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

  Keel was last in line, but he stepped up to Master Uriah confidently. She hooked his pin into his shirt and nodded at him.

  "Congratulations, Keel," she said formally.

  "Thank you," Keel replied before rejoining the rest of his class.

  "Two students in this year's class have been deemed skilled enough to enter alternate training," Master Uriah continued after a round of polite clapping from the families and other onlookers had ended. "Will the sponsors please step forward?"

  Aimy puffed up next to Keel as she looked expectantly at the crowd of family. Keel almost felt sorry for her.

  Sariel was in front of the group so he was the first to join Master Uriah. An older woman with graying hair, arm muscles larger than Sariel's, and a proudly displayed silver pin joined him a few moments later.

  "Liam Michaelson, please step forward," the older woman intoned ceremoniously. Liam hurried forward, a wide smile on his face.

  "Keel, please step forward," Sariel echoed with a grin for Keel.

  "What?" Aimy gasped. "No, someone has it wrong. I'm supposed to be an alternate too! Tell them, Keel!"

  But Keel was already walking away from her to stand next to Sariel. Sariel rested his hand on Keel's shoulder as they both turned back towards Master Uriah.

  "Congratulations to our two new alternate trainees," Master Uriah said. "I know you will both honor Simola in the tournament with your best fighting skills." She turned to the three remaining students. "Congratulations to our three new guard trainees. I know you will honor Simola as you protect our city, country, and king with your strength."

  That was apparently the end of the ceremony because after speaking those last words, Master Uriah nodded once more at the trainees and then walked off. The crowd slowly began to disperse too.

  "Let's get out of here before Aimy tries to latch on to me again," Keel hissed at Sariel. Sariel was still taller than Keel, so Keel had to lift up onto his toes to speak into Sariel's ear.

  "Got an admirer, have you?" Sariel asked with a wide grin.

  "Get me away from her," Keel repeated frantically. She was looking around the milling crowd, her shock having worn off, and Keel had little doubt she was making evil plans to integrate herself into his training with Sariel. Sariel laughed, but complied. They walked back into the manor through the kitchen door and headed in the direction of the main entrance.

  "There's one like that every few years," Sariel explained. "Master Uriah knows Aimy's type. Either Aimy will straighten out, or she'll find herself given a posting on the far edge of the country where she can't do much damage. Either way, she'll be too busy to continue bothering you."

  "I hope so," Keel replied fervently as they stepped back outside through the front doors.

  "Congratulations, Keel!" Hota called. He was on duty at the door and had a wide smile for Keel and Sariel.

  "Thanks, Hota," Keel replied with a smile. Away from the rest of his peers, he finally felt like he could smile about moving up. It had taken a lot of work and long hours of training to get to where he was. He had been in level two for eight years, a Simola record, and had been practicing exclusively with Cael for the first and last two of those years. Cael was a fighter strong enough to consistently come in third place in the tournament, so it was a great honor. There were few other trainees of any age who had put up with the same amount of abuse to get to their moving up ceremony. Keel had earned his copper pin, and he was damned proud of himself.

  "Off to spar in the city with your sponsor?" Hota asked.

  "It's how my sponsor taught me, and it's how I'm going to teach Keel," Sariel answered with his own smile.

  Hota nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a good plan to me. It worked out well with you, Sariel. Good luck then." He waved them away so he could hold open the door for a young mother carrying her baby. Keel followed Sariel across the front lawn, through the gate, and out into the city.

  Anticipation was growing with every step Keel took next to Sariel. It had been a year since that hinted conversation that he and Saar could train together. There hadn't been an indication from either Sariel or Linalee about whether that idea had grown into an actual plan, but Keel and Saar had talked of nothing else last Third Night.

  They headed further through the city on streets that Keel could walk in his sleep—he had taken their route so often. Hope was growing into reality, so he was practically skipping as they entered the park and walked directly towards the gazebo.

