Cheriour sighed and walked out of the room.
“You know,” I said to Braxton as I licked porridge off my lips, “your saliva does not make this shit taste any better.”
“‘Shite?’” he remarked. “This is a treat!”
“Hmm. Well, how ‘bout you finish mine? Then you’ll get anextraspecial treat.”
Braxton grinned and snatched my still-full bowl of bug guts, downing it in two big gulps.
Yech.
Outside, the sun peered over the horizon. The sky was pink. Cloudless. And it was already hot as balls.
I was drenched in sweat by the end of our warmup, and the salty moistureburnedas it seeped into the still-raw blisters on my palms. Supposedly, the sores would turn to calluses one day. Or so Cheriour said. It seemed like a load of crock. I got fresh sores at the end of every session. How was the skin supposed to harden when I kept ripping it open?
“Addie!”
My head snapped up when Cheriour barked my name. “Present,” I mumbled.
“You’re with Kaelan,” he said.
I flashed Cheriour a thumbs up. I’d rotated through training partners a few times, but Kaelan was my favorite. He was a sweetheart and was content to go at my pace.
“Belanna—no.”Cheriour shook his head when Belanna sidled to Garvin’s side.
Belanna and Garvin wereextremelycompetitive. They’d probably kill one another if they had actual weapons.
“Belanna, I want you with Braxton—”
“I’m to be stuck with me own brother?” Belanna groaned.
Braxton grinned and tugged on the end of Belanna’s braid.
“You both need work with the sword.” Cheriour had the ultra-patient kindergarten teacher voice down pat. “Moira and Garvin, you both need practice with the bow.”
“Ha! See, Garvin, it’s not just me who thinks yer horrible.” Belanna smirked.
Garvin wrinkled his nose and rolled his eyes.
“Addie and Kaelan will continue to train with the polearms,” Cheriour droned.
No surprise there. I’d only used one other weapon: the bow.
It looked so much easier than flinging the freaking polearm around. Draw the string back and shoot, right? So I’dnaggedCheriour until he let me try it.
Ha.
That string had felt like it was attached to a brick house. I’d whacked my boob on the release (gave it a nice shiner too). And the arrow had gone so far off course, I’d almost hit Garvin. Who’d been standing on my right side, nowhere near the target.
Yeah, I was sticking with the polearm.
“Alright,” I turned to Kaelan and wrapped my aching hands around my stick. “Ready to rumble?”
His mouth twitched. “You say the oddest things.”
“Addie!” Cheriour called. “You and Kaelan will go for two-minute intervals. Twofullminutes. If you stop early, you’ll start over.”
“How are you gonna know if I stop early? You don’t have a stopwatch.”
