“I don’t! You just focus your strikes there,” Aleifr complained.
“Nonsense! I would never do anything so cruel. Well, if you don’t believe it’s a problem with your form, maybe it is what you eat. Do you have amineraldeficiency?”
“A what?”
Whack!
“Oh, look at that. I’ve won again!”
“OSKAR!”
“Point,” Snorri said—the equivalent of a forceful yell for him.
Knut raised a finger and addressed the recruits. “Oskar just demonstrated a time-tested tactic: distraction. A distracted enemy is an enemy half-beaten. Of course, the enemy will be much more difficult to divert than Aleifr. He has a mineral deficiency, after all.”
“I do not!”
The pain in Rakel’s heart eased a little as she watched the light-hearted exchange. She almost jumped when Oskar spun around and spotted her.
“Princess, welcome to our training grounds—though I must beg you forgive the foul-smelling swine for their odor,” Oskar said with a bright smile.
“You are one of the foul-smelling swine, Oskar,” Knut said.
“I didn’t know you were so well versed in combat,” Rakel said.
“To call me well versed is generous, but I do have a decade or so of practice.” Oskar admired his wooden practice sword, and then tossed it to a villager.
“Was it required for your post as attendant?” Rakel asked, wondering if she really wanted to know the answer to that question.
“Not at all. It was sheer boredom that propelled me to first pick up a sword. Once I ran out of books to read, I had little else to do besides join my cohorts in their practices.”
“I see,” Rakel said. The new recruits watched her with big eyes and drew closer to her. She cleared her throat and said, somewhat awkwardly, “I thank you in advance for your service.”
“Oh, it’s our pleasure, Princess!” A big man—the blacksmith of Vefsna—said.
“It’d be a poor reflection on us if we sent ya into battle alone all the time,” another recruit from Namsen chimed in.
Rakel was so shocked by their manners—a big change compared to her poisonous encounter with Unnr and her friends—that she could only stare at them, baffled by the unexpected kindness.
“Princess!”
“Princess Rakel!”
Gerta and Kai performed half-hearted bows and then scrambled for her hands. “Princess, Phile says she needs to see you, ‘immediately,’ ” Gerta said.
“Did she say why?” Rakel asked. Seeing the Robber Maiden was a double-edged sword. Rakel’s unwanted practice sessions with Phile had taught her that Phile was skilled in combat and an asset to bring when raiding villages;however, her small talk was mortifying.
“She said, ‘it is greatly important to your mission, and you must come with an open mind and an eye for art,’” Kai recited.
Irritation flooded Rakel, causing the air around her to drop in temperature.She just wants to search for the most handsome man in the camp again.“Come, Gerta, Kai. Let’s see what your grandmother is doing.”
“What about Phile?” Gerta asked.
“She’ll survive.”
“Gerta, Kai! You found her!” Phile shouted. “Your timing couldn’t be better. We have important business to discuss.”
Rakel sighed. “Phile.” She greeted the Robber Maiden with a stiff nod.
