The next day, Celi felt her exercise from the day before. She was determined not to let Ella see it, though, and so she went about her day normally. She, Seamus, and Kasi had worked for an hour the night before, but they should have worked for longer. They barely finished their homework that night. No one else did.
For weeks, things continued as normal, with the fourth year students struggling to keep up in class and to run with heavy weights.
Celi had it worst. Ella worked her harder than she had ever worked her before. Working in cold water, steam rooms, and other difficult environments, fasting, exercising for so long and hard that she almost passed out, anything to make Celi's life difficult. Her friends were sympathetic, but her teachers were not. She was overworked, underslept, and barely alive. She began to flag slightly in her training, bringing her down to among many of her year-mates, instead of the top of them.
Celi couldn't wait for Midwinter. Leroy had sent a letter in October, saying that his knightmaster, Sir Germaine of Quero, was leaving the front and coming back to Corus.
He's a great supporter of the arts,
Leroy wrote.
And that includes music, wine, and celebration. Don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful leader and a brilliant knightmaster – he just likes a good celebration. And so, I will be back in Corus for three weeks! I can't wait to see you all.
Celi couldn't wait to see her friend. She missed him.
Angus managed to get one letter to his friends out of sheer luck, and they didn't hear from him again. There was no personal mail from the front. Angus' knightmaster was a fort commander, so he wasn't on the front, and Leroy's knightmaster wasn't anywhere near the front. But James, on the other hand, they never heard from. The lone letter from Angus told them that he was doing well (they had seen each other once or twice), but that was all.
Celi put James out of her head. Yes, he was her best friend, and yes, she missed him, but Leroy was her friend too, and he was coming home. She would think about him.
He arrived just before Midwinter, as the pages were doing a practice battle. There was a foot of snow, and, after a lesson on hiding snow tracks and tracking in snow, they were set off in the woods behind the practice courts.
Leroy arrived during their first real practice battle. All of the second to fourth year pages, only two teams. When Celi arrived at the base after securing the death of her opponents, he was waiting with Lord Darcy.
She grinned at Leroy, who grinned back. Celi only stopped herself from running over and hugging him by remembering that he was standing beside Lord Darcy.
"We have a new fighter here today," Lord Darcy said with the tiniest of smiles. "Some of you will know Leroy of Franken. Denaia, he's under your command."
Celi gave Leroy a quick hug as some of the other boys gave him a pat on the back before continuing to their starting position. Celi wanted to talk to Leroy, but her head was buzzing with battle plans. If she was in command and she had a squire fighting for her, she had to win.
"You're on the ground, Leroy," she said when they finally reached their base. "I want you leading these eight on the ground with swords. Hide in the underbrush. Don't attack unless signalled. I'll have six archers in the trees. I can't lead this from the ground."
"Do you want us with the flash bombs?" One of the third years asked.
Celi shook her head. "We're going to be on the offensive today – and I want stealth. I don't want them to know they're being attacked. So no flash bombs, no light magic. Only swords and arrows. There are so many of us that the teachers are all watching – no one will dare cheat."
Celi and six of the boys made their way up to the treetops with their bows and blunted arrows. The others hid in bushes and behind trees, still in Celi's sight.
At Celi's signal, Leroy and two boys snuck around the opposing teams scouts. Before the enemy knew what had happened, they had wooden swords at their throats. They made rude gestures, but sat down silently. Any noise would alert their team mates, which would be cheating – a dead soldier couldn't call out.
Celi saw one scout on a cliff – he was lying down, making it impossible for Celi to hit him. She watched him carefully. He reacted to something, and Celi knew he had seen her ground troops. He stood up to shoot at them, but Celi acted quickly and shot him. The blunt arrow thudded into the boy's chest. He doubled over, winded slightly, but sat down.
Three down – twelve to go. The enemy would be wondering what had happened to their scouts – Leroy and his ground troops had to get out of the way. They hid once again, and three more fighters came to see what had happened to their team mates, as Celi had suspected – her archers killed them, but not before they had called out – nine fighters were going to be there momentarily.
