Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar

I struggled even harder, if that was possible, and fought the pressure until I was certain the effort had taken too long. If I managed to return to my body at all, it would be to find my life gushing from a slit throat.

But evidently a man’s sense of time doesn’t count for much when he’s already come unstuck from it as it’s commonly experienced. For suddenly I had a solid form again, and it seemed unwounded. I sensed Dromis looming just behind me.

I threw myself sideways out of the chair before he could cut me. He came after me, and, sprawled on my back, I kicked at him. I connected with his knee and knocked him staggering off balance.

That gave me time to roll to my feet and draw my sword. The trouble was that when I did, the floor seemed to pitch and I nearly fell down again. My forced jaunt into tomorrow had left me weak and dizzy. I couldn’t win a fight with a fellow fencing master in this condition.

I bolted down the folding stairs. Dromis took a moment to unsheathe his own sword, then gave chase.

Given a chance, he’d catch me, too. He wasn’t suffering from vertigo, and he was thoroughly familiar with the layout of the lightless house.

I spied a square of lesser darkness: a window on the far side of a doorway. I charged it and crashed through the laths and oiled paper.

I fell two stories and landed hard, but when I tried to stand up again, I could. I hadn’t broken anything. Apparently unwilling to trust to fool’s luck as I had, Dromis didn’t jump after me. I staggered away into the night as fast as I was able.

Luckily, the feebleness and dizziness didn’t last long. They were gone by the time Dromis came to call at my school the next morning.

As before, he appeared with several of his students tagging along, serving as bodyguards whether they realized it or not. But he consented to leave them loitering in the main training hall while he and I sat at a table in one of the alcoves along the wall. His disciples would still see it if I attempted any violence, and he likely realized I wouldn’t talk honestly about breaking into his house if anyone else was close enough to overhear.

“How’s your leg?” I asked him.

“Fine. You didn’t kick me that hard.” He took a breath. “I moved the stone. The City Guards can search my academy from top to bottom. They won’t find a thing.”

I shrugged. “Even if they did, I couldn’t prove that the thing can be used to cheat at dueling, let alone that you actually have used it that way. Even though I’m sure of it.”

He frowned. “What exactly is it that you think you know?”

“The talisman carries a man’s spirit—and his perceptions—into the future. I couldn’t control exactly where I went or what I saw. But you can, either because you know the words of command or just because you’ve practiced. Prior to a duel, you observe exactly how a student’s opponent will behave, and precisely what the pupil does to overcome those tactics. Then you drill your fencer in the proper moves, and everything works out just as you foresaw. Magic gives him an unfair advantage even though no enchantments are active on the field of honor.

“The only limitation,” I continued, “is that to guarantee victory, you have to seek revelation and provide special instruction for each individual combat. But you’ve minimized that problem by stressing to your charges that formal duels are always to be preferred over spontaneous bloodshed.”

Dromis scowled. “I truly am a fine swordsman, and a fine teacher, too.”

“If you say so.”

“But since I had an edge, why not use it? How else could I achieve preeminence quickly in a city already famous for its fencing masters? You’d have done the same thing in my place.”

I shook my head. “I’d use your stone or any other trick in war, but never in dueling. The code of the duel is an attempt to bring order and restraint to that which would otherwise be chaotic and bestial, and for that reason, decent men value it.”

He sneered. “I’ve always heard that Selden is a strong man, but you think like a weak one.”

“Let’s not debate moral philosophy. We’re not likely to reach an accord. I’m much rather hear how you came by the stone.”

“All right, why not, if you’re curious. When I was as young as those lads—” he nodded toward his students, “—a new creed arose in my homeland. Given the chance to flourish, it could have changed the world. But corrupt lords and false priests declared our prophet a demon in disguise, and hundreds of idiots believed them. An army marched on us when we were still too few to defend ourselves.”

I remembered the stories his pupils told. “Then you really did fight on the losing side in a religious war.”