Liberty Legend
an excerpt

“Are you ready, Preevan?” Laura called out. He found himself looking up at the captain and meeting his dark eyes. He looked so calm and focused, standing there in his loose shirt and shining boots. He’d faced death a million times on the sea; one little duel wasn’t anything serious for him. Preevan suddenly felt very foolish for having challenged him at all. He was going to be quickly beaten and Laura would tell everyone just what had happened, and they’d all laugh at him. Well, there wasn’t anything to be done about it now.
“Yes,” he called back, raising his blade into the beginning stance. Laura asked Conrad the same question, and got the same response.
Conrad touched the blade of the foil against his forehead in salute, and then took a defensive stance as Preevan did the same. They circled around the center of the field of honor slowly, and Preevan tried to match his sideways strides to the captain’s longer steps. He attempted to read what move Conrad was calculating, but Conrad’s eyes were inscrutable.
Suddenly the captain took a quick step forward and lunged, and Preevan barely got his foil in the way in time to block it. The tin sound of the foils clashing together rang out and Laura squealed on the sidelines.
Conrad thrust again and Preevan parried, and then they both caught a sort of rhythm as Preevan’s fencing training kicked in and he focused on defending himself. He saw an opportunity and thrust at the captain, but Conrad parried easily. “You’re not going easy on me, are you?” Preevan asked as their blades locked for a moment and they were eye to eye.
“I don’t think I need to,” Conrad replied. “You’ve studied more than I thought.” He broke them apart and aimed at Preevan’s side. Preevan dodged and swung around the other side, and Conrad jumped in time to avoid being hit in the leg.
The clacking of the blades grew faster and Preevan became more certain he had a chance to win. The revelation surprised him, and for half a second his guard went down. Conrad took advantage of the lull and struck at the prince’s shoulder, but caught his boot on a stone and missed. Preevan pushed the blade away with his foil, and tried to return the favor. Conrad was too quick, though. Their blades met again, forcefully.
“You’d make a good pirate, better than most,” Conrad said. Preevan doubted it; he was breathing so hard and the captain managed to make most of his moves look effortless. He felt like each of his own blocks was a desperate flinging action instead of the smooth and graceful motion he’d been taught to embrace. Fencing was more like a dance than this. Here, neither was leading, and he knew that the captain would probably take any opening he found.
“I think you’re toying with me,” he panted.
“I think you’ve missed a chance or two to go for the kill, your highness, but I am not playing with you. This is the duel you requested.” The foils clashed again and again.
“You tricked me though,” Preevan said.
“Only to save both our lives, my prince.” Preevan blocked another blow and then another. He stumbled upon the same rock that had saved him earlier, and grasped at Conrad’s sleeve to catch his balance. That was against the rules, but nobody called him on it. He managed to block the next blow and then thought he saw a weakness, and tried to strike.
Conrad parried his thrust, knocking the foil from his hand, and then before Preevan was aware of what had happened, he fell back on the ground with a thud. The blunt point of the captain’s foil was an inch away from the center of Preevan’s chest. He looked down at it, and then up at the captain.
“Strike,” he said, his voice weak in defeat. “You’ve won. I concede.”
“Then,” Conrad said quietly, while a drop of sweat dripped off his nose, “there is no need for me to strike.” He flung his foil away and offered his hand to Preevan to help him up. Preevan looked at it with a bit of suspicion at first, but finally accepted the hand and rose. He had lost, but for the first time since Captain Conrad had come back to the palace, he felt like someone was respecting him as a man and not treating him like a boy. It seemed strange to Preevan that he felt that way, but that’s what he saw now when he looked up at the privateer.