Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“Yes, but I would’ve sliced off your sword hand before you could,”
Grizel corrected.
“Is that so?” Sandor tossed his sword to his left hand and swung,
striking Grizel’s blade with a clang! “Good thing I can fight just as
skillfully with either.”
Grizel laughed and released Sophie, then spun around with a move
that managed to look both elegant and lethal, and ended with the edge
of her sword pressed against Sandor’s throat. “You’re so cute when
you think you can beat me.”
“I can beat you,” Sandor insisted.
“No, you can’t.” Grizel spun away, blocking his next swipe with a
clash so loud it made Sophie’s teeth sing. “But we are an even match.
So you can keep wasting time trying to prove you’re better than me—
or you can admit that no matter how good either of us is, we’ve been
assigned charges that have a gift for sneaking away to do really
dangerous things. Which is why they should be training—and I mean
seriously training,” she added, turning to Sophie and Fitz, “not just
working off a few frustrations. In fact, all of your friends should
complete our full military regimen. And you”—she pointed at Sandor
—“should be helping me guide them through the program.”
It wasn’t the first time Grizel had made the suggestion, and it
wasn’t a horrible idea, considering how many attacks Sophie and her
friends had barely survived. Even Ro agreed—though of course she’d
argued that the focus should be ogre training.
But . . . the thought of all the slicing and slashing turned Sophie’s
stomach squirmy. She was stunned Fitz could handle it—though
maybe he got that from his mom.