Daughter of the Moon (The Moon People, Book Two) by Claudia King

Author:Claudia King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical / Fantasy
Publisher: Claudia King
Published: 2016-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

—25—

The Way of the Spear

It completely slipped Netya's mind that Caspian had given her a reason to excuse herself early, so engrossed had she become in the daily rhythm of her work at Adel's side. But as fortune would have it, the den mother called her apprentice's training to an end shortly before mid afternoon regardless.

"I must spare some of my attention for the other apprentices," she explained, "as is a den mother's duty to all of her acolytes."

"Are they doing well?" Netya asked as Adel led her out of the cave.

"Some better than others, though none of them are as quick to learn as you. You take your talents for granted, Netya, but you have a sharp mind for the ways of the spirits."

"Is that why you are always scolding me for my mistakes?"

The den mother snorted, the sound as close to a laugh as Netya had ever heard from her mentor. "A mind can never be sharp enough. Would you rather be an adequate seer, or a great one?"

"A great one, of course."

"Then you will have to endure my instruction." Adel gestured to one of the caves near the base of the waterfalls as they stepped outside, where the rest of the apprentices had gathered with their mentors. "I fear Meadow is too soft on her girl. She will learn nothing if she believes her mistakes are acceptable. And the dark one, Kolami, she is talented, but her clan's seers are very different from ours. She struggles to grasp the ways of the spirits as we know them." She shook her head abruptly, waving Netya off. "Go and make yourself useful with the others now. We will continue again tomorrow morning."

Netya bowed her head respectfully and left Adel to her business with the other apprentices. There was always foraging to be done now that the pack had so many mouths to feed, and so she decided to venture down the valley to a place where edible mushrooms grew beneath a damp overhang. Without a foraging partner she had no one to help with the awkward task of slinging a carrying bundle over her wolf's back, so she deigned to make the journey on two legs instead of four, with her spear balanced over one shoulder and a woven basket hanging from each end.

As she walked down from the caves she came across Caspian and the other men, all six of them watching him with blunt wooden poles in their hands as he demonstrated how to use a flint-tipped spear.

"Netya!" he called over to her. "Have you come to join us?"

She shook her head with a grin. "I cannot handle a spear alongside such strong warriors."

"You can handle it better than most. Come, tell them how you used that weapon to keep a mountain cat at bay when it had you cornered." He rested his spear over his shoulder and nodded in Kin's direction. "Our brother here still thinks it a useless skill to master."

"These are weapons of the Sun People," Kin complained.

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