The sun rose with a languor I personally envied. As soon as the scent of the world changed, I hopped up from where I’d sat facing the sliding door and padded out of the room. Drunk as she was, Hanari did not stir as I moved. Neither did she stir as I slid the paper door shut behind me. Around me the building lay as quiet as thieves in the bush. I smelled no morning food being prepared nor heard the bustle of students or servants as they woke with the dawn.

  Not knowing my way around her home, I had to rely on my ears to find Wei’s training yard. But the wind whistling over slanted roofs and through an open space which wasn’t the entrance to the building led me as surely as a map.

  No one waited for me in the pristine sand-packed yard. A handful of spindly trees stretched their limbs toward the sky in the corner of the yard, barrels of water sat near the door, and a stand bearing the standard spears of the dojo stood opposite the entrance.

  A walkway of red wood circled the entire field, like a frame covering a blank canvas. I almost felt like an intruder stepping onto the firm dirt of the training yard. In the dim light, I’d missed the careful manicure the yard received. Someone, presumably Wei’s students, had raked this whole place down carefully with an eye to detail which befitted the traditional style of this dojo. What would Odgen have thought of this place? I imagined he would have admired it as well as the fastidious mannerisms of the resident master.

  For my part, I only wanted the yard for the utility. Exercise in my own rooms would have roused Hanari. Though I did not dislike the Kitsune, I found her behavior and attitude annoying at best and disruptive at worst.

  With the Mountain Cutter still enclosed in its cloth, I padded a corner of the yard beneath one of the leafless, spindly trees. I reverently set my blade against the tree and commenced a light stretching routine. It was one of the few habits Odgen had not instilled in me personally, rather this was an artifact of my upbringing among the halls of the Western dragons. As the second daughter, my martial instructions had been more intense than my older sister’s. She was expected to rule, I was expected to captain the dragon hosts and defend her claim with claw and fang. Besides, with her magic, it was a waste to devote her time to training in physical combat. Not so with her magic-less younger sister.

  While most of the calisthenics I’d learned were intended for the body of a dragon, my father had insisted I study in various forms, especially that of a human. I’d not been allowed to touch a weapon though, not at my young age.

  As I hopped up from my various training exercises, I clapped the dust from my hand and shook away the bittersweet memories of home. Had I followed the trail of this for too long, they would have led to blood, regret, and curses.

  Like a good pupil and inheritor of my master’s teachings, I began the sword kata as I always did, blade in scabbard. My master and my school harbored none of the foolish ideas some mortals held about the sanctity of the blade. A sword was meant to shed blood, but the blood itself was sacred, not the steel. And training would have been impossible if I had been required to blood my weapon each time I drew it from its scabbard.

  Instead, I swung the Mountain Cutter through scabbard bound steps because this was what Odgen had taught me. A sword such as the Mountain Cutter was more than deadly without being drawn. And to bare the steel of my blade would mean bloodshed or training were sure to follow. As much as possible, I’d been schooled to keep my blade concealed and sheathed.

  The first form required the use of the cloth wrap around my weapon, but ended with the white sheet laying on the ground at my feet. The second and third forms required the sword remain in its home until the very final step of the third form. Drawing the Mountain Cutter set a ring through the empty yard and a chime in my soul.

  “Do you hear that, Isha?” I could practically hear Odgen’s words, “That is the Cutter’s voice singing her approval to you.”

  I snorted at the memory. For years I’d been certain he was teasing me. Decades after his death I was not so sure.

  Her gleaming smile sheared through the breaking dawn light, casting shadows upon the white ground as if marks of spilled blood. I stared ahead of me, doing my best to ignore those shades as I focused on the precision of my form.

  When I shifted into the long, sweeping attacks of the fifth form, I sensed I had an observer. My mind flew up to the moon and I could hear her controlled breathing, could hear the way her bones creaked as she shifted balance from foot to foot. The eagerness in her stance surprised me, considering I could tell it was Wei. Every part of her body, from the small bones in the tips of her toes, to the ends of her hair wished to leap from the frame about her training yard and carve her own marks upon the canvas between.

  Odgen would have been disappointed in me if I’d stopped the forms before I reached the ninth. And I yielded nothing to the master of the spear house in revealing the katas of my style. So I continued. An audience sharpened my focus, tapped a well of concentration and siphoned it up through my spine and into the base of my neck. I wound down the second to last form of Odgen’s sword style and found my breathing heavy, yet my balance split between my front and back feet perfect. I’d not experienced such a firm foundation in my own stance since Odgen died. The dutiful student in me urged me to continue, to push onto the tenth form and test the precision in my shoulders and arms. But the wounded adult in the fore of my brain refused to embarrass herself before a master.

