Page 9
Story: A City of Swords and Fangs
CHAPTER 9
T he following day, after my German lesson with Frau Buckner, I trekked over to the Enforcer’s headquarters. I carried my gi and carved wooden practice swords that I had brought from the States. I was assigned a locker and discovered it had three uniforms hanging in it already. I put one on and fit the leather harness to hold my swords.
I went looking for Captain Le Pen and found him in a small office next to the sparring room.
“So, ready for your first day as an Enforcer?” he asked with a grin. “Well, first I’ll need to assess your skills.” He tapped a sheet of paper on his desk. “It says you’re a black belt? Well, let’s see what you can do.”
“Okay, I’ll go change into my gi,” I said.
He shook his head. “That uniform will do. It’s what you’ll be fighting in, right?”
Le Pen called over a woman who was several inches shorter than I was, wearing a gi and a black belt. We bowed to each other, and then I kicked her ass. She seemed slow to me.
After three minutes, Le Pen called a halt and replaced her with a man I judged to be about thirty—taller and heavier than I was, and also a black belt. We fought a three-minute bout, and I knew that if it had been judged, I would have scored more points than he did.
Le Pen obviously approved, because he took up a practice sword and had me pick one from a rack on the wall. I chose one that mimicked a Knight’s sword—slightly curved, with a basket hilt. The first six inches were double-edged, and the rest of it was single-edged. Sort of like a cross between a saber and a katana .
“Shielded, or unshielded?” I asked. I always sparred unshielded in Queen City because I didn’t have any partners who were mages. I had also collected a lot of bruises that way, and you had to stay away from your opponent’s head or vital areas.
“Let’s go shielded,” he answered.
We sparred for about half an hour, far longer than any actual fight I had been in. When he finally called a halt, I was glad I’d shielded. Otherwise, I would have been a mass of bruises. By my count, he had killed me once, and I had killed him twice. The practice sword I was using was not to my liking.
“I haven’t worked against a left-hander in a long time,” he said, panting.
“I’m not used to working with one hand,” I said. “The katana is normally a two-handed sword, or if used by one hand, then the wakizashi is used with the other. Or, in tight quarters, only the wakizashi is used.”
“We shall have to explore that sometime.”
“I have practice swords I brought from the U.S.—high-quality teak, balanced and a bit heavier than my steel.”
He nodded. “You weren’t bragging when you said you didn’t need instruction. You were fighting in a style you’ve never studied, and you fought me to a stand-still.” He barked out a laugh. “Who am I fooling? You beat me. You said you had trained in Olympic saber?”
“Yes. The sensei I trained with also ran the local fencing club. Quite different than real-life fighting.” I stepped close to him and dropped my voice. “I’m used to fighting vampires, not sparring with mages. You’re a little slow.”
He laughed, and said, “By that standard, so are you.”
We had attracted quite an audience. I hung my sword in the rack and headed for the shower, my uniform wringing wet with sweat. And there before me was Roland Müller.
“Hey, need someone to wash your back?” he said, his eyes traveling up and down my body.
“Get out of my way.” I pushed past him, but he grabbed my arm.
“You’re a snotty bitch, aren’t you?”
I punched him in the solar plexus, which bent him over. Grabbing his head in both my hands, I guided his face into my knee and heard the crunch of cartilage breaking. He fell to the floor, blood covering his face. I walked over and bent down.
“If you ever touch me again, I will cripple you. That is not a threat, that is a promise.”
I straightened and looked around, finding both Le Pen and Hans among those watching. No one said anything or tried to approach me. But as I turned toward the showers, Gertrude, Siobhan’s friend, fell in beside me.
“I have wanted to do that forever,” she said, “but I never had the guts. You know that he’s Master Otto’s pet.”
“I don’t care if he’s anointed by God. He needs to keep his hands to himself.”
She grinned. “Want to go get a drink?”
I wondered if she might be making a pass at me, but I really didn’t care. A drink sounded like a good idea.
“As soon as I shower. I probably smell like a horse.”
Gertrude was almost as tall as I was, and probably ten or fifteen kilos heavier. Thickly built, but not fat—unless you counted her chest. She wore her carrot-colored, frizzy hair at shoulder length, and she had a million freckles. When she stripped out of her uniform to shower, I amended that to a jillion freckles—all over her body. She was a geomancer, and I noted that she hadn’t been practicing with a sword, but rather with a mace.
“Is that what you carry on the street? A mace?” I asked as we were dressing.
She reached into her locker and pulled out a double-bladed battle axe with a six-inch spike on the end.
“The spike is wood,” she said with a grin. “Ebony. This is my strigoi killer. I’m not really built for fast and fancy, but the one time I got into it with a couple of Knights, they decided to look elsewhere for their entertainment.”
I reached out, and she handed the axe to me. It was heavy—far heavier than even my teak practice sword—and most of the weight was in the head.
When we left the locker room, Captain Le Pen was waiting for us.
“Kaitlyn, there will be consequences. I’ll back you up, but Müller and his family, and probably Master Otto, will scream about you attacking him.”
“I didn’t attack him—I defended myself.”
“I know. And I’m going to write him up for inappropriate behavior. You girls enjoy yourselves, and watch your backs.”
“Tell them to take it up with Master Adolphus. My responsibilities are to him and Master Noah.”
Le Pen chuckled.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9 (Reading here)
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44