“Can you introduce me to Esie?” Juniper asked. “She seems to be the central knot here in the Seedling Palace.”
I could, but I wasn’t sure I should. It was true that Esie had positioned herself as the contact point for the various people involved with the delta, but she was hardly the most natural choice for that role—unless the Lady of Calm Waters really did have more of a direct influence in the delta than I originally assumed. I wanted to trust Esie, but I was also still resistant to giving her more control. Introducing Juniper to her felt like breaking an invisible barrier; one that once broken, Esie wouldn’t hesitate to pass by any time she might have a use for Juniper in the future.
Of course, Esie could always reach out to Juniper on her own, or vice versa, but that would be more likely to draw attention and result in less initial trust between them. My introduction would ease the pressure, such as it was.
Between Juniper’s connections and power, however, it made much more sense for her to be directly involved than hear everything secondhand from me—and that meant introducing her to Esie.
I clenched my jaw. I had just decided to be less passive. There was no reason not to have them meet other than my misgivings, and there wasn’t much I could do about those with the Lady of Calm Waters as my patron and the lack of information.
Juniper could make her own decisions. I had no desire to become the looming presence blocking the tent entrance and glaring her into submission just because I thought I knew best.
I nodded. “I’ll introduce you. I’m supposed to give her a report in two days. Can you wait that long?”
She picked at her pant leg before catching herself and pressing her hand flat. “I’ll have to.”
I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I had expected more tears or ranting about how she was right, that she was going to protect her tribe and kill fish…even simple distress at the fighting her people were going through, and there was hints of that, but, more than that, over the past hour or so Juniper seemed to have gained resolve.
Her spine had straightened, her chin lifted, and her gaze had cleared of doubt. Her mother had asked for her and the pearl, and now, simple as that, she was able to settle back into her original goal she had clung to ever since leaving her tribe. Something absurd and hopeless had become a real possibility. She could return to her tribe despite her position as a Sapling in the Seedling Palace.
I still had my concerns about whether the situation would break her in the end, but I held my tongue. Seeing Juniper stand with confidence again was a victory in itself.
We left the lake shore and with dawn only an hour or two away, I was finally able to sleep. I wasn’t sure if Juniper slept or lay awake turning over everything I had told her in her mind, but either way it was true that we had a late start to our organizational work that morning.
- -
Trouble started brewing after Juniper and me started our exercises in Ingrasia’s training grounds in the afternoon.
Ziek got us started on our warm up routine before she was waved over by another instructor. I could tell that she didn’t like having our training session interrupted but she also wasn’t rude enough to ignore the other whisper woman. She promised she’d back in a minute with a tight smile and I felt the change in the air as soon as she turned her back on us.
Over the past week or so, there had been a small, but increasingly bitter, group among the other Hundred Eye seedlings that didn’t like that Juniper and I had secured apprentice spots with Ingrasia without trying. They thought that because they had been failing to get her attention for a year or more that they were more qualified.
I had been content to ignore them and Juniper had followed my lead. I didn’t care one way or the other yet about being Ingrasia’s apprentice, though the perks of having my mentor ban lifted and a training plan were nice. They could have their one sided grudge and I could be amused by how twisted with frustration the bullies’ faces got when we ignored their poor attempts to intimidate us. Really, I was somewhat tempted to teach them how to make a snide comment actually hurt, but they weren’t worth the effort.
Not until today. Normally, they had focused their comments and other attempts to embarrass us on me, I think because they didn’t like all the rumors surrounding me, but this time they shifted their efforts onto Juniper. They had learned about her struggles with shadow walking and flying on the storm birds and, after witnessing the work she had to do with her sling, they had more than enough material to try to drown her in insults.
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“Can’t fly without crying—we don’t need a coward in our sect!”
“Do you think she’ll get stuck in the shadow paths next time? Storms, I hope so, since it’s where she belongs.”
“She can’t do anything right! Have you ever seen her hit her target?”
Poor insults, that were broad and could have applied to almost anyone if a few words were swapped out, but insults nevertheless. Juniper kept herself as impassive as she could, but between the way she shifted to face away from the idiots and her clenched jaw I knew they were affecting her. A glance in Ziek’s direction showed that the other instructor wasn’t letting her go any time soon. If the instructor was involved in this little display too…well, I was sure I could think of something.
