‘You said we were sparring,’ said Damen, neutrally.
Orlant flung down his sword, took two steps off to one of the watching men, and pulled from its sheath thirty inches of polished steel straightsword, which without preamble he returned to swing with killing speed at Damen’s neck.
There was no time to think. There was no time to guess whether Orlant intended to pull the blow or whether he really meant to cleave Damen in half. The straightsword could not be parried. With Orlant’s weight and momentum behind it, it would slice through a wooden practice sword as easily as it would through butter.
Faster than the sword strike, Damen moved—inside Orlant’s range and still moving, and in the next second Orlant’s back hit the dirt, the wind knocked hard out of his chest, the tip of Damen’s sword at his throat.
Around them, the training area had gone quiet.
Damen stepped back. Orlant, slowly, got to his feet. His sword lay on the ground.
No one spoke. Orlant looked from his discarded sword to Damen and back again, but otherwise didn’t move. Damen felt Jord’s hand clasping his shoulder, and he removed his eyes from Orlant and looked in the direction that Jord indicated briefly with his chin.
Laurent had come into the training area and was standing not far off, by the arms tent, watching them.
‘He was looking for you,’ said Jord.
Damen passed his own sword off and went to him.
He walked over the tufted grass. Laurent made no attempt to meet him halfway, but simply waited. A breeze had sprung up. The flagging on the tent was flapping violently.
‘You were looking for me?’
Laurent didn’t answer, and Damen couldn’t interpret his expression.
&n
bsp; ‘What is it?’ said Damen.
‘You’re better than I am.’
Damen couldn’t help his amused breath of reaction to that, or the long, scrolling look from Laurent’s head to his toes and back again, which was probably a little insulting. But really.
Laurent flushed. The colour hit his cheeks hard, and a muscle tightened in his jaw as whatever he felt was forcibly repressed. It was not like any reaction that Damen had ever seen from him before, and he couldn’t resist pushing it a little further.
‘Why? Do you want to spar? We can keep it friendly,’ Damen said.
‘No,’ said Laurent.
Whatever might have passed between them after that was forestalled by Jord, who was approaching from behind him with Aimeric.
‘Your Highness. Apologies, if you need more time with—’
‘No,’ said Laurent. ‘I’ll speak with you instead. Follow me back to the main camp.’
The two walked off together, leaving Damen with Aimeric.
‘He hates you,’ said Aimeric, cheerfully.
At the end of the day’s ride, Jord came to find him.
He liked Jord. He liked his pragmatism and the sense of responsibility he so clearly felt towards the men. Whatever background Jord had risen from, he had the makings of a fine leader. Even with all the additional duties Jord was shouldering, he had still taken the time to do this.
‘I want you to know,’ said Jord, ‘when I asked you to join us this morning, it wasn’t to give Orlant the chance to—’
‘I know that,’ said Damen.
Jord nodded slowly. ‘Any time you want the practice, I’d be honoured to go a few rounds against you. I’m a lot better than Orlant.’