25 City Guardsman

The understanding Jacob gained from the textbook had to be set aside for an appointment with the city guard. Arranging a meeting with the captain hadn't taken much effort at all, surprisingly. It looked like his was a more managerial role, reams of paper cluttering up an oversized desk in his office.

"Not too often people come looking for a word with me," the captain smiled, dropping his pen and placing his full attention on Jacob. "Unless you're here to bribe me, you're that boy Henry told me about yesterday. Said you had a story for me?"

Jacob explained his situation, noting the growing distress in the captain's face. It felt unnatural to see the man's kind features turn dark. "That doesn't bode well. The duke must hear of this. I appreciate your tenacity in making it this far. If your tales of your hunts are true, there is a place in the city guard for you if you want it," the man offered, writing new paperwork as he did so. Jacob thought about it, wondering how much experience he'd gain from the job. Upon expressing his curiosity, the captain looked back up at him.

"It pays a silver a day, but you need to pass a test. Not many are capable of doing so without training from one of the Blade Colleges," the captain explained. The pay was huge; an average family could expect to earn maybe a gold at most per year. This would pay triple that. It was also double what Jacob was currently making. Suddenly, the experience took a backseat. The captain wasn't done speaking. "Furthermore, assuming you don't have equipment of your own, we'll lend you arms and armor for as long as you are a city guardsman." Jacob was sold. He needed a blade, and this was the fastest way to one that wasn't a glorified piece of scrap metal.

"What do I have to do? I'll pass any test you put in front of me."

"Great! I've got to file this incident in Leafburrow and take it to the castle. If you come by tomorrow morning at dawn, I'll get a lieutenant to conduct the test."

Jacob left the modest guardhouse with a sense of purpose, knowing he was taking strides forward. If only magic was as simple as swordplay. That being said, he had more to read and try before evening came.

As it turned out, the rest of the book went far over his head. Jacob made a valiant effort to comprehend what the author was talking about, but he just couldn't make heads or tails of the magical concepts. It wasn't until the evening that Jacob gave up his pursuit and returned to the Happy Hog's common room to play the same grouping of ten or so songs he played the day before.

The innkeeper was not happy with this, but she was probably the only one. The rest of the room was, again, too inebriated to really care. Jacob smiled at the fact that he would leave the following day and hopefully gain residence in a barracks. Not to trash his current room, but it stank of something unholy and it wasn't meant for human habitation. Probably why she even gave him the room, come to think of it.

When bits of sunlight peeked through the wooden boards in his room, Jacob rushed out, eager to meet the captain and his lieutenant. He found the pair of them waiting outside the guardhouse in a small, dedicated training yard separated from the side street the complex found itself on by a small fence.

"We're here to test your skill. Do you have a weapon of preference?" the lieutenant, a man by the name of Edward, asked, motioning to a small rack of weapons. Jacob walked over to it, selecting a heavy sword that Will had favored.

"An interesting choice. Most choose a polearm or a short sword. Now we spar. It's best of three to first blood. We'll be taking it gently, so no killing moves," Lieutenant Edward said, positioning himself into a stance of his own, holding his spear out in front of him. Back in Leafburrow, Will had barely ever shown Jacob how to deal with something with reach. He supposed it was a lack of long, sturdy sticks in the frigid north. Jacob swallowed his doubts, centering his feet and eyeing his opponent closely.

The lieutenant circled him, striking out with his spear to test out Jacob's defenses. They held, but Jacob sensed that his moves were just a tiny bit too slow to be able to hold out against a full attack. Edward felt it too, for he committed to a plan. A flurry of strikes, all of them precisely aimed for his arms or his legs, rained down upon him. A line of blood was drawn on his right thigh.

"That's a point to me. Ready?" Edward called, not bothering to wait for Jacob's response before repeating his tactic. Jacob, having learned to expect the unexpected from his unorthodox teacher, anticipated this move. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could really do about defending against it. Instead, he pressed the attack.

His heavy weapon could not totally be turned aside by the lieutenant's lighter weapon. The momentum was often too much for the spear, bringing the weapon downwards with every down swing. Eventually, Jacob managed a touch on one of the lieutenant's arms after a particularly unsuccessful parry.

"The next point settles it. Best of luck." Both men bowed, as was customary when a duel came to a tie prior to a deciding point. Jacob was glad William had taught him that nuance; he'd have made a fool of himself just now without it.

Not bothering to wait for the lieutenant to come up with a counter to his technique, Jacob attacked once more. This time, however, he found a much nimbler foe. Sacrificing stability for irregular movements, the lieutenant skirted the outer edge of Jacob's range, forcing him to make clunky moves, striking in an uncoordinated fashion.

Jacob lunged, placing all his eggs into a single basket. The lieutenant side-stepped. The bout was brought to an end with a tap on Jacob's head from Edward's spear. "You're a good fighter, Jacob. I'm impressed," now the lieutenant looked to the captain, who had been watching from the sidelines, along with a scraggly group of kids outside the fence. "I'd want him."

"Then we're in agreement. Show him his new quarters and explain his duties to him." The captain approached Jacob, a hand outstretched. "You've got a day before you officially begin service. Enjoy it."

What he'd enjoy, Jacob had no idea. But whatever he did would be enjoyable enough, because he had passed their test.