As it was I had three idiots to put in their place. Juniper had finally gained a bit of confidence, I didn’t need them shattering it, and Juniper didn’t look like she was about to fight back. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to keep to our previous strategy or if she couldn’t think of anything to refute their claims. Either way I wasn’t about to let this new line of attack continue.
I was tired of biting my tongue. These three idiots had nothing to do the intrigue surrounding the delta nor did I have any place for them in my future information network if they were willing to make fools of themselves because of irrational jealousy. They couldn’t even wait for a more inconspicuous time to bully us, like during a group lesson.
The three girls were pretending to stretch nearby, so they a had modicum of sense, but it lost believability when there were plenty of patches of shadow for them to warm up in away from a private lesson.
The tallest girl was the ring leader with a bless mark splashed across her face from her jaw to the opposite temple, like a giant bruise that refused to heal. The other two didn’t have visible bless marks, but one had hair as straight as the pine needles around us and the other had curls so tight they bundled around her head. Bruise, Straightlace, and Bundle. Not their actual names of course, but I could hardly be bothered to remember those.
I leveled my fiercest glare on Straightlace who flinched back. Then I smiled. “You really shouldn’t say your personal concerns out loud where others can hear them. Can’t do anything right? Just the other day I saw you hit you friend there during weapon practice. Better than hitting nothing right? Pity the bruise hasn’t healed yet.”
The other girl gaped at me before frantically trying to explain that wasn’t what happened to Bruise—whose expression darkened by the second.
Bruise snapped, “This isn’t—”
“And you.” I focused my attention on Bundle as if Bruise hadn’t even spoken. “Stuck in the shadow paths? Practicing for long hours is nothing to embarrassed over. I’ve seen how you avoid anything but the largest shadows, but I’m sure if you ask nicely Juniper here could show you how to use the sun stretched bits.”
Bruise tried again, “My mark—”
I tapped my chin. “Or perhaps it’s like you said: we don’t need cowards.” I finally turned my glower onto Bruise whose protests about her bless mark died on her tongue. “Cowards who can’t even give a direct challenge. Perhaps you can use this as an example in the future: fight me, here and now, and I’ll show you why Ingrasia chose us and never gave you a second glance.”
Oh, I knew I wasn’t the best fighter, not by a long shot even in our cohort. Just like I knew Ingrasia had taken us on due to the Sect Leader’s intervention, first and foremost, but those things didn’t matter. Bruise always did poorly during practice bouts in the group lessons. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was one of the people Ingrasia had been referring to when she criticized those in the sect that neglected physical conditioning in favor of solely information gathering.
Bruise took a moment to gather herself before she lifted her nose in the air. “As if I need to lower myself to your level.”
I snorted and gestured toward Ziek. “In case you missed it, this is exactly what Ingrasia expects out of her apprentices.”
Bruise opened her mouth, closed it, huffed, and then strode away with her lackeys in tow. I doubted that would be the last of their inane tactics, but at least we likely wouldn’t need to deal with their drivel for the rest of the day.
And there was a part of me that was deeply satisfied I had driven them away. That I hadn’t tried to ignore them again or held myself back from twisting their words and glaring them into submission.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
I glanced over at Juniper only to find a complicated expression on her face. Two parts frustration, one part embarrassment, and one part relief. Apparently, she wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that I had defended her—and the more I thought about it the more it unsettled me. I wasn’t used to feeling protective about anyone but Prevna, and I didn’t like the way this bout had snuck up on me.
It made the old instinct to tear apart the connection slither around in my chest, but I knew how terrible of an idea that would be. So, instead, I caught that instinct in a large sack, hog tied it shut, and chalked the protective feeling up to Juniper being the only other seedling from the cohort to join the sect without looking at it too closely.
I shrugged one shoulder and went back to my warm ups. “They were annoying.”
She watched me for a long moment before sighing and resuming her exercises as well. I could tell she had something else she wanted to say, but she kept to herself and it wasn’t long after that Ziek freed herself from the other whisper woman so she could continue our lesson.