The Royal Thief

Chapter Eight: Exile

If I was a humbler person, I would have taken this opportunity to learn from her. To admit I was the lesser fighter and ask her to show me what I'd done wrong.

I have never been humble.

When her silver blade touched my throat, I wanted to punch her, show her I could beat her without using any weapons. But you didn't just punch the daughter of an Ambassador. Especially when he was watching on the sidelines not five feet away. Besides, I'd only have looked like a child who couldn't stand losing. The rules of a formal mock-fight were said that it ended when one person had been disarmed. That was me.

I turned away from her without any acknowledgement and accepted my water flask from Nick.

"Good fight," He offered. I grunted in response. I guess I was acting like a child. I'd gotten to used to losing to nobody except Nemia.

"Oh, yes. Great fight." Joshua's voice was heavy with some sort of negative emotion I could not name, not quite annoyance or anger. I hadn't noticed that he'd come back to the yards during the fight. I supposed he was going to lecture me about the ambassador again so I put my back to him and looked around for Cara. Instead I found Galatea, hovering close by with a smile half apologetic and half delighted.

"You were better than I thought you would be. I thought that since you were not a noble that you had not been trained as I had. I suppose I was wrong."

Joshua moved himself to the corner of my vision but I ignored him. "You weren't wrong. I didn't begin to learn knife-fighting until three years ago." Hardly her years of training, which likely began before she was ten years of age. While knives were considered a lesser weapon in Solongia, in Englescroft nobles and commoners alike learned to use them.

"You mean to say you have had only three years of practice?" Her smile was gone, replaced by astonishment. 

I wasn't sure what to answer. I hadn't been lying, but it also didn't seem like the kind of answer that needed repeating.

"You... you are gifted with blades."

"You should see Nemia fight sometime."

"I do not need to. I have seen you. It was such a close fight-"

"I agree," Joshua cut in suddenly. "Morane is... gifted... with certain weapons." 

Certain weapons because my experiences with swords were embarrassing at best.

"In fact, she has been spending much to much time in training." Now he spoke directly to me. "The Sage has mentioned that you have abandoned your studies in history and mathematics. From now on, you will turn your attention to book learning. I don't want to see you out here anymore."

I could only stare at him for a moment. "Excuse me?"

"Don't look at me like that," He said coldly. "I know you understood what I said. You will have math, history, logic, and writing teachers reassigned to you. And you are not to come down to the training yards anymore, to watch or to train. Your combat lessons will be suspended until the Sage returns and decides how often you will have them now." He left me standing in my sweat-drenched clothes, my water flask dangling from my fingers, and gave his orders to the under-captains nearby: "If she tries to disobey my instructions, I am to be informed immediately. There will be repercussions for anyone who fails to report to me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later, I could still feel my heart beat pounding in my ears.

I knelt before the fire and yanked a brush through my damp hair. My training clothes were balled up on the floor and I had dressed in a comfortable cotton shirt and pants after my bath. It was strange, washing up so early in the day. Normally, I went to the training yards after breakfast and didn't leave until lunchtime. In the afternoons I sometimes read, but more often I rode Saffron down to the city or through the forest. Nemia tried to interest me in her books, but I could never focus on them for long unless they were about wars or dangerous missions. I was a poor reader, anyway. I spent hours poring over maps of Solongia and surrounding lands, though. I had never been outside the capital. But one day, I promised myself, I would see the wild horses that galloped over the deserts, and Port Maenar where underground tunnels and warrens connected the docks to thieves' dens, and the eastern lands where inventors were harnessing steam and water to power new inventions, looking for ways to make humans fly without the help of magic.

I spent a lot of time with Sam and Nick, just talking, and taking care of my weapons with Cara. And a lot of time by myself, as well- exploring all the little chinks and passages of the castle, finding abandoned rooms to practice ducking and rolling in. Three afternoons a week I went back down to the yards for fighting lessons. After dinner I still did some school lessons, mostly skimming a history book or wrapping my mind around one or two math problems. But in recent months people had stopped checking to see if I completed my work, so I had stopped taking it seriously.

No more, apparently. Now the time I spent in combat lessons and training would be taken up by dusty history lessons and copying paragraphs from books and memorizing facts.

I was angry enough to kill Joshua.

It must have been revenge, for our fight the day before yesterday. Except that he had mentioned the Sage- what was that about? Why would he be interested in my lessons when no one had ever cared before? Between this and Jaden's note, that stuffy old man had a lot of explaining to do.

~

The rest of the day passed agonizingly slow. I paced the hallways, restless and anxious for night to come so I could sneak out for Jaden's lessons. Nemia tried to distract me with a complicated game of little wooden pieces on a checkered board but I didn't have the mindset to understand the rules. I skipped dinner in favor of walking the battlements, around and around and around. And the moment I felt the rest of the palace settle down to sleep, I slipped out of my room, over the wall, and down the sloped grounds to the training yard I was now forbidden to enter.

"Did you hear?" I demanded of Jaden.

"Hear what?"

"I'm not allowed to train anymore!"

"Not allowed to train with me?" He asked sharply.

"No, not allowed to train with the guards. I'm not allowed to have combat lessons anymore, or even watch other people fighting."

"Ah. I thought they might at some point... never mind. It is no matter."

"No matter!" I yelled, and received a stern glance for my unnecessary noise. "I can't fight anymore! I can't... I can't practice knife throwing or shooting or sword-fighting-"

"Because sword-fighting has always been high on your list of priorities," Jaden observed dryly.

"Well, it is now that I can't!"

"If you do not calm down then it is useless for me to try and help you."

"Will you make him take it back?" I asked desperately.

"I cannot."

"Why not?"

"Morane, stop yelling. I can't because I can't. I have no authority over anyone in the palace, nor is it my job to oversee any of your training other than my own. As long as you can continue to learn from me, I will not involve myself with Joshua. Even my interactions with the Sage are limited."

I leaned against the fence and scowled at the ground. It was in my hands, then. I had no intention of giving up my training for school lessons. I would have to confront Joshua- the Sage would have been better, but he wouldn't be back in the city for weeks.

With a sigh, Jaden pressed a hand over his face. "Nearly ten years I have known you, and your thoughts are transparent on your face to me. A public confrontation, challenging his authority, will get you nowhere. The captain of the auxiliary guards is far more stubborn than any man should be. Perhaps even as stubborn as you are." He stared off toward the city for a while, then repeated softly, "Challenging his authority will get you nowhere. If you are to continue your education in weapons, it must be somewhere other than with the guards."

"But training alone-"

"I never said alone. I understand you must have people to test yourself against." He was silent for several seconds, and I could not take the waiting.

"Then how?"

"I hesitate to recommend this to you. I don't know..." He broke off again, still staring past me. Then he seemed to make up his mind. "Go get your horse. We are going down to the city."