Queen Of Glass

Chapter 11

Celaena Sardothien hated to admit that learning how to act like a lady was hard work. There were so many things to remember! Madam Tul'rouse spent the three hours that they were together instructing them on how to walk and sit like a woman of good breeding.
Naturally, Kaltain R'ompier had been perfect.
Celaena and Anuksun, on the other hand, had a bit of difficulty. Both of them sat like men: their legs open and posture relaxed. It was a bit more offensive to Madam Tul'rouse for Princess Anuksun to sit in such a manner—her small skirt hardly covered what was beneath. Madam Tul'rouse tried as gently as possible (and as slowly) to explain to Anuksun that sitting in such a way was inappropriate for a princess, but soon gave up and shoved the Princess' legs together with firm hands.
Celaena looked a bit more ridiculous when she was seated because of her fancy attire. According to Madam Tul'rouse, such bad posture made her look like a man in disguise, especially when Celaena sat with her legs open. It only took that one statement to get the assassin to close her legs and sit upright.
They were to never cross their legs, but simply put one ankle behind the other.
Adarlan's assassin considered asking if it was really necessary since no one could see beneath their skirts in the first place, but instead she held her tongue and tried to look like she was paying attention.
Walking was also a bit of a struggle for the two girls. They were supposed to float, not strut. They were supposed to flutter, not march. They were supposed to look like mindless butterflies, not real people.
The list went on and on.
Neither Princess Anuksun nor Celaena Sardothien was very happy by the time lunch rolled around.
The ladies were escorted to a room down the hall in which was a large wooden table and ten chairs. There was a large meal set before them: golden goblets filled with wine and juices, roasted meats, an assortment of rolls, fruits of every color and shape, vegetables, and, to Celaena's delight, berries.
Celaena loved berries. She could eat them for hours on end—when she could afford them. A rare commodity in Adarlan, most of the berry market came from Wendlyn, but since the war had begun, the prices for these heavenly things had gone sky-high. It cost as much for a pound of berries as it did to buy a horse. Of course, all of the nobles and rich merchants in the land had to have berries on their tables or else they couldn't entertain.
But in all of Celaena's travels across the empire of Adarlan, she had never seen so many berries on one table.
It had taken all of her self-control during lunch to not grab the silver bowl of red, black, purple, and pink berries and stuff her face. Celaena Sardothien considered once or twice stealing the bowl and making a run for it, but she figured that once she earned her freedom, she could waste her entire bank account on shipments of berries. Or maybe she'd just move to Wendlyn and eat berries all day long.
She and Anuksun barely spoke during lunch—the Princess was too busy shoving slices of meat down her throat and Celaena was occupied with consuming as many berries as she could in one hour. The Princess tried to use her spear as a utensil for her meat, but Madam Tul'rouse had caught her in the act of skewering a leg of lamb and had taken the weapon away.
The assassin had nearly choked on a mouthful of blackberries when Princess Anuksun had cried out from dismay at the butter knife that she was given, and began to curse in her native tongue at poor Elise, shaking the dull knife in the air.
Celaena Sardothien loved how disgusted and horrified the other ladies were at the two girls' behavior and their monstrous appetites. Most of them barely ate anything, and Celaena didn't bother to tell them that they'd need

double the amount of meat that Anuksun was gnawing on to stay alive during their session with Chaol. Most of them looked too scrawny anyway—they wouldn't survive five minutes.
After an hour, Madam Tul'rouse came into the room (for she decided, after taking away Anuksun's spear, to dine alone), looking very angry and upset, and announced that they were to wear men's clothes to practice.
Kaltain and three other ladies nearly fainted. Princess Anuksun, however, had no problem with this, for she was already dressed as inappropriately as any of them would be in half an hour. Celaena, used to wearing pants and baggy shirts while practicing, barely cared about Tul'rouse's announcement, except for the fact that she still had the fine, white lines of her whipping scars across her back; which, in the loose and low-hanging neckline of the shirt she used, were quite visible. No merchant's daughter should have those sort of marks on her back! If questioned, Celaena would have to come up with a lie—fast.
While changing in her rooms upstairs, she came up with a genius explanation: Lithaen Gordaina had had a governess from Wendlyn to take care of her when she was younger (since her mother had died in childbirth and her father was constantly away) and this woman, being foreign, thought that severe whipping was the proper punishment for bad behavior. Lithaen's father had eventually found out about this (for Lithaen was too afraid to tell him for fear of more beatings) and had the woman hanged.
It was all too perfect.
A guard came to escort her down to the practicing room, and after Celaena had prodded him for a few moments, she found that it was the same room in which she had been training a few days before.
She loved the way the guard tried hard not to stare at her, and especially the way his face turned pink every time she caught him looking. Celaena didn't say anything, of course, but merely batted her eyelashes naively.
Celaena found Princess Anuksun conversing with Lord Chaol when she arrived in the room. Five of the women, including Kaltain, were huddled in a circle by a marble pillar, closely resembling a flock of sheep trying to stay warm from the harsh winter temperatures. They were all quite red about the face and several of them were close to tears. They wore pants that hung from them like sacks of food, their shirts barely revealing their more feminine body parts.
Feeling moderately smug, Celaena Sardothien walked over to where Anuksun and Chaol were talking.
"Are you sure you're not going to get into any political trouble for this?" Celaena asked Chaol, her mouth twisting up to the side.
Chaol snorted and shook his head. "They can complain and whine, but, technically, since I'm acting on behalf of the King's orders, they can't do a damn thing about it." Chaol ran a hand through his brown hair. "Besides," he said with a smile, "I think it'll be good for Kaltain R'ompier to be humiliated like this. She likes to believe that she has power over people, so it makes her absolutely furious when someone uses their authority over her in such a degrading manner."
Celaena laughed, and poor Anuksun tried to look as amused as possible.
When the other two women arrived (the third had showed up in a sobbing fit and had to be escorted out), Chaol began. Celaena had tried to keep herself from laughing as the women worked themselves into an emotional wreck. She had never imagined that wearing men's clothes could be so horrible for someone used to wearing a bone- crunching corset.
Handing them dull-edged swords, Lord Chaol put them in pairs, but since their number was down to nine, Celaena had to be partnered with Chaol himself. The redhead, Jodra Nustrom, had the unfortunate honor of being Kaltain's sparring partner. Chaol had them all going over the basic steps for the first hour and a half, which then evolved to learning the fastest way of making a touch on the chest, or, as Celaena would put it, a sure-kill. Even after a week's practice with the man, Celaena had difficulty getting past his guard. However, according to him, she was making great progress and, if she were against the other women, they would be so full of holes that they could be used as strainers in the kitchens.
When the assassin could spare it, she watched Anuksun and her partner go at it. The Princess was very good and very fast. If Anuksun had been against Chaol, he could be used as a food strainer after their lessons.

