He did tell me that future sessions “likely” wouldn’t last that long.
So far, that hadn’t proved to be true.
If anything, they seemed to be getting longer.
I felt like I’d joined the army, without anyone telling me I had.
“He’s… disciplined,” I’d admitted to Mir and the others, after my second week of training with him. Glancing around, I’d kept my voice low. “He talks like a military commander most of the time. Honestly, I can’t imagine he didn’t go to some sort of military training camp on his summer breaks, even in middle school. Are we sure he’s not a secret Warlock?”
Draken grunted, looking decidedly unimpressed.
“Did you get any good hits in this week, at least?” Mir asked, her mouth quirked.
I laughed ruefully. “No.Emphaticallyno. Sorry, Mir, but that’s unlikely in the extreme. He’s really,reallyfast. Any contact I make, withanypart of his body, will be solely because he lets me.”
“And you’re sure he’s not hurting you?” Draken asked, his voice and eyes hard. “You don’t have to take any abuse from him, Leda. I’ll go to Forsooth myself, if he’s really the one who put that prick’s name forward––”
I was already shaking my head. “He’s not hurting me, Draken. Not like that. He barely touches me, honestly, other than to lob magic as part of one exercise or another, or to use magical throws while we’re sparring… usually when he wants it to end.” I let out a humorless laugh. “Honestly, he doesn’tneedto hurt me. From the outside, I imagine it’s a bit like watching a mouse attack a wolf.”
Jolie snorted, like she couldn’t help herself.
They asked a lotmorequestions, of course, whenever they got me talking, but I couldn’t offer up much else. Bones never did tell me how to describe our sessions to anyone who asked, including my friends, but I knew not to paint him in too flattering of a light.
I definitely couldn’t talk about him in Frumpy’s, where any one of the royals might be listening.
When I finally made it down to the dining room that morning, it hit me again why Bones didn’t bother making a show of abusing me in there. He didn’t need to blacken my eyes to keep up appearances. Just seeing the condition I was in, each and every morning after a session spent with my new “instructor,” filled his royals mates with undisguised glee.
“You alright there, half-breed?” Norrick Voltaire called out in a sneer.
I’d just walked my tray over from the buffet table.
The dining room, which was even more massive than the one in Grathrock, didn’t have the transparent ceiling that Grathrock’s had, only tall, narrow, stone-framed windows along one wall. As a result, it was much darker inside, even in the morning.
Decorated with iron and gold, and lit by torches that never seemed to go out, its grey stone walls displayed shields, swords, and other weaponry, along with coats of arms, tapestries, and mosaics of constellations. Massive stone statues lined the walls in alcoves and by the two fireplaces: griffins, sphinxes, horses with half-fish bodies, satyrs, winged cats, dragons, and a gold and black statue of Anubis that stood nearly twenty feet tall.
Despite the odd collection of gods and magical creatures, Valarian itself, in all of its rooms, mostly reminded me of a medieval castle.
I looked over at Voltaire before I could stop myself. He leered at me openly, hanging over his plate loaded with sausages, eggs, potatoes, and fried mushrooms.
“You’re walking a bit funny there, Shadow,” Voltaire smirked. “Bones didn’t break anything off inside you this time, did he? He decide to ride you for a bit, after he got you down on the ground? Must get boring trying to teach a half-breed to do tricks.”
Elysia Warrington cackled, obviously finding that hilarious.
My face grew hot, mostly in anger.
I picked up my fork, but even that hurt. My fingers felt like they’d been bent backwards and hyperextended so that all of the joints were sore.
Norrick laughed again, joined by Pants and Scar, the other two of Bones’s flunkies.
“Maybe I’ll see if I can get you alone, too, Shadow,” Norrick called out. “I think I like you like this, all tenderized and meek. Finally knowing your place. Regular bruisings seem to have cured that smart mouth of yours, too. Like Bones, I can think of better uses for it.”
My jaw hardened, but I didn’t answer that, either.
Draken, who sat across from me, turned his head to glare at Voltaire, eyes blazing.
“You go near her, and I’ll––”
“You’ll what, Joran?” Bones thunked his own tray down on the wooden table on Panzen’s other side, voice bored. Without looking at me, he sank his weight gracefully to the bench, set down his utensils, and adjusted his seat in front of the overloaded platter he’d brought back from the buffet. He aimed a stare briefly at Draken, his gold eyes flat.
