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Karigan li looks of others, her hair in total disarray, her face grimed with dirt and probably bruised, and her fine dress ripped and coated with dust, but she held her chin high Dresses could be fixed, but pride was ether
She may never see her love for a certain man fulfilled, and she ods, she still had Drent
A NEW ASSIGNMENT
In the days and weeks that followed, Karigan had to reassess her sanity for wanting to continue her training sessions with Drent He took her desire to learn how to fight in fancy attire to heart He didn’t make her wear corset and dress, but he found other ways to siarments He ht of her skirts, then ordered her to run around the practice grounds and participate in weapons practice while wearing it
To train her in footwork, he buckled modified horse hobbles around her ankles to limit her movement as skirts would He used the device, he said, on his swordmaster initiates to teach them econo around and flailing the sword through the air It was about ance and efficiency in simplicity
Karigan agreed for she had seen such skill at work a practice bouts and in battle It turned brutal conflict into beauty in motion; deadly beauty
Trying to make that economy of movement work for herself, however, proved to be another matter entirely She could not keep count of the many times the hobbles tripped her up and she spilled uncereround hard enough, thanks to the weight of her pack, that dust rose up around her Her opponents won automatic kill points each time she fell, and while she couldn’t keep track of the points, she knew Drent and his assistants did The points were posted at the field house at the end of every week, and co the trainees to attain the most points, a matter of pride and honor and desire to win Drent’s approval Invariably Karigan was at the bottom of the list
Her sessions left her bruised, exhausted, cut up, lied, but slowly, ever so slowly, she noticed her strength i more precise
If trying to fight while hobbledhurin, that clobbering the thief at the museum with her shoe had not been a matter of skill, but of luck
“Retain your line of sight,” Drent said during one such session “Focus and see the knife in the target”
Karigan squinted at the straw-stuffed duht of the knife felt good in her hand It was specially balanced for throwing When she first received the pair, she had been quite impressed with herself and showed the them around in her new boot sheaths However, when Drent sa abys, he decided to hold onto theer herself or others, which resulted in a good deal of ribbing from her friends