She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Father Ri, once more I throw myself upon the mercy of your divine wisdom, she prayed. Lend me your insight, show me how I can stay, how to release my father from the illness that weakens and pains him, how I may please you and avoid drawing your wrath. For two moonturns she’d poured everything into her studies, both for her classes and with Carmenna, learning about healing magic and the body. But not only was she no closer to finding something that might help her father, she had proven herself unworthy to attend the academy. She’d never felt like such a failure.

The room suddenly seemed too small, the walls too encroaching, and her bed a soft prison. The sun was up on her second day, and she had work to do. Yesterday she’d looked for Captain Augustin, though it made her skin seem to crawl with shame to do so. She dreaded admitting her failure to him, but he had been her advocate before, perhaps he could help her again. However, there were no classes for five days after examinations, and the professors were given time off as well. She hadn’t been able to find him anywhere on campus, and after a few hours of looking she’d given up and spent the day in the library, studying and practicing the spells that gave her the most trouble until her head ached.

Today she would seek him again, starting with the training sands. By the grace of lucky Ib-e-ji, he would decide to run through some battle exercises during his vacation. Yenni decided she would spend a few hours doing so as well. If nothing else, it would help her work off the nervous, panicky energy just under the surface of her careful calm. She washed and dressed in her hunting clothes from home—short pants and a simple green top that wrapped around her middle and over each shoulder, crossing on her back. Then she set out for the training sands.

The campus was peacefully silent with the students taking a well-deserved break after examinations. The towers and spires of the academy rose like tall, gray sentinels over the pristine green lawns and snaking white paths of the grounds. Yenni’s sandals crunched on the grass, wet with morning dew, until she reached the wide swath of the training sands. She hadn’t expected Captain Augustin to be there right away, but her heart sank just the same to see the place deserted. Her lonely steps crunched on the sand as she approached one of the training dummies—a vaguely broad-shouldered torso shape that stuck out of the sand on a thin pole. She’d just begun to stretch when the she caught the whoosh, whoosh of wingbeats above.