Chapter Sixteen
Six weeks later
Blackchurch Training Grounds
He had her around the neck.
It was her own fault. She’d been concentrating so much on trying to take down a man twice her size that she’d missed the part where he simply outwitted her and ended up putting her in a headlock.
Damnation!
Athdara immediately surrendered and dropped her weapon. Unless she wanted Fox to snap her neck, she had little choice. She could hear him snorting in her ear as he let her go and gave her a shove, pushing her away from him.
“You are letting your emotions get the better of you,” he said. “Emotions will cloud your judgment every time. You cannot let that anger find its way into your movements or you are going to get yourself killed.”
Athdara sighed sharply. They’d been at it since before sunrise.
Fox, the master of defense and weapon usage, was her trainer these days.
She’d been with him for a couple of weeks, ever since her training session with Tay had finished.
He’d run her until she dropped and forced her to lug rocks around to build up her strength, but even a scant four weeks later, she was in better physical condition than she’d been in her life.
Her body had responded well to the grueling exertion and good food.
That meant her fight against Fox had been a long one.
“How is it possible that I cannot use emotions to fuel my actions?” she asked as she bent over to pick up the broadsword she’d been using. “It should make my actions stronger because I have a stake in what I am doing.”
Fox looked at her, amused. “If you fight like a woman, you will not survive.”
With a growl, Athdara rushed him. Fox went into a defensive stance, but Athdara did something unusual at that point—she was running so quickly that he was bracing for an impact that never came.
Instead, she came to within a few feet of him, fell to her knees, and skidded beneath his leveled sword.
That meant she bashed into his legs and reached up, pinching the inside of his right thigh to simulate a strike, but Fox was faster—he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her onto her back.
For a moment, they simply looked at one another.
“I struck first,” she said, breathing heavily.
“I killed first.”
“I could have killed you first.”
Fox paused. Then he grinned and removed his hand from her throat, reaching down to pull her off the ground.
“That was a good move, but reckless,” he said. “If you are going to do that with a man, you’d better shove a dagger into his ballocks immediately, or he will kill you.”
Athdara was still breathing heavily with exertion and exhaustion. After hours of this, she was growing weary. “If I’d shoved a dagger into your… your privates, then we would not be having this discussion,” she said. “Can you not admit I bested you at least once?”
“Nay,” Fox said flatly. “Because you did not. I could see it in your face that you were going to do something out of the ordinary. An opponent can read your features, Athdara. If it is in a life-or-death situation, he will be able to see what you’re going to do if you do not keep the emotion from your face.
A Shadow Knight does not betray what he is thinking. ”
She shrugged, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “I cannot lose my rage,” she said. “I must learn to work with it. I must learn to use it.”
“Or you must learn to mask it.” Another voice entered the conversation as Tay walked up behind her. When she turned to look at him, smiling, he fought off a grin and looked to Fox. “Is she using fury instead of reason again?”
Fox nodded, handing his sword over to one of his helpers. “She is,” he said. “But I will break her of it.”
Tay looked at Athdara with feigned disapproval. “I saw what she did as I walked up,” he said. “That was a good move, but she did not surprise you too much. If I had done it, I would have slid between your legs and come up behind you with a dagger to the back. She stopped too soon.”
Athdara put her hands on her hips, irritated. “If I’d had a dagger and he’d truly been an enemy, I would have rammed it up his—”
Tay cut her off, holding up a hand. “No need to be so detailed for delicate ears,” he said, though his lips were twitching with a grin.
“I understand perfectly. So does Fox. But you must listen to him. You cannot fight with emotion or it will be your undoing. If an enemy knows he can upset you, he has already won the battle.”
Properly chastised, Athdara didn’t immediately agree or even hint that she understood them, even though she did.
Her features twisted in an unhappy expression, she simply lowered her gaze and adjusted the leather guard she was wearing on her forearm.
The leather prevented her forearms from being nicked to pieces by Fox’s sword.
Tay and Fox watched her lowered head for a moment before turning to each other and struggling not to smile. They both appreciated this stubborn, tough woman who refused to admit when she was wrong. They understood something about that type of character, since they were from the same mold.
“What brings you here?” Fox said, changing the subject. “I thought you had a new recruit class.”
