Read Online Blood on Bronze (Blood on Bronze Book 1) by Anthony Gillis - Free Book Online Page A

that, you
must be on your guard.”
    Arjun rose, mastered the pain in his side, and spent a
long morning being methodically tested by Enlil to see what moves he’d learned
in his old training.  As the heat of the day rose, Arjun felt himself getting
tired, and sweat poured down his bare shoulders and chest. Despite the pain of
the kick he’d gotten, he was glad he wasn’t wearing armor like Enlil. However,
if the older man was tired or felt any discomfort, he gave no sign, but instead
coolly continued testing Arjun with various slashes, thrusts, and feints, in
differing combinations. It was a testament to Enlil’s skill that he brought his
blade to Arjun’s neck or chest many times, but never cut him.
    They broke for lunch in the shade of a portico on the
south side of Enlil’s courtyard. Enlil offered no conversation. Arjun took this
as it was, and ate in silence as well.
    Sometime after they’d finished eating, Enlil rose.
    “Now, student, you shall learn the very basics of
fighting technique, as I teach them. It will be simple and repetitive, but we
are going to undo the deficiencies of your previous training, and begin anew.”
    Arjun bowed, and they began.
    Hours later, as dusk approached, Enlil stopped without
warning, stepped back with his guard up, and spoke.
    “And now I have gained knowledge of both what you
already know, and how well you are capable of learning. Tomorrow begins your
real training with the sword. If you wish to learn other weapons, you must now
obtain them. Return at first light.”
    Arjun bowed and left.
    On his way back to the House of Red, he stopped by the
tiny filthy shop of one of Inina’s many friends, a hard-faced old woman who
spoke little. From her he purchased a plain bronze dagger. It was sturdy, but
of foreign workmanship. On closer inspection he saw it was in the style of
Ershum, and considered the likely source. He smiled ruefully to himself. Zakran
was a vast place, but sometimes it was a small world.
    ~
    For some weeks after he began his training, Arjun’s
life settled into a new sort of routine. Each morning, he would rise before
dawn and walk to the house of Enlil. There he would spend the day repeating
fighting moves over and over again, until he could do them without thought.
After the first week, they also spent part of the day in unstructured sparring,
so that Arjun could apply what he’d learned. Enlil was fast, cunning, and
pitiless. He threw tricks into his fights and Arjun went home many times with
bruises from an unexpected kick, trip, sweep, or punch. Many other times Arjun
was surprised to find the very sword he’d thought he’d dodged resting against
his neck, heart, or vitals.
    In the evenings he shopped for necessities, among them
healing poultices, and he reluctantly decided, a leather cap and breastplate. 
At night when he had the energy, he would visit Inina, and the two of them took
to wandering the streets in conversation.  Sometimes his day caught up with
him, and he had to excuse himself to sleep, at other times, she said it was
time to go to work, and she would depart.
    One night, he decided to argue with her about it.
    “Inina, isn’t there some other way you can live
besides petty theft?”
    “Actually, I don’t do that much outright stealing,
mostly I con the gullible and greedy out of their money. As you’ve noticed,
people usually like me. And, don’t forget the honest work I do guiding visitors
to my friends among the traders and peddlers.”
    Arjun ignored questions about the honesty of that last
sort of work, and addressed the first. “You may talk them into letting you
steal from them, or trick them in some way through their own greed, but it is
still stealing.”
    “I still have to eat, and honest trades are hard to
come by for a girl who grew up on the streets. As I saw it, it was either learn
to survive by my skill and wits, or end up begging or in a brothel.”
    “All right. How much do you make, really, at it?”
    Inina