Won't Back Down: Won't Back Down Read online

  "They taught us the block too," Keel added. The block for a roundhouse kick was simple enough. Lift up the knee and turn it away from the body at a thirty-degree angle. As long as he kept his toes pointed upwards, the kick would rebound harmlessly off his shin, and he would be in the perfect position to reply with his own attack.

  "Can I kick first?" Saar asked. Keel nodded, so Saar carefully placed his left foot with the toes pointed outwards and let a test kick fly. Keel brought his knee up to block. As Saar continued to practice, growing more and more confident, his kick became harder. Keel knew there would be more bruises on top of the ones he had already gotten in training that day, but the satisfaction of watching Saar learn and try to perfect the kick was too intoxicating for him to care. After a while, Saar switched legs and Keel practiced blocking with his right foot.

  "I watched some of the more advanced kids practice this move," Keel said as Saar kicked again. "They started with their toes pointed forward and as they turned into the kick their toes shifted into a roundhouse."

  "Like this?" Saar asked. He set his foot pointed forward and tried to move into the kick. His balance shifted as if he were expecting his hip to roll, but his toes didn't move. Saar fell into the grass with a thud and a laugh. "I guess not," he giggled.

  Keel thumped down onto the grass next to Saar. His hand reached out to find Saar's and they held hands for a while, staring up at the stars overhead.

  "I wish we could practice like this together every day," Saar sighed. "It would be much more fun."

  "I always miss you," Keel replied, his hand tightening around Saar's. Two large cats came tumbling by, yowling playfully at each other. The moment, if that was what it was because Keel had no idea why the emotions he was feeling over missing his brother were so intense, was broken. Saar hopped back to his feet to practice some more. Keel batted Lighting away before getting up to join Saar.

  When it was time to go, Keel hugged Saar tight for a long moment. He wouldn't see Saar again for a full week. The memory of holding him tightly would make the nights he spent alone in his bed easier; he could still remember sleeping curled up with Saar under the gazebo and hugging him after their once weekly meeting brought that back.

  "Next Third Night," Saar insisted after he reluctantly pulled away.

  "Always," Keel agreed. He turned and walked out of the park without looking back. Saar would go back to Linalee and a life Keel barely knew anything about, and he would return to Sariel. There were things to look forward to in the coming week, all the material in his new classes being the most important, so Keel lifted his chin and ducked into the back alleys of the city on his way back to the Simola manor.

  He was about to turn a corner along his usual route home when Lightning growled in warning. Keel froze, unused to hearing such a threatening sound coming from Lightning, which was when he heard the quiet shuffle of feet. The footsteps were almost soundless, something only someone with perfect balance and a lot of strength could do successfully. Only someone from the Simola or the Yimina could be around that corner.

  Keel didn't stop to look. He spun on his toes and darted in the opposite direction. A half-glance over his shoulder as he hurried into another alley showed him Sariel walking on his patrol. Keel had almost been caught!

  He continued running, gasping for breath and wondering why he was having so much trouble keeping his legs moving when he trained every day. Keel dashed around another corner. If he could reach the end of this block without Sariel finding him, he could easily circle back into Simola territory behind Sariel. Sariel would never know Keel had been out of the manor at all.

  "Where do you think you're going?" a voice snapped from behind Keel. It was a woman's voice, and he didn't recognize it, but the tone said he ought to. Keel skidded to a stop at the corner and glanced over his shoulder.

  The woman was tall and very thin with long black hair she kept braided down her back. He couldn't see much else in the dark, but that was all the description he needed to figure out who she was. Linalee didn't look anything like Sariel despite the fact that Saar's basic description had made Keel think so. The way she had her arms crossed and the frown on her face made Keel think more of Master Uriah than of Sariel.

  "Saar, answer me," Linalee snapped.

  "Hi, Linalee," Keel replied hesitantly. He wasn't sure what Saar would say exactly, but he didn't know anyone as well as he knew Saar. His guess was more than educated and Linalee bought it.

