Chapter 8 "The Quiet Before The Storm"

Around midday, we had reached the Institute. It had been difficult for me to keep my eyes open during the drive. Fatigue had overwhelmed me every few minutes and had made it impossible to watch the happenings outside the car. The Silent Brothers' rituals had exhausted me completely. I had wished for my bed.

The others had been unusually quiet as well. The whole drive long, nobody had said a word. I hadn't been quite sure, what it had been due to, but everyone had been able to sense the uncomfortable atmosphere. It had been obvious, that everyone had bothered themselves with the past incidents. Although, the Silent City had brought me nothing but emotional distress, I was glad that I had been too exhausted to bother myself with the same questions. Even though, Maryse thought that our current situation was safe, nobody was truly convinced by it.

The only thing I could remember from our journey back to the Institute, was Adam's face. While I had swapped between trance and vigilance, Adam had watched me with an amused look. I didn't know if he had observed me all the time, or only when I had been able to come through the heavy fog in my head and had opened my eyes.

Adam had to sustain me at the exit, I had been too tired. After I had reached my room with a lot of effort, I had directly fallen asleep. It had been a deep and dreamless sleep.

Now, I laid in my bed and tried to remember where I was. My sleep was rarely so deep that I had to orient myself the day after. The sun already lowered itself against the horizon and a cool wind blew through the open window. Freezing, I pulled the blanket up under my chin.

Because we had left so early in the morning, Maryse had rescheduled today's training to the afternoon. Adam had promised to pick me up. But since he wasn't here yet, I supposed that I had some time left.

I had hardly dressed myself up, when there was a knock at the door and Adam entered the room. "Have you been able to recover a bit?", he asked in a soft tone and leaned against the door frame.

I folded my clothes and nodded, my back turned on him. "I can't say that I'd be strong enough for a fight, but it'll be enough for today." Hodge had assured us yesterday, that we would only do archery today. A rather less demanding kind of defense by comparison to the others.

The others were already there when we arrived at the training hall. Someone had hung up human targets made from straw, at the other end of the room. Impalpable, they hung from a thin wire, some centimeters above the ground. Alec was standing in the middle of the hall, a bended bow in his hand. The arrow, which he let go consequently, exactly hit the puppet's heart. It was this moment when I realized that I had underestimated Alec. Until now, I had only noticed him as Jace's quiet Parabatai who always stayed close to him. His ability at sword fight was alright, he belonged to the higher midfield. But the bow was definitely his talent.

Jace stood next to him and watched silently. His eyes were fixed on the bow in Alec's hand, and he didn't look up when we entered the hall. Isabelle was a little offside and seemed to be in her own world. She twisted her mouth, dissatisfied, and her eyes were concentrating on the target. An arrow stuck in the object's shoulder. I had to suppress a grin.

Adam and I took a bow and quiver with arrows each. Short afterwards, Hodge arrived and began with his introduction. We positioned ourselves next to each other and implemented his words, almost synchronous. Straight posture. Breathing. Apprehend and anchor the arrow. Raise the elbow. Prefix the target. Contact to the bowstring. Bend. Exhale. Shoot. It was weird to hear those words out of Hodge's mouth.

Alec and I both hit the bullseye. The targets staggered in the air when our arrows hit the heart marked in red. My lips twitched to a content smirk. I heard Jace snorting and when I lowered my bow, I saw his eyes fixing me. Was he surprised? Did he expect me to fail?

I responded his look without emotion and reached for another arrow at the same time. He copied me. Almost greedy, his eyes seemed to follow my every move. My gaze wandered to his target. He had just missed the heart.

"Very good, Alec", said Hodge and clapped Alec on his shoulder. "You too, Clary." A small smile appeared on his face and the wrinkles on his skin twisted.

Alec turned his head and seemed to wake up from his training trance. He looked over at my arrow which still stuck in the puppet's red heart, and the corners of his mouth contorted. Then, he turned to me and silently observed me for a moment. His dark eyes rested on me, unemotionally. Suddenly, he lowered his sight in an almost resigned way.

"Let's start all over again", Hodge demanded, while he walked up and down behind us. This time, he came to a halt between Isabelle and me, and I knew that he wouldn't watch me.

Straight posture. Breathing. Apprehend and anchor the arrow. Raise the elbow. Prefix the target. Contact to the bowstring. Bend. Exhale. Shoot. His words echoed in my head. In front of my inner eye, my father emerged. His striking facial features were shaped to a detached mask, and he studied me out of his indispensable eyes. Wariness mirrored in its black. Then, he repeated the words, and I followed his command in one fluent movement. The arrow bored, almost unresisting, through the dark raven's throat. But even from this distance, I could see the blood sprinkle on the white snow.

