“Nice move!” Huo Lohse praised Ulana during one of their evening training sessions. “Your form is looking better, and you are hesitating less.”

Ulana tried one last spin-jump and grinned after landing it perfectly.

“Excellent!” Lolo smiled. “You know, you are one of the most natural aerial fighters I’ve ever met. Honest! The standard stuff you do well with, but once you get into the air, it’s like you become a completely different swordsman. Woman? Whatever. My point is that your aerial maneuvers are impressive.”

“Thanks! No one has ever bothered to teach me aerials before. I guess they just figured I should master the basics first.”

“Honestly, if we weren’t here dealing with dragons, I might have chosen to stick to the basics too, but I’m glad I didn’t. I think we’ve uncovered a hidden talent! Maybe it’s because you are a phoenix, but by studying aerials, you might actually master the basics faster.”

“I have to admit, they are a lot more fun than just the basics.” Ulana pulled a sassy face. “Better watch them skies, dragons!”

Lolo laughed. “Let’s head to dinner.”

After meals Huo Lohse made it a point to return the dishes to the kitchen and wash them. She found that the cook was more generous with the food as long as he didn’t have to do the dishes afterwards, and the cook actually started to enjoy her visits. They developed a quirky relationship. She made it a point to be cheerful and grateful no matter how cranky he appeared to be, and he rewarded her and her friends with bigger servings. Training camp wasn’t quite so miserable when they weren’t starving.

Tamkhee proved to be quite the task-master. The trainees were bombarded by sneak attacks all day long while being ordered to perform grueling tasks. Once, Tamkhee even sent men to attack them while they were sleeping. From that point on, the trainees started sleeping with their swords.

Everyone in the group had at least one injury at all times. Tamkhee’s men fought remorselessly and landed what would be killing blows if their swords were real. It was also expected that the trainees would land killing blows. It proved to be a most effective training method despite the questionable ethics. The trainees no longer hesitated with their attacks, and the battles felt way more real when only a real injury dropped their opponents.

After five weeks under Tamkhee’s training, the cadets actually started to get used to it. Oddly, Huo Lohse felt like the training taught her a lot about Tamkhee, and this understanding made him seem less horrible. Tamkhee was intense and truly lived by the saying that “there are no second chances on the battlefield”. After living by the saying herself for a while, she began to feel a grisly comfort in the absoluteness of it. It was true, after all.

Huo Lohse developed a delicate mutual respect with Tamkhee. They were clearly at odds in every way, but she couldn’t deny that Tamkhee lived by his morals even if she didn’t agree with them. On the flip side, Tamkhee seemed to respect her tenacity and undeniable skill. Maybe that’s why he chose to personally oversee the training instead of leaving Lieutenant Beraham to do it. Unlike the lieutenant, Tamkhee was able to demand absolute obedience without resorting to name-calling, humiliation, and threats. There was no question that deviant behavior or half-hearted effort would be met with severe consequences, but he didn’t need to constantly hang this over their heads.

Fortus started to question his hunch that the dragons were preparing for a war. Tamkhee’s men were different from the lieutenant’s, and they followed their commanding officer’s lead on morals and attitudes toward the trainees. In other words, they were antagonists but maybe not villains.

The uncomfortable but manageable rhythm of the summer was upended when Captain Sattal Ajigar decided to take over the training. He supplanted Tamkhee’s men with his own, effectively making Tamkhee little more than an observer. As Sattal was the crown prince and a captain himself, Tamkhee didn’t have much say in this decision.

“Captain Yudha, I do believe you’ve gone soft on these cadets,” Sattal purred that first morning as the trainees stood in a line. Sattal circled them, looking each of them carefully up and down and taking an uncomfortably long time staring at the girls. Ulana was particularly disturbed by Sattal’s scrutiny and had a hard time meeting his gaze.

The trainees were ordered to run and Ulana made a point to run close to Lolo. “Did you notice the way Sattal looked at us just now?”

“It made me really uncomfortable. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes. Lolo, we need to be wary of him. I’ve seen his type before. He thinks of women as objects to be conquered and possessed.”

“What do you mean?” This was new territory for Lolo. She’d always had a pack of brothers that protected her from such things.

“Just, don’t ever be alone with him or give him any reason to touch you.”

“Why would he want to touch me?”

Ulana had a hard time understanding how Lolo could still be so naive at sixteen. “Because he’s a disgusting excuse for a man. I’ll explain it to you later if you’re still confused.”

