Victor

Chapter 2 Victor

In exactly an hour, the captain was on the field talking to some of the men who had gathered around to see the sparring match when a young man wearing studded leather armor walked up, saluted him, and said, "Victor Sill Young reporting as ordered, Sir." The other soldiers walked off the field instantly assuming that Victor was the apprentice the captain had taken and whispering to each other that this young boy must have exceptional skill for the captain to take him after ten years of not taking an apprentice at all.

The captain looked closely at this boy. Close enough that their noses were almost touching then asked in a low voice, "Sylvia?" The soldier only gave a slight smile in return. Then, so that everyone could hear, "Choose your weapon from the rack."

Victor walked over to the rack and chose a sword heavier than was good for his size and longer than he could handle well. He then walked back to the captain and stood, sword into the ground, hands on the pommel, facing the captain. The captain sized him up, took a step backward and said, "Engage".

The match went quickly, but longer than most master/apprentice first matches go. Victor was to anyone who knew what they were looking for deliberately missing strikes and blocks - even with a weapon chosen to be clumsy. Once, he tripped himself and landed face first in a mud puddle. When it was over, the captain took Victor back to his room to patch him up as was the captain’s tradition. He always tended the medical needs of his apprentices personally.

When they arrived at the room where the captain would mend Victor’s wounds, he rounded on him. "I can understand why you were making wide strikes and fouling up your blocks, but why did you throw your face into the mud?"

"For someone who was paying so much attention, I am surprised you did not notice that I was not breaking a sweat. Someone else might not have been so unobservant."

The captain said nothing in reply, just nodded and tended the small, superficial scraps Victor had received during the match making sure to put on more bandages than necessary to make it appear that he had been hurt worse than he had.

The men talked amongst themselves about how well Victor seemed to do and what the captain’s former apprentices were rumored to be now. The captain had only ever took on two apprentices. The first was before his troops remembered and the other was already in his service when he was assigned to these troops. They were both said to be military leaders equal to the captain. Only Ian among the troops had ever seen the captain’s first match against one of his apprentices before.

Ian waited a respectful amount of time, then followed to the captain’s room. Victor was bandaged and the two of them were talking. The door was slightly ajar, so Ian stepped in. "Why do you deliberately allow yourself to be wounded?" He was talking to Victor.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said," replied Ian accusingly. "Why do you allow yourself to be wounded? And why do you make such bogus moves with a weapon you know is not suited to you?" He was eyeing Victor suspiciously as he spoke and did not change his gaze until the captain broke in.

"You have caught us, Ian, but don’t blow our cover. Victor has had extensive training," the captain said sounding like a kid caught in the cookie jar. Ian looked from the captain back to Victor.

"Yes, Ian, I have been trained and did that for the benefit of the men. For reasons of mutual benefit that cannot now be disclosed, I cannot join your army but need to run with it for the time being." Victor said it with ultimate calm and the captain could tell he added a little boost with that silver tongue. Thank God, Captain thought, I couldn’t bear to lie to Ian but couldn’t risk him saying anything either. I thought we were caught already!

Ian looking rather confused and somewhat concerned turned back at the captain and said, "I just have one more question. Does he outrank you?"

"No. I am still the ranking officer here, Ian," came the captain’s reply as he tried to hold in his laughter. Ian smiled weakly and left. He had no idea what his captain was doing, but trusted him and his thoughts returned to getting the camp mobile.

When Ian was out of earshot, the captain turned to Victor and said sternly, "Now it is my turn to ask questions. With skill like that, the team I sent to escort you to prison would have been easy work for you. Why did you allow yourself to be imprisoned?"

"If I had simply killed your men, you would have put the entire army on alert, making it nearly impossible for me to get into your camp. And you would have killed me on sight because I would not have been able to entrance the men. If I had gotten past all of that, I would have been hard pressed to convince you that I am your ally. It was much easier and safer to go to prison and be released so I could come back." She barely looked at him while she spoke. She was putting her boots back on and lacing them up. When she was finished, she met his eyes and said rather more seriously, "For being such a skilled strategist, I thought you would have seen that a leagues away."

"My strategies are for honest battles, fighting, and war, not backstabbing and deceit and not dealing with a disgruntled female." He could tell as soon as he had said it that if it weren’t for the need of disguise, she would have challenged him then and there. He had been given reason to believe that her speed and agility would allow her to take him apart even with the detriment of the bandages and was grateful she could not right then. "I mean no offence." He added quickly.

"Well," came the very cool reply, "you had better learn how to deal with a deceitful, backstabbing, strategy using enemy or not even my help will win you this war and we will both die long and painful deaths." The stare he was being given made him wonder how many of her attributes had been enhanced by that wizard. "Did you have another question?" The tone was now airy and she removed her piercing stare to look over the bandages.

"This guise is quite complete, is that also magically enhanced or exclusively your work?"

Victor looked up from checking the bandages and smiled. For the first time, the captain could see that Victor was indeed Sylvia in a man’s disguise. "You mean where have I hidden my more feminine attributes?" it was definitely her voice that answered. "Looks can be very deceiving, my good captain." Her voice was as smooth as silk. He found himself wanting to pull off the disguise and find out for himself...then he realized what he was thinking and announced that they must ready themselves for departure.

"I have one question first," she said looking at him. It made him wonder what she was planning now. "The great black stallion tied apart from the other horses, why is it that I have seen no one ride it and your men seem afraid to go near him?"

He was relived at the change of subject, "He grudgingly allows people near him to feed him. Any who try to saddle him end up in need of medical care."

She smiled. "I can ride him."

"I thought you came to me because you wanted to remain alive," the captain laughed.

"Assign him to me as your apprentice’s first task. I can and will ride him." Her unyielding confidence made him give in. It would be no great loss if she got herself killed because she was stubborn. Besides, he was insanely curious.

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