Chapter 37
Itrudge down the path to the training grounds in the early light of the morning.
A fog blankets the field of poppies and the dew still sparkles on the ground, making the cobblestones slick.
The air is crisp, a slight chill brought on by the incoming fall season.
My leathers fight off the nip of the chilly breeze and my wings bounce with my quickening pace.
“It’s so early,” Mina whines.
Her hair sticks up at odd angles in the back. I dragged her from her bed when I woke up this morning and forced her down here. I was inclined to keep sleeping myself, but our time is dwindling. The grains trickle through my fingers faster than I can hang on to them.
“I know.” My breath causes a puff of steam to waft from my lips. “But we don’t have a lot of time.”
Mina grumbles something under her breath, but continues to follow behind me as we make our way across the training ground and to the center. Her steps are not light like they usually are. They grind loudly against the dirt in time with mine.
“Do you need to warm up or anything?” I ask.
My hair is unbound today except for two small braids that frame my face, and they slide across my face when I turn towards her.
She sticks out her tongue before raising me into the air without warning.
“Brat,” I hiss, pinwheeling my arms to steady myself.
I flex my shoulders and back, preparing the muscles to steady my wings.
The current swirls right above my head as Mina keeps lifting me higher and higher. My tendons snap my wings out further when I hit the current. The force of the air resistance under the feathers keeps me aloft as Mina cautiously withdraws her invisible hands.
My back tightens, and I work to keep my abs flexed to counterbalance the pull. I glide along the current, tightening and loosening my muscles to keep me steady. I’m doing it.
I’m riding the current of the wind, like a surfer rides a wave. The thought sparks memories of my dad and me in the water. And for once, the memories don’t illicit pain, but happiness.
Happiness that I got to experience that with him. My mom swims through my thoughts next. I can vividly imagine her flying these same winds, her opalescent wings casting shadows that streak across the ground. My eyes fall closed, and I inhale the cool air.
Mina screams my name.
My eyes snap open.
I hadn’t realized how close I had glided to a tree. The leaves of the maple tree have turned a brilliant shade of gold, but that doesn’t make them any softer as I crash into the nearest limb. I tuck my wings in close to my body to keep them from being pierced by branches and twigs.
The rest of my body isn’t so lucky as I fall from limb to limb. Mina’s invisible hands catch me right before I splatter on the ground, pulling me sideways and away from the tree before setting me down gently.
She rushes to my side, patting me with light fingertips. “Are you okay? Oh my gods, what happened?”
I reach up to pull a twig with leaves still attached out of my tangled hair and wince with the movement.
“I closed my eyes.”
“Why would you do that?” She shrieks, slapping my shoulder.
“Ouch!” I screech, holding my throbbing upper arm. “That hurts! And I didn’t mean to. It was a reaction.”
Mina laughs while standing on her tiptoes to pull the shredded leaves from the ends of my hair. “First rule of flying—watch where you’re going.”
I squat down to stretch my lower back and twist from side to side before standing. “Alright, let’s go again.”
I managed to glide three more times. Not very long, and each time ended in a similar disastrous fashion. But that’s three more attempts I wouldn’t have had if we had left for Toraigh two days ago.
Five more days.
We have five more days left before I’m sprinting off to another realm for the survival of this one.
One by one, my friends find their way onto the training ground and we begin training.
First with a warm-up and stretching, and then sparring.
Before breaking down into target practice.
I practice with a bow, drawing back the string before firing and nicking the target.
Mina stands beside me, floating arrows in my direction.
“If your back wasn’t sore from flying, this would be easier,” she offers, when I barely hit the target again.
“I’ve beaten Lachlan at shooting before. This shouldn’t be this hard.” I look over in time to see Lachlan sink another arrow into the target. “I hit the boats for the sailings,” I grumble.
Mina glances at my target before looking back at my wings. “But you hadn’t flown before those times. Vanish your wings away and then try again.”
I have to concentrate on putting them away. The exhaustion is weighing on me physically and mentally. A small pop and the immediate lightness of my body signals my success. Dropping my bow, I rear back with my axe and launch it at the target. Straight into the bullseye.
Warm hands rest on my hips and I inhale the familiar scent of rain-kissed cedar.