  Saar and Linalee were already waiting for them, and Keel hurried forward to hug Saar close. His heart thumped in his chest at the feeling of Saar's arms folding around his waist and the press of Saar's cheek against his own. It was only anticipation of training together, Keel knew, so he tried to push away the feelings that lately had been trying to overwhelm him whenever Saar was nearby.

  "I've checked out this park," Linalee was saying to Sariel as Keel slowly pulled away from Saar's embrace. "It's not in the best part of town. During the day the local residents are working, and at night it's deserted too. Really, only the crown funding for all city parks keeps it up. It's a perfect spot to secretly train Saar and Keel."

  "Good," Sariel agreed firmly. "Shall we begin?"

  Keel and Saar nodded eagerly, holding hands and waiting for their first joint training session to start.

  "One lap around the perimeter of the park to warm up," Linalee instructed. "We'll stretch and then we'll run another ten laps."

  "Running?" Saar groaned unhappily. Keel agreed; he hated running.

  "If your cardio isn't up to par you'll never survive the tournament," Linalee insisted.

  "You'll certainly not survive nighttime guard duty," Sariel added. "Let's go."

  Sariel and Linalee took the lead, setting a comfortable warm-up pace as they jogged the half-mile circumference around the park. Keel ran next to Saar for the first time since they were four years old and couldn't keep the wide smile off his face. Training together with Saar had been his most fervent wish from his very first day, when he was still learning how to make a proper fist. Not even miles and miles of running, followed by sparring and classwork, could dampen his enthusiasm.

  Saar was grinning happily at Keel's side, so Keel knew those same feelings were echoed in his brother. There was nothing better than a wish granted, and Keel was going to enjoy every moment of it.

  Sariel and Linalee started bickering during lap five. Keel was surprised they had made it all the way through the warm-up lap and stretching. He was even more surprised that they had enough breath left to bicker. He and Saar were puffing and dreading the final five laps while neither Sariel nor Linalee looked the least bit winded.

  "We should go straight into strength training," Linalee insisted, her feet not missing a stride even as she turned her head to glare at Sariel. "A few rounds of push-ups, sit ups, and squats to really get their muscles working."

  "When do you suggest they practice actual martial arts?" Sariel quipped. "Having big muscles and a well cut stomach is not a prerequisite for entering the tournament."

  They continued to fight, and as their argument escalated, their pace increased. Keel tried to lengthen his stride, Saar attempting to do the same at his side, but they were quickly forced to return to their slower pace.

  "How. Many. Babies. Do. You. Think. They'll. Have. Together?" Saar gasped out between large gulps for air.

  Keel didn't have the breath to laugh, but he had the strength to send Saar an amused grin. Saar was right: Sariel and Linalee's fighting really did seem more like flirting. "Lots," Keel forced out between heavy breaths as they rounded the final turn and began lap six. Sariel and Linalee were already out of sight around the next bend.

  The rest of the day passed in much the same way. They did eventually get to sparring, but not before a hellish round of strength training that left Keel's arms and legs feeling like wet noodles. If Linalee was a beast about endurance, she had nothing on Sariel's insistence that every move in their sparring session be perfectly
executed. When Saar missed a difficult block, Sariel pulled him aside to practice the move a full fifty times. Muscle memory, Sariel insisted, would save them from thugs on the street and fighters in the tournament.

  They parted to go have lunch with their respective guilds. Keel was sad to separate from Saar, even for a short time, but he was also glad for the break. Nothing in level two had prepared him for Sariel and Linalee in level three, and he was absolutely exhausted.

  Their afternoon was comprised of classwork. Apparently it was Sariel's turn to choose their lesson and he had given them a copy of a highly acclaimed work written by a king's scholar to read aloud and comment on.

  Keel and Saar took turns reading every few pages. They got to sit on a bench in the gazebo, their legs touching every time one of them shifted in place. Keel fought down a shiver every time Saar got too close and wondered if he were coming down with some sort of illness. Maybe his legs were exhausted from the squats Linalee had made them do, and that was why he felt so oddly. Saar certainly wasn't showing any similar sort of reaction, but then he was more used to Linalee's training methods.

