40. Rorax
Rorax never should have tried to convince Milla and Ayres to accept her as their Contestar. Taking off her rune was one of the worst ideas she’d had in a very long time. Ayres and Milla must have been spreading the word about who she was, and the truth was likely catching like wildfire to a dry grass plane, because for the rest of the day whispers followed Rorax’s every footstep. Where she had gone mostly unnoticed before, murmurs, worried glances and terrified looks haunted her now as more and more people started to recognize the white in her eyes. People stared at her in the mess hall at lunch, walking down the corridor to her room, and when she went to the library for her daily study session. People were talking in low voices and openly staring. Even Radashan balked as if seeing her with new eyes in both confusion and fear.
That evening, Rorax was a few minutes late for Contestar Training. The usual crowd who came to watch the Contestars were all there, and when they heard the doors open, they all stopped what they were doing to turn their heads and look at her. Even Lamonte, who was in the middle of a demonstration with a round shield, stuttered into silence.
Her gaze skittered across everyone, settling on Milla and the lieutenant. His fury had obviously not abated, his arms crossed over his chest tightly as he glowered down at her, looking like he wanted to run her through with his sword like an olive on a toothpick.
Rorax kept her shoulders carefully back and her head high, but her cheeks heated under all the attention. She broke eye contact with the lieutenant to approach Lamonte and the other Contestars who had been listening to him teach.
Lamonte stared at Rorax for another beat, the silence in the air heavy and awkward, and only when she raised her eyebrows at him he snapped back to attention.
“Er . . . right. So, as I was sayin’, when you’re attacking your opponent with a shield—”
Lamonte was showing Isgra and Enna simple moves using one handed round shields and wooden swords. He showed them the basic back and forth movement of sparring with a shield and they started to clash back and forth, and Rorax admired how well Enna moved on her feet. She might not know the moves yet, they might not be part of her muscle memory, but she was coordinated and smart on her toes. It wouldn’t take her long to at least be adequate with a shield.
Enna stumbled on a backwards move, the fumble tripped Isgra who went sprawling face first onto the ground. Some people in the crowd, momentarily distracted from Rorax, laughed at her. Isgra’s eyes tracked the sound, her cheeks blushing a furious shade of bright red. She gritted her teeth and pushed away Enna’s outstretched hand to help her up, standing up on her own.
Enna and Isgra started again, moving back and forth in a light spar, until Enna left an opening and Isgra took her shield and smashed it to the side of Enna’s face.
Enna stumbled back, reeling, blood trickling down from a cut on her temple. She raised her hands in surrender, but Isgra continued to press into her, swinging her shield at Enna’s head again and again until one of the blows sent Enna reeling. Enna stumbled over her own feet and fell over on her hands and knees. Isgra placed a kick to her ribs.
Rorax started to push through the crowd as the people around her murmured with concern.
“Stop,” Enna wheezed from the ground, one arm around her middle. “Stop.”
“You Lowborn bitch,” Isgra hissed down at Enna as Enna coughed violently. “Stay down.”
Lamonte gripped Isgra’s shoulder to pull her away, but Isgra pushed him off and aimed another kick at Enna’s side.
Rorax got to Isgra right before the kick made contact, and she shoved Isgra back.
“She said she tapped,” Rorax hissed, bending over to offer Enna her hand, helping the bloody Contestar back to her feet.
It was a mistake turning her back on Isgra. Enna gasped and that was the only warning Rorax got before something smashed into the back of her shoulders so hard, she went sprawling forward onto the smooth stones of the courtyard. She flipped her body around to face her attacker, summoning Glimr to her palm.
The surrounding bystanders who had come that afternoon for the entertainment backed away quickly while Lamonte’s soldiers prepared for a fight, grabbing their swords and spears.
Isgra tossed her shield and sword away as she looked down at Rorax, her hands and arms wreathed with flames snaking tightly around her wrist.
“Heilstorm,” she seethed. “You didn’t just know my sister. You were in the same unit, weren’t you, Spine Cleaver?”
Rorax gritted her teeth.
“You were in her unit, and you left her. You left her to die in Lyondrea, didn’t you, you useless illiterate cunt.” Isgra snarled right before she threw a fireball at her head. Rorax rolled to the side just in time, the smell of burnt hair filling her nostrils.
There was a scream from the crowd, and anyone who couldn’t defend themselves from the flames scattered, fleeing inside or behind Lamonte’s men. Captain Lamonte himself, however, took a few steps closer, shooting Rorax a worried glance.
“Isgra . . .” Lamonte warned, still gripping the shield he had been using, holding it between them. “You can’t kill her without killing yourself.”
“It would be a mercy. I would be remembered as a martyr, killing an Ice Born Heilstorm to ensure she couldn’t become Guardian of the Realm.” Isgra threw another ball of fire at Rorax, who again rolled out of the way.
Isgra used the fire coiling up her arms as whips, snapping at Rorax one after another. Rorax felt like she was dancing, dodging, and hopping and twirling away from the long lines of fire, waiting for an opening to attack.
After one miss pulled Isgra’s weight off center enough to make her stumble, Rorax pulled one of her knives out of her hair and threw it at Isgra’s shoulder.
The woman dodged the knife, leaning to the side just in time, but with Isgra distracted, Rorax sprang forward, taking Isgra’s arm and twisting it behind her back so hard the tendons strained in her shoulder.
Luckily in the stone courtyard there wasn’t much to catch fire, besides the banners of the different house sigils, most of which were engulfed in flames.
“Calm down, and we can talk,” Rorax muttered into Isgra’s ear as she jerked in Rorax’s arms to get away. “You’re going to hurt someone out here, Isgra.”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Isgra snapped.
