The Emperor's Arrow

Chapter 6: Practice

Evony tied off her short chiton, one that the maids obviously thought was nightclothes to leave it among her things, making sure it was secure before she strapped on her weapons, wrist guards, quiver, and grabbed her bow. Only then did she make her way outside. The eastern sky was awash in gold and orange, the blinding sphere of the sun only a quarter over the horizon. The cool of the night was just now retreating, making Evony smile. Dawn was her favourite time of day.

Evony had so far enjoyed the reduction of noise being down to fifteen girls had caused. While she certainly didn't mind chatter, there seemed to be too much of it in her mind. Then again, she'd never been big on crowds.

Evony saw almost no one as she crossed the palace complex in the early morning light, revelling in the rare opportunity to be alone. It often seemed she was only by herself when in her room. She hummed quietly and hurried her steps as she passed the barracks. It was the only place outside of the servants' areas that showed activity.

She looked over the uniformed men she could see moving about for a moment then turned her attention back towards her destination. She was glad to see that the archery range was still empty, though the centre and right fields at the front were both in use. The former with men doing some strengthening exercises, the latter with soldiers doing basic sword drills. At least that's what they looked like to Evony.

Tossing her unstrung bow to her left hand, she vaulted over the fence using her right. She eyed the targets, each a large circle of woven reeds painted with various types of targets. There was the coloured rings that she understood was the standard on the mainland, the scattered small circles of black, and the type she was most used to, the outline of a person. It was in front of one of those she stopped.

Evony grabbed a string out of one of the pouches on the belts that held her daggers and carefully slid it over both ends. Once it was set she opened up the drawstring of the quiver that hung over her hip and pulled out her first arrow. She used it to practice drawing a few dozen times, to warm up her muscles and get her ready. It had been long enough since her last chance to practice that she wasn't taking any chances.

She wiggled her feet as she settled into a proper stance facing the target. Only when she felt like she was properly aligned and ready, did she knock her arrow and actually aim at the target. Typically, she'd have aimed at the eyes, but thought it was best to start more slowly. She concentrated instead on the small circle used to represent the heart.

Inhaling, Evony waited a second to make certain everything was just right then exhaled. As the last bit of air left her lungs, she released her arrow. It thudded solidly into the circle she'd been aiming at, though even from this distance, Evony could tell it was a bit too much to the right. She hissed a little. That's what she got for neglecting her training for over a week. She could practically hear her sisters laughing at her. And it wasn't like fitting the odd hora of training into her schedule was hard.

Evony sighed, doing her best to shove all of her irritation out with it. That would get in the way of her shooting. Once she had herself relatively calm, she pulled out another arrow and nocked it. This time she did aim at one of the eyes, and when she released it, she could already tell it flew truer than her first had.

Her fifth arrow was the last she sent in for precision work, aimed exactly halfway between the two eyes that she'd already marked. She shifted slightly in her stance, ensuring that she was still in the right position before she reached for her quiver. In rapid succession she sent the next fifteen arrows flying towards the target.

When her quiver was empty, all fifteen arrows were clustered near where the nose of the person would be if the target had been real. A low whistle drew Evony's attention to the fence behind and to her left. Four soldiers were clustered there, two sitting on the fence, the other two leaning up against it. One of them flinched as she turned to look at him. The others all shifted backwards.