A Dark and Starless Night

Chapter Thirty-Two

Eve exhaled slowly through her nose before she took a long slow breath through her mouth. She worked through each pose slowly. From a few feet away, Ali stood, comparing Eve's stance to the simple drawings Tarlough had provided. She offered corrections every few minutes, although she sounded uncertain.

Eve didn't mind Ali's uncertainty, as long as she helped. Eve hadn't done the exercises since they'd been on the road, and she had no doubt that if Tarlough found out she wouldn't hear the end of it.

"These are strange stances," Ali said, shifting the paper here and there. "But I think I can see where they get there names. At least, part of the names anyway."

Eve was currently doing a stance called the Sand Sail, where she stood, legs apart, and held her ankle with one hand while the other reached for the sky. It made her body curved like a smaller ship's sail, or like the sand sailors that were used by the sand witches of the Lone Desert. Eve continued her breathing, changing hand and ankle. After a few moments, she started to shift her power to her hands, calling the golden light and moulding it into a staff.

"That's incredible," Ali breathed, staring at the staff in Eve's hand. It cast a golden light in the darkening clearing. Eve smiled as she shifted the staff from hand to hand, proud of the ease at which she'd summoned it. She still wanted to be faster at it; she wanted to be able to summon it with as much ease as Tarlough did, with barely a flick of his wrist.

Despite the tension of the day from both the failed trap and her argument with her friends, she allowed herself to feel proud of her progress. She moved fluidly, as if she had been doing this for years, rather than a few weeks. She tried to picture an opponent – Ara or Tarlough – but it was hard to spar against yourself. But she kept going, kept pushing herself, going between poses and sparring, until sweat spotted her brow.

A stable hand had brought Ali a stool. As Eve braced her hands on her knees, Ali stood, clapping.

"That was impressive," she said, walking to join Eve.

"It's easy to make myself look good when I'm not actually fighting anyone," Eve laughed, but she preened under the praise. "Thank you for your help."

"I hope it was actually helpful."

"Of course it was."

Eve ran a cloth over her forehead and straightened up. Her practice clothes clung to her. As they walked back towards the inn, she noticed movement from a window above and found Lord Hal watching. He offered her a smile, a wave, and what could have been a wink – but she chose to pretend she didn't see it. She felt her skin crawl and Ali let out a sound of frustration.

"I would sell my favourite horse if it meant he hadn't met us here," she said, her voice heavy with a frown.

"He seems so slimy," Eve said, keeping her voice low as they entered the warm building.

"He is possibly one of the slimiest men in Zyrna. Gets on perfectly with my father obviously."

"I definitely gave him the wrong message at dinner," Eve said as they entered their room. She undressed and washed herself at the basin in their room, quickly and methodically. "I just couldn't stomach the silence."

"Well, learn to stomach the silence," Ali said, laughing a little. "Silence and unenthusiastic responses tend to work best, but even then it's next to impossible to deter him."

"Understood," she replied, pulling on her nightclothes before she slid under the covers. "I wish I'd kept my stupid mouth shut about where we're going."

"So do I. I'm glad you've said it," Ali said laughing again. "It doesn't matter now though. Let's get some sleep, because the gods know we'll need it."

Eve agreed, but it was a long time before she managed to fall asleep.