ALEX ENJOYED THE feeling of the hard road under her boots. Verus had finally granted her permission to walk part of the time, subject to the timeframes that he chose for her, the day after she'd sold Naevius's horse. Every night since then, they'd eat together, then he'd check her healing rib, then he'd inspect both her feet to ensure she wasn't getting any blistering, then – finally – he would allow her to train. She still trained lightly, not wanting to lengthen the already extended healing time the First File enforced on her, but felt confident in adding weapons to her solo forms the past two nights as she started getting back to feeling normal and fight ready again.
Verus joined her tonight, as he did most nights now, stepping through familiar and unfamiliar motions with her and learning quickly whatever she paused to coach him on. A few voices sniggered outside the reaches of the firelight as Alex corrected Verus through a series of motions that were new to him. The First File frowned as Alex grinned, seeing clearly Verus's frustration at not learning the unfamiliar fighting style quickly enough for his own liking.
"Stand over there and watch," she said, pointing toward an empty spot in the usual ring of spectators around the large space made beside Verus's tent that the men now referred to as the Training Ground.
He stalked over and turned to stare at her hard, his gaze absorbing each line of her body and ready to study each part of the form again. Her competitive martial arts instructors would have killed to have such a student, she thought. She stepped through the form slowly, stating at each move what the intent of the motion was. When she finished, Verus still scowled.
"I don't see the effectiveness," he finally said.
Alex thought for a second about how to explain this one to him. It was a really good form, with the intention of being a single fighter against at least four opponents, and had moves that were simple to expand on and modify as needed for up to eight opponents – as she'd discovered one night when hitting a rowdy bar back in her university days.
"Do not watch me this time," she told him. "Look at the men I fight."
She went back to the starting position and stepped through again, this time telling him the attacks of the people she was shadowboxing rather than what her defenses and retaliations were. Verus's gaze flicked around her as she worked through the motions, his visualization of the slow-motion fight clear and concise.
He was looking where her final imaginary attacker lay when she straightened from the low finishing stance. There was a vicious grin playing at his mouth when he locked eyes with her this time. He came out from the sidelines and settled in beside her to step through the form again, his executions of the motions nearly flawless as they slowly worked through it together.
"Good. Do that ten times again, then start to add speed."
Verus grinned at her after she gave him some minor corrections to improve his balance in a couple places, then he turned to go back to the starting position.
Following in what had become their habit, Verus soon had at least twenty men following along with him at one end of the Training Ground, and Alex moved down to the other end where the crowd had slowly been thickening for the first hour that she and Verus trained together. She borrowed a second sword from one of the men and went out to a place where she wouldn't endanger anyone watching or training. Alex closed her eyes and settled her breathing, tuning out the crowd so she could focus on the forms she wanted to work on. She easily visualized the opponents and slipped into the fights, letting the instructions of her own teachers echo in her thoughts in complement to the humming of the blades.
***
Brasus slid into the crowd around the Training Ground. He was late getting here tonight, but thankfully hadn't missed the showing completely. The group following the First File was larger tonight by a few men, the same increase as every night this past week. The Optio figured that at this rate, the Training Ground would have to be expanded tomorrow. Brasus memorized the motions that the First File was teaching, adding them to the large arsenal he already knew and planning to run through the steps before going to sleep tonight so that what he saw could be fully learned.
Once he was certain that he had the movements committed to memory, he turned to watch Alex work through her private training. As usual lately, she flew through the motions, gracefully sliding from stance to stance, seemingly oblivious to the many eyes – Brasus's included – watching, mesmerized. He knew he was one of the few who saw she had yet to add any force to the actions she practiced, and who also knew the full extent of the injuries she was still recovering from. He was hungry to see what she would be capable of once fully healed, and how much he could learn to take home to his family. He didn't bother to hide the small grin that pulled at his lips at the thought of his daughters wielding swords as easily as the Lady before him.
The betting for this evening had already started: how long the Lady would train for tonight, which of the men following the First File would stay on to spar, if the First File would allow the Lady to spar yet, and other random questions. The serious wagers wouldn't start until the sparring began, and by then Brasus would have safely tucked his purse away. He never bet on sparring; he didn't believe such wagers were in good faith, to tell the gods outright which of the men he didn't trust enough to believe would win a match when at any moment they could be the men he fought beside. He did, however, make more coin than he lost in his choices of which men would choose to take up sparring this evening.
