She threw the blade a third time, and a fourth and fifth. Always, the result was the same: She consistently hit the center of the tree, but below her target.
“Throw again,” Gaelen commanded, his eyes narrowed slightly. “But this time, don’t aim for the knot; aim for this.” His hand flicked out. Green magic swirled from his fingertips, and a red circle appeared on the tree above the knot.
Ellysetta took aim, cocked back her hand, and flung the Fey’cha at the red circle on the tree. The dagger cartwheeled through the air and struck the tree dead center in the middle of the knot she’d missed every other time.
She gave a rueful laugh. “Now I hit it.”
“Kabei. Now, try this one.” Gaelen spun Earth again and another red dot appeared on a tree much, much farther away. “Do you see it?”
“You’ve got to be joking.” The tree was at least two tairen lengths away.
“Can you see it?”
Ellysetta squinted. “Barely.” The new target was little more than a pinpoint of scarlet against the distant tree.
“Kabei. Now try to hit it.”
“Gaelen, don’t be a dim-skull.” Bel scowled at his friend.
“Shh.” Gaelen put a finger to his lips. “Kem’falla? Take aim and throw your blade.”
“It’s too far,” Bel protested. “If she can’t hit a larger target at a third the distance, how do you expect her to hit a pinpoint at two tairen lengths?”
“Humor me.Teska, Ellysetta, take your stance.”
Bel rolled his eyes but stepped back so Ellysetta could take clear aim at her target. She set her feet and drew back her throwing arm.
“Concentrate,” Gaelen advised. “Calculate the distance, the force you will need to throw so far. See the blade’s path in your mind. Do you see it?”
“I think so.”
“Then throw.”
Her arm whipped forward. The blade whirled through the air in a swift, blurred arc. It hit the target tree dead center…but again well below the red dot.
“Well-done,kem’falla,” Gaelen praised. “Well-done indeed.”
She scowled. “Well-done if you want me to hit consistently below my target, you mean.”
“Nei. Your aim was perfect. You hit a target the size of a sand fly from two tairen lengths away.”
Bel gave a disbelieving laugh. “I think you need the Feyreisa to check your eyesight,kem’maresk. She missed that tiny little red dot by two handspans, at least.”
“The red dot wasn’t the target.” A slow, satisfied smile spread over Gaelen’s face. “’Jonn, go inspect her blade. Tell me what you see.”
The Earth master shot forward with a speed that seemed incongruous with his great height, and his exceedingly long legs crossed the distance in no time. “There’s a second target,” he called, “and she hit it dead-on. Gil, come look at this.”
Curious, the black-eyed Fey leapt off the fallen log he’d been sitting on and ran to join his friend. After a brief inspection and an exchange of words Ellysetta couldn’t hear, Gil yanked the blade from the tree and he and Rijonn came running back.
“There was a second target.” Gil held up the Fey’cha. A small circle of brown leather was pinned to its tip.
Rain, who had hung back with the Elves to observe Ellysetta’s lessons, stepped forward. “Let me see.” He held out a hand for Ellysetta’s Fey’cha. The brown leather circle at its tip had been sliced almost in two—dead center, just as Gaelen had said.
“I wasn’t aiming for that,” Ellysetta confessed. “I never even saw it.”
Gaelen’s smile grew wider. “I know, Ellysetta. I made the real target brown specifically so youwouldn’tsee it. But I put it where your blade would hit if your aim at the red circle was true.”
“I don’t understand.” She took back her Fey’cha from Rain and returned it to its sheath. “How can you say my aim was true when I missed what I was aiming at?”
