After another attempt we called it quits, and I said goodbye to Juku and headed over to watch Asher practice. He was sparring with a man his height, a frost jotun by the look of his white-blonde hair. Both of them were shirtless and…well, really well built, I’ll admit it. I was really obvious about staring, but at least I could pretend I was looking because of the fighting. I was simply enjoying the…um, technique. Right.

It wasn’t like I knew anything about sword play, but Asher seemed to be really good at it. He danced back, blocking each blow his opponent tried to land. The match ended with the blond jotun on his back, the tip of Asher’s sword hovering at his throat. Asher offered him a hand up, and the two clapped one another on the back, nodding before going their separate ways.

“So, I don’t know anything about fighting, but it looks like you won,” I said.

Asher grinned, wiping sweat from his forehead, still breathing heavily, “I am the glorious champion of the training room, oh yes!”

“Oh come now, young prince. You haven’t challenged me yet.” Juku strolled past, shooting this last bit over his shoulder, “call me when you want to fight a real man.”

Asher just rolled his eyes and ignored the jab, leaning against the wall to rest, “how was your training? He’s a barrel of laughs, huh?” He watched my face carefully, and I wondered if he could possibly be jealous. The idea was kind of appealing, but there was no way I would be one of those girls that flirts with every breathing male around just to try to make a point, so I just shrugged, “he’s okay. A bit cocky.”

He didn’t say anything else about it, but I could tell he was happy with my assessment of the trainer. Asher hooked one arm over the other, stretching, arching his back. I looked at the floor, at the ceiling, over at the archery practice…anything to avoid staring at him and being totally obvious about checking him out. A flash of white from the other side of the room caught my eye. It was the woman I’d met yesterday, Charlotte. She was standing in front of a fabric target, gesturing with both hands, white sleeves flowing as she moved. There was a girl beside her, slender and fine boned, slightly taller than the witch herself. She was obviously being coached. The girl moved suddenly, raising her hands, flinging them out towards the target. Something glittered through the air, too fast to see, and there was a loud “chunk” as something long and shining embedded in the fabric. It took a few more seconds of watching to figure out what it was. She was throwing ice daggers. Now that was cool.

“Neat huh?” Asher had obviously noticed what I was looking at, “that’s Charlotte and her apprentice, Lettisha. She’s already a frostie, and then she can use her magic to guide them, sorta like missiles. They do target practice a couple times a week.”

“That’s…cool…” It was still hard to get my head around this. Right, there was magic. All that existed. That shouldn’t be too hard to believe, since I’d just been playing with fire a few minutes ago, but it was still…strange.

“So, you guys just use swords and magic and stuff?” I glanced down at Asher’s broadsword, “no guns?”

He grimaced, “it’s sort of an unwritten rule. We aren’t immune to guns any more than the next person, and bringing them into play would be really stupid. It would make the battles shorter, but considerably more bloody. We’ve just never done it. It’s…tradition I guess. Nobody wants it…as far as I know.”

Nobody, huh? I frowned, there was no way I could see Kari forgoing something that would put such an edge on her fight. I hesitated, “Asher, I think…I think Kari would.”

He looked uneasy for moment, “we’ve thought of that. We’re keeping an eye on them, and so far there’s no hint of it…but…” he darted a look around the room and his voice dropped lower, “I’m…afraid sometimes, that my parents don’t take her seriously enough. I think you’re right. I think she’d use anything she could get her hands on. She’d have to get them from the human world, smuggle them in without us seeing them…” he shrugged, “there’s no sign of it yet.”

“Huh,” it was something to think about. I’d bet almost anything that Kari wouldn’t hesitate to shoot someone. I could picture her doing it.

“Come on,” he reached up, placing his sword carefully on a pair of wooden pegs on the wall, “let’s go get some lunch, shall we?”

The dining hall was completely packed, the noise and clatter rang in the rafters and echoed around the room. There were a few free spots at the head table, but Asher pointed to a table off to the side,

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to a couple of the old recruits. They finished their training and decided to stay, but they all pretty much came from the same sort of situation you did.”

I nodded, following him to the table where we found a couple of seats in the middle. Was he hoping the old recruits would be able to convince me to stay?

“This is Cordelia,“ Asher gestured to the girl beside him, a dark haired jotun with large blue eyes. She grinned, “just Cordy is fine. Nice to meet you. You must be Jess.”

She reached across Asher to shake my hand, “How do you like it here so far?”

“I like it,” I said, “it’s a bit overwhelming…”

Cordy grinned, “Don’t worry, that fades with time. It was pretty much the same for me.”

“Yeah?” I wondered if it would be rude to ask what her story was, “so, you got…recruited as well?”

“Yup,” Cordy stabbed a piece of roast chicken with her fork, “they sent someone out to get me when I froze my biology teacher in front of the entire class.”

My stunned expression must have looked comical, because Cordy started to giggle, “he was okay after they unthawed him, don’t worry.”

“I…that’s good,” I stammered, “I mean…well, I set my school on fire, so…”

“We’re obviously kindred spirits,” Cordy grinned and shoveled another forkful of food into her mouth, “say, I saw you in the training room this morning, how did it go with Juku?”

