Rebels of Vulvar (Vulvarian Saga Book 2), стр. 13
Setsunin-to is an egotistic and risky approach to combat. The slightest miscalculation can result in the swordsman walking straight into the opponent’s counter-attack. Katsujin-ken, by contrast, involves a sophisticated manipulation of the opponent and his actions. Properly conducted, it is virtually unbeatable.
Again Zareb circled, but before he hacked at the shield again, I threw it from me and gripped the hilt of the rakir with both hands as best I could like the katana. Zareb smiled with confidence and slashed with his sword. I parried, but instead of retreating kept my blade in contact with his. For some five minutes, Zareb attacked, alternating slashes with thrusts and downward cuts. Having fallen back into my training, I instinctively parried each time and then feinted to give Zareb the impression I was leaving an opening for him to exploit. Soon I was manipulating him and easily anticipating whether he would slash, thrust, or hack down at me. Finally, after setting him up to bring his sword down in a sweeping cut, I dropped to my right knee with my sword out horizontally to my right. Zareb’s blade passed harmlessly over my head while his momentum carried his midsection into my blade as I swiftly slashed from right to left.
Back on my feet, I quickly turned to face Zareb as he spun toward me. Then he looked down at his tunic. I had pulled the slash at the last minute to avoid delivering a serious cut, but Zareb’s tunic was cut cleanly at his belly and a thin red line of blood was visible through the cut cloth. He threw his sword on the ground, leaned his head back, and roared with laughter.
“I am dead!” he shouted with glee. Then he slapped me hard on both shoulders with pride in his eyes. “Not bad for an archer,” he roared.
8
The Raid
Three days had passed since I had entered the warrior training cohort. Besides the sword training, the instructors had also taught me the use of the spear and shield. I had developed some skill in casting the spear with considerable force and acceptable accuracy. I had also learned to use the shield to meet a cast spear obliquely, so it was deflected away harmlessly. According to Greyson, in times of dire need, the officers might press even archers into service in the ranks of the phalanx. For that reason, every warrior needed to learn to use the spear and shield effectively.
I lay on my cot in the barracks. Greyson sat on the floor beside me, regaling me with tales of his conquests of attractive females during his last visit to the city. I found I liked Greyson and felt a kinship with him as a fellow warrior. But I had decided I must risk alienating him because time had grown short. The thought of Idril lying hurt and captive inside a filthy open-air stockade enraged me. I could restrain myself no longer.
“Greyson, I must go into the city this evening,” I said. “I can wait no longer.”
Greyson looked at me with disbelief. “You cannot, brother,” he said. “Have you taken leave of your senses? Remain patient. If you leave the training area, the officers will almost surely discover it.”
“Will you report me?” I said.
“I will not,” Greyson said. “Yet an attempt to go into the city and return undiscovered is surely doomed to failure.”
“Still, I must go,” I said. “My business in the city will wait no longer.”
Greyson and I argued the matter for some time. With a look of despair, he gave up trying to discourage me when he understood his arguments would not dissuade me. I got up from the cot, gathered my gear, and dressed. Last, I put on the helmet and fastened the yellow cape about my shoulders.
With a sigh, Greyson stood up.
“The officers will probably give me the lash when they catch you,” he said, “but if you are determined to go, I will show you a secret way out of the training compound.”
“You know a way out past the guards?” I said in disbelief.
“Yes, I have occasionally gone into the city without authorization,” he said.
“What?” I said sharply. “Then why have you spent so much time trying to discourage me from going?”
“I did not go without permission until after I finished the first phase,” Greyson said with a shrug. “Had the officers found me out, they would have only whipped me.”
“My business is important,” I said. “I’d gladly accept a whipping to accomplish it.”
Greyson shook his head with sadness. “You haven’t yet completed the first phase of training. If the officers catch you, you will not only taste the whip. They will expel you from the warriors and send you to work in the mines outside Nisa.”
“Be it so, I still must go,” I said.
“Very well, let us go,” Greyson said.
After departing the barracks, Greyson led me in a roundabout fashion out of the view of the guards to a stone building I had never been inside. We entered and then took a stairway down into a basement, dimly lighted with oil lamps.
“What is this place?” I said.
“A storehouse,” Greyson said, continuing to the end of the room where there stood a large wooden crate.
Putting his hands against the side, Greyson said, “Help me move this.”
Placing my palms beside his, we shoved the crate until we had moved it across the stone floor far enough to expose a sturdy wooden door. Greyson unbolted the door and threw it open to reveal the entrance to a dark passageway.
“The passageway passes beneath the walls,” he said. “Take the steps at the end