Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
T hea threw herself into the life of a shieldbearer with everything she had, her fate stone a constant reminder of the hourglass draining.
When the time came to submit her official nomination for the Warsword she wished to apprentice to, she didn’t hesitate as she scrawled Torj Elderbrock’s name next to her own.
Training with the Bear Slayer was going well, and she found she liked the warrior’s openness and sense of humour.
He would make a fine mentor, she was sure.
Wilder Hawthorne may have been the youngest warrior to pass the Great Rite, but Torj Elderbrock was going to help her break that record.
And so Thea kept her head down, grateful that Seb and his lackeys seemed to have taken Torj’s warning seriously, grateful that Dax still guarded her by night, and even more grateful that she’d had no more run-ins with Hawthorne.
At long last, she could focus on her goals, with luck on her side.
A week after her return to Thezmarr as a shieldbearer, that luck ran out.
Thea, Cal and Kipp waited with the rest of their cohort in the courtyard one chilly autumn morning. The stable master, Madden, greeted them, and to Thea’s mortification, his apprentice Evander, who didn’t bother to hide his shock at seeing her there.
Thea looked away immediately, but not before Seb caught the awkward exchange. Thea didn’t like the glint of interest in his eyes one bit, but there was nothing she could do about it. Instead, she listened to the stable master.
‘I’d like to reinforce the importance of good horsemanship to a shieldbearer of Thezmarr.
In your position, you will be expected to assist the guild in any way you can, which can entail anything, including carrying messages, riding into conflict alongside the Guardians and commanders, and attending to them on the battlefield.
Should you pass your initiation test, you will be expected to travel swiftly to assist the three kingdoms when called upon.
There should be no lack of skills you can offer the guild.
’ He looked them over, apparently as unimpressed as the Warswords always seemed.
‘We’ll be taking horses down to the Plains of Orax. There, we’ll have you practise riding with weapons, riding as a unit and riding against one another,’ he told them.
‘Hopefully you’re not as pathetic as yesterday’s group,’ came one of Esyllt’s familiar insults.
The weapons master was standing at the entrance to the stables.
‘The first shieldbearer to fall from their horse will be on clean-up duty at the armoury for the rest of the week. Don’t embarrass me in front of Madden. ’
They took a shortcut through the Bloodwoods that Thea hadn’t known about and just when she thought they were so deep they might never see the sky again, the trees thinned and eventually opened up onto open grassy plains at the tops of the Thezmarrian cliffs.
Past their sharp edges, the dark seas beckoned and even further out, the misty Veil towered on the horizon.
She inhaled the briny sea air. Those lone moments beneath the shadows of the jagged mountains and the lightning felt like a lifetime ago. How long had it been since she’d stood up there, clutching her fate stone, desperately wishing for the chance to be more…?
And now here she was. Her hand went absentmindedly to the piece of jade, but she caught herself at the last minute, stuffing her hands into her pockets instead and turning her focus to the training unfolding before her.
Thea watched intently as Madden and Esyllt demonstrated several styles of riding, itching for her turn already.
To his credit, Evander had always taught her it was an advantage to have a slight frame when it came to riding quickly, but this was about more than being fast. The two masters heaved their shields and swords up, and Thea knew her muscles were in for another session of torture.
As she waited for her turn, she noticed Seb cornering Evander with a small group of his lackeys.
The stable master’s apprentice had his hands up in defence and was talking low and fast. Thea felt instantly sick.
She didn’t know what that bastard was playing at, but she knew no good would come from it.
The thought of him having any knowledge of her former love life didn’t sit well with her.
However, intervening was not an option. Her meddling would only spur Seb on, and who knew what horseshit Evander had said already?
Tearing her gaze away from the troubling sight, she fit her foot to the stirrup and mounted the white and grey gelding.
He was larger than her mare had been, and far more stubborn, but she reined him in using the techniques Evander had taught her.
She was sure to give the unruly beast only one instruction at a time, walking him in a few tight circles to distract him from his willful attitude.
‘Good approach, girl,’ Madden commented from nearby. ‘It’s always important not to be impatient or heavy-handed, particularly with the young ones.’
‘Thank you, Sir,’ Thea replied.
‘You’ll need to use your knees and heels to guide him,’ Madden spoke again, approaching with a training sword held up to her.
Feeling momentarily dazed by the situation, Thea draped the reins over the saddle horn and took the practice weapon wordlessly.
Cal then handed her a shield, smaller and lighter than the one she’d used on her first day.
‘A cavalry shield, rather than the infantry style,’ he supplied before stepping back.
She strapped the shield to her forearm as she’d seen Esyllt demonstrate earlier and squeezed her gelding’s sides with her heels.
Suppressing the urge to snatch the reins back, Thea turned him so that he faced the open plains, where she was to canter across, holding shield and sword high, without falling off.
Several other shieldbearers had already succeeded, letting out shouts of victory.
From the looks of their efforts, many of them had been training in horsemanship for years.
Gripping her shield and sword, Thea couldn’t help but glance at Evander, recalling his answers to her many questions so long ago.
Even back then, she had dreamed of this moment.
‘We don’t have all day,’ Esyllt barked, almost causing Thea to jump.
But she wasn’t the only one hesitating. A fresh group of riders had mounted, shieldbearers far less experienced than those who had come before, she gathered, their hesitation apparent.
Anticipation pulsed not only between the shieldbearers, but the mounts as well. They were growing uneasy, some pawing the ground with their hooves restlessly.
‘Gods, don’t let me be the one to fall,’ Thea muttered.
She didn’t let herself falter a moment longer. She squeezed her heels and the gelding lurched forward. He was eager and fell into a canter almost immediately, charging across the grass.
