Her lips thinned. “No skipping, no twirling. You are a professional.”
“I’m not.”
“You could be one if you applied yourself. You are an adult.”
“An adult who is in looove,” I all but sang.
“And you represent Hard Day’s Knights, so no skipping, twirling, or any actions that a five-year-old girl might make.”
“Well, hell, now I can’t even stick my tongue out at you,” I said, slinging the case’s strap over my shoulder, and making a point of stomping my feet when I left.
“I hear that!” she called after me, which just had me giggling.
I lined up for the practice butts (the British are very serious about their queues), and managed to get five minutes of warm-up in before my group of four was called to do our best.
Alden, I knew, was getting geared up and receiving any last-minute instruction and advice from Vandal before his one-on-one battle, so I didn’t expect to haveany supporters other than Fenice when I took up my borrowed bow.
“Competing for Hard Day’s Knights,” the ring announcer yelled, holding up a clipboard with the schedule and contestants. “Mercedes Starling.”
There was a brief commotion at the edge of the ring, a metallic sort of commotion. As I lined my toes up on the official mark, I glanced over to see Alden clanking his way to the ring, fully armed, carrying his helm.
He held out a mail hand and gave me a thumbs-up. I grinned, and blew him a kiss.
Beside him, Fenice did a little jig of anger, and stabbed her finger toward the archery butt. The glare she sent my way could have taken paint off a barn door. I spread my grin to her, just barely refrained from blowing her a kiss, too (I didn’t want her to have a fit right there in front of everyone), and instead turned to face the target.
The judge blew her whistle, alerting me that I had two minutes to shoot six arrows.
Breathe,I remembered my old archery coach telling me before a competition.Feel the air coming into your lungs, and exiting. Forget everything else but your breathing, and the target.
I lifted the bow, trying to push out all the jubilant feelings that rolled around inside of me, making me want to dance and sing and shout with happiness.
I breathed. As I drew air into my lungs, I lifted the bow upward until it was over my head, exhaling as I brought it back down, my other arm pulling the string back to my jaw as I did so.
For a split second, I didn’t breathe. The whole world seemed to stop, my gaze narrowing on the center pointof the gold bull’s-eye, exactly where I wanted to put the arrow. As I let my fingers relax, the string slipped past them, and I knew by the sound of the twang that the arrow was true.
Polite applause met my bull’s-eye, along with some metallic clanging that I took to be Alden clapping. I locked another arrow into place, deciding where I wanted it to go in the bull’s-eye (neatly alongside the first arrow), and I breathed.
I left the archery ring with a score of four bull’s-eyes, and two in the next ring down, or a total of fifty-eight. I knew that wasn’t good enough to win the competition (since the other archers had a lot more experience than me), but I was pleased with my result nonetheless.
And so was Fenice.
“Nicely done,” she said, buffeting me on the shoulder. “You did us proud. I’m almost tempted to let you keep that bow.”
“Oooh,” I said, clutching it hopefully to my chest.
“Almost,” she said, smiling as she walked away to help Vandal.
I looked for Alden, but he wasn’t there. I tucked the bow away in the stable, made sure the doors were locked, and did a quick patrol of the area as suggested by Fenice. Most people had enough sense to avoid the outbuildings, but I did rumble a couple of kids and one couple who were old enough to know better.
“Seriously, people,” I told the shamefaced couple, shooing them toward the door of the shed. “You wouldn’t do this in your own garden, would you?”
“Every Sunday!” the man said, making the woman give a nervous giggle.
“Well, it’s not Sunday now, and if I catch you in there again, I’m going to tell Vandal.”
They left with only minor grumbling.
The crowd outside the melee ring was large, since most people came for that, and I had a hard time working my way around the various bodies to where the men were being readied to fight. As I rounded the far side, I realized that the reason I couldn’t find Alden was that he was already in the ring.
