“Just watch how dull those blades really are,” Razor said.
At that very moment, Ally closed her eyes and wished she could be anywhere else in the kingdom. She wanted to run through a meadow, to pick flowers, to pat her horse, to hug Kate and Bilbo. She wanted to return to her work, to the forge. She’d give anything to feel the heat of the fire, the cold of iron and the weight of a hammer.
She didn’t want to look at the deadly spectacle; didn’t want to see how absolutely inhumane it all was. But Razor nudged her with his elbow.
“Don’t close your eyes or you’ll miss the best part.”
Swallowing the ball of bile in her throat, she opened her eyes in time to see the larger student slice off the smaller, younger student’s arm clean off. With a sickly thud, the limb hit the ground, while the hapless students cried in pain. Blood poured from the open wound and the poor young man visibly grew white, then green.
It was all she could do to keep from throwing up. She gagged three times, each time swallowing the bile that’d filled her mouth. This is insane, she thought.
How could such an event be permitted?
The younger student struggled to stay upright, but he grew weaker and weaker, and his knees finally buckled under his weight. With a final stab to the heart, his opponent ended the battle and let out a primal roar. The crowd cheered.
“The Diamond Trials,” Razor said proudly as he applauded the victor. “This is the best way to find the Diamonds in the Rough out of all the Dragons.”
“But that poor, young soul,” Ally muttered.
“Don’t feel bad for him. He would have died in battle soon enough. Clearly, he was too weak to join the ranks. A warrior like him puts everyone at risk.”
“Do they always fight to the death?”
His only response was an amused snicker. “It is the way of the Spartans,” he called out proudly.
In her distant memory, she recalled hearing of such trials from her human family, the Blacksmiths. Their son William had often been as appalled by the idea as she had been.
Of the same age, she and William had shared many views of the world, of family, of the kingdom. Now, she wondered what he would think if he could see her there at the very stadium they had so often criticized.
Chapter 4
The days at the Academy were grueling, but oddly satisfying. Before arriving at the school for boys, she’d underestimated herself. She hadn’t thought herself capable of keeping up with the guys.
But Ally rose before the sun every morning and fortified herself with a healthy breakfast of eggs, ham, cheese and milk. She then studied strategic warfare for half an hour before heading out to run three times around the entire campus before any of the other students had even opened an eye.
It was the only time of her waking hours that could be spent in relative silence. But the calm that hung over the campus could be so incredibly deceiving. On several occasions, she’d forgotten where she was and why. She lost herself in the beauty of the grounds, by the grandeur of the campus and by the ingenious architecture of every building. Then reality set back in.
The moment the morning bell rang, it was an endless cacophony that at times left her ears ringing by the time she lay her head to her pillow.
“Why are the boys so loud?” she’d once asked a professor, who’d shrugged and said it was probably their way of releasing anger and fear.
Well, to hear them every single day, they had quite a lot of anger and fear.
After her morning run, she attended fencing classes, target practice and heavy sword play. Then came the most troubling time of every day. Lunch.
Compared to the quiet stillness of her early breakfasts, lunch was pure mayhem. Worse still was that she was left to sit alone through the mayhem every single day. The disdain the male students showed for her was palpable. Though there was the occasional gaze laced with sexual tension, they for the most part spat on her; literally and figuratively.
“Oh, there you are,” Razor said in mock surprise as he came up to her table. “Three weeks and you’re still alive. Wonderful. Bets were you wouldn’t last three days. You’ve just lost a lot of people a lot of money.”
Ally kept eating. After her morning training, she was famished. Besides, today’s menu was exceptionally good.
Razor pounded his fist on the table, making the peas in her plate jump up. “I said, you lost a lot of people a lot of money.”
Playing it cool, Ally chewed her mouthful, swallowed, set her fork down and patted her mouth with her napkin before responding. “Then I suggest they place their wagers elsewhere.” She picked up her fork and continued to eat.
“Think you’re smart?”
“You can’t say I didn’t warn you. I told you I was tougher than I looked. So far, the hardest thing here has been dealing with the male student body’s frail ego. Imagine; all these young, strong men are afraid of a little ole thing like me.”
“They’re not afraid,” he groaned, bringing his heated breath to her face. “They know that with you at their side in battle, they are as sure as dead.”
“We’ll see,” she quipped, suddenly confident in her ability.
“That we shall.” Crossing his muscled arms over his broad chest, he gazed defiantly at her. “And sooner than you think.”
The ominous tone of his voice left a chill down her back. So far it had all been fun and games. Her classes were indeed with dulled swords, and she didn’t have so much as a scratch on her. Was that about to change?
“This time next week we will gather to watch you enter the Diamond Trials.”
Frowning, she knew he had to be joking. The Diamond Trials were reserved exclusively for third year students. She’d just barely finished her third week.
“Don’t
