to fight someone, but I could have taught you how to hurt them enough so you could get away.”
Arkin broke in. “The truth is, it’s my fault as well. I trained your brother and yet I did nothing for you. Forgive me, Sasha, but going forward you will learn. In fact, I have training for both of you while we’re on our journey. We are going into situations that neither of you have faced and you need to learn what to do, and Legon, you need to learn how to use the fenrra and a few other techniques.”
“Like what?” Sasha asked.
“I will start to teach you the art of the Jezeer.”
“The what?” started Legon.
“Jezeer. In short, you will learn how to fully use your muscles, how to read people, inflect your voice and body language to gain favor with people and get them to do what you want. Sasha, you know a lot of the people skills because I have taught you them from the time you were little. Legon, you I have taught many of the physical, but you both need to learn more than either of you currently knows.”
She’d been being what? She knew that Arkin was training them, but to have him say it was a little unsettling, and in a way violating. Her thoughts were interrupted by Arkin.
“And you will learn the Mahann, which will train your mind to use logic, not emotion. Both of these we can learn in the saddle, but at night in camp we’ll go over physical training. Legon, I will work with you and in turn we will switch training Keither and Sasha. Ok?” This wasn’t much of a question but Sasha didn’t fight it. She was willing to go along if for no other reason than curiosity.
Shortly after that, Kovos and Keither woke up and they broke down camp and started off. They were hoping to make it to within a half day’s ride from the end of the road, where it split three ways. From there they would go southwest along the mountains toward Salez. This wasn’t the most direct route, but it had the least amount of towns and villages, so it was ideal for them. As the day pressed on, Arkin was teaching them different exercises to train their minds and quizzing them on hypothetical situations. It made Sasha’s head hurt, but at the same time it was nice. Kovos and Keither listened in and occasionally Keither would make a remark or answer a question. He always got the questions right, and Sasha began to wonder just how smart he was. Also, he’d been so nice to her. She knew that it must have taken a lot for him to say what he had, and she was thankful for that. He was a good guy if you could get him to talk.
* * * * *
They were riding next to the river, which made the air cool. Legon always loved the sound of a stream or river. They seemed to give him energy and yet make him relax at the same time. All the same, he would have liked it more if Arkin wasn’t drilling them. He and Sasha always seemed to just get halfway there but rarely all the way. It was like they had been given information but only part of it. This didn’t seem to bother Arkin one bit. He was rushing along, hitting them with question after question. Then he would correct something that seemed to be insignificant and move on.
He was looking forward to training tonight. He knew how to use a sword and he could use two, but the fenrra were a little shorter than regular swords, so he would have to get used to that. He was glad that Sasha was going to be learning how to fight. That way if anything ever happened to him she might be all right. The faloon looked like it could be handy too. It had a little cord that went around her waist and as it hung it moved with her legs and skirt so no one could see it. There was just the end of the handle that came up, and that could be hidden with cloth.
He could see the she was a little uncomfortable with it. Sasha had never been in a fight and never carried a weapon, much less one that had belonged to her adopted brother’s dead mother. He, on the other hand, liked that she had the blade.