Blood of Wonderland (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)(32)

Bah-kan was unstoppable, she realized, perhaps the best warrior she had ever seen in her life. He was the lethal combination of a highly disciplined Card mixed with the best traits of a Yurkei warrior—equal parts brutal and graceful, moving as if he was dancing on air. Dinah realized quickly that there were none in Wonderland or Yurkei country that could best him, aside from perhaps Xavier Juflee, the Knave of Hearts. But she wasn’t sure that even he could beat Bah-kan.

Dinah and Bah-kan sparring was much less exciting, since it took only a few minutes before Dinah was facedown on the ground, beaten and exhausted in every possible way. Still, she was proud that she could meet most of his blows with a somewhat broad counterstrike of her own. She was no longer swinging into the air with large, heavy-handed strokes but rather with quick strikes of her blade combined with rapid foot movement. She danced around Bah-kan, and once managed to land a hard blow just above his ribs that left him gasping. The Yurkei surrounding them had whooped and stomped their feet.

Bah-kan gave a tiny laugh and then plunged forward, rage playing across his white-striped face. Dinah jumped high to avoid a low stroke and brought the butt of her blade down hard on his knee. It was like striking a rock, and the vibrations that shot through her once-broken fingers made her wince in pain. Bah-kan was upon her then. He swung the Heartsword across her chest but stopped mid-swing, twisted around, and punched her in the back of the shoulder—right in the spot where Mundoo had sunk his thin blade. She screamed.

“Bah-kan!” shouted Sir Gorrann, angry.

Bah-kan shrugged. “An enemy will look for her obvious weakness. Why shouldn’t I?”

Surprised by the white-hot pain blowing through her shoulder and distracted by rage, Dinah swung her sword at his arm. It was a mistake. He caught the blade with the end of his Heartsword and wrenched backward. Dinah’s sword went sailing into the crowd and she was left empty-handed.

“Your Highness!” Dinah looked up just in time to see Sir Gorrann toss his knife in her direction. She caught it and turned to meet Bah-kan again. The crowd was silent as Bah-kan shifted his weight from foot to foot, as if thinking of a million ways to kill her. Bah-kan spoke.

“Your father, the King of Wonderland, is a whoremonger and a cheat.” The Yurkei cheered at his words.

Dinah clasped her hand around the dagger. “I agree!” she yelled back.

The crowd laughed, and Bah-kan let a smile draw across his face. “Your half sister is a dozen times more beautiful than you. I hear she is a good queen.”

Dinah felt the fury rising up inside of her, the clawing black heat that she so often pushed back down. Still, she remained calm. “You are surely right. She is lovely, even though she is a false queen.”

Bah-kan sidestepped and then charged, his Heartsword raised as if to carve her in half. Dinah rolled in front of him, clipping him at the shins and making him tumble. As she passed, she nicked the back of his calf with her dagger. Bah-kan roared as he landed, and Dinah scurried to her feet, the dagger poised to throw. For a second, she had the advantage. Bah-kan was distracted by his bleeding leg, and the Heartsword was down. The voice barreling down insults continued.

“Your mother was just as well-known for her whoring as she was for her mad son.”

Dinah screamed with rage as the fury overtook her and she flung the knife at Bah-kan. The blade was thrown so sloppily that it bounced off the edge of his Heartsword even though he never moved it. With inhuman speed, he reached out, caught it in his hands, and flung it back at Dinah. She watched as it buried itself deep in her chest armor. Without the armor that Mundoo insisted upon, she would have been dead, but that was the least of her cares. Seeing nothing but her all-encompassing black rage, she launched herself upon Bah-kan and ripped at his ear with her teeth.

“Your Highness! Dinah! Stop!” She felt Sir Gorrann grab her waist and tug her back.

Bah-kan shoved her off with one hand. “Control her! Gods, there’s a fire in this one!” The crowd stared as Sir Gorrann carried her, squirming and screaming, back to her tent.

That had been a dark day, but the training continued. Each and every morning her lesson was learned: when she let her fury get the best of her, she lost control of herself, her fight, and her focus. She learned to remain calm and in control and told herself that revenge was best taken with a blade—not a violent tantrum. Bah-kan’s strength and skill always bested her in the end, and would forever, but Dinah grew exponentially as a fighter each time his Heartsword met her blade. Between the training that Wardley had given her growing up, the time she had spent learning from Sir Gorrann in the woods, and the brutal, one-on-one fighting with Bah-kan, Dinah felt increasingly more comfortable with the blade in her hand. The next day, she faced off sword to sword with a dozen different Yurkei warriors, and more often than not, they fought as equals.

After their seventh day of training, Bah-kan released Dinah early, saying that he had to visit his wife and brood of children, who lived at the other end of the valley. Dinah smiled at the thought—Bah-kan and his Yurkei wife, and their tent full of monstrous children, all taller than the rest of the Yurkei children, with white hair and shining blue eyes.

Dinah yawned as she rested her sword up against a wooden paddock, noting that even the fence posts had been carved with tiny winged birds. Her muscles quivered with exhaustion as she made her way toward her tent, fancying the bed that waited for her. As she pushed back the tent flap, she bumped hard into Sir Gorran’s chest. “You can’t come here now, girl.” She stepped back, annoyance playing across her face.