^*^*^*^
Culbert stopped up short, blocking their view of the Trying Field. "'Ey, Bert, out of the way," Lilith laughed, shoving at him playfully. The great ox didn't move a whit, but merely stood there looking at something the rest of them couldn't see.
Cordelia poked at him with the hilt of her dagger. "Move it, ye fool!" she exclaimed. "We'll all catch it if you make us late!"
He turned and glanced at each of the others in turn, his eyes at last coming to rest on Lilith's cheerfully grinning countenance. "The field's full of gunslingers!" he whispered harshly, as though he might be overheard. The other three looked at him, shocked.
"It can't be the Trials yet! I'm not ready!" Reyjen gripped his slingshot in its holster at his side. "We're none of us ready!"
Lilith nodded, serious now that the time for laughing had passed. "You're right. That's the point." She shoved past Culbert, and emerged from the leafy passageway onto the Trying Field.
Her first impression was that Culbert had been right: the field was full of gunslingers, they all but overflowed into the hedges around it. Afore them stood Parsis, ironwood staff in one hand. He gazed impassively at her as she strode across the field, the others following hesitantly in her wake. She presented herself before him and met his eyes boldly, all fear forgotten. "I am ready for the tasks that will be placed before me today, master," she intoned, the ancient words with which they began each lesson. "My father's face is burnt within my mind."
"You will need the strength it gives you today, maggot," Parsis rumbled serenely. "For today you, and these other maggots," he pointed to them with his staff, "will face the First Trials."
Lilith saluted him with her bow. "I am ready."
"No you're not."
Parsis nodded to the assembled 'slingers, and they pulled back to the edges of the field, leaving perhaps forty square yards bare at the center. The four apprentices and their master stood alone at the center of the grassy space, the surrounding trees casting them in shifting light and shadow. "You will all face the trials today; and, quite frankly, I don't think more than one of you will pass. If, even, the one does." He looked them all over. "You're not a very likely bunch, but then, I've been surprised before." And then, pointing his staff at Lilith: "You will go first, since you were so bold in the face of that which froze your peers with fear." With that, he turned and walked across the square, leaving Lilith and the others staring at each other with fear and wonderment.
"He shouldn't have called you out first," Reyjen whispered fiercely. "Ye've more chance than any of us to pass, but the first up almost never passes. Parsis knows that!"
"And what would you do?" Cordelia snapped. "Order Parsis to let you go first instead? It doesn't work that way, and you know it." She clapped Lilith on the shoulder, dagger still clasped in the other hand. "Go in peace, leave in victory. And show that ass that intimidation is useless against anyone with a 'slinger's spirit."
Lilith nodded solemnly, and clasped hands with Culbert and Reyjen. Then she began walking across the field to where Parsis stood.
He addressed her without turning. "Your weapon is the bow, 'prentice Lilith."
"It is, teacher."
"Then you will use this weapon, in an attempt to best me and claim your guns."
"I will, teacher."
He faced her then, and she realized that he had not called her first out of any spite or malice, despite what the others might think; she saw in his eyes that she was the one he had the best hope in, the one he'd wager would come out best of the four. The knowledge left her amazed, and fearful she might fail him. There was no greater dishonor a student could bring to her master.
He raised his staff to the sky. "Are you now ready to battle for your guns, maggot? Are you ready to accept the challenge of the First Trials?"
She looked over her shoulder to where the other three stood. They huddled in a tight group by the west corridor, through which students always entered. Were she to best Parsis today, she'd exit the field by the east corridor, as a true 'slinger.
Lilith of B'ngra looked at her teacher's seamed face, her fear and trepidation falling away, leaving only the cold awareness that marked a gunslinger's senses when the time for battle had come. "I am ready."
"Then have at it, maggot!"
^*^*^*^
She described the battle to Jerent -- how she and Parsis had fought, and how she had bested the old warrior and taken his staff -- and he listened wordlessly, occasionally sipping from her mug of chicory, despite the mock-glares she kept throwing him. When she had done, he reached across the space between the chairs and hugged her. "Good show, love! I knew you'd win the Trials. For all the tales otherwise, no one who ever deserved to be a gunslinger ever lost, and no one's more of a 'slinger's spirit than you." He winked at her. "And I'm not just saying that because I love you, either."
Lilith laughed, and leaned over to kiss his forehead. "Of course not, silly. I'm sure that's not it at all."