Yenni crouched low and brought her spear before her, heart thudding. She squinted into the entrance to the training ground, but the lantern she’d anchored above the training dummies did more harm than good in this case. Outside its radius of light it simply created deeper shadows in which her attacker could hide.

“Show yourself!” she yelled, but no one answered; there was only the croak of a nearby toad. Very well, she still had a trick or two, but she would save her best for last. Yenni shuffled in the direction of the entrance corridor. Pain lanced her stomach again, and she dove and rolled behind a dummy. Darts sank into the wood with a thud, thud, thud.

“Coward!” she shouted. Fear and anger churned in her chest. Who was attacking her? Why? She had to get to the entrance.

The dummies were spaced out in rows. There was another one a few feet away, beside her, but she needed to move forward. Yenni pulled on her speed runes, ran, and dove for the dummy diagonally to her right, and the darts passed so closely she felt the wind of them on her arm.

She huddled with her back to the dummy and her spear held close, and peeked around the wood. There was one more row left, and then about ten paces of open space to the entrance, through which she would have to defend herself.

Once more she tugged on her speed rune, and winced when she felt how weak it was. A glance down showed that the paint was almost completely faded. She’d drawn it with Devon’s mixture, intending to save her own for the dangers of town, and it wasn’t nearly as potent. She had to move now or she’d be stuck.

She rolled and scrambled for the dummy diagonally left, darts whooshing right past her ear. She regrouped, took a deep breath, and charged.

The darts came instantly. She spun and ducked and twirled, darts pinging off her spear. But she was slowing down, and there was still a good distance to go. Shocks of pain zapped her stomach, and another volley of darts came. She ducked and dodged and whirled her spear but one got past her and sliced her thigh. She cried out and gritted her teeth, drawing on pain ward to soothe the sting, but she wasn’t close enough to the entrance—she couldn’t use her wind runes just yet.

She yelled and made one last desperate charge for the corridor, taking another slice to the side, and one to her bicep. She was almost there when a dart bit into her shoulder. She screamed and jerked back, but praise Father Gu she held on to her spear. Surging her strength and pain ward runes, she dashed forward. A volley of gleaming darts flew right at her, threatening to pierce her in ten places.