The Silver Crown

41.

"Why were you so eager to help me early on? I had been so rude to you but you helped me anyway." I asked half an hour later. After our dance, I had pulled Brinian on the bed with me and told him all about the ball, leaving out the details about Tristan's comments and all the details about the messenger from Icas. Now I had moved on to asking questions that I hadn't been brave enough to ask before.

"I knew how you felt," Brinian said, lying on his back and gazing at the ceiling. "When I first came to the palace to join the guard, I knew nothing. I was born and raised in a small mountain fief. It's in the Asterian Mountains on the shore of Lake Jezero. We hardly ever got news and when we did, it certainly wasn't recent.

"Coming to the capital was like nothing I had ever known. People talked about things I'd never heard of. My mother wasn't interested in politics either so I never learned anything about our government or the intrigues of court. I was completely out of my element." Brinian smiled sheepishly.

"So it had nothing to do with being embarrassed that my first memory of you is ordering some guards to break my fingers?" I winked at him. I wasn't mad anymore. I understood that he had only been doing his job.

"Maybe it began that way," he said with a frown. "But it definitely continued because I saw a little bit of myself in you."

I stared at him for a moment and when he turned to look at me I thought I saw a red tinge to his face. Was Brinian blushing? He quickly glanced away again and I dismissed the thought. He couldn't have been.

"So is it my turn to ask a question?" he asked after a time.

"I suppose it's only fair," I said, rolling onto my side to look out the window. The night was clear and the stars glistened brighter than ever with the absence of the moon.

"Where did you learn how to fight?"

I sighed and considered how much to tell him. "I joined a gang when I was eleven winters and they taught me the tricks of knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat. We messed around with staffs too. And I like to watch people. I would watch men wrestle in the pits for money. I would watch the tactics the city guard used to break up fights. I snuck into the guardhouse and watched classes on archery and the baton. I observed and learned."

"Why?" Brinian cocked his head at me. "What happened in your life to cause you to spend so much time learning to kill?"

I sat up and raised an eyebrow at the captain. "Is it your turn to ask a question?" I asked cheekily.

Brinian grinned back at me, "Forgive me. It's your turn."

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "How does a young lord become captain of the guard before he is twenty years of age?"

"Oh, it is an epic tail full of intrigue and betrayal and forbidden romance," Brinian admitted reluctantly.

"Truly?"

"No. In actuality I came to Kings City at thirteen to train to be a knight." Brinian rolled over and propped his head on his hand. "During my page and squire years, I made a few peasant friends among the guard and came to look up to the previous captain. After I was knighted, I would often spend the days with him. I trained with the guard and practiced with the captian. Only later did I realize that while I was learning fighting tricks from the guards, he was training me to take over his position.

"When he was killed by bandits, the king had to find a replacement. I was only eighteen but many senior members of the guard spoke up about me. A while later I was summoned to the king's council chamber. He offered me the position and I took it."