It took me a moment to realize that there was no snow around my feet and no black raven to shoot. There was no trace of my father. Slowly, I breathed out and felt the warm breath on my fingers, which were closed around the bow's end. I blinked. Alec's precise arrow had met the target right next to his first arrow. Then, my eyes wandered to my own arrow. It had also found its way to the first but had split it in half. I lowered the bow, without keeping my eyes off the puppet.

A short silence filled the room. Adam was the first to speak again. "And I thought that you couldn't be any better", he said composed and came a step closer. His bow dangled carelessly between his fingers. "Please help me to improve. It doesn't matter how precisely I target, I always miss the heart by a hair."

A quiet snort behind me brought me back to reality. I looked over to Isabelle. She had missed the heart again. In contrast to Jace, who had hit it just so. For a moment, I stared at him, puzzled. Did Adam just ask me for help? He didn't smile but examined me firmly with his green eyes. I wanted to decline but something in his eyes glowed so intense that it was impossible to look away. Finally, I glared at Hodge, questioning, who nodded slightly.

"All right", I said with a firm voice and pointed at his bow. "Shoot another arrow." He pressed his lips together and did what I had asked him to do. In a fast movement, he grasped for an arrow. Then, he positioned the arrow and bend the bow. He was in the act of letting the arrow fly, when I interrupted him.

Slightly baffled, he turned his head in my direction. I walked up to him, until I was standing right next to him. With a featherlight touch, I pressed his elbow upwards. "There must be a bigger gap between your feet", I strictly explained and automatically had to think of Valentine.

"Like this?", Adam asked and viewed me, eager for knowledge. I nodded. "Now, let it fly." His arrow hit the puppet's heart, even if not as central as Alec's or my. Pleased about his success, he yanked his head up and beamed at me. "You're a great teacher", he said in a spurred tone. Just when he saw my face, he went silent and raised his eyebrows.

"You disregard your breathing. You have to breathe out before you let the arrow go, but you breathe when you let it go. As a result, you move your whole body and miss the target." Astonished, he viewed the puppet from afar, and seemed to think about something. The others had stopped their training to watch us.

Silent, I handed him another arrow. Adam took it and rocked it in his hand for a second, before he stemmed his feet in the ground, exhaled and lifted the bow. This time, he hit the exact middle of the fixed target. I smiled while I watched the puppet, which had been pushed back by the arrow's force and was now swaying back and forth.

"That's the way", said Hodge and one could hear him smirk. "Well done." Adam smiled thankfully at me and then turned to Hodge.

We continued to train. After a while, Hodge gave us small, with straw filled, leather balls. One ball just fit in my fist. Adam began to throw them in the air, in order that I hit them with an arrow in mid-air. It was more difficult to get a precise hit because the ball was small and moved unpredictably, depending on how Adam threw it. But it was manageable, and it worked out, although not as exactly as with the immobilized puppets.

Soon enough, Jace and Alec started to train with the leather balls as well. Only Isabelle was still standing in front of her target. Sometimes she hit the heart and sometimes she didn't. It seemed to be coincidence rather and had nothing to do with the quality of her technique. I could see mistakes in her stance. Besides, she looked frustrated and inattentive and there were beads of sweat on her face.

When she missed the target another time, I lowered the bow and walked closer to her. But I stopped far enough from her, so I didn't enter her privacy. "You hold the bow too aggressively", I neutrally noticed. "It's okay to hold a sword like that, but a bow should be held with less force. You have to concentrate more on the target. It helps when you exhale before you let go." Contrary to Adam, she didn't exhale before letting go because she didn't exhale at all. She was inattentive and every failure infuriated her more. "You need to keep a cool head. Furthermore, try not to straighten your back completely, the shoulders should remain lower."

It probably sounded like huge criticism, but it was all about tiny details which added up. A single detail could be enough to lose the rigor. Isabelle stared at me for several moments, angry and with narrowed eyes. She was probably irritated to be corrected by me. I hadn't believed that she would give an ear to me but had wanted to try it anyway.

"I don't need your help", she snapped scornfully and turned to her target again. Her dark braid spun through the air, as she jerked her head forward. Her lips were pressed together, enraged.

Wordless, I shrugged my shoulders and began to throw targets for Adam. But instead of following Adam and his achievement ratio, I watched Isabelle out of the corners of my eyes. I saw, how she breathed deeply and shortly closed her eyes. And to my surprise, she actually did, what I had told her only seconds ago. Her arrow hit the heart of the puppet. Isabelle smiled. I turned my head away and smiled, too.

Just a moment later, a deafening screech roared through the hall.

Cliffhanger :) What do you think about this chapter? I wanted to focus a little more on two different characters, Adam and Isabelle. I would love to read your review! See you in three weeks.

Skyllen