Page 62 of To No End

Next, she instructed us to pair up for some hand-to-hand combat. I anxiously watched Trace approach Cairis. I feared the inevitability that Varro and Trace would have to face one another eventually. But it would not be today, and the relief of that spread through me. Gia stepped up to Varro, taking spiteful pleasure in pairing with a male. It was so like Gia to want to test the waters of Theory’s equal-means-equal training methods.

I went to pair with the only person left in the room, but when I turned to face Nori, I found her sitting against the wall in the corner, her legs tucked tightly into her chest. What was she doing?

I went over to inquire if something was wrong or if she wasn’t feeling well. Given the options, I was the best partner for her. I wasn’t going to go easy on her, at least not in a noticeable way, but she seemed entirely too breakable to spar with anyone else.

I crouched beside her. “Hey, come on, what are you doing?”

She wouldn’t even look up at me, remaining firm and unmoving.

“Nori, we have to practice. You heard Theory. If we don’t push ourselves, she’s going to be the one doing the pushing, and I don’t want to find out what that means on day one.”

Before my pleading could get me anywhere, I felt the presence of Saryn hovering over us both. “Ladies, do we have a problem here?”

“I’m not sure.” I tried to make an excuse for her. “I don’t think she feels well enough to practice today.”

Before we even had a second to see if Saryn had believed a single word of my lie, Nori gritted out, “I’m not doing this.”

Saryn let out an amused laugh. Nori was small and meek, no match to be squaring off with Saryn in any sort of altercation, but the intensity in her dark eyes seemed to be boiling over. Saryn crouched down and menacingly whispered to her, “Your Goddess isn’t here. Get up, now!”

I took a step back, feeling the energy shifting between them. Nori looked infuriated with Saryn, and it was clear he had struck a serious chord.

Theory yelled from across the room, “What’s going on? Why are those two wasting time?”

Saryn stood and barked across the room, “We have a follower of Ilithyia amongst us.”

He said it with such distaste, I could feel his annoyance permeate the air. The Goddess Ilithyia. I tried to remember the histories of our religious texts. If I recalled correctly, she was one of the old Gods, a herald of fertility, and lived her life as a pacifist. It was all starting to make sense. Nori was refusing to fight because she abhorred violence. Oh Gods, how in the three moons of Demir did she end up here?

Suddenly, my protectiveness of her heightened, but Saryn was intent on breaking her. They had told us this is exactly whatthey’d do. They didn’t care about our beliefs or reservations, and especially not who we were before the Offering.

Theory yelled across the room coldly, “We have no need for that nonsense here; I suggest you make yourself useful to us.”

Nori didn’t waver; she was resolved to ignore their insults. I understood her beliefs, I really did, but now wasn’t the time to be idealistic. They can refer to us all as family, they can trap us here if they like and force us to train, but that doesn’t mean they have to keep us if we aren’t useful to them.

I gave Nori a pleading look, one begging for her trust. She ignored me, leaving me without a sparring partner. I looked nervously at Saryn who had already come to the same conclusion I had.

“Pity when grapes wither on the vine,” he chided, walking away and leaving Nori curled up on the cold floor. He beckoned me to follow him.

My nerves had shot through the roof and I couldn’t help but fixate on Saryn’s patch, wondering how he had lost his eye, when suddenly he open-hand smacked me across the face. The room went silent and the others turned to face us in disbelief.

“Be careful, Cress, or you’ll lose an eye, too.”

I cupped my hand to my throbbing cheek, trying to come to terms with how hard he had hit me with no warning. “Keep me out of your head or suffer the consequences of your distraction.”

I clenched my fists in anger, everyone around us disappearing from my vision as I attacked Saryn. I swung angrily, but he ducked and dodged all of my attempts, avoiding every blow. I moved with speed, dancing around him, thinking it might be possible to catch him in a literal blind spot, but he anticipated my every move. I continued my assault, letting every bit of rage flow through me. Rage for how they treated Nori, for being stuck here, rage for how Trace was avoiding me, and for what they wanted me to become.

Despite Saryn’s size, he was nimble and managed to keep up with me. I was already tired, and he was not showing any signs of slowing down. In an act of desperation I yelled, “Gia, blade… Now!”

Without hesitation, Gia lunged for a short sword on the wall and threw it to me. The second I caught the hilt, I could see pride flicker across Saryn’s face—but I didn’t care.

I swung the blade wildly in his direction, left then right, again and again, forcing him to back up farther and farther with each step until his back hit the stone corner post. In one fluid twist, a motion I had practiced many times, I lunged to one knee now holding the blade right against his lower belly, and yelled, “Yield!”

In a real fight, with one slice of that blade, his innards would be on the floor.

Saryn did not respond and instinctively, my training taught me to yell again, “Yield!”

Saryn looked down at me with his one good eye, unyielding. I pushed the sharp edge of the blade into his shirt, applying pressure, trying to show him it was over.

But he was daring me. He wanted me to cut him. Everything about this uncomfortable silence told me to do it, but something in me wouldn’t allow it. I had never purposefully cut anyone in my life. Worried that Saryn would do something to force me into action, I stood abruptly, still firmly holding my blade against him, and before he could say another word, I slapped him right across the face in the same way he had done to me earlier.

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