Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Twenty One - The Cage

Zalibar gave another shrill whistle and the two stood back. "First blood to Geraint," he announced, as Kiernonda rubbed his cheek. "An irritating wound rather than an incapacitating one. Mind you, it wouldn't have done anything for your looks."

That caused some laughs and rude comments from round the walls... particularly with the state of his own face!

Another whistle blast told them to start fighting again.

Now Kiernonda was being much more cautious. The two circled each other before Geraint launched a second blow to the face with his dagger. But this one was a dummy and, as Kiernonda moved to block it, he struck a more serious blow towards Kiernonda's left side which was completely undefended.

But Geraint's sword was blocked an inch from Kiernonda's hip as if it had hit a wall.

"Great mental block," Carodoc said as Kiernonda launched a whole series of attacks against Geraint, who'd been shaken when his blow hadn't landed. It took him a few moments of desperate blocking before he could recover his poise and go back to his normal parrying thing. The two began to circle again with only halfhearted attacks.

Suddenly Kiernonda lowered his guard and stepped back. "What on earth..." Carodoc exclaimed. "Oh, he's trying to get G to commit himself. Risky, but it might be worth it if he's getting tired."

They began to circle again with Kiernonda holding his weapons loosely by his side. Geraint tried a couple of tentative blows but Kiernonda knocked them aside with the power of his mind.

Suddenly Geraint made a dummy blow with his dagger to Kiernonda's left leg, before driving a smashing blow to his left shoulder with his sword. Kiernonda must have been taken in by the dummy because he didn't manage to block it mentally. He desperately tried to parry the blow with his dagger but he only managed to deflect it down onto his breastplate. As he was smashed to the ground, his dagger slipped from his grasp and tumbled out of reach. He rolled desperately to one side as Geraint tried to smash him with his sword.

But, as he rolled, he threw a handful of sand at Geraint. He must have been steering the stuff with his mind because it hit him full in the face. In the instant it took Geraint to recover, Kiernonda had rolled back to his feet and knocked him to the ground with a sword blow to the knee. He then raised his sword for a final crushing blow as Zalibar whistled again.

It was only a matter of an instant but even I could see he could have pulled the blow. Instead he chose to follow through, striking Geraint on the helmet. The crowd, which, up until that point, had been roaring wild encouragement, fell silent.

"You dolt!" Zalibar said. His voice was quiet but venom dripped from every word and the effect was even more frightening than when he was shouting. "I was just about to congratulate you on an extremely well fought victory. Instead, because you couldn't resist a cheap blow, you forfeit that bout and you're on tyro duties for the whole week."

At a nod from Zalibar, Olwen and another tyro jumped down into the pit and helped Geraint out through the gate.

Zalibar then turned to Jenko, "Right," he said, "we have an opponent that you should actually be able to beat."

"Looks like you're up," Carodoc whispered. "Nobody's expecting too much of you, so if you put in a couple of decent parries and try to get in a blow or two yourself, Zalibar's not going to be too tough on you. Good luck!" He grabbed one of my hands and lowered me down into the pit.

Breathing hard and trying to stop my knees from trembling, I moved to stand opposite Jenko.

"Oh yes, Jenko!" Zalibar added. "You were late this morning. Toss your dagger up here. You certainly shouldn't need it to deal with someone who's not been in training for a full week yet!"