[Askoga]: 89.Novels.Kode.Chapter 4

The next morning I woke them all, with the exception of Lot, who was up before me, again. We ate breakfast, then I told them to gather the clothes they needed washed. I made it clear that I wouldn't accept uncleanness in my men. When they reappeared all of the men held bundles of clothing, and Lot had her outfit. She was wearing a different one. So far no one seemed to have realized that Lot was female, for she wasn’t talking at all. I smiled. She seemed like one of those surly men that never says anything more than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if they can help it.
“Come with me.” I led the way out into the town, and through a back way to the forest. When we reached the rock pool I dropped my things on the bank and turned to Lot, “Lot, go ahead on up to the other one. I'll whistle when we're done.” I pointed to a ridge of rocks, just upstream of us. From behind it came the stream that fed into our pool. Lot nodded and walked up to the rocks. She disappeared behind them and I turned back to the men.
They were all looking at me funny. “What? You expect me to have her bathe down here with us? She’d be offended.”
Kosh stared at me, “Tat’s a woman? You’ve got to be joking. No woman looks like tat.”
“She’s a woman. Her name is Lotina. Just because she looks like a man doesn’t mean she is one. Wait until you’ve heard her speak, then you’ll know that I speak the truth.” I stripped and stepped into the cold water. I was glad that it was summer at the time, for in the winter the water would too cold to bathe in.
The others followed suit. We washed our clothes, then bathed properly while they lay on rocks to dry. I was the first out, and I sat on a rock next to my clothes, letting the sun dry me.
When everyone was done and dry I whistled shrilly. Lot peered around the rocks tentatively and called down in her airy voice, “You’re all decent?”
“Yes. We’ll be heading to the clearing now. If you’re not done you can come later, you know where it is.” I watched as she disappeared again, and beckoned for the men to follow me. They stood lazily and we headed off to the clearing where I’d been teaching Lot. Lot caught up with us before we’d gone more than a few feet.
When we reached the clearing I pulled a smallish bag from my belt and dumped out its contents: eight fashokes. One of them was Lot’s (I had a good, sharp one for her today, which would be hers to keep), which I’d brought for her. I handed out the fashokes, one to each one of them that didn’t already have one. I was left with seven.
“Hmm, it’s nice to know that you carry them with you, even if you don’t know how to use them. And, since you seven are blacksmiths and made them yourselves, they’ll obey you better. Alright, everyone line up. Lot, we’ll get to more advanced practicing in a moment, but this is a good warm up.”
I went through teaching them to throw the fashokes up into the air. I used the knife method, making them envision the fans as throwing knives. It worked well, only one cut himself, and even that wasn’t bad. I watched them for a few moments, then turned to Lot, who had tossed hers a few times.
“Alright, Lot. Let's practice throwing back and forth again."
She prepared herself, without my help first. I came over and adjusted her stance, then went across the clearing again. We worked for another ten minutes. When we stopped I turned back to the men, who had gotten tired of tossing their fashokes up and catching them. Xendat still tossed his, but that was more because he was bored, I supposed. I showed them how to open their weapons, then how to toss them to each other. Every other person I instructed to put away his fashoke then had them all stand in a circle. Then they tossed their blades short distances while I went around giving them each pointers. Lot was also part of the circle, mostly to make it even.
I let them work for a while, watching. Lot was by far the best of them. At one point I focused my attention on a fashoke that, if the course were diverted, would fly right to Lot. I deftly threw my own blade into the maze of others and it bumped the one I'd been watching directly towards Lot. She noticed it only a few seconds before it would have hit her and let out a startled noise, throwing up her hands to protect herself, but she wouldn’t have caught it. I brought my will onto the weapon and it dropped immediately to the ground. The men who could were all staring at her; the others caught their own weapons and looked at her also.
“Be aware of everything. Don't once forget what's going on around you. That goes for all of you. I chose Lot as my example because she's doing better than the rest of you and has had two days' more practice.” I walked over and picked up the fallen fan, and then handed it to the man it'd originally been tossed to. "Continue, then. And don't forget, I'll test you all like that and I expect each of you to be able to catch a stray fashoke without a second thought before I'll say that you may move on to anything harder.
I stood there for a minute or so, watching them go back to their tossing of fashokes. At first, Lotina seemed particularly upset with me, but she soon mellowed out, apparently mollified by my praise of her throwing skills. When I was satisfied that they were comfortable again I sank into the dance I'd been doing the day before, when it was just Lot and I. That is what we call the series of set movements that we use to practice, as it is very much like a dance. Watching a fashoke dance for the first time it seems like a dangerous combination of random throws and seemingly meaningless moves, but every movement has a reason.
I noticed that the men were watching me after a while, and I turned to them, “Pair up. You’ll practice throwing over larger distances now. Be careful not to cut your partner, and remember to focus on the faqok. This should be like a dance when you’re good at it.” They paired up. Kosh was paired with Lot, and he looked at me, then folded his weapon.
“I won’t do tis wit a woman. Women are for cooking and housekeeping. Tese are dangerous, not toys.”
I raised my eyebrow at Lot, knowing she’d have something to say to that. She watched Koshin with her hard blue eyes, then smiled, “If that’s how you think of me, fine. Just this morning I could tell that you thought I was a man. And you thought highly of me, too. Do you really think that all women are weak and don’t know how to fight? I’ll tell you something: I do not take weapons lightly.”