The Lady returned the sword she'd apparently borrowed and started into another set of movements as the First File organized the men into matches. The Prefect had come out this evening, as he had yesterday, settling in to oversee the fighting pairs after making a few bets among the spectators. The two senior officers on the Ground joked together and with the fighters as the fun matches started.
Brasus moved through the shifting crowd, angling to see the Lady better as she trained, not realizing until she locked eyes with him and smiled slightly that he had come to the front edge of the Training Ground. She had been repeating a single move, slowing with each repetition, making small adjustments and still not happy with the result. He suffered the misfortune of being surrounded by men he knew, and found himself shoved forward when she gestured him to come out to where she stood, the shouts behind him telling him that wagers were already being placed simply on whether or not he would go see what she wanted. Hearing that most were placing bets that he would return to the crowd, he smiled politely and walked across to where she stood.
"Verus says you are better in a fight than him?" she asked, too quietly for the raucous crowd to hear.
"I am," he replied honestly, careful to hold still so as to not provide any clue to the conversation.
"You are to see the whole move?" she asked, pointing at herself, obviously frustrated.
"I did."
"You see the bad balance?" She frowned sharply as he started to shake his head 'no'. "Watch close. My balance is good slow, but fast is bad."
She stepped through the whole move at the same training speed she worked at with the First File, pointing out where she felt the problem. Brasus let his body relax and his thoughts focus, as he'd been trained for any fight he had ever been in. He observed the Lady as she requested, first slowly and then with the blade flicking around her and the full motion taking less time than a single breath. In his mind, he slowed and analyzed the second time, comparing to what she had done originally, seeing clearly the small differences.
"At speed, your left heel doesn't come as completely around, and your left shoulder drops forward as well."
She nodded, internalizing the feedback. She stepped through the motion again, slowly, then again and again and gaining slightly more speed with each repetition. Soon, even to his eye, the blade was a blur. She stopped after more run-throughs than he counted, smiling and finally pleased with the way the motion felt.
"That is good now, thank you," she said, ignoring the groans of the waiting crowd as she sheathed her sword. Brasus hid his smile behind a small bow toward her at the many men who'd just lost the wager that she was going to spar with him. Before he straightened again, her arm linked through his.
***
Alex decided to end the training on a high note. It was lucky for her that Brasus happened to come forward tonight so she could borrow his abilities. Usually he just lurked behind the front ring of men where it would be strange to ask him for help. Verus had told her on more than one occasion that Brasus was better at hand-to-hand than he was, and there weren't any good mirrors out here where she could check her stance.
She darted a glance at Verus, who was still occupied with the sparring matches despite his frown in her direction for calling Brasus out of the crowd, and smiled brightly at her self-proclaimed guardian. She slipped in beside Brasus and linked arms with him, earning a formal glare from Verus. The Optio tensed in surprise, his glance wary when he looked between her and Verus after slowly straightening. Verus gestured to the man beside her and Alex felt Brasus's free hand clamp down over her wrist, pinning her hand to his arm.
"Big brother says also that you know horses," she said quietly, turning away from the sparring matches.
Brasus stayed in step beside her as she angled toward the thickest part of the crowd. He was clearly more than unimpressed at his current situation, but had just as obviously been ordered to stay in it.
"I do," he replied, his tone clipped and his features blank.
"Come to see a horse with me?" she asked quietly. "I saw her in Bonna and see her in the camp, but not in the line."
"The First File --"
"Is occupied," she interrupted, and Alex felt the Optio's hand tighten on her wrist as he tried to slow the pace she'd set toward the horse pens. "Come and see the horse, check on Max, and return me to Verus before the sparring ends."
Brasus's mind clicked through the numerous ways that this evening had suddenly soured as the Lady pulled him through the crowd, away from the First File, as men politely bowed and shifted out of the way. He'd been ordered to escort her, but with no specifics as to how. He was sorely tempted to grab her by the arm and haul her back to the First File's tent, but too many shadows had detached from the crowd to follow along to make that a feasible option. He relented and matched her pace, pushing out his breath angrily. She chuckled and patted his fingers where they were clamped around her other hand.
