Elf Sight (22 page)

Thornton held his hand out to Jurn who hesitantly took it. Thornton shook his hand. “Welcome to the club.”

Shadow knocked on the door to Jurn’s room across from hers. There was no answer. Maybe he was already at the training grounds, but why hadn’t he called for her first, like the past days. Was it because it was their last day? She wasn’t going to hold it against him that he was better with a sword than she was.

Reaching into her belt pouch she pulled out the bloodstained handkerchief and tried to see where Jurn was. The vision took a moment to form. He was on the battlements, staring at a knife in his hand. His head came up and he looked around. Shadow quickly let the vision fade and ran through hallways trying to find her way to the battlements. She had to ask for directions twice.

She burst out the door, onto the battlements, coming to a halt beside Jurn. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for the sunrise.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not planning to kill yourself are you? Don’t listen to any of those idiots. Marsh is the biggest idiot of all. People will soon realise you’re not a traitor.”

“I can’t stay here. At the castle. No one’s going to forget while I’m here.”

“Tell me you’re not going to kill yourself,” she demanded.

Jurn finally met her eyes. “Why?”

“I didn’t go to the effort of saving you so you could kill yourself.”

“And that’s it?”

She shook her head slowly. “I have no idea what you’re asking. I hope you’re not expecting me to pledge my love to you because that’s Carson’s. We’re friends. At least I hope so. Although with the way you tried to kill me at training yesterday I’m not completely sure.”

Jurn grinned. “Friends. That’ll do.” He tucked the knife away. “How do you do it?”

“What?”

“The rumours. The conversations that stop when you enter a room. People thinking you’re scum.”

“Hold your head up.” She grinned. “And find someone who’ll let you burn up some of your anger in sword and knife fights.”

Jurn chuckled. “What are you doing after training today?”

“Not knitting a baby bonnet.”

Jurn looked skyward. “Then we’d better move before we’re late.”

Shadow nodded and strode alongside him as they headed to the training grounds. They arrived with plenty of time and Shadow put a hand on Jurn’s arm when he would have answered Marsh’s comment with a punch. She looked pointedly at where Dore was walking towards them and Jurn relaxed slightly.

“Attention.” Dore tossed the ball of wool into the air as he watched them line up. “I’ll be judging you today. Each and everyone one of you will compete against the other. Hand to hand, daggers, sword fighting and crossbow shooting. We start with the crossbow.”

Shadow did well with the crossbow, as she expected. Hand to hand was worse than she thought it’d be, but she did well with dagger fighting. Sword fighting didn’t look like it was her skill either, but at least she didn’t lose straight away. Then the only one she had left to fight was Jurn and she felt like saying forget it. They all knew what the outcome would be. But she couldn’t bring herself to give in.

And then she was forced to wonder if Jurn was the one giving in. Her eyes narrowed and she moved back, lowering her sword.

“What are you doing?” Dore demanded.

She ignored Dore, stepping forward to Jurn, her sword still lowered. “Don’t do this. You’re not even trying,” she hissed at him.

He kept his voice low. “I owe you this.”

She shook her head. “You owe me better than this. I don’t want it because you’re not trying. I need to earn it. I don’t want anyone to say I bought my place.”

“Sorry-”

“Forget it. You aren’t the only one who’s said that. Now fight me. Like you want to win.”

“If you two don’t start fighting I’m going to fail you both,” Dore bellowed.

Shadow grinned. “If you don’t fight me like you mean it, I’m throwing my sword down.”

Jurn nodded and stepped back, raising his sword. Shadow, still grinning, did the same. Then the real fight began and Shadow could barely keep up. She was forced to defend, attack only directed at her. By the time she was disarmed, they were both breathing heavily, but Shadow was still on her feet.

Jurn stepped forward and held out his hand. He smiled at her when she shook it. “Give it a couple of years and you might have a chance to beat me.”

“Give it a couple of years-” she stopped and shook her head. “Nah, not even then you’d be able to beat me with a crossbow.” She grinned as she turned away and picked up her sword.

“Fall in.” Dore stood, stance wide, hands clasped behind his back. When they were in line, he brought the ball of wool forward and pointed it at Marsh. “You’re out.”

“What!” Marsh stared at Dore. “But I beat her at sword fighting and hand to hand. You can’t kick me out of the squad.”

“She beat you at dagger fighting and crossbow. But that doesn’t make you even. There are more important traits for someone in my squad.”

“What traits?”

“Being a team. You turned on one of your own.” His gaze fell on Jurn. “And for something that was no fault of his. Would you have fought your own father in the service of the king?”

Marsh couldn’t meet Dore’s gaze.

“That’s what I thought. There are other squads you can join. But you’re not welcome in mine.” He held out the wool again. “And I do expect a baby bonnet within the week. No other trainer will take you on until you’ve completed that task.”

Marsh snatched the wool “You tried to break up the team by bringing her in.” He jabbed a finger in Shadow’s direction.

“There’s nothing wrong with some competitiveness. That wasn’t what you were doing. If you can’t tell the difference you shouldn’t be here.”

Marsh opened his mouth then snapped it shut and started to stride away.

