Early the next morning, Da was leaving to go back to the farm with what seemed like a small army’s worth of guards. Horses milled about near the front gate, nickering and stopping with an impatience to get going. Birdsong warbled along the light breeze, greeting the first rays of sunlight to broach the horizon. The air was cold under the cloudless sky, enough to make my nose and ears sting and for my breath to puff out in small white clouds. Da wrapped me up in a bone cracking hug as we murmured our goodbyes to each other. He was leaving too soon, having only just arrived the previous day. Still, I was anxious for him to get back home quickly to provide the relative safety of additional guards for mum and Mason.

The Duke himself had assured us that all the guards responsible for my family had their backgrounds verified to ensure no Tarnished could hide among them. A small voice at the back of my head whispered that the ducal couple had already had three Tarnished living under their roof so far, how could they be confident there were no more planted amongst their people? I forcibly squashed that voice as soon as it spoke. If the Duke hadn’t been sure no more Tarnished hid within the Strykar household, I doubt he’d have taken the risk of declaring as much.

I stayed at the iron gate once the group left until Da and the guards were long out of sight, feeling forlorn and much like a lost child. Why couldn’t I just go home with him? Go back to the farm with its steady routine of chores and pretend like nothing had happened? But no, ignoring this problem would not make it go away. I shook myself out of my reverie and turned back towards the mansion.

I trailed my hands along the dewy leaves of the wisteria as I walked beneath the arches laden with its purple flowers. The necklace Da had given me yesterday sat safely under my collar and shifted against my skin, the hum of life within it feeling like a song I could almost hear. There were only a few days remaining until I was due to leave for the capital, the journey I had been thinking of as tedious now looming in my mind as a monumental and dangerous thing. I felt woefully unprepared. I needed to arrange for seeds I could take with me so I could defend myself. Thinking a few lemon seeds and the blackberry seeds I already had would be enough had been a mistake. I needed more. But…

That means I’ll have to go into the town with a guard.

I groaned inwardly. Delicate noble ladies and lords needed guards, the idea of taking one with me, a mere ragged commoner, felt ridiculous and slightly embarrassing. But, it wasn’t something I could put off.

I had made it halfway up the stairs to the mansion’s entrance before noticing Captain Strykar standing at the top, arms folded as he stared down at me.

Talk about timing.

“G’morning sir,” I began timidly once I’d come level with him. I wiped my palms along my pants. I felt a bit awkward in front of him, since the last time I’d seen him I had been in shock from the attack.

Wait, am I supposed to call him ‘My Lord?’ Should I bow?

I hesitated a moment before continuing. “Er, I need to go into town for supplies, but Her Grace told me I can only do that if I have a guard. Do I need to speak with you about organising one?” I asked, feeling a bit nervous. I was trying my best to sound polite, and it reminded me of asking my old school teacher for a bathroom break.

One of the Captain’s eyebrows shifted, and I thought I saw his mouth twitch upwards, but his short beard hid the movement. “Yes, I would be the one to arrange that,” he said in a tone that sounded a bit amused.

I ignored the burn of embarrassment that was creeping up my neck, and tried to keep my tone polite. “Alright, may I borrow one of the guards sometime before the journey to the capital?”

“Sure,” Captain Strykar replied. Before I could feel any amount of relief, he gestured towards the back of the mansion with his thumb. “But before that, come with me for a bit.”

Not waiting for my answer, he started walking back down the steps and towards the side of the mansion that lead towards the back of the grounds.

Why do I feel like I’m about to be put to work?

I hurried after the Captain, walking quickly to keep up with his longer legs. A nagging worry suggested that perhaps he wanted favours in exchange for assigning me a guard, but I squashed that by reasoning that someone from such an influential family would have no need to leverage that from someone like me. Still, I kept my fingers next to the pouch of seeds tied to my belt, just in case.

