“The House of Yin innovated the most powerful kicking-based technique in the Empire,” Nezha snapped. “Let’s see how you’d like being on the receiving end.”
“I think I’d be fine,” Rin said. “Though it would be a dazzling visual spectacle.”
“At least I’m not an artless peasant,” Nezha spat. “You’ve never done martial arts before in your life. You only know one kick.”
“And you keep calling me a peasant. It’s like you only know one insult.”
“Duel me, then,” Nezha said. “Fight to incapacitation for ten seconds or first blood. Right here, right now.”
“You’re on,” Rin started to say, but Kitay slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Oh, no. Oh, no, no.” Kitay yanked Rin back. “You heard Jun, you shouldn’t—”
But Rin shrugged Kitay off. “Jun’s not here, is he?”
Nezha grinned nastily. “Venka! Get over here!”
Venka broke off her conversation with Niang at the other end of the room and flounced over, flushed at Nezha’s summons.
“Referee us,” Nezha said, not taking his eyes off Rin.
Venka folded her hands behind her back, imitating Master Jun, and lifted her chin. “Begin.”
The rest of their class had now formed a circle around Nezha and Rin. Rin was too angry to notice their stares. She had eyes only for Nezha. He began moving around her, darting back and forth with quick, elegant movements.
Kitay was right, Rin thought. Nezha really did look like he was performing stage opera. He didn’t seem particularly lethal then, just foolish.
She narrowed her eyes and crouched low, following Nezha’s movements carefully.
There. A clear opening. Rin raised a leg and kicked out, hard.
Her leg caught Nezha in midair with a satisfying whoomph.
Nezha uttered an unnatural shriek and clutched his crotch, whimpering.
The entire studio fell silent as all heads swiveled in their direction.
Nezha clambered to his feet, scarlet-faced. “You—how dare you—”
“Just as you said.” Rin dipped her head into a mocking bow. “I only know one kick.”
Humiliating Nezha felt good, but the political repercussions were immediate and brutal. It didn’t take long for their class to form alliances. Nezha, mortally offended, made it clear that associating with Rin meant social alienation. He pointedly refused to speak to her or acknowledge her existence, unless it was to make snide comments about her accent. One by one the members of their class, terrified of receiving the same treatment, followed suit.
Kitay was the one exception. He had grown up on Nezha’s bad side, he told Rin, and it wasn’t about to start bothering him now.
“Besides,” he said, “that look on his face? Priceless.”
Rin was grateful for Kitay’s loyalty, but was amazed by how cruel the other students could be. There was apparently no end of things about Rin to be mocked: her dark skin, her lack of status, her country accent. It was annoying, but Rin was able to brush the taunts off—until her classmates started snickering every time she talked.
“Is my accent so obvious?” she asked Kitay.
“It’s getting better,” he said. “Just try rolling the ends of your words more. Shorten your vowels. And add the r sound where it doesn’t exist. That’s a good rule of thumb.”
“Ar. Arrr.” Rin gagged. “Why do Sinegardians have to sound like they’re chewing cud?”
“Power dictates acceptability,” Kitay mused. “If the capital had been built in Tikany, I’m sure we’d be running around dark as wood bark.”
In the following days Nezha didn’t utter a single word to her, because he didn’t have to. His adoring followers wasted no opportunity to mock Rin. Nezha’s manipulations turned out to be brilliant—once he established that Rin was the prime target, he could just sit back and watch.
Venka, who was obsessively attached to Nezha, actively snubbed Rin whenever she had the chance. Niang was better; she wouldn’t associate with Rin in public, but she at least spoke to her in the privacy of their dorm.
“You could try apologizing,” Niang whispered one night after Venka had gone to sleep.
Apologizing was the last thing Rin had in mind. She wasn’t about to concede defeat by massaging Nezha’s ego. “It was his idea to duel,” she snapped. “It’s not my fault he got what he was asking for.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Niang said. “Just say you’re sorry, and then he’ll forget about you. Nezha just likes to be respected.”
“For what?” Rin demanded. “He hasn’t done anything to earn my respect. All he’s done is act high and mighty, like being from Sinegard makes him so special.”
“Apologizing won’t help,” interjected Venka, who apparently hadn’t been asleep after all. “And being from Sinegard does make us special. Nezha and I”—it was always Nezha and I with Venka—“have trained for the Academy since we could walk. It’s in our blood. It’s our destiny. But you? You’re nothing. You’re just some tramp from the south. You shouldn’t even be here.”
Rin sat up straight in her bed, suddenly hot with anger. “I took the same test as you, Venka. I have every right to be at this school.”
“You’re just here to fill up the quota,” Venka retorted. “I mean, the Keju has to seem fair.”
Annoying as Venka was, Rin scarcely had the time or energy to pay much attention to her. They stopped snapping at each other after several days, but only because they were too exhausted to speak. When training sessions ended for the week, they straggled back to the dormitory, muscles aching so much they could barely walk. Without a word, they shed their uniforms and collapsed on their bunks.
They awoke almost immediately to a rapping at their door.
“Get up,” said Raban when Rin yanked the door open.
“What the—”
Raban peered over her shoulder at Venka and Niang, who were whining incoherently from their bunks. “You too. Hurry up.”
“What’s the matter?” Rin mumbled grumpily, rubbing at her eyes. “We’ve got sweeping duty in six hours.”
“Just come.”
Still complaining, the girls wriggled into their tunics and met Raban outside, where the boys had already assembled.
“If this is some sort of first-year hazing thing, can I have permission to go back to bed?” asked Kitay. “Consider me bullied and intimidated, just let me sleep.”
“Shut up. Follow me.” Without another word, Raban took off toward the forest.
They were forced to jog to keep up with him. At first Rin thought he was taking them deep into the mountainside forest, but it was only a shortcut; after a minute they emerged in front of the main training hall. It was lit up from within, and they could hear loud voices from inside.
“More class?” asked Kitay. “Great Tortoise, I’m going on strike.”
“This isn’t class.” For some reason, Raban sounded very excited. “Get inside.”
Despite the audible shouting, the hall was empty. Their class bumbled around in groggy confusion until Raban motioned for them to follow him down the stairs to the basement floor. The basement was filled with apprentices crowded around the center of the room. Whatever stood at the center of attention, it sounded extremely exciting. Rin craned to get a glimpse over the apprentices’ heads but could see nothing but bodies.
“First-years coming through,” Raban yelled, leading their little group into the packed crowd. Through vigorous use of elbows, Raban carved them a path through the apprentices.
The spectacle at the center was two circular pits dug deep into the ground, each at least three meters in diameter and two meters deep. The pits stood adjacent to one another, and were ringed with waist-high metal bars to keep spectators from falling in. One pit was empty. Master Sonnen stood in the center of the other, arms folded across his broad chest.
“Sonnen always referees,” Raban said. “He gets the short straw because he’s the youngest.”
“Referees what?” Kitay asked.
Raban grinned widely.