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Teia knew that the relaxed, loose composure of a warrior meant speed Trainer Fisk was shorter and thicker than Commander Ironfist, but literally muscle-bound His heavy muscles actually slowed his motion--compared with Ironfist Compared to Teia, of course, the trainer was fast as a loosed crossbow bolt

"Your training is the best in the Seven Satrapies," Coan No preliood and effective But your training--even here, even a you When we practice punches, we pull them short, because if we don’t, we’d lose you all to injuries But when you pull punches ten thousand times, it’s hard not to on the ten thousand and first punch: the punch that you throw at a real attacker

"Our necessary safeguards can hters Your class will be called on to fight and perhaps to die, perhaps soon, and if you don’t kno to kill your opponents first, a lot of you will die Your class may have fourteen pass May Not will So your class’s training is going to be different Accelerated Harder We will not allow you to be second-rate There is no substitute for experience, so experience you will get This experience will cost some of you injuries that will put you out of contention for those fourteen slots We’ve never done this before because it’s dangerous and it isn’t fair But we’re out of ti e have to For some of you, the tests will be easy For sohts to the death These experiences will not be safe, will not be controlled They may be too hard You may be crippled or die If you can’t accept this, you may leave Now"

No one left

"Failure on these tests will not automatically bar you from advancement But it will uards deal e get, not ant Here are the rules: You and your partner will be taken to a point in Big Jasper in one of the worst neighborhoods You’ll be given a handful of coins publicly, and then you et those coins to the Great Fountain You are forbidden to bring weapons or draft To pass, you iven However et to keep If you don’tfor you But don’t expect any help You’re alone out there"

They drew straws for the order and an odd thing happened The first team to dra number one, the second team number two, the third teaain But the fourth drawers drew nuain, six, seven, eight, nine, ten He frowned, but said nothing, and they disot a straw that put the Then they walked across town, led by Trainer Fisk and several of the older Blackguard trainees Commander Ironfist didn’t accoo was the irl, Gracia She was lean as aand taller than most of the boys Her partner was another Parian, still tall and lean, but not so dark as Gracia, and a lot uglier, Goss He was one of the best fighters, but he had a habit of picking--scabs, nose, earwax--and eating it He ithin a hair’s breadth of earning the obvious nicknauards were doing in a bad neighborhood, and not all of the faces were friendly Most ary, but curious

Trainer Fisk bade Gracia and Goss co out the coins, then bound a red handkerchief around each one’s forehead "Bring these safely to the Great Fountain No one in the Blackguard and no one in the Chro to help you If you lose these coins, it’s on your own head You’re not allowed to use weapons You’re not allowed to draft"

Mur them It wasn’t a fortune, but for an unskilled laborer it was as much as they could make in teeks And these children had it And the watchers knehere the children were taking it, so they could guess what routes they’d take And Trainer Fisk had just announced that the children wouldn’t be protected froh Smarter than Teia would have credited They ran

If they went by a direct route, they would travel faster than the news could In fact, depending on how long Fisk ht work for the first few teah would have to hear the news and then have to take the ti to do so

After five ain, bound the red handkerchiefs around the brows of the second team, and handed them their money They ran, too

The crowd of the curious continued to grow, but Kip atching the edges of the crowd to see as leaving, and Teia followed his gaze She saw several youngfurtively back toward the circle, as if afraid that their payday would leave

The scrubs were talking aies If Teia was doing the arithht, she and Kip had alht about how athered in that time, her mouth went dry They would come forabout it when she noticed that Kip had walked away

"Where are you going?" Teia asked

"Where all of you should be going," Kip said