Page 31 of Blood of the Sands

“I think it’s working,” I admitted.

“Good. Now you can rest a little easier knowing you won’t lose control while we work on building your walls.”

I exhaled in relief that I wasn’t going to cause a scene on the terrace, magic exploding out unbidden. Still, with the power in my belly as close as it had been to asleep in over a month, part of me felt… barren. Like I was walking up stairs only for my foot to fall through space when there was one less than I expected. I shook away the thought. I just wasn’t used to the sensation of calm within me yet.

I stared up at the stars wheeling above me in the night sky and smiled. It took me a long moment to realize that I hadn’t just woken where I had gone to sleep on Aderyn’s roof, but far outside the city walls. The silence of the wilderness was deeper and held far more mystery than what passed for quiet in the city.

The only source of noise was the breathing of another, lying in the sand next to me. If I had been awake, I might have wondered how I got here, or been fearful at who had approached me while I rested, but the unknowable logic of dreams kept me stargazing peacefully.

“The city seems so different, but the stars look the same as they do here,” I observed to my unknown companion.

“You never see the stars in the Kelvadan. I hate it.” The dispassionate voice that responded was male. It seemed tired and… familiar.

“Do you think the stars would still look the same if you were to cross the mountains to the kingdoms beyond?” I asked.

There was such a long silence that I wondered if my companion was ignoring me.

Then—

“Do you want to leave the Ballan Desert?”

“No.” The answer came before I could process his question, but it rang of truth nonetheless.

“Me neither,” he agreed. “I think it would feel like…”

“The room under the mountain,” I filled in. A sharp intake of breath from my companion broke the calm spell of the dream.

In the shattered stillness, it finally occurred to me to turn my head. My gaze was met by molten silver eyes that I had last seen in the pits of a mask with a sword pressed to my throat.

My eyes snapped open to stare at the same stars I had just been observing, but now the unmistakable firmness of the roof pressed into my back, and the sleepy sounds of stabled horses and the collective breathing of hundreds filled the air.

Now though, the open sky brought me no peace. It was a long time before I slept again.

Aderyn smiled at me, and my stomach sank. That grin was never good.

She might have the occasional soft smile for Neven when she thought nobody was looking, but this expression was reserved for when I was about to be pounded into the dirt. She had been giving me many more bruises since we started adding on some extra training together after the other recruits left. These extended sparring sessions had come about naturally when she had seen me stay behind to continue practicing my forms. Now they were part of our daily ritual—my favorite part, to be honest. It was the only time of day my mind found peace, unable to think of anything but countering Aderyn’s lightning-fast blows, lest she dump me on my ass again.

Thankfully for my bruised behind, it seemed to be happening less often of late. In fact, yesterday Aderyn had been the one dumped in the dirt as we sparred, and I sensed I was going to pay for that now.

“I thought we’d try something a little different today,” she announced, turning toward the weapons rack on the far side of the open training area. When she turned back toward me, she held not the saber that I had become accustomed to, but a sickle blade, so curved it nearly formed a perfect half circle. She twisted the handle, and it split in two, revealing a perfectly matched set of blades.

I swallowed.

“Not everybody you fight is going to use as saber.” She twirled the weapons in her hands, and they blurred into perfect silver circles. “Especially if they’re not from Kelvadan.”

When the clans attack. The unspoken words hung in the air.

“You’ll need to be able to adapt to other fighting styles on your feet.”

I watched her swing the blades a few times as she adjusted to their weight in her hands, calculating my strategy. As curved as they were, she would have much less reach, but they would be lethal at close quarters. If I closed in too fast, I would lose my main advantage.

She squared off against me, and I raised my saber in an overhead guard. We circled around each other for a moment. As always, I lunged first.

It was one of the things I admired about Aderyn but never seemed to learn from her. Her patience in a fight was endless, always waiting for her opponent to move first—to give her an opening.

Luckily, I had learned through a few harsh bruises to protect myself when I attacked, and while she spun the blade in her left hand to deflect my attack, I ducked under the swing of the other with ease.

We fell into a pattern of quick exchanges, but while I never got close enough for her to slash me with the curved edges of her sickle swords, I soon discovered the disadvantage of my longer reach. While I could keep Aderyn at arm’s length, when she spun the handles of her blades in her hand, they created a virtually impenetrable shield of swirling silver. I chanced a thrust of my saber at her face, thinking I saw an opening. In an instant, she twirled the circled blades toward each other, trapping my sword and stopping my stab inches from her nose. We froze for a moment, a twinkle in her eyes, before I wrenched my weapon free.