Before long, we were approaching the training grounds I had seen during my work with Gordon and the gardeners. Men and women alike were busily training with a variety of weapons, from swords, spears and maces, to bows and crossbows at the archery targets along one side of the cleared space. A pair of guards were sparring near the centre of the training grounds, surrounded by a small crowd that called out encouragement and jeers to the fighters. As we approached, one of the sparring guards was knocked backwards by their opponent, tumbling into a few of the onlookers, much to the amusement of the rest. I heard Captain Strykar sigh and mutter something to himself before he increased his pace towards the crowd.

I was a bit confused. Why had he brought me here?

Someone noticed the Captain approaching, and barked a quick order to the rest who all quickly stood to attention. I recognised Jayce amongst the guards, and was surprised to realise he was the one to knock his opponent over just before. Perhaps he was more capable than he seemed? Or was the other guy just particularly bad?

I followed Captain Strykar into the training grounds, avoiding the curious glances of the guards now focused on our arrival. He stopped in front of the group and clasped his hands behind his back. His shoulders were square, back ramrod straight and chin slightly lifted. It was the same stance Da had often used with me and Mason.

Ooh boy, they’re in trouble.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Captain Strykar snapped. His voice held an edge which made me flinch. “I told you all to run drills, what makes you think you’re permitted to do as you please?”

An uncomfortable silence followed, many of the guards shifting and looking away without answering. One man took a step forward, and I recognised him to be Liam, one of the men who I had travelled to the city with.

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“There was a disagreement, sir,” he stated. Sweat trickled down his face and beaded on his upper lip, but his gaze remained unwavering. “We felt it would be best settled through a spar.”

The Captain glanced over the other guardsmen and women. He seemed to pause when he looked over at Jayce, and I noticed the man had a red mark on his jaw that looked to have been made by a fist. “I see,” he said flatly. “And has the ‘disagreement’ been settled?”

Jayce glanced over at the man he had been fighting, who in turn looked down. “Yes sir,” Jayce replied, meeting Captain Strykar’s eyes. “It’s been put to rest.”

The Captain gave a sharp nod. “Good,” he said, lifting a hand in a dismissive gesture. “Twenty laps around the mansion grounds, all of you.”

Some quiet groans came from the group, but none protested as they all filed out of the training ground and began their run. Jayce looked over towards me and gave me a wink as he went past.

Once the group were all gone, the remainder of the guards not involved in the fight resumed their training, and the Captain turned towards me with a deep sigh as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Some days it's like babysitting rowdy children,” he muttered.

His statement caught me by surprise, and I let out a snort before I could stop myself. He shot me a crooked smile before clearing his throat.

“Right, the reason I brought you here was to see if you’d had any defence training so far,” he said, walking over to the closest edge of the grounds where racks of wooden practice weapons were arranged. “The journey to the capital is likely to be dangerous, probably more so than we think, and I need to know exactly what I’ll be working with so I can plan accordingly.”

I had trailed behind him as he went to the weapons, and flicked him a look as I registered what he said. “You’ll be coming on the trip as well, sir?” I asked.

The Captain nodded. “Yes. Mother decided it would be prudent to have the best members of our guard travel with you. If her concerns are correct, it will not be a peaceful trip.”

The best members, huh. I suppose he couldn’t be the captain of the guard if he wasn’t one of the best.

I scanned the racks of wooden weapons, spotting a few short swords of a similar style to the one Da carried in amongst them. I picked one up and hefted it in my hand, feeling the familiar yet slightly off weight.

“My father has shown me a few things,” I said to the Captain. “Enough to be able to protect myself a bit, but…”

“But fighting in reality is much different,” the Captain finished with a nod. I hummed in confirmation, thankful he understood.

Captain Strykar took another of the short swords from the rack and led me back out to an open space in the training grounds.

“That’s something I see quite a lot of,” he told me, turning to face me. “Training is a very controlled environment. While it can give you a good foundation of skills it doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the realities of a fight. Especially a fight with your life on the line.”

I saw the Captain adjust his grip on his sword, and absently did the same with mine. “Is there a way to prepare for a real fight?” I asked him.