After the run, Sattal had the trainees line up again. He continued leering at the girls, making Ulana feel very protective of Huo Lohse. “Let’s have some fun, shall we?” Sattal smiled nastily. “Let’s have a duel. Who should we start with? Perhaps the girls? A little cat-fight?” Sattal laughed and his men joined him.

“Captain Ajigar, what are the parameters for this duel?” Tamkhee asked.

“Fight until one person can’t anymore,” Sattal said.

“Until one of them lands a killing stroke?”

“Come, now, Tamkhee. With these toy swords, where is the fun in that? No. Fight until one of them is too injured to continue.”

Huo Lohse looked at Ulana who was glaring at Sattal. She then looked at Sattal, hoping against all odds that he was kidding. He wasn’t. Tamkhee had to bow to Sattal; he wasn’t going to help them. Finally, she looked at the boys. Fortus looked disgusted. Standig looked murderous.

“Ladies?” Sattal gestured to the field behind them.

“No,” Huo Lohse put her foot down.

“No?” Sattal sneered. “You don’t have a choice.”

“Sure I do.” Lolo lifted her chin to show her resolve. “I chose not to comply.”

Lolo expected Sattal to get angry, but Sattal didn’t seem upset by her gumption at all. In fact, he seemed quite thrilled. “Feisty little thing, aren’t you?” He reached out to pinch her chin and lift it even higher. Lolo turned her head away from his hand and glared at him. “Very well,” Sattal smiled. “I’m reasonable. Instead, you will duel one of my men.” He gestured to his soldiers who sniggered. “How’s that for a compromise?”

Huo Lohse nodded and turned to enter the field behind her.

Sattal selected a soldier to fight her and the pair squared off.

Lolo was startled by the quality of swordsmanship from her opponent. This was no run-of-the-mill soldier. This was an elite swordsman. His movements were seamless, fluid, almost poetic-- the product of decades of intense study and practice. Lolo got a nagging feeling that he was toying with her. With technique like his, he should be able to defeat her easily, so she knew she would have to surprise him quickly to stand a chance at beating him. Lolo sought weaknesses to exploit. He exhibited just the slightest hint of sub-conscious hesitation in his right leg somewhere, perhaps an old, long-ago healed injury? That was her best bet.

Lolo moved in a clockwise direction around the soldier so he would pivot on his left foot, moving his right foot as they sparred. It occurred to her that the rules of this match encouraged dirty fighting. The only rule was that the last man standing wins. The soldier probably wouldn’t expect her to intentionally take an injury to achieve an advantage.

She made a decision and sacrificed her left shoulder so she could grab the soldier’s sword arm with both hands and yank him forward. She wasn’t big enough to make him budge much, so she changed tactics and used his arm as a swing, bringing her foot down hard on the outer side of his right calf.

Miraculously, she hit it. Something cracked and the swordsman immediately crumpled to the ground clutching just below his right knee and groaning from the pain. He surrendered, and Lolo sat next to him to pull his pant leg up and check his injury. It wasn’t pretty. She had rebroken an old fracture in his shin bone, and it was swelling grotesquely.

She hissed through her teeth. “I’m so sorry.” Even if he was her antagonist, she hated to cause unnecessary suffering. Lolo ripped her own pants to help splint the injury, using their practice swords as supports. She looked up, hoping for help, but no one had budged. “Captain, he has a broken bone.”

Sattal just looked annoyed. “Send for someone to come from Pahaad,” he ordered one of his men, sounding bored. “And get him off the field.”

“He can’t walk on that leg,” Lolo protested as another soldier came to get him up. “Stop! It will make the injury worse!”

“Lolo,” Standig caught her attention and shook his head at her.

She bit her tongue. Standig was right. This wasn’t the hill to die on. Now swordless, Huo Lohse rejoined her fellow trainees.

“Well, well, well,” Sattal cooed. “The little brat can humble one of my best swordsmen.”

Lolo decided not to respond and clenched her teeth together. Sattal was going to try to provoke her. It wouldn’t work.

Captain Ajigar was enjoying the challenge to ruffle Huo Lohse’s feathers. He got right up in her face. “Even caring for him after breaking his leg, like you had no choice or didn’t mean to hurt him. You must be addicted to playing the hero.”

