Page 27 of Obsidian Throne

“Lemmikki, remember to lift your elbow.”

“Yuriy, on your guard. She’s taking advantage of your weakness with your left.”

“Your footwork is sloppy, Lemmikki.”

And finally, “Are you really going to let a woman beat you, Cousin?”

I practically growled at him for that one, but when I caught his eye, there was a gleam of mischief dancing there. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Sure enough, Yuriy unleashed a flurry of attacks, fast enough that I had to employ a series of ducks and twirls to evade him. As I danced out of the way of his blade, though, I watched carefully for my opening.

And he gave it, on his left, just as he had been doing all along.

Instead of dragging this out any longer, I flew through the next several movements, bringing my blade down on Yuriy’s with more force than necessary.

Once he was where I wanted him, I feinted to the right before stepping in between his legs to throw him off balance, then shoving him the rest of the way to the ground.

With my blade at Yuriy’s throat and his hands in the air, Evander called the match.

“Now,” he said to the stunned men around us. “Who can tell me what they did wrong?”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ROWAN

It didn’t take long to realize what Evander was doing. By critiquing my movements and Yuriy’s, his cousin and third in line for the dukedom, he had put us on equal footing.

The others were hesitant to offer feedback--on me, specifically--but one look from Evander had them quickly coming up with something constructive to say.

Once that was done, I sparred with two other soldiers, winning one match and losing the other. By the time we left, I felt a little more grounded and insanely satisfied.

Maybe we really could do this.

Sure, there would still be plenty of Socairans who despised or feared my hair, but I hadn’t missed the way a few more had softened to me today.

Taisiya had a bath drawn for us by the time we returned to our room, and we took our time cleaning up before we were both required elsewhere.

While Evander went to discuss clan matters with the local lords, I met Mila and the other ladies of Bear court for a late luncheon.

Fortunately, Ava wasn’t in attendance, just as I had hoped earlier, so the meal went relatively smoothly. I tried to make conversation with each lady in attendance, learning about who they were, how long they had been staying at the castle, and what part of Bear they lived in.

Most of the ten in attendance smiled and politely responded, even if some of that felt forced. Some of them were even more talkative than I expected. But there was one who clearly wanted nothing to do with me.

Lady Katerina was impeccably dressed in an elegant pale-pink gown that offset her light brown skin, with her dark hair swept into a smooth chignon. According to Mila, she was one of the more prominent ladies at court, but also one of the nicer ones.

Except, it would appear, toward me.

She wasn't precisely hostile, nor did she seem afraid, but any time I tried to speak with her, she was suddenly very interested in her finger sandwiches or scones.

Odd.

By the time lunch was over, we all went to take our tea in the drawing room, and I finally had an opportunity to talk privately with Mila.

Most of the ladies took a spot at one of the round tables, playing some sort of card game that didn’t look nearly as fun as Kings and Arselings, while two chose corner seats and picked up their knitting to work on alone.

I felt like I had done my share of my forced socializing for the day, so Mila and I sat on a small, secluded couch that faced the large bay windows near the fireplace. It had the perfect view of the snow-capped mountains.

Or, it would have been, if my eyes didn’t keep going to Lady Katerina.