The Dragon's Prize Read Online Free Page B

and backing up as she went across the field.  The guards standing around the sides of the yard started yelling.  Some were encouraging her, some were encouraging the prince, others were complaining that nothing was happening.  They’d sparred with her, they knew this was not her normal style.
    “Wait! Stop!”  Finally the prince stopped coming and backed off a step.  Sandra stayed where she was with her guard up.
    They were both breathing hard in the heat of the sun.  Sweat ran freely down the prince’s chest, while her forehead was barely damp.
    “You’re toying with me.”   He looked angry.
    “My prince?”
    “You’re not even attacking!”
    “My prince, I…”
    “She’s good!”  Wu yelled from the sideline, clapping his hands together excitedly.  “Or maybe you’re worse than the dummy!”  The prince grit his teeth and stepped forward.
    “Fight back, dammit!”
    “I…”
    “You’re making me look like a fool!”
    Sandra looked around at the guards.  They were definitely souring on the prince’s performance, and the ones with the welts from the beating they’d taken at his hands were looking like they wanted a rematch.  Of course, the prince was quite good, and he would win any such.  He just wasn’t quite as good as her.
    “My prince.”  Sandra was torn.  “My style is… not suited for fighting royalty.”
    “What?”  The prince’s anger was interrupted by such a strange comment.  “What can you possibly mean?”
    “It… umm… involves a lot of punching.”
    “Punching?”  He looked incredulous.
    “It’s hard to explain.”
    “Try.”  He looked almost like he was pleading.  “This dancing that Wu is teaching me is all well and good, but I love to learn new techniques.”
    This was not going how Sandra intended, but at least they were talking instead of trying to hit each other.
    “Well, most styles treat the sword as the only thing that counts in a fight.”  She swished her sword through the air a few times.  “Like the be-all, end-all of the fight has to do with hitting the other person with your sword.”
    “But it does, doesn’t it?”  The prince held out his own sword and looked at it.  “Even the thin weapons Wu uses are honed steel.  Hitting someone with that is deadly.”
    “I agree.  But in battle, your sword is not the only dangerous part of you.  You wear metal armor, you often carry a shield… the sword is just another tool at your disposal.  An important one, of course, but not the only one.”
    “Show me.”
    “My prince…”
    “Show me!”  The prince was back to looking mad.  Had his temper always been this mercurial?  “Fight like you mean it.”
    “My prince…”
    “Fight me, or I’ll see you banished!”
    Sandra gulped, her heart was lodged back in her throat.  Maybe now she could fake getting hit by him?  That might not stop him, though.  He might insist on continuing the fight until she succeeded…
    Wu didn’t announce the moves he wanted the prince to use this time, so the next portion of the fight started off eerily quietly.  The prince came forward, his face set in a grimace of anger, and launched into a series of ‘lotus’ maneuvers.  They were quick and precise, floating around in a complicated pattern meant to break down the opponent’s guard and tire them out, rather than going for a quick kill like the ‘thunder’ techniques.  Sandra thought to herself that it was a good thing the prince had Wu’s help.  Without it, he launched the same move too many times.  He was too predictable.
    Sandra blocked the first few salvos, fending off his attacks with ease while trying to think of the best way to hit him.
    “Do it!”  His anger made his next attack hasty and off-balance, but powerful.
    If she kept doing this, his greater strength might start injuring her, and would he stop?  She’d never seen this amount of fury in his eyes before.
    She had no choice.
    As usual, he was favoring her right