Chapter 14

CLAUDIA. I recoil as soon as Max steps away with the brand in hand. He’s watching me as though he’s assessing my reaction to the hot searing pain, so I try to keep a brave face on even though I want to cry from the torture. Thankfully, everyone cheers and that makes me feel slightly better. Ruth pulls me to her and wraps my arm with a thin gauze that hurt like hell the first time it made contact. She laughs when I gasp, but she ruffles my hair anyway. “Welcome home,” she jests. “Now the only thing you need to do is train.” “But for now, we all rest,” Max announces, but he’s looking just at me. “Now that the royals know who we are and how we could be a threat to them, we need to prepare.” Everyone chants their assent, and I stand there still woozy with pain, wondering what’s in store for me. That night, Ruth and Henry take me to my room. My bags are dirty and they definitely need to be unpacked, but I’m too tired to do it. I just lie on the cot that they provided for me, tossing and turning with my lumpy pillow until I eventually fall asleep. It feels like barely an hour has passed when suddenly, I hear loud knocking on my door. I jolt awake, almost falling off the bed. Before I can even open my mouth and ask who it is, the door opens and Max comes in. “Wake up, it’s time to train,” he barks, and with that, he walks away, leaving my door open. “If you’re not yet in the fields after ten minutes, you will be punished.” * * * If I had known that this was some sort of bootcamp for villagers, I would have run as fast as I could straight into Gamma Kiernan's carriage, never to be seen again. As soon as I arrive at the field at the back of the buildings, I start to realize the mistake I made. Max really set up a training camp almost as brutal as the one in the palace that the guards use for training. All around me, the villagers are engaging in all sorts of activities. Some are in the archery range firing arrow after arrow at a battered target. Some are sparring in hand-to-hand combat. Some of them are locked in battle using swords and spears. It's insanity. Loud grunts, metal clanging, arrows whizzing. It's all too much at five in the morning. However, it doesn't seem like too much at all for Max and the others. As soon as he sees me, he beckons me to the nearest shed and opens the wooden crates by his feet, revealing an assortment of wooden and metal weapons that look very well used. "Do you know how to fight?" he asks, tapping the tip of his boot against the wooden crate. "I've seen you take down that Rogue in the cemetery, so I assume you know a thing or two." "I don't know anything, not really," I say, embarrassed. "Maids like me... well, we're just trained to clean and cook and tend to the important people. We're not taught how to fight or defend ourselves in any way." I thought he would make me choose my weapon now, but then he kicks the crates closed anyway and beckons me to follow him. For a moment it seems like he's going to take me to the ones who are swordfighting, but we go around them until we get to the ones who are kind of just wrestling on the ground. "Hand-to-hand combat," Max announces, and the men who are fighting stop immediately. "This is the most basic thing you need to learn. If you excel here, then you will do well in handling all the other fights with weapons. Our first strategy is tipping the equilibrium of your opponent and pushing them off their feet. Once they're down, it will be easy for you to either leave or employ more tactics to get them to back off. In this case, once you make a Rogue fall, you can end them easily before they can get back on their feet." Max points at one of the guys, a boy, really. His face still has that teenage look to it, but his body is pretty jacked for someone so young. He's about the same height as me too. He gets into position, and at first, I don't know why he's doing so. Then I realize that Max wants me to fight him. My eyes go wide. "But... he's a boy." "Yes," Max agrees, smiling. "He's also learning the basics like you. I figured it would be good for both of you to learn together and from each other." The boy curls his fingers as though to signal me to get on with it, but I'm still bothered by the setup. The other men in the group are laughing. Max doesn't seem to notice though. Or maybe he just doesn't care. Either way, the only way to finish this is to actually participate. So I step forward into the circle on the floor, rolling my sleeves up. Max starts to count, but it seems that my consciousness is slipping, tuning out until the last number. The only time I know it’s starting is when the boy rushes to pin me to the ground. And he almost succeeds on his first try. His shoulder rams right into my abdomen, knocking the air out of me. He’s strong, too strong for me even at his young age, but my years as a maid haven’t been physically easy. My body, which is used to hard work and labor, is the only thing that manages to save me from being shoved right into the ground. The boy suddenly backs off, but he has a sly grin on his face now. He knows he’s going to win. The uncertainty in my face probably doesn’t help things either. “What are you going to do about it?” he taunts me. “You probably think you’re some sort of princess, just because that idiot Alpha King is looking for you.” I know that that is meant as an insult to me and not to Achilles, but his words still make my blood boil. “You’re pathetic,” I hiss at him. “You’re not even that strong. I’m new, and you can’t even take me down. You’re weak.” For some reason, that makes him freeze. Not because of shock, it seems. But because of something else. Suddenly, his face is blank. He straightens up from his crouching position, not taking his eyes off me. It’s as though he’s in a daze. I thought I was the only one noticing, but the men around him were trying to tap his hand to get his attention. He ignores all of them. He just stares at me like a zombie. “What’s happening?” Max starts to ask, but then the boy speaks. “I’m pathetic,” he says in a slow, almost lazy tone. “I’m not even that strong. You’re new, but I can’t even take you down. I’m weak.” My heart leaps to my throat. Did he just repeat every single thing I said to him? Max and the men slowly turn to face me. “What the hell are you doing to him?” “I-I don’t know,” I stammer. “I don’t know what’s happening…” “John,” Max calls out to the boy, stepping into the ring to grab his shoulders and shake him. “Hey, John, listen to me.” But the boy just keeps repeating, “I’m weak. I’m weak. I’m—” “STOP!” I yell at him. His whole body turns stiff, his limbs pasted to his sides like he’s bound by an invisible rope. And as though he’s following my every word, he does indeed stop. He falls on the ground, motionless with his eyes still open, unable to do anything as though he’s waiting for my next command.