CHAPTER 14
By the afternoon, Rory was exhausted. Longinus had had her lifting weights, stretching, and sprinting back and forth in the weapons room for hours. He now had her standing with her arm outstretched, holding the rapier.
“Alright,” he said as her arm spasmed from the effort of keeping it up. “I think it’s time for a break. To the baths.”
“I told you, I don’t want a bath. When’s the real training gonna begin?”
“This is real training, Rory.”
“Standing around holding out my rapier like a lemon? When am I ever gonna need that?”
“You’ll need stamina. You’ll need strength. And you are sorely lacking in both. Why, at your age I would have lasted twice as long.”
Rory ground her teeth and lifted her arm once more. She’d be damned if she’d let Longinus mock her. Her arm spasmed so ba
