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took her into his arms and held her. His resolve to leave home weakening with every tear his mother shed.
    * * *
    It seemed to Jabone that in the months that followed, his madra and fadra, Harris and Radkin and Rimmy were trying to beat them completely to death. They called it training, but Jabone called it sadism.
    The four youngsters would move immediately from one seasoned fighter to the next 'til they couldn't stand. He didn't know who was taking the worst of it: Jestia whose wayward lifestyle had left her lacking the skill necessary to cover herself, or he himself, who considered it a point of honor to hold up longer than the others. Finally he staggered and fell to a blow that when they started the day he would have easily blocked.
    "All right let's call it a day," Tarius said, and she and the "adults" patted each other on the backs, triumphant at having yet again put these arrogant youths in their place while the battered children sat in the dust of the practice field.
    Jestia had a nasty swelling over her right eye which was no doubt going to turn a nice shade of blue. She took the wet rag Ufalla handed her and put it over the knot.
    "Is it just me or do any of the rest of you get the idea that they are trying to teach us some lesson about how prepared we aren't?" Ufalla asked.
    "They're just trying to scare us," Tarius said.
    "They're trying to prepare us for what we might face in the territories," Jabone said, finally catching his breath.
    "Well I didn't agree to have the crap beat out of me on a daily basis. Even battle, real battle, couldn't be this brutal. They beat on us from sunup 'til sundown," Jestia griped.
    "Hardly that long," Jabone said. "Besides look at us. None of us can do more than stand on shaky limbs and all the old farts walked away with a few hours fight still in them."
    Jestia gave him a look filled with distaste. "You truly are the beast woman's son. Look at him grinning he's actually enjoying all this. Well I've had it. I've had it with sleeping in these earthen hovels you call homes and bathing in cold lake water and eating . . . Well I don't even want to know what, so that I can have the living crap beat out of me by the most celebrated fighters in the Kartik . . ."
Ufalla just started laughing then.
    "What? What's so damn funny?" Jestia asked hotly.
    "You are, you spoiled little brat . . . I knew. I knew you'd get bored with this like you get bored with everything else and go running back to your safe little castle," Ufalla teased. "Well, go then and good riddance. You'd more than likely get us all killed anyway."
    "Don't you tell me what to do you hovel dwelling little wretch!" Jestia screamed back. She started to get to her feet, groaned, and sat back down. "I'm . . . I'm not going home. I was just going to say let's go if we're going."
    "If you can ever walk again," Ufalla teased.
    "I don't see you up dancing, Ufalldown," Jestia clipped back, using the name she'd teased her with since they were children.
    "I'm not bitching, either."
    "Funny I recall it was you that started bitching in the first place . . ."
    "Oh, I don't think so."
    Jabone tuned them out then. He saw his madra motioning for him. He got to his feet with an effort and walked to where she summoned him.
    "Madra?"
    "You fought well today."
"Thank you Madra."
    "In seven more days one of our ships will sail with a cargo to the Port of Sagal in the Jethrik-held territory of the Amalite. It is right on the Jethrik border. If you still want it you, your companions and your mounts will be given room on board."
    Jabone nodded his head eagerly. "I do . . . we do."
"Even the young princess?"
"Yes," Jabone answered, although he wasn't quite sure. "But Madra, why the Jethrik-held territory? Why do we not go to help our Kartik brothers in our territory?"
    Tarius smiled at him and said lightly, "Now what would be the adventure in that?" She quickly became serious again. "Our Kartik brothers in the territory don't need our