Wherever I Am

Chapter 14 - Part 2

I had definitely opened a can of worms. It took until the following day before they turned up the bows, and decade-plus of storage hadn't been kind to them or the arrows. Less than half of each was usable, either due to the drying out of the sinew and glues or the wood warping. Plus, Ellie made it her job to help inventory and sort out the good from the bad and brought her girls with her to pick out suitable bows for them. Granted, I'd done the same with mine. Boian was the only one out of my retinue who had even handled a bow.

Lady Lavinia was embarrassed to see them walk across the grounds with their bows and quivers full of arrows. She also didn't take kindly to Ellie's explanation that if Maids Sorina and Mara had been armed as such, they likely would've not been injured, nor would at least some of the cavaliers and men-at-arms. "It was the men who were to protect the women, not the other way around," she sniped, glancing at my group.

"In that case," Ellie roared, "I should have held my fire and let us all die," then stalked away in tears, I was pretty sure.

Lady Lavinia looked at me for help, but I only shrugged.

"I can't argue with that. She's most likely right. The Sobecks wouldn't have called a retreat."

Lady Lavinia stormed away to the keep while Ellie turned off in another direction with the rest of her ducklings following like miniature Amazon acolytes-in-training, which it turned out they were.

There was a small archery range consisting of three pear-shaped targets on stands.

"I set this up last night. They're not in the best shape, but I plugged the holes so the seeds wouldn't run out and had the guards do the heavy lifting." She smiled at me. "Kevin, could you shoot the target to demonstrate?"

I shrugged, then strung the bow while studying the target, which was similar in size to a mariachi band's bass guitar, though more pear-like, with multiple octagonal targets embossed on its leather front. Different, and so was the bow.

It was stiffer, though once I nocked an arrow and lined up my first shot, there was something comfortable about it. It had a bit more pull, and when I let loose, it hit above the center mark by about a foot but only a couple of inches to the right. I corrected, bringing the second shot about halfway down to center and the third hi a few inches to the right of the second.

I sighed. Not too bad. In the battle, my two hits had been more wounding shots into the torso rather than quick kills, though they'd most likely succumb to their wounds eventually.

"Kevin's a decent shot, though not as good as me. The same goes for his horseback riding. I'm not trying to get you expert, but if you can get arrows into a target, you can get them into Sobecks or whoever else is trying to kill you. Maybe you will never need to do that, but I've been here about two weeks and have had to do this twice, so my feeling is that you will."

She took a few shots with her newly chosen recurve, placing them all closer to the center mark than any of mine. Then, she used me as a model to show them how to hold the bow, nock the arrow, sight, and shoot.

Then she started on our collective Maid and Master covey of quail, starting with Doina and working downward in age, leaving Sorina out since she didn't want her to rip out any more stitches. So we stood, watching the controlled chaos that was Ellie in teaching mode with her covey of clueless proteges.

I turned to Sorina and asked, "How is your healing progressing?"

She turned pink and dropped her eyes. I didn't know if this was because of where her wounds were, that she had shown me a lot more than her bandages back in Suata, or that I'd kissed her hand a few days ago. I probably should've kept my mouth shut.

"I am healing well now that I'm not over-exerting myself," she replied in little more than a whisper.

"The hike up the dome hurt you?"

She shook her head. "No. The trip here a little, and...."

I didn't say anything. She watched her hands a moment as her thumbs twiddled. "Maid Doina has been excellent with her herbs and poultices. Any hint of redness, and she's cleared it up."

I understood that. "Oh yeah," I agreed with a chuckle. "Anything a little too pink on my head from those fangs, and she's on it."

I was sure I was supposed to be somewhere else, and once Ellie started coaching Zoe, I gave my goodbyes.

"Take Sorina with you," Ellie said. "I'm sure she's bored." She paused a moment, then quickly added, "Take Oana and Radu, too. They're too young to pull the bow far enough, so they'll have to grow up a bit before they can learn to shoot, at least with these bows."

I smiled and nodded. It wouldn't do to have Sorina walk unchaperoned with me. There was no telling what scandal might erupt from that. I unstrung my bow and handed it and the quiver of arrows to Radu. Oana took Sorina's bow and quiver from her. We looked like some strange golfers with our caddies on the walk back.

Sure enough, Calin's squire caught me as I entered the great hall, so I followed him to whatever this next meeting was about.