~
I dried off and changed in my room. I felt completely numb, and I knew it wasn’t because of the river water that had deadened my nerves.
Someone knocked on my door, and I pulled it open.
“Are you coming back to class?” Dena asked, examining me. “We’ve got Archery now.”
“Yeah,” I said in a voice very unlike my own. “I need to get my bag.”
Dena lifted it, having rescued it from the mess hall.
“Come on,” she said, and I was glad that she didn’t ask where I’d stormed off to.
We followed the rest of the students out of the castle to a small shed. Inside we found Jett standing next to a rack of bows, and on the opposite wall hung quivers full of arrows.
“Time to learn how to shoot, mages. Let’s see how we go.”
I hadn’t realised how tightly strung bows were, and my muscles ached from trying to hold the string back. I cut myself under my knuckles on the string, and stabbed myself with a blunt practice arrow. The others took to it quite easily and at the end of the lesson, we were lined up in front of targets and told to try our hardest.
Dena couldn’t resist laughing when the arrow simply fell off of the string of my bow, but everyone was impressed when Phoenix’s arrow landed with a thunk on the innermost circle of the target.
Just as we were about to turn away, another arrow hit the target. It landed a centimetre closer to the centre than Phoenix’s, and Eleanora lowered her bow, laughing.
“Oh, I beat you.”
Phoenix smiled at her, pulled another arrow back on the string and loosed it. It landed even closer to the centre than hers.
“Ok, so Phoenix and Eleanora can shoot better than the rest of you,” Jett interrupted, stopping them before it could become a full blown competition. “Time’s up, I’m afraid.”
I hung my bow back on the wall and left the range before anyone else. I couldn’t stand to see them acting all... couple like.
We had our second riding lesson, and despite how quickly I’d mastered walking, it was nothing compared to-
“Trotting,” Professor Alena announced happily. “Let’s see how you go keeping a rhythm.”
Whilst I had felt graceful and proud about my riding the day before, I now knew how a sack of potatoes felt.
“No, listen to me, Sky, one-two one-two,” I tried desperately to follow her, but unless Echo was being deliberately bumpy, I was incredibly uncoordinated. I found this highly more likely.
“This is a stupid gait,” I snapped to Dena as I rode to the side of the paddock. “When are we ever going to use it? ‘Oh no, I must get away quickly! I know, I’ll trot to safety! One-two one-two!’”
Dena collapsed into giggles at my murderous expression. My scowl deepened when I noticed Eleanora’s flawless trotting and one-two-ing. Finally the lesson ended, and we all limped, bandy legged to the castle for our Theory lesson with Professor Watt.
It was almost evening when we filed out onto the grounds again. I watched the sun begin to sink towards the horizon, wondering if it was the same sun I used to watch back in Ar Cena.
The obstacle course loomed ahead of us, and I began to tingle with adrenaline. If I could run this course successfully, I would feel a lot better about myself. Plus, I’d make up for the face I’d lost the first time I’d tried to do it.
I swung my arms as we walked, loosening my muscles. Jett allowed us time to change and stretch, and then lined up again. I watched the classmates in front of me run it as though from a distance; I was too busy measuring distances, calculating when to leap from the rope. I didn’t dare lift my eyes to the wall that had defeated me last time. I knew it would just terrify me.
Finally, I stepped up to the beginning line, trying to ignore my hammering heart. I barely even noticed Eleanora beside me until she tossed her blonde hair and smirked in my direction. I ignored it; she was just trying to put me off, fixing my sights on the point where I’d figured I needed to drop to my stomach.
Jett blew the whistle, and we were off. I pushed my legs harder than I had the first time I’d run this course, and I knew I had an advantage; she hadn’t bothered warming up or practicing since the last time we’d run.
I reached the nets and dropped to my stomach, remembering the bite from the wire from last time. I scrambled frantically, coordinating my limbs so that I was constantly moving. Mud flicked at my face, but I ignored it.
A few strides ahead, I stood up from the nets and in the same movement leapt onto my rope. It swung out over the water, me clinging to it like a hitch hiking insect. I sailed with it to its apex, and then dropped into the water below me. I’d figured out that last time I’d done myself a disservice by trying to make even more ground by trying to jump forwards. As it was, I hit the water with my arms wide and scissor kicked at the same time, like I’d been taught in the human world. My head stayed above the water and I began to stretch out for the other bank, my strokes slicing through the water. I reached the bank a good ten seconds before she did, but now I was faced with my biggest adversary, the wall.
I wound the rope around my hand and began to pull myself up. I could feel new muscles shifting beneath my skin, and to everyone’s disbelief, including mine, I gripped the top of the wall with one hand, and then the other. I sat atop it for just a second, revelling in my success. Then I dropped neatly to the other side, waiting for Eleanora to appear. She did a few seconds later, a murderous expression on her face.
“Quit smirking,” she snapped at me, which only prompted me to grin wider.
I changed with the other girls, and whilst they were keen to get their muddy shirts off, the cold water that dripped down my plait and pressed my shirt to my skin felt like hard work paying off, and I would savour every little bit of it.
Soul Fire Page 21
