Chapter 18: Darkings

The pages learnt quickly that Flick meant business. She had the same level of skill as the Lioness (obviously, because she is a Shang) and delighted in working them to the bone.

A few weeks after Rye left with the Riders, Adalia was stuck in yet another sparring match with Flick, while the other pages lined up, carrying out set drills. Every now and then Flick would yell things at them like, "Correct your grip!" or "Don't look at what we are doing, worry about where you may be hit next!"

Adalia closed in on Flick, twirling her sword in circle, and succeeded in disarming her. A heartbeat later her blade came to rest at the Shang's throat.

Flick smiled warmly, "Good job, Adalia. You should watch your left handed sweep though, it was a little off."

Adalia grinned and used her feet to launch her training master's sword off the ground, and then plucked it out of the air with her right hand, which at that moment was empty. Flick had insisted that she duel by swapping the blade between her hands, so that she would have equal skill with both. She then handed back the sword, and stepped back into the 'guard' position.

Now she could almost always defeat the Shang. Flick laughed at this, and said it was good for her own ego, forcing her to train harder.

Flick turned to Adalia. "Ok. We are going to do something different today. I am going to attack you with the sword, but at the same time in hand-to-hand combat. So make sure you watch everything." Flick mirrored Adalia's guard position, and then aggressively aimed for her left side with the sword.

Adalia quickly twirled away, but found herself tripped by a low roundhouse kick. She made sure she landed and then rolled, just as she had been taught to, and then stood up carefully. She was now aware of the fact that her teacher wasn't going to hold back.

They struggled back and fourth, both Adalia and Flick landing kicks or even punches, along with concentrating on the flashing blunt practise swords. At one moment Adalia was forced to do a weird half flip to avoid her master's kick coming from below, and blocking her sword, which swept down from above.

At last Flick kicked Adalia in the back of her legs, bringing her sprawling to the ground. Before she could get up she felt Flick's blade press to her throat. "I yield!" She gasped out. "Gods that's hard! It's like trying to look left and right at the same time!"

Flick helped Adalia into a sitting position and handed her a water bottle, while receiving one from Lord Padraig. "You did really well though. You didn't panic and forget everything you know like so many others do who are just learning how to combine the two. You won't have to do something that intense against anybody but a Shang, but it is always good to be able to."

Flick watched while Adalia gulped down a lot of water, and then tipped the rest over her head.

"Well. You ready to try again?"

Adalia groaned and pretended to feint. "No." She lay on the ground, eyes closed.

Flick just stood up and kicked away Adalia's sword. She then swung her own sword at Adalia, and just as she suspected, the girl rolled away, just enough so that the sword missed her, and then did a backwards roll that required a lot of strength, which brought her legs over her head so she was standing on her feet.

Adalia grinned and stuck out her tongue, and then did a mocking backwards flip, picking up her sword on the way, and landing on her feet in a perfect guard position.

Flick didn't give her any rest, but closed in quickly, sword flashing, at the same time searching for openings to land a kick or punch.

After all of their lessons, the pages gratefully sat down to dinner. Adalia groaned as she sat on the bench.

Kaden was observing his friend. "She beat you up good, didn't she?"

"If you are referring to my Evil Personal Shang, then I would say you are correct." Adalia said bitterly.

"You know, that looked spectacular!" Dameon said, blue eyes flashing. "I wish I could do that."

Adalia opened her eyes and squinted at her friend, "What? Get beaten up?"

"No! All that swordsmanship mixed with hand-to-hand combat. It was intense. Didn't you notice that all the pages were watching you, as well as all the knights that were practising?" Dameon asked gleefully.

Adalia shook her head at him, "Oh sure. It looked spectacular because I was being beaten up."

"It was crazy. I couldn't see lots of your movements they were so fast… and you don't look beaten up. Except for that bruise on your arm."

Adalia looked at her right arm and was shocked to see it was purple. "I didn't even notice that one. I am referring to injuries that are not visible, and they hurt much more." Adalia winced as she shifted in the seat.

Her two friends laughed at her, and then returned to shovelling food into their mouths.

About half an hour later, Adalia was relaxing on her bed, having chosen not to go to Kaden's rooms to join in the study. She didn't feel like being with anyone, and she was missing her absent friends. She could feel Shard vibrating comfortingly on her wrist.

The darking had been invaluable to her. It was her connection to her family. She had used it to be in constant contact with her family which, had she been forced to send letters, would have taken months.

