The Eyes of a Doll (The World of Shijuren Book 2) by Rob Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

the field, taking advantage of my experience and skill to replace efficiency with power. I pounded at her arms and shoulders when she blocked low and hammered at her thighs when she blocked high.
    “As I’m beating you to a pulp, at least try and find a vulnerable spot and strike at me.”
    She responded to my mocking taunts with several ineffective blows, but she did not discover the weaknesses of my round shield. In her defense, I could already see bruising on her arms and legs, reducing her speed and strength.
    My anger and rage at the events of the last month faded with each strike. Piri watched and waited as I taught a lesson and healed myself at the same time. With impeccable timing, she halted our bout right as both my anger and Maja’s arrogance ebbed to a neap tide.
    “Well, Sevener?”
    I panted at Piri with one last bit of rage. “Please tell me your other recruits are better.”
    Piri shrugged. “Probably can’t be much worse.”
    I shook my head. “You were deadlier the day you got out of swaddling clothes.”
    Piri shrugged again, this time with a small smile. “I suspect so.”
    The pain and exhaustion were hitting Maja as we cooled down, but our dismissal of her skills struck her more painfully than any of my blows. She finally looked down.
    “Sevener, what do you think will help her?”
    “Nothing, Piri, not until she grows up.”
    “You think so?”
    “Yes. She’s worse than untrained. She’s talented, but she doesn’t know what her talents are and does things that don’t work for her. She compounds her mistakes with aggression. Right now, all she’ll do is get everyone else in her shieldwall killed. Hopefully, she’ll die alongside them, and you’ll be done with her.”
    Somewhere Hlodowic smiled as I repeated, word for word, a speech he had made to my father about me after one day on the practice field.
    “Hmmm.”
    “Piri, you know she’ll kill every Pathfinder alongside her if you send her out now.”
    “What would they do with her in the Seven Kingdoms?”
    “Make her work a year or so on a farm, training her skills at arms only after she got her work done. Then, if her she continued to put her anger and pride ahead of her shield-kin, she’d be cast out to wander, stripped of her rights to a bench and a hall, and despised as an oath-breaker.”
    My own past crushed my soul for a moment, but I turned to her.
    “Maja, look at me.”
    She lifted her head to glare at me.
    “Die, if you will, on the blade of the first raider to find you. But I beg you, never allow yourself to live as an oath-breaker.”
    I stared at her until she looked away.

Chapter 7
Afternoon, 1 Blommemoanne, 1712 A.G.
     
    After I returned to the Faerie, I spent an hour repairing straps and everything else I could find wrong with my armor. Soon its fresh coat of oil perfumed my room.
    Now, after bathing, I sat in the Faerie at my table with most of lunch remaining on a plate before me. I nursed one of Ragnar’s ales. My body and armor were clean and fresh, but my mind swirled and felt as muddy as Brunanburh’s flats at low tide.
    I looked up as Kapric and Zvono walked in, followed by a woman with a broad body and a broader smile. The stern officiousness of the quaesitors could not overwhelm the woman’s cheerfulness.
    “Sevener.”
    “Good afternoon, Kapric.”
    “Meet Marjana Gropa.”
    “Gropa?”
    “My mother.”
    Surprised, I rose and bowed to her. “Well met. I’m sorry for what I caused to happen to your family.”
    Her smile broadened. “Didn’t bother me and mine so much. We’re not so fancy as Pal or Vesela and those that live up the hill. We’re but merchants and craftsmen for the most part.”
    “Except Kapric?”
    She waved her finger at me. “Foolish thought. He’s a craftsman too, never you doubt.”
    I paused. “You’re right. I apologize to both of you.”
    “Was that so hard to say, Sevener?”
    “He’s just so arrogant sometimes, Zvono.” I smiled slyly.
    “All of you