Pacts 03 by Soul Nights

Author:Soul Nights [Nights, Soul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

"Again. Higher, this time. Most demons are taller than I am."

Mierna complied, and this time her sword struck higher, meeting Elden's with a loud clash. He pushed her back and she let him, the same way he had admonished her, time and again, not to do. But rather than retreating as she usually did, she slashed her sword toward him again. The blade missed him only by an inch, just as she Mierna had aimed to do. Elden had not moved at all, caught off guard for the first time. She held her breath, both thrilled by her success and afraid that she had come too close to hurting him. His face breaking into a rare, wide smile reassured her.

"Yes! Just like that! I knew you'd—"

He stopped mid-sentence for no reason she could see and turned his face toward the large door they had closed to keep the warmth of their small fire inside the barn. Seconds later, the door was thrown open and five men strode in. Mierna's eyes stopped on the one who walked in the front, a short spear in hand. She had seen that look on her brother's face before.

"Mierna!"

She turned her entire body toward Carrel as he approached. The idea that he might attack her would never have entered her mind, and yet she could feel herself tensing and getting ready for a fight.

"Have you lost all sense of decency?” he snapped at her. “What are you doing here, alone with a man?"

He came to stand just a foot in front of her, his companions remaining at a short distance behind him.

Mierna stood her ground, chin held high and eyes battling Carrel's. The time was long past since he had been able to loom over her and intimidate her.

"I am training,” she replied, her words slow and deliberate. She broke eye contact to glance at the men standing behind him. She knew them, of course; they were Fighters, and all of them were her brother's age or a little older so that she had often seen them together as they were growing up. She had asked three of them to teach her how to use her sword after Elden had given it to her. “I am training,” she repeated, “with the only person who agreed to teach me."

On Carrel's right, she noticed Gorden shifting and taking a half step forward as though he wanted to intrude on the conversation. She hadn't asked him to teach her. For a long time while growing up, she had had a little girl's crush on him, and she still felt like she was ten years old again when she had to talk to him. The fact that he was now courting her did not help matters in the slightest.

"It doesn't change the fact that you're alone with a stranger,” Carrel insisted. He turned his attention toward Elden. “Our people do not tolerate strange men corrupting—"

Without warning, the point of Elden's sword came to stand at the hollow of Carrel's throat.

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