Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(16)

Emerald marched to the other end of the line so they could see what she was doing.

With her gone, I dropped my stance and rested the bow on my foot. Eleven hooked hers across a shoulder and doubled over her knees, still trying to catch her breath. I slid a hand along the bow. It was finer than anything I’d ever handled and certainly better than the ones Grell let us carry for dangerous runs.

“Absolutely not.” Emerald smacked my shoulder with an arrow. “Bow off the ground, or you’ll spend the night eating dirt.”

I jerked up, one hand gripping the bow and the other on the string. Emerald shook her head.

“Shoulders perpendicular to your target.” She glided past, nudging my feet wider and tapping my stomach. “You should think of your body in angles. Your angle to the target, the angle of your arm from the ground, your bow from your body.”

She raised her voice and walked to Five.

“Your eyes will not lead you to your target. Your body is in control, and you must be in control of your body.” She shoved his shoulders down from his ears and adjusted Eleven. Pleased—or as pleased as she ever was—with all of us, she picked up her bow. “Now don’t move.”

My shoulders ached. A slow, seeping pain dripped down my spine, tightening every muscle and burrowing under my shoulder blades. A needling pressure burned in my lower back. The ache trembled down my arms till my elbows locked.

“Your target,” said Emerald, arms not shaking at all, “will not always be in an easily accessible position. You will have to wait for them to move within range where you can kill them, harm no one else, and escape unnoticed. Or you will adjust accordingly.”

She drew back her right arm as though to shoot, and we all followed. My right hand tensed, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to uncurl my fingers if I tried. The ache was bone deep and gnawed at my joints. She held us there till sweat dripped down my forehead, nose, chin, and neck. The canteen was heavy on my hip.

“If you are Opal, the day will come when your duty will demand patience, and you must be ready for that day. Or else you have no business being Opal.”

Emerald moved to lower her bow. Eleven dropped her arms with a loud sigh, and I cracked my shoulders out of position. Finally.

Emerald froze again and clucked her tongue. “You cannot rush things—impatience courts failure.”

She lifted her bow back into place.

No one moved. My shadow grew longer with each agonizing shake of my arms, my fingers stretching into misshapen claws around the bow. I let out a raspy breath into my shoulder and bent my knees to ease the stone-jointed weight that had settled in my legs. Emerald lowered her stance and shook out her arms. I collapsed over my knees.

“Stand up straight.” Emerald collected my bow with the others. “You’re not done yet.”

I rose, holding back a groan at my pins-and-needles arms. Five crossed his arms over his head, hands dangling over his shoulders. His fingers were calloused.

Four did stretches down the way, hooking one arm behind his back. My shoulder popped when I tried it.

I downed the rest of my canteen instead of copying the rest.

Ruby swapped places with Emerald. Three vanished into the small copse of trees growing near the wall, leaping into the branches. Five meandered back into the building, arms not shaking at all.

Ruby passed out too-heavy swords with blunted ends. My hand could barely hold the hilt, and I stumbled my way into the shade. Any archer would have to lean out to hit me there, catching Ruby’s gaze, and I hadn’t seen anyone in the other building. At least I’d be able to dodge.

If my body did what I asked it. Ruby slowly led us through the motions of fighting—one parry and lunge, another parry, another lunge, a block. A stitch clawed at my sides with every twist, exhaustion scoured my calves clean off the bone with each step, and my head threatened to drift away on the breeze with every wavering thought. I couldn’t focus.

“Weight off your front foot.” Ruby bowed over my feet, impossibly limber for a person his height, and he jerked me into the right position. “The lines from your heels should form a corner. Back leg and chest sideways, front foot forward.”

There was no hiding my trembling with him so close. He tapped my right arm up.

“What did you normally do during the day?” He slid a palm down my arm and forced my elbow to move. “Don’t lock up. You’ll drop your sword.”

“Slept a lot. Worked the crowd when the market was busy.” I pushed myself through the first motion he’d shown us, body so light I’d float away if not for the heaviness in my stomach. Last time I’d felt this chilled in the warmth of autumn, I’d been sick and passed out on Rath’s feet. “If I was fighting or running, I’d sleep more and skip the crowds.”

“You didn’t mention eating.”

“Gets expensive.” I shifted back into the start position. “Real jobs go to kids with parents or all those old mages. They can afford to work for less. Could be a laborer, sure, but you can’t start that till you’re ten. Most get pulled into thieving young. They don’t let you leave. I got enough to keep me alive and stole enough to keep me strong. If I looked too well, Grell’d have felt threatened.”

Grell only let me get away with being so good at fighting because my bouts brought in plenty of profit.

Ruby made an odd sound in the back of his throat and smacked the sword out of my hands. It clattered to the ground between us.