Derring-Do for Beginners. Red Company, #1

Friends by chance--or is it fate? Damian Raske and Jullanar Thistlethwaite are about as different as can be. Damian is a young swordsman, dreaming of being the best in the world, hardly aware of what lies beyond the outskirts of his city, let alone that there is a great empire on the other side of the horizon. Jullanar is a gently-raised young woman from deep inside the Empire of Astandalas, aware that there are worlds beyond its sway but hardly daring to dream she'd ever see outside of her own country, let alone beyond the empire's borders. And yet they both dream of friendship, of adventure, of what else there might be.
And it's Jullanar whose exam results turn out to matter in a way no one could expect. The first book of The Red Company, because even the greatest of folk heroes have to start somewhere.