A Hollow Mountain (The Brightest Shadow Book 2) by Sarah Lin

Author:Sarah Lin [Lin, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

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"Fsina let her sein flow through the egg, trying with all her heart and soul, yet the egg lay dormant. Around her, she saw the other candidates hatching their eggs into wondrous birds. When the day came for all to present their eggs to the Zeitai, she carried her dead egg sadly, surrounded by beautiful feathers."

- Laenan version of The Zeitai's Egg

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Sparring with Olondris wasn't about trying to win, it was seeing how long he could hold on. Slaten had never fought anyone who could attack so relentlessly, as normally even trained warriors would need to take a moment to catch their breath or gather their sein again. Olondris seemed utterly inexhaustible, her last strike coming just as quickly and heavily as the first.

That day she struck unusually aggressively, yet she attempted fewer crippling blows. Instead she pressed him hard and then struck at his feet, as if trying to cause a leg injury. When she wasn't attempting that, she struck at his blade with enough force that she could power through his attempts to block.

His body ached in entirely novel ways, yet all he could do was maintain an increasingly difficult defense. When he tried to reach for his sein, it seemed to splutter through his body. Memories of practicing his core techniques over and over again simply fragmented within him instead of reaching his limbs.

He faltered too much and a silver line of pain cut through his stomach.

Slaten stumbled back, clutching his torso. It felt as though it had been torn open, yet the cut seemed to stop just short of that. Agony still shot through his body, making it difficult to stay on his feet.

"Hm." Olondris leaned closer and examined the injury.

"Is that... what you wanted?"

"Yes. Very good." She straightened up and turned away. "Rest for now. If the injury becomes infected, make sure that the girl looks at it. But I do not think that will be a problem."

Letting go of his sword, Slaten just sat and tried not to breathe too deeply, since the gut injury lay open to the world. He should have been disabled from the pain, yet he found there was surprisingly little, fading as his sein resumed its normal flow. The arts he had learned from the Bloodskin clan made him nearly as durable as them, and he suspected that Olondris had been testing exactly that.

"I have reached my conclusion." The warrior - he had trouble thinking of her as an old woman - leaned on her pike as she gazed down at him unblinkingly. "But first, one more question. Do you have regular pain in your elbows or knees?"

"Not unless I was injured there."

"As I thought. Normally those pains will inhibit even a skilled fighter, but you displayed no particular weaknesses even when pressed."

"And cutting open my stomach?"

Olondris shrugged. "That was merely to let you test your healing without the girl rushing in to fix you. Healers are essential, but relying on them can be unwise."

He nodded, as if cutting open his stomach was a reasonable thing to do.

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