Luna of the Beastly Lycan King

Chapter 27. It mark

☉DANIKA

Sonia did not come the next day either. And I was beginning to get worried.

After I left Erika, I had headed straight to my chambers and fallen into a deep dreamless sleep. My bones were aching and I found it difficult to keep track of the events of the day. So when I found the same maid that had come to fetch me for the court ladies again, I paid no heed to her and pushed off, heading straight for the sparring grounds instead. I did not have the time of day to bother about what their little snotty leader or the rest of them would be up to.

“You’re only about to be late.” Fergal’s way of greeting.

“The sun’s barely up, Fergal,” I countered. He nudged me in the side with a stick, causing me to wheeze and fall to my knees, coughing. “A warrior does not make excuses. You are either late or not. No one will have ears for you in the thick of battle, or when the only thing standing between you and your enemy is a single premeditated swing. Do you think your swing, one heartbeat too early—one step too late can be described to the enemy who is about to hack you down?”

“I didn’t—”

“—No one is going to listen to you, the same way I’m not listening to you right now. You have to be ready for war.”

“This isn’t war, Fergal!” I screamed, frustrated. Fergal only chuckled grimly and stood up straighter so it became difficult to look into his eyes.

“Everything is war, Danika. Every day. With every single breath you take, know that there is someone out there who could not. And the reason you and I are still alive is because we have the power and because we choose to fight—just a little more than they did. We’re going to be working on your upper body today. Can you do push-ups?”

I nodded in the affirmative.

“Good.” He said. “Start doing push-ups and don’t stop until I tell you to.”

I fumed at him. I had skipped out on breakfast again in my haste to be here and he was feeding me a lecture when I had hoped that I would be congratulated for my punctuality, unlike last time. For the first time in two days, I began to worry that I might be missing Sonia after all.

Right now, I stretched out on all fours on the ground. Then I palmed the ground and made it so that I was in a planking position, my body weight supported by my hands and feet firmly planted on the ground. I let my body fall. Pushing it up, back to its elevated position was a trouble, but I continued my dip-down and rise-up routine until my arms could not lift me no longer and I fell flat on my face.

“Okay! That’s time.” Fergal called.

I turned my face feebly to him. He was tearing into a large chunk of steak. Perspiration poured off my body in little annoying rivulets and my clothes were soaked through. My muscles vibrated slightly as I walked over to Fergal.

“I’m ready for the next assignment.”

“Good.” He mumbled through a mouth full of meat. “Catch your breath and then you can go back to your chambers or whatever it is that you do in the palace.”

I turned to him, startled. All around me, I could hear the grunting noises of men as they swung swords and wrestled each other. In a far off-portion of the sparring grounds, you could hear the grinding of metal as weapons were sharpened and maintained. “I thought we were going to train?” I hissed at Fergal.

“And we have,” he replied genially and tore off another chunk of meat. “You’ve done the exercise I instructed you to do. Now you can rest.”

“No, Fergal, you don’t understand. I deserted my other tasks for this morning because I wanted to train. I’m here now. I can do more. Let’s train.”

“And I tell you you’ve done that. You can rest now. Take tomorrow off. You’ll need the rest.”

I struggled to understand Fergal. Perhaps I had disappointed him too much. There was no other explanation that I could think of as to the reason why he would dismiss me so early in the morning.

I struggled not to flare up or break down in front of him. I turned my face away from him.

“Will Sonia be coming later today?”

Fergal’s face was straight when he answered. But he would not look me in the eye. “Sonia will not be returning for now. You really should get that rest. Your arms are going to thank me for it tomorrow.”

Then he walked off as I watched, out of the sparring grounds. I could not help thinking that something was going on. Fergal was teaching me in the mornings when he ordinarily should have been at Finarfin’s side as his Beta. Now Sonia who had started teaching me was nowhere to be found. Something odd was truly going on, but I just could not put my finger on it.

I stalked back to the palace, spirits in high dudgeon, but I felt mostly despondent. There was either something going on that I was not aware of or I was just that bad a student. All I wanted was the strength to defend myself. I wanted to train to be strong. So I would not be a burden to anyone anymore. So I would not be the girl who runs.

I pushed open the door to the kitchens and walked in on Erika, propped against a table by a man who was feverishly peppering her neck with kisses. She jumped down from the table, red as a beet when she saw me walk in. But I could not even muster the strength to look amused.

“Danika!” She exclaimed. “I-I had thought you would be out until lunchtime.”

“I thought so too. Can I please get something to eat?”

Erika shuffled around before coming out to meet me. The man who I suspected was a guard had some of his clothes bunched in an arm. He nodded wordlessly to me. Erika stood before me, red in the face.

“I’m afraid there’s none anymore. I really did think you were going to be out until lunchtime.”

“Oh,” I said dully and turned back to the doors. “I’ll just go, then. And you should lock the doors next time.”

When I returned to my chambers, I could not fall asleep. I was still full of energy. But I could not go anywhere else, either. I didn’t want to run into the maid that the court ladies sent. So I sat in my bed and stared blankly.

☆☆☆

Early the next morning, I woke up in tears for both my arms had swollen to double their normal size. This was why Fergal had wanted me to skip the day. The mere action of trying to bring my arms down brought me very nearly to tears. But I wanted to show up anyway, so I put on my dress, as difficult as it was, and headed down to the sparring grounds again.

Neither Fergal nor Sonia were there. I walked back to my chambers, disappointed, and shut myself in the whole day.

☆☆☆

The day after, my arms were still swollen, but it was considerably less than the previous day. I dragged myself to the sparring grounds where this time, Fergal was waiting for me.

He beamed when he saw my approach. “Hello, Danika! I don’t think I would want to get into a fight with you.”

I scowled. “Because of my swollen arms?”

“No,” Fergal said honestly, “it’s because I’d win. You don’t look like you rested like I told you to. Did you at least have those arms massaged?”

“I’m doing my best, training my hardest so I don’t remain a weak little woman, Fergal. Why would I have thought of massaging my swollen arms?”

“True, you are weak!” Fergal yipped. “But there is a line that defines training and resting, and both go hand in hand for growth. Your arms are in no shape at all to fight or defend right now, so let’s try something else. Archery!” He grinned and slapped me on the back. I stumbled forward. “Pick up a bow and a quiver of arrows. Maybe if you can become a master archer, you might not need to worry about being too weak.”

I followed Fergal around, trying my best to keep my arms at my side, but Fergal stretched them open instead and made me do new exercises to make my shoulders, back, and arms limber. My movements were a lot freer, but using a bow was extremely hard work.

Over the next hours, Fergal educated me on how to nock an arrow and properly tie the strings of a bow. I failed woefully at both lessons, but he was patient and indulging. After trying so many times to teach me on proper bow-holding technique, he finally abandoned that project, and deciding that we would learn the basics of archery some other time, he decided that he was going to shoot an arrow instead.

Nothing was working and I was already beginning to get depressed.

I had shot an arrow before. I had shot one against the Crimson-horned stag. It didn’t matter that it didn’t connect. I had shot one and that was important.

My arrows kept falling and wouldn’t stay in place. Fergal was helping me hold the arrow, but I was quickly tired of depending on him to teach me every single thing that I was going to do. I wanted to do something perfectly for once.

I nocked the arrow and pulled back.

“So what you need to know is that your arms must have a sufficient degree of space between them if you’re going to fire. And you must leave enough room with your fingers— archery is a delicate, beautiful—”

The arrow whizzed out of my fingers and straight out of the bow. I followed its trajectory with my eyes as it sang through the air. Right up until it lodged itself in Finarfin’s shoulder.

An audible gasp escaped my lips.