Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Jasmine looked at me like I had gone mad. Zed was thoughtful, murmuring, "We get on their ship ... we get on their ship ..." Suddenly he clapped his hands. "That's it! We get on their ship!" he exclaimed, looking at me with new-found admiration.  

"Ab-so-lu-te-ly not," Jasmine started.  

I turned to face her, gripping her shoulders. "Jasmine, listen. The first fleet lands. We get on their spaceship. We fly to Sayrene. Mission accomplished." 

The last part must have hit home, as she started to waver. "But, Suzanne," she almost whined, "it's dangerous. What if you got hurt? Or killed? Then all our efforts would have gone to nothing! We should go for a safer option." 

"For a spy you're not very adventurous," I scoffed.  

"And for a princess you don't value your life much," she countered.  

I considered this a second, then shrugged. "Whatever. Do you have a safer option?" 

"Well ..." said Jasmine, thinking. I raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. "No, not really," she admitted.  

"Then I guess there's nothing for it."  

She hung her head slightly. "Fine, let's do it." 

For the rest of the day Zed and Jasmine practiced everything that might help them relentlessly. I spent a few hours practicing my Wind-bending, and climbing - although that had to be inside as Jasmine wouldn't let me go into the garden.  

When I was sure there was nothing else I could learn or practice, I wandered around a bit until I found Jasmine practicing combat with a dummy at lightning speed. Several knives were already planted into its head and heart. I glanced around the room and spotted several broken dummies piled up in a corner, knives, broken limbs and all.  

I let out a low whistle. "Whoa, you're taking this seriously, aren't you?" 

She came to a stop, and fixed me, her forehead and cheeks glistening with sweat. She was panting, but when she spoke it showed no indication of her tiredness. "Yes, I'm taking all three of our lives very seriously. Did you need anything?"  

"Er, not really. Though I haven't really practiced my combat much, so ... wanna practice?" 

She waved her hand dismissively. "Your priority is getting to safety. Leave the fighting to us." 

"I'm sure that was the plan yesterday, too." 

She ignored me and resumed her fighting, knives borrowing themselves into the dummy one after the other.  

After a second I decided there was nothing to do, and walked out of the room. As I walked briskly towards my room, determined to practice alone, Zed appeared out of nowhere besides me. I jumped in surprise.  

"Listen," he said in a low voice. "Jasmine may think that you won't need to fight, but we both know that's absolute rubbish. There are some weapons that you can learn in the seven days, and are very ... effective." 

I shuddered slightly, imagining what he could mean.. "Effective. Right." 

He led me to a small hall that I hadn't seen before. "I've been using this place to practice," he explained as I looked around. It was long, with archery targets set up at the end wall.  

I looked at him. "Archery targets?" 

He shrugged. "I had to improvise. Here's your first weapon." He handed me a small, metallic object. It was three curved blades arranged in a circle, with a metal disc in the centre. As a whole it must have been the size of my palm.