"Again!" Dame Nyte barks, her voice shrill and more emotional than I've ever heard it. Two of her sisters, Reka's Black Widow Knights, oppose me. Today's lesson is about dealing with multiple opponents.

  Don't let them surround you, I think. Clutching my sword, I lash out with a backhanded strike, making the Arachne on my 3 O'Clock back up. Hitting her is not my intent; she's too far away. There, she'll be out of position for a moment and I can face the knight in front of me without interruption.

  Her shield is long, all the better to protect her vulnerable spider legs, but that also means it's big and heavy. Spider-chan is tired. I can tell. After three months practicing with Reka's warriors, the way they express emotions has become a lot less alien. They feel, just like anyone else does, only it doesn't always show on their face.

  Body language gives them away. With my wife's mind acceleration spell working, I find them easy to read. The twitch of the foreleg, the shuddering of the abdomen, subtle shifts in weight, it all says what her eyes don't. She's reluctant to engage; all the more reason that I should force the action.

  "Ah!" I exhale in time with a swipe at her. My blunted sword cracks against her shield, and she raises her own weapon to try to catch me exposed.

  Too late! I step in and under her guard, thrusting the edge of my shield into her vulnerable, exposed foreleg.

  "Eep!" She skitters back in pain while I sense the presence of her sister behind me.

  Spinning on my heel, I just barely parry her strike and start dancing away to my right, making her chase me. The two spider knights are now stacked up and in each other's way. Perfect.

  Malmark Castle's training yard is wide enough for hundreds of warriors to practice together, so this is only a temporary advantage that I need to press before they separate again. I take a deep breath and advance mercilessly, swinging my blade in a wide arc. Clang! Thwump! She's strong, but I'm stronger. I batter her shield, varying the angle of my attack. It only takes one feint to get her to bite, and I nail her, bringing down black steel on the vulnerable elbow joint of her armor.

  "Ouch! No fair! How can a man fight like this?" the first sister complains after dropping her sword and yielding.

  I catch Nyte's eye. She looks thunderous. My Reka, in contrast, looks every inch the proud mother whose beloved son just won the big game.

  All alone, the second spider knight can't stand against me for long. Digging deep, for I'm tired too, I unleash a whirlwind of blows that compels her to surrender.

  Dame Nyte, my instructor, sighs tiredly. "Well, there you have it, my lady. Your man is more than a match for any ordinary threat."

  "Not good enough," Reka replies. She walks over with a wet towel for me. I'm cooking in this armor, despite the winter chill. "He must measure up against extraordinary threats. At least another half a year of training, I think."

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  She brought me to her castle in autumn, in time for the second harvest of the year. For all its disadvantages, double cropping is very possible in our hot land, as long as water is provided. Reka likes to do it herself, usually first thing in the morning, after we had a long night together. It's exactly what you think. The more we make love, the more powerful she becomes.

  I bend over, letting my wife play squire and help me out of my armor. "What do you want to do today?" I ask her.

  Life at Malmark has become somewhat routine. With the exception of another great feast we held after the harvest was brought in, Reka and I do the same thing every day. Our meals are taken in the solar. I train in the morning. Sometimes, Galiban gives Reka reports to go over. Once all the ordinary business is taken care of, we play.

  We play in a hundred ways. We watch movies on a couch we built together. She watches me play games, no multiplayer, but that's not so bad once you get used to it. Oh, and she's teaching me how to dance! Learning how to be a lord is fun.

  Reka looks up at me after unfastening the straps on my breastplate. "Hmmm? Oh, sorry, my love. What would you say to a short jaunt outside the castle?"

  Outside? We haven't left the walls of Malmark since we got here. When I want fresh air, we walk through the courtyard together. "I'd like that," I say. It would be a nice change of pace.

  "Excellent. I'll have the servants lay out riding clothes."

  Riding? What would we ride? I look over at the poor spider girls I just brutalized, rubbing their tender joints while Nyte tries to cheer them up. Surely not them!

  After a short "whore's bath" where Reka magics away all my sweat and dirt, my wife leads me to an outbuilding I've never been in before.

  A servant is saddling two horses when we enter. "Stables?" I ask. I really have to watch how absorbed I get with Reka. Months in a castle, and I never noticed we had horses.

  "Milord, milady." The servant bows and flees from us about as fast as he can and still look respectful. At least he looks well-fed.

  "What was that about?"

  "You're passing frightening, Brad," Reka says conversationally as she strokes a horse so black it matches her hair.

  "What, me?"

  She gives me a pointed look. "You were fine before, but now you really look like a killer, all lean muscle and hard angles. I didn't expect you to adapt so quickly, to tell it true."

  "I guess the food and the sword fighting agree with me."

  There's a wicked smile on her face as Reka's hands find my chest, teasing me with feather-light touches. "More than agree, I'd say. Those riding leathers make you look quite the cutthroat. By the void, I'd love to watch you kill someone."

  Whoa! I don't even know what to say to that! While I'm sputtering, trying to think of a reply, Reka laughs lightly and hands me the reins to a white horse.

  "A noble steed for a noble lord, mate to my black mare."

  Oh, he's a big boy, but I can tell he's gentle, the type who listens. "What's his name?"

  "Death."

  I hug my horse around the neck. "Reka, you can't name this sweetheart 'Death'! Isn't that right, boy? You're so good." He nuzzles me in answer, as I knew he would.

  "It's a nod to your culture, my love. 'And behold a pale horse: and his name that sat upon him was Death, and Hell followed with him," she quotes. "It's my favorite passage from the Bible!"

  It would be, little Miss "I want to watch you kill something."

  Cultural differences, it has to be. The longer we've been here, the more it comes out. I love Reka more than anything, but she has a bit of that medieval mindset that sees nothing wrong with bloodsports.

  One of our servants has a pet lizard that looks a bit like a baby dragon without the wings. They all like to get together and watch it kill rats. Reka was totally fine with it. Okay, okay, the way it cracks its neck like a whip and crushes the rat's spine was cool...I can admit that much, just hope I don't run into any giant ones.

  We lead our horses outside, and Reka checks my belt to make sure I'm still carrying my sword and knife before helping me mount up. She's always lecturing me about being armed at all times. Is the outside world really that dangerous? Her spider knights should keep us safe.