Page 23 of The Warrior Priest (After the Rift #1)

I discovered that I liked Dreen. The kingdom on Glancia’s western border had known peace for a long time, and that peace reflected in the residents’ welcoming nature.

Although it was the largest of all the countries on the Fist Peninsula, it had the smallest population.

Farmhouses dotted its rolling green hills, while its two cities could barely be described as such.

Logios, the center of learning for all students on the peninsula, not just those from Dreen, was nestled into the side of a hill to the north of the capital, Upway.

It was to Upway that we traveled. It was Giselle’s home, and not all that far from Tilting, even though both cities were in different kingdoms. It was something of a melting pot of different folk, so a fair-haired Glancian wasn’t an uncommon sight.

Most of its residents were Dreenian, however.

Giselle fit in, with her dark, straight hair and flatter face, but she was exceptionally tall for a Dreen woman.

Even I felt tall for the first time in my life.

Giselle’s home was much like her, sleek and practical.

The chairs lacked cushions, there were no rugs covering the floors or ornamentation on the walls.

Kitchen utensils were mostly made of tin and there was only two of everything—plates, bowls, cups, spoons.

I wondered if the second one got used much before my arrival.

“This is your room,” she said, opening a door. It smelled musty, but nothing that a little airing out wouldn’t fix. “Sorry it’s so small.”

“All I need is a bed.” I put my bag down. Having left Tilting in a hurry, it was woefully light.

“Fortunately, you’re not used to fancy.”

Not in the last few years, but my bedchamber in my childhood home had been a palace compared to what I’d lived in after escaping from my uncle.

“What’s through there?” I pointed at a door opposite my room.

She hesitated. “My office.” She removed a key hanging on a leather strip around her neck. I hadn’t noticed it tucked under her shirt all this time. “I keep it locked, even when I’m home. It houses my most valuable possessions.”

“Client information?”

“Amongst other things.” She unlocked the door and let me walk in first.

It wasn’t what I expected. The room was barely large enough for the desk positioned in the center and the cabinet of drawers.

A low bookshelf drew my attention first. Books were expensive.

Usually only the wealthy could afford them, and some academics who spent all they earned to accumulate them.

My parents had owned some, as did my uncle, but I’d not had the opportunity to read one in years.

Perhaps I’d have time in between training.

I trailed my fingers across their spines. Some were bound with leather covers, others in soft animal hide, and even a few in just hard board. Some of the titles were familiar, although I’d never read them. “What are they about?”

“All manner of topics. Geography, medicine, history of the peninsula and beyond. Culture and beliefs, magic and sorcery.” Giselle pointed them out as she spoke.

She removed one with a red cover, elegantly decorated with a gold border, a sun and moon motif in the center.

“I need to reread this for a job I’m considering.

” She tucked it under her arm and pulled out another.

“This one might interest you. It’s mostly about prophecies, but it might mention the legend your mother told you. ”

I’d told her the governor stole the pendant from me because he believed the legend that the sorcerer had placed power within it. I hadn’t told her the governor was my uncle. It wasn’t a relationship I wanted anyone to know.

“Thank you,” I said, flipping open the book. “I’ll start now.”

“No. Now, you are beginning your training. You can read tonight.” She ushered me out of the office.

“But it’s late and we’ve been traveling all day.”

She simply smiled as she locked the door of the office behind her. Then she began my training.

I trained all day and some nights. The sessions were a mix of physical activity that ranged from lifting weights to increase my strength, to long runs around the city to improve my stamina.

She taught me to use a sword, knife, stick, spear, and rocks as weapons, as well as how to fight without any weapons at all.

We trained in the cold and wet, we trained in the pitch black of night.

She’d wake me early, sometimes even in the middle of the night, so that I’d learn to fight instinctively, even when a lack of sleep meant I was too tired to think properly.

“You have very good instincts,” she’d said to me, “but they need to be better. That’s where your excellent memory will help.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your body remembers. Even when your mind is distracted or tired, your body will recall its training and will move in a way that saves you without you even thinking. Trust me, it will be important.”

