Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Margo Bond Collins

  “The next fight will begin at sunrise tomorrow, and we will finish the tournament by sundown. Get some rest tonight because you will need it,” Malik said, addressing all of us but his eyes lingered on mine.

  My chambers weren’t far from the training room, but the walk there made my muscles ache. I hated to admit it but the others in the tournament were tough opponents and were making me actually work hard to win. I had thought it would be easy just like the fights I had to fake were hard through the guards training, but with the soreness radiating from my muscles, I knew I was wrong. I slinked my way to the guard’s bathhouse and found one that was cornered off away from everyone else. Being one of the only female guards wasn’t easy; the privacy was definitely something I missed. As I slipped into the steaming hot water, my muscles ached, and I groaned at the feeling of them burning in the water.

  By the time I was finished, the other bath pools became crowded with my fellow guards. I wrapped my towel around me and waited for them to start their conversations before I slowly made my way out.

  “Who do you think will win the tournament?” one guard asked the rest of them. As soon as he did, an argument began.

  “I think Kade will win. He has the best skills.”

  “What are you talking about? Matais will win.”

  “Guys, you are all wrong. Callie will win. She is nuts with a sword. She has beaten me ten times without even sweating.”

  The memory of beating them all brought a smug smile to my face. I snickered slightly before leaving the bathhouse and the guards alone. My chambers were dark when I returned, so I lit a gas lantern to illuminate the whole room in a light yellow glow. All guards were given two rooms in the guard’s quarters, one bedroom and one living room which could also double as a personal training room, which of course, I did. I changed into my training clothes and started doing my nightly reps; with a wooden sword in my hands, I practiced my attacks to make sure I stayed sharp. That night when I went to bed, the dull ache in my limbs lulled me into a light sleep.

  A loud knock on my door jolted me awake. Behind the drapes of my window, it was still pitch black. Groaning, I slowly lifted my still aching body out of my bed and opened my chamber door. Standing there in a black guard’s uniform was a burly man. His eyes drooped at possible lack of sleep but the rest of his face showed he was alert.

  “Get ready. Round two of the tournament starts in an hour.”

  As quickly as he showed up, he left. I didn’t have time to have a morning bath, so I got dressed in my training clothes as quickly as I could without hurting myself anymore, and I rushed to the training room. The brisk early morning air woke me and also chilled me to the bone. When I entered through the open wooden doors, I realised I wasn’t the first one there. Kade, Matais and another guard I didn’t know were all standing against the far wall. Matais looked at me with a hard stare and curled his lip, making it look like he was growling at me. I knew the male guards didn’t like that I was trying to win this tournament, but I needed to. Taking a deep breath, I walked up to the guards and stopped just in front of them.

  “Morning, boys,” I said with a smirk on my face.

  “Save it, Callie, you’re not going to win. I happen to know what today’s fights will entail and with the fact that you’re a girl, you won’t have a chance,” Matais replied. His own smirk lit up his face, and he laughed at the pathetic trash talk he had come up with.

  “Matais, I could beat you in anything. Just watch me.”

  As I turned and walked away, I swear I head Matais laughing at my come back, but I didn’t care because, in reality, I could beat him. I had trained since I was sixteen in hand to hand combat and since I was eighteen with swords. Since I had chosen the profession I was in, I needed to be a master in all combat, and I was. I turned my back on my fellow contestants and went into my changing room until Malik showed up.

  The sun was finally peeking over the horizon when Malik walked into the training room with any other guards that wanted to watch. I stood with the other contestants as Malik set up the training room for the tournament. He placed fighting mats all over the floor and gave us fighting tape to cover our knuckles. In an instant, I knew what the round of fighting would be, and a huge smile covered my face from ear to ear.

  “Round two will be hand to hand combat; the king wants to have a winner who will be versatile in all forms of combat. The first fight today will be Kade and Matais,” Malik announced.

  As the two of them stepped onto the mat, I noticed the look of terror on Kade’s face. His eyes were wide, and his face had turned pale. They bowed to each other, and as soon as Malik gave them the go signal, Matais attacked. His first blow was to Kade’s left ribs which caused him to double over and left Matais an opening. The other guards gasped at the strength Matais showed in just one punch, but it didn’t faze me. Kade tried to advance. He lifted his fists and struck Matais in the shoulder and the jaw. Matais didn’t even flinch, and he instantly fought back. He raised his fist and punched him hard in his shoulder, knocking him back and causing him to stumble. Kade wasn’t as nimble as me and didn’t anticipate the strength of his opponent. Matais lifted his fist for another strike and aimed it at Kade’s face. As soon as his knuckles collided with his cheek, he was gone. The fight was over.

  “Matais is the winner with just three punches. Next up is Callie and Zane.”

  I took one look at my opponent and snickered to myself. He was a scrawny-looking guy with a raggedy training uniform. His hair was neatly done. He didn’t look like a guard, and he seemed like he was out of place in a training room. But he was my next fight, and I would definitely give him a good one.

