Wings of Sky

Chapter One

The young lord smiled as he stretched his body languorously. I watched him, wiping a bead of sweat from my eye. The sun's brutal strength beat down ceaselessly onto the white stone arena grounds.

"Are you ready?" the fighting mistress called out from the side-lines.

"Always," the lord replied, smirking at me; I nodded.

"Start."

He darted forwards like an arrow, his fist ready for the punch. In the last moment, I stepped to the side. His passage past me sent a strong woodsy scent stirring the muggy air – the perfume popular amongst the nobles this season.

I spun around, hooking my arm around his neck. I threw my weight against him. He stumbled and fell. He was bigger and stronger than me so there would be no point in an extended wrestle. I had to incapacitate him as quickly as possible.

I held on tightly, trying to render him unconscious. He bucked, trying to throw me off. I bore down on hm. In the desperate hot space of the struggle, there was only the sound of my gasping wet breaths and his grunts.

But it was still early into the fight, and he had plenty of strength. He managed to throw me off, flipping me heels-over-head onto my back. I rolled onto my front, onto my feet. He stood quickly.

I surged forwards, aiming a punch for his face, but he had longer arms than I did, and while my punch merely grazed his cheekbone, he managed to sink one into my chest. My breath exploded out of me as I staggered backwards, pain radiating from my rib cage.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, but from the soft focus of his eyes, it was clear he was still dazed from the chokehold. I lunged. He punched out, overreaching. I ducked under his arm, and punched low, once, twice, enough to send him staggering backwards.

I dropped backwards. He was coughing, retching, trying to steady his arms. I spun my body forwards, lashing out with my back leg. My shin struck his stomach solidly, sending him to the ground. I immediately kicked him in the side; on my second try, he caught my foot and pushed me aside as he rolled onto his side.

I couldn't let him get up. I threw more weight into my third kick, eliciting a deep groan from him. He curled up, trying to protect his side. I kicked him again, sending him splaying out. I threw myself onto him, digging my knee into an arm. He tried to punch me, but the punch weakly landed on my side ribs.

I drove three punches into the side of his face, watching his eyes lost more and more focus and he stopped trying to shove me off. As I raised my fist for a fourth punch, the fighting mistress's voice rang out: "Enough. Lady Esaling wins."

I dropped my fist, rolling off my opponent as the sounds of the fighting arena rushed in over the roar of my blood and the thudding of my heartbeat. There was the rustling of leaves in the forest covering the top of the hill above the fighting grounds, the lusty cheering of a lone voice from the spectator stands terraced into the hill around the arena, and the squawking of outraged attendants running to their fallen lord.

I clambered to my feet, brushing the dirt off my trousers. The lord was helped onto his feet. He was blinking dazedly, trying to focus on his attendants' concern.

"That was disgraceful fighting!" a woman dressed in a resplendently red-and-gold tunic shouted at me, round face ruddy with anger. "You could have killed him!"

I considered. "Yes, probably. But if I truly wanted to, I would have brought a knife. It would have gone much faster."

The woman and a few others blanched.

"Are you threatening my lord?" she hissed. "Yap Lord Xidexin will hear about this!"

"I am not threatening him," I said with some exasperation. "I merely obliged his lordship's desire for exercise as he put it himself."