She said that phrase a lot.

It was the beginning of a grueling autumn, but it wasn’t all terrible.

Giselle had new clothes made for me. The trousers were snug compared to my old ones, and by dispensing with the waist padding and the cloth wrapped around my breasts, I almost didn’t recognize my own figure when I saw it in the mirror for the first time. I had feminine curves.

“See?” Giselle said as she teased my hair off my face. “You’re beautiful.”

“All Glancian women are pretty, so they say.”

She clasped my shoulders from behind and peered at our reflection over my shoulder.

“But you have a quality that other Glancian women don’t have, and that makes you an intriguing puzzle that people will want to solve, particularly men.

Beauty is merely the packaging around the puzzle, and as you say yourself, pretty packaging is common. The puzzle is unique.”

I made a scoffing sound. “But I don’t feel beautiful.”

“You will.” She tugged on the ends of my short hair. “Perhaps if you grow it a little, you’ll feel more feminine.”

“Can I use the same tonic you use on your hair? It’s so sleek and shiny.”

She laughed. “We’ll buy you a different bottle tomorrow from the market. The tonic I use is for thinner, naturally flat hair. You need something for thick Glancian hair.”

The following night, she took me to a tavern. The pomade in my hair kept it off my forehead and without the curtain obscuring my eyes, I was a little self-conscious. Before we entered, Giselle touched my chin. “It’s all about confidence, Jac. Behave as if you belong and no one will question you.”

“But I don’t feel confident.”

“You will eventually. For now, simply pretend. It’s what I did for the first year after I left my family.

” It was one of the few times she’d mentioned having a family.

When I’d asked her about her parents in the early days of our journey from Tilting to Upway, she’d brushed me off then changed the subject.

That first time going to a tavern opened my eyes to how men treated women without an escort.

My bottom was pinched a half dozen times before I managed to find a stool to sit on.

I was leered at, propositioned, and had my breast squeezed.

Giselle punched that fellow in the nose.

It was as good as an announcement that I was under her protection.

“Next time, you’ll do the punching yourself,” she told me.

And I had. It was both satisfying and amusing to see the man stumble back onto a table. It was a little less amusing when the other man whose ale had been spilled wanted revenge. A brawl soon broke out among the drunkards.

Giselle and I fled the tavern. “Knowing when to retreat is just as important as fighting,” she said as we ran.

“Can we drink in a nicer part of the city?”

“That’s not much fun. Besides, you need to learn to look after yourself, and that won’t happen if you’re sipping good wine beside a fireplace. You need a rough port tavern where good manners means not burping in someone’s face.”

We jogged all the way home in the frosty night, and I was pleased to reach Giselle’s house and find I wasn’t breathing heavily, thanks to the regular training. Instead of having an early night, however, she decided to go out again. We headed to the docks.

“I want you to tell me everything you notice,” she said. “I want to know every flag flying on the ship masts, every conversation you overhear, how many mice scurry past your feet.”

“Why?”

“I’m testing you.”

“On what? My knowledge of flags?”

“That, and your memory and observational skills.”

“My memory is faultless. You know that.”

She clapped my shoulder and flashed a smile. “Then I expect you to pass with flying colors.”

There were numerous small tests like that as autumn rolled into winter.

Events in Glancia seemed a world away as the days blurred together.

My training gave me little time for anything else, which was a blessing.

It meant there was less time to think about Rhys.

I still thought about him every day, however, usually as I stared up at the night sky as we walked through the city.

Was he looking up at the same sky, wondering how my life was going without him? Did he think of me at all?

Giselle always seemed to have a knack for knowing when I was thinking about him.

She also had a knack for distracting me from those thoughts, either by making me do more training, or taking me to a tavern.

After I punched that fellow who’d squeezed my breast, the men became a little more respectful.

When one desired me, he would ask to take me to one of the bedchambers instead of demanding or trying to grope me.

Although I was often propositioned, I didn’t take a lover, despite Giselle’s encouragement.