Marcus shook his head. "No. First teeth." He opened his mouth and showed me his teeth. "Alltheir first tooths."
I thought for a minute. He meant the first set of baby teeth—all of them. Which meant theygave weapons to children that were roughly two and a half, maybe three years old.
"Wooden blades, Warprize. The first weapon is wooden." Marcus looked at me closely. "Thefirst true blade is at the first true tooth. You understand?"
I nodded slowly, taking that in. Firelanders wielded steel at roughly six or seven years old.
No wonder they were so fast. It occurred to me that I was very glad I'd sent Meara back toAnna at Water's Fall.
"So." Marcus's voice called me back. "We will concentrate on what you can do. Not on whatyou can't."
I sighed, and let my shoulders slump. "But I can't do anything!"
"Pah." Marcus turned, and picked up the wooden sword and small shield that I had been using.
"What did you do when that warrior-priest burst into your tent?"
I went and sat close to Prest, flopping down in the grass. "I screamed and ran."
"And?" Marcus asked as he seated himself. Rafe dropped down next to him, and pulled out adagger and a sharpening stone. Anders and Yveni remained standing, on watch, standing closeenough to hear.
"Hid behind Keir." I picked a stem of grass and started playing with it. "Bold warrior that Iam."
Marcus snorted. "You, with your terrible memory. You have forgotten."
I looked up to see that Rafe and Prest were both grinning, as if at the memory. "What?"
Rafe answered promptly. "You threw that pot of muck at him. He was covered with it when hecame out of the tent."
"Wish I'd seen that," Anders spoke, his eyes still on the horizon.
"Heyla to that," Yveni added.
Prest chuckled. "The stink clung for days." He reached over and pulled his warclub close,preparing to re-wrap the handle with the leather strips. Of course, it wasn't just any warclub. Ilooked away from the weapon. It brought back too many painful memories.
"So," Marcus continued. "What did you do? You alerted others that you were in trouble. Youused what was at hand to distract the enemy. You fled to where there was help, and positionedyourself where your defenders could protect you."
I had forgotten. I'd whipped that jar of boiled skunk cabbage right at that warrior-priest's facebefore I'd fled. I sat up a little straighter. "I guess I did."
Marcus gave me a nod. "Teaching you to fight is enough to make a gurttle laugh. But teachingyou to defend yourself, to respond under attack and get yourself to safety, that can be done."
I shook my head. "Marcus, I froze when I found Iften hovering over Keir with that dagger. Ididn't have the sense to scream."
"Fear." Prest spoke as he concentrated on his task.
Rafe nodded, even as he honed the edge of his blade. "Fear holds you still when you need tomove, and moves you when you need to be still."
"Fear makes you silent when you need to be loud and loud when you need silence," Anderssaid, almost reciting. I wasn't surprised; Prest had taunted Iften with a teaching rhyme back atWellspring. It seemed they used them a lot for teaching purposes. Which also didn't surpriseme—since they had no written language, everything was memorized, and their ability to do thatwas amazing.
"Fear closes your throat, makes it hard to breathe. Fear weakens your hand and blinds youreyes." Marcus took up the chant. "Fear is a danger. Know your fear. Face your fear."
I waited a breath, but when it was clear they were done I broke the silence. "But how do I dothat?"
Prest turned his head, and smiled at me, his white teeth flashing against his dark skin.
"Practice."
I should have kept silent. This warrior-princess routine was uncomfortable, sweaty, andexhausting.
