Swiftly, before she could even register what was happening, he kicked out a foot, causing her to tumble to the ground. She flailed but went still as he pressed his weight over her limbs, the cool metal of the blade at her throat.
“Understood,” she whispered.
He searched her eyes for a long moment before shoving off her and standing again. But when she tried to move, his foot stopped her. “We need to work on your strength, soldier.”
She kept her mouth shut this time. He sat down a few feet from her and said with the ghost of a smirk, “You’re going to hate this part.”
He wasn’t wrong at all. He pushed her through a circuit of strengthening exercises, and by the time he declared they werefinished, her entire body burned. But the torture continued; running laps around camp until she tasted copper in the back of her throat, and then an order to top it all off.
“After sundown, before you sleep each night, you’ll complete the circuit I just showed you.”
“The whole?—”
“Yes,” he clipped out, not looking at her. “And if you want to complain, I’d be happy to add more to the routine.”
Soren lowered her gaze, but she said nothing to Vane, holding in her anger as she had done all her life.
“We’re done for today. Tomorrow, we meet at sunrise.”
He stalked away without giving her further instructions, so she wandered to the center of camp. She found Cion and Ilav there, along with a group of five others.
“Here,” Cion said as Soren sat down next to her, handing her a piece of dried jerky and a small portion of flatbread. “You missed the handouts.”
“Thank you,” Soren said quietly, biting into the bread.
Ilav snorted. “Why don’t you just let her fail? It’ll happen anyways, with or without your coddling.”
Soren ignored him, quickly scarfing down her food. Just as she had finished chugging from a skein of water, one of the other five nearby said, “So the rumors are true, then. A Vemon dragon chose a Misean slave. I hardly believed it when I heard.”
Soren sighed softly, and Ilav caught it.
“Is this all rather annoying for you?” he sneered. “All the attention? I’m sure you’re not used to that. Is it overwhelming, being the odd one out?”
“I heard her mamma found her in the river!”
“Outsider!”
The voices in her memory began to blend with Ilav’s, and an old darkness started to rise in her.
Five,she reminded herself. Five final breaths, five wailing mammas, five suspicious papas, and a warning: never let anyone see what you can do, andnevertell anyone what happened.
She had not been tempted for so long to touch that corner of her soul. She had been taken from her home, separated from her family, beaten, neglected, forced to kneel and scrape and grovel…
So why now?
“Soren?”
She looked up, finding Princess Cion staring at her, brow creased. “You went quiet.”
Soren swallowed. “It’s nothing. I am simply tired from my training this morning.”
“Vane, huh?” a girl said.
She, along with the four others, all wore armor that appeared to be made of scales. Dragon scales, if Soren was a betting woman. The girl had long, dark hair done in a single braid and a nose ring. She didn’t look at Soren with venom, but with mere curiosity.
“Yes. Commander Eton assigned me to train with him.”
The girl snorted loudly. “I wish you luck. Vane is an asshole.”