  At the end of the day, Keel hugged Saar close in goodbye. For the first time, Keel wouldn't have to wait an entire week before he saw Saar again. There were just a few hours until morning training arrived again. Keel kept that thought firmly in his head as he followed Sariel out of the park and back to the Simola manor for dinner.

  "Go take a hot bath," Sariel said with a laugh after dinner when Keel tried to stand from his chair and groaned as his tired muscles refused to take his weight. "We'll meet down in the armory in two hours."

  Keel agreed with a grunt and finally got his knees to obey. He hobbled out of the dining hall and headed to his room for a towel and change of clothes. He opened his bedroom door to find all four hundred fifty pounds of battle cat curled onto his human sized bed. Lightning had his head buried beneath Keel's blankets and was fast asleep. Since he and Thunder had spent the day on their own training, and all Keel wanted to do was join Lightning, Keel completely understood. Instead, he edged his way around Lightning and found the items he needed.

  Hot water with some soothing salts added did wonders for his muscles. Keel spent a good forty minutes collapsed into a tub in the men's bathing room. Other men, Sariel included, used the showers to get clean after their own long days of training. They all had a sympathetic grin for Keel. Liam took one look at how relaxed Keel was and got into his own bath with a happy groan.

  Time eventually started pressing on Keel, reminding him that his responsibilities were not done for the night. He found a bar of soap and actually got clean. Once he was finished, he drained the tub, dried off, and changed into another set of clothes.

  "You coming on patrol tonight?" Keel asked Lightning once he was back in his room to put away his bathing things. Lightning rumbled unhappily beneath Keel's blankets and swished his long tail. "I'm heading down to the armory in ten minutes, if you would like to join me."

  Lightning eventually worked his way out of Keel's bed. He stretched, his long front legs extended while his bottom arched into the air, and shook himself once. He was staring expectantly at Keel by the ten-minute mark, so Keel had to find the energy to get back onto his feet and head down the manor halls to the basement armory.

  "There you are," Sariel called when Keel pushed open the door. "I was starting to worry I'd have to dig you out of your bath."

  Keel just grumbled incoherently in reply. He was too tired to come up with a good retort.

  "Let's get you suited up," Sariel continued. He and the armorer started strapping heavy leather onto Keel's body. They did it without Keel's help, the armorer apparently used to the state of trainees just moving up to level three. By the time they were finished and Sariel was putting on his own armor, Keel felt like he had doubled in weight. His legs shook as he fought to keep himself upright.

  "We had this custom made," the armorer grunted, passing over an extra-large bit of heavy leather. "You'll have to put it on yourself." When Keel just stared blankly down at the armor in his hands, wondering where it was supposed to go when he was already covered, the armorer kindly pointed at Lightning.

  Keel heaved the leather over Lightning's back and found that there were three thick straps to buckle it into place. The first strap was extra thick and tied around Lightning's neck to keep him safe. Keel hooked up that one first. The second went behind his front legs and the third in front of his back ones. Those were just to keep the armor in place and Lightning shook to settle everything once Keel finished.

  "One last thing," Sariel said once his own armor was in place. He yanked a regular shirt down over Keel's head, helping Keel get his arms into the sleeves. His copper Simola pin was hooked to the front of the shirt. "So everyone knows who you belong to," Sariel explained. "Come on."

  Keel followed Sariel as he walked out of Simola and onto the streets of Lev. His arms and legs felt leaden and too heavy to lift. Keel didn't know what dangers Sariel usually encountered while on patrol, but Keel wasn't going to be much help.

  "The first and most important thing to remember is to always be ready for anything," Sariel explained as he began to walk at a pace that would eat up ground without looking like he was hurrying. "There is no telling what some idiot or drunkard will do or what scheme you'll come across. Always keep one eye and ear focused in front of you and the other eye and ear behind. That way you'll miss nothing."

