Valden laughed. "True enough," he said. "I'd feel a bit out of place bare as a newborn in the middle of a battle."
"At least people would say you had courage," Faalken noted slyly.
"They'd say I had something," Valden returned. "I doubt it would be courage."
"Do not get too much of an opinion of yourself, Valden," Allia said calmly. "I have seen you in the baths. They would say you have something, but it would not be what fills your codpiece."
Valden gave her a strangled look, and then turned beet red. Faalken almost fell over in a sudden gale of uncontrollable laughter. Allia gave Valin a very calm, sober look, then one of those sea-blue eyes winked slyly, and a corner of her lip quirked up into a near-smile.
"Ye Gods!" Valden gasped mockingly. "Allia has a sense of humor! Great Karas, call me home, for the end is here!"
"It's a rather base one, at that," Faalken managed to gasp. He was wheezing audibly, and was bent over.
"You humans are so amusing," she said with a light smile, then she put her four-fingered hand on Valden's cheek, bent down and kissed the shorter man's other cheek like his daughter, and then turned her back to him. "I think that is enough today, Tarrin. A day of practice is always better when the student can walk away with a sense of accomplishment. And you have done very well today. Very well indeed."
"Well thank you," he said with a smile.
"Come, let us bathe. I need to get the training field off of my face and out of my hair."
Tarrin chuckled, picking up his shirt from the post where he'd left it hang. They left Faalken, who was still in a state of near-paralysis, now on his knees, laughing uncontrollably, pounding his hand on the ground.
"All kidding aside, Tarrin, you're coming along very well," she told him as they walked back to the Tower. "I know I didn't do half as well after only a month and some days."
"I had prior training," he shrugged, then he wrinkled his nose. "Goodness, Allia, put those gloves somewhere else," he said.
"I left them with Valden," she objected.
"What?"
"Valden has them," she affirmed.
"Then why do I smell Troll?" They both looked around, and there was nothing. Just grass, the Tower, and a few of the surrounding buildings that they could see.
"Maybe Valden is upwind of us," Allia shrugged.
"Maybe you're right," he agreed.
He felt a tiny shudder under his feet, conducted up through the pads on his foor. That was the only warning. But it was enough. A paw on Allia's shoulder sent her careening to the side as he lunged the other way.
As a club almost as large as Tarrin smashed the air between them and crushed into the ground, sending dirt and grass in all directions. Both Tarrin and Allia rolled to their feet.
And found themselves surrounded by four Trolls. Twelve spans tall, nearly twice as tall as their opponents, their wide-featured, brutish faces were alight with the prospect of the kill. Each one had nothing but a fur loinclout cinched with a leather belt, and all four were carrying clubs as big as Allia. Tarrin understood the nature of that selection immediately. His magical defense did not carry over to the raw physical force that the Trolls would put into those clubs. They would kill him just as fast as any human should they hit him
They wasted no time. Allia gave a ear-splitting undulating cry, the cry of alarm among her people, as her hands flashed to the daggers she kept in her boots. Tarrin was a bit more direct, as the Cat flowed into and through him. Instinct and thought were one, and they caused him to explode into action. He ducked under the massive swing of another Troll, and then kicked it in the side of the knee before it could recover. Tarrin's strength caved in the side of its knee, and it sagged to the ground with a bass-deep rumble of pain, rolling around on its back holding its knee. Allia simply stepped aside as the Troll behind her gave a vast overhanded swing, spraying dirt in every direction, then she danced lightly around it and sank one of her daggers into the back of its knee. It too sagged to the ground. Tarrin ducked under one swing, then dove forward to evade the other Troll's swing. He danced around so that one Troll shielded him from the other, a Troll that had turned to meet Allia. He saw his chance. "High and low!" he shouted to Allia in Selani. "I'll go low!"
"Go!" she barked, backpedalling out of reach of a huge swing.
Tarrin lunged forward just as the Troll in front of him started after him, which surprised it. The Troll obviously wasn't used to such small creatures attacking it. It tried to step back a bit, but Tarrin dove right between its legs, rolled, and came up sprinting. The other Troll had set its feet to deliver another overhand blow; Tarrin could see the club come up over its head. Tarrin ducked down a bit and ran between its legs.
With both paws up, and his claws out.
The Troll shrieked in abject agony, bending over as Tarrin's claws literally ripped out everything that was under its fur clout. Allia dashed forward as Tarrin knelt down, and she put a boot on his shoulder and leapt, then sprang off the head of the doubled Troll, high in the air. The other Troll, which had just turned around to see where Tarrin went, got a perfect view of Allia rear back both hands, and then throw her daggers with precise and deadly accuracy. They drove into each of the Troll's eyes, the tips and more finding the monster's brain, putting it forever into darkness.
As the Troll Allia felled hit the ground, Tarrin absently reached up and ripped the throat out of the doubled Troll, ending its hideous wailing.
A small formation of armored Knights and cadets came around one of the storebuildings about that time, quickly surrounding the two lamed Trolls and convincing them that sudden pacifism would lead to a longer life. Tarrin was panting as he wiped the flesh and blood off his claws in the grass, trying not to vomit at the overpowering stench of Trolls and Troll blood, which was the core of their awful smell.
"Four Trolls that fast?" Faalken said appreciatively.
"It was almost much shorter," Allia said grimly as she pulled her daggers free of the Troll corpse. "It was like they appeared from the thin air."
"They did," Tarrin said, putting the back of his paw to his face, letting his own scent drown out the stench. "I didn't see or hear them, not even when they attacked."
"Magic," Valden growled. "It had to be. They'd never have gotten onto the grounds any other way."
Tarrin looked up at him. "Someone went to alot of trouble to arrange this," he said tersely, getting his instincts back under control.
A red-robed Sorcerer walked around the building, coming up short at the display. He was a young man, not long a Sorcerer, with sandy colored hair and a rather handsome, full-cheeked face. "My," he said. "Trolls, here? However did they manage to get onto the grounds?"
"We don't know yet," Valden told the man.
"Tarrin, you and Allia go on," Valden said. "We'll take care of this."
"Yes, Master Valden," they said in unison. "I have got to get this Troll-stench off of me," Tarrin told Allia fervently.
Tarrin almost scrubbed off his fur in the baths, then they went for the afternoon meal. Afterwards, Allia went to her room for her private meditation. Tarrin caught up with Dar, and they went out into the garden to talk.
"Trolls?" Dar said, taking the apple Tarrin offered.
Tarrin nodded. "I felt one of them put his foot down. That was the only warning I got." He looked out over the gardens, to the hedge maze. He was still feeling a bit unsettled after the attack, and he desperately wanted to go to the central courtyard, but there were too many people watching him. "We got very lucky. If hadn't have moved, both of us would probably be dead now."
"This is getting serious, Tarrin," Dar said. "Whoever is doing this is starting to bring in harder things to kill. He may pull a Dragon out of his hat next."