Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce Read Free Book Online

ships. Miache and the city’s swimmers, some of them younglings, they’d swim out t’harry the Carthaki navy. They even sank some of the barges full of men and catapults. Miracles started happenin’—birds found nestin’, when the city had none. Schools of fish appearin’ in canals under the city, where no fish’d been before. Men and their families began to move into the city even durin’ the war, t’make their homes and t’fight for Tyra. They didn’t know why they came. It was the Jewel, callin’ them.
    â€œThey saved Tyra, Miache and Zefrem and the Dominion Jewel. The city was a pirate’s nest when they came, a sinkhole fit only for cutthroats and thieves. They made it a lawful tradin’ city where aman’s word was a bindin’ contract. The man and woman vanished, and the Jewel came next to Norrin, but Tyra still prospers. That was three hundred years gone.”
    Alanna sighed when Coram finished, moved by his tale and the matter-of-fact way he’d told it.
    He got up and stretched. “Anything else?”
    â€œCoram, thank you. For everything—for bringing me up, and helping me …”
    â€œThere, now,” he scolded gently. “Don’t go all sentimental. Ye’ll embarrass us both.” Surprisingly, he bent and kissed her forehead. “Good night, yer ladyship.”

    Experience had taught Alanna how long injuries took to heal and how far she could push herself during the recovery process. She hated to stay in bed any longer than necessary. Each hour there meant more work to return to peak condition. The day after she awoke, she was outside, going through sword exercises using Coram’s broadsword. She was careful not to overdo or to rush, but she was persistent.
    To the boys who loitered in the courtyard, she was a godsend. They jeered, at first. But once they saw that the lady knew how to use a sword, theygrabbed sticks and imitated her. She paid them no attention. If she did, they would turn shy and run, afraid other boys would laugh. Instead, she pretended to be absorbed, and her imitators grew bolder. Their number increased. By her third day’s exercise, ten of them followed her movements. So preoccupied were the boys that they didn’t notice right away when Alanna began to correct a stance or a grip.
    Liam watched. So did Coram. “She did the same, for the Bazhir lads,” he told the Dragon with pride. “She even taught our tribe’s shamans, and her learnin’ to be a shaman alongside them. Not bad for a noble, is it?”
    Liam smoothed his mustache as he watched. “She’s serious about learning Shang fighting?”
    Coram nodded. “Perhaps I should’ve brought her to Shang when I saw how it was with her. But she was Trebond. I never heard of a noble comin’ to ye without bein’ thrown off by their families—and none of them were lasses.”
    â€œYou did right,” Liam said. “She’s happy as the one lady knight in the Eastern Lands, your Lioness.”
    Coram made a face. “She’s not my Lioness. Cooper’s, perhaps, or Prince Jonathan’s, but not mine.”
    â€œYours,” repeated Liam. “Yours, and Myles of Olau’s, and her brother’s. Cooper’s, too. The prince’s certainly.” He grinned. “Maybe even mine. Who knows?”

    Five days after she began working out, Alanna put down Coram’s sword with a grin. The boys couldn’t understand why she was so glad to finish an exercise ; for them the glory of fencing lay in the defeat of an opponent. Alanna knew she’d finished the hardest of her exercises with no mistakes, using a heavier sword than Lightning. Her body had complained only a few times, not very loudly. She was healed, and they could be on the road again!
    Someone put Lightning’s jewel-studded hilt into her hand. Puzzled, she looked up to see Liam.
    â€œNow