  I bowed to where Odgen would have stood and lifted up the scabbard of the Mountain Cutter where I’d lain it in the dirt. Upending it, I cleared my sword’s home of debris and checked it for damage to the metal surface. Both the blade and its sheath remained unmarred. From a small pouch I removed a cleaning rag and ran it over my blade with as much care as I’d shown while practicing. According to Odgen, such cleaning was unnecessary for my sword, for his sword. And yet I took a cloth to it whenever the opportunity arose. I repeated the examination and cleaning of the scabbard of my blade with the same care.

  Wei clapped behind me as I sent the Mountain Cutter into her home. “Your focus and control are astounding.”

  I bowed to her, conscious of the fact I still wore my jade green armor, the source of my nickname. “Thank you.” I examined the field around me and found I’d cut swathes through Wei’s pristine training yard. “I apologize for presuming to use your training yard.”

  Fingers flicked at me with Wei’s usual dismissiveness. “It is a matter of no consequence. When my students depart this evening, I will have them sweep and rake again, as always.”

  I bowed to her, low enough to convey my gratitude. “Thank you again.”

  She came to a stop before me and put her hands on her hips. “If you truly feel you owe me, I know a way you can repay me.”

  I looked up at her through my brows and wondered at the implication. Where the sun rose behind her, it cast her hair and shoulders into flame and gave her the aspect of a fire goddess rising from a pool of magma. “I would be honored to clear any debt between us.”

  Wei sent her head back, abandoning her formal airs. “Oh, you’re delightful.” She pointed at me and turned toward the spear stands. “Why do I have the distinct impression you just imagined me demanding you spend a night in my bed while I ravished you?”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  I snorted and replied with soft shrug. “I can only speculate your own desires framed such an impression for the idea was far from my mind.”

  It was the truth, but I’d cut it as thin as a strand of Wei’s lovely hair. When she voiced her suspicion the idea had certainly risen in my mind and I definitely considered her offer.

  “Oh well, my mistake then.” She grabbed the haft of a long spear and twirled it with the same hand as she turned toward me. “Favor me with a duel then?” My chin dropped to my chest for a moment and I frowned at her. Prepared to refuse her offer, I snapped my mouth shut when she tossed me a wooden training sword almost as long as her spear. “If you win, I will tell you the truth about my history,” she continue the twirl of her blade, “but if I win you will entertain me in my private rooms tonight?” I shook my head this time, prepared to refuse in full, but once again Wei interrupted me. “There is no obligation other than to drink with me, I swear it. Besides, after your display of mastery with the sword, I would be disappointed to learn you couldn’t best with with a little wooden sword. What would your master say?”

  The refusal died in my throat and I swung the wooden sword to test the weight. “I spend one night with you, in your rooms, no obligations if I lose. And if I win… you give me your story and a jug of your finest mead.”

  I raised the stakes expecting Wei’s refusal. But instead, she laughed with her head back, shifted her staff to her left hand, and offered me her right. “I, Wei Yun, of the great spear school, hereby accept your terms.”

  “Win conditions?” I looked at her hand before I shook it.

  “Three solid strikes, nothing above the neck or below the… thighs.” Wei licked her lips at me and pumped her eyebrows.

  For a second I was stunned at the juxtaposition of the polite, demure, and cultured women Wei had put on show for us during dinner and the lascivious, suggestive, and crass one with her hand offered to me. She’d certainly captured my attention. “Very well. I accept.”

  We shook hands and walked back seven paces. The distance favored her longer spear over my sword. And skill to skill, staves and spears dominated swords. But I’d trained under a great master and had at least thirty years on this woman. Perhaps my terms had been unfair?

  “Go.” As the host, Wei took the initiative in declaring the duel’s beginning.

  Any other spear-user would have forced me to close the distance with them. It was the traditional move for a spear against a sword. But Wei’s stance shifted like her feet belonged to a different set of hips each.

  It was a distraction, I knew it, but the temptation to look down at her bare feet struck me as Wei closed the gap between us. She moved with grace and speed I’d seldom seen in battle. Whatever her circumstances, Wei demonstrated in the first three seconds of our duel she’d earned her position as master of his academy.

  Her staff end came down in a two-handed blow toward my shoulder. I brought my wooden sword up and parried the staff away, it was a simple move. And I took my opportunity to close the distance between us, to render the advantage of her long spear mute. But she slid the haft along her hands and spun the weapon’s butt toward me.

  I had only one recourse to avoid taking the end of her staff in the gut, I spun along with her, following the shaft of her spear like a fish caught on the line. A giggle escaped Wei’s lips at my move. But before she could repeat her hammer blow against my shoulder, I flicked her spear up and over my head using my own sword as a guide.

  Rather than meet her within her guard, I shuffled away, keeping my eyes on her at all times. To my surprise, Wei remained where she was when I deflected her third attack. Her eyes were narrowed and a smile spread across her face. “You are better in a duel than you look stepping through your forms.”

