Page 21 of Spirit Trials
“You have a knife at my throat,” I point out. “There’s no getting out of that.”
“Yes, there is. Let me show you. Hold your knife to my throat.”
I roll my eyes. “I can’t even reach you.” He bends, so that his head is lower.
“Put your knife to my throat from behind.” I do as he says. “Now watch.” He grabs hold of my arm holding the knife. “Pull down with all your strength and at the same time, twist your body, spinning out of the hold. Continue the momentum by pinning your opponent’s arm behind their back.” He demonstrates on me, and I wince at the movement but don’t say anything. He lets go. “Your turn.”
A moment later, he’s behind me again with his knife at my throat. I grab the hand holding the knife to my throat and pull it down and away from my neck and twist my body at the same time, coming up and under his arm. I try to twist his arm behind his back, but he anticipates it and moves out of my hold. Then before I can process what to do next, he takes my feet out from under me. I blink and try to catch my breath.
“You’re dead.”
I glare at him and climb to my feet. “Again.” He puts a knife to my throat, and we go through the same movement with the same results. I blow out a frustrated breath and stand to my feet again. “Again.” We go through it all again. I push the hand holding the knife away from my throat and down and twist and use my momentum to try to pin his arm behind his back. Ofcourse, he’s ready for it and doesn’t let me. He tries to take me down, but this time, I’m ready for him. Because I’m still holding his hand, I yank him down with me. I land hard on my back, and he lands right on top of me. I grunt as his weight pushes me against the ground. He shifts and takes some of his weight on his forearms. I look up and make the mistake of meeting his eyes. They’re darker than they were before, and I don’t like the look in his eyes. Panicking, I push him off me. He easily gets to his feet, but I ignore the hand he puts out to help me up. I take several steps away and try to still my racing heart. I can feel his eyes on me, but I don’t look over at him. I’m feeling really unsettled right about now.
“You know I’d never hurt you, right?” he asks in a low voice.
“No, of course not. You just kidnap me and threaten my family on the regular. Of course, I wouldn’t think you’d hurt me.” My words sound harsh, even to my own ears. I feel the mood shift.
“Again.” He’s back to hard trainer again, and I’ve never been so grateful. He comes at me, and I go on the defensive. We go at it over and over and over again, and he never stops barking out commands. When he finally lets us take a break for water, I wipe the sweat from my forehead. “Why are you so intense about hand-to-hand combat? I thought you’d be more worried about me surviving the trials themselves. We’re not going to be sparring out in the woods.”
His dark gaze meets mine. “The trials are a big deal, and most of the competitors train their entire lives for it. Nobody wants to take the chance that their spirit animal won’t show, and they will be banished. So, every person there will work to win the trials because—”
“Winning means they can stay in the kingdom,” I fill in for him.
“Right, and it’s a lot of money. They will be fierce. They will come at you when you least expect it, especially if they see that you’re an actual threat to them winning. Believe me, they’ll take notice of you.”
I don’t say anything in response, because honestly that’s the closest thing to a compliment I’ve gotten from him. I really don’t want him to open his mouth and say something to ruin it. He destroys me the rest of the day; the worst is the ice baths he makes me endure. I can’t stand them. Second worst is swimming in the freezing water until I feel like my weighted limbs will take me to the bottom of the lake. Finally, I get a reprieve to go get ready for the night. When I get to my room, the first thing I do is start a hot bath. I’m in the middle of soaking when somebody knocks on the door. I have no plans of getting out of here until the water turns cold. I ignore whoever it is; they’ll have to come back later. But when they knock again and again, I drag myself up out of the bathtub and wrap a towel around me. I whip the door open. “This had better be important.” Two girls stand in front of me with expressions of shock on their face. “Uh,” I clutch the towel tighter around myself. “Can I help you?”
The taller of the two seems to recover first. “Yes, Miss Farrah, we are here to help you.”
I blink. First, because I’ve never been addressed asMissin my entire life. Second, becausewhat? “I’m sorry. Who are you and why do I need your help?”
The two girls glance at each other, and I feel like I’m missing something. “We were sent here to help you get ready for tonight...for the dinner.” For the first time, I notice that both of them are laden down with baskets.
“Oh, sorry. Okay, um, come in.” I glance around the hallway once more and then close the door behind them. Without asking, I’m sure this is Rysden’s doing. They put everything they’re carrying down on the bed.
Then the tall one takes control. “I see you’ve just come from the bathing chambers, but you will need to head back that way.” She starts walking there, like she’s been in my room a hundred times. For all I know, maybe she has.
“But I just took a bath.”
“Yes, but not with all the products that we brought.”
Products? “Listen, I really appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I think I’ve got this.”
She puts her hands on her hips. “We are being paid to do a job, and we would like to collect the funds for this job. So, if you would be a little more accommodating, that would be much appreciated.”
Feeling appropriately put in my place, I sigh. “Okay. Tell me what I have to do.” Tess and Rita, as I later learn their names to be, go to work on me. And boy, do they work on me. It takes hours. They scrub my hair, feet, nails, and body. They work on my hair for an embarrassingly long time, even asking if they can cut off the dead ends. I try to relax; I really do. But I’m just not used to be being touched so much and being pampered. They leave no part of me untouched, even going as far as to add color to my lips and product to my face. I’m not really looking forward to seeing myself in the mirror; I’m scared that I’m going to look like a...well, I don’t know what. But not me. I’m relieved when they finally finish and declare it’s time for me to get dressed.
Chapter 13
I stare at the black dress that’s lying on my bed; that definitely wasn’t there earlier. As if reading my thoughts, Rita says, “The tailor dropped this off for you about an hour ago.” I reach out and touch the fabric; it’s made of the softest silk I’ve ever felt. The sleeves are a gorgeous lace that I’m afraid will rip too easily with me wearing it. The top of the dress has the same matching lace and drops into a v. The dress gathers at the waist before falling to the floor.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathe.
“Try it on,” Tess, the quieter of the two, says.
It takes a few minutes, but we finally get it on. I realize there’s a slit on the side of the dress that goes up to the middle of my thigh. It actually works well because I can put my strap for my knife right above where the slit ends. Once I’ve strapped on my sheath and slipped my knife in and made sure it’s going to stay, I stand up and let the dress fall to the ground. Both girls are staring at me with matching expressions of shock and maybe horror. “Are you going to need that at the dinner?” Tess whispers.
I shrug. “I’ve learned to be prepared for anything.”
