The Green-Eyed Man

Chapter 4

4

Sasha, Jayhan and Stefan met at mid-morning the next day in the space behind the stables where Leon kept piles of gravel, soil and sand, stacks of firewood, scrap pieces of metal and wood and some of his tools. He had cleared a roughly circular sandy patch in the middle to use for fighting practice until they could set up an area in one of the paddocks and was now sitting on a pile of firewood watching to see what they would do.

Maud and Sheldrake also wandered over to watch and, rather to the mage’s surprise, so did the rest of their household; Eloquin the governess, Clive the butler, Clive’s wife Beth who was also the head groom, Rosie the maid, her little brother Edgar and even Hannah, the cook. At the last minute, even Jake and Thompson, the farmhands, came running to join them, wiping their hands on their breeches and looking a little sheepish.

Stefan stood in the middle of the sandy patch, hands on hips and gradually turned a full circle to observe his audience. Eventually he said, “You do know I am not an entertainer?”

This produced murmurs among his audience but failed to move any of them.

“Please, sir,” said Rosie, “we’d like to see what you do. We’re all very excited to have an arms master in our household. We promise we won’t come every morning.” She glanced at Sheldrake. “Anyway the master won’t let us. We usually have lots to do, you know.”

Stefan turned a puzzled frown to Sheldrake, who looked just as bemused as he did. “Huh. Very well. Well, I can’t do this alone. So, who would like to shoot some arrows?” A forest of hands went up, making Stefan laugh. “You’re an enthusiastic lot, I’ll give you that. Leon and Beth, can we set up a hay bale as a target? I don’t want to blunt my arrows by shooting into a tree or the side of the stables.”

He reached down and rummaged in his big tote bag, which had arrived by coach several hours after him. He withdrew four bows and set about stringing them as he spoke, pausing occasionally for grunts of effort. “We will begin with each of you trying to draw back each bow so that the string is level with your right ear, unless you’re left-handed, in which case it will be your left ear.”

He demonstrated with the first strung bow before setting it down and moving on to stringing the second as he spoke. “The stronger the bow, the greater the distance you will be able to shoot. However, if the bow is too difficult for you, your accuracy is likely to be affected. So it is a balance. You can also increase your distance to some extent by angling your bow upwards, but that requires more practice and accuracy.” He grinned. “Then of course, there is the wind to consider.” He glanced around. “But there is little wind this morning and we are in a sheltered spot here, so that won’t be a factor we have to worry about today.”

When he had the bows all strung, he lined them up on the ground and asked, “Okay, who’s first?”

Rather to his surprise, Sasha and Jayhan hung back and allowed the servants to have first shot. When Stefan looked enquiringly at them, Jayhan shrugged and said quietly, “We will be training with you often, whereas they will not have the same chance. So it is better to give them the most time today.”

“Well said, young man. However, I do want you to try the bows today so that I can order one to suit you.”

Jayhan’s eyes widened. “My own bow?”

Stefan smiled. “Yes. On the King’s orders. Once he decides to act, there are no half measures. You too, Sasha… and Leon.”

Only Leon and Jake could draw back the full-sized bow, but Sheldrake, Thompson, Clive and Beth could draw the second largest to Stefan’s satisfaction, while Hannah, Rosie and Maud could manage the third largest. Much to their disgust, Jayhan, Edgar and Sasha were only able to convincingly draw back the string on the smallest bow.

“Don’t look so disappointed,” chided Stefan. “These are not the smallest bows in existence; only the smallest bows I thought worth bringing with me.” When this did not console them, he added, “Once you have mastered a bow of this size, you will naturally graduate to a larger one as you grow older and your arm strengthens. Anyway, small bows are much handier for carrying around. I often use a small bow even now, when I am travelling light.”

With the bows chosen, he set up the targets and, using the small bow, gave a demonstration of how to hold and aim an arrow. Then everyone took turns in using the correct bow for their strength. Their lack of skill led to high hilarity as many of the arrows missed the hay bale altogether, skidding along the ground or sailing over the fence into long grass in the adjoining paddock. Stefan made a mental note to enlist the children in a treasure hunt for the arrows hidden in the grass, knowing they would not be easily found.

When they had tired of this, Hannah and Rosie enlisted Jake and Thompson. The four of them slipped away to the kitchen, returning shortly afterwards with trays of lemonade and sandwiches.

