“Youdidn’t have a problem disturbing me.”
“Oh no, did I wake you?” She blinked sharply, lips parting, clearly horrified by the thought, and I instantly felt a pang of regret.
“No. I was already up. I’m glad you knocked.”
“Oh, good.” Her shoulders dropped in relief. “You want to take these?” She passed me the bags.
I carried them over to my unmade bed. Clothes, uniforms, casual outfits, PJs, and…undergarments. I checked the labels on the underwear, then the bras. My size. “What do you know, Pipcantell size just by looking.”
“What?” Clary asked from the threshold.
“You can come in, you know.”
“Oh…thanks.”
I pulled out the final set of clothes. Black breeches and a fitted tunic, knees and elbows padded with leather. “What’s this for?”
“Training clothes. You want help putting stuff away?”
There wasn’t much to put away, but if I was going to make fake friends, then… “Sure, that would be great.”
It took less than five minutes to shove the clothes in the dresser and hang up the uniforms.
“Oh, one second.” Clary ducked out, returning with a thick envelope. “Your admission paperwork. You’ll have a schedule in there too.”
“Fabulous.” I chucked it onto my bed.
Clary’s gaze flicked from the envelope back to me. “Aren’t you going to check it?”
Damn, I was rusty with this whole buddy-making malarkey. “Sure…” I ripped it open and tipped out the contents. Paperwork…whoop-de-doo.
“That’s the schedule.” Clary pointed at a cream sheet of paper. “Ooh, you have Combat 101 with us next week.”
“Isn’t that a beginner’s class?”
“Kinda, but when you’re Unwoven, you have to retake them—basically as punching bags for the other students.” She shrugged. “It’s not too bad. Most of the students don’t even know how to land a punch.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
My dry tone had her chuckling. “It can be fun. The younger students are all in awe of us more advanced ones, and being Unwoven gives us an edge of danger.” Her eyes lit up. “We’ve been encouraging speculation about our crimes. Some of the theories are wild.You’llneed to pass the class, though, because essentially, you’re a beginner.”
“I took defense classes for years. I can handle myself.”
She gave me an indulgent smile. “It’s all about theoffensehere and weapon use. You’ll need to learn how to wield swords and daggers.”
I scanned the rest of the schedule. There wasn’t anything on my rota for this week aside from History of Nightsbridge, but we're coming to the end of the week, so that made sense. Next week I had Combat 101, more History of Nightsbridge, and Horror 101, along with counseling. The next four weeks were variations of the same until something markedgrading.
“What’s grading?”
“That’s the culmination of Combat 101.”
“Like an exam?”
“Yes. You need to pass to move to Advanced Combat—and be eligible for the hunt.” Her eyes lit up. “Hunters are respected highly here.”
“And if I fail?”
“You could retake it or accept a post in another role like ward keepers, border watchers, domestic…” She winced.
