Ruby swapped places with Emerald. Three vanished into the small copse of trees growing near the wall, leaping into the branches. Five meandered back into the building, arms not shaking at all.
Ruby passed out too-heavy swords with blunted ends. My hand could barely hold the hilt, and I stumbled my way into the shade. Any archer would have to lean out to hit me there, catching Ruby’s gaze, and I hadn’t seen anyone in the other building. At least I’d be able to dodge.
If my body did what I asked it. Ruby slowly led us through the motions of fighting—one parry and lunge, another parry, another lunge, a block. A stitch clawed at my sides with every twist, exhaustion scoured my calves clean off the bone with each step, and my head threatened to drift away on the breeze with every wavering thought. I couldn’t focus.
“Weight off your front foot.” Ruby bowed over my feet, impossibly limber for a person his height, and he jerked me into the right position. “The lines from your heels should form a corner. Back leg and chest sideways, front foot forward.”
There was no hiding my trembling with him so close. He tapped my right arm up.
“What did you normally do during the day?” He slid a palm down my arm and forced my elbow to move. “Don’t lock up. You’ll drop your sword.”
“Slept a lot. Worked the crowd when the market was busy.” I pushed myself through the first motion he’d shown us, body so light I’d float away if not for the heaviness in my stomach. Last time I’d felt this chilled in the warmth of autumn, I’d been sick and passed out on Rath’s feet. “If I was fighting or running, I’d sleep more and skip the crowds.”
“You didn’t mention eating.”
“Gets expensive.” I shifted back into the start position. “Real jobs go to kids with parents or all those old mages. They can afford to work for less. Could be a laborer, sure, but you can’t start that till you’re ten. Most get pulled into thieving young. They don’t let you leave. I got enough to keep me alive and stole enough to keep me strong. If I looked too well, Grell’d have felt threatened.”
Grell only let me get away with being so good at fighting because my bouts brought in plenty of profit.
Ruby made an odd sound in the back of his throat and smacked the sword out of my hands. It clattered to the ground between us.
“Mediocre.”
He moved to Eleven. Her stance was shaky as mine, and I yanked my sword off the ground. At least no one could see me flushing, heat racing up my cheeks at his words. I swallowed it down and watched him tear Eleven’s stance to pieces.
What did it matter what I’d done? There weren’t jobs—with magic gone, a whole generation of mages lost their empire and flooded the world with jobless adults. The mages were adults who could afford to do whatever people wanted and already knew things, and they had all the right manners and money saved. Kids couldn’t compete with that. We scrounged for the fringe jobs no one wanted.
I didn’t do much else because there wasn’t much else to do, and moving was the last thing I wanted to do after a night of fighting.
I jabbed the air in front of me in time with Ruby’s call and scowled, fingers gripping the hilt so hard my knuckles strained against my gloves. Ruby hit my elbow.
I didn’t drop my sword.
Nearly disemboweled myself with recoil but small steps.
“It is day one, I suppose.” Ruby waved us to the rack in the corner closet, barely-there runes lining the undersides of his fingers. “Dinner is served in the dining hall, but it is entirely up to you how it goes. There will be food and servants, and you may continue to compete, granted you are not caught and you do not harm anyone else. I’ll see you at breakfast. Or not.”
Four and Two glanced at each other. Three lingered in the doorway, dirt under her nails and bark clinging to her mask. They disappeared down the pathway, and Ten, Eleven, and Fifteen followed them one by one, not going together but not willing to take their eyes off each other. I eyed the forest.
“The quarters for our honorable court members are beyond that little forest. Lovely cherry trees in spring.” Ruby paused in the doorway, wiggling his fingers toward the wall. “If you’re caught beyond the wall, they’ll arrest you for trespassing and we’ll disqualify you.”
I nodded. Ruby glided away, humming.
Good thieves didn’t get caught.
And I was the best.
Eleven
The forest beyond the wall was overgrowing with deep green pines and towering oaks. A small stream trickled softly under the hum of insects and birds, and I pulled myself onto the edge of the wall. The windows behind me were dark and blank, shadows flickering in the holes when I stared too long. I shook out my arms.
Nothing but the fuzzy haze of darkness.
An arrow ripped over my head. I dropped to the wall, stomach to the bricks. Another tore over my shoulder, missing by a hairbreadth, and I rolled forward into the forest. A line of decorative shrubs broke my fall. An arrow burrowed into the tree across from me.
No footsteps followed. They must’ve been shooting from a window.
I tossed my glove above the wall. Another arrow slammed into the tree as I caught my glove. They were either on the roof or in one of those windows, but the rooms would be safer. They were out of the way, and I’d no idea how to get to them—I doubted anyone else did. How’d they find that perch in such a short time?
A guard wandered down a winding path nearby, sword slapping his thigh and empty left sleeve fluttering in the breeze. I waited for him to walk out of sight. Thick curtains of green needles and fading red-gold leaves filtered out the evening sun and forest sounds. It was a miracle the guard hadn’t heard and come running. I dragged myself to my feet.
“Still there?” I wiggled my fingers over the edge of the wall. Nothing.
I peeked over it. The courtyard was empty and the windows dark. I’d not seen them last time I’d looked though. Black gloves, black sleeves, black bow would do it. And arrows arced, didn’t they? I traced a line from the arrow embedded in the tree.
A large empty window at the top of the left building, sill a solid block of wood. It was perfect—high ground, only window on its level, and probably only one entrance. They’d think they were safe.
I followed the wall till it was flush against the left building, leapt to the top, and slowly scaled the roof, arms and legs burning. No one there but me.
And the bloodstains from last night.
The roof outside my window was speckled with red. I peered sideways through the shutter and spied Maud pacing round the room on the other side. I tapped the sill. She tripped.
“Bless!” Maud pried apart the bells and helped me inside. “There is a door.”
“And a dozen people waiting for me to walk down that hall.” I flopped onto the bed, pain shooting up my arms. “Can you make me dinner?”
“That is precisely why I’m here.” Maud fluttered around me, tugging the clean blanket from under my dirty boots. “They didn’t tell us you’d miss lunch, but I have compensated with a meal we usually reserve for floundering new recruits.”