Thea engaged all of her core stomach muscles to remain upright in the saddle, the briny wind suddenly whipping her face. She hung on with sheer will, raising her shield against imaginary opponents, and even daring to take a swing with her sword.
She sucked in a sharp breath as the end of the run came upon them all too suddenly. But she mastered her panic, sitting back in the saddle to signal to the horse it needed to slow its pace. There, she used her feet to steer him around and urge him back into a canter on the return across the field.
As she rode with her weapon raised and the chilled sea air kissed her skin, it felt like victory. It felt like liberation.
She slowed upon approaching the group, a wide grin splitting her face —
‘That’s not the only thing you’ve ridden hard, is it, stray?’ came Seb’s nasty sneer.
All illusions of victory shattered with those words.
‘What did you say?’ she said between clenched teeth as she dismounted from her horse, taking a step towards the older shieldbearer.
‘You heard me.’ He gave a pointed look at Evander, who stood alone on the outskirts of the group, his eyes downcast. ‘I knew the stable boy liked animals but…’
Lightning coursed through Thea, and her fist went flying.
It collided with Seb’s left eye.
He staggered back, clutching his face. ‘What the —’
Thea stared at him in shock, her knuckles aching.
‘Sir!’ Seb shouted. ‘Did you see —’
‘See what?’ Esyllt surveyed the shieldbearer with open dislike.
‘The bitch hit me!’
Esyllt frowned, not even sparing Thea a glance. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. But if you’re insisting that an untrained woman landed a punch on you, then I’d say you’re the bitch Sebastos.’
A startled silence fell over the group.
Until Madden burst out laughing, which set off a chain of laughter throughout the entire group of shieldbearers.
Seb’s face reddened by the second and he swore, storming off towards the Bloodwoods.
‘You’ll need to throw a better punch than that if you mean to be a warrior of Thezmarr,’ Esyllt murmured in Thea’s direction.
She looked up in surprise, but the weapons master was already walking away.
It wasn’t long before Cal and Kipp joined her.
‘What a prat,’ Cal sniffed in Evander’s direction. ‘No spine on that one, no fucking class, talking about you like that. That’ll be a shiner for sure, though.’
Thea’s face still burned. It was one thing to have Wren, Sam and Ida know those sorts of details about her life, but another thing entirely to have all the shieldbearers in Thezmarr aware of her past. Unease churned in her gut.
What exactly had Evander told them? That he’d fucked her in the stables?
What she looked like naked? She spent enough nights in the dormitories now to know how the men talked about women…
‘I had a girl once,’ Kipp said rather dreamily, interrupting her thoughts.
That piqued Thea’s and Cal’s interest, enough that she momentarily forgot her embarrassment.
‘What?’ Cal scoffed in disbelief.
‘Met her at the Laughing Fox tavern. A real beauty.’
Cal roared laughing. ‘You? With a girl? At the Laughing Fox? The place you’ve been to a single time, if at all?’ He was actually clutching his stomach, his head tipped back.
Thea grinned. Far be it from her to judge Kipp, but it did seem rather unlikely.
Kipp ignored them. ‘Black hair soft as silk,’ he continued. ‘A dazzling smile and an incredible —’ he hesitated for a second, glancing at Thea, who simply raised a brow — ‘personality,’ he finished.
Cal was now wiping tears from his eyes. ‘And this woman… She fancied you?’
‘Yes!’ Kipp insisted. ‘We laughed all night.’
‘You sure she wasn’t laughing at you?’
‘Oh, leave him be,’ Thea said, smacking Cal on the arm.
‘Don’t believe me then,’ Kipp told them, shaking his head.
‘What are you three nattering about now?!’ Esyllt bellowed. ‘Can’t you see half the group’s left for their next session? Believe me, it’s not one you want to be late for.’
To Thea’s shock, he was right. Madden, Evander and the horses were gone, as was most of their group, but for a few stragglers they could see at the edge of the Bloodwoods.
All three of them jumped into action while the weapons master shook his head. ‘A more sorry lot of shieldbearers I’ve never seen. Get moving!’
‘Ah, Sir?’ Kipp said tentatively.
‘What?’
‘Where exactly are we going?’
Thea braced herself for more yelling as Esyllt turned to face them, his mouth actually slackening.
‘You mean to tell me you’ve not heard a single word I’ve said for the last ten minutes?’
‘Sir, we —’
He raised a hand to silence Kipp.
Besides chores, Thea had no idea what sort of punishments were doled out to the trainees, and she really didn’t want to find out.
‘In all my life…’ Esyllt trailed off, running his hand through his thinning hair.
He shook his head. ‘You’re expected at the northern training arena for hand-to-hand combat.
A skill which all of you –’ he gave Thea a pointed look – ‘could sorely use.’ He focused on Kipp.
‘And you … You are, without doubt, the worst shieldbearer I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting. ’
He heaved an aggravated sigh. ‘Get out of my sight.’
The trio were more than eager to oblige, darting for the Bloodwoods at a run.
‘Did you hear that?’ Kipp panted as they wove through the trees.
‘Which part?’ Thea asked, still reeling.
Kipp grinned. ‘I’m famous.’
‘Furies save us,’ Cal groaned.
Laughter on their lips, they raced through the Bloodwoods to the northern end of the fortress. Thankfully, Kipp knew where the training ground was, but that was where the joy ended.
The training ground was at the base of the black mountains, not just a clearing, but an arena where all could watch bloody victories and defeats unfold from a vantage point. Bloody, because Thea could actually see dark patches of crimson on the ground.
And at the centre, stood the Warswords of Thezmarr.
Hawthorne at their heart.