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Noise broke out across the courtyard, wooden swords clapping together and shouts of frustration.
Seb took no time at all to seek her out, as though her presence were a personal insult to him. ‘How many people did you have to fuck to get in here, stray?’ he taunted, circling her.
Thea’s chest tightened, but she didn’t answer.
Her silence only seemed to provoke him further. He closed in, surveying her travel-worn pants and cloak, the messy state of her braid and the man’s shirt rolled to her elbows. ‘Dressing like a man doesn’t make you one of us,’ he spat.
Thea’s grip tightened on her training sword. ‘You’re no man.’
‘Wanna bet?’ Seb snarled, face reddening.
‘Barlowe!’ Esyllt yelled, spittle flying. ‘Did I say measure your dick or did I say spar?’
Seb’s ears now matched the crimson shade of his face, and thankfully with a muttered curse, he skulked away.
‘You ready?’ Kipp turned to her, grinning.
Thea gave him a slow smile, the tension easing from her body. ‘Do your worst,’ she replied, taking up her fighting stance.
Without another word of warning, Kipp lunged forward. But Thea was ready. From the way the shieldbearer held his sword, she knew the strike would be sloppy. And it was. Seb’s cruel words forgotten, she batted it away and parried, revelling in the vibration the contact had sent up her arm. Circling him, she thrust her blade at his middle. Kipp only just managed to block her attack, stumbling back. Thea whirled around, bringing her sword down on his left side.
The shieldbearer let out a yelp of surprise.
But Thea gave him no chance for reprieve. She attacked, hard and fast, lunging, dodging and striking with as much precision and strength as she could muster.
Heated thoughts and feelings about Wilder Hawthorne retreated. Thea was glad he was gone, she told herself. She didn’t need or want the distraction, or his moodiness, not now with her dreams at last within reach. She washere. She wastraining.With the shieldbearers. As she sparred with Kipp, knocking another blow away from her torso easily, she tried not to let it go to her head. She wasgood. She was holding her own —
‘Messy,’ came a voice. ‘Very messy. Undisciplined.’
Thea turned, confident she was going to find the weapons master staring at Kipp, who was indeed all those things, but she found herself face to face with him herself.
He must have caught the look of surprise on her face. ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘You.We all know Kipp is as useless as the sky is blue and the seas are wet. Butyou…You aremessy, there is no discipline to your movements.’
Heat flushed Thea’s cheeks.
‘And I said fifteen minutes. Have you not wondered what else this lesson has in store for you? Or are you so eager to prove yourself that you would expend all your strength and energy in one burst?’
Thea opened her mouth but words failed her.
Esyllt shook his head. ‘By all means, carry on. If you drop dead from exhaustion, it will save the other shieldbearers the effort of hazing you.’
Thea’s grip on her sword tightened, but Esyllt was already walking away, berating the next pair in line.
‘Don’t worry about him,’ Kipp told her. ‘He’s like that with everyone.’
‘I don’t need your pity.’
‘Nor do you have it. I save all my pity for myself, you see,’ Kipp replied, straight-faced. ‘You heard him, “Kipp’s useless”… It’s only the twentieth time he’s said it today.’
The tension drained once more from Thea’s shoulders and she failed to suppress her smile.
‘You’d best wallop me again or he’ll accuse you of being lazy next,’ Kipp warned.
He didn’t need to tell Thea twice. This time however, she moved with conserving energy in mind. She kept her strikes strong and relentless, but she did less whirling, ensured all her footwork was concise and necessary. She thought about her style, what about it was undisciplined?
‘Now you’re thinking too much,’ came Esyllt’s voice, taunting.
Thea clenched her teeth.Heard that before. She suppressed the urge to tell the weapons master that there wasn’t much teaching happening in the courtyard. How was she meant to learn if he merely critiqued and didn’t instruct?
