Page 54 of Court of Talons
I nod, but my lips twist. “No swords, Nazar.” He’d done this often in the night, speaking of swords. Caleb had been staring at me through most of it, but I’d been too tired to challenge any of the priest’s teachings, even that coming from a man who spent his lifetime not fighting, but praying to the gods who dance between the Light and the Darkness.
“When you see, there is both the far and the near. The two are equally important. The near view will ensure you remain protected, the far that you will win. Focus on the far, on the slightest move of your enemy’s shoulders. You must see without moving your eyes.”
“Oh, is that all.” Still, I allow Nazar to continue, his words a soothing cadence in my mind as the trail rolls on.
Before we’re anywhere close to the coliseum, I can hear the crowd. My stomach knots and my hands clench the reins.
“Merritt.” This time it isn’t Nazar beside me, but Caleb. He’s remained silent for most of the long night, charged with keeping watch at the door to our quarters, that we might practice unmolested. He’s remained quiet during the morning preparations as well, listening to Nazar as if he’s absorbing the words of a master. Now he rides up beside me and keeps his smaller horse at a quickened step to match mine.
He says nothing further, though, and we ride like that for a long minute more before he speaks again, his eyes on the far horizon. “You’ve never actually fought with your Divh, have you?Not against another Divh. You haven’t had time since…” He pauses, shifting his glance to me. “You haven’t had time.”
My lips twist, but there’s no reason to deny it. “I haven’t.”
He nods then turns his gaze away again. “Well, you need to know that despite all that, youcanwin this. In any tournament battle, there’s always that possibility. You have to believe it.”
Irritation knifes through me, but Caleb takes my clear skepticism the wrong way. “I know the advice of a cripple is tough to swallow. But even now, I know I can win any battle I find myself in. It’s why I enter so many. And you’re more reckless than I am.”
I snort, but he continues, “In time, I can teach you how I can handle a sword with one hand, when the balance is all off. I’ll teach you how to pin your opponent when they don’t expect to, because you slip beneath their defenses. Nazar can teach you?—”
“Nazar is a priest,” I growl, real fear beginning to claw at my eyes. For all that I’ve listened to the old man the whole night through, the truth is still there, mocking me. “A priest, Caleb. He knows the Light, nothing more.”
“No.” Caleb leans close, though I can sense that he wants to check on Nazar’s position behind us. “That man maybea priest, but he’s notonlya priest. Surely you know that as well.”
“He came to us?—”
“We all come to places we don’t expect,” Caleb cuts me off. “You listen to him, yet you still doubt him. Well, don’t. He’s not only a keeper of the Light. He’s a master of the sword and of strategy. I know it as sure as I’m born.”
I start to protest then stop. Nazar is a priest—and an old man—but he was also the only other survivor of the attack on the Tenth House caravan in the mountains. I…I’d never really thought about that, until now.
Caleb continues, “It’s not important how, though, not now. What’s important is that there are many things he can teach you.Everything but one. He can’t teach you heart. I can’t give you heart either, thoughI’dsacrifice another limb if I had one to spare, to enter into the Tournament of Gold as a banded warrior. To feel what you feel and see what you see when your Divh takes the field.”
Caleb’s voice is so caught up in enthusiasm that it tugs at me, lifting me slightly from the mire of my own dread. “It’ll be good to see Gent here, out in the open,” I say reluctantly.
The smile my squire turns on me is almost radiant. “Good? It’ll be a moment to savor for a lifetime! I haven’t seen your Divh, and I cannot wait. No one has seen it—him—up close.” He eyes me knowingly. “Kheris hasn’t seen him either. Remember that.”
“Kheris.” I frown. Perhaps…perhaps I do have an advantage, after all. Though Caleb’s wrong, of course. Fortiss has seen my family’s Divh. Fortiss and whoever killed Merritt.
I pray they’re not one and the same person.
At that moment, the horns of the tournament sound. The distant roar of the crowd flows over us like a surging tide. Caleb falls back with Nazar as I ride forward, surrounded by a battery of guards. As the challenger, my task is to enter on the far side of the fighting field. I feel my shoulders relax, my brow ease as a stiff wind kicks up. My long, dark-green cloak flows out behind me, and I and a few outriders break off from the main line of guards to take the secondary path to the tournament field.
Less than a quarter hour later, we’re in position at the far end of the field. The coliseum is even fuller than it was earlier this week—has it only been a few days since I saw the men of the Fourth and Sixth House in battle? It already seems like a season has passed. The horns down the far end of the field blare but distantly, and Darkwing blows and champs, held too long in check from the gallop he craves.
“Soon.” I pat his shoulder. “Then you’ll show them all.”
One of the guards looks at me, startled, and I give him a half shrug.
“He was meant for the race, I suspect, not for the battle. But he’s got a good heart.”
The second guard flanking me gives a grudging laugh. “Better hope he’s got strong legs too, to get you out of here.”
“If he gets that chance, you’ll be well ahead of the game.” A third guard saves the words from being a sneer, but only by a hair. “Kheris wasn’t chosen lightly. You’re a lamb being brought to the slaughter.”
“Probably.” The guards chuckle darkly, perhaps surprised that I know the fate that lies before me. Meanwhile, I face forward again, tightening my knees against the horse’s sides.
I do know the fate before me, I realize. That fate is the way of the warrior, to hear Nazar tell the tale. And the way of the warrior is to be prepared to face death at every turn.
This day won’t bring me death, I think. Not yet.