“Alright, Estelle,” Neil says. “Blythe needs a break. Your turn!”
My stomach drops as I climb over the short wooden wall into the dusty practice circle. Blythe, still panting from his sparring, pushes himself up to his feet with a groan and shakes Lyssa’s hand. “That was some good maneuvers! I think at this rate I have no hope of beating you.”
Lyssa smirks, leaning on her longsword-shaped practice stick. “You’re learning. Give yourself time to find the right weapon for you.”
“Clearly, it’s not the club,” Blythe drawls. He sets his club down by the array of weapons, where I’m standing. “What are you going to pick?” he asks.
“I’m not sure,” I say. I’ve been dreading this part of the lessons for a long time now. The other classes have been a breeze—reading, writing, arithmetic, and speech classes—those don’t phase me a bit. But the combat? I’m still sick about it, and it’s made all the worse as I feel Lyssa’s glare on my back.
Neil, leaning against the wooden wall, gestures to the weapon rack. “I think you’re best off with something light that you can keep a handle on.”
I pick up the smallest practice weapon I can find that isn’t the “dagger” replica. This is a shortsword replica, although its mock edges still make me a little ill, imagining if this was a real sword. Turning, I catch Lyssa rolling her eyes.
“Remember your basic footwork,” Neil says.
Nodding, I set my stance, one foot back a little and angled to the side, enough to give me support.
“Rules are the same: tap your weapon on your opponent for points. Arms and legs are one point, torso is two points. Head and neck are off limits for now. Four points wins the round, and we’ll have three rounds. Match starts in three.”
I swallow at the glint in Lyssa’s beady light gray eyes.
“Two.”
I can’t help it, I’m already cringing.
“One.”
This isn’t going to be fun.
“Go!”
It’s not that I don’t see Lyssa charging for me. It’s that I don’t really know what to do about it, because I don’t want to fight her. So I hold my practice stick up to block Lyssa’s attack, just as I’d been practicing with Neil, but she knocks it from my grip with ease and taps me—rather solidly—on my shoulder.
“Two points to Lyssa,” Neil calls.
Before I can even decide where to go from here, Lyssa spins and taps me on my other side with her practice stick, and then steps back, smirking.
“First round to Lyssa,” Neil says. His tone sounds tired, and I flinch, imagining that he’s as frustrated with me as Lyssa is.
I just wish I knew why Lyssa’s mad at me, and shy away from the angry woman as I pick up my shortsword stick.
“Second round in three. Two. One. Go!”
I’m slightly more prepared for Lyssa to lunge at me, and I manage to keep a hold of my shortsword stick as I block her first attack.
“There we go, Estelle!” Neil says.
Lyssa’s eyes narrow on me as she glares down at me overtop our crossed practice sticks. “Wow. You actually tried something.”
Knowing how much faster and stronger I am because of my bond, however, I hesitate on how to swing an attack at her that doesn’t injure her, and as a result Lyssa pokes my leg in my calf.
“One point to Lyssa.”
“Honestly,” Lyssa drawls, “I’m impressed that you haven’t run off to hide somewhere and cry yet.”
Surprised by her taunt, I retreat a step. Lyssa takes two steps toward me, swinging her stick around, and lands a blow on my arm.
“Another point to Lyssa,” Neil says. There’s an oddness to his tone, like he’s upset, but I’m not sure what about. He knows very well that I don’t like this part of the training.
“Is this all you’re going to do as a Ward?” Lyssa asks. “Flee from danger?” She advances steadily, expertly swinging her longsword stick around, spinning and whirling. I continue to retreat, unsure of what exactly she’s looking for, and growing weary of her taunts. She lunges forward, and I swipe away her attack with my stick.
“Fight!” Blythe says. “Do something!”
I glance to the side, and that’s my mistake—Lyssa lands another blow on me, this time on my leg again.
“Another point to Lyssa, one more for her wins the round,” Neil says.
“That’s right,” Lyssa snaps. “Couldn’t you do something?”
“Why are you so angry with me?” I ask. I duck under her swing. Now that I’m focusing on Lyssa, I’m finding that it’s getting easier to stay a step ahead of her, the speed gained from my bonding giving me an edge I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. “What did I ever do to you?”
“It’s not what you did to me,” Lyssa says. “It’s what you’re not doing as a Ward.”
“But I’m learning to become a Ward.”
“You have no fight in you! No desire to win!” Lyssa rushes me, swinging her longsword stick around.
Narrowing my eyes on her attack, I grab the stick, letting my arm move with her weapon as it zips through the air, and yank it to the side. Lyssa has a strong grip on it and staggers to stay on her feet. I see an opening—I see that I could easily swing my shortsword stick on her back. But I can’t bring myself to do it, and I step back.
“See?! See?!” Lyssa whirls on me. “Why didn’t you take the opportunity?”
“You are not my enemy,” I say. “I’m not here to fight you. I’m not here to win against you. I’m here to do the right thing.”
“Then stand aside!” Lyssa shouts.
“Fine.” I stop retreating and let Lyssa strike my arm.
“There! I won two of the three rounds, against a bonded!” Lyssa declares proudly.
“Aha!” Neil claps loudly. “Yes!”
Lyssa beams at Neil, and gives me a sidelong glare.
“Yes, well done Estelle!”
“What?!” Lyssa spins on Neil, gaping at him.
“Pardon?” I say, confused.
“Congratulations, Estelle, you’ve passed one of the tests of becoming a Ward.”
“What?!” Lyssa shrieks even louder. “I’ve been practicing for years and I’ve never…she hasn’t even hit me! I won!”
“What you and Blythe are still learning,” Neil says lightly, “is what Estelle already understands—it’s not about winning. Neither of you have ever even asked me why you should spar.”