“Um..fine,” I darted a look at Asher, who was in the process of rolling his eyes, “he was…interesting.”

Cordy spoke around a mouthful of food, “Juku’s a jerk. But he’s mostly harmless. He’s actually a surprisingly good teacher.”

“Yeah, he’s wonderful,” Asher grunted.

A girl on the other side of the table leaned forward, joining the conversation, “Juku is hot.”

We all stared at her and she grinned. She was a head shorter than most of the others at the table, with close cropped brown hair and large doe eyes. I felt my stomach flip uncomfortably. She was staring right at me with an intensity that was a little alarming.

“That’s Kloe,” Asher’s voice stayed even, but there was something in the way he shifted that told me he was uncomfortable.

“Nice to meet you,” I said. Kloe didn’t answer, just tucked her short hair over one ear and smirked, “Jess, right? I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Oh, yeah?” I had no idea what to say to that, and unfortunately a guy on the other side of Asher had started talking to him, so he wasn’t able to rescue me from the conversation.

Kloe scraped her fork around her plate in circles, she didn’t appear to be eating. “You don’t think Juku is hot?” Now she was looking at Asher, and her voice got louder, “I think he’s so sexy. There’s just something dangerous about him. Something hard.”

“Right,” I wasn’t even sure if she was talking to me anymore. Beside me, Cordy snorted into her glass of wine, “Keep your shirt on Kloe. Don’t drool on the table.”

Kloe shifted her intense gaze back to me, leaning forward even more. This time her voice went quieter, and I had to strain to hear her over the noise of the dining hall, “So, you and Asher…?”

I could feel my cheeks grow hot almost instantly, “What? No…I mean…”

Her eyes went dark. She laughed, but the sound had no humor in it, “don’t worry, he flirts, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

I darted a look at Asher, wondering if he could hear what she was saying about him. He was still talking to the guy beside him, apparently oblivious. Kloe leaned over the table and hissed, “he’s taken, you know. Engaged.”

I stared at her, shock making my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. Cordy snorted again, “Come off it, Kloe. Like his parents are going to enforce that!”

“They have to,” Kloe leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest, expression never losing its smugness, “it’s tradition. My father didn’t bring me all the way here just so he could marry some frostie or something…” she put extra emphasis on “something” and narrowed her eyes at me.

“So..he’s engaged to you…” I managed to spit the words out, trying to imagine this short, spiteful girl with Asher. It didn’t exactly click.

“Yes,” Kloe said.

“No,” Cordy said at the same moment, then she rolled her eyes, “it’s an old tradition, but it won’t be enforced now that the kingdoms are united. There are more choices now.”

“Got to have royal blood…” Kloe protested, and was interrupted by Cordy’s laughter, “right, like the queen has now? Tradition is changing, Kloe, get with the picture.”

Kloe glowered at Cordy, but Asher turned around at that moment, and neither of the girls continued the conversation. I was burning to ask a dozen more questions about the situation, but it would totally be awkward in front of Asher. Did this mean that Asher was going to be forced to marry Kloe because of some royal tradition? That meant Kloe had royal blood? I couldn’t help glancing at her, and then at the head table where Megan was laughing with her husband. The way the queen moved was graceful, like some otherworldly fairy. Kloe was…well, she was aggressive. There was no way I could picture her as queen.

The rest of the day was surprisingly relaxed. Cordy and Asher showed me around the castle, and I met the famous “Erik” that Asher had told me about. He was only there for a second, passing through the room, and I got the impression of white-blonde hair, a square jaw and a friendly smile before he was gone.

“He’s part of the elite guard,” Asher’s sounded almost awed by him, “he’s one of the heads of it. You should see him sword fight. He’s dating my aunt.”

“Oh,” I wished he’d been walking slower so I could have gotten a better look, “that’s cool. Are they allowed to get married?” I exchanged a look with Cordy, who could obviously tell what I was really burning to ask about. I still couldn’t get Kloe’s words out of my mind.

“I dunno,” Asher shrugged, “I think so. My parents are pretty relaxed…” he trailed off when he saw the look on my face, “what?”

Cordy finally blurted it out, making me flush red and wish she hadn’t, “Kloe said the two of you were engaged.”

Asher looked horrified, glancing from me to Cordy, “you told Jess that’s not true, right? That’s not true! There’s no way I’m marrying that bag!”

My shoulders slumped with relief, “okay, I was kinda wondering.”

Cordy’s brows shot up, “well technically…”

“Technically nothing,” Asher said firmly, “that’s an old fuddy tradition. Ancient as dirt. Things are different now. Dad has clearly proven we can marry whoever we want.”

“Well, true” Cordy agreed, “but someone apparently forgot to tell Kloe that. She’s hearing wedding bells still.”

“I’d rather marry a troll,” he said.

My eyes bulged, “trolls exist?”

“Let’s not bite off more than we can chew,” Asher looked amused, “I’ll tell you about stuff  like that later. Come on, we still haven’t shown you the library yet.”

I trailed behind the two of them as we walked to the library, muttering to myself, “Trolls, giants, magic…” what’s next?