Brasus scanned between the tents as they walked along in silence, noting that there was an increase in followers rather than the decrease he'd been hoping for. The Lady didn't seem to bother looking around, she instead was taking the most direct route to the horse pens. His concern that she'd lied about the destination dimmed as the pens came into sight and she looked over the horses for the one she – surprisingly – actually did want to ask him about.
"She is there." The Lady pointed to the left once she spotted the mare she wanted to show him.
He turned their steps in that direction, seeing at least the pen she was interested in if not knowing the specific mare yet. The men who'd been following them slowly stepped out into view and angled over toward the pen Brasus was leading the Lady to, wagers being made for what the horse business would be, and if horses would actually be involved.
The Lady twisted her hand out of his grip, surprising him unpleasantly for a third time this evening, and called quietly to one of the mares in the same language she used to talk to Max. She leaned her elbows on the top railing of the pen for all the horses inside to sniff at her hands and multiple animals walked over to gently nose at her fingers looking for attention.
"She is here," the Lady said, gently rubbing at a walnut bay's ears and face.
The dark mare was larger than the other horses in the pen, and Brasus knew her to be in the Calvary with the 10th cohort. She'd had a single owner and rider, as far as he knew, and had been through quite a few battles. He also knew the owner had been killed a few years ago, and there wasn't a man in the Legion who had been able to hold a seat on her since. The mare was well proportioned and had excellent lines for war and for breeding, but wasn't an animal that he would ever choose to own. Brasus wished he could be surprised that the warhorse was acting affectionately toward the Lady, when typically such animals – especially this one – had no tolerance for anyone besides their owners.
"What would you like to know about her?" he asked, assuming now that she wanted to find out about breeding.
"Do you know her?" the Lady asked in response.
"In general," he intentionally kept his answer vague. "She's been a war mount for a cavalryman of the 10th cohort for some years."
"She has only one man own her?"
"As much as I know, only one man has ever owned her," he replied.
The Lady nodded, stroking the strong neck of the mare in question, her thoughts hidden. She spoke quietly in one of her other languages and the mare rubbed at her shoulder. A few of the other horses nosed in on the attention, and Alex gave them pats and scratches, chuckling quietly and talking to the mare.
"He is a good man with his horse, she is kind." The Lady smiled at the mare, oblivious to the horse's history. "And now we go to check on Max," she said.
She gave the mare a final pat and stepped away from the fence to link her arm back around his. Brasus relaxed slightly that she seemed done with her questions, as Verus obviously hadn't told her anything about the mare.
Alex felt Brasus tense as one of the men who'd been following them blocked their path. He was young, not handsome, but could be if he was able to live to his thirties, and by his clothes Alex assumed he was Auxiliary. His posture shifted from swaggering to contrite as he realized her stare was fully on him, and her quick assessment of him told her that he wasn't alone, but his friends were not as close as they were supposed to be. The young man wet his lips with his tongue as he looked between herself and Brasus, trying to figure out who to speak to and finding his nerve to talk to either of them ebbing away. Alex glanced at her walking partner and patted the hand at the end of the arm she held.
"You look unfriendly," she chided Brasus, "and now he is scared to speak. Speak," she invited, turning back to the young man and putting a friendlier countenance on her face than Brasus continued to wear.
A touch of the swagger came back and the young man tried to regain the posturing he'd lost for a moment. He lost it again when Alex grinned at the horse pens, her eye pulled there by movement close to the fence, drawing the young man's eye to see the dark mare pressed close to the rails and glaring down at the scene. The poor fellow nearly fell to a knee as Hades swooped in and landed in a flapping flurry a few lengths down the fence, a couple of his recent friends cawing from the nearby trees.
The young man's gaze ripped away from the crow over to a bunch of shadows that were quickly drawing farther and farther away. Alex couldn't stop, she burst out laughing and lifted her hand in a silent call for Hades to come and roost on her arm. He flew over happily, receiving high praise from her in English for his impeccable timing. She held the little crow up high to show him to the nearly cowering young man.
"He has one leg, and his beak is bad," she said, still chuckling as she showed the man the lameness of Hades. "Every night I check my horse and I give this kite food. He is tame," she said, releasing Brasus's arm so she could gently stroke the smooth feathers on Hades' chest with her finger.