She tried to jerk herself out of Rorax’s arms, but Rorax didn’t budge. She caught Lamonte’s eye across the courtyard, and he gave her a short little nod.
“You couldn’t even save my sister,” Isgra seethed. “What makes you think you could save the Realms?”
Rorax sucked in a breath.
The question cut Rorax to the bone like an arrow straight through her heart, cutting at one of Rorax’s deepest insecurities. Her whole body flinched like she’d been burned, and she stumbled back a step and dropped Isgra’s arm like a hot coal.
Isgra pressed her advantage and rammed her fist up and across Rorax’s brow bone, the force making Rorax retreat even farther.
Gods, she was right. Isgra was right. Volla was dead. What business did she have trying to save the Realms? Trying to save her brother? Trying to get a Guardian on the throne?
Rorax suddenly felt like she had a band wrapped around her lungs, and she couldn’t breathe.
“The only reason the gods chose you to be here was so they could ensure your death,” Isgra seethed, following her as Rorax stumbled again.
K??n help her, what if Isgra was right about that, too?
What if her failure to save Darras from Lyondrea was another punishment? Something to torment her before she reached her bloody, gruesome end?
Rorax’s head spun and the band around her chest got tighter and tighter until black spots appeared in her vision.
She was going to die here, in the Choosing. She was going to die, and she was going to be forced to abandon Darras to the Lyondrean prison camps. She wasn’t going to be able to free Isgra from the Choosing for Volla and Jia. She wasn’t going to be able to help protect the Realms from the monsters in Sumavari’s book.
Her vision started to swim, and she stumbled back another two steps away from Isgra.
Rorax gritted her teeth and forced breath into her lungs in time for Isgra to approach her again. “You, and the rest of the Lowborn trash are going to die here, and the worldwill be a little cleaner for it. Once you”re gone, they will be the first ones to go. I’ll make sure of it.”
Rorax heard someone suck in a breath behind her at the insult. Anger started to boil in her chest, and she tried to grab onto that string, to inflame it.
Isgra laughed, ugly and bitter, sensing that her prey had fallen and was limping. “When I’m done with the Lowborns, I”ll kill my sister’s bitch wife, too.”
Rorax didn’t have to pull at her anger this time as adrenaline started to beat in her heart.
Who are you?
Rorax Greywood.
What does that mean?
It means I will do what is necessary for those I love.
Isgra saw the change in Rorax a split second too late, and there was nothing she could do as Rorax planted a swift uppercut into Isgra’s stomach.
“What did I say about her?” Rorax spat as Isgra doubled over in pain. Rorax took advantage of Isgra’s position and kneed her in the forehead. “What did I tell you, Isgra?”
Isgra ripped herself away from Rorax, falling to the side on her hands and knees.
Rorax bent down, closer to the fire worker than was smart. “And the next time you spew horseshit about Lowborns, I will break your jaw and smash in your teeth.”
Isgra growled and lunged up at Rorax, knocking her over. Rorax prepared herself for the fall, but Isgra’s large frame still crushed her into the stones so hard she almost lost her breath.
Isgra landed on top with Rorax on her back, but Rorax pushed herself from beneath Isgra before Isgra could pin her, and she scrambled to her feet.
Isgra waved her arm, and a large burst of fire erupted from her palm, aiming straight for Rorax’s face.
To lean back far enough for Rorax to avoid the blast, she had to do a back handspring, and when she came back to her feet Isgra was up as well, fire in her hands.
Isgra grinned, and Rorax summoned Glimr then pulled her other knife out of her hair.
She was going to have to kill Isgra. Right here, right now.
Rorax moved her arm back, ready to sling Glimr straight through Isgra’s neck when a violet shadow thudded onto the cobblestones right behind Isgra. A huge chunk of ice clobbered Isgra in the back of her head, and Isgra staggered once before collapsing face first onto the ground.
The next thing Rorax knew Jia was in her face, shoving her shoulders so hard she fell back onto her ass.
Jia pressed a boot to Rorax’s chest and shoved her over again, so she fell flat on her back.
“You idiot,” Jia seethed. She leaned down and put her hand on her knees, getting even closer to Rorax’s face. “When exactly did you break up with logic so you could fuck stupid, Ror?”
Rorax didn’t answer but pushed Jia’s booted foot off her chest and pushed up onto her elbows, rolling her jaw with indignation.
“The next time you want to kill someone defending my honor, pick someone who isn’t going to kill you in the process. This fucking bitch?” Jia pointed at Isgra’s unconscious body lying on the stones twenty feet behind her. “She isn’t worth it, Ror. Not worth your time, not worth your attention, and—sure as fuck— not worth your life.” Jia crossed her arms and straightened up.
Rorax looked around to see that most people had left to find safety inside. Only Lamonte and a few of his men, Elios, some of Kiniera’s men, and a handful of Death soldiers remained to see her humiliation.
“What happened to your rune?” Jia snapped. her arms still crossed over her chest.
Rorax ran her tongue over her teeth, debating whether to tell her about her conversation with the lieutenant and Milla.
With a grunt she got on her feet, brushing dirt and debris off her leathers.
She looked around the courtyard and winced.
There were scorch marks and random little fires everywhere. Lamonte’s men were running to put them out, using dark magick to smother them.
Jia started pointing to some of the fires, helping the men put them out with her ice, while Rorax moved over to Lamonte who was busy directing his men.
When she approached, he offered her a small smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “about interrupting your class. I know it’s important to you.”
Lamonte’s smile got a little wider. “Thank you, Contestar, but no apology’s necessary. Ya weren’t the one who started all these fires.” He waved a hand over the courtyard.
“Good luck with ‘er, Rorax, and I”m sorry your secret is out.” He gave her a nod, cupping her on the shoulder, before moving to give more orders to his men.