Kosh stared at her, “Have it your way, ten. Toss it to me.” The others were already tossing theirs back and forth. I smiled as Lot threw her fashoke to Kosh. He caught it and oofed in surprise. He obviously hadn’t expected her to throw it that hard. I watched everyone for a few minutes, walking up and down the lines and correcting mistakes.
Finally I was confident that everyone could do well enough on their own, and so I began practicing my own techniques again. Suddenly a wooden staff intercepted my fan, and I called it back, continuing with my pattern. I wasn’t very surprised to see Savera again; I was merely surprised that she’d entered my dance.
Savera continued, entering into the pattern of my dance as naturally as if we’d always done this. In fact, she had done just this when she'd taught me this same dance. Well, she'd danced with me once she knew that I was ready for it. Now she smiled at me as we continued. I forgot everything else but the dance, until Savera leaned on her staff. I caught my weapon and folded it up, breathing heavily. That was when I noticed that the men and Lot had stopped and were watching us, again.
Savera noted the direction of my gaze, “They’ve only been watching the last few minutes. I guess they’re about as tired as we are.”
Kosh was staring at Savera as though he’d just seen a ghost. I laughed, “Changed your mind about women, Kosh? This is my good friend, Wizop. Wizop, this is Koshin, Xendat, Pachok, Falsde, Greba, Jopel, and Ploz. They are the newest members. Men, Wizop is an expert at fashoke dances. If you dare to dance with her you’ll have your work cut out for you.” I grinned at Savera and she smiled back at me, very slightly. She was the one person that I felt I could relax around.
“He’s too kind to me. I was watching you men and Lot throwing, and you’re doing well. Ploz, your stance isn’t very good, work on that. Greba, hold it tighter. I could have knocked that from your hand easily. The rest of you need only to be more confident.” I was glad she’d noted them each so quickly. She looked directly at Kosh, “Koshin, I believe you made this?” She flicked open a fashoke that had been hidden in her sleeve and held it out to him.
Kosh’s jaw dropped open. I enjoyed watching him be ever more stunned by Savera. He reached out and touched the blades with trembling fingers.
“How did you get tis? I made it for te leader of te silver phoenix clan back home. Tat was long before tose ruddy graftana kicked us out of our homes. Tey seemed to tink we shared phoenix luck. But you couldn’t have gotten tis. It was lost to te magi when tey killed te Hegater family.” He looked at Savera suspiciously.
“I’m not a mage. I’m Lozak’s daughter. My name is Savera Hegather. Why do you think Askoga calls me Wizop? Of course you know why Askoga calls himself that.” I laughed as she looked at me with her blue eyes. I wondered if they had yet realized why my code name was Secret in their own language. Most likely they thought that it was just an odd coincidence.
“She is who she says she is, boys. I’ve known her all my life.”
Kosh touched the fashoke, as though asking if he could hold it, to examine it closer. Savera relinquished it. That surprised me, she’d never let her fashoke be examined by anyone before now. Not even me.
The smith opened the fashoke completely and examined it, then he closed his eyes. I’m not sure what he did, but when he gave the weapon back to Savera he believed her. I was surprised by the total change in him. Suddenly he seemed satisfied that Savera had not stolen the fashoke and was the rightful owner and he became friendly towards her.
“Tank you, Wizop.” Kosh bowed low to her, “I am honored tat you would allow me to handle such a dear ting. I can see how much you use it. Do you have the oter? I made your fater two of tem, at his request.”
I was amazed to see that Savera did, indeed, produce another fashoke. With a smooth flick of her wrists she fanned them both out fully.
Kosh smiled, “You’ve kept tem in good condition. Very good.”
I sighed, “Come, it’s getting dark. The law-keepers get suspicious if I return to the town too late in the day. Wizop, are you coming with us?”
Savera nodded while everyone got ready to go. She idly closed her fashokes and slipped them back into her sleeves. All ten of us walked back to the inn. In my mind I decided that I needed to start traveling with smaller groups if we weren’t to be caught. Ten people are just too many people to go anywhere discreetly. We reached the inn with no incidents, and I breathed properly again.
Everyone was dead tired, but I brought them into the meeting room anyway, “Okay, we need to start traveling in small groups. We’re just too big a group to travel together. Lot knows her way around fairly well, but I don’t think she knows everything. However, for now, Lot, you will be in charge of half of the group. It’s still a lot of people, but not as big as before. The ideal groups would be two or three people, but for now we’ll stick to four and five. Later, when more of you know your way around, we’ll split into smaller groups.”
I nodded, dismissing them. I watched them leave, keeping my eyes mostly on Lot, Savera sat next to me. Lot also hung back. I smiled; she had gotten the hint that I wanted to talk to her more.
“Lot, I want you to watch your group. I still don’t trust most of these men. Koshin seems alright, but the others…well, I’ll put Kosh in your group. He respects you now, and he’ll keep his men from doing anything. You’re dismissed.”
Lot stood and left, nodding to Savera. I turned my gaze on Savera also. “Well, Wizop. You’re back. Is this good or bad?”
“A little of both, I’m afraid. I’ve decided that I’ll stay here for a while and help you train your new members. However, I’ve recently discovered that the law-keepers have gotten a clue as to your whereabouts. That’s why I’m staying. I’ll sleep in this room, if that’s ok with you?”
I nodded, “You’re protecting us, Wizop. That is enough payment for you to stay here. And if you prefer this room, then I won’t offer you a different one.” I rose and bowed. “Good-night, Wizop.” I turned and left the room, heading for my own. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, for practicing with Savera had tired me out.