Page 118 of Unrivaled
I didn’t need to conceal anything from her.But I wanted to.
I retrieved my own shield, my own sword.Chay was wiping his brow.I’d made him sweat, but it didn’t bring my pleasure.I’d learned if someone saidIt’s a bit warm, Chay started to sweat.During the summer he’d had perma-damp beads across his collarbones.He didn’t stink with it, but I suspected he would if he wasn’t one to bathe frequently.
The idea of climbing in and out of a tub made me want to weep.If I didn’t soak out some of these aches…
Thomas and Kaelson fell in beside me.Their rhythm was familiar to me now.I was in the center because I was the weakest link.They’d put me in the safest position.It wasn’t too often we’d trained with me on a flank.
Chay swung his sword lazily, rolled his shoulders, settling the fabric more comfortably against his skin.Then he started to advance.
I’d seen the same fight moons ago, early on.It had been as much to skill him up as me, and I knew it, but I wasn’t sure if he did.Either way, he’d learned.He moved fast to one side, trying to outflank us, pinning down Thomas.Kaelson and I shifted, flanking Thomas, pressuring Chay.He moved again, coming toward the flank I held I knew all I needed was to turn back his blade and soon enough I was back in the center.We pushed him back, of course.One knight, even the best, against three?
I couldn’t kill my father like this.
Chay was breathing hard, attacking aggressively, keeping us moving.I didn’t know what Isolde wanted me to learn from this.I knew how this ended.
Chay scrambled back from a short jab from Kaelson’s spear, leaving his back open.I moved my shield and brought my sword down in a slash that protected my hand, taking no risks.He saw me too late.
Before the blow could land, the force of an arrow sinking into my shield made me stagger forward.Another hit the corner of Kaelson’s.
I wanted to laugh, but I was too tired.Chay, grinning, turned to Thomas and got in close, where his spear wasn’t useful.
“Never underestimate your archers,” Kaelson said, with the air of a tutor.
I thought of trying to pull the shaft out.It’d require juggling my sword.The fight was done, the lesson learned.We’d forgotten the fifth person.Not that she’d ever participated in the shield wall strategies before, but it only took once.
One person, in one moment, could change everything.That was what she wanted me to know.
I wondered when she’d say the words to me.I let her take my practice sword, and then the shield.I went to the nearby stream and washed my face.They did the heavy lifting of getting us ready to go, the packing up, the saddling of horses.
Ihadmade progress.I knew I had.I must have.There was no way I could live and breathe the sword without having learnedsomething.
My reflection was fractured in the water’s surface.I needed to re-do my hair.
I could’ve lifted my arms if my life had depended on it.But today, it didn’t.I knelt by the water, feeling the damp from the ground soaking into the fabric of my pants.
The faire was so far away, and yet so close.
I just wanted it to be done.I wanted to be in the middle of it, surviving it.I wanted to skim past the waiting periods the way I felt I’d skimmed through the last year.
Twelve months ago, I’d been dreading my wedding and wondering if I’d be forced to flee.
Now I was dug in.I had friends, allies, and connections.There wasn’t a single person in the city I hadn’t met.I couldn’tnamethem all, but I’d met them or at least seen them in person.I hadn’t built this city myself, but I’d set in motion a series of events that had allowed wonderful things to happen.Small community neighborhoods where you could get a free room and food, opportunities to learn new trades, even opportunities to improve health issues—at no cost.I paid a Healer a wage and they saw anyone the herbalists recommended they should.Why should I charge people to get better?They stayed, and they worked, and they helped to rebuild the city.The marketplace was glorious.The gardens had never looked so loved.People wandered along the street more than they marched, now.
“It only takes one,” Isolde told me, her hand settling on my shoulders.“I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t that one, Audrey.”
Except I wasn’t.No stars had marked my birth.No soothsayers came to me.I was here to get married, to bear babies.
I refused that fate.I was simply doing what needed to be done.
Mayhap one day I’d help put the one who’d bring us together into power.The thought made me feel lighter.Mayhap one day, I’d be worrying about ramifications and what-ifs of long-term plans.
Ending my father might end the war with the South.Itwouldend the stranglehold the locways had on my city.That, I could do.
It was possible that was all she’d meant, of course.Just kill one man.Just kill the Butcher of Wolfswail.
Just end a legend.
When tears pricked my eyes, I knew I’d gone too far.I should’ve called a halt before that last fight with Chay.I knew I should’ve.
