Court of Fives by Kate Elliott

Author:Kate Elliott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction / Fantasy & Magic, Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / Survival Stories, Juvenile Fiction / Girls & Women, Juvenile Fiction / Love & Romance, Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Prejudice & Racism, Juvenile Fiction / Sports & Recreation / General
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2015-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

23

I am dropped off at the stable and Denya is taken away to the palace. Smoke streams from the kitchen as adversaries eat porridge and fish for breakfast. I walk over to where Gira, Shorty, and Mis sit. At the far end of the table Talon sips a mug of broth. She looks up as I approach but says nothing.

Gira gives me a big-eyed goggle. “Where did you go so early?”

“Out for a walk.”

Father would have stood me in his office and demanded answers with question after question until I satisfied him that I had by no means besmirched the family honor, but they just go back to their food.

Tana bangs a brass cup on the table to get everyone’s attention. “Come up here, Spider.”

She hands me the cup. Its shine glints in my eye. A spider is carved into the brass. Its long legs wrap the cup like fate, and its mouth bears a set of pincers. Horribly, its long abdomen bears the jagged lozenge markings of the dreaded tomb spider.

Is Lord Gargaron mocking me?

“Lord Thynos brought this by at dawn, Jes. He himself had it engraved.” Tana lowers her voice. “I can see you are troubled by it, maybe think it a bad omen. But I could not refuse it, nor can you. So make the best of it. Make it work for you.”

Does Lord Thynos know? Is he in partnership with Lord Gargaron?

Fortunately it is a serious occasion so my grim look goes unnoticed as I walk to the water basin, dip my cup, and drain the water in one gulp. It has a metallic taste, spiced with the flavor of a metalworker’s furnace. When I hang the cup from one of the hooking branches of the brass tree and sit beside Gira, no one says a word. We just eat.

Eventually Gira and Mis begin arguing over whether to see The Hide of the Ox or The General’s Valiant Daughter. Their words wind like a maze through my dark thoughts. Today is Sixthday, and most of the adversaries will go out on the town.

“You better go change,” adds Gira. She and the others are already in their Fives gear.

I run into our barracks, change, and make it back in time for the lineup. The slow pace of the opening menagerie with its stretch and reach for warm-up soothes the tightness of my limbs and allows my mind to pace through Lord Gargaron’s game. He fears Mother because he respects her. Talking to her made him understand why Father remained loyal to her all these years.

A baton slaps my buttocks.

“Pay attention,” says Darios. “When you are on the training ground I want your mind and heart on the court as well as your body. Do you understand, Spider?”

The other adversaries reach through the movements so I pretend I am their shadow instead of me, the girl whose living heart has been buried. When we sweep a turn, I see Kalliarkos in line where two animals before he was not.

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