  We bowed to each other, and when Malik gave us the go, I went on the attack. My first strike was to the top of the rib cage on his right-hand side. The blow knocked the wind out of him. I spun around and kicked him on the same rib cage before striking him in the face a bit. I spun again and kept my leg straight out, my foot collided with his leg and knocked him onto the floor. Before he could get up, I placed my foot on his chest. The fight was finished.

  “Malik, how was he an entrant? He can’t fight hand to hand combat. He may have won in the sword fight, but he didn’t even try to strike.”

  “I don’t make the rules, Callie. Zane entered and won the first round. That’s all.”

  I huffed and took off back to my changing room. How was that a fight? I didn’t even break a sweat. My thoughts about the tournament turned sour. Since both of the fights took shorter than expected, Malik wanted the final fight to start as quickly as possible. We were given an hour to relax before the fight begun. I stayed in my changing room and away from Matais. Although his trash talk was horrible, he was intimidating. With his huge muscles and dark green eyes that looked black in the shade, his was a scary guy.

  Standing on the side of the mat, I stared into Matais’ dark eyes. He growled at me as though he was warning me. This fight was not going to be easy. Malik stood between us, making sure the fight didn’t start before he had the chance to speak.

  “This is the final match of the tournament. It will consist of hand to hand combat for the first half and swords for the second. The winner will be the person who either knocks out their opponent or disarms them. The prize the winner will receive is to become the king’s advisor.” Malik paused and looked at Matais and me, lingering on me for a moment longer with a look of concern in his eyes. “Matais and Callie, make this a fair fight.”

  We both nodded and took a step closer to bow. Chivalry in a fight was taught to any guard in the kingdom of Azandia. If a fight was begun without bowing, the match would be forfeited and there would be no winner unless you were in a war. Although I didn’t know the chivalry code in the other kingdoms of Braelia, the one in Azandia was always close to my heart.

  As soon as Malik stepped out of the way, the fight began. We circled each other for a moment, waiting for either one of us to strike first so we could watch for a weak point. When Matais did not attack, I
took it upon myself to strike first. I went low with a sweeping kick to knock Matais off balance, but he quickly jumped over my attempt. Matais used the chance to try to hit me with a right hook, but I easily ducked and dodged it which led to me hitting him in the chin with a right-hand uppercut.

  It knocked Matais back but also twinged my wrist. Matais noticed my pain and went on the attack. He went with his own sweeping kick, but I didn’t dodge it in time. His foot collided with my leg and forced me onto the mat, knocking the wind out of me. Trying to catch my breath as I stood again, I saw my own opening. Matais wasn’t placing his leg firmly on the mat anymore; the strike on my leg had hurt him. I took the chance and kicked him in his sore leg. He screamed out in agony, and his eyes went darker than before.

  “You bitch. Now you’re going to get it.”

  Malik called out to us that it was the second half of the match. He handed us two short swords and signalled us to begin. Matais didn’t skip a beat with his next attacks; he was fast and hard to block. He swung his sword and tried to hit my arms, hoping to disarm me easily. I blocked his every move with my sword, sending vibrations down my arms; it made it hard to keep a strong grip on the hilt. When Matais backed up for a moment, getting ready for a stronger attack, I took the chance to spin and dodge it. My speed outmatched his. I knocked the side of my blade into his back, avoiding cutting him with the edge. It knocked him forward and forced him to step on his injured leg. From behind him, I could hear him breathing heavily, trying to stop the pain. As soon as I tried to hit him again with my sword, he turned around and blocked it, a huge grin spreading on his face, but his eyes were the darkest green I had ever seen before. They almost looked pitch black. Matais was grunting and growling at me as he blocked my sword. I could tell he wanted to win; he didn’t like to lose, especially to a girl.

  I spun quickly and knocked my sword into his ribs, then spun the other way and hit him again. He was distracted by his rage; his fighting skills were gone and had been replaced by pure anger towards me. This, I used to my advantage. As he went to strike, I used his movements to spin and dodge and forced my sword up and dislodged his from his hands.

  The fight was over although his rage wasn’t. Matais lunged for his sword and resumed attacking me. I blocked all three of his strikes with ease. A man fighting with an enraged state of mind was no fighter. Malik quickly stepped in and stopped Matais in his tracks before he injured himself or anyone else. He pushed Matais against the wall and waited for his rage to disappear before turning back to the rest of his. My heart was racing in my chest from the fight that I didn’t realise I had actually disarmed him.

  “This fight is over. Callie is the winner and has earned the place as the king’s advisor and personal guard.”

  2

  “Go to your chambers and pack up all your things. In the morning, the castle servants will collect everything and take it to your new quarters. I will come and get you in the morning also so I can show you what your new job entails,” Malik said as he dismissed all the other entrants and spectators.

  “Thank you, Captain Malik. I won’t let you down.”

  As my captain walked away from me, I felt a sense of victory. I finally got to where I was supposed to be. It may have taken two years of working as a guard, but it was worth it. As I relinquished that I had won, I stood in place for a moment. It took a while for me to move, but when I did, I realised everyone else had gone. The training room was empty but the hairs stood on the back of my neck and a chilling feeling ran down my spine, it was a feeling I had felt before, in many situations: the feeling of someone watching me. I tried to shake the feeling as I made my way back to my chambers, but it didn’t go away until I was inside my living room.

