In the city of Corregal, sword fighting is a way of life - unless you're a girl. While young men compete for prestigious positions within the ruling Houses, young women have to rely on others to protect them from the dangers lurking in the streets...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The sword was more trouble than Neda had anticipated. Not only was it heavier on her hip than she'd imagined it would be, but it kept sticking out at odd angles, tangling itself with her legs and the legs of any unfortunate passersby who happened to be in the way. She'd always thought the swordsman's pose of hand-on-hilt was all about swagger. Now she understood it was a practiced attempt to keep one's sword under control while moving. Fortunately, with the exception of two girls she knocked over on the dance floor, most people were indulgent of any mishaps. As for the girls, she thought they were probably potters, who were known to be uppity and deserved a little knocking down anyway.
By the time she'd finished her conversation with Romeric, she was ready to give the dancing another try, but her friends had other ideas.
"It's really important!" Kelyn declared as they hauled her away to a less crowded section of the bridge. There, among much giggling and twittering, it was Etiana who finally blurted out what they wanted.
"Neda, you have to introduce us!"
"To who?"
"To them!"
"The boys!" Mierra bounced on her toes. "Your boys!"
"My..."
"It's the Trienelle, Neda. It's not fair to keep them all to yourself. Everyone knows it's good luck to get a kiss during the Trienelle."
"You want..."
"They're so handsome, Neda."
"You're so lucky! You get to live with them."
She stared at them, not quite believing what she was hearing. In the first place, she had never felt particularly lucky having the three boys invade her home. They were loud and obnoxious and smelled bad most of the time. In the rare times when they were not being irritating, they were occupying her father's attention and learning the things she wished she could be learning herself. And second, she couldn't understand why her friends — all smart and sensible girls — were suddenly so wound up about them. They'd never shown much interest before, except to commiserate when Neda complained about all the aforementioned flaws.
"So will you?" Kelyn asked. "Introduce us?"
"We already decided," Mierra burbled on. "There are three of us, and three of them. Kelyn is tallest, so she gets Barris..."
"I don't mind," Kelyn said. Neda imagined she was turning a bright red behind her mask. "It's just a kiss."
"...Etiana gets Tierce..."
"He's so cute!"
"And I am going to kiss — wait, I can never remember his name right. The Jurati! I bet he knows a lot about kissing."
"Wait!" someone said, and by this point Neda's vision was so full of red that she really had no idea who said it. "Who is Neda going to kiss?"
"I'm not going to kiss anyone!" she snapped, her voice rising with sudden temper. "And I'm certainly not going to play matchmaker so you three can indulge some stupid fantasy! If you want them to kiss you tonight, you're going to have to go find them yourselves!"
