carried when hunting back in Gerfal. "Perhaps you would care to show me the skill that earned
you your title?"
Fergox nodded. "I have no problem with that, Princeling." He picked a spear and gestured to a row of straw men-targets against the wall at the far end of the arena. "A killing strike wins--head or heart."
They walked together to take up their positions
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opposite the dummies. Fergox felt the sharpened end of his spear
thoughtfully.
"I hear from the priests you visited my little penitent."
Quelling any sign that would betray his nervousness on this subject, Ramil nodded. "Yes, I went
to reason with her but found her unmoved."
Fergox lifted the spear to his shoulder and took a few swings to loosen his arm and neck
muscles.
"She's putting on a good show for the people. Prettily stubborn. A sudden conversion would not
be half so impressive."
He launched the spear and it struck the central dummy in the head.
"A fatal blow," he said with a satisfied smile.
Ramil warmed up, then cast his missile, imagining the dummy to be Fergox.
It flew hard and fast, piercing the straw man in the heart.
"Excellent!" Fergox clapped him on the back. "Your family should be proud of you. Best of 139
three?"
Ramil was about to agree when a red-robed priest appeared at Fergox's elbow. He muttered a
swift report out of Ramil's hearing, bowed and retired.
Fergox turned back to his young challenger with one of his chilling smiles.
"I do apologize, Prince Ramil, but we will have to postpone our contest. I am called away to our
not-so-penitent penitent. She has excelled herself this morning and I must congratulate her."
He walked out of the practice courts, leaving Ramil to wonder what he meant.
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The door to the cell opened for the third time that day. Tashi took up her post against the far
wall, her fingers clutching the stones apprehensively.
"Ah, Tashi, Tashi, you are remarkable!"
Fergox Spearthrower stood before her, arms outstretched in a benevolent gesture. He was bare-
chested, covered in cuts, and had a towel round his neck. She could smell the sweat of combat
on him from the other side of the room.
"You've found your own way to fight. I like that. It suits a female follower of Holin: passive
resistance, scorn of pain and punishment--excellent."
"I didn't do it for your Warmonger," Tashi said, her eyes lowered.
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"Ah, but everything you do is done for Holin. You cannot help yourself."
Fergox smiled and crossed the cell to embrace her. "You were worth the money." He pressed
her to his chest and kissed the top of her head.
Tashi pulled away. "What do you mean? Worth what money?"
He ran his hand over her hair, trapping one lock in his fingers. "You don't understand, my poor,
sweet girl. You're only here because I paid the chief priest on Kai one hundred thousand gold
heralds to pick you. I made you what you are. If it hadn't been for me, you'd still be herding
goats." He tickled her under the chin with her hair.
"No." Tashi shook her head, pushing his hands off her. He was leaning over her, trapping her against the
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wall, smiling his horrible smile that said he knew everything about her, how she felt, how she
thought. "I don't believe it."
Fergox chuckled. "Must I show you his signature on the receipt, little penitent? I doubtless still have it somewhere in my treasury."
"No." Her protest this time was feeble. She sagged against the wall, feeling as if he had removed all strength from her. Was it possible? Was she his creature? It would explain the sudden death
of the previous princess and the oddity that someone as insignificant as her had been chosen.
But if that was true, it meant the end of everything she believed in.
"I wouldn't let it worry you, Tashi. You made a very fine princess and will be a beautiful wife for 141
an emperor when the time comes." He patted her consolingly on the cheek. "I'll leave you to
your penitence. Don't take too long about it, will you? The disciplines get very nasty after a few
weeks of resistance and I'd hate to think you'll suffer so unnecessarily. You'll submit in the end.
Everyone does give way to me."
He ran his finger down the side of her face and then touched her lips. "Just say the words, Tashi, and you'll be out of here and in a warm chamber lying in a bed with silk sheets."
She turned her head away, too devastated to speak. She felt his hand removed and heard the
noise of the door closing. Alone again, she slid down the wall to the floor, feeling as if her whole
world had crumbled around her.
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Chapter 8
The Midwinter festival approached. Snow built up on the pitched roofs and would periodically
fall in little avalanches into the castle courtyard. The stones around the well were slick with ice,
the chain dripping icicles. The white mountains would have been beautiful if Ramil had not felt
they looked like the bars of his prison. He fretted with each day that passed that escape was
becoming more difficult as the weather closed in. Heavy snowstorms now often blocked the
road to the castle. Teams of soldiers labored to keep the pathways between the army camp and
the citadel clear. Fergox was using the winter to harden and train his troops. Many of them were
from the warmer countries of the south and were not accustomed to the bitter weather. As he
tramped through the castle, Ramil often came across young men with dark skin like his own
cowering around the campfires, doubtless wishing they had never signed up for the warlord's
army.
Though seemingly at a loose end, Ramil had not been idle. He had already hidden two bundles
of clothes and
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provisions in a quiet corner of the castle, enough he hoped to see a pair of fugitives far along the
road. But the most difficult challenge remained. He had to have a horse capable of carrying two.
Ramil had not forgotten the princess's incompetence in the saddle: she would have to ride with
him.
That would mean stealing one of the nobles' horses from the stables, rather than one of the
army mounts, a tricky feat as they were well guarded.
Somehow he had to achieve this and get the princess away before anyone noticed. How he was
to do this was beyond him at the moment. Every time he saw her, she was hemmed in by
priests. They had started to bring her to the practice courts each morning to offer her the
various weapons of combat.
A regular crowd gathered to see her snap the arrow or throw aside the sword, but not before
she had usually taken several blows from her trainer. It was a cruel game that everyone, apart
from Tashi and Ramil, appeared to enjoy.
Two days before the Midwinter feast, a messenger arrived at Felixholt with the news that
Fergox's sister, the Inkar Yellowtooth, and her army from Kandar, an eastern province of Holt,
had been sighted. Fergox took Ramil up to the top of the tower to watch for her approach.
"Now my armies are ail gathered," Fergox announced. "Junis is the last to arrive as usual. She likes to keep her little brother waiting--she's the only one who dares." He chuckled and slapped