  "Um," Keel began, wondering if he were supposed to walk with his head turned sideways.

  "You'll get the knack of it," Sariel encouraged. "It's important that when you're listening for someone following you, you don't miss the ambush set up in front of you. That said, Simola isn't about to put their winning tournament fighter into any serious danger. I do my duty to my city, country, and crown by keeping the streets of Lev safe, but I've never been given a patrol in the disputed territory between Simola and Yimina. I've also never had a patrol in the more volatile markets, the bar district, or the slums. It's boring work, walking around in circles for hours with nothing to break the monotony, but someone has to take the route, and it might as well be me."

  Sariel was correct. His patrol route passed by the large, walled compounds of the wealthy courtiers who could afford to hire their own guard to protect them from trouble. He also walked the streets around the Simola manor, which was why Keel had so nearly run into him a number of times on his way home on Third Night.

  Halfway through the patrol, Keel could no longer keep his attention focused on work. His legs felt leaden and moved like blocks of wood and his mind was mostly asleep. Somehow he continued to shuffle along with Sariel and Lightning for the last few hours.

  He had no memory of returning to the armory to take off the heavy leather. Sariel must have woken him long enough to free Lightning, but the next thing Keel knew, the breakfast bell was ringing and he was curled in bed with a very large cat.

  Day two passed in much the same sort of haze. Saar looked as bad as Keel felt, but neither Sariel nor Linalee gave them a break. Although, when Keel fell asleep against Saar's shoulder while they were reading that afternoon, no one woke him for a good three hours.

  The third day was even worse than day two, mostly because Linalee forced him to finish an entire worksheet of advanced algebra before he could take a nap. Keel's only consolation was that he was too tired for his body and brain to feel odd about curling up with Saar in the early afternoon sunlight for a long nap.

  By day four, his body was starting to get used to the routine. By week four, he no longer needed the extra afternoon nap, although he was still dragging through patrol.

  Saar officially graduated into level three after six months of their grueling training. Linalee was still his instructor, but once a month he had to showcase what he was learning for a Master to approve. That meant there was a full day where Keel just trained with Sariel, although every once in a while it was Keel sparring with Linalee in front of a Yimina Master. Not that Linalee
knew he was Keel those times, but it was fun to switch places with no one the wiser.

  Keel's body eventually became used to the new training regimen, which was exactly when Linalee and Sariel decided to double the amount of laps and strength training drills he and Saar had to do. Keel thought it was a full year and a half before he had the energy to focus on something besides training and his aching body.

  Then one day everything changed.

  Saar had wrenched his shoulder pretty badly a few days earlier when they had been practicing a new grappling move and had been ordered by the Yimina physician not to use it for a full week. He got to do leg balance drills and extra math sets for the entire morning, which he didn't particularly enjoy. Keel had been forced to spar with both Sariel and Linalee, the two fighters ganging up on him and forcing him to go beyond his usual limits of fighting endurance. He had come out of that fight with a severely bruised hip and was having trouble walking.

  The next morning, when Keel hobbled out to the park, Linalee took one look at Keel balanced on his one good leg and Saar with an arm taped tightly to his chest and sighed in disgust.

  "Mental fights?" Linalee sighed to Sariel.

  "That sounds like a good idea to me," Sariel agreed. He led the way into the gazebo and waited for Keel and Saar to find a seat. "You're in a tournament fight. Your opponent is strong, but you're stronger. Perhaps you're overconfident or you're getting tired, but you step wrong and your opponent's kick breaks your arm. What set of moves could you perform, without jarring your arm or alerting the judges that you're seriously injured, that would win the fight quickly?"

  "We're going on a warm-up run," Linalee added. "You two talk it out and have a couple of possible solutions by the time we're done." She and Sariel left at a jog, leaving Keel and Saar behind with the most unusual lesson they had ever been given.