Page 53 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

I sucked in a deep breath and waited for the tall guy to reach to help the second guy up the bank, then ran as fast as I could. I just needed to keep my balance for a few steps, that was all.

My foot hit the center of the log then my other foot hit center, two more steps then I started to tilt to the side. My next step was on the log’s edge. I had at least three more steps to go toget across but knew only one more was going to land on the log.Crap crap crap crap.

With a yell, I took that final step and dove for the other side. I flew over the rest of the log and curled into a ball at the last second. My shoulder and back hit the ground, the impact making the bruise on my chest complain, and I rolled up to my feet and kept going, bolting down the path before the men could grab me and toss me into the stream.

I ran, my lungs burning and my body throbbing, determined to put as much distance between us. They’d already passed me once and I hoped they’d only gotten ahead of me because I’d fallen down that first hill and not because they were actually faster than me.

But I didn’t want to bet on that. I forced myself to keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other, until I fought my way up another steep slope and looked down on the two boulders marking the path’s entrance and the practice field beyond. Lord Rider, Lord Quill, and Talon waited by the boulders while all the fae and just over a dozen humans sat or stood nearby in various stages of trying to regain their breaths.

Talon raised an eyebrow when I jogged off the path and Lord Rider narrowed his eyes.

“You’ve had your pants less than half a shift and you’ve already ripped them,” he said his voice gruff. “Better be more careful. You won’t get new ones until the end of the second rotation.”

“Yes, my lord,” I murmured, dropping my gaze on instinct before remembering I was supposed to look up. Always look up.

I snapped my gaze back up but the damage had been done. Now everyone had seen how I demurred to the Lord Commander, and I could see in their appraising expressions and hard looks the knowledge that I was weak and they were going to take advantage of it. I’d seen that look in Edred’s and Pylos’seyes, although their look had been darker, not just determined to show me I didn’t belong or where my place actually was, but to take pleasure in hurting and belittling me.

“You all right?” Talon asked, his voice so low I almost didn’t hear him, and it still sent a shiver of need rushing down my spine.

I didn’t know how it was possible. He’d barely spoken, but just that whisper reminded my body of what I’d seen and felt and desired last night.

“Just tripped,” I replied, and I found a mostly flat patch of rocky ground away from the others to catch my breath while we waited for the rest of the novices.

“Stupidandclumsy,” someone said just loud enough for me to hear, making the group of men, both human and fae, snicker.

“Do you think he’ll even bother to fix them?” someone else asked.

“Probably doesn’t know how,” another man replied.

The novices I’d passed at the log bridge crested the hill and staggered into the practice area, and a short while later the last group half jogged half walked over the hill, gasping, their chests heaving with the exertion.

“Follow me,” Lord Rider commanded before the last group had even passed between the boulders.

He led us along the edge of the practice yard, keeping out of the way of the men sparring with and without weapons, to the archery targets. There were eight targets set up and the last eight people to finish the course were each given a bow and arrow and told to shoot first.

It seemed cruel that the men still out of breath weren’t given a chance to calm their pulse. If the Lord Commander really wanted to see how well these men performed, he should have gone with the most rested first. Then he’d get an accurate assessment of everyone’s skills.

The first group released their arrows. Six of the ten missed completely, while the other four hit the hay behind the target or the outside edge of the target.

“Next,” Lord Rider barked, and Lord Quill called out the names of the next eight, including mine.

I took a bow from the heavy-set apprentice chief and an arrow from Quill — glimpsing into his eyes for a second before managing to heave my attention away — and stepped up to the line in front of a target. The bow was my best weapon even though I preferred the sword, probably because size and strength didn’t matter as much with a bow.

I drew in a slow breath and concentrated on calming my body like the armsmaster before Pylos had taught me. Be still, be calm, center myself in my body, and focus. Except everyone was watching me, waiting for me to fail, and while I’d had a bit of time to rest, my pulse was still a little fast from running.

The man beside me released his arrow, thetwangof the bowstring biting into my concentration.

I sucked in another breath and released it. There wasn’t anything else around, just the target in front of me, the bow and arrow in my hands, and the soft hint of a breeze coming from my right and slightly behind. Thetwangof more arrows being released grew farther and farther away and my attention narrowed to the small black circle in the center of the target and the whisper of wind.

Another breath in then release, and I nocked the arrow, raised the bow, and drew back the string. My muscles complained, my arms sore from mucking the stables and my chest throbbing from the bruise and falling down on the trail, and my palms and chin stung where I’d scraped them.

I shoved those sensations aside, drew in one final breath, aimed — taking into account the distance and the breeze — andreleased the arrow. It shot true, landing in the center of the black dot with a solidthud.Perfect shot!

A murmur swept through the men behind me. See, I wasn’t completely useless. I bit back a satisfied smile, since gloating was rude and I didn’t want to give them more reason to hate me, and turned to hand my bow to the next novice. The other novices looked at me, some clearly shocked that I’d actually hit the target, while Lord Quill’s expression turned appraising, and Talon smiled, clearly pleased at my success.

Pride warmed my chest. This was the first time anyone other than my first armsmaster had looked at me with approval for doing the thing I loved that as a woman I wasn’t supposed to do. I’d hit the mark and no one was going to yell at me for not behaving properly.

I slid my attention to Lord Rider. He didn’t look impressed like everyone else. “That’s only a good shot if you hadn’t taken forever to make it. A shadow isn’t going to let you stand around and wait for you to get ready. You’d have been dead twice over before you’d even raised your bow,” he said then looked away from me, his dismissal clear. “Next.”

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