A Country Falls (Greatest Thief 3)

Chapter Four

The next morning, nobody wanted to do anything but discuss the Pitten Islands. So Acen made them train. It didn't help much. The knights were good enough at fighting each other that they could often carry out a conversation the whole while. They took things a little more seriously when they dueled Navirians. When our knights fought against normal Navirian soldiers, they usually won. When they trained with other specialized knights the competitions got more interesting. They won, lost, or occasionally tied, and for whatever reason Acen had made it his mission to make sure I understood what was going on in every fight. Over the following week, he often stood beside me to watch a duel, and peppered me with questions.

It was working. I was starting to pick out details about each of the knights that I had never really considered before. That afternoon, the twins were working together against a pair of Navirian soldiers. I knew it was only a matter of time before Acen asked me something, so I mentally went over everything I had noticed about Ender and Kor.

Out of all the knights, they were the least comfortable with fighting in close quarters. On the other hand, they were the best at fighting together. They always seemed to know exactly where the other was, and they moved around each other seamlessly. They were fast, and used their speed to their advantage.

Acen's constant questioning had shown me a lot of differences in the way the knights approached fights, and it wasn't all due to their weapons of choice. The twins were quick and agile. Mandell and Joen were slower, but much stronger. Acen and Jalor hovered somewhere in the middle of that scale. It was Evrik who surprised me. In my mind I'd always lumped him in with the twins, as the younger knights. But when it came to fighting, he was more like Mandell and Joen—forceful as opposed to fast.

"So, tell me what you're noticing."

I cast Acen a quick glance as he stepped up to lean on the fence I was sitting on. I was prepared for this. "They're quick," I said, turning back to the fight.

"Why do you think that is?" Acen asked.

That was when the questioning got more complicated. Acen didn't want me to simply see things, he wanted me to understand why. "Well... I guess it's because they're not as strong as the rest of you, so they make up for it by being quick. I think they would rather stand back and shoot."

Acen nodded slowly. "Anything else? Aside for speed, watch how they're moving."

They were moving as smoothly as they always did. Ender on the right and Kor on the left. I watched as Kor stepped up to deflect a blow that had been meant for Ender, and I saw it. "Ender's favouring his left side," I said. "But Kor's covering it for him."

"So, if you were fighting them, what would be your approach?"

"I guess I'd try to get Kor out of the way so I'd have access to Ender's injury. But I wouldn't want to get caught between them, so I'd have to move Kor. Maybe force him around to Ender's right side." I shrugged. "Wouldn't I have to know about the injury for that to be useful, though?"

Acen shook his head. "You can see that Ender's favouring his side. You don't need to know why in order to realize that it's a weakness you should try to exploit."

"Well... I guess that makes sense," I said. "But I still don't understand why you're teaching me do to this."

"The best soldiers are the ones who can read their opponents quickly and accurately."

"I'm not a soldier."

Acen clapped me on the shoulder. "Hop down, we're going to try something."

So I found myself standing in the middle of the ring, facing Acen. We both held wooden swords, to my immense relief. Being hit with what was basically a stick wasn't nearly as scary as an actual sword. Aside for Joen, who was on duty with Tannix, the knights had gathered around to watch. Our three Navirian guides joined them. They were all talking quietly, probably discussing how quickly Acen would beat me.