Chapter 149

Bjarkë began swinging his axe in a lazy looking side to side manner, figure eight, trying to make it harder to get past his axe. Frang retreated, raising or lowering his rapier as necessary to avoid having his blade struck aside. Frang thought he saw and opening and lunged, but Bjarkë got the axe up to deflect, but Frang was quickly back, his sword arm in close to his body to keep Bjarkë outside the point. It went on for awhile, Frang finally getting his point into both Bjarkë's legs to bleed him, but never getting a killing blow to the body. Though he acknowledged Thorburn the superior foe with the axe, Bjarkë was very talented.

"As you can see," Frang said, "I never got a point into Bjarkë's torso for a killing blow, though I could bleed him a little, weaken him, make it harder to continue. But he still could have thrown his axe. You have to be ready for that, too. If you're facing two axemen, one can throw his, recover behind his partner. The same for axeman and swordsman, axeman can throw, wait behind the swordsman. If you're faced with the situation, try to move to keep the opposing swordsman between you and the axeman, make it harder for him to throw his axe. Plus, you're accustomed to facing a sword and you'd try to dispatch him before facing the axe."

"It sounds as if you believe it will be tough to go against a good axeman, Frang," Ailene said.

"It is," Frang agreed. "I was able to beat Thorburn with his claymore. I doubt I could have beaten him with an axe, except by accident or maybe slowly bleeding him to death."

"It seems as if the axeman depends on room to swing his axe wide and from side to side," Ailene said.

"Aye," Bjarkë agreed. "It's a weapon requires a little room."

"Come with me to the training field, uncle."

Ailene led him out onto their makeshift battlefield, Frang and Isobel following. She raised her blade. "En garde, Bjarkë."

"You're not going to embarrass me again, lass, are you?"

Ailene smiled a wide grin. "I certainly hope so, uncle. You aren't going to whack my wee head again, are you?"

He grinned back. "Depends how bad you embarrass me."

"Attack. I don't want you to stop if I kill you. Keep going, no matter what."

"What if I kill you?" Bjarke asked.

"I have to learn how to defend myself against an axe. I'll keep going as well."

Bjarkë began the slow, swinging side to side sweep he'd used against Frang so effectively. Ailene retreated, maintaining enough distance to keep him outside her point. She attempted a couple lunges, neither going anywhere, but she didn't go for his legs as Frang had. She kept retreating. Bjarkë attempted a sudden rush, but she skipped backward. She slowly retreated between two obstacles and as soon as Bjarkë stepped between them. She made a sudden attack consisting of a feint low and left and attack high and right. His axe moved to block the low attack, but the object on the left interfered with his axe on the return stroke and her point stabbed him over the heart. Bjarkë grinned at her.

"Good one, lass."

"Thank you, uncle."

She continued to back up and Bjarkë continued to advance. She began retreating alongside a wall. When Bjarkë followed, she made a double feint, one away from the wall, one towards it, which Bjarkë's axe banged against, disrupting his rhythm, then the third strike mid-line, right into his heart. Bjarkë stopped and threw up his axe, shrugging his shoulders.

"Thank you for not throwing your axe, Bjarkë," Ailene said.

"I don't think she needs any more instruction on the axe, Frang," Bjarkë said.

"It doesn't appear so, uncle."

"Not necessarily, gentlemen," Ailene said. "Bjarkë made a mistake approaching me along the wall, which I hoped he'd do. The key to the axe as a weapon is having room to swing. I used the terrain to create situations where he had limited motion side to side, the two obstacles I passed between and the wall on the one side. On the wall, Bjarkë should have started circling to the open side. He would have opened room for his axe and put the wall at my back with no easy way to retreat except side to side. If he had, I might have been the one to die. I almost put myself in a bad position."

Bjarkë thought for a moment and agreed with her. "It was a tactical error on my part, but the fact remains you recognized it, used it to your advantage and even realized the predicament you placed yourself in if I'd maneuvered away from the wall. Most people have trouble seeing and recognizing things giving them a tactical advantage. You saw both the benefits and the dangers, accepted the possible consequence and used it against me. What would you've done if I started to circle?"

"Continued retreating. I couldn't let you pin me up against the wall. I'd have kept moving away until I got another opportunity elsewhere."

"I've never seen anyone who saw the whole situation as well as you do, Ailene. Isobel is right behind you in that regard. Together, you're nigh untouchable as you proved yesterday. There's no more we can teach you. I wouldn't mind seeing you able to defeat Frang most of the time under normal training conditions, but put you in situations like this and you're without peer."

"Thank you, Bjarkë. I appreciate your praise more than you know."

"You need to continue practicing, lass, but we've gone as far as we can go. Stuart is going to be so proud of you. I can hardly wait to show Thorburn and Stuart how deadly you've become. Anyone who goes after you is going to severely regret his error. Both of you," he included Isobel. "Frang should worry about his position as man of the house."

Isobel laughed. She suddenly turned flame red, then said, "Not as long as he's got the sword between his legs."

"Isobel, you hussy," Ailene laughed. "What a thing to say!"

Isobel blushed harder, then laughed and hugged Frang. "But true."

"It's market day tomorrow," Frang said. "I imagine you're eager to see Stuart?"

"Aye," Ailene answered, "I've got an itch he needs to scratch."

"Speaking of hussies," Isobel laughed.

"I hear Frang scratching yours every night and most mornings. You're not one to talk. I've done without for a couple weeks. You were bitching when Frang left you alone for a week because of the baby."

They all laughed.

"Have you your shopping list, Isobel?" Frang asked.

"Done for a couple days, husband. We're going to start working with Meghan. She wants to learn the rapier. She was so excited yesterday, she was practically begging to learn."

"If she's half the warrior you two are, she'll be a great addition," Bjarkë said.

Isobel and Ailene found Meghan warming up with the other students. She had found some pants which were a trifle big for her, but adequately did the job intended for them.

"Have the boys been teasing you about joining them?" Ailene asked.

"A couple did, then Rabbie said if I was anything like you two, I'd be whipping them in a couple months and they'd better work hard if they didn't want to get beaten by another lass. It pretty much ended the teasing."