Taming the Thorny Rose novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Yard

I hid the key in the toe of my left boot, and I didn't sleep.

In the morning I went to the yard.

It was a long gravel square behind the keep, ringed with torches that burned through the grey daylight.

Vampire guards in black leather were drilling in pairs with practice swords.

They stopped when I came in.

I wore my old hunting trousers and a linen shirt Astrid had stolen from a laundry.

I had my thorned wire coiled over my shoulder, and nobody had asked how I got it back.

Astrid had, naturally.

"Don't ask," she'd said, grinning.

I walked to the rack and chose a wooden staff.

"Which of you wants to find out what the Thorn can do?" I said.

Nobody answered.

Then a guard with a shaved head and a nose broken twice stepped forward.

"I'll bruise you, my lady," he said, "out of respect."

"Do it out of habit," I said.

He came at me fast, faster than any human, and I let him.

I dropped under the first swing and hooked his ankle with the staff.

He went down on his back with a grunt.

I stood over him with the wooden tip at his throat.

"Respect," I said, "is also fine."

Somebody laughed in the ranks.

The second one came from behind.

I felt him in the air before I heard him, and I spun the staff across his knees.

He fell on top of the first.

By then the whole yard had gone quiet in the good way.

I was breathing hard, and I was smiling.

I hadn't smiled like that since I came through the gate.

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