  "Don't you Linalee me, Saar," she hissed, her lips tightening with anger. "You are supposed to be in bed. What the hell are you doing out here?"

  "Walking?" Keel tried. Linalee sucked in a breath and started ranting. Keel tuned her out because she wasn't saying anything important. Saar had complained about Linalee doing just that whenever she was angry.

  Thinking of Saar appeared to have summoned him. Keel hid a wince as Saar skidded to a stop in the street behind Linalee. Saar's eyes darted to Keel from Linalee's back, clearly taking in the situation and thinking fast. He pointed to himself and then to the left side of the city. Then he pointed at Keel and then to Linalee and the right side of the city.

  Keel nodded as discretely as he could and watched as Saar darted back the way he'd come, turning into an alley that would lead him to the Simola manor. Keel could pretend to be Saar for one week. Besides, he thought as he hid a small smile from Linalee, he had just been morosely thinking that he didn't know enough about Saar's life with Yimina. This was the perfect opportunity to fix that, and he wasn't going to waste it.

  Linalee finally stopped to take a breath, visibly calmer once she had gotten her anger out into the open. Saar insisted her temper didn't affect her fighting, and since Sariel had never mentioned he'd seen a sign of it in all the times he had battled against her, Keel figured that was true, but she was still very loud and vocal.

  Her hand snapped out almost quicker than Keel's eyes could follow and her fingers clasped around his wrist.

  "You are going home right now, Saar. You are going to bed, and you are going to stay there the rest of the night. I'll have to think of an appropriate punishment for tomorrow." She started tugging him along. Keel had no choice but to follow, Lightning walking at his side. They went to the eastern side of the city and into the Yimina manor, a place he had only been to during the tournament week every year when it was safe for Saar to show off his home to Keel.

  Linalee marched straight through the halls of the manor until she reached the dormitories. She flung open Saar's door and kept marching until she stood next to Saar's bed. Keel didn't need to be told what she expected from him. He climbed under the covers and settled in for bed. Once she was satisfied Keel was going to stay put for the rest of the night, she spun around and left. Keel could hear her getting ready for bed next door, banging around in her room until finally she quieted down with sleep.

  Keel lay awake, Lightning at his side, and thought. With Linalee asleep, he could sneak back out of the Yimina manor. It would be easy enough to get to Simola and switch places with Saar. They could both return to their lives in their own guilds. But Keel wanted to know what Saar's day-to-day life was like. The foods he ate, the people he trained with, and he wanted Saar to know everything about Keel too.

  Before they had been split up, their lives had been one hundred percent entwined. There had been nothing that Saar knew or did that Keel had not been present to also learn or do. They had tried to recreate that camaraderie once a week as best they could, but a full week pretending to be Saar and living Saar's life would bring Keel closer to Saar than anything else had in the past few years.

  Keel settled down to sleep with a smile on his face. He was going to have a fun week.

  *~*~*

  Keel wasn't wrong either. The morning bell rang for Fourth Day and seconds later Linalee was already pounding on Saar's door.

  "Let's go!" she yelled. "Time to get breakfast. I've got some real plans for you today."

  Keel pulled on a set of Saar's clothes, ran h
is fingers through his hair, and hurried to open the door before Linalee could break it down. They headed to breakfast at a fast walk, Keel struggling to keep up with her long legs. There were two seats waiting for them at a long table in the dining hall. Linalee watched what Keel ate carefully, adding fresh fruit onto his plate when she decided he hadn't eaten enough. Sariel's approach at breakfast time was much different. He let Keel make his own choices, although there had been a couple of times when items like fruit were out of Keel's reach and Sariel had added them to Keel's plate without asking first.

  Keel ate quickly, trying to time himself to Linalee so he would be ready to go the same moment she was.

  "We're starting easy today, to give you time to digest," Linalee said as she relaxed into her chair with a cup of herbal tea. "Then we're going to spend the morning running."

  "Running?" Keel asked, wondering what was going on. Saar had never mentioned any lessons that involved running.