“Wait.” Blythe is staring at Neil. “This…I never realized that was a part of the testing!”
“It’s an unspoken one.” Neil shrugs. “Now that you both know the secret, it’s not a test you need to pass. But it is one you need to understand.” He gestures to me. “A Ward isn’t here to win. This isn’t a competition. Sometimes, being a Ward means letting others win to gain true victory, at times. Furthermore, fighting isn’t right unless you fight for a good reason—to defend the weak and helpless, those who seek Ariadna. We are Ariadna’s hands, and as such we must always be asking ourselves if what we’re doing is honoring to Ariadna. Not honoring ourselves.”
Lyssa gives another shriek, louder still, and throws her stick into the ground at her feet so hard it embeds itself. She stomps off, yelling, and I stare at her, the rage from her palpable.
“Lyssa’s having another fit,” Blythe says quietly.
“Don’t you worry about it,” Neil says. “Blythe, how about you go on and get yourself some lunch? I can see your hands shaking.”
“Oh man, I am hungry!” Blythe’s mood immediately turned around by the prospect of food, he goes running off toward the palace. “Eclair, let’s get some food!”
“Okay!” The younger dragon immediately turns and bounds off after him.
I look up at Neil. “I wish you wouldn’t have made a big deal about me to Lyssa.”
Neil smiles a bit smugly, crossing his arms. “You deserve some honor. And I hate to throw you in the midst of this, but I think you’re the best thing that’s happened to Lyssa.”
“Why? And why does she hate me so much?” I ask.
Neil sighs and beckons to me. “Let’s get some lunch. I’ll tell you on the way. Giftigbun, Astralux, we’ll meet you in the courtyard.”
“Sounds good.” Astralux glances at me—I can tell she wants to talk—but she follows Giftigbun around the palace.
I pull Lyssa’s embedded practice stick out and set hers and mine back on the rack before walking alongside Neil.
“Has Veremund told you anything about the Wards’ process for preparing for the bond?” Neil asks. “Specifically, has he told you about the Pairing Test?”
“Yes,” I say. “That’s when a potential human and dragon pair take a trip together to determine whether they want to go through with the bonding.”
“Exactly. Well, you see, Lyssa was working with another dragon, and they were getting along well, so we decided to send them out on a Pairing Test.”
“Oh!” I say, surprised. No one had mentioned another dragon to me. And, I realize next, that this meant things didn’t go well for Lyssa.
Neil holds the door open to the Wards’ Palace. “Our goal as Wards and our training isn’t perfection,” he adds to me, perhaps referencing the test I had passed that neither Lyssa nor Blythe had figured out yet.
“Right.”
Neil leads me down to a dining room located on the first floor, where food is often provided for Wards to take with them, or if their dragons are busy, and for the servants that assist in keeping the Wards’ Palace operational. There’s also a door on the far side that leads to a lovely courtyard where many of the Wards enjoy eating outside with their dragons. Blythe’s already grabbing a plate of grilled steaks, sliced strawberries, and a single green bean before hurrying out the door to join Eclair.
“At any rate, they had gotten all the way to the Pairing Test.” Neil hands me a plate and begins piling grilled steaks on his plate. “We only send out pairs when we think they’re ready to bond. But, the entire reason for the test is that sometimes you discover something about a person—or a dragon—that you didn’t know about in training. And this dragon saw something in Lyssa. When they returned, he very kindly explained that Lyssa meant a lot to him, but she wasn’t ready to become a Ward.”
“Oh wow,” I whisper. I take mostly green beans and strawberries, and add a little steak to my plate.
“Lyssa was heartbroken,” Neil says. “And it was made worse by the fact that within a year, this dragon bonded with someone else.”
“Who?” I ask.
“Dolores. The dragon was Schleifen.” Neil sighs heavily as he grabs a large copper mug full of apple cider. “Their deaths were hard on Lyssa. I think she thought that somehow she’d failed Schleifen, and in so doing condemned both him and Dolores. So she trained harder.”
Neil steps through the door and holds it open until I walk past outside. We head to the farthest wooden table, where Astralux and Giftigbun have already lain and are “chatting” by growling at each other, large copper bowls of cooked meats in front of them. Blythe is sitting at Eclair’s feet next to her food bowl.
“Then when Tristin died,” Neil says, keeping his loud, boisterous voice unusually quiet, “I think Lyssa thought that she and Astralux would bond. They are so similar, such fighters in spirit, that it seemed a perfect match. Honestly, I think all of us assumed it would happen, too.”
I glance at Astralux, who hasn’t caught on to our conversation yet. “Why didn’t they bond? I feel like they would have been a great pair.”
“Astralux was still grieving Tristin’s death when she left Adytol,” Neil says. “Then she came back—bonded to you.” I flinch, but Neil shakes his head. “Don’t feel bad. It’s not your fault in the least bit. Besides, Ariadna has a good reason that you’re bonded to Astralux, and not Lyssa.”
“I just feel bad for Lyssa,” I say. “I can tell how much she wants to be a Ward.”
Neil shrugs. “At the same time, she wants it too much—she wants the glory of victory more than the glory of Ariadna. You displayed that perfectly today, and Lyssa’s reaction tells me she’s still learning this quality.”
Puzzled, and worried for Lyssa, I stare off at the mountains beyond.
Chuckling, Neil taps my elbow before taking a knife and fork to his first steak. “Hey. Stop worrying. Ariadna works all things for her good—including Lyssa.”
I can’t help smiling, but Giftigbun gives a low, growling laugh. “That will be quite the work!” the dragon says. Neil laughs heartily as I shake my head, still smiling a little.
Tamara Rivers 
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