Venick had to remind himself that he was lucky to have Harmon. If not for her, they’d likely have no chance of speaking with the Elder at all. If Venick had any misgivings, it was merely because of what had happened in Irek. It was because they were exposed out here on this flat non-desert with no high ground, nowhere to fall back in case the Dark Army decided to attack. That was all. Nothing more.
Tell yourself that.
Venick refocused on the whetstone. Slowly, the sounds of the camp receded from his awareness, his mind filling with nothing but the soft grate of stone on metal, the wind through the grass—
—and footsteps, approaching.
He looked up.
“That is not your sword,” Harmon said.
Venick paused. “No.”
“Yet you sharpen it anyway.”
He shrugged. “It needs to be done.”
She studied him. Her black eye was nearly healed now, the skin showing only the faintest green tinge. Her burned hands were better too, though Venick rarely saw them. She liked to keep her arms crossed. They were crossed now. “In the highlands, men don’t touch each other’s weapons,” she said. “It’s bad luck.”
“What if you lose your weapon?”
“Who is going to lose their weapon?”
“What if it’s stolen? What if you drop it in battle?”
“If you’re foolish enough to drop your sword in battle, maybe you deserve your fate.”
Venick squinted a little, amused. “Swords are heavy. They’re easy to drop.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
He was surprised. “You’ve never held a sword before?”
“My father doesn’t like it. He thinks women shouldn’t fight.”
“And what do you think?”
Harmon uncrossed her arms. Crossed them again in the other direction. Trying to see if he was patronizing her. Considering how much to tell him. For someone who’d never been to battle, Harmon was awfully on guard.
“Well?”
“I dreamed of being a knight once,” she admitted. “When I was little, women still fought in our army. The highland army doesn’t just answer to the Elder. Did you know that? Their fealty is sworn to his whole family, anyone bearing the Stonehelm name. The Elder’s wife was a general. Many believed that of the two of them, she was the better commander. She was certainly fiercer, but the Elder never minded. He loved her. After she died in battle, the Elder changed the rules.”
“He forbid women from fighting?”
Harmon nodded. “I sometimes wonder how things would have been if his wife had never died. If women were still allowed to fight, would I have become a soldier? Aknight?” She shrugged, but her eyes were hard, as if daring him to mock her. “I know it’s silly.”
“It’s not silly.”
Harmon shrugged again, her gaze darting to where the men sparred. Lin Lill was among them.
“You could join them,” Venick said, softer now. “Lin Lill would be glad to teach you.”
“I shouldn’t. I’m likely to bruise. My father will see.”
“Does your father control everything that you do?”
Harmon scrunched her nose. “More or less.”
