The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 10

ALEX ENJOYED THE feeling of the hard road under her boots. Verus had finally granted her permission to walk part of the time, subject to the timeframes that he chose for her, the day after she'd sold Naevius's horse. Every night since then, they'd eat together, then he'd check her healing rib, then he'd inspect both her feet to ensure she wasn't getting any blistering, then – finally – he would allow her to train. She still trained lightly, not wanting to lengthen the already extended healing time the First File enforced on her, but felt confident in adding weapons to her solo forms the past two nights as she started getting back to feeling normal and fight ready again.

        Verus joined her tonight, as he did most nights now, stepping through familiar and unfamiliar motions with her and learning quickly whatever she paused to coach him on. A few voices sniggered outside the reaches of the firelight as Alex corrected Verus through a series of motions that were new to him. The First File frowned as Alex grinned, seeing clearly Verus's frustration at not learning the unfamiliar fighting style quickly enough for his own liking.

        "Stand over there and watch," she said, pointing toward an empty spot in the usual ring of spectators around the large space made beside Verus's tent that the men now referred to as the Training Ground.

        He stalked over and turned to stare at her hard, his gaze absorbing each line of her body and ready to study each part of the form again. Her competitive martial arts instructors would have killed to have such a student, she thought. She stepped through the form slowly, stating at each move what the intent of the motion was. When she finished, Verus still scowled.

        "I don't see the effectiveness," he finally said.

        Alex thought for a second about how to explain this one to him. It was a really good form, with the intention of being a single fighter against at least four opponents, and had moves that were simple to expand on and modify as needed for up to eight opponents – as she'd discovered one night when hitting a rowdy bar back in her university days.

        "Do not watch me this time," she told him. "Look at the men I fight."

        She went back to the starting position and stepped through again, this time telling him the attacks of the people she was shadowboxing rather than what her defenses and retaliations were. Verus's gaze flicked around her as she worked through the motions, his visualization of the slow-motion fight clear and concise.

        He was looking where her final imaginary attacker lay when she straightened from the low finishing stance. There was a vicious grin playing at his mouth when he locked eyes with her this time. He came out from the sidelines and settled in beside her to step through the form again, his executions of the motions nearly flawless as they slowly worked through it together.

        "Good. Do that ten times again, then start to add speed."

        Verus grinned at her after she gave him some minor corrections to improve his balance in a couple places, then he turned to go back to the starting position.

        Following in what had become their habit, Verus soon had at least twenty men following along with him at one end of the Training Ground, and Alex moved down to the other end where the crowd had slowly been thickening for the first hour that she and Verus trained together. She borrowed a second sword from one of the men and went out to a place where she wouldn't endanger anyone watching or training. Alex closed her eyes and settled her breathing, tuning out the crowd so she could focus on the forms she wanted to work on. She easily visualized the opponents and slipped into the fights, letting the instructions of her own teachers echo in her thoughts in complement to the humming of the blades.