Dark Lady Rising

Chapter 21

Lieutenant Lerama didn't know what he had done to anger Lord Zarin, but he definitely did not deserve this particular punishment. He watched unsympathetically as the girl picked herself up from the ground again. When she had taken up the small training staff she had been given, he struck her again, knocking her feet out from under her.

What had he done? He was a warrior! A soldier in the most powerful army of all the Realms. While his friends and comrades had gone off to conquer Kenrosha, he had been ordered to stay behind and spend his mornings teaching a child. It was an insult. He was better than this. She didn't even have a name.

"You need to block my attacks," he ordered, once again stating the obvious.

"I'm trying!" she yelled back.

Lerama struck her across the face, a red welt shining bright red across her cheek. "Don't give me your lip girl. Orders or not I'll put you over my knee and tan your backside so hard you'll never sit down again."

The girl seemed to shift her entire attitude at that. "I bet you'd like that, lieutenant wouldn't you? Having a little girl draped across your lap?" she teased coyly.

Lerama stepped forward to strike her again, but she ducked out of his reach. Grunting, he lashed out again with his training staff. She blocked his first thrust, fell for his feint, and went down in a heap when he scored to her midsection.

Pleased with himself, he called to her again. "Get up." The girl got to her feet slowly, grasping her stomach and trying to catch her breath. She stood shakily, but held out the staff once again in her ready position.

Lerama groaned inwardly. She wouldn't give up and he was stuck here until she did. Or until she knocked him down. As if that could ever happen.

He set his jaw, then launched forward again, twirling the staff in a complex rotation so that she couldn't tell where he would attack.

The girl ducked quickly and backed up, intimidated by his awesome display. He grinned, determined to make her suffer so much she would leave and never return. Pushing forward, he danced to the side of her strike, before bringing the padded staff down heavily onto her shoulder.

She grunted as she fell down again. He had hurt her that time he knew. If she started crying, he could leave. "Neither of us can go until you knock me down and that's never going to happen, is it?" he asked rhetorically.

"Perhaps if you would actually teach me something instead of just beating on me," the girl answered still sitting on the ground.

Lerama spun around angrily. "You're not worth it, girl!" he yelled angrily, kicking dirt into her face. "you're just a waste of..." But Lerama couldn't finish his sentence. For some reason, he was on his back, staring up at the sky, trying to catch his breath. It was as if some giant, invisible hand had picked him up and threw him down. The pressure on his chest made it impossible to breathe. He rolled his head to see the girl looking at him in shock, still on the ground. She looked scared and small. But when their eyes met, the pressure lifted from him.

She was first to her feet. He scrambled up as well, looking down at her. She dropped her training staff at his feet. "The lesson is over," she announced a little shakily. And with that, she lifted her head and walked away from him.

Normally, Lerama would have found it comical to watch the little girl saunter away as if she owned the place, covered in dirt as she was, and limping awkwardly. But something else prevented him from laughing; fear.