"Ady!" Shard squeaked. Adalia was not waiting to be contacted, so this shocked her and she fell onto the floor.

Breathing hard, she addressed the bracelet darking, which had produced a head shape to talk with her.

"Yes Shard?" Adalia brought her wrist closer to her face, but at the same time jumped up and locked her door, then returned to her bed.

"Ady, he say hello."

"Who is 'he' Shard?" Adalia asked wearily.

"Rye." The darking squeaked.

The shock from this almost caused Adalia to fall off her bed again. "Rye?"

"Rye say can I speak to Ady?" Shard squeaked.

"Um… yes." Adalia still sat in shock as Shard pooled into her lap and a picture of Rye appeared.

She sat with her mouth open, staring at he image of Rye. "Wh…how…what...? She spluttered.

Rye, grey eyes dancing began to laugh as he saw a thoroughly shocked Adalia staring at him.

"Honestly, Adalia. You didn't think that my Ma would give all the darkings to your mother?" He asked teasingly. Then he added as an afterthought "or should I call you Ady?"

She went red and said, "Why didn't you tell me that you had a darking? And please save me from stupid nicknames!" She added, raising her face to the heavens.

"Not gonna work, Ady. Anyways, I didn't realise you had a darking. I was talking to Ma and she hinted that you may… now that I think about it, that is extremely suspicious…but anyway, I am happy that we can talk while I'm away, aren't you?" Rye asked teasingly.

"Please don't call me Ady! And what is your darking's name? And why haven't I seen it before?"

"All you have is questions. I'm hurt." Rye exclaimed with mock sorrow. "My darking's name is Bronze. You haven't seen it because I don't bring it around the palace. Now it's my turn to ask questions. Why haven't I seen yours? Usually we can see them when they are following people, that's how my Ma found the first one."

"It's quite the fashion in the Copper Isles palace to wear them disguised as some kind of jewellery. Shard disguises itself as a bracelet. They are also worn as necklaces, or even in hair." She informed him.

Rye's eyes widened, "That is a brilliant idea! No one does that here, but it sound like a great way to carry it inconspicuously."

"Yeah, well my Ma and Trick were the first to do it." Adalia said proudly.

"I am going to tell the monarchs, I recon it would be extremely practical." Rye said excitedly.

"You always get sidetracked like this!" Adalia said with mock anger. "How is your mission going?"

The two talked about the progress of Rye's mission into the night, and when they finally said goodbye, they promised to talk again at the same time next week.

As Shard transformed back into a bracelet, Adalia changed into a nightshift and settled under her covers. She fell into sleep much faster than she had been able to in the past few weeks, which meant she had no time to dwell on why this may be.

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Training continued as normal for the pages, and the camping trip was largely uneventful, excluding a hedgehog that somehow found its way into Lord Padraig's tent on the last night. Unfortunately Lord Padraig was a firm believer in using healers, and got one of the pages to close his numerous wounds.

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The new batch of first years arrived and, much to Adalia's discontent, there were no new girls. Her intensive training schedule continued as usual, and Adalia had not yet managed to defeat her Shang while duelling with swords and hand-to-hand at the same time – although she could win while doing either separately.

It took much more than just knowing the moves when combining the two; you had to remember that you could do anything, and so could your opponent. She was getting steadily better, but she couldn't help but be frustrated after every lesson, and retreat to some kind of isolation to nurse her new injuries, if only for a few seconds. After this she would quickly brighten, and determine to try better next time.

It was extremely early in the morning when Adalia was woken up by Shard, who was screeching in her ear. Forcing herself to sit up, she concentrated on what it was saying…

"Ady, Rye here!" Shard squeaked excitedly.

Adalia fell out of bed in her haste to get dressed, quickly reminding herself that it had been four months since he had left. Once she had dragged on an extra layer, she vaulted out her window and sprinted over to the Rider's barracks.

A commotion met her eyes as she approached, finding all the returned Riders dismounting grumpily and leading their mounts into the stables. She scanned the crowd and, frustrated that she couldn't see Rye, addressed Shard. "Where's Rye?"

Shard responded by using a piece of the 'bracelet' – a large stone in the middle – to show her what Rye saw; or more accurately, Bronze.

"Thanks Shard!" Recognising the angle, she span around and spotted him seated on Diablo.

She dogged around the incoming Riders, making sure that he wouldn't see her, until she was behind him.

She saw him dismount, and she crept up behind him, carefully telling Diablo not to tell Rye she was there, so that not even he heard her do it with his wild magic. She poked him in the back.

