardonic, middle-aged professor proved to be faster even than Jemis Greenwing whose handkerchiefs were embroidered with the Old Shaian symbol for "Racer." Somehow she had the both of them outflanked without seeming to try, and each of them was repeatedly caught on the back foot or facing the wrong way. Domina Black toyed with them for a few minutes before quickly disarming first Mr. Greenwing and then Perry.
Jullanar Maebh caught her breath and began to clap. Mrs. Etaris just laughed. "I see you haven"t lost any of your old skills," she said.
And that got Jullanar Maebh to thinking, just at the point when she should have been arguing that her turn was next. Mrs. Etaris and Domina Black were apparently old friends, it seemed.
But Mrs. Etaris had never said so, whenever Perry brought up his tutor in her presence. Was she merely keeping matters close to her chest, as she seemed prone to do? Or had she known Domina Black by another name?
Jullanar Maebh looked up to realise that even without advocating for herself, she had been chosen to go next against Domina Black. She drew her sword and saluted briskly, not showing her nervousness. It was a lesson, she told herself sternly.
And it was, indeed, quite a lesson. Domina Black moved slowly at first until she had Jullanar Maebh"s measure, and then kept the bout at a level that was just fast enough to push her to her best and a little beyond. Once Jullanar Maebh had used all her best moves, the professor began to show her more, finishing each pass with a delicate touch of her flat against Jullanar"s shoulder or thigh rather than disarming her.
Once Jullanar Maebh had witnessed and almost absorbed five new moves, Domina Black took mercy on her at last and ended the bout with her point a few inches from Jullanar Maebh"s throat.
Breathing swiftly, Jullanar Maebh managed a dignified bow and accepted the sword that Mrs. Etaris had retrieved from the corner. That had certainly given her quite a bit to think about, particularly the ways that a small woman could use her compact body as a lever or a swift-spinning pivot to outmaneuver a larger, slower opponent.
But now that she was no longer moving, her mind returned to the other new information she had to think about.
Roald Ragnor had theories about Mrs. Etaris. Not that Jullanar Maebh put much stock in Roald"s opinion one way or the other. And she was only too familiar with the speculative looks cast at any woman introduced by the name "Jullanar," even here in South Fiellan where it was a common name. How much more common must it have been a few decades earlier, among that generation born before the Red Company made the name infamous?
But, it must be said that Mrs. Etaris, unlike Jullanar Maebh, was of the correct age. And the correct colouring. And she was a very discreet woman with some unexpected skills, who took in her stride the most absurd situations that even Jemis Greenwing"s abominable luck could bring about.
Mr. Greenwing had suggested that perhaps Mrs. Etaris should be the next one up for a bout, but Mrs. Etaris only laughed, "I"m in skirts!"
"You should be able to defend yourself in whatever you"re wearing," said Domina Black firmly.
"I"m also very out of practice. I"ll leave it to you to wear down the youngsters," said Mrs. Etaris. Which implied that at one time she had been in practice. When she had picked up Jullanar Maebh"s sword, she had held it automatically at the ready.
So if Roald"s theories about Mrs. Etaris did have some foundation in fact, then who might this old friend of hers be? Among the females of the Red Company, the list of copper-skinned women with skeptical attitudes and extremely advanced sword skills (and with two arms) was a short one.
So now it seemed it would be Mr. Greenwing"s turn to receive a lesson from Domina Black, for they were squaring off in ready positions. Jullanar Maebh looked back and forth between the two women putatively of the Red Company, and the two young men who - well, they were quite sweet, in all honesty. And they had both been very kind about making certain that Jullanar Maebh felt welcome in her father"s house and in the village. But even so, they could be quite annoyingly secretive and close with each other sometimes, so that Jullanar Maebh felt left out even when they did not seem to intend it so.
(Roald Ragnor had been their close friend and childhood playmate, in the days before they all attended separate universities. Did he sometimes feel left out by their inexplicable closeness and in-jokes?)
And so, after the first flurry where Mr. Greenwing almost brought his sword around in time to block the eely twist of Domina Black"s blade, Jullanar Maebh gave into the impulse for mischief.
"Mr. Greenwing! Did you tell Domina Black about how you were arrested for the murder of Fitzroy Angursell?"
Silence. The dust motes gleamed in the sunlight slanting across the granary from the opening above.
Domina Black"s eyes were suddenly very intent upon Mr. Greenwing.
"It was a false charge!" he said hastily. "It was the dragon. That is, supposedly the dragon was Fitzroy Angursell. But it wasn"t, really. I kept it from eating my uncle!"
The air very nearly crackled.
"The dragon," said Mrs. Etaris drily, "had no sense of humour."
Domina Black"s gaze left Mr. Greenwing for a moment, flicking toward Mrs. Etaris. Whatever she saw must have reassured her, for she said, "In that case, it was certainly a false charge."
"Of course it w-" began Mr. Greenwing, but in the next moment he was facing a whirlwind of steel that had him backing, and backing, until his heel was against the wall of the granary. Over the course of the next minute, every defense he brought to bear was methodically demolished, and his pitiful ripostes went nowhere, until at last his blade went flying across the room.
Jullanar Maebh bit her lip. Perhaps that had been just a bit more mischief than she had intended to bring down?
But then she saw the gleam in Perry"s eyes. He had, no doubt, had his own defenses taken apart by this woman more than once, and had learned the better for it. He knew both Domina Black and Mr. Greenwing, and was far more familiar with their abilities than Jullanar Maebh. He seemed more amused than alarmed, so it must be all right.
Domina Black turned dismissively away from Mr. Greenwing while he was recovering his poise and his weapon, and Perry chose that moment to bring up Jullanar Maebh"s history studies at Tara. Domina Black expressed interest and interrogated Jullanar Maebh about her thesis while continuing to chase Mr. Greenwing about the granary for the next several minutes. By the time they walked back to the house for luncheon, Domina Black had moved on to her own theories about the late Astandalan period. Mr. Greenwing was flushed and breathing heavily, but seemed cheerful and not at all inclined to blame Jullanar Maebh for his suffering. It was all very satisfactory.
Later, Jullanar Maebh wondered if she might bump into Roald the next time she ventured into the village. He would undoubtedly laugh to hear of this story, she thought. Perhaps, if she played her hand well, she could use it to extract another fragment of the truth from him.
He owed her quite a few fragments, she thought.