Free Iron Elf - A Race Reborn (Book 2) by Klay Testamark

mother told me it looked like an approaching storm. There was lightning, and thunder, and clouds of steam. It rained fish next morning.”
     
     

    If you aren’t friends before you travel by ice yacht, you will be after the first day. There isn’t much room in the passenger cockpit, and stopping to stretch one’s legs isn’t worth the trouble.
     
    “That’s better.” Mina covered the chamber pot. “My back teeth were floating.”
     
    “Beer for breakfast will do that.”
     
    We watched the scenery go by, but didn’t pay much attention. You can only see so many winter scenes before they start to blur together.
     
    “It wasn’t a traditional apprenticeship with me,” I said. “When your father is a red mage you pick up more than hedge magic. He started tutoring me when he noticed I knew more than a girl should. He told me that as long as I was going to be an oddity I might as well be a good one.”
     
    “Did you ever fight a duel?”
     
    I grinned.
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 11: MEERWEN

    “Fight! Fight! Fish-Girl’s gonna fight!”
     
    Belrothien wasn’t the smartest, but he was a decent student mage. We probably would’ve never come to blows if his friends hadn’t pushed him into it. Or pushed him into me.
     
    “Hey, watch where you’re going!” he had said, even if I was the one on the ground.
     
    “Watch where you’re going, you big lump!”
     
    One of his friends snickered. “She’s disrespecting you, Belroth. You gonna let that pass?”
     
    “Yeah, big man, what’re you gonna do about it?”
     
    “This!” Belroth slapped me gently on the cheek.
     
    A collective “Ooh!” came from his friends.
     
    This had been building up for some time, ever since I started attending lectures at the Mage’s Citadel. Nobody wanted to say anything since I was the Lord Governor’s daughter, but clearly there was resentment.
     
    Belroth grinned. He was a hulk of a man and formidable with his specialty, fire magic. He stood there, hands on his hips, expecting me to cringe. So I punched him in the mouth.
     
    It was a clumsy, untrained blow, with only my arm behind it, but it was enough to silence the laughter. Belroth wiped the blood from his lip, snarled, and stepped forward.
     
    “Hold it, hold it! Let’s make this a proper duel.”
     
    Belroth spluttered. “With her?”
     
    “Wasn’t that what we were trying for?” someone else asked.
     
    “Shut up, man!”
     
    I stuck out my chin. “I’ll fight him right now!”
     
    “Whoo-boy.” It was the boy who insisted on a proper duel. “Belroth struck first. That makes you the challenged. What weapons do you choose?”
     
    “I’ll fight him with magic,” I spat. “And I’ll do it right here. I’ll need someone to act as second.”
     
    “You be her second, Czeleborn, you like her so much.”
     
    Czeleborn shrugged. “Will you have me as your second, miss?”
     
    “Aren’t these your friends?”
     
    “I am not friends with bullies. Shall we begin, gentlemen?”
     
    “Fight! Fight! Fish-Girl’s gonna fight!”
     
    We moved from the sidewalk to the street. We were in Restaurant Row in the merchant quarter. The streets cleared of traffic but the early lunch crowd just turned their chairs toward us. People were used to this sort of thing.
     
    “You both know the code,” Czeleborn said. “But let me remind you that this is an academic duel. No rank is at stake, which means no death spells. Fight only until one is bloodied or disabled. Do you understand?”
     
    We nodded.
     
    “It’ll be noon in a minute. Take ten paces each and stop. Don’t turn until I say, but begin casting as soon as you see your opponent. No apologies are possible until each of you has fired off two spells or landed a critical hit. Stop when I say stop, separate when I say break, and fight when I say fight. Now salute.”
     
    We thumped our chests with our fists and bowed our heads.
     
    “I want a good