***
Brasus was grateful for his years of gambling, ensuring that while facing off with this poor fellow he didn't follow the Lady into a fit of laughter over the reaction to the mare and then the tame kite. The young man didn't look any less easy for the Lady's explanation, but at least he wasn't at risk of screaming anymore. The Lady pulled a stale biscuit from her pocket and – as she said she would – fed the bird that had been following her since the village where Ixillius had found her, speaking in her own language as she did. To Brasus, the young man showed clear signs of drinking too heavily and sobering too quickly – an effect he'd now seen a few times in situations surrounding the Lady.
"You stop us and then say nothing?" she asked as the young man recovered the barest threads of composure again, an amused smile pulling at the corner of her mouth as the kite snapped at the biscuit.
Brasus sighed. The man in front of him was maybe two years older than his oldest son, and was floundering badly with his friends having already run off between the tents. Brasus had been raised with the high and the powerful often coming to his father to buy horses, had spent two years living with one of the high and powerful as a personal trainer for one of his father's horses, and as a young man was given the full benefit of knowing the proper respects when confronted with a person such as the Lady beside him now. The young man in front of him could have been himself or his sons, had his father been in a different trade.
"What's your name?" Brasus asked, his demeanor shifting completely and assuming his regular posture when helping any of the men under his own command.
"Auxiliaryman Dario Quiros Ubina Torres, with the Archers," the young man mumbled toward his feet.
"I am Optio Brasus Nazario Albus," Brasus replied, stepping forward and offering his right hand. "We are well met," he greeted the young man. Dario Quiros Ubina Torres swallowed hard, prayed quickly, and clasped hands with the officer. "In the city of Rome, your good manners required you to reply 'we are well met' to ensure your friendly intentions are understood," Brasus coached quietly, still holding the younger man's arm. Dario's eyes snapped up to the Optio's face, terrified, and Brasus grinned good naturedly back at him. "The Lady Avilia and I take little offense, but some of the Legionnaires will give you trouble."
Dario suddenly seemed able to breathe again.
"We are well met," he stated, overloud and very carefully enunciated.
"Well done," Brasus continued quietly, finally releasing Dario's arm. He leaned in, conspiratorially, and the younger man followed suit. "I'm going to introduce you to the Lady, so stand up straight and just bow politely with your head and shoulders while I say your name. Drop your eyes out of respect, but don't expect her to do the same. She'll want you to make eye contact when you speak with her. Understand?"
Dario nodded jerkily in reply, his eyes searching Brasus's face for the confidence to actually complete the task he'd just been assigned. Brasus amended his first impression, realizing Dario was probably of an age to his oldest son.
"You do want to speak with her?" Brasus asked in confirmation after glancing over his shoulder to see the Lady was nearly done feeding the kite.
"I do, sir," Dario replied quickly, then swallowed hard as the kite flew back over to the nearby trees. "Very much, I do, sir," Dario was nearly pleading.
"All right, then. Remember, stand straight, bow from the shoulders, drop your eyes when you bow, but look her in the eye when you speak. Ready?"
"No," Dario stated honestly and Brasus chuckled and smiled at the youngster, gaining a sick shadow of a grin in return.
"Just be grateful you're not the First File," Brasus whispered with a wink. "Celsus Calix has to live with her."
Brasus was pleased to be rewarded with something closer to a nervous smile from Dario at the quick joke. The Lady in question had gone back to lavishing attention on the dark mare, which was soaking up the pats and ear rubs with no remorse or complaint. Other horses had gathered around, getting their noses scratched and necks stroked in turns, and reminding Brasus sharply of how the animals his father raised acted toward his middle daughter. She was a favorite of anything on four legs, and had started breeding war hounds alongside the horses her grandfather raised; and from the letters Brasus had received, she was already accomplished.
"Lady?" he spoke to her, shaking the image from his mind and drawing her attention away from the horses. "I introduce Dario Quiros Ubina Torres, an Archer in the service of the Auxiliary to Minerva's 1st," Brasus said formally. Dario followed the prompts Brasus had provided to a tee. "Auxiliaryman, I introduce Lady Alexandria Avilia."
***
Alex hid her amusement as well as she could at the young man's stiff new manners. Brasus had done well at putting Dario at ease, but the poor fellow seemed to again be at a loss when she nodded politely in a return greeting and then waited for him to speak. Instead of letting the silence stretch, as she was tempted to do, Alex suggested that the Auxiliaryman walk with them on their way to check on Max. Brasus walked in the middle of the trio and led the conversation easily into topics that allowed Dario to find his voice a small amount during the short walk.
