The girl took the most obvious tack and swung her staff at Yenni’s legs. Yenni gave her own spear a practiced twirl and stuck the tip in the sand. Wood struck steel with a clang. While her opponent reeled to the side, Yenni braced herself against her spear and kicked out, hitting the girl in the middle. She grunted and fell to her knees. Yenni waited. The girl stumbled to her feet with all the grace of a newborn goat, but once she was upright Yenni struck, a light rap to the knee that probably wouldn’t break it. The girl screamed and fell again, and this time she couldn’t rise.

“Over already?” Captain Augustin cried as he caught sight of them. “I’ll have to keep a closer eye on you, en? Mam’selle Moonrise Isles, you’ll move up to the next round.”

As the day’s trials went on, Yenni bested opponent after opponent, male and female, until only five prospectives remained on the sand. Yenni flashed Captain Augustin a triumphant smile as he surveyed them.

“Well, well,” he said. “Five left. Next we’ll see how you work as a team. Ready yourselves.”

She brought up her spear, and saw the others, all young men, take up their fighting stances as well. Yenni surveyed Captain Augustin, doing her best to gauge his weaknesses. Five on one seemed like an unfair fight, but he was their instructor, so who knew what surprises hid under his hat.

He burst into a loud laugh that commandeered his whole mouth. “Oh, you won’t be fighting me!” he said, and rubbed his hands together. “I just love this part.” He shielded his eyes with a meaty hand and squinted into the open cloudless sky. “Right on time, as usual,” he said gleefully. “You’ll be fighting her!”

A star glinted on the horizon, brighter than the day, and as Yenni watched the star grew brighter and bigger, until it turned into a creature flashing silver-blue in the sun, twisting and swirling in the sky like a magnificent giant eel. Yenni’s mouth dropped open.

“Byen above!” someone shouted.

“Square up!” Captain Augustin practically sang.

They spread apart as the dragon arced down onto the sand, landing on four clawed feet. Unlike the ill-mannered beast who’d snatched her earlier, this dragon was serpentine and graceful. She glittered like diamonds, but Yenni was not fooled. Some of the most beautiful creatures were also the deadliest. It was futile, but Yenni desperately wished she had her runes.

“Begin!” the captain shouted.