Page 15 of Mirror of Malice
I thought I might faint. He was serious. He was going to make me train to become a thief, to steal some stupid weapon. This had to be a dream. More like a nightmare.
Everyone else stood, some climbing the ropes back up to their huts, others disappearing into the forest. Wayfinder stopped on his way out, clapping my shoulder with his hand.
The only one left in the circle was Shadow. Her black hair sat like a cloud on top of her head, the afro perfectly coiffed, her light brown skin dewy with a beautiful glow.
“Where did everyone go?” I glanced around at the now-empty circle. “What’s happening?”
“Today is day one of your training, and I’m going to be working with you.”
“Am I the only student?”
Shadow smiled. “We don’t admit students often. Penn is pretty picky about who comes into his academy.”
I didn’t like this, not any of it. But these people clearly had a skillset that I could use to my advantage. If I learned from them, allowed them to teach me, I would only be better equipped to escape and find Jasper, then take back the earth court. They’d think I was training so I could complete Penn’s little mission, but in reality, I’d be training for my own mission. One the king of thieves would never see coming.
Chapter Seven
Shadow and I stood in front of what looked like an obstacle course. I didn’t know what I feared more: the Huntsman or whatever this mission was that Penn wanted me to complete. Hopefully neither would be a threat once I escaped this place. I just had to find a map of some sort, figure out where I was.
I looked all around me.
Trees had been cut and turned into sharp points that could impale someone should they drop onto them. Thin planks stretched between the uncut trees, some with gaping holes, some with spikes jutting up, some tilted diagonally. Ropes hung from branches, some high up, some lower to the ground.
“This is where you train?” I asked, my stomach fluttering.
“This is it,” Shadow said. “Hey, you’re gonna be fine. No need to look so alarmed.”
She jumped up on a rope and deftly climbed it to the top. That was definitely not happening for me.
She looked down. “What are you waiting for? Come on.”
I gripped the rope and attempted to lift myself up but could barely get my feet off the ground.
“Use your core,” she shouted down at me, still clutching the top of the rope, not a bead of sweat on her.
“I don’t have a core.” I huffed and tightened my stomach, lifting my feet, now twined around the rope.
“There you go,” she said. “Now just focus on one hand above the other.”
She made it sound so easy. I moved a hand up, gripping the rope again. Then the next hand. I also used both feet to push myself upward. My muscles shook with the effort, and after just a few minutes I dropped back to the ground. Penn had lost his mind if he thought I could do this. It wasn’t even a confidence issue; it was that my body was not built like the rest of these thieves. I didn’t have the training they did, the strength. My strengths lay in other areas, like being a smart-ass and looking pretty.
I glanced up and jumped to see Shadow in front of me in a crouching position. She really had earned her nickname. I hadn’t even heard her drop to the ground.
“Listen, these kinds of skills don’t happen overnight,” she said. “It’s all gonna take time to come together. So, right now, we’re going to work on that strength and stamina, and once you build those two things up, I’ll teach you how to be stealthy, quiet.”
“Like a shadow,” I said.
She nodded. “You’re catching on.” She pulled me to my feet and pointed to the rope. “Now try again.”
My second attempt was even worse than my first now that my muscles were sore and tired.
“Again,” she said after I fell.
So I tried it again. And again. And again. And again. The rope had rubbed my hands raw, my butt was numb from how many times I’d fallen onto it, and my muscles might as well have not even existed at that point.
“I can’t do it anymore,” I said from the ground, sweat dripping down my face, dirt coating my hair and clothes.
Shadow bent down, stretching her legs. “C’mon. Copy my movements.”
