Serpent in Shackles

Chapter Thirteen

After changing into the Valorian training clothes in my closet and devouring the large breakfast Elianna brought me, I waited for Danver in the training room on the main floor of the house.

Their training clothes were almost exactly the same as mine. The only difference was the unfamiliar symbols embroidered into the back.

A large area had been cleared out in the center of the sizable space and the floor was covered in soft but sturdy mats, to cushion the fall from sparring no doubt. Tables lined the walls displaying a variety of weaponry. Some of the weapons were similar to ours back home: knives, swords, bows and arrows. But there were also weapons I had never seen before.

Knives of different colours and sizes were spread across the table near the door. I spent most of my training working with knives so I was very familiar with them. Before Danver arrived, I grabbed a couple of the daggers and wrapped them up in the sweater I left balled up in the corner of the room. They had so many, surely a few missing wouldn't matter.

My attention snagged on one knife in particular. A low hum called me to it. The black handle was decorated with silver spirals. Within the glowing red blade were white lines that looked like veins, as if the blade was the heart of the dagger.

I reached for the handle, but a sharp sting, a zap of electricity tightened my nerves, shooting up my fingers, and spread throughout my arm. My finger stung, but my skin did not appear red nor burned.

Again, I lowered my finger to the handle-

"Wait, don't touch that!"

I wrenched my hand back from the knife, which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Danver said, striding into the room. "The weapons are tailored specifically to us and our powers. And the knife you were about to touch belongs to the Shadow Knight." He pulled a small bag out from under the table and tossed it on top, before handing me a pair of gloves he pulled out from the bag. "I had these gloves made for you so that you can work with our weapons."

The fragile material tightened against my hand; sheer fabric decorated with roses, vines, and leaves. "These are lace," I muttered, glancing up at him through my lashes. "How can I handle weapons while wearing them?"

"They're magical gloves." He winked.

Voices bounded up the hall toward us.

Danver flipped the bag over, dumping a pile of weapons onto the table. "And these are human weapons, if you'd prefer."

"Thanks."

The rest of the team, with the exception of the Shadow Knight, entered the room and moved right to the grey couches tucked into the far corner. With one quick glance over the shoulder from Danver, they quieted down, waiting to watch the impending fight between a monster and a human.

"I'm going to assess your fighting abilities," Danver explained.

"Are you a soldier?" Immediately I wanted to slap myself for asking such a stupid question. Of course he was a soldier. A mercenary, that is. What I actually meant was: why him? Why was Danver tasked with assessing my fighting abilities? Why not the Shadow Knight? "I'm sorry," I said hurriedly, "that's not what I meant."

Still Danver answered anyway, knowing exactly what I meant, "I was not raised to be a soldier like you were, but I have been trained to fight. And it's not personal. He asked me to test you so that we would have an opportunity to get to know each other better. The next time you train it will most likely be with one of the others."

"If you weren't raised to be a soldier, then what were you raised to be?"

"Long story," was all he said. Though his mood seemed to drop for a second, something flashed through his eyes, but he quickly straightened up and returned to his normal cheery self as he added, "we'll spar for a bit and I'll see if you can keep up with a powerful man like me."