Page 11 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

I was giddy the next morning, though the sun came far too quick.

The obstacle course was three levels of jumps, runs, and reaches.

And I couldn’t be more excited for it. Outside the training ring, we had put the balance beams along with some staffs with padded ends.

They would use those to spar with each other to work on their balance leading up to sword training.

The next few weeks were going to be a lot of fun.

I loved the obstacle course. The physical and emotional high of making it to the top.

And I loved watching people get knocked off time and time again, learning, adjusting, and eventually clawing for the top.

What was life, if not one big obstacle course?

It didn’t matter the amount of tries you took.

So long as you kept attempting. Kept bringing it.

Eventually you’d make it, even if from only sheer stubborn effort.

“Run first,” I told the girls, “Then we’ll get to this.”

“When did you even make it?” Fern asked.

“Last night.”

“I go to bed early one night,” Pippa said. “And the obstacle course from hell grows out of the ground. ”

I mentally had begun calling her Pippa the Pepper.

She was always snippy. I only hoped she could get beyond herself enough to work well with the team.

Being brash wasn’t a crime, or I’d already be rotting in the mountain.

Being so brash that you forgot to empathize, now that was an issue.

While Zara was snippy too, she had also proven to be far more a team player than Pippa the Pepper.

“Move,” I commanded, more out of my own want to get to the course sooner rather than later.

Very few things in life could make me feel this way. The feel of a sword in my hand. Jorah’s cookies. Petting Shadow. The curves of a woman. In no particular order, of course.

I ran with the team, knowing that if I didn’t, I would go over and start doing the obstacle course without them. And though I needed to show them how, I needed for them all to be there to see it.

Roughly thirty minutes later, we gathered around the training ring.

I really couldn’t wipe the grin off my face, though I was trying to. “You have two weeks. Two weeks to get all the way to the top. This is the second trial. You will all try at least once a day. If you have not been to the top in two weeks, you’re out.”

Sam kept looking up at the top. “What do you call this thing?”

I shrugged. “The obstacle course. Why are we always trying to name things?”

“Death trap seems relevant,” Sam whispered under her breath.

Vivian offered, “How about the Booby Trap. You know, for the Boobie Brigade.”

Goodness. I had tried my best from the very beginning not to look at a single bosom, as nice as some of them were, but they kept bringing them up. These women were going to be the death of me. But I guess they had them, so they could talk about them all they wanted .

While they bickered about the best name for the obstacle course, I got to work. I first released my magic to turn the parts which needed turning and sent out the orbs to the second level, effectively bringing the course to life.

I ran across a balance portion, heaved a weighted barrel, and then had to time the next part.

There were two sections with an arm that swung around in a circular motion, trying to knock you off.

I was at the first. I timed it and then had to immediately jump across a gap.

Then I was running up an incline, reaching for a dangling rope and climbing up it.

My back muscles burned under the weight of my whole body, but I welcomed it. I trusted they could get me there.

The second level had a balance portion of jumping posts and another dangling rope, but you also had to go around the orbs of magic which were tightening the space to do all of that.

I did it quickly, grabbing the rope and swinging across to a metal bar.

Then I had to use my body as a pendulum and grab three more bars, each one slightly higher than the last.

“Damn,” Molly said from the ground. “Not sure I can do that.”

“You can,” Zara immediately said. “He’s heavier than you are. If he can do it, so can you.”

I was going to try not to be offended at her calling me heavy.

I had to climb a rope wall to get to the third level.

I felt a bit like a spider, legs wide, crawling up the thing.

But a badass spider, of course. From there, I had to again time my jumps around some posts that came out trying to knock me off.

I knew from my own training that had I wanted them to, we could just use those to get us across.

But I would model the correct way to do it first.

The most dangerous part of the whole course was next, the second of the spinning arms which could knock you off from the third level. We’d put padded landings beneath this spot last night, but there hadn’t been any when Theon Valanova’s minions were in charge .

If we fell, we fell.

And then lastly, a rock wall you had to climb to reach the very top landing above the third level. I quickly drove with my legs, reaching with my shoulders for the grips of the wall. And then I pulled myself up, ringing the same bell that had been used for more than twenty training teams.

