Page 14 of Warrior of the Wild
Blood drips from my ax as I look up into the seating once more. My father stands and clashes the rod of his ax against the ground in approval. Everyone in the crowd stomps their feet. My eyes seek my mother’s face. She still watches me, and I swear I see the almost-imperceptible movement of a nod. If it was a nod, was it one of approval? Was it her face turning downcast in disappointment? A physical sign of her resigning to her fate?
I am a skilled warrior. She knows I will not fail. She will have to walk this world knowing I’m in it, too, somewhere, keeping her husband from her as Father trains me, dotes on me.
“Well done,” Torrin says, pulling my attention back down tohim, “but the next one’s mine.” The eagerness is apparent in his voice.
“Of course. I bet I can kill more than you by the end, though.” We’re running again, searching right and left for more signs of the creatures.
“Are you willing to wager on that?”
“Of course.”
“All right, what do you want if you win?” he asks.
I know what I want, but I’m still not brave enough to ask for it. No, I will surprise him with a kiss after the trial. “If I win, you have to clean and polish my ax after the trial—and every day for the next month after we start taking rotations guarding the village boundaries.”
“That is easily doable.”
“What do you want if you win?” I ask.
“That’s—”
A ball of smooth black skin attaches itself to Torrin’s back. For a moment, I’m unable to move, horrified by what’s in front of me. He can’t be banished. I need him.
A second later, I’m launching myself forward. Grabbing the ziken with my bare hands, I tear it from Torrin’s back and throw it in the opposite direction. The beast is heavy; it doesn’t sail more than a few feet. But by then, Torrin has turned around, fire in his eyes, ax straight. He takes a swing at it, severing off an arm and biting into the neck. With a second swing, he detaches the head.
“Torrin,” I say, barely above a whisper, staring at the little drops of blood falling from his neck. He probably can’t hear me over the sounds of the audience’s loud exclamations.
“It’s okay. Those are claw marks. It didn’t bite me.”
I don’t dare believe him without checking. I inch down the armor at his back to get a better look at the exposed skin of his neck. Yes, claw marks. And he hasn’t started shaking from the venom spread through their bite.
I sigh in relief.
“Did you honestly not believe me? Or were you simply desperate to see beneath my shirt?”
I glare at him. “Don’t you scare me like that again.”
“It’s all right. I won’t. Come, now. We’ve done the hard part. All that’s left to do is survive without sustaining a bite. Let’s go on.”
We’re running again. Despite the previous scare, we’re still eager to reach more of the deadly beasts.
“What were you going to say?” I ask. “What do you want if you kill more of them than I do?”
“That’s easy. I want you to put in a good word for me with your father.”
“Oh.” It makes sense, I suppose, but it bothers me that he wants to use me like that.
“Get that frown off your face, Rasmira. I want you to put in a good word for me so he’ll give me permission to court you.”
I nearly drop my ax.
“Don’t look so surprised.”
“I’m disappointed that I have to let you win now.”
He smiles at me, and it makes the future seem so bright. I don’t even care if I have to deal with my mother’s hate. My teacher’s false praise. My father’s single-minded adoration. As long as I can protect this village, spend time with my sisters,andhave Torrin, I don’t need anything else.
We round another corner and stop dead in our tracks.