“Thank you, Hannah,” said Sheldrake. “Do we have time for more? When do you need to start dinner?”

“If this counts for lunch, sir, I could spare another couple of hours.” Hannah gave a warm smile. “It’s like a holiday, isn’t it, sir? A rare thing indeed.”

Sheldrake gave a little shake of his head and smiled in return. “I don’t know what’s come over me. A new member of the household does not usually warrant such attention.” He heaved a contented sigh. “But it is enjoyable for a change and I hope that every staff member can spend some time with Stefan learning at least the rudiments of self-defence.”

Hannah glanced at him, worried. “Are you expecting trouble, sir?”

“I hope not. No, I don’t think so, but I hope not anyway.”

This did little to reassure his cook, who determined to speak further at a later date with Maud. After the archery came sword play, using wooden practice swords that Stefan drew from his apparently bottomless tote bag. He only had six of them, so he paired up people of similar strength and let the others watch as he took them through the rudiments of stance, grip, basic thrusts and parries. Then they swapped so that everyone had a turn.

In the middle of the afternoon, after another refreshment break, he introduced hand-to-hand fighting. He was so quick, lively and encouraging that no one grew weary of the lessons.

He began by standing with his arms loosely at his side and inviting Beth and Maud to lift him up. They did this with relative ease and lowered him back to the ground looking a little puzzled. Then he bent his knees slightly, held his arms crooked before him and focused hard. When he repeated the request to lift him, Maud and Beth stepped forward confidently but found it took everything they had to shift him even slightly. Lifting him into the air was out of the question. After a few minutes of strenuous effort, they stood back puffing and grinning.

“Are you using magic?” demanded Sheldrake.

Stefan laughed. “No. Not at all. You can all do it. Pair up and try it. On the second try, imagine yourself as a tree rooted into the ground, your weight low, heavy and connected to the earth. You’ll see.”

Once they had all tried this to their satisfaction, he asked Rosie and Hannah to step forward to demonstrate fighting techniques. He used them as models to explain low and high blocks and the use of fingers in the eyes and a kick to the crotch, all in slow motion and not connecting.

“These last two are fighting dirty,” he explained cheerfully. “But if you ever find yourself in a position where you have to fight, don’t pussyfoot around. Fight fiercely and fight dirty. For now, let’s just practise the low and high blocks in pairs. One person, try to attack; the other, block. Three minutes, then swap. I don’t want to hear any sounds of flesh connecting with flesh. This is just shadow fighting to get the hang of it. All right?”

When they had finished, Stefan gave them a flourishing bow and said firmly. “And that is it for today. You have all done remarkably well. You must be exhausted, but I hope you have learnt something and if you wish it, I can organise further training for you around your other duties.”

A ragged round of applause greeted this pronouncement, but a couple of voices were raised in protest that they hadn’t seen Stefan fight. Then Jake urged Stefan to challenge Leon while others urged Leon on. Sheldrake watched with his arms folded, a gleam of anticipation in his eye.

Leon stepped up to Stefan, whose head barely reached his shoulder. But instead of squaring off against him, he put his arm across the smaller man’s shoulders and turned to the onlookers. “I may look big and bovine, but that doesn’t make me totally stupid.” He shot a speaking glance at Sheldrake as he said this. “Stefan didn’t become a master-at-arms without being an accomplished fighter. I’m more of a street brawler myself, but I have nothing to prove and neither does Stefan. I have no doubt he’d wipe the floor with me, but I would rather he taught me how to do that, than have him do it to me now.”

Although a couple of them were still disappointed, they knew an impasse when they saw one and the rest chuckled quietly and left, well satisfied with the day’s activities. As the crowd dispersed, Stefan smiled up at him. “You know, it is a nice change, not having to prove myself.”

Leon gave him a slow smile in return, clapping him on the shoulder and removing his arm. “Even if I could beat you, which maybe I can and maybe I can’t, I wouldn’t do it to a newcomer, just to satisfy this lot.” He shrugged. “Besides, what’s in it for me? If I win, I look like a bully; if I lose, I look like a fool.”

Stefan raised his eyebrows. “You could do it to let me show off… ”

Leon scratched his chin. “You know, I didn’t think of that. Do you want to?”

A derisive snort of laughter was his answer.