“Just like that.” I was out of breath, but happy.

“Uh. How do we get down?” Sam asked.

I took the rope waiting up on the landing and threw it down, sliding down it hand over hand all the way to the bottom where I had started. “Like that.”

Grinning, I looked at them. “When you are not taking turns trying to climb the course, you are to be working on your balance over there. We start basic sword training next week and this will help you always be on the balls of your feet, a necessity in sword training.”

Jessina got elected as the first to try the course, so I headed to get a drink of water.

As I came back over to the group of women, it was Zara who asked, “Anyone ever tell you you’re a masochist, General?”

She hadn’t said a single word to me on the walk back last night after I had again pushed her about leading. “Oh, so you’re talking to me today?”

“Against my better judgement.”

I snorted a laugh. “I’m not a masochist. I don’t enjoy pain. I just don’t fear it. I understand that it’s temporary. I understand what my body can do. The thresholds it can take.”

“Right.”

“Come on,” I offered. “Let’s go do the beam. You can have the opportunity of whacking me with the padded staffs.”

I knew it was too good of a temptation for her to deny. She walked right over and grabbed one.

I held my staff with one hand as I hopped up on the beam. “ Don’t worry about hurting this.” I gestured to my face. “It has taken a few hits.”

“I know. You had a busted lip for the first day of training.”

“How observant you are, Zara.” I took a slow step toward her, moving the staff across my body. “Now. I am heavy , as you kindly noted earlier.”

“You have entirely more muscle mass than anyone I have ever met,” she explained. “I didn’t mean it rudely. Thick headed on the other hand...”

“I wouldn’t have cared either way,” I assured her. “My ego is not so fragile that one rude comment would have me off pouting. My point was that you weigh half of what I do. What’s your strategy here? How will you knock me off?”

“I think I liked you better when you weren’t teaching. When you were just yelling at us while we ran.”

“Come on. Humor me.”

I noted Wren and Molly came over to watch.

She finally said, “I distract you and catch you off balance. Delivering blows on both sides of the body until you are off balance.”

“Good,” I approved. “Smart woman.”

“Ugh,” she groaned. “Don’t compliment me.”

I took another step. “Don’t compliment you. Don’t yell at you. What am I supposed to say then?”

“Preferably nothing,” she snapped, but it lacked her normal snippery.

I just grinned. Even tired as hell, I was unrufflable today. It was obstacle course day.

She tried a tentative swing in the direction of my bicep, but I stopped her, shoving at her staff with my own.

I let her get in three more attempts to get me off balance, and then I dropped low, swinging my staff fast, and knocked her to the ground .

She looked at me with such malice that I grinned. I recognized that determination in her because it also flowed in my blood. But today was not the day she’d knock me off and dammit if I wouldn’t make her earn it.

“I’m next,” Wren said, helping Zara up and taking the staff from her.

I walked backward until I was back where I started and beckoned to her with two fingers.

Wren didn’t let me get in her head. As my sister she already knew all my tricks, so naturally, she just bull rushed me. I could have hit her in the face but was feeling extra generous, so I batted her in the hip, knocking her off.

“Dammit,” Wren groaned, falling onto the mat beneath the beam.

“Happens to the best of us,” Zara told her.

“Molls,” I demanded. “You’re up.”

She was far more timid on the beam, looking down often to get her bearings.

“Eyes on me. It helps. Trust your feet to know where you are.”

It was that moment that I noted Vivian had made it to the second level of the obstacle course, the first to do so, bum ankle and all. I was mildly impressed.

While I was distracted looking up, Molly whapped me in the chest with her staff, the motion making me take one step backward.

I looked at her, not actually believing she’d done it. Had she thrown her weight into the motion properly, she just might have gotten me.

“Oops?” she said with faux innocence.

I cocked my head at her.

“Oh damn,” she said, retreating a step.

In three moves, she fell off onto the mat .

Sam said from where she stood watching, “One of us will bring you to your knees, General Raikes. It’s only a matter of time.”

My eyes went to Zara. It was a small miracle I hadn’t been stabbed in my sleep already. “I have no doubt.”