Cassandra

Chapter Seventeen

Cassandra POV 

I could feel the light breeze playing with my curls. I smile as I get up and stretch my arms and legs. I feel much relaxed after my sleep last night. My mind is at peace and I didn’t realize when I fell asleep. I am yawning standing near the window when it comes to me that I could go and help in the kitchen today. It will make the work of Grace much easier and more Squires would be fed. 

I put on the blouse and pants and quickly sneak into the kitchen. Today I am in a happy and refreshed mood and plan to help as much as I can before we are called for the practice. I pat on Grace’s shoulder who has just started preparation for cooking. 

She turns towards me and grins. She looks much beautiful when she is not worried about the world. 

“Dear, I am sorry, I just came in, let me bake some cookies for you”, I grab her hand and shake my head. She looks confused by my actions. 

“No Grace, I am here to help today so we can cook as much as we can”, I have already started to look around when Grace handles me flour and sugar. 

She guides me on how to bake cookies and then give me vegetables to cut. I am really happy that I am able to help her today. 

I am about to ask for another task when I hear the bell for our calls. 

I give her a peck of a kiss on her cheeks and bid her farewell. 

I stretch my back when I reach the ground and start looking for Prince Cedric and Evan. I find Evan standing at the right end of the ground while Prince Cedric on the left. 

Why aren’t they standing together? Did something happen? 

I am making my way towards Evan when I almost collide with the teacher. I immediately look down at the ground and bow to him. 

“You have to go and stand there”, he points to the left side of the filed and I am left puzzled that’s when I see a paper hanging near the stage where the teacher usually stands. 

“Squires who won the first combat have to stand on the right side of the ground while the ones who lost have to stand at the left” my cheeks flush with red color and I can’t raise up my eyes again. 

“I think you now know where you belong”, I feel his words piercing my heart as my legs take me to the left side of the field. 

“My Lady”, I hear Prince Cedric’s voice coming from behind me. I hide my sadness and turn back with a smiling face. 

“Sire, I guess we would be learning a lot more”, he smiles back turns towards the teacher who is standing on the stage. I glance towards Evan who is looking at me with a scowl and I shrug my shoulders. 

I could see Edward standing on the right side with a smirk on his face. He is surrounded by his allies who all got to stay on the right side with him. He looks at me and says something to the others who burst into laughter. I quickly turn my head towards the stage too. 

“Squires gathered here today are divided into two groups as you all know. Standing on the left side is the group who lost the first combat while the right ones won.” The announcement is followed by several cheers and applause. 

The teacher moves a little back and picks up a sword and a lance and brings it in front of us. 

“Who here can tell which one is a better weapon?”, I want to raise my hand but after the embarrassing announcement, I don’t know if I can. I look down again at the ground waiting impatiently for someone to answer so the moment will pass. 

I could hear whispers coming from the right group whereas our group stands in silence. I don’t know if they don’t know or if they don’t want to say just like me. 

After several seconds, many hands are raised from the right group and few from ours. my hands are in a fist as I try to control the urge to answer. I know this one, Daddy told us about lances and swords several times or told my brothers since we were of age 7. He said that this was the first part of the training and we should all know about different kinds of weapons. 

My brothers were sent to the houses of knights as the first part of their training. They serve as Paiges and have to do all the cleaning and cooking at the knight’s home. They have to clean his clothes, his armors and do the tasks assigned to them by the knights. I always felt that I should be a part of that too but I was a girl and sending a girl to another man’s house was out of the question. I cried for the whole week when they were away, I cried since I couldn’t be a part of the training which they were included in. Only because I was a girl. 

Maria tried to cheer me up by reading me books for the knights as the bedtime stories and the more I heard about them, the more it became clear to me that I want to be one. 

I am brought back from my thoughts when I hear Edward's voice telling that he personally prefers a sword. 

“Moron”, I whisper but Prince Cedric chuckles. I see Evan’s eyes over me as if he wanted me to answer this. I shake my head and look down again. 

The more answers I hear, the more annoyed I get with the lack of their knowledge, but the teacher doesn’t stop. 