  "I saw you huffing and puffing last night," Linalee explained. "If you're going to sneak out to run through the city, I'm going to make sure you can run laps around the whole of Lev."

  Keel didn't know what to say in response to that statement. He was used to punching and kicking all morning until he had worked up a thorough sweat and his muscles were aching. But running? Neither Master, Cael, nor Sariel had ever mentioned something like that. Keel wondered if it were particular to Yimina training.

  The bell rang for the end of breakfast and Linalee led Keel outside to the backyard. He expected to go to the training room with everyone else, so going out into the grass was decidedly odd.

  She started him off running back and forth in a straight line across the lawn. After five repetitions she had him do high knees, bringing each knee up to his stomach at a fast pace as he ran. Then he had to side shuffle. Linalee was running at his side, but when he did five laps she did ten for every different move. Once they were done with that, they stretched their muscles for over ten minutes, Linalee making sure that Keel's fingers were touching his toes as he manipulated his body until every muscle felt loose and ready.

  "Okay, let's go on a run," she said with a grin.

  Keel followed Linalee at a jog as they left the backyard and headed out the front gate of the manor and into the city. They stayed in Yimina territory and on streets that weren't busy. Linalee kept the pace strong, but manageable, so Keel was able to keep up. They ran for over an hour. Keel felt like his legs were about to collapse after the first twenty minutes, but Linalee pushed him onwards. They passed the manor twice in their circuit. As they approached the manor a third time, Linalee pushed his aching body to the gates.

  "Stay there and stretch," she instructed. "Don't sit down and don't stop moving. I'm going to run another lap."

  All Keel's legs wanted to do was sit. They were shaky and aching. He couldn't believe how difficult running was, when he could kick nonstop for the same amount of time and not feel nearly as exhausted. He forced himself to walk slowly around in front of the gates, elongating his steps to stretch his leg muscles and ease some of the fatigue.

  Linalee reappeared fifteen minutes later looking half as winded as Keel felt. She had run her final lap in ten minutes less than Keel's and looked like she could run another without any issue. She joined Keel in walking around and stretching so by the time the lunch bell rang they were both breathing normally again.

  The first thing Linalee did when they took their seats in the dining hall was pour them both large glasses of water. Some fighters in Simola liked to add a spice mixture to their water that was purported to restore vital nutrients to the body after a hard workout. Neither Linalee nor Sariel followed that belief. Instead, Linalee made sure that the variety of food on Keel's plate had everything he needed to restore his body.

  After lunch they went to the library. Keel found Saar's favorite chair, where Saar liked to sit every time he had snuck Keel into the library to show off his classwork, and sank down into the soft cushions while Linalee spoke with the librarian, an elderly woman whose fierce eyes told Keel that she must have been a strong fighter in her youth.

  "We were working on algebra," Linalee said as she returned to Keel with a notebook and a textbook.

  Keel looked down at the equation and had to hide a grimace. He had just started learning X and Y in his new class. One day of learning wasn't enough to put him equal to where Saar was in his bookwork. Hopefully he could fudge it enough to get Linalee to explain it to him again because he had no idea what 3x=9 meant.

  *~*~*

  Keel went to bed on the first night of his stay with the Yimina aching, but pleased with himself. He was learning new things; he had a set of totally unused muscles that he also needed to train by running a lot. More importantly, he finally felt like he was wholly a part of Saar's life again. He knew firsthand what Saar spoke about when he explained his training with Linalee. Now Saar wouldn't be telling Keel about something new every time. Instead Saar would be filling Keel in on what he had missed.

  The second day was a repeat of the first, although Keel finally felt he was beginning to get the hang of algebra. On the third day, Linalee stopped them after their second lap and they worked on an intense round of punches and blocks. Saar's training was more metabolic than Keel's, which focused on proper movements done perfectly every time—even under stress. Keel was constantly moving his feet, working on his balance and his footwork as he defended himself against Linalee's attacks. They were two different styles of fighting, yet they were both equally effective. Keel was glad he had the opportunity to learn both.

