Page 3 of The Fighter
My fingers squeezed around the stick like I was expecting him to tear it from my hands. “I earned this stick and I am staying!”
We stared into each other’s eyes and I saw the moment he concluded we were done for tonight.
“Pack up and get the recruits warmed up.” His order made all the men around us move into action. “You and I aren’t done. I’m going to make it my personal mission to make sure you don’t succeed in making a mockery out of my police force. I guarantee that you won’t have a mere two weeks in hell like others. You’ll have four years, unless you’re smart enough to give up before then. That is my promise to you.” As he moved past me, he shoved me with his shoulder and because my legs were already so weak it knocked me off balance and made me fall down.
No one helped me up.
Sitting in the cold mud, I clung to the stick in my hand and muttered low under my breath,“And my promise is that I willneverlet you break me. I willnevergive up! When I leave here, it will be as the first woman police officer in the Northlands.”Planting my hands in the mud, I pushed myself up from the ground again but there was nothing left in me to give, and I’d only stumbled ten steps toward the school when I collapsed.
I felt hands on my shoulders, and a voice calling my name, but I couldn’t open my eyes or respond. I was slipping away; the last thing I heard was “Bring her to the medic, she’s going into shock.”
CHAPTER 1
Station 7, District 3
One year later
Raven
What if the first person to try something new had waited for someone else to do it first?
What if no one had dared cross a mountain or sail a sea to see what was on the other side?
The world needed pioneers and I was proud to be one of them.
When I was eleven, my favorite teacher, Kya, brought me with her from the Motherlands to the mysterious Northlands, where I became one of twenty students at the first experimental school to mix children from each side of the border.
For a pioneer like me, living in the Northlands was exciting and from the day I arrived, I wanted to do everything that the Nboys could do. That’s why when they ridiculed me and said that girls couldn’t fight, I would train harder. And when they made jokes about women being weak, I’d push myself to do more push-ups and run faster than any of them.
What they didn’t understand was that I came from the Motherlands, where only women could rule. I knew what great things women were capable of and if I ever needed proof, Laura Aurelius was there to show me. Unlike me, Laura was born and raised in the Northlands, where women were protected and cared for by their fierce and strong men. But Laura wasn’t content watching the action as a bystander, so she ran away to the Motherlands and learned how to fight.
For years I trained with her, with my father, and anyone who would teach me. And by the time I turned twenty-one, I was ready to pursue my dream of becoming the first female police officer in the Northlands.
At first it had seemed like a miracle that the ruler, Khan Aurelius, allowed me a chance to prove that I could do it. But after a year at the academy, I knew that he had only agreed because he felt certain that I wouldn’t succeed.
My first twelve months as a recruit had been hellish, and every week felt like running an obstacle course trying to deal with whatever absurd obstacle the headmaster, teachers, or classmates came up with to make me quit.
They cheated and never played fair and so I adapted and became good at being sneaky myself. Like the time they created a test that required height and would be impossible for someone below six feet to finish. I couldn’t let that stop me, and luckily, I succeeded in convincing Hanson to let me sit on his shoulders. It wasn’t hard when I pointed out he could say he’d had his face between a woman’s thighs.
I counted the days until the twelve months were over and I finally moved from the academy to Station Seven in the third district where I would get six months of practical experience.
None of the policemen wanted me there, but my mentor Leonardo da Vinci was a high-ranking inspector and everyone knew that he had been appointed to look out for me and that he took his role seriously. It was obvious that Leo resented the role as my mentor, but the request had come from Commander Magni Aurelius, and no one refused a direct order from the brother of the ruler.
Leo came up with a strategy to keep me from getting close to danger by assigning me the task of sorting unsolved cases in a dusty archive room in the basement. For five weeks I’d been down there six to seven hours a day, and the isolation and boredom were driving me insane. My only escape was fight training four times a week with the others at Station Seven.
Today was Friday, the only day without fight training, and feeling extra frustrated, I went upstairs to complain to Leo about the mind-numbing work he was having me do.
“I’m not learning anything, Leo. How am I supposed to pass my tests if I haven’t done any real police work?”
As always, Leo felt no need to explain himself, and when an important call came, he pushed his chair back, got up, and gestured to some of the others that they needed to move.
“What’s going on?” My eyes were darting around the police station, my heart rate picking up as I sensed the suppressed excitement from Leo.
“The Huntsmen found Hannigan and they are waiting for us.”
“Can I come?”
“No. This is a serious police matter. You stay here and focus on the task I gave you.”
