CHAPTER 23: FIRST BLOOD

The prep room took me back. The first bracket rolled, boys went out brave and came back smaller or bigger. When my name hit the slate, I didn’t feel clever; I felt ready. Round One: a southern spear boy, aura bright around his shins, breath too fast for the size of his chest.

I stepped into blue light. The ward hummed winter. The spear boy licked a lip and wished he hadn’t. I slid my foot to anchor and let the ring shrink to four angles and a beat.

The referee’s hand cut air.

He came on a line. I didn’t stop him. I took one step on the beat, heel heavy, and turned his vector into a narrow hall. The spear kissed air where I hadn’t been for a heartbeat, then my guard kissed the shaft and slid, not fought. My hilt bumped his wrist—firm, not cruel. The ward chimed. First claim.

Second exchange he tried speed for speed. I refused the trade. Anchor on contact, steal his timing for exactly one breath, then let go. Hollow flicked once from the rafters—no rattle, only a ripple of shadow that made his feint lose its nerve. I slid inside his reach and set my blade at the seam where ribs meet will. The ward sang. The crowd gasped—short, neat.

Third exchange he tried courage. I gave him space to survive it. I don’t collect boys for my pride.

The referee cut his palm down. Round. I saluted with the sincerity competent men deserve, and he gave me back what he had left with a shaky pride that will get him far if he lets it.

The murmurs had changed temperature. ’Valcrey’ passed from mouth to mouth without the old curl at the edge. Liora was somewhere in the gallery. I didn’t look for her nod; I had work in my next breath.

Back in the prep arch, the bookmaker’s board tilted. Odds shifted audible as coin. Someone hissed, "He’s not the clown," and no one laughed at them for saying it.

Aldric slouched near the wall pretending his fringe didn’t smell like singed pride. "Enjoy your charity point," he said.

"Enjoy your red mark," I said. "Tell the committee it was the ward’s fault. They like hearing that."

A few first-years barked laughter before they remembered Voss money, then coughed it into their wrists. Seraphine’s lips thinned, but her eyes were not on me; they were on Lyra at the far rail, where the commoners had found a space to breathe around their head. Seraphine filed the sight away with quiet malice.

The slate flickered my next name. Marcus Ravencrest. Fine. I rolled my shoulders, set my breath, counted my ribs. ’Two on the leash,’ I reminded myself. ’Flicker is a match, not a torch. Don’t juggle for applause. Shock them by being clean.’

The referee called us. The ward sang. The arena leaned forward like a cat over a mouse hole.

I stepped out smiling in the way that means I intended to live, not to perform. The ring shrank. The decisions did, too.

Marcus stood like a drawn line: blade low, spine long, mind half a step ahead of his feet. Illusion work lives on that half step. His hair lay perfect on his head and I respected that he fought clean anyway.

We bowed without decor, and the arena shut up in a hurry. The ward’s hum lowered like someone dimmed a lamp and the air sharpened.

Marcus didn’t rush. He entered my space like a rumor, shadow off by a whisper against the angle of his blade. Most men see steel first and shadow after. I’ve lived in places where shadows tell the truth before any man does. I watched the shadow.

I didn’t bite, and I didn’t congratulate myself for not biting. I let the false angle pass across a guard I kept as boring as a well-built wall. He adjusted without huffing. Good. Not a trickster with one trick. A duelist who could lie and live.

We touched guards. I pulsed anchor exactly on contact to own the beat for a heartbeat, then let go before it turned into mud. He yielded an inch and changed his story. His footstep came a fraction after the turn of his shoulders—sound delay. If you look where sound says to look, you’ll find air.

I watched his shoulders, not his feet, and set my blade to receive, not clash. The sabres slid and clicked in that polite way steel speaks when it respects itself. My hilt kissed his knuckles just enough to make his fingers reconsider the ring they’d married. His eyes laughed a little without changing shape.

He split on the next pass—second self peeling from his right shoulder, walking right, while his original stepped left. The false one cast a perfect shadow. The real one breathed.

I moved toward breath. The wrong blade scraped air and felt handsome about it. The right one met my guard a beat early and told me a little more about how he thought. I banked that beat for later.

The crowd started leaning in collectively like a tide. Elara’s grin glinted on a far rail. Ariadne didn’t grin, but she had forgotten, for the moment, to clench her jaw.

We broke, reset. Marcus tried lights—edges softening a blink too long, corners vanishing, a ghost behind my shoulder that would have asked a boy to turn and eat steel. I used the ward’s hum like a metronome and turned into the real man without rushing. The sabre tip found the seam at his shoulder—not a cut, a claim. The ward rang a neat bell. Gasps rippled.

"Acceptable," he murmured.

"Likewise," I said.

He pushed harder. Illusions multiplied into a fan; shadows danced; sound and light got into an argument. I didn’t referee. I walked through cobwebs and found the man in the center on the fourth beat, because ghosts don’t fog air on the exhale and they don’t shift weight to the outside foot on beat two.