He grinned at me, white teeth flashing in an almost menacing display. “Yes, there is,” he said cheerily, then lunged towards me while pointing the sword straight at my neck.

I stumbled backwards with a yelp, frantically swinging my own sword upwards in an attempt to block him. One of my heels clipped my other boot, and I tumbled onto the ground with a sharp thud that kicked up some dust and jarred through my tailbone. Captain Strykar was standing above me, sword pointed at my face as he clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“Sloppy,” he said, withdrawing the sword and stepping back. “Get up, we’ll do it again.”

I stood, trying not to wince at what felt like a decent bruise that was forming on my butt. I heard a few snickers coming from the guards that were supposed to be training themselves, and felt my neck begin to burn with shame.

Ignore them, focus on what you need to do.

Once I squared up towards the Captain, he again lunged at me. This time was better, I was prepared for him and was able to dodge his sword and swing my own at his unprotected ribs. In a flash he twisted, stopping his forwards attack and blocking my sword with a deft swipe I struggled to follow. He swung at me, which I quickly blocked. Again and again he swung, impact rattling down my arms as I struggled to keep up with the onslaught. The Captain pivoted, aiming a blow towards my stomach. I brought my sword down, but could fix my grip in time before I felt my weapon tear away from my grasp and bounce off the ground. I tried jumping backwards, intending to put some distance between us so I could dodge around him and try to get my sword back, but he followed with ease and closed ground faster than I could make it. He was right on me, sword flicking up towards me yet again, and I instinctively flung my magic outwards towards the compacted ground. Grass seeds buried beneath the dust reacted, and surged upwards until it had grown to knee height. Captain Strykar glanced down in surprise, hesitating just slightly in his attack and giving me just enough time to hurl myself sideways and tuck myself into a tight roll towards my sword. I grabbed it up quickly and swung back around to face him, only to find his sword once again pointed right at my face.

My breathing was heavy as I huffed to catch my breath, and I could feel sweat trickling down my temple. Annoyingly, Captain Strykar was still breathing calmly, as though he were out for a relaxing stroll. He gave me another of his crooked smiles before withdrawing his sword and stepping back.

“Better,” he said, gesturing for me to stand. “Your instincts are decent, and you’re able to use your magic quickly when under duress. But you’re much too slow and you hesitate to strike when you have an opportunity.”

I pushed myself to my feet, swiping some of the dust off myself as I did so and wiping away the sweat that was now threatening to drip into my eyes. I had a feeling the Captain had deliberately given me openings to attack him in order to test me. That thought irked me more than I wanted it to, but I couldn’t disagree with his evaluation of me.

The Captain nodded towards the grass that I had sprouted. “Would you remove that please? For now I want you to focus on sparring without using your magic, and we’ll work on incorporating magic use later.”

I nodded, flicking my hand at the grass and making it retreat back into the ground. The realisation that I would likely be stuck at this training ground for the rest of the day was quickly dawning on me, leaving me with a slight sinking feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.

I hope I can survive this.

For the remainder of the morning, Captain Strykar had me spar with him. Between our short bouts, he would coach me on how to improve my technique and advise on where I went wrong. He was patient, not once showing any sign of annoyance no matter how clumsily I attempted to execute the training. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t so much as touch the man with my sword. Any time I thought I was close, he would shift with a blur of movement that was surely too fast for the human eye to follow, and I would end up disarmed and often sprawled on the ground.

“Alright,” the Captain said after yet again sending me falling onto my face. “That will do for now. Go have some lunch and get cleaned up. I’ll take you into town for your supplies this afternoon.”

I blinked up at him from my now familiar place in the dirt. “You’re taking me into town?” I asked a little stupidly.

Captain Strykar looked down at me and raised an eyebrow. “Yes. You said you need a guard to go into town, yes?”

“Ah, y…yeah,” I replied, scrambling onto my feet.

“Good,” he said, setting his wooden practice sword back onto the weapons rack. “I’ll meet you at the front gate.”

Before I could reply, Captain Strykar strode off in the direction of the mansion.