"Derrick and his friends kept her that late? That oaf should have sent her on her way after an hour," Alex declared.
"I wanted to see him," I mumbled without raising my head. If I did, the room would start to spin and then I'd be right back where I started.
"A lot of good that did you."
"I only have to get through the rest of practice and then I'll get to sleep."
"You forgot the armory," Ella reminded me.
I groaned. Why did Byron have to hate me so much?
After the second bell I followed Ella out of the dining commons to Combat's training grounds with a quick departing wave to my twin. Ferren's Keep, like the other three cities we had trained in, was as different as could be. Which meant, of course, that our training was different as well – though how just how different, I hadn't expected.
First things first, the keep was actually inside a giant fortress built into one of the Iron Mountains. Like Ishir Outpost, the rock city provided a safe refuge for its inhabitants, but it had the added bonus of a dense forest and raging river just south of it.
The fortress was as large as the king's palace in Devon with a similar wall guarding its face. The fortress hosted row after row of sentry posts and a high tower to its north. Add to that an endless supply of lookouts and a guard at every possible entrance to monitor the people's coming and goings and it was easy to see why our training focused on defense instead of what we were used to, the attack.
"The balance of power favors the defender." That was the first thing Commander Nyx said when we arrived. "This keep is impenetrable so long as our regiment continues to make it so."
During our non-magic drills, we spent a good deal of time running back and forth along the narrow sentry wall, taking turns with our partner as one attempted to scale it while the other employed various techniques to hold them off.
Those "techniques" had included longbows and crossbows – the two favorite weapons of the keep's regiment, whose main role was servicing the wall as a sentry.
We also trained with knives since they were easy to carry during a climb.
Then we practiced loading and unloading the heavy catapults, and then took turns aiming heavy piles of rock at landmarks below.
The last exercise was the worst, I was quick to discover. I was already so tired from a lack of sleep and the morning warm-up. By the time we had started the catapults, my arms were shaking so badly I dropped two large stones I was carrying. The second time, one landed on my right foot. I spent the rest of practice limping through my drills. Byron, of course, had deemed my injury "not serious enough" to warrant a trip to the infirmary.
At the end of practice I chanced a peek under my boot to see how "serious" my foot really was and shuddered at the spotted purple and red bruise in its place.
"Where did you get that little nasty from?"
I turned my head and realized a woman with short-cropped blonde hair was staring at me and the foot cradled in my hands. I immediately dropped it. She had steel gray eyes and a permanent frown. Which meant only one person: Commander Nyx.
I instantly felt myself go red with embarrassment. The last thing I wanted was the leader of Ferren's Keep's regiment to consider me soft.
Especially if I wanted a chance of being offered a post next year.
The commander stepped forward, still squinting at me. "It was the catapults, wasn't it?"
I nodded mutely.
"If you have time to swing by my chambers during lunch, I've got some bruise balm for it. I tend to keep some on hand whenever the squires or apprentice mages are stationed here. Someone always manages to drop those rocks at least once a day for the first week or two."
Was she really this nice, or was it a test to see if I was weak-willed enough to accept her help? I'd heard rumors about how Nyx got her post… You had to be a very tough sort of woman to beat out hundreds of other knights for Jerar's highest position up north.
I decided I didn't want her aid either way. Alex had helped me that second year back in Ishir, but that had been for a broken arm - not a bruise. What was Byron always saying? "Pain is how we build strength." Well, I could certainly use some after today.
"I'll be just fine, but thank you for the kind offer."
The woman cracked a toothy smile. "Wise choice. I've offered it to two others so far and you are the first to turn me down. I can't respect anyone who coddles themselves."
A wave of relief washed over me. I would not be one of those people she marked off her list for potential service, at least not yet. "Who were the other two?"
She chuckled. "Check the dining commons. Byron and I have a little game we play every time he brings his apprentices to my keep. I give him the name of any apprentices foolish enough to accept the help I offer and then he orders them a week without rations to help them build their resistance to pain. It saves my cook's stores as well, so it's win-win."