Huo Lohse stiffened, suddenly lost in thought. Last year, Standig’s uncle had accused her of this same thing. She didn’t think that she liked “playing the hero”; she just hated seeing people get hurt for no good reason. Or was that the same thing?

Sattal’s cruel laughter brought her back to the present moment, but she wasn’t sure why he was laughing this time. Whatever he’d said, it was clearly offensive as Lolo observed Ulana shaking to her right, and to her left, Fortus had a hand on Standig’s arm to keep him from doing something foolish.

“What do you say to that?” Sattal directed the question at her.

She honestly didn’t have anything to say as she didn’t hear the insult, so she kept her peace.

“Well, little whore?”

Ah. So he was trying to insult her virtue. That’s why her friends were up in arms. She didn’t know why, but something about this baseless provocation seemed humorous. Sattal was grasping at straws to insult her, and they all knew it. Lolo threw her head back in an uncharacteristically shrill laugh, right in Sattal’s obnoxiously close face. Her friends seemed unnerved. “Captain, you’re pathetic!”

Sattal was no longer amused. The smile wiped clean off his face and was replaced by something dark and malicious.

“What? You can’t take what you dish out?” Huo Lohse felt a switch flip in her head. She was angry. Angry at Sattal for trying to pit her against her friends. Angry that he required her to severely injure someone for his own entertainment. Angry that when things didn’t turn out the way he wanted, he resorted to verbal abuse. Angry that he was trying to manipulate her, like some plaything.

In his own fury, Sattal grabbed Huo Lohse by the back of the neck and pulled her face nose to nose with his own to try and intimidate her. It didn’t work. Lolo stood firm and glared right back into his yellow-brown eyes.

After a long moment staring each other down, Tamkhee said Sattal’s name, and the prince released her.

“What is it, captain?” Sattal turned to snarl at Tamkhee.

“We should get back to training.”

Sattal ignored him. “Captain, what should we do with impudent cadets?”

Tamkhee was not prepared for this question and shook his head.

“Soldiers, take her to the cave.”

Four men surrounded her, knocking Ulana to the side. Lolo saw Fortus brace against Standig, still holding him back as two of the men grabbed her arms just above the elbows. She didn’t resist. As Sattal’s men marched her off the field, Lolo looked over her shoulder to smile reassuringly at her friends.

The cave was a natural one carved into the cliff face of a mountain. It was cold and lit only by a handful of torches mounted on the walls. Sattal’s men took Huo Lohse deep into the cave to a narrow hallway lined with cells constructed of wrought iron bars and shoved her into one, locking the door behind her.

Compared with her previous experience with imprisonment, this wasn’t so bad. The cage was more spacious than the isolation room at the Bear Tribe, and she could see through the bars. There would always be light, too, as the torches were maintained by the men guarding her. Stangely, being able to see the guards seemed to help. She wasn’t completely alone, anyway. The floor of her cell was sparsely lined with old straw, so Huo Lohse collected a few of the larger pieces to twist through her fingers while she paced the edge of her cage.

She waited for the panic to start, for Sattal to decide what he wanted to do with her, for the status quo to change. While she waited, she listened. The men guarding her cell spoke about her and her friends in much the same way that Fortus had observed Lieutenant Beraham’s men talk about them.

“What do you think Captain Ajigar will do with the wolf whore?” a soldier that went by the name Takleeph asked his companion.

“How should I know? Personally, I think you should have a little fun with her.”

Takleeph laughed. “How long do you think she’d last before she broke?”

“She’s stubborn. Probably a while. But it’s just a matter of finding her weakness.”

“I think that must be why the captain likes the brat so much. She’s fun to play with. The others wouldn’t last as long.”

“The phoenix, definitely not. I’m not sure about the boys.”

“The bear might be big, but he’s easily provoked. Did you see his face when the captain was talking to the wolf?”

“The lion has a good head on his shoulders though. Military stock. He’d be fun for you to play with. When was the last time you had a playmate, Takleeph?”

“Not since the Dragon General suspected that Pahaad woman of being a spy. We confirmed that she wasn’t, but only after I broke her. It didn’t take very long.”

“You are good at what you do.”

“Too good,” Takleeph griped. “The fun of torture is stretching it out and watching your subject slowly crumble. But not too slowly, or they go insane instead of becoming useful.”