  By Third Day, Keel finally felt that Linalee was beginning to let go of some of her watchfulness. He had spent the week behaving perfectly, including going to bed and staying there for the night. Her nighttime patrol left earlier than Sariel's, directly after dinner, but she didn't check to see if he was asleep in bed when she returned. Keel waited for his usual time to slip away, as if Sariel hadn't left yet. He didn't know exactly who was up late on watch, as he hadn't tried sneaking around after dark to investigate, but he figured the later he left, the more people would be asleep.

  Keel followed Saar's instructions on how to sneak away unseen and headed for the gazebo with Lightning. Saar was pacing in a circle around the inside of the building, his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

  "That was fun," Keel said as he hopped up the steps to Saar's side.

  "Do you know how worried I was?" Saar gasped as he spun around to glare at Keel. He threw a half-hearted fist at Keel, who dodged and stepped closer to Saar. "I was so worried! How could you get caught like that?"

  "I was avoiding Sariel," Keel explained as he drew Saar into his arms. Saar sagged against Keel for a long moment, his hands winding around Keel's waist to hold him tight. "I had no idea Linalee would be out looking for you, too."

  "Me either," Saar conceded. "So it went all right? Linalee didn't realize I was missing?"

  Keel grinned wickedly. "She didn't have a clue. How about the Simola?"

  Saar's grin was a perfect mimic for Keel's. "Oblivious. None of them had any idea I wasn't you."

  "We should do that again," Keel declared. "I really liked learning the different style of fighting Yimina uses."

  Saar thought for a moment, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. "Cael does have a totally different teaching style than Linalee."

  "So it's settled. How about one week out of every month we switch places," Keel insisted.

  "Fine," Saar agreed. "Now tell me everything you did with Linalee this past week."

  Keel groaned. "We ran. And ran. And ran some more."

  INTERLUDE

  THEY WERE PLAYING THE SAME TRICK ON ME

  Sariel remained in the dining hall after everyone else had left. He had the day off from training for mourning. Grandfather and Thrash had died in their sleep. The rest of the Simola were full of gossip, wondering which of the four Masters would become the next Grand Master, but all Sariel could think of was how he had wished
Grandfather good night and gone to bed without any knowledge that he would never speak with his only family again.

  "I'm sorry, Sariel," Keel said quietly. "Not having your family with you is really tough."

  "Why aren't you in training?" Sariel asked even though he was touched that Keel had stayed behind to give him some comfort. Keel was growing up. He was a gangly fourteen year old who suffered from the same condition all teens went through during their growing times. He was all elbows and knees, and he was awkward with it, which had accidentally given Cael a bloody nose just the previous week. He carefully bent down to give Sariel, who was still seated, a hug, bumping an elbow on the table in the process.

  "I'm going. Feel better, Sariel," Keel called as he released Sariel and jogged off towards the training room.

  Okay, so he wasn't exactly alone, Sariel thought. Grandfather might be gone and his parents had been dead for longer than Keel had been alive, but he had his little brother at his side.

  Sariel sighed and got to his feet. Maybe a walk around the grounds would clear his head. The autumn air was cool enough that it would reenergize him and prepare him for the funeral service to be held in the afternoon.

  He passed by the training hall as he walked and peeked in. Keel was still with the level two trainees, but instead of sparring with the other kids his age, he was holding his own against Cael. Sariel remembered Keel's first fight against Cael, where Cael had easily wiped the floor with him. Of all that year's kids moving up, Keel had shown the most promise. He was too far advanced to work with his peers, but he was still a full year too young to move up into level three. Cael had been working with him almost exclusively for nearly a full year, and it showed in just how strong Keel was.

  Master had remarked on how far ahead of the other students Keel was and had headed to the nursery to see if he could start any other four year old children early. He had stayed for five minutes while the babies whined and nattered on and the idea had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. If a three or four year old showed promise, the nursery instructor was to approach Master about it, but Master wasn't willing to subject himself to the babies again.