Excerpt: Great Minds

Jonathan wandered through the open foyer, staring at the expansive ceiling. It was a typical mansion ceiling, coated with a painting of winged, naked children playing instruments among the clouds. Framing it were tremendous logs of molding covered in gold leaf, which dripped into columns, near which were suits of armor. The doctor bumped into the armor as he stared up and his hand wrapped around the suit's sword.
He smirked.
His smirk fell.
Eric, from across the room, was holding a sword in his hands. The suit of armor behind him was missing a weapon.
“Ah, great minds think alike, eh?” Eric said. “So, we agree to a duel?
“It seems so...” replied Jonathan, slowly. There was only one 'great mind' in this house, and he would come out the victor.
The two men moved to the center of the room, swords poised. Neither removed his eyes from the other as they circled under the cherubim. Neither moved out of sync. Their movements mirrored each other perfectly.
Eric laughed. “Come now, man. One of us must make the first strike.”
“Patience. The first strike dies.”
“You don't intend to give your foe advice, do you?”
“It wouldn't be honorable if I defeated the unlearned.”
“Ah, but if I hadn't drawn a sword, you would have murdered me cold, no?”
Jonathan didn't reply. Instead, he lowered the tip of his sword to the ground.
“You would have done the same, correct?”
“Perhaps.”
“...How long have you trained with a sword?” Jonathan asked, nodding in the others' direction.
“Since I was a boy. Maybe...twenty years?”
“The same...Your footwork—I could see that you are no novice...I dare say that, with a sword, are talent is equal.”
Eric scowled. “No point in [postulating] when we can know with certainty, right?”
“Listen, this is a large castle. Mr. Packer himself said that two could easily live here without seeing the other. We're both plenty rich with even a small portion of the inheritance.”
Eric considered this for a moment, and then said, “If I had been weaker with the sword, what would you have done?”
“I would have cut you down.”
“But not if I was ignorant.”
“A man ignorant with a blade poses no challenge and can be cut down at any time. Cunning with a blade, however, is very much an interesting threat and must be dealt with properly.”
“Ah,” replied Eric. “I see how we stand. However, this leaves the matter of the rest of the inheritance.”
“The money? I highly doubt we'll need more than the yearly allowance. I won't, anyway.”
“What about that 'most precious gift?'”
Jonathan turned around. “Do you know what it is?”
“No, you?”
“...No. But to be called precious by a man as wealthy as Uncle Bartholomew...”
The two men were silent as their thoughts filled with the possibilities, until Eric scoffed.
“It's likely something drippy. 'Friendship' or 'peace' or something.”
The doctor stared with disgust. “Bartholomew was a businessman, not a saint.”
“Well, it's not worth fighting over if we have no knowledge of it, right?”
“I...suppose.”
“You suppose. You're not going to kill me in my sleep over a guess now, are you?”
The most precious gift...
Jonathan shook his head. “No. you're right. We have our wealth and we have our home. What more could we need?”
“Women.”
Jonathan snorted. “I highly doubt killing me will get you a date.”
“Shame,” Eric shrugged. “Regardless, I'm going to retire to my room. Lots of traveling, you know.”
“Yes.”
“And I had better not wake up to find an assassin leaning over my bed.”
“Of course not.”

Eric woke up to find a masked man, holding a dagger, leaning over his bed.