To both her delight and displeasure, Kaltain was not very fast or well disciplined with a sword, but her blows were so strong and sure that Kaltain R'ompier sent her opponent flying into the ground a few times before their lesson was over.
It was four o'clock by the time they finished, and Celaena Sardothien was so tired and sweaty that she considered passing out on the training-room floor instead of trudging all the way up to her room. However, the promise of a hot bath and a soft bed was enough to make Adarlan's assassin move her feet.
Princess Anuksun asked Celaena if she was planning on going to the group dinner that Prince Dorian was hosting that evening, but the look that Lord Chaol gave Celaena told her to tell Anuksun that she would most not be attending the meal that night. Lord Chaol had dismissed the ladies and waited until all but Anuksun had left the hall before he took Celaena back to her room—he didn't want any scandalous rumors springing up.
The princess and the assassin parted with smiles and waves, Lord Chaol leading Celaena out of the hall.
"I see you made a new friend," Chaol said, smiling.
"If I hadn't, Kaltain would have made her miserable." She replied, looking ahead at the corridor before them. "The fact that she was a princess didn't mean anything to you?"
Celaena turned her head sharply to look at him, insulted. "For your information, I stood up for her and befriended her before I knew that she was Princess of Eyputiusunn. All I knew was that she was alone in a foreign country, looked interesting, and that if I had been in her position, I would have liked for someone to do the same."
"I had no idea that you were so noble." Chaol said and didn't look at her.
"Why am I not surprised?" Celaena shook her head, unhappy at this conversation. Conversation had always gone well with Chaol, and while they had some dry and sarcastic moments, he was never this...rude. But then again, they weren't friends and she and Chaol had never talked too casually—he always remained somewhat distant and wary of her, as if she had "assassin" stamped in glowing red on her forehead.
This thought suddenly made Celaena very angry. She had no intention of killing anyone, though she was still emotionally capable of doing so. In the mines, they hadn't succeeded in doing what they had set out to do by forcing and whipping her to her near-death: to break her spirit. She hadn't crumpled up with despair and turned her face to the wall to die; she hadn't taken her own life (she had considered it once or twice though); and she hadn't begged or pleaded for her freedom. Lowering herself to do that was worse than death in her mind. No, she had beaten those bastards who had sent her to Endovier; she had prevailed.
But why did Chaol still not trust her? Even during dinner, when it would have been convenient to have a knife, even a butter knife, to cut her food with, she was denied anything but a spoon and a very dull fork. All of this was ridiculous, especially since if she wished it, she could easily kill whomever Chaol thought she was going to slay with some object that was in the room. Why wasn't she allowed to attend the dinner tonight? Did Chaol really believe that she was going to pull something when her freedom and name were on the line?
"Why can't I go to the banquet?" Celaena's voice was flat and quiet, the way it usually went before she got furious— like the calm before a storm.
Chaol sensed the shift in her emotions and looked over at her, startled. Him? Startled? If she hadn't been so dangerously angry, she would have laughed.
"Because you're not permitted to go near any potentially dangerous objects. The ladies are allowed to use knives," Chaol said carefully, but then smiled at her. "Besides, they're having steak tonight—and you wouldn't want me cutting your meat for you, now would you?"
"Then why don't you keep me in an empty, windowless room with an iron door and nothing but a chamber pot to keep me company? That way I won't be a threat to your wonderful prince and you won't have to waste your precious time looking after me," she snarled.
Chaol looked at the ground as they walked up a flight of stairs. "I don't mind guarding you, Sardothien."

"I thought you hated to be away from your prince," she said with a sneer.
"Not when I get to spend time with the likes of you, Sardothien." Chaol said cheerfully, bounding up the stairs.
'The likes of you.' His words burned rage into her heart. She had woken up too early and had been worked too hard— putting up with Kaltain's offensive remarks had been enough, but now this?
"Am I that repulsive and untrustworthy to you then? Just because I used to kill to get food in my belly and to stay off the streets? Just because of my past?"
All of that wasn't really true, but it sounded convincing. She had never been on the verge of starving as Adarlan's assassin, not even when she was first starting, but she had killed to survive, to cope with the horrible hand that fate had dealt her.
They rounded a corner and walked down the hallway towards her room.
Chaol snorted. "So you're retired now, is that it? I didn't know that assassins did that. Once a killer, always a killer, I always say. I highly doubt that you've changed that much since the mines."
They had reached Celaena's door as he said this. As she entered, she didn't know whether to scream in fury and kill him or just scream in frustration and go beat something else.
"Go to hell, you bastard," Celaena barked and slammed the door in his face.
It was only hours after she had insulted him that the assassin realized that he had escorted her all the way back to her room unarmed.