Huo Lohse felt sick. She had to sit down because her head was spinning. So this was why Shanti had decided not to come and warned her to stay away. To think that someone derived so much entertainment from making someone suffer was appalling. There was no remorse over or pity for the innocent woman Takleeph had tortured, just a despicable, perverse pleasure.

"Captain," she heard one of the guards salute.

"At ease. How is the wolf doing?" Lolo never thought that she would see the day when she would be glad to hear Tamkhee's voice.

"Quiet. What do you want us to do with her?"

"Captain Ajigar sent me with orders to teach her a lesson."

"You?"

"Do you have a problem with that, soldier?" Tamkhee snapped.

"No, sir."

"Then take me to her."

Lolo was sitting on the floor toward the back of the cell when the door opened and Tamkhee stepped in. She stood up to meet him.

"Leave us," Tamkhee ordered.

Lolo could see the disappointment on the guards' faces, but they obeyed.

Tamkhee and Lolo just looked at each other for a minute, and then, to her surprise, he actually smiled at her.

"You've got some gall, Huo Lohse Lang, but you’re an idiot to provoke Sattal.”

“Are you afraid of him?” she asked.

Tamkhee didn’t answer.

“Is this the lesson you’re supposed to be teaching me?”

Tamkhee’s face went blank and hardened resolutely as he pulled out his practice sword. “Be grateful it’s me this time.”

Wham! Huo Lohse’s legs were knocked out from under her and she hit the stone ground hard. Tamkhee proceeded to strike her back, hitting her until it hurt just to breathe. She cried out involuntarily from the pain; she could feel the cuts and bruises forming. She was supposed to be grateful for this? If this was something to be grateful for, she didn’t want to know what the alternative was.

Tamkhee finished and put his bloodied practice sword back in his belt while Lolo lay gasping on the ground. Before he left, he leaned over her ear to tell her “if I’d gone easy on you, Sattal would have made sure you and your friends suffered ten times worse than this. I strongly suggest that you stay out of Sattal’s way in the future.”

She could hear Tamkhee order the guards to release her, and two men walked into the cell to force her into a standing position. They shoved her forward toward the cell door, and Lolo, dizzy and hurting from the beating, collapsed.

“What? You want to stay?” The guards laughed at her.

She struggled back up to her feet to stagger out of the cave. It was nighttime, and Lolo had a hard time making out what was in front of her. For added difficulty, this was an unfamiliar area of the training camp, and she had to wander a little ways before she saw anything recognizable. At long last, she made it back to the bunker.

“You’re back!” Standig pulled her through the door, and Lolo winced as his hand made contact with her back. Standig withdrew his hand to find blood. “What did they do to you?!” He was seething.

“This is what the dragon military refers to as ‘teaching someone a lesson’.” No one found her joke funny. “Standig, why are you in the girls’ room?”

“While you were gone, Sattal thought it would be a good idea to consolidate us into one room,” Fortus answered. She hadn’t seen him until he spoke.

Ulana added, “I think he’s just trying to degrade us further by removing our privacy.”

“Well, at least it’s easier to meet together now,” Lolo smiled weakly. She tried to take another step and stumbled; Standig caught her.

“Are you alright?” Durfein asked, suddenly on her other side.

“I’ll be ok. Thanks.”

They helped her onto one of the beds, and Ulana found the shredded sheet Lolo had used on her head wound.

“Boys, turn away,” Ulana ordered then turned to Lolo. “Let me help you get your shirt off.” Lolo whimpered a little as Ulana pulled the shirt over her head. “Normally, I’d help you take your camisole off too, but in present company….”

“This is good enough, thanks.”

“Lie down on your stomach, so I can take a look at your back.”

Lolo did as she was told and heard Ulana gasp above her. Standig forgot that Lolo was half undressed and wheeled around to see what caused Ulana’s reaction. Lolo’s back was covered in angry purple bruises coated in blood between a series of lacerations in varying stages of scabbing.

“What kind of lesson were they trying to teach you, Lolo? This looks horrible! Boys, take a look at this. What do we do?” Ulana asked.

Durfein and Fortus turned to look. Fortus, who ironically had never quite managed to get used to the sight of blood, grimaced.

Lolo turned her head to the side so she could talk to Ulana. “You just need to clean up the blood, and put cold cloths on the bruises. When everything stops bleeding, you can help me put bandages over the cuts.”

“I’ll go soak the rags,” Durfein offered.

While her friends fussed, Lolo closed her eyes to alleviate her dizziness and fell asleep.