Shimmer and Burn by Mary Taranta

Author:Mary Taranta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Fifteen

THAT NIGHT, I TEACH TOBEK how to throw a punch, desperate to keep my mind preoccupied and away from the growing paranoia that Perrote is simply playing with me, waiting for the right moment to strike. When we stopped to make camp, I was the one to protest, arguing both the campfire and our position in open field—under open skies—to no avail.

“We don’t travel at night,” North had said, with utter finality, and guilt—greed—had kept me from telling him the truth.

Three more days, I tell myself, as my eyes track the skies. Tobek exploits my distraction and lands a blow across my shoulder. Grunting with triumph, he backs up and grins, raising his hands to his chin.

“Don’t do that,” I say, dragging my attention back to him.

“Why not?”

With one short strike, I hit his hand and he hits himself square in the jaw. “That’s why not.”

North pretends to ignore us, praying with his palms flattened against the earth and his neck exposed to the sky. But his eyes cut toward me from under the fringe of his hair, and I toss my own hair back, out of my face, fully aware of his attention.

“Try again,” I say.

“Where’d you learn to fight like this, anyway?” Tobek asks, ducking my next swing.

I fall back and reposition myself with a halfhearted shrug. “Previous life,” I say. Bats somersault overhead and I freeze, exhaling softly once they’ve passed.

“Sounds like a tragedy.”

“Give me a kronet and I’ll make it a comedy.”

“I’m an apprentice,” says Tobek. “I don’t get paid.” An eyebrow arches, mirroring the curve of his mouth. “Play you cards for the story?”

“I’m not playing cards with a boy who admits to cheating.”

Tobek dives for my stomach and I barely sidestep a punch to the gut. “That was a previous life,” he quips, breathless. His thick hair sticks to his forehead and he rakes it back with dusty fingers. “And anyway, the skill is in cheating.”

Snorting, I adjust my coat. “I’ll bet.”

He lunges again and I easily knock him to his knees. Tobek bows his head, annoyed, touching his forehead to the earth in an eerie mimicry of North.

“Good god,” says Bryn, “again?”

Tobek’s head snaps up with interest as she emerges from the wagon with a blanket clutched around her shoulders. She looks pale, drowsy; she slept all afternoon, which gave me a chance to search through North’s books for any information on Avinea’s allies and enemies during the war, but the books were as useless as his maps.

Beyond our own borders, Brindaigel doesn’t seem to exist.

She pulls the blanket tighter, eying North with open disdain. “I don’t think anyone’s listening.”

“I don’t think it matters,” I say.

“Then what’s the point?”

Tobek pushes to his feet, brushing grass off his trousers before flexing his hands, itchy for a chance to show off. He begins bouncing on his heels, fists at his chin again. “The point is to thank the gods for another day we didn’t die,” he says with a tentative half smile: He’s serious if she is, but he’s joking if she’s not.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.