Frey by Melissa Wright Page A

first
light and possibly as we ride.”
    As we ride? How serious was
this? I didn’t want to answer my own
question. I was a fugitive. And now it appeared Grand Council was
looking for me. I had no idea what my punishment would be. This
wasn’t the village. This would be far worse than anything High
Council would have planned.
    “ What will they do… if they…
if I can’t protect myself?”
    His face was grim. He didn’t intend to reply
and I suddenly didn’t want him to.
    We settled onto the floor of the small den,
our backs against the wall, the rock overhang blocking the
moon.
    “ That is my flame,” Chevelle
said, “try to extinguish it.”
    And my training began.

     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Nine
    Ruby
     
    Early the next morning, even before first
light as promised, Chevelle woke me for training. Gone were the
games we had played. These lessons were intense and stressful, on
my part anyway. I’d been unable to generate magic on task so he’d
started lunging at me with weapons, sticks, fire, forcing me to
respond to protect myself. After each attack, he would come right
back at me and if I tried to repeat a tactic for defense, he would
overpower my magic and push me to find a new maneuver.
    It wasn’t long before I
became winded. “Mount up,” he announced. When I started to climb on
my horse, he shot off like an arrow, almost knocking me to the
ground. I glared at Chevelle but he was ignoring me, already atop
his own horse and starting on his way. Grrr …
    I pulled Steed’s head around with magic and
pressed him back to me, climbed up, and clicked my heels hard to
catch Chevelle. He was riding fast again and I was not looking
forward to the day, sure it would be worse than the already
miserable morning. I rode up beside him, planning a snide remark
about the trick, but was distracted by a black stone in his hand.
It was odd shaped and just smaller than the size of my balled fist.
Onyx, I thought, though I’d never seen the stone that big.
    He looked at me as we rode. “Be prepared at
all times. This will come at you from every direction. It is the
only way you can learn to respond quickly. You need to use your
defense as instinct.”
    I really didn’t want to play anymore. But
before I could protest, a black rock was hurtling toward my face.
My hand jerked up to swat it away and my arm stopped as if it hit a
wall. The rock slammed into me, I was fairly certain my nose was
bleeding from the impact. I tried to slow my horse but apparently I
no longer had control of him.
    “ Again,” Chevelle
warned.
    The rock was coming for me a second time. I
tried to duck out of the way but the wall was there once more,
blocking me from moving. I cursed as the stone struck the side of
my face.
    “ This isn’t fair,” I
complained. It seemed he was holding me in place just to strike
me.
    “ It’s the only way, Freya.
This is for your protection.”
    “ I highly doubt they will
pummel my face with rocks,” I spat out.
    “ No,” he said calmly, “they
will bind you and burn you alive.”
    I shivered. A vision of the Grand Council
cloaks circling around me was convincing enough but he
continued.
    “ You will not know their
thoughts; you must be ready for any attack.”
    I nodded in understanding
but not necessarily in agreement. There
must be a less painful way .
    The rock was coming at me
again. Smack! My
cheek this time. It was like getting slapped repeatedly. The
irritation at it had me itching to burn something. As the volley
continued, I was sure that whenever my anger showed, the rock came
harder, faster, so I tried to control the emotion, or at least hide
it. Eventually, I found the easiest defense was to stop the stone
by blocking it with another object. His magic was more powerful
than mine so I couldn’t counter it and he’d prevented me from
ducking away.
    When I was blocking about half the attacks
successfully, he pocketed the stone and progressed with sticks,
water, fire, anything he