“You’re the clever spy who’s two years older than me, you figure it out.” The strike to her elbow would have made her drop her right-hand stick from suddenly numb fingers if she hadn’t evaded it.

“You’re no fun. Oof!” he exclaimed as she connected, not with a stick but with an elbow to the gut.

“Well done,” said Master Leandro. “You’re only half speed, she shouldn’t have caught you. You’re getting sloppy, Perry.”

Before the session was over, Leandro had moved them up to full speed, but the worst Abi had suffered had been the loss of a little knuckle skin. Perry had done better, but he was two years older than she was with that much more practice.

“Maybe next time we should practice with bricks, Master,” Perry said, as their mentor judged himself satisfied with their performance. “Abi should find a lot of bricks on the sites where she’ll be working.”

“Hmph,” Leandro replied, his eyes gleaming. “Don’t tempt me.”

They were both dripping with sweat of course, and badly needed a bath, but Perry elected to head back at a run, and she knew he would beat her back home. Since there was only one bathing room in their part of the Palace, shared with the Royals, Abi got a clean uniform and went back down to Herald’s Collegium and the girls’ bathing room.

“Who let a Blue in here?” came a laughing voice out of the steam as she opened the door.

“It’s not a Blue, it’s Abi,” she replied, and peered through the fog.

“Oh, well, then, we’ll let you in, but you have to leave by the back door,” came the retort. “We have to keep our standards you know.”

Abi made a rude sound, and found the nearest unoccupied tub. She wasn’t the sort to dawdle over anything, much less a bath, so she was finished before the speaker emerged from her own tub.

By the time she was done, she was starving and raced back to the suite.

“Full Court dinner,” her mother greeted Abi from her bedroom as Abi burst in through the door. “Lydia’s first since the baby. Gather both tribes and either get something from the kitchen or—”

“I know, I know.” She glanced in Tory’s room, saw it was empty, and figured he was with Kee. The two were inseparable. Perry wasn’t in his room either, so she ran her fingers through her hair to put it more-or-less in order, went back out into the hall, and turned toward the Royal Suite. The guards at the door grinned when they saw her.

“Going to mind the baby for Her Highness?” asked one.

She made a face. “I’d rather shovel manure,” she replied as they waved her in.

“I hear nappies are worse,” the guard said as she passed them.