Page 104 of The Fae Girl 1

Each of them had red markers. The daggerman had the most, the swordsman the least. All positions I needed to strike.

I took a deep breath, starting left to right, replicating the same movement, the same actions that Nela had shown me.

“Too low.” She shouted after one blow.

I sighed, fixed my stance, and aimed again.

We practised like this for hours. Over and over. Every time I dipped, every time my grip slipped, Nela would stop me, correct it and then tell me to continue.

By the time we were done every muscle in my body was aching. I half limped beside her back to the room.

Indi bit her lip as if she was trying not to snigger at my discomfort.

“It’ll be hard to start with.” Nela said. “Your body is not used to exercise.”

“I wasn’t unhealthy.” I groaned.

Indi laughed then.

Nela gave me a look. “You sat around most days playing that damned stringlet with Mira.”

“Anyone would think you didn’t like music.” I muttered.

They laughed more.

“Give it a month or two and you’ll be in the best shape of your life.”

“A month?” I repeated.

“And if you continue you as you are I’ll let you have a go fighting Indi.”

“Why not you?” I asked.

“I can’t watch your stance while I’m fighting you.” Nela said.

“Fair enough. When do we start?” I asked Indi.

Indi looked across at Nela.

“Get your positions correct on the toy soldiers tomorrow and we can progress from there.” Nela stated.

I nodded. Somehow I knew that in itself would be an achievement tomorrow because as much as my arms were killing me now, in the morning they were going to be so much worse.

Imade my way through the fighting pits, noting all the activity around me. It had taken years to convert these, years to turn these from what had once been slave pits to something less barbaric. Something more useful.

Uther had grumbled at the expense. At the time too. Like always he wanted it done yesterday.

But the first time I’d brought him here, shown him all the space we now had to not only house, but train every new recruit, I could see the approval in his eyes.

We both knew the value of an large army. And a highly trained one was worth all the more.

Five thousand new soldiers had arrived yesterday. All untrained. All from the villages. Two days ago they would have been ploughing fields, working the land but moving forward they would be fighting in the High King’s army.

That is once they passed all the training.

Nela was usually the one by my side on days like this. Her ability to spot the naturally talented ones was unrivalled. As was her ability to pick out the troublemakers.

But today General Gare was taking charge.

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