  I blinked at Wei, it sounded like she was… insulting me? My concentration crumbled and she repeated her incredible foot-sliding move as she advanced on me. This time, she held the butt of her spear toward me, almost letting the tip of her spear drag in the dirt behind her.

  I brought my sword up in a standard advanced guard. And Wei shifted from my left to my right as if she’d jumped through space and time. The butt of her spear came up like at me in the same motion she’d tried to use on me when I’d closed with her. But this time I was out of position. With my weight on my back foot, I managed to dodge the spear as it plunged toward my chest. But I could do nothing about the foot she’d hooked around my ankle.

  Wei dumped me on my backside and brought her spear butt gently down onto my chest. “First point, me.”

  In a pair of exchanges, this spear master had shown me exactly how dangerous she was. I kipped up to stand as she walked away and resumed her stance back at the starting positions. Odgen practically laughed at me in the back of my head. I shook myself to clear out the embarrassment of ceding a point. A master like Wei would take advantage of my distraction if I wasn’t careful.

  This time when she announced the start of the round, Wei didn’t move. As if mirroring my previously failed defense, she held her spear at the ready in a wide two-handed grip. Sweat trickled down through my armor and over the bridge of my nose. She flashed a smirk at my hesitation and upended her chin as if to challenge me.

  I wasn’t taking the bait.

  My mind flew up to the moon again and I took a series of deep breaths before I turned my own wooden sword back behind me in a steady grip and advanced with sure steps. This, the sixth grip, was the natural sword counter to spears. I knew there was no way Wei would fall for this common ruse, but pride demanded I mirror her the way she’d mirrored me. Unlike her incredible speed, I approached with a slow certainty, building my balance under the balls of my feet and keeping myself as centered as possible.

  A proper duel, was more than blade against blade. Odgen had counseled me on this over and over. A proper duel was two minds facing off with each other using the sum total of their tools in battle. Wei could not know of my strength, my true strength, nor could she know of the speed I could attain when I intended to.

  Her body coiled as if to receive my attack, I was right outside of her range when I sprung. A wave of dirt and dust billowed up from beneath my feet as I exploded forward with every fraction of strength in my body. Wei actually shuffled out way of my first attack, but I’d closed the gap between us in less than time than it takes to snap. With the haft of her spear under my arm and my right hand wrapped around her left, I hit her in the gut with the “hilt” of my wooden sword. The only change I’d made to the closing technique Odgen had taught me was to use only a fraction of my strength when I hit her. A strike such as I’d used could cause internal bleeding at full force and I did not want to hurt this woman. It would have been akin to crushing a harp player’s fingers or a singer’s windpipe.

  Wei’s eyes widened at my blow, but the moment it landed she relaxed and I could sense the killing urge in her eyes dim. We parted and she bowed to me. “Excellent. Better than…” She rubbed her stomach. “Better than anyone I have ever seen.”

  To further build her status as a master Wei didn’t cough or even pause to recover her wind. We both returned to our starting position and bowed to each other. Something had changed in her stance though. Her feet were closer together now and she held her staff with a loose grip, almost like a writing quill.

  “Care to make this the match point?” Wei’s voice carried through the morning wind which had stirred the leafless trees of the yard.

  “If you wish, same stakes?”

  “Yes. I am worried we might hurt each other if we let this continue.” Wei pointed to me. “Besides, you’re wearing armor and it wouldn’t be fair to you.”

  I chuckled as a reply and bowed again. “I am a guest in your home.” And the truth… the truth was I was enjoying myself in a fight for the first time since Odgen died.

  “Then prepare yourself,” Wei bowed and said, And you may call the start.”

  I took the stance I was most accustomed to, with my sword in first grip. When I’d found the perfect tipping point between my front and back feet, I took a deep breath and said, “go.”

  Wei moved so fast she sent afterimages in my vision. Her black and white gi echoed over the field and only my mind’s place high above where the moon hid from the sun allowed me to deflect her initial, testing blow. But the same impossible speed she’d displayed with her feet came naturally to her hands.I knew at once, before the tip of the spear hit my chest plate, that I’d lost the duel. I also knew Wei was like me and Hanari, not a creature of man. Or at least not purely so.

  With her spear tip pressed against my breast, Wei blurred out of her incredible speed. Her hair waved about her head with an unnatural motion, moving in wind I could neither feel nor hear. Tiny sparks danced at the ends of her locks and my eyes could not help but follow them.

  I bowed to her at once and said, “I yield, you are the superior between us.”

  Like a candle who’s flame had been snuffed, Wei’s hair fell about her shoulders and drifted down to the white cloth of her gi. “Thank the Gods. I wasn’t sure I could win if you still beat me after that.” She winked and danced away with a grin over her face. “You owe me one night, swordswoman.”

  “And perhaps you could spend it telling me your story?”

  Wei shrugged and her eyes glittered with the sparks of fire as she bowed to me, turned and replaced her spear in its stand. “Perhaps.”