A Kingdom of Tales (Kingdom of Avenlea #1)

Chapter 32

Judging by how empty the room she leads me into is, I'd say it's her own personal training room. Or at least one made for the imperial family only.

On one side, there's a lot of machines and weights, and on the other side, there's a large mat, one made for sparring.

I wonder who she spars with. Kyoshi doesn't seem like the type to dirty herself by fighting, and I doubt the emperor spares Yuri a second chance on his best days.

"I assume you're at least trained in the basics." She asks as she walks to the middle of the mat. I nod absentmindedly and continue taking the room in.

I'd never trained with any weights, not conventional ones anyway. Bash had trained me with anything we had on hand—a full water bottle, a sack of wood logs we'd collected for fires, any furniture small enough to be held but heavy enough to be challenging.

To say I'm excited to work with actual balanced weights would be an understatement.

"Hey!" She walks up to me and snaps her fingers in front of my eyes.

I wake up from the trance I was in and follow her to the mat. "You want to spar?"

I'm confused, to say the least. She's the strongest fighter in Edessa, and she wants to fight with me? I was a strong fighter, but definitely not strong enough to overpower her.

"Yes. This is how you'll command respect here. Either with your looks, like Kyo does, or with your fists." She raises her fist to my face quickly, barely giving me time to catch it. "Good. You have instincts, at least."

I'm too surprised to look indignant. She couldn't have expected me to be totally powerless, but then again, she only met me yesterday.

She goes for a tackle, which I dodge quickly. Gods, she's fast.

It was only a feign, though, and I ended up getting a kick in the side. So much for being trained. I could train for a century and not be able to take an attack from her. She looks to be taking it easy on me, which makes it worse.

"Come on, Jasmine. Can't take a kick?" She taunts. I know what she's trying to do, and I fall for it anyway. I punch her with little thought.

She dodges to the side, making me fall face first to the floor. I was making a fool of myself in front of the person I respected most in the world.

I raised my body and gave her a glare. Then I punched her again, this time with more thought to it. She thinks it's a feign and doesn't dodge. When she realizes her mistake, she moves her head quickly to the left.

I manage to graze her face with my nail, leaving her cheek bleeding. "Good. Again." She smiles in a way that I can only describe as feral, like she'd been waiting for me to do that.

We go again and again until I'm exhausted. That's when she led me to the other side of the room. I spent the next hour or so learning how to use each machine. She explains everything slowly and demonstrates how to use them.

By the time we're done, I trust her a little more. After all, you wouldn't train someone you tried to scare a few hours earlier.

"You must be hungry. Let's go get changed and then eat." She says. She takes me back to my room and goes to hers to change her clothes as well.

While we walk to the dining room, I'm almost curious enough to ask where the servants that helped me last night were, but I decide against it. I can put my clothes on well enough on my own.

"Good morning, father." She bows to the emperor when we reach the dining room. He's sipping on what looks like coffee, and he's reading a very long paper. He hands the paper to a man standing behind him.

"Nice of you to join us, daughters." He motions for us to sit and dismisses the man. "Take that to Darrow and tell him to do something about it. I don't like unexpected visitors."

It's hard to imagine this man the way the empress described him in her journal. He was not a gentleman, and he was certainly not good looking. It's a wonder both of his daughters are so beautiful. The empress must've been a blonde beauty. I doubt Kyoshi's blonde hair came from his side of the family. I hold in a snicker at the thought.

"Care to share what's so funny, daughter?" The emperor asks. Gods, I must've been smiling. I almost ignore him. Almost.

"I was only wondering where Princess Kyoshi got her blonde hair." I was not going to be embarrassed for something as stupid as this. I hear Kyoshi choking on her food and Yuri sputtering.

"Why same as you, dear daughter. She got it from her mother." He hesitates for a moment before replying.

I feel Yuri and Kyoshi's gaze on my face, waiting for my reaction. I don't give them the satisfaction, though, and just nod.

I take a bite from one of the pastries on my plate and have to resist a moan. I understand now what the empress meant. I'm sure no food could surpass this.

They taste especially good due to my hunger. I see the emperor smiling out of the corner of my eye, as if he were remembering the empress.