Live By The Sword

Chapter 2

Kestrel stormed through the establishment, taking the turns that Zaken had forced her to memorise on an illegal blueprint that he had ‘procured’. She passed mysterious, darkened corridors that she otherwise would have loved to explore, but now barely noticed. Tapestries fluttered on the walls, and knickknacks wobbled on tables as she charged past.

            When she arrived at the door, she didn’t slow her stride, instead opting to slam into it shoulder first, and swear at the ensuing pain. She stumbled out into the sunlight, blinking and rubbing her shoulder, and broke into a run.

            She ran through the dirt roads that ran through the hills, occasionally dodging to the side for horse drawn carriages and farmers too poor to own them. Her feet beat out a rhythm on the path, as her breathing escalated and her beat out a throbbing cadence in her chest. Her vision was focused straight ahead, and red blur threatened to overtake her vision. Running usually took her mind off of anger, but not this time. This time she was going to have to rely on her one major talent: swordplay.

            Now that she had a definite destination in mind, she turned right at the next fork in the ‘road’ and sped up. She passed many trees, and heard many birds, but she ignored them all. If she could get to her training area with Zaken fast enough, than she could kill the dummies instead of real people. If not… well, her ‘diplomatic immunity’ probably wouldn’t last long.

            All these thoughts flashed through her head as she ran down the long path to the humble-looking shack that was where she spent nearly half of her time. As she got closer, she slowly checked her pace until her speed had been reduced to a brisk walk. When she reached the door, she flipped open a little white panel and entered the password- PASSWORDS_ARE_POINTLESS.

            The panel gave out a little puff of steam, and receded into the wall. A blinking red light appeared where it had been, and scanned quickly over Kestrel’s eyes. She stood perfectly still, not blinking, until it too receded. Then, the door rose up and into the frame, and Kestrel stepped through, dodging the various traps and alarms.

            The appearance of the outside belied the technologically advanced interior. The black and white tiles were a pattern of explosive pressure plates, passwords were taken by devices as small as a thumb, and little surveillance cameras disguised as spiders scuttled up and down the walls.

            Kestrel didn’t take any notice, she had been here thousands of times before, and it had long since lost the glamour. She strode purposefully down the hall way and to the left, taking care not to step on the black tiles. After getting to the correct door, she slipped a tiny bejeweled key into the lock and opened it. She stepped inside, and closed the door carefully.

            Zaken was there, as she had expected; he nearly always was. He was thrusting and parrying with an invisible enemy, his thin bladed estoc weaving through the air. A dozen dummies lay beside him, slashed apart with straw protruding out. Yet, his grace didn’t falter, and not a bead of sweat was on his forehead. Kestrel stood there for a moment, simply admiring his form, and then walked around the back of the room to her bench. She sat down and drew her twin katanas from their customary sheathes on her back, and reached into the pocket of her trousers to find a whetstone.At the noise Zaken looked around, and, spotting her, he stopped what he was doing and relaxed his sword arm. He walked over to her, a slight spring in his step which was always there after practising swordplay.

“So, Kestrel, what’s wrong? I thought you would be at the registration for some time yet.”

Kestrel gritted her teeth in a fruitless attempt to control her anger.