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"We’ll have to et these?"

Sos of the stuff was one of ifts; it’s from a town in the west known for its ht it back, this trip" It had been given him for his bride, the town’s chief had told hi to decide about the flush; he was brown to begin with, and copper-colored fro and gaudy cerelory you don’t feel you’ve earned"

Tor sh"

She didn’t spill anything that evening, and she and Tor re childhood hed Galanna and Perlith’s wedding was not mentioned once

"Do you re, al to handle a sword, how you used to shohat you’d learned - "

"I re, "that you followed me around and wheedled and wept till I was forced to show you"

"Wheedled, yes," she said "Wept, never And you started it; I didn’t ask to get put in a baby-sack while you leaped your horse over hurdles"

"My own fault, I ad of it, how their friendship had begun He had felt sorry for his young cousin, and had sought her first out of dislike for those ished to ostracize her, especially Galanna, but soon for her own sake: for she ry and funny even when she could barely speak, and loved best to find things to be enthusiastic about; and did not re He had never quite learned to believe that she was always shy in company, nor that the shyness was her best atteement of her precarious place in her father’s court; nor that her defensive obstinacy was quite necessary

It was to watch her take fire with enthusiasm that he had made a small wooden sword for her, and shown her how to hold it; and later he taught her to ride a horse, and let her ride his own tall mare when the first of her pretty, spoiled ponies had ether He had shown her how to hold a bow, and to send an arrow or a spear where she wished it to go; how to skin a rabbit or an oozog, and how best to fish in running streaht now, and for the first time with a trace of bitterness

"I can still hunt and fish and ride," she said "But I miss the swordplay I know you haven’twhich approach would be likeliest to provoke the response she desired "And I know there’s no reason for it, but - I’ swords Would you - "

"Train you?" he said He was afraid he knehere her thoughts were tending, although he tried to tell hi her to fish He knew that even if he did grant her this it would do her no good; it didn’t ood rider, that she was, for whatever inbred or circumstantial reasons, less silly than any of the other court wos that he could probably teach her to be a fair soe her now

The gods prevent her froht, and said aloud, "Very well"

Their eyes met, and Aerin’s dropped first

The lessons had to be at infrequent intervals because of Tor’s ever increasing round of duties as first sola; but lessons still Aerin had, as she wished, and after several months’ time and practice she could make her teacher pant and sweat as they danced around each other Her lessons were only a foot soldier’s lessons; horses were not ained so riht her; and he need not know the hours of drill she put in, chopping at leaves and dust motes, when he was not around She atory protests about the regular hiatuses in her progress when Tor was sent off solad of the the lessons into her slow, stupid, Giftlesswith the first sola, and what he guessed about her private practice sessions was not discussed, any ht unhorsed since he was a little boy and learning his first lessons in swordplay A sola always led cavalry Aerin knew pretty hen the ti she would have been put on a horse; but this ood thing that also passed in silence, for Aerin was too proud, for different reasons, to mention it: the specificto wield a sword finally sweated the last of the surka out of her syste with Galanna in the royal garden

Tor and Aerin’s e of the least used of the practice fields also gave theether, without having to acknowledge the new restraint between therowing aard

Aerin knew that Tor was careful not to use his real strength when he forced her back; but at least, as she learned, he had to be quick to keep her off; and strength, she hoped, would co like a weed; her seventeenth birthday had co’s daughter, and the stiff courtesy inspired by an unsatisfactory king’s daughter, and she was far too old to be suddenly growing taller Not that sheover Galanna; Galanna’s perfect profile, when seen frohtly at the brows and narrow slightly around the eyes Aerin also had hopes that she would outgrow the revolting Kisha and be given a real horse

A real horse She began to have to close her lips tighter over her determination not to th was his horse - or a ht fro howprivate ga; and she kneas troubled about what they were doing already His curious silence on the cause of her eagerness to learn told her that; and he could still read as hts as she could of his