Icicles Like Kindling Read Free Page B

you killed.”
    “Not if you keep holding your chakram like that.”
    “Did you just insult my chakram abilities? And here I thought you wanted to survive to become king.”
    His grin widens, but on the last word,
king
, he flinches, the slightest twinge that shakes some seriousness across his joviality. “Anyway, aren’t you supposed to be practicing your close-range technique?”
    I holster my chakram. “I seem to remember it was
you
that Sir gave the order to.
‘Get her to win at least one sword fight—’
” I groan. Because by the glint in Mather’s eye, he’s already decided we’re going to spar, which in my case means spending way too much time lying on the ground while Mather notes how sweeping a foot under someone’s legs is an effective fighting maneuver.
    I shrug out of my chakram’s holster and hand it all to him as he jogs toward camp to trade my weapon for a pair of practice blades. When he returns, he tosses one to me, and I snatch it out of the air.
    Mather drops into a combat stance. “Ready?”
    My knuckles whiten as my hand encircles the hilt. Ranged fighting, I can do. Melee fighting, not so much.
    But if I win just one fight against Mather, just one sparring match, maybe then Sir will let me help our kingdom.
    Maybe then I can help stop people from dying like Crystalla.
    I curve my body around the sword. “Ready.”