Tay nodded. “I do,” he said. “The new group started today, and the group I’ve been working with for the past six weeks has moved on to other exercises with Bowen. This new group is running.”
“God, I hated that,” Athdara said. When the two of them looked over at her, she shrugged. “Running, I mean. Nothing is worse that running around the damnable lake over and over again while Tay’s men stand in the bushes and throw rocks at you if you are not moving fast enough.”
Tay cocked an eyebrow. “It worked, didn’t it?” he said. “You picked up your pace.”
Athdara tried not to laugh. “As if I had a choice,” she said. “I ended up outrunning every man you have.”
Tay pointed toward the lake. “Then show them how it is done,” he said. “Go. That is not a request.”
Athdara wasn’t laughing anymore. In fact, she was verging on a temper tantrum now that Tay was ordering her back into the stampede. She was weary from a day of training with Fox, but Tay wasn’t about to give her any rest.
She knew better than to argue with him.
Without another word, she dropped both of the leather arm guards and took off running, heading toward the lake. It was nearing sunset, and the water was glimmering like diamonds, signaling the end of what had been a temperate day.
Tay and Fox watched her go.
“Christ, she’s stubborn,” Fox muttered. “Was she like that with you?”
“Every damn day.”
Fox chuckled, low in his throat. “She is stubborn and intelligent and fights with her heart. Every inch of her heart.”
Tay watched those long legs as they headed down the hill and her braid waved back and forth like a banner.
“She has a big one,” he said quietly. “A big one and a strong one. How is she doing otherwise?”
Fox nodded. “Well enough,” he said, turning toward the north because something caught his attention. “She’ll do well if she listens. She is eager to learn and does what she is told, but she has her moments when she thinks she knows better than I do.”
“I have met that side of her as well,” Tay said, catching sight of what had Fox’s attention. “Ah, it’s Kristian. Did you see what happened to his class today?”
Fox nodded as he started laughing. Kristian Heldane, the trainer known as the Viking, strolled across the green grass toward his friends and comrades. Long-legged, strong, with a crown of luscious blond hair that tumbled past his shoulders, Kristian looked every inch a Nordic god of old.
“Well?” Tay said. “Were you singed today?”
Kristian gave him a lopsided smile. “You saw what happened?”
Both Tay and Fox nodded. “We all did,” Tay said. “How could we miss that dark smoke rising from the north end of Lake Cocytus?”
Kristian tried not to look embarrassed. “We always have fires on the cogs so the men will know how to handle a fire shipboard, but one of the trainees fell into the fire and ended up spreading the embers all over the deck,” he said.
“Burned the damn boat down. Right now, the entire group of trainees is pulling the blackened hull from the lake. Clumsy idiots.”
Tay and Fox laughed softly. “I am surprised that has not happened more often,” Tay said. “Not all men are steady on the water.”
“That is the truth,” Kristian said. “Like you, Tay. I seem to remember someone turning green the last time he worked a group with me.”
Tay couldn’t deny it as Fox laughed. “Do you see my feet?” he said, pointing to his shoes. “They are standing on the dirt. That is where they belong—on the dirt.”
“How in the hell did you survive going to the Levant?” Kristian asked, incredulous. “Richard went by way of the sea.”
Tay shook his head. “He did, but I did not,” he said. “I went by way of land. It took longer, but there was no possibility that I was getting on a ship.”
Kristian grinned. “That is a pity,” he said. “You would have made a magnificent Northman.”
Tay jabbed a finger at him. “Cease your flattery,” he said. “I am still not getting on a ship.”
“Can’t you swim?”
“Of course I can. I simply do not like it.”
Kristian and Fox laughed at Tay’s expense, but Tay ignored them. His gaze was over at the lake as he watched the recruits run in the distance.
“I must say that the newest group of dregs had some of the most ill-suited hopefuls I have ever seen,” he said, shifting the focus away from him and his non-seaworthiness. “Have you seen them?”
Fox shook his head. “I do not pay any attention to the dregs,” he said. “By the time they get to me, the unworthy have been weeded out by Tay and Sin.”
He was looking at what had Tay’s attention, and Kristian came up next to them, peering at the men running in the distance.
“I saw you training with the de Ghent woman, Fox,” he said. “How is she coming along?”