  I didn’t have many possessions that I brought with me to Terralyn so when Malik said to pack my things, it was a simple job. All my clothes went in a small pile and any books I had stashed with me I placed beside them. I made sure all my training gear that I bought with my wages stayed together, and I hoped they wouldn’t be lost whilst the servants collected them. I had saved up for weeks to buy even just one piece of training equipment. I take my job very seriously, to stay sharp with my skills and my mind.

  After a long, hot bath, my body felt relaxed enough to sleep away the pains of the match with Matais. I dressed in my night clothes and picked up one of the books in my pile and started reading. The book wasn’t much, just naming and describing fighting stances. I managed to fall asleep with the book still in my hands.

  The next morning, I woke with a jolt. Something scratched at my window, and the sound pierced through the air. I quickly jumped out of bed and moved the drapes to find nothing but a huge scratch on the glass. The line was perfectly straight and ended in the centre of the window. The feeling from the night before came back and sent shivers down my spine, but I couldn’t worry about it.

  I got dressed in my guard’s uniform and placed my night clothes back on the pile. Right on time, a knock on my door alerted me that the servants and Malik were there. The servants rushed in and collected my things before rushing out again; I didn’t even have time to tell them to be careful with my training equipment.

  “At least you’re dressed in decent clothes for today. Well, hurry up and follow me.”

  His sudden change in mood struck me as odd. I knew that when I was a guard he didn’t really speak to me unless it was to give me an assignment, but from how he had been the couple of days before, I thought he was coming around to actually being nice for once.

  “Captain Malik, are you okay today?”

  “What are you talking about? I am fine.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, you just seem different today. The past two days you have been nice and friendly, but today, you’re distant and a little cold,” I explained.

  “I was being nice because I didn’t think you would actually win the tournament. I was making sure you were still fine with competing. Now, it’s back to business and that’s it.”

  His words were cold, but by the stern look in his eyes, I knew them to be true. Captain Malik didn’t seem like one for socialising with others in the castle, especially guards. Although, I wasn’t a normal guard anymore. While I would still be protecting the king, I was his aid. We walked in silence through the halls of the castle; the walls were brimming with art and hanging statues that were all made for the king. Most of them were lined with gold in some way. It was beautiful yet a little overdone, but that’s the way the king wanted it.

  We made our way through the western wing of the castle where the higher staff lived and worked. A spiral staircase led us to the second floor, and Malik turned right down a large and bright hallway. When he stopped and pulled out a key, I knew I was at my new quarters. The large, dark wooden door was trimmed with golden hinges and an equally golden handle, and when it swung open, I was in awe.

  I had been given multi-storey quarters with more rooms than I could use. The bottom level consisted of a living room the size of my old chambers and a few rooms that connected off it that were hidden by their doors. On the back wall of the living room was a bookshelf the size of the entire wall, from floor to ceiling. The windows were also from floor to ceiling but not just the first-storey ceiling, all the way up to the top floor.

  “The top floor holds more rooms; one is your new bedroom and dressing room. There is also a bathroom fitted with your own hot water pipe that will bring the hot water straight to your bath.”

  “Wait, so I don’t have to share the baths with the guards anymore?”

  “No, you don’t. All your clothes and your other belongings have been placed in your bedroom. You may do with them what you like.”

  I nodded and gave a silenced answer to him. I had never had so much room in my life. With my line of work, I only had a tiny house, and with travelling around so much, I barely got time to use it. Malik moved closer to the door, triggering my response to know that he wanted us to leave already. I said goodbye to my quarters in my mind and followed Malik b
ack into the hall.

  “Captain, what am I supposed to do with so much room?” I asked. It might have been a stupid question, but I didn’t care.

  “Do whatever you’d like with it. It’s yours now.”

  It was a short answer, but I suspected he only wanted to talk to me when he needed to. I tried to respect his wishes as we walked back down the spiral stairs and into the main hall of the castle. We winded our way through the castle, and I made a mental note of the turns and where we were actually going. He stopped in a small hall that was filled with servants. The open doorway radiated with delicious scents.

  “This is the kitchen. You are to make sure the king gets the meals he orders every day. Each night, you will bring a list of what he wants to eat the next day.”

  With that explanation over and with no time for me to nod my response, we were off again. Winding our way in and out of every hallway possible, Malik finally stopped and pulled out his keys again. This time, the door looked even more elaborate. Each etching in the door was coated with gold. It was stunning. He held the door open for me and motioned for me to enter before closing it behind us. In the room was an empty desk and empty bookshelves. I wondered why we had come in an empty room.

  “This will be your office. When the king asks you to do paperwork, here is where you will do it. Your office is near the king’s office so you can get to him quickly. In his office is a hidden set of stairs. The only ones with keys are the king, me and now you. This is how you get to his quarters. Down the hall just past the king’s office is a small dining hall. That is where you will have your meals from now on.”