“Marsh.” Shadow pulled the pattern from her belt pouch.

“What,” he snarled as he spun towards her.

“You’ll have to find your own needles, but here’s the pattern.” She smiled at him as she held out the pattern.

With a growl, Marsh turned away, ignoring the pattern as he left the training grounds.

Shadow shrugged, her eyes meeting Jurn’s as she returned the pattern to her belt pouch. “I guess he must have his own.”

Jurn grinned. “But I bet he doesn’t have needles as good as mine.”

“Attention.” Dore waited until they were all lined up. “The day’s not ended yet. Horse riding. Stablehands are bringing five horses in a minute. You need to practice guiding them with your legs. You can’t always use your reins in battle.”

It was nearly two weeks since Marsh had been thrown from the squad. Vin and Jurn were the only ones who accepted her. The others were polite, but distant. Similar to the young men at the officer lessons. Polite, but distant, except Dan, who’d decided that if he couldn’t stand up to his own father then he wasn’t going to make much of an officer.

People were fairly divided when it came to accepting her. Brisa treated her to the same frosty manner, but Nickel was friendly. Most of the court weren’t sure who to mimic so many avoided the issue and her altogether. Which suited Shadow fine.

It was late afternoon and as usual Shadow was in the training yards. She was having trouble concentrating since that morning Carson had told her they were getting closer to Crell and she couldn’t wait to see him. It felt like it had been forever.

Dore waved towards the stablehands who held five horses. They stepped forward, dropped the reins on the ground and hurriedly moved out of the way. “All right, lads. The enemy is bearing down on you. Mount up! I expect each of you to hit a target five times or I’ll want to know the reason why,” Dore bellowed. He still treated Shadow like she was one of the lads.

Shadow ran with her squad for the horses, her sword in a scabbard on her belt. She grabbed her readied crossbow, leapt on her horse, turned it and raced for the targets set up at the end of the yards. Reins in one hand, she aimed at the target rapidly coming closer to her. She fired, not bothering to see if she hit, wheeling around to come back at the target. On the way back she was relieved to see she’d hit the first time. Not in the middle, but a hit all the same. She quickly wrapped the reins around the saddle horn, loaded the crossbow, grabbed the reins, fired again and turned the horse. Five hits and she urged her horse back to where Dore stood. Dalan was already there and the others soon joined them.

“Leave your horses with the stablehands. Let’s see what you’ve done,” Dore said.

They dismounted as one and followed behind Dore without protest.

“Looks like we might get you to follow orders yet,” a familiar voice said from behind Shadow.

She turned and ran towards him, grinning as she called out, “Carson!”

“Get back here, soldier,” Dore bellowed.

Not paying attention, Shadow threw her arms around Carson and kissed him when his lips met hers. She pressed her body against his, her arms tightening. “When did you get back?”

“Minutes ago,” Carson said.

“Now soldier! Or you can forget about returning,” Dore bellowed.

Shadow grinned up at Carson. “I won’t be long. We’re nearly finished for the day. Although he’s probably going to keep me afterwards for a lecture.” With one last kiss, she raced towards Dore who stood beside the targets. “Sorry, sir.” She didn’t look sorry though, she was grinning.

“Wipe that look off your face and pay attention, soldier,” Dore ordered.

Shadow tried not to grin. Instead, she dropped her head and hoped her grin wasn’t as noticeable. She ignored Jurn’s snicker and didn’t look at him because she knew it’d only make her grin harder. She listened with half her mind as Dore told them where they’d gone wrong. Wirrin had to repeat the exercise until he got his bolts in the target every time. He walked reluctantly back to his horse that was being walked by a stablehand.

“The rest of you are dismissed until tomorrow. Except you.” Dore pointed at Shadow. “Over there. Wirrin needs to use this area.” Dore walked back to where he’d watched them ride and Shadow followed.

She hung her head appropriately and listened to Dore’s lecture on suitable behaviour and not being distracted during battle and keeping your mind on the job so you didn’t get your fellow soldiers killed.

“Understand?” Dore demanded.

“Yes, sir,” Shadow said automatically.

“You know, I was reluctant to have you here, but you’ve surprised me. Don’t let me down.” Dore gave her a hard look.

“No, sir.” A rush of pleasure filled her. Dore rarely gave praise.

“Dismissed, soldier.”

Shadow saluted before she turned away. She glanced around and spotted Carson who still stood at the edge of the training grounds. Jurn was jogging around the perimeter, grinning at her when he caught her eye. She smiled back at him before she hurried over to Carson, the smile still on her face.

“So, why here? I expected to find you in the castle relaxing and enjoying yourself, hassling the odd soldier or two for some lessons. Weren’t you looking for a quiet life?” Carson draped an arm around her shoulders.

“I couldn’t stand being stuck inside all day after living on horseback so long and I sort of missed the army.” Shadow walked beside Carson, sliding her arm around his waist. “Not to mention the fawning.”

“Fawning?”

“Yes, everyone treats your parents like… well… like…” Shadow was lost for words.

Carson grinned. “Royalty?”

