Frost (Frost and Nectar #1)(39)

“You might want to move out of the way. We will be moving around quite a bit.”

“Okay.” I stepped closer to him, lifting the sword with feigned awkwardness. “Is this right? I’m easily confused, because I’ve only spent time around curiosities and not real people.” I waved it around like it was a flyswatter.

Shalini snorted a laugh.

King Torin sighed. “I honestly can’t tell if you’re joking, so I will go ahead and explain. Your goal is to not get stabbed.”

I stared at him. This was not my experience of competitive fencing, which was not actually lethal.

“Sorry, what? What are the actual rules here?” For foil, the strike zone was the lamé, the full-torso vest. For épée, the target was the whole body. For sabre, it was above the waist. Sabre was a slashing weapon, but foil hits had to be with the tip. I was used to a very specific set of rules.

With this sword, in Faerie? I had no idea what we were doing.

He cocked his head. “I told you the actual rules. Try not to get stabbed. And try to stab me. When you do, you get a point.”

Okay. I began to walk toward him. He held his sword out in a casual grip, and when I was close enough, I tapped my blade against his.

“Don’t go for my sword,” he said. “You will want to hit me.”

I didn’t wait for him to finish. As fast as I could, I slashed the end of my blade at his chest, slicing an eight-inch gash through his cloak.

King Torin jumped back, staring at me, then a slow smile turned the corner of his lips. “Good.”

He attacked immediately.

This time, I parried hard, driving his blade toward the floor. Then, before he could react, I grabbed the hilt of his sword and wrenched it clean out of his hand. I threw it, and it skidded across the icy snow. I whirled and pressed my blade against his throat—lightly.

Okay, so that was not a standard fencing move, but nor was this standard fencing—and it seemed like these swords were the actual, medieval dangerous kind, and not the light foils I’d practiced with.

I arched an eyebrow. “How am I doing?”

His blue eyes blazed in the darkness. After another moment, he returned my smile. “Perhaps you did learn some things among the curiosities, then. Or you adapt quickly.” He raised his hand. “Aeron.

My blade.”

Aeron was already standing by the rapier. With the tip of his toe, he expertly flicked it up into the air, and Torin caught it effortlessly.

“All right,” he said, leveling the rapier at me. “This time, I know who I’m fighting.”

He held up his left arm, pointing his sword at me with the right. I did the same, sliding my feet into the starting position, my right foot pointed at him. He advanced, fast as lightning, stabbing with the end of his rapier. I parried it, driving the blade up and above my head. With a quick twist, I thrust my blade forward and skewered him neatly in the shoulder. Just a tiny little stab through his cloak, but I stared at it, my stomach twisting. “Sorry.”

The weapons I’d trained on weren’t actually designed to skewer anyone, but in Faerie of course they were.

“Don’t apologize.” He grunted. “Best of seven.”

“Three for Ava, zero for Torin,” Shalini called out in a tone that could only be described as gloating.

This time Torin was more circumspect in his approach. He carefully circled me, stabbing and feinting—testing my reflexes. I waited until he’d lunged a little bit too far and parried hard, slashing at his knee. Quickly, Torin jumped out of the way, cursing under his breath.

“Any other techniques you want to fill me in on?”

He smiled back at me. “Stay alive.”

He began to circle me again, feinting and testing. I kept up my defensive strategy, parrying his strokes, staying out of striking range. Even though he needed me to be good, I could tell he was competitive as hell. He wanted to even the score, and I was more than willing to make him work for it.

“All right.” Torin flashed me a mischievous smile. “Let’s try this with an offhand. Aeron, toss me a dagger.”

Aeron, who apparently had been prepared for this request, tossed a short dagger in Torin’s general direction. Torin reached out with his free hand and caught it.

“And what about me?” I said. “Can I get a parrying dagger, too?”

“Is your counsel ready with one?” Torin continued to circle me, like a hunter with his eye on his prey.

“She would have been,” I said, “if anyone had told us why we were coming here.”

“I gotcha, Ava,” shouted Shalini.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw silver arc through the air, then a dagger plunged into the snow at my feet.

At this point, the fight began in earnest.

Now it became clear that King Torin was used to fighting with two blades, and I was not. Among the curiosities, fencing was a popular sport—but it was done in a modern style, and with a single sword. I was already out of my league, not being on a fencing strip, and doing all this circling on the snow. Adding an additional weapon into the mix was stretching the bounds of my ability. Still, I put up the best fight that I could.

I defended well, but Torin fought hard, herding me to the edge of the clearing. At any moment, I was going to fall backward over the row of children’s graves.