The Concubine - (currently Revising, Complete)

Chapter Eleven

Eydis

I enjoyed the time away from the city. Here I could hear the nature and see the full sky over my head. I lay in the field, my eyes hooked on the blues over head with the splash of clouds peppered in. I loved it here.The hall was grand and unlike the other hall it was private, next to a stream and huge.

Audhild was nearby, I heard her scooping up the water from the stream right next to eh hall, and Geoffrey right on her heels. "Eydis, we are to have stew for dinner, and I am making a sweetbread. Are you going to lie there all day?"

"She isn't." I heard Thorsten answer. He appeared in the corner of my eye. The beige tunic hung on his shoulders and his blonde hair was ruffled from his head. "She is to train." He pointed at me with the wooden sword. "Up on your feet Eydis."

I did not want to move. My body had grown tired in the past two weeks, all I truly wanted to do was eat and sleep. I pushed up from the ground and looked at him. "I am tired."

"Warriors get tired, you fight through." He pulled me up and handed me the sword. "Today we are to work on your footwork. You have to be just as quick on your feet than you are with the sword. It is easy to strike someone, harder to dodge it." He swung the wooden sword and tapped my arm.

"Why are you teaching me this?"

"What else is there to do?" He smirked at me and stood beside me. "Always have a bend in your knees." He tapped the crease of my leg and lifted the sword. "Find your grip. What is comfortable to you?" His hand covered mine easily. "Is that comfortable?"

"Yes."

"Good. Strike me." He stood in front of me and held his hand out.

"No." I laughed. "I will not hit you."

"Hit me." He shook his head urging me to strike him.

"No."

"Pretend I am Meili." He shrugged.

"What makes you think that I would want to do him harm?"

"The question is why would you not want to do him harm?"

My heartbeat against my chest and I swung at him, striking his arm. Thorsten did not move, he just laughed. "You are not funny! You know nothing of Meili and I but still you insist to act as if you do."

"I know enough." Thorsten hit my arm and I swung back at him. "Look at that anger in your eyes. Take that and attack each time you are in combat."

"I will never be in combat." I scoffed. I tossed the sword to the ground and turned on my heel. Thorsten was a smug man, always conceited and always teasing of Meili and I. "and I will not train with you today or any other day."

"Yes, you will. You are angry because I speak freely of you and the King?"

"Yes! I feel he loves me."

Thorsten raised his eyebrow at me and then took a swig of the water. "Tell me one thing, if he loves you... then why are you slave? Setting you free is a sentence. And even if he does love you, not allowing you to have a choice is cruel. That you should be angry about."

I do not know what overcomes me but I grab the sword and swing at him only for him to block it. I swing again and he grabs the sword and stabs it into the ground.

"You should be angry that you are weak."

"I am not weak."

"You are Eydis," Thorsten nodded his head. "I mean to do you no harm, only to make you stronger than you are today. Get water and eat. I would not want there to be harm to the King's child."