Red powder flashed as the enemy approached. The other team was using flash bombs to hide. One shot up near Celi, making her cough. She held it in, trying not to make noise. Suddenly, an arrow skimmed by her head, She ducked it. Another rang around her, but she ducked it as well.
Unfortunately, she ducked too far and went flying off her perch to the ground. The sensation of falling was odd and she landed on her back. Gasping for breath, she leapt up. Where was her bow? She looked up. It was caught in the tree.
Grabbing onto the branch above her head, Celi puled herself up into the tree Dodging another arrow, she rolled around the branch until she was sitting on it.
She swung up to the next one. Finally, she made her way to her bow. She pulled it out of the tree. Shots rang around her, but she hid behind the trunk of the tree. She could hear the dull thud of an arrow on it as she cocked her bow.
She glanced around; the flash bombs were settling, covering her enemy in dust. He coughed. She saw her chance.
The arrow hit him squarely in the chest. Scowling and wincing, he sat down. Celi didn't stop to congratulate herself – two more scouts were coming to answer the calls of the first two dead.
Before they could release their bows, Celi shot one. The other boy shot her, and a dull pain throbbed in her right shoulder. If it had been real it wouldn't have killed her, but it would have made her fall. So, once again, she fell out of the tree.
She landed with a painful thud. She looked at Lord Darcy, standing to the side of the battle, watching. He nodded to her, telling her she was still alive. She was injured, though, and couldn't fight.
She stood against a tree to guard herself and shouted orders to her fighters. "Leroy! Behind you!"
Leroy turned and "killed" his attacker. Lord Darcy raised his hand. The battle was over. "I think we should do this one more time." He said.
He rearranged the teams, and Celi found herself as a fighter, not a leader, against Leroy as a leader. Her leader was Thomas of Sheffield, a boy who Celi knew disliked her. He and his friends didn't believe that women belonged on the field, but hey had always been too cowardly to actually bully her. Celi thought it might have been because her friends were all the best fighters in the school.
Whatever it was, this boy didn't like her. "Ethor, you're leading on the ground. Denaia. You're scouting. Hit the trees."
Kasi frowned. "But Celi's our best ground fighter! You can't leave her in the trees!"
Celi glared at Kasi to shut him up, but it was too late. Thomas scowled. "Ethor, you're off lead. Learn to obey your orders. Scarsdale, you're ground leader."
Celi, though angry, knew she had to do as she was told. She climbed a nearby tree and arranged herself so she had a good view. She saw three boys in the distance; she signalled to Thomas. He signalled to the ground leader, Aaron of Scarsdale. Scarsdale was a big lumbering fellow with a deadly blow but no speed to think of. He left Kasi to guard (he was a friend of Thomas) and attacked. He and his soldiers managed to kill two, but all three of them were killed.
Celi couldn't help but smirk – they weren't very good at this.
Thomas signalled to Kasi that he was in charge of ground patrol, since Aaron was dead. Kasi led his six remaining ground fighters around and wiped out the third member.
Celi saw a scout in a tree across the clearing from her. She aimed her bow at the enemy, but Thomas signalled for her to stop. She did. Instead, he drew back his bow and aimed: his arrow sailed across the clearing and landed with a thud against a tree. Thomas had missed.
The scout called out to his men that he had found Thomas, and they began to congregate under the trees Celi and Thomas and three other scouts were hidden in. Celi shot two, and Kasi and his men came on the ground, but it wasn't enough. Thomas was killed.
Before any of the other boys who didn't like her could do anything, she took command. She fell out of the tree and landed in a roll. She picked up a fallen fighter's sword and killed two more fighters. She shouted to the archers to stay where they were and shoot as many attackers as they could.
They won, but barely. Celi was dead near the end, and Kasi was left, along with two of the archers Celi had left in the trees.
The day ended sorely for everyone, whether it be from multiple deaths or blows to pride.