LITMIR.BIZ

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at sunrise; classes begin half an hour after that. Be in the mess hall before then or you miss breakfast.”

      The boys were housed in the largest building on campus, a three-story structure that looked like it had been built long after the Academy grounds were seized from the monks. The women’s quarters were tiny in contrast, a spare one-story building that used to be a single meditation room.

      Rin expected the dorm to be uncomfortably cramped, but only two other bunks showed signs of habitation.

      “Three girls in one year is actually a record high,” Raban said before he left them to settle in. “The masters were shocked.”

      Alone in the dorm, the three girls warily sized one another up.

      “I’m Niang,” offered the girl to Rin’s left. She had a round, friendly face, and she spoke with a lilting accent that belied her northern heritage, though it was nowhere as indecipherable as the Sinegardian dialect. “I’m from the Hare Province.”

      “Pleased,” the other girl drawled. She was inspecting her bedsheets. She rubbed the thin off-white material between her fingers, made a disgusted face, and then let the fabric drop. “Venka,” she said begrudgingly. “Dragon Province, but I grew up in the capital.”

      Venka was an archetypical Sinegardian beauty; she was pretty in a pale way, and slim as a willow branch. Rin felt coarse and unsophisticated standing next to her.

      She realized both were watching her expectantly.

      “Runin,” she said. “Rin for short.”

      “Runin.” Venka mangled the name with her Sinegardian accent, rolled the syllables through her mouth like some bad-tasting morsel. “What kind of name is that?”

      “It’s southern,” Rin said. “I’m from Rooster Province.”

      “That’s why your skin’s so dark,” Venka said, lip curling. “Brown as cow manure.”

      Rin’s nostrils flared. “I went out in the sun once. You should try it sometime.”

      Just as Tutor Feyrik had warned, classes escalated quickly. Martial arts training commenced in the second-tier courtyard immediately after sunrise the next day.

      “What’s this?” Master Jun, the red-belted Combat instructor, regarded their huddled class with a disgusted expression. “Line up. I want straight rows. Stop clumping together like frightened hens.”

      Jun possessed a pair of fantastically thick black eyebrows that almost met in the middle of his forehead. They rested on his swarthy face like a thundercloud over a permanent scowl.

      “Backs straight.” Jun’s voice matched his face: gruff and unforgiving. “Eyes forward. Arms behind your backs.”

      Rin strained to mirror the stances of her classmates in front of her. Her left thigh prickled, but she didn’t dare scratch it. Too late, she realized she had to pee.

      Jun paced to the front of the courtyard, satisfied that they were standing as uncomfortably as possible. He stopped in front of Nezha. “What happened to your face?”

      Nezha had developed a truly spectacular bruise over his left eye, a bright splotch of violet on his otherwise flawless mien.

      “Got in a fight,” Nezha mumbled.

      “When?”

      “Last night.”

      “You’re lucky,” Jun said. “If it had been any later, I would have expelled you.”

      He raised his voice to address the class. “The first and most important rule of my class is this: do not fight irresponsibly. The techniques you are learning are lethal in application. If improperly performed, they will cause serious injury to yourself or your training partner. If you fight irresponsibly, I will suspend you from my class and lobby to have you expelled from Sinegard. Am I understood?”

      “Yes, sir,” they answered.

      Nezha twisted his head over his shoulder and shot Rin a look of pure venom. She pretended not to see.

      “Who’s had martial arts training before?” Jun asked. “Show of hands.”

      Nearly the entire class raised their arms. Rin glanced around the courtyard, feeling a swell of panic. Had so many of them trained before the Academy? Where had they trained? How far ahead of her were they? What if she couldn’t keep up?

      Jun pointed to Venka. “How many years?”

      “Twelve,” said Venka. “I trained in the Gentle Fist style.”

      Rin’s eyes widened. That meant Venka had been training almost since she could walk.

      Jun pointed to a wooden dummy. “Backward crescent kick. Take the head off.”

      Take the head off? Rin looked doubtfully at the dummy. Its head and torso had been carved from the same piece of wood. The head hadn’t been screwed on; it was solidly connected to the torso.

      Venka, however, seemed entirely unperturbed. She positioned her feet, squinted at the dummy, and then whipped her back leg around in a twist that brought her foot high up over her head. Her heel cut through the air in a lovely, precise arc.

      Her foot connected with the dummy’s head and lobbed it off, sent it flying clean across the courtyard. The head clattered against the corner wall and rolled to one side.

      Rin’s jaw fell open.

      Jun nodded curtly in approval and dismissed Venka. She returned to her place in the ranks, looking pleased.

      “How did she do that?” Jun asked.

      Magic, Rin thought.

      Jun stopped in front of Niang. “You. You look bewildered. How do you think she did that?”

      Niang blinked nervously. “Ki?”

      “What is ki?”

      Niang blushed. “Um. Inner energy. Spiritual energy?”

      “Spiritual energy,” Master Jun repeated. He snorted. “Village nonsense. Those who elevate ki to the level of mystery or the supernatural do a great disservice to martial arts. Ki is nothing but plain energy. The same energy that flows through your lungs and blood vessels. The same energy that moves rivers downstream and causes the wind to blow.”

      He pointed up to the bell tower on the fifth tier. “Two servicemen installed a newly smelted bell last year. Alone, they never would have lifted the bell all that distance. But with cleverly placed ropes, two men of average build managed to lift something many times their weight.

      “The principle works in reverse for martial arts. You have a limited quantity of energy in your body. No amount of training will allow you to accomplish superhuman feats. But given the right discipline, knowing where to strike and when …” Jun slammed his fist out at the dummy’s torso. It splintered, forming a perfect radius of cracks around his hand.

      He pulled his arm away. The dummy torso shattered into pieces that clattered to the ground. “You can do what average humans think impossible. Martial arts is about action and reaction. Angles and trigonometry. The right amount of force applied at the proper vector. Your muscles contract and exert force, and that force is dispelled through to the target. If you build muscle mass, you can exert greater force. If you practice good technique, your force disperses with greater concentration and higher effectiveness. Martial arts is no more complicated than pure physics. If that confuses you, then simply take the advice of the grand masters. Don’t ask questions. Just obey.”

      History was a lesson in humility. Stooped, balding Master Yim began expounding on Nikan’s military embarrassments before they had even finished filing into the classroom.

      “In the last century, the Empire has fought five wars,” Yim said. “And we’ve lost every single one of them. This is why we call this past century

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