Shadow frowned at him. “Well, it was annoying. They were so fake it was sickening. And all the backstabbing. Everyone’s trying to make everyone else look bad.”

Carson nodded. “It wears on you sometimes. Why do you think Thornton and I argue over who’s to become king?”

“I don’t blame you. Now, what happened,” Shadow demanded as they walked towards the castle, arms around each other.

“We managed to play cat and mouse with the army for a while. Your father’s good at that. Best damn tracker I ever met, not to mention good at hiding tracks. We finally managed to lure them to where we had our larger army meet us. Thanks for getting them to Storne earlier. They didn’t stand a chance once Gil took out their wizard. Great shot with a crossbow,” Carson explained as they entered the throne room.

“You’d better remember that and unhand my daughter,” Gil growled from just inside the door.

Shadow ran forward to hug her Pa. She might deplore his views on child raising but he was still her Pa and she loved him. Although sometimes she feared that love bordered on hate. “You’re back.”

Gil sent a glare towards General Farnell who was speaking with the king and queen. “They weren’t leaving me behind this time.”

“The General’s offered Gil a permanent position with the army,” Carson said.

“And I wasn’t fool enough to accept it,” Gil growled.

“My father’s beckoning. We’d better see what he wants before he sends someone over to drag me before him,” Carson said.

“Oh Carson,” Brisa wailed. “We were so worried for you.” She rose gracefully and went to her son. Carson stepped forward for her hug and kiss, and then moved back to Shadow’s side. Brisa frowned slightly. “You could have come and seen us when you returned. We’d have liked to have seen for ourselves you were well.”

“You went to the training grounds first?” Shadow asked in surprise.

Carson shrugged. “I was told that’s where you usually are most of the day.”

Brisa sat on her throne beside her husband who quietly watched everything. “Why did you not tell us you are reaching an age when you are willing to settle down? I’ll arrange for some suitable women to make your acquaintance.”

“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough in my letter, Mother. I’ve already chosen a woman for my future bride,” Carson said firmly.

“But she is a tavern keeper’s daughter,” Brisa wailed.

“And what’s wrong with that?” Gil bellowed. “He’s the one not good enough for my daughter.”

“Have you forgotten, Mother?” Thornton interrupted. “Carson always said he wouldn’t marry unless he could find a woman with as much backbone as one of his men.”

“Excuse me! My decision, remember?” Shadow said.

Carson turned to smile at her. “And what’s your decision?”

“That I’ve still got far too much to do before I can settle down,” Shadow said loftily.

Carson’s smile turned into a grin. “In the army?”

“And why not? I’m getting better all the time,” Shadow said.

“No captain would tolerate a female in their company,” Nickel said. “Dore barely tolerates you and only because he doesn’t believe you’ll find a place in any squad.”

“I would,” Carson said.

“Really?” Shadow asked.

“Well my squads are in need of more soldiers.”

“I think I could recommend a few people. They aren’t fully trained yet, but they’re trustworthy.”

“Are they capable of following orders?” Carson asked.

“They are. I still have moments where I seem unable to.” Shadow smiled. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“I guess you’ll have to marry me so my men know I have a good reason not to be as hard on you,” Carson said.

“Maybe. One day,” Shadow said.

Carson grabbed Shadow round the waist and spun her around with a jubilant shout.

“Never! I won’t allow it,” Brisa said.

“You know, Mother,” Thornton said, “Elf sight runs in families. Might be handy to have it in the royal line.”

“Not many people have elf sight,” Nickel said.

“No. Most people make it their mission to kill them,” Gil grumbled.

“Sounds like being part of the royal family,” Thornton said.

“How wonderful. Any kids they’ll have will have twice the amount of people wanting to kill them off,” Gil complained. “And I don’t like the thought of my daughter following around after the army.”

“I won’t be following. I plan to join,” Shadow said.

“Thought you didn’t like it,” Irlan said.

“Let’s just say I surprised even myself,” Shadow said.

Carson smiled down at her. “It’s an amazing feeling knowing you’ve completed a mission successfully, isn’t it?”

“Good god, girl!” Gil exclaimed. “You’ll be disillusioned soon enough.”

“I know what to expect. I know it’s hard. Next time I hope to have enough experience to know how to cope with it,” Shadow said.

“I’ll be there to watch out for her. And the men miss her too,” Carson said.

Gil turned to Irlan. “And what about you, boy? You running off to the army too?”

Irlan shook his head. “Being captured turned me off any notions in that direction. I’ve been talking to a merchant wanting to get out of the shipping business. I’m only waiting for the General to pay what he owes me.”

Gil glared at Farnell. “He’ll be doing that today or I’ll want to know why.”

Farnell nodded in agreement. “It’ll be arranged.”

“I hope you realise, Shadow, that you’re putting us in a very difficult position,” Nickel said.

“In what way?” Shadow asked.

“How many other young women are going to think they can join the army?” Nickel asked.

Shadow laughed. “Good on them if they want to. Better than filling tankards for drunks any day.” She grinned as she leaned against Carson’s side, an arm around his waist, his heavy across her shoulders. “Way better.”