“Ye cheated,” he grumbles into my ear. “Ye won’t always ha’ time to vanish your wings away before shooting. Ye’ll need to practice with them out. Always.”
Mina giggles and I glare at her. Her cherubic face reflects faux innocence. Like she wasn’t the one who just told me to put them away.
“I need a break,” I huff. My stomach grumbles. “And some food.”
Stalking from the training grounds, I head to the dining hall. The others following behind me. If I can’t fire a bow without my wings out, I’ll be useless. If I can’t even fly, I’ll be a liability.
The pressure of succeeding begins clawing at me. I’m not used to failing at things. My parents spent a lot of time and energy making sure I could master most things I set my mind to. Not picking up flying already has me questioning my abilities.
I pick at my lunch. Thoughts of all the things that could go wrong swirl in my mind. I’m not even paying attention to the surrounding conversation until the anger in Tane’s voice cuts through.
“I said I’m fine!” He chucks his plate of food across the table. It goes flying, mashed potatoes and all, before it crashes to the floor. The reverberation of the copper against the stone echoes around the hall.
Tane stands, his body trembling and his face twisting into a rapidly expanding scowl. “Stop trying to fix everything for me. It can’t be fixed. I can’t be fixed!” he shouts at Mathilda. “I am not worth your energy—or your time. Find someone else.”
Her eyes line with silver, her bottom lip quivering as Tane turns and stomps from the dining hall.
“I was just trying to help,” she whispers, the fork and knife in her hands still outstretched from where she had been cutting his food. Her eyes never leave Tane as he disappears through the door and into the hallway.
“I got it,” Lachlan and Evander say at the time, before they both follow Tane.
Mina, Luna, and I slide closer to Mathilda.
“What happened?” Luna asks, motioning for one of the servant girls to address the thrown plate.
Mathilda sniffles, dropping her hands to the table. “He’s been having a rough day. I think me cutting his food for him sent him over the edge.”
“Rough day, how?” Mina asks, chewing on her bottom lip. “He looked like he was making substantial progress in training with Piominko.”
A breath stutters out of Mathilda. “Piominko told him he might never regain all of his skills. It’s getting to him.
He feels like he’s holding us back. He had bad days before—nightmares really from the rebellion he was a part of and the lives that were lost under his command.
Some days he just doesn’t understand how he was able to live here and move on, when they never could. ”
I shake my head from side to side. “No way he’s holding us back. Even one-handed he’s better than most of us.”
Luna snorts, flicking a piece of food off the table. “Speak for yourself.”
“Luna,” I hiss. “We’re trying to help here.”
She rolls her eyes but says ‘thank you’ to the servant who finishes cleaning up the mess.
“I could talk to Piominko about saying more positive things to him.” I offer, rubbing my hand down Mathilda’s arm. “What Tane needs is a self-esteem boost.”
Luna shakes her head. The white strands glimmer in the flood of sunlight through the windows. “What he needs is to not hold his feelings back until he explodes. He needs to let it out.”
She leans back in her chair, crossing one ankle over another like this is the conversations she has all day, every day.
“How does he do that?” Mina asks.
“We need to have a combat game,” Luna replies, drumming her fingers across the table. “Like a King of the Mountain thing. Let the men beat the shit out of each other.”
I scoff at her idea. Injured warriors are the last thing we need before a major battle. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I say, looking around the table.
“What we need is one of our best fighters to get his shit together. The men need a pissing contest. I say we give them one.” Her eyes glow with the promise of violence and even I have to lock my muscles in place to keep from shuddering.
When Mathilda and Mina nod, I realize I might have been wrong in my assumption. And that we are, in fact, going to let the men beat the shit out of each other.
Luckily, everyone from the various districts had still hung around after the feast. The training ground fence is lined with warriors from all over the realm.
It reminds me of my first official training when it was announced I was going to be staying here.
My nose throbs thinking about how it was broken here—by Julius.
The ghost of that pain is snuffed out by a smirk. Lachlan was at that training before he was kicked out for intruding. I lean against the maple tree, its scarred trunk comforting to me as I watch the rest of the stragglers make their way to the fence line.