Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 67 - Rohana - A Cycle Too Long

I barely got any sleep.

We finished bringing in the last of the Thralians into the castle around four bells this morning. I was in bed for an hour before Tsillah's voice entered my head and I misted just outside of Clarice's chamber doors. The rest of my sisters misted in after me, all rubbing the sleep from their eyes and releasing their yawns. Turns out Clarice woke up, and she doesn't want to go back to sleep. She wants to train.

I mumbled my discontent, but seeing as we haven't trained in a while, I agreed and followed the young Queen out to the King's garden. We've been out here for two hours already, all now awake and sweat gathering beneath our clothes. Clarice sits against the wall, following my instructions of focusing on each of our footsteps as we train and learning to determine who's who without looking. I provided her with a blindfold, that way she's forced to do it without the temptation to crack open her eyes.

Branka went to see her mother, claiming the infernal woman needed to be checked on. I knew she was just trying to get out of training, but I was still sleepy-eyed and let her leave.

Two hours and Fauna hasn't said a thing, and I've kept one eye on her and the other on Vanya, trying to disarm me and win the round of our sparring match. The others do the same around us, our speed of attack having increased last since we switched partners. I started off with Inna, then Mak, then Tanith, and now Vanya.

I'll admit, I like kicking her ass.

"I like kicking your ass too," Vanya retorts, reading the thought in my smirk.

"Too bad you're not going to get the chance to-" I leap forward, my right arm swinging with the skim, my left one blocking her own attempt to slice out my entrails.

She parries, I dodge and swing my leg out which she avoids with a jump, sheathing her dagger in her boot and pulling out a longer one mid-air. I do my own weapon switch at the same time, sheathing one of my skims into its sheath across my back before pulling out a knife from my waistband and using it to block her smaller blade's blow to my neck as she lands. Our metal sparks with each other's impact, and then we pull apart, only to get into a wrestling match when we disarm each other and our weapons fly helplessly to the ground. We follow, rolling in the cold nip of the snow.

Our lust to win the match turns into a petty fight of shoving the other into the freshly fallen layers of soft ice, laughs of both mine and hers filling my ears. The cold turns to warmth, the snow melting in my mouth as she drops a handful of it onto my face. I repay the kind gesture by shoving her own head into it, and then she's flipping me over and we both stand back up about to tackle each other, only to stop when we find Nilsa standing with her arms crossed and scolding us. The rest of my sisters are coated in the snow of their own rumbles, bending their heads to hide their smirks from her.

Nilsa isn't the only one staring at us with disgust. Our old teacher, Sir Lachester, stands at her shoulder, his face fallen into that fierce stone-cold unsatisfied frown. That frown could make us all cry by the end of the day. If he had that look on his face, then you know you've failed him. The only reason I don't stop smirking at the sight of it is because of that gleam in his eyes that says he's too proud and happy to see us to be disappointed.

"I expect more professionalism and dignity out of my prized pupils," he scolds, his scratchy voice that brings me back to Thralia's own castle gardens where we used to train, ringing out as it normally does with its loud volume. "Especially in front of those you should be upholding such expectations in front of."

I glance over his shoulder, finding Darius and his normal gang all smiling with the effort to not crack a joke or say something that will have them later groaning in pain. Sir Lachester, it seems, has already made his usual authoritative impression on them.