Enter The Champion

5. Tides

In the early morning heat, Jeremiah closed the leather bound journal she'd kept empty for nearly seventeen years and slid the ink pen she'd been using inside its front cover. The day was formidable, the noon sun baked her in her skin from where she sat idle, only able to roughly predict what hell it beat down on the two boys in the sparring ring. Nobody else was outside. By some vendetta, or perhaps some bout of sympathy, Lenore had barred all guard members from the training yard for the day. He himself was no where to be seen, even more of an oddity than the absence of his men. For a moment Jeremiah wanted to conclude that Lenore was simply still angry from the past three days and had decided to work his frustrations out inside. Whatever means he took were his sole concern.
Had it not been for the guardsman inside the sparring ring, shaking with a mixture of fear and exhaustion, she would've possibly believed he'd ordered them all confined to the barracks. This guardsman was nobody extraordinary that she knew of, yet Parvati had chosen him to train with. It seemed to Jeremiah that he was doing more teaching than he was training against the boy. Every few strikes, Parvati would stop and correct the boy's sword position or footing, and then go back to either defending the boy's attacks or driving him back nearly out of the circle. The guardsman in question was far from a horrible swordsman, as despite the corrections he was keeping up with Parvati's pace rather well. Both of them were dripping with perspiration, their training tunics wetted through with it. They'd been at it several hours without more than five minutes' worth of a break. The guardsman had showed signs of fatigue first, but now Parvati was beginning to tremble too. His legs buckled slightly when he squared off yet again with the guardsman, whose name Jeremiah was desperately trying to remember. As if reading her thoughts, Parvati slid a fiery glance at her and answered her unspoken question.
"This is General Kaene Ayers, Jeremiah. I would think your father would've perhaps considered him as his captain with such excellent endurance and swordsmanship."
Jermiah blinked at the guardsman, taking him in with the same scrutiny she'd first given Parvati. Kaene was perhaps just over twenty, with a lovely fine boned face and eyes the color of warm caramel. They slanted inward and found fuller shape at their bottom than their top. His hair was a cornsilk shade of blonde, shaggy and just past his chin. Unusual for a guardsman. Overall, he was just as attractive as Parvati. The lighter side of handsome to Parvati's dark. After a few more minutes of what she predicted was all out sparring, Parvati tossed down his blade with a snarl.
"I see. He's lived in your house and protected you since you were a child yet you fail to know his name? Is that because the captain's father has been shoving him at you your whole life as if he's some sort of marvelous prize? Or do you simply not care for the men who protect your life, house, and everything within?"
A cold laugh came from behind where Jeremiah was sitting, on a large sanded log used for physical conditioning, and she jumped up to face its owner.
"Good morning, Captain," the rage came back at the events of the day before the moment she saw Lenore's face.
His eyes tightened around the pupils, as if he'd expected a much warmer welcome from Jeremiah.
"You question the woman who's named you her champion about how much she cares about the members of the household she's sought you to protect. Don't you find a bit of disloyalty in that, Heiress?", he looked down at Jeremiah as if he expected her to answer immediately.
Glacial rage and fiery disapproval warred in between the two like the way a storm warred against the sea. Violently, wordlessly, but with more than enough damage done. Jeremiah found herself moving to the side, completely in between the two warriors. Kaene moved to stand at her right side, as if he sensed the possibility of another brawl as well.
"Captain, I was just finishing a sparring session with our champion. I'll escort Jeremiah into town this evening for her father's recommended shopping expedition," Kaene spoke for the first time since she'd learned his name.
Jeremiah froze at this. It was the first she'd heard of any shopping trip into town, and the first she'd heard of her father recommending any sort of thing. Lenore gave a slight smirk, the smallest upturn of his lips.
"Ah, Kaene, that won't be necessary. Our earl has asked that I escort Jeremiah personally," Jeremiah didn't miss how he looked over at Parvati when he said this, "with her mother being so active as of lately."
Kaene nodded, and nudged his way past Jeremiah with a soft apology, as if he were confused by the matter and preferred to leave it all together.
"With all due respect, Captain, being the heiress' champion I do believe that responsibility comes to me until the end of the dueling month, which is not until the end of October." Parvati clearly struggled to remain calm. Jeremiah could see the well sized muscles in his arms bunching in irritation.
"I have orders," Lenore stepped around Jeremiah, nearly coming boot to boot with Parvati, " to escort Lady Hale personally this evening. These come from her father. If you have a quarrel with it, by all means, take it up with her father."
"Her father knows what rights lie where, and I find it very hard to believe he'd make an exception to those rights without some sort of persuasion."
Lenore chuckled.
"Persuasion. What you are insinuating is-"
Jeremiah took a deep breath, head on the cusp of collapsing in on itself from both confusion and chaos. It surprised both of the men when the much smaller girl slid in between them and slammed a hand into each of their chests.
"Instead of fighting with my champion over who is escorting me for a shopping trip I was never made aware of, Lenore, why don't you start by explaining who the hell authorized the trip and decided not to tell me?", the demand in her voice wiped the smirk from the captain's face.
"Your father did," came the plain reply.
Jeremiah had grown alongside Lenore, had learned him inside and out long before he'd become responsible for her life and safety. She knew when he was nervous, lying, confident or uncertain. She even knew when he was feeling ill and when he was feeling particularly moody based on how he spoke. She knew the only time in which Lenore would give her such short responses was when he'd had something to do with the subject at hand. Parvati tensed against her hand, the impressively hard muscles of his chest bunching under the hand she still pushed against it, as if he realized this too.
"It would seem," his chest vibrated with the deep tones of his voice whilst he spoke, "that the captain would like some quality alone time with you, Heiress."
Parvati stepped out from behind her hand and moved past Lenore like quicksilver, a feral grin revealing the sharp teeth in his mouth.
"Maybe if you wanted to prove to the earl that it should have been you in my place, you should have done it before the decision was made and not now that you see who has taken the place you wanted so badly, captain."
Lenore visibly stiffened, every muscle in his body bunching and flexing under the tight sweater and leather pants he wore. When he noticed this, Parvati gave a laugh.
"I am sorry to say, Heiress, but do try your hardest to enjoy such a quantity of alone time with our ever so brave and cunning captain. I will be here when you return, should you decide to seek out someone capable of entertaining your free will."
And like that, as quick as a match fading or the tides washing out, her champion was gone.