Alex went through her routine check of Big Man as the two men awkwardly conversed outside the fence. Max flattened his ears toward the different people with her, he was used to seeing Verus, but that was all.
"Are you finally starting to get a soft spot for the good guys?" she joked with the big stallion in English after cleaning out his hooves one last time for the day. "You're gonna be pissed next week when I start wearing armor," she told him as he cuddled his head under her arm. "But I think you'll get over it," she added.
She gave Max a final face rub and stepped back through the fence to rejoin the awkward conversation. Dario still hadn't gotten around to what he wanted to talk to her about, but had managed a few single-word replies to the questions she'd directed at him. The poor kid looked crestfallen as she linked arms with Brasus again, having only been invited for the walk between one horse pen and another. Alex was tired of the conversation game. Verus had been forcing her into idle talking most days for most of each day, and she'd noted just now, while she was tending to Max, that even Brasus was even running out of ways to fill the gaps that Dario left hanging. She said her good-nights and started to walk away, the Optio beside her.
"Please, Lady," Dario called, running the few steps to catch up. Alex paused and turned to face him, Brasus dutifully stopping with her. "Please, I am an Archer. Give me a twig strung with thread and a fletched cat's whisker and I could pierce a mouse's heart, but put a sword in my hand and I'll most likely cut off my own leg. Out here with the trees so thick, I'm just a target with no hope of surviving a fight. Please, Lady, can you teach me to fight? I don't want to die out here." Once Dario started talking to her, everything came out in a rush.
Alex thought about how to reply for a while, long enough that Brasus shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"Have you trained with the sword?" she finally asked.
"Only for three weeks when I first joined the Auxiliary," he admitted, his shoulders sagging, talking to his feet, "and only the palus."
"The Training Ground is open. There is no lock, no door," Alex replied kindly and Dario's whole body rocked back with surprise. "I cannot to teach you to not die, but maybe you can learn to defend," she said with a shrug. "Borrow a real sword and come to the Training Ground tomorrow."
Brasus prompted the younger man through the appropriate replies and thanks, and cautioned him to be certain to show up. Alex expected the Archer to fly out of sheer excitement when he took his leave. She caught Brasus grinning at her as they started walking back toward Verus's tent.
"What?" she asked him, and Brasus chuckled before replying.
"Your Training Ground will have to be doubled in size tomorrow, at the least."
There had been at least four men close enough to hear her declare the Ground open, and he figured that by the end of the march tomorrow close to one hundred men would have worked up the nerve to join the nightly training. That meant at least fifty actually would. The Lady rolled her eyes at him.
"I tell one man, and four more hear the Training Ground is open. If six more come tomorrow, I am to be surprised."
"You underestimate your appeal, Lady Avilia."
She flicked her free hand dismissively.
"If all men start at the sword at the same age I do, then all would know what I do."
"And at what age did you start?" Brasus asked, careful to keep his tone light.
This was a piece of information that the First File had tried to get through the Inquisitor after returning to the tent, but she had dodged around. After seeing the Lady and Celsus Calix together these past weeks, Brasus was certain she'd withheld the information simply to annoy the First File. As if confirming his thought, she shrugged and answered.
"I am early in my age of nine years when Gigno put his sword in my hand."
"You started with the sword at nine years old?" he responded, taken aback at the age being much younger than he'd thought and hoping he'd misheard.
"The sword, to run, to wrestle. All the training." She shrugged and pointed to one of the plain tents that they were passing. "That is my home many years. This march," she pointed at the encampment in general, "is good."
Brasus choked back the urge to apologize for bringing up the topic, seeing that she actually meant when she said being on a march was good, she was content. Not for the first time, Brasus wondered which was true; the rumors that her father was a monster, or the allusions the Lady often made that he was a good father. The two years Brasus had spent with a high and powerful patrician had been with the Lady's grandfather, and based on the grandfather, he would have never hesitated to say that her father being a monster was correct. Up until he'd met the Lady walking beside him.
"What will you do when the march ends?" he asked, not expecting an answer.
"We march to war. If Gigno and Ixillius say so, I will war."