8. Chapter 8 #3
She shrugged. “I want a challenge.”
I scrunched my nose. “I’m not that out of practice.”
For a moment, it was almost like we were back in the training yard in Kelvadan, when violence had been looming on the horizon and not a constant companion.
I could ignore the hollows under Aderyn’s eyes and the roiling of Erix’s angry magic in my gut and remember making my first friend during long days of sweat-soaked training.
“You presided in your throne room while I was still captain of the riders. I wouldn’t be so sure,” Aderyn taunted as we started to circle. I knew her well enough to predict that she wouldn’t strike first. As always, she would wait, baiting an enemy into an attack that would give her an opening.
I scoffed, hoping to distract her. “You stood off my shoulder most days, doing the actual ruling. I was the one who kept wanting to draw my sword.”
And it was true. I was better suited to ruling like Dhara, while Aderyn loved the city and all its ways that had been so strange to me. All those thoughts were chased from my head by the sudden stab of Aderyn’s blade.
She threw her usual strategy aside to surprise me, and it nearly worked.
It passed inches from my nose as I dodged to the side.
Even in my unbalanced state, I tried to take advantage of her move, slipping my blade under hers and stabbing at her legs.
She was too quick though, lowering her weapon and crossing it with mine, pinning them together to the ground and rendering my attack useless.
We struggled against each other in the bind for a moment, nearly equally matched in strength where she had once been able to overpower me easily.
Without letting go of her sword, she snapped her elbow up toward my face.
I turned my head to the side to avoid the blow, but it still caught me across the cheekbone.
The shock of pain lit something in me—the part of me that reveled in a fight and had not quite woken up fully in the face of controlled practice.
Without even looking, I kicked at the ground where our swords were locked, knocking them loose from each other and scattering a cloud of sand.
Aderyn blinked for a moment through the haze of grit, and I advanced.
I barely heard Elion’s grunt of surprise behind me as I slashed down at Aderyn.
Her hand shot out lightning fast and caught the strong of my blade, right near the cross-guard where it was barely sharp.
Already, my offhand darted out like a striking snake, knowing she would take the moment to attack my flank.
It was what she had trained me to do.
My fingers closed around her wrist, and I twisted. At the same moment she wrenched at the blade in my hand. Both our blades fell from our grips and thudded in the dirt. But losing your weapon didn’t mean the fight was over, it just meant you had to get more creative.
I hooked my leg around Aderyn’s and tripped her, toppling us both to the ground. I tried to land on top, but she twisted and squirmed like a wildcat. We rolled over on the ground, scrabbling in the dirt to get the upper hand, uncaring of the dust that would surely coat us.
Trying to grab Aderyn’s wrists with one hand, I slipped my other into my boot, hoping she was sufficiently distracted. Finally, I heaved with my thighs, managing to pin Aderyn beneath me and held the dagger I had drawn under her chin.
Instead of raising her hands in defeat, she grinned up at me.
She seemed livelier than she had the whole journey so far.
The prick of cool metal beneath my ear told me she too had slipped free a spare blade and now had me at her mercy.
Even as she smiled, I sensed a flicker of frustration in her expression.
We had fought to a standstill, but she clearly craved a clean win.
I huffed in amusement and lowered my weapon, and she did the same. Then, I stood and offered her a hand, hauling her up off the ground.
“Impressive,” Dhara complemented from where she stood with her arms folded. She walked over and picked up Aderyn’s saber where it had fallen, while I retrieved my own.
“Now it’s time to show you how we fight in the clans,” Dhara challenged, drawing her own sword. “I’ll even let you catch your breath first if you need.”
“Nonsense,” Aderyn dismissed. “It takes more than one bout to wind me.”
A slight breathiness to her voice betrayed her, and I frowned. Perhaps some of the rivalry between clansmen and city natives remained between the two.
Aderyn raised her blade in a forward guard and nodded that she was ready. I placed my hands on my hips as I watched them face off against each other, both cautious in the face of an unknown opponent.
The air shifted next to me as Elion appeared at my side.
“You sure you’re not interested in participating?” I asked as Aderyn and Dhara exchanged a few feints, trying to bait the other into engaging first.
“I’m not sure I want to be on the receiving end of any of your blades, least of all hers.
” He jerked his chin toward Dhara, who indeed had just parried Aderyn’s blade with incredible skill.
A lesser opponent would have fallen to the quick strike she followed up with, but Aderyn danced out of the way.
“There is something to be said for bonding over clashing steel,” I pointed out. Indeed, the closest bonds I had tended to be forged in the fires of training side by side.
“That only works if you survive the experience, and that seems much less probable when your opponent literally spits fire.”
I looked him up and down out of the corner of my eye, noting his bulging muscles and his own well-worn blade. “I don’t believe one can become a lord and be unable to protect themselves. And I sense the desert has touched you too.”
Indeed, the twisted currents of magic that flowed through the entire land seemed to pool and eddy around him as if he were a small rock in a stream. It wasn’t the vortex of power that spilled from Erix, but it was certainly noticeable to those of us who were sensitive to it.
“Having a way with animals is useful among the clans, although less immediately helpful in a fight,” he admitted.
Our conversation was cut off by a yelp from the sparring duo. Dhara had surprised Aderyn with a slash that suddenly changed directions, slipping under her guard. Dhara lunged forward, ready to take advantage of the opening. At the last second, Aderyn sidestepped, and Dhara’s arm extended past her.
Before Dhara could pull back, overextended in her strike, Aderyn grabbed her arm and stepped into her.
A sharp heave, and Aderyn used Dhara’s own momentum to throw her over her hip.
Dhara landed flat on her back in the dirt with a grunt, a puff of dust rising around her as Aderyn pointed her sword down at her.
Dhara scowled up at her, and while the set of her jaw betrayed her injured pride, she did not gripe. Aderyn removed her sword and reached down to help Dhara up.
“I suppose the Great City trains their riders well,” Dhara admitted grudgingly.
She rubbed at her injured leg but didn’t favor it as she stood.
It seemed to have healed well. Dhara leveled a finger at Aderyn as she continued.
“But if you tell my riders you bested me, I’ll have to challenge you to a fight that doesn’t preclude fire. ”
Aderyn nodded. “I will not mention it to your riders if you do not set my tent ablaze.”
They clasped forearms, and I almost smiled, even as watching their camaraderie bloom before my own eyes caused a pang in my chest.
Aderyn and Dhara were both strong in their own ways—born leaders I had rarely seen falter.
Of course, they would be drawn to each other.
But I had tried to force myself into the shape of a leader—folding myself into the mold left behind by Ginevra, only for my tempestuous power and desperation to destroy it.
For now, they were my friends, but soon they would see what the people of Kelvadan already knew all too well.
I was not fit for the belonging they offered.