Free The Orphans' Promise by Pierre Grimbert

today.
    Grigán was a man of his word, like all his compatriots, and, even more generally, like all the natives of the Lower Kingdoms. While his education forbid him from letting a woman wield any weapon, his sense of honor, much more sacred in his eyes, forbid him from breaking his promise. Moreover, twenty years of traveling and various encounters had relaxed his faith in the rigid precepts embedded in Ramgrith traditions, and he had known dozens of women warriors.
    “All right, let’s go,” he responded to the Kaulienne, whose face lit up. “We’ll do it outside.”
    Léti almost ran to the stairs, only stopping for an instant to make sure the warrior was following her. From over her shoulder she could see that he was in the middle of a conversation with Corenn. Léti climbed the stairs, pouting, certain that her aunt was trying to change Grigán’s mind. She wasn’t mistaken.
    Corenn told Grigán, “I have no desire to watch her run straight for a confrontation with the Züu. Please, try not to encourage her, Grigán. Don’t let her think that she could get the upper hand in a fight with them.”
    The warrior looked hard at the Mother as if she had just insulted his ancestors and cursed his descendants all at once. Never had Corenn offended him so deeply. Speaking to him like he was irresponsible!
    He clenched his jaw for a moment and then decided to let it go, blaming his reaction on the countless worries they were all dealing with. These last few days, they had all called him out for his oversensitivity. He wouldn’t get angry this time.
    Before joining Léti at the stable’s entry, he managed the curt reply, “Don’t worry.”
    He had expected that all the others would gather to watch the spectacle that this “first lesson” would provide, but Rey was the only one to join them. The actor stretched out comfortably on a hay bale, armed with a bottle of green wine he had snuck from Raji’s reserves to help him enjoy himself. Grigán was preemptively annoyed, waiting for the actor’s attempt at humorous jokes at Grigán’s expense. He decided to ignore the joker and concentrated on Léti instead.
    The young woman was waiting impatiently for him to fill her in on some inside secrets of a veteran, but he had never taught anything to anyone. He had no idea what he was going to do. He even wondered, standing silently in front of her, what there was that he could say.
    “The best place to start would be to give her a weapon, right?” Rey suggested, as if he had read his thoughts. That the actor had sensed his apprehension was enough to vex the warrior, who was already at his wit’s end.
    Grigán grabbed his curved blade in a movement rendered natural by years of experience, and chained together a series of impressive jugglery. The warrior regretted it almost immediately. These types of performances were nothing more than useless bravado, and if he could master them, it was only because he had worn a sword since his youth. He had only wanted to prove that he didn’t need anyone’s advice, but that had been an error, because he was encouraging Léti to focus on weapons.
    The young woman had watched his entire demonstration with admiring eyes. He was sure that she would attempt to imitate him as soon as she could. Damn!
    “Well, what do you want to learn?” he asked her, suddenly in a rush to finish.
    “All of it. How to wield weapons as well as you can. How to attack, deflect, and retaliate. All of it.”
    “You can’t just learn it. It’s a question of experience.”
    “So train me.”
    The warrior thought for a moment.
    “We’ll start with the bow.”
    “Oh, no, I already know how to shoot an arrow. Teach me to use blades.”
    Grigán shook his head. This was ridiculous. If it weren’t for his promise, he would have already turned his back on this rash young woman. He swore to himself that there wouldn’t be a second lesson.
    Nevertheless, he conscientiously reflected on the best advice to