15. Laurel #2
Anger rippled through me. If he had any idea who I was, he would not be waving me away from a table of knives as though I might faint at the sight of a blade.
“I’ll move along when I feel like it,” I said coldly. “Customers have a right to inspect merchandise before purchasing, do they not?”
The shopkeeper huffed and folded his arms. “Go on and inspect, then, but don’t blame me if you get hurt.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You really think you’re something, don’t you?”
After Leopold yesterday, I had very little patience left for arrogant men.
“Can you even throw one of these things?” I asked him.
“Naturally,” the man said, drawing himself up with visible offense. “Want a demonstration?”
“I’d love one.”
The man walked to the side and pulled the cover off a large circular board, bigger than a man, set upright on a wooden frame.
The board spun slightly when the cover came away, making a faint whirring sound.
It was divided into six differently colored sections, and leather straps hung limply where a person could be fastened against the front.
Dale had one of these with his minstrel equipment, and Will Scarlet and I loved it.
We had used it until Dale banned us from practicing near campfires, tents, trees, horses, and anything else that could be damaged or frightened.
Several people stopped their shopping to watch as the shopkeeper picked up a few knives and backed up several paces from the board.
He waited until the board had stopped spinning. “Red,” he called, and threw.
The knife struck the red section.
The small crowd applauded, and more people wandered over, drawn by the promise of a show. “Blue!” he called next, and threw again. The blade sank into the blue section.
He turned toward me with a smug little smile. “See?”
“I see,” I said. “Can you do it while it is spinning?”
A man in the crowd laughed. “Yeah, Nero. Can you?”
“I was just giving this girl a lesson,” the shopkeeper said. “She seems to think she can throw.”
He made a mocking bow and offered me the handles of two knives. The crowd laughed, clearly expecting me to shrink away in embarrassment now that the challenge had turned real.
“Gladly,” I said. I walked toward him as if I was about to take one of the offered weapons. Then, with the speed that had been trained into me through years of practice, I drew my concealed knife and called, “Yellow.”
I turned and threw.
The knife struck the center of the yellow section.
The crowd fell silent for one perfect moment. Then a loud murmur rose around us, followed by whistles and laughter. Nero’s face turned bright red.
I walked to the board, wrenched my knife free, then returned to him. “Spin it,” I challenged. “Let’s see how good you really are.”
His shocked expression cleared, and to his credit, he didn’t look angry for long. “Well, well, well. I underestimated you.”
I gave the wheel a firm spin and stepped back. “Throw.”
Nero concentrated hard. As the wheel began to slow, his gaze followed the movement of the colored sections. “Red,” he called.
The knife flew. When the wheel stopped, Nero’s blade was embedded just above the line between red and yellow. It was still in the red section, and the crowd applauded with even more enthusiasm than before.
“My turn,” I said.
I nodded to a girl standing nearby. She looked at Nero for permission, and when he nodded, she reached up and set the wheel spinning again with a small grunt. I watched the colors move, measured the slowing turn, and waited until the moment felt right.
“Green,” I called.
My knife landed firmly in the green section.
The crowd cheered again.
“You’ve met your match, Nero,” someone called. “I think she’s better than you are.”
“No, she isn’t,” Nero said, clearly affronted. “She wouldn’t have the nerve to do it with someone strapped in there.”
“Climb on up, and we will test that theory,” I said.
Nero blushed and didn’t move.
I reached into Baron’s coin purse and pulled out a fat gold coin. “A gold coin to anyone who’ll strap themselves in.”
The crowd went silent. Each townsperson glanced eagerly around, everyone wanting to see someone spin on the wheel and no one wanting to be the person who risked it. Several teenage boys shoved each other forward, but none of them stepped close enough to volunteer.
“I will.”
James walked up from the back of the crowd. I was slightly surprised to see him, though I shouldn’t have been. I knew he remained in the area between debriefing Baron and me, and of course he would need somewhere to stay in the village.
I grinned and flipped the coin to him. “Thank you, my good sir.”
The crowd watched with eager silence as I helped strap James into the contraption. He leaned close enough that only I could hear him. “Don’t you dare miss.”
I pulled sharply to tighten one of the leather straps. “Do I ever?”
He gave me a look that suggested this was not the moment to boast.
I backed away. “Spin him.”
The girl, who now looked terrified to be involved at all, reached up and set the wheel in motion again.
It spun much more slowly with James’s weight on it, but still quickly enough that the throw would not be easy.
The crowd held its breath. Even Nero stopped smirking and looked nervous.
I watched the wheel decrease in speed then took a deep breath.
“Blue,” I called, and threw.