He did not slow. It was normal to feel protective of the most vulnerable member of the group.Normal. Except that she was not the most vulnerable member. Far from it. She had been a strong climber, despite her injury, and now she was proving to be an even stronger swimmer. So why did his pulse quicken every time her head disappeared under the water?
The half-mile swim was excruciating. Not only the physical demands of it but the mental. Roul was counting heads the whole time, the numbers going up and down with each rise and fall of the water. Blackmane and Tatum helped by pointing out any rocks they encountered. For all of Blackmane’s faults, he always took care of his comrades.
The flat rock was within sight when Eda pulled up suddenly. Her back collided with Roul’s chest.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked, looking around.
She turned in a circle, as though searching for something, her bare legs brushing his in the process. ‘I saw something. A shadow.’
‘A rock?’
‘No, it moved.’
He caught her around her waist and swam forwards. ‘We need to stay with the group.’
‘There!’ she said, pointing to a dorsal fin a few feet from them.
Tollere looked over his shoulder, and his eyes widened. ‘Shark!’ He began kicking out his feet.
Eda pulled a knife—from God only knew where—and readied herself for battle. ‘Stay behind me.’
Staybehindher? Smiling, Roul took hold of her arm and said, ‘It’s a dolphin.’
Tollere stilled. ‘It is? You sure?’
Roul took the knife from Eda’s hand. ‘Everyone relax. It’s just a dolphin.’
‘Everyoneisrelaxed,’ Blackmane said, glaring in Tollere’s direction.
Eda’s exhale was so big, she disappeared under the surface of the water for a second. Roul tugged her back up by the waist.
‘For future reference,’ he said into her ear, ‘if we do ever encounter a shark, I don’t want you as my human shield.’ He gave her a gentle shove to get her swimming.
‘Do we just swim past them?’ Hadewaye called as more dorsal fins popped up around him.
Roul’s eyes creased at the corners. ‘Yes. They’re just curious. Keep going.’
They all moved forwards, continuing towards the rock. Every now and then, Eda would squeak and then laugh as dolphins dashed in all directions around them. Roul watched her, his smile hidden by the water. The mammals seemed to be drawn to her laughter. Not surprising. What mammal would not want to get closer to that sound?
The recruits dragged themselves from the water, collapsing onto the rock and catching their breath. Eda was also breathless but from play, from another experience lived.
It was with a heavy heart that Roul said, ‘All right, Suttone. Time to get out.’
He watched as she hoisted herself up and out of the sea, trying not to look at her bare legs as they left the water. Only when she was safely on the rock did he follow her out.
CHAPTER9
The next two weeks passed in a blur of fighting, weapons, horses, and exhaustion. Eda had thought herself prepared for the physical and mental demands, but Roul had a way of training them that always required slightly more than they could give. He pushed each recruit to their breaking point, and then he pushed a little further. Eda’s mind and body took daily beatings, but she never complained. She never fell down. She never cried despite the ocean of tears that would build over the course of the day.
The others were expecting her to break. She saw it in their eyes whenever they paused to watch her, heard it in their voices when they made jokes.
Then one day the jokes stopped.
Her first battle won.
Eda showed up every morning, shivering in the eerie grey light as she waited for Roul to arrive with instructions. One day she would learn how to kill a man from thirty feet away with a lance while riding a horse at high speed, the next how to poison arrows. She learned to follow orders without thinking, to control fear, to controlothers’fear. She learned there were far worse outcomes than death in battle.
At the beginning of her third week, the warden came to watch the group train. The recruits were nervous—Eda could feel it. The longer the warden stood there watching them, the more mistakes they seemed to make.
