By the sixth day, I still can't sing like a bird. Despite Ryu's perfect pitch and a voice that runs like water across plentiful summer fields, I can hardly hum a tune without sounding like a dying cat. Elio had already learned basic dances at court, so he had the performance part covered. Not that he needs it since he's the Elder's Chosen One.
"Come on!" Ryu looks to me pleadingly. "It's just like fighting."
I try to bend my arm in the same graceful loop that Ryu has. "Fighting involves hurting people. Dancing involves hurting myself."
"Ryu..." Elio leaps to his feet as we gather around the fire crackling near the Beloved's altar. Haunting stringed music drifts down from Aziz's priests, lulling us all into a comfortable, if frustrating, silence. "Listen. As amazing as our little warrior is, she can't learn to dance in one day." Elio sighs as Ryu attempts to reposition my feet for the fifteenth time.
"There has to be another type of performance." I let my arms drop as Ryu paces nervously. "There has to be something."
"What is there?" Elio rolls his eyes. "Aziz the Beloved has very narrow tastes."
"Maybe I can dress up as her." Ryu throws his hands up into the air. "She already binds her breasts. I got that part covered!"
As the two bicker, I take out a dagger from my belt and twirl it in one hand. Bored, I toss it into the air and let it flip hilt over blade until it lands safely in my palm again. I slowly zone out of the conversation as I continue tossing the blade back and forth, back and forth.
Slowly, the chatter dies away.
When I stop tossing the blade, Elio and Ryu are smirking at me.
"What?" I twirl the dagger in my hand. "Do you know something I don't?"
Elio steals the dagger from me, takes a few steps back, and then suddenly hurls the blade at me. I lift my hand and catch it reflexively, the tip pointed at my nose. "Are you trying to kill me?" I drop the blade angrily at the prince's feet.
"I think we found your act." Ryu crows from the sidelines, beaming proudly. Elio picks up the dagger and wipes it on his shirt, handing it to me in one efficient movement.
"Yes," Elio laughs, "Lady Ode, the Divine dagger juggler."
***
To my Champions,
Seems that Ode doesn't dance or sing or dress up.
Sigh, poor little, rhythmless warrior.
-Sophia
YOU ARE READING
A Priestess for the Blind God (Legends of Rahasia Book 1)
Fantasy"The Blind God walks around me, and I feel my mind prodded again like it was in the cavern, a spider weaving a tangled web. "Would you do anything to be remembered, Ode, even play a villain, the one who rises against the Chosen One?" In answer, I dr...