“I would dismiss today’s training as none of the answers were correct and the session won’t happen until I receive one”, my face is up in a second hearing his words. I look around and see that some of them are happy and some are frustrated, some are even requesting the teacher to continue the session but he is firm on his word. 

I take a deep breath and raise my hand up in the air. The crowd has gone silent. I could feel every eye on me but I try not to be nervous. 

I know this one, I know this one. 

I feel Prince Cedric’s hand on my shoulder trying to make me relax and concentrate. I nod my head and he takes his hand off. 

“Yes say”, I don’t know if I am sure, but I see a smile on the teacher’s face as he is looking at me. 

“For a weapon….”, I take another deep breath again. 

“For a weapon to be better, it depends on all the conditions in which the combat is taking place. Usually, lances are considered better considering the range they cover. A person holding the lance could defeat his opponent from a long-range, also the speed of the lance is better. In case the target is not injured in the first chance, he can be in another. It is also useful when a person is surrounded by more than one opponent where he could use the advantage of the length of the spear and hurt more than one person.” I take another breath and look at the teacher. He nods to let me complete my sentence. 

“When the area is not large and crowded one will not able to make much difference with the sword as the skills of the cuts will be limited, then also the linear thrust of lance will be much efficient, the advantage of swords are just that they are easy to carry and when there is one to one compact with a skills swordsman where both have to fight using a sword. But in a battle I would prefer lances over swords any day”, I finish my explanation and look up. 

I couldn’t find any change in the teacher’s face. He slowly turns and puts both the weapons down. 

I feel like I have humiliated myself again in front of everyone.

There are several remarks on my answers and none of them are of appreciation. 

“You thought we are all uneducated like you”

“She thinks she knows everything”

“Ah, she felt like she could save the day”

“If she thought she knew the answer why didn’t she raise her hand at the start” 

“Let’s begin today’s training”, those words are like music to my ears, I am jumping up and down with joy while Prince Cedric pats on my back “ You are really talented My Lady”, I turn around with a big grin on my face and he lets out a chuckle.

“Look at you, you are happy like a 5-year-old”

The Squires gather at the right side will start with lance today while the one at the left will start with piggyback fighting. 

He can’t be serious. That is the basic stage of the training. 

“You want to be my piggyback partner”, I hear Prince Cedric says and I blush comes up on my face. 

“Are you sure..look at me, I am pretty heavy”, I demonstrate the same with my hands towards my tummy. 

“I could pick you up any day..I don’t think you will weigh any more than a petal”, I nudge him a little and cover my face with both my hands. 

How come he is so kind and considerate towards me. 

“Cass”, I turn back to look at Evan and put both my hands over his shoulder while jumping up and down. 

“I got it right. I got the answer right”, he is smiling with me. 

“I know you will. You are really smart Cass. So who did you pick for the piggyback”, I point at Prince Cedric who is now talking with other Squires from the left group. 

I see his face fell and bring my hand to raise up his chin. 

“Why are you upset, you are getting to fight with a lance on the second day of training. I would have given my soul for that”, he laughs at my exaggerated expression and I giggle. 

“I want to do piggyback fighting too, it looks fun. I wish I was in this group”, he says with a sad face. 

“Go, make me proud”, I nudge him towards his group as the session is about to start. 

Prince Cedric and I, make a great team even with my weight, which he swears is light as a petal. We are able to defect our opponent soon with just some force of the upper hand and his ability to stand still carrying me on his shoulder. 

I guess the hard work of sneaking through the castle window is finally paying off. We are qualified for the mounting sessions after our third win. 

Prince Cedric and I have developed a winning pose by holding each other's opposite hand and raising it in the air. 

I find out that Evan also won his practice session today which was against one of the allies of Edward. 

“I congratulate everyone who won today”, the announcement is followed by several applause. 

“The winners of the right group will proceed with the mounted combat now while the one who didn’t win will have another session of lance fight.”, there are several frustrated growls and remarks said but nothing right now bothers me as it is the first win for me today. 

“For the left group, the one who lost today, will continue with the piggyback fighting and the one who won today”, there is complete silence now and I feel like he is staring right at me, “and the one who won today will fight in the second combat of our training using lance with their current partner tomorrow”

What the?