Chapter 25 #3
With a boost of her legs, Lory hauled herself up the first part of the wall in her path, keeping up with her perfectly, while Brycon and Eira stayed a few paces behind. With a grunt, she pulled herself higher. And higher, attacking each obstacle like it was an enemy.
“Anyone in particular you’re imagining while you’re mangling those handholds?”
Lory shot him a glare first, then took a close look at the rock beneath her fingers—her burning fingers. “
“Shit—”
“You could say so.” Thal grinned and panted, halfway up the wall. “At first, I thought you were molding them into more easily grabbable shapes, but then I noticed the expression on your face.”
Lory grimaced.
“Yeah, just like that.” Thal pulled himself higher while Lory forced calm into her veins, willing the fire to go out. “Just saying. You could talk to me about whatever it is.”
And Lory knew she could. About anything but him.
About anything but the rebellion, the Flames locked in the dungeons.
Her guilt, her fear, her broken heart. “I’m fine.
Just need to work out some frustrations.
I’ll be better after I’ve run myself ragged on this parcours.
” She meant it, too. But a small part of her—the tiny sensation in her chest surged up whenever she thought of how complicated things had become.
So many secrets—and not nearly enough privacy to work anything out, to speak about things with the people she trusted.
Then, maybe speaking wouldn’t help. Maybe this was a matter she needed to sort out on her own.
Keeping her fire under control, Lory finished the last two rounds in silence, pushing herself to her limits and ignoring the pain in her hip, where the bruise, courtesy of Khayrivven’s training methods, still bloomed, and his phantom touch lingered.
Only when she stopped at the weapons rack, nearly doubling over, gasping for air, did she allow herself to glance over her shoulder at the others.
Thal was only a few steps behind her, but Brycon and Eira, she’d outrun by half a lap.
When they both arrived, panting and sweating, Anees shoved training weapons into their hands, pairing Eira with Thal and Lory with the knowledgist. With the heel of her boot, she drew two lines in the sand, gesturing for them to take position between them.
“Whoever drives their opponent over the line first wins.”
Lory felt Anees’s eyes on her as she lowered her center of gravity, waiting for Brycon to attack.
The knowledigst merely hovered on his side, throwing Lory an inquisitive glance.
“I think you’re supposed to use that thing in your hand,” she snapped at him, earning a chuckle from Thal, who was flipping his weapon in his hand.
Brycon gave her a crooked grin. “Very funny, Vednis. Let’s hope you can back up your big mouth.”
He didn’t give her time to respond as he stepped up, hitting her blade with the flat of his.
A playful blow, an invitation rather than an attack, and for a moment, Lory wondered if Brycon had truly changed.
That his jealousy about her special treatment had been the only reason, and he’d seen by now that her powerful magic wasn’t the only discipline she was superior in.
With a half-honest smile, she smacked his blade back. “Let’s say I’m as good as Veiled and Steel as you’re at reciting history books.” It wasn’t meant to be a taunt, just a fact delivered as a convoluted peace offering. “Maybe we can learn something from each other.”
Maes had insisted Brycon was all right, that he’d been a great asset for studying, and they obviously liked each other. Perhaps, she could get used to the knowledgist not wanting to kill her.
“Maybe,” Brycon echoed.
Next to them, Thal and Eira’s blades were clashing, steel on dulled steel, the song of combat accompanied by their grunts and shouts.
Brycon gave her a small smirk. “Maybe we’d make a formidable pair if we teamed up.”
“Maybe,” Lory echoed, and this time, she felt her smile turn real.
Oh, she didn’t trust Brycon Seine. Not after everything that had happened, but this was a first step.
With all the open questions floating around these days, she needed all the help she could get.
A fragment of her attention, she kept on Brycon’s stance, on the way he favored his right leg, the imbalance of his shoulders and hips.
“How about I’ll teach you how to outsmart your opponent and use the element of surprise, and in return, next time I study for a Knowledge exam, you can help me out?
” She didn’t warn him further as she attacked, getting into his guard with her sword in an instant and shoving him back with the flat of her blade, until he stumbled over the line behind him, that weaker, left leg his downfall.
With satisfaction, she watched him stumble onto his ass, but she didn’t mock him.
Instead, she offered her hand to help him up.
Brycon took it without hesitation, letting her pull him up, and brushed off the dirt from his pants and shirt, and a small smile played on his mouth as he inclined his head at Lory as if to say, Well played.
When Lory made it to dinner that day, her thoughts were clear for once, and the ache in her chest didn’t throb as horribly.