Rye jumped, and turned around quickly, bringing up a defensive position for hand-to-hand combat.

Adalia laughed at him, and he sheepishly put his hands down. "I hate to think what you planned on doing after that, my young mage." Adalia half laughed at him.

Rye shuddered, "If I even tried it… (He scratched his chin, then looked at the pond) I think you would probably throw me in the pond."

Adalia nodded her agreement, "Quite right!"

Rye took a mocking step back and bowed; taking her hand, he kissed it, "I am so pleased to be graced by your incredible presence, that for a moment my manners abandoned me. It's very good to see you after my months of dangerous warrior's work, Ady."

"Why thankyou young sir." Adalia played along with him. "But I would thankyou not to call me Ady, you should know by now that my name is Adalia." She made her voice mimic the tones of a flirtatious court lady, but she yanked her hand out of his.

"Alas, that I cannot comply with. You shall be Ady forevermore."

Adalia stayed silent at this, and privately communicated with Diablo, who was still behind Rye. Dropping her act she leapt forward and hugged Rye. "It's good to see you." She whispered into his ear.

"And you." Rye replied. Adalia let him go, and then took a step back.

This was necessary because all of a sudden Diablo head butted Rye into the pond.

All the Riders that witnessed this burst into laughter. Rye stood up in the pond, water dripping from him, and he watched Adalia, who was rolling around on the ground, tears of mirth glistening in her violet eyes.

He glared at her, and reached out a hand, asking silently for her help to get out. Once she had finished laughing, she complied and grasped his hand. Now it was Rye's intension to pull her in, but unfortunately Adalia seemed to have anticipated that, and she just used extra strength to lift him out.

Shocked to be standing on the ground, still feeling weird from being lifted up like he was weightless, he just looked at Adalia, who was grinning wolfishly. Warning bells flashed in his head, but he couldn't do anything about it.

"Now it's my turn!" Grinning from ear to ear, Adalia swept her leg under his, causing him to topple back into the pond.

This was worth getting up early in early morning for! Adalia reflected delightedly, after having collapsed for the second time into tears of glee.

A few minutes later, Rye succeeded in exiting the pond. He was half-heartedly scowling at Adalia, but for some reason he had troubles in keeping up the façade.

It was easier to glare at Diablo, who was at least looking properly ashamed of himself; meekly following his rider into the stables. Adalia, however, managed to stop laughing for a few moments, only to break out into renewed giggles when she looked into his eyes. And unfortunately, she kept following him.

Adalia finally managed to stop laughing, when Rye was halfway through grooming Diablo. She congratulated Diablo on a plan well done, this time allowing Rye to hear the communication.

Rye noticed this, and then something weird occurred to him. "How did you talk to Diablo and plan this without me hearing?" He asked, curious despite himself.

Adalia rolled her eyes at him, "Animals have more than one way to communicate, my dear wild mage." She replied ambiguously. Diablo snorted his agreement.

This intrigued Rye greatly, but by the way Ady had answered, he knew that she wouldn't tell him anything.

Suddenly realising that he was still wet, he used his Gift to dry himself, and the floor around him.

Adalia giggled, "I was wondering when you would notice you were still wet!" And with that, she kissed him on the cheek, quickly followed by the more childish gesture of sticking her tongue out at him, and then sprinted from the stables, thinking she could still fit in a pattern dance before breakfast.

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Midwinter was approaching and it was getting colder and wetter with each passing day. Adalia did not have an extreme aversion to the weather, like her grandmother, but as she put it, 'Any sane person avoids it.' She was constantly wrapped up in at least two coats to keep in the warmth.

The classes had move to the indoor courts as the snow piled up, and Flick constantly teased Adalia for wearing the two additional coats.

"You aren't as fast with the coats to slow you down!" She yelled at Adalia while carefully dogging a precise slash of her practise sword. Backing off quickly, she hadn't expected Adalia to keep coming, and she was kicked spectacularly, landing at least three metres from her original position. She groaned as she felt the cold touch of Adalia's sword. "I yield."

Adalia grinned mockingly. "Too slow hey? I think you must be frozen, which is actually giving me the advantage!"

Flick couldn't help but laugh as the girl helped her to her feet. "Can I have a coat then?"

Adalia looked at her like she was mad, "As if!" And then she proceeded to duck a swipe of Flick's fist.

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Next Chapter: Presents

Disclaimer: I am not Tamora Pierce.