by Jason Tesar
When the man spoke it was not with the inaudible thoughts as before, but his voice was also not his own. “Sariel. You were a hard one to find. Though I didn’t expect you to make it easy for me.”
“You must have me confused with someone else,” Saba replied, at once confused and terrified.
“Ha!” barked the man. “Do you not recognize your old friend? Surely the depth of your treachery cannot be so easily forgotten? I admit the physical manifestation is a bit of a change,” he conceded, waving a hand in front of himself, “but you must be joking?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you are talking about,” Saba pleaded.
The man took a few steps closer and knelt down, pulling the hood of his cloak back away from his head. Saba’s confusion fled, replaced with a feeling of disgust. The man’s eyes were rolled back in their sockets and his facial features were contorted, as if struggling to resemble something they were never meant to. When the man spoke again, Saba realized that he was not conversing with the man before him, but whatever hideous thing had taken control of his body and mind.
“You honestly don’t know me anymore.” The statement seemed to come as a complete shock to the man.
Suddenly, Saba’s vision blackened and he fell to the floor, unable to control himself. Images flashed through his mind. Maeryn. Kael. Adair. Scenes from their time in Bastul. Each in rapid succession. Saba felt as if his head would explode from the pressure. Places and people whirled by from a time when Saba was looking for Bastul. Then the images stopped. For a long moment, there was only darkness. The pain was the most excruciating thing Saba had ever experienced.
He’s looking for something … in my mind!
A sharp pain exploded in the front of Saba’s head, and more images appeared, things he had never seen before. A city rising from the ocean. Winged creatures flying through the air. Monsters that hunted men.
Are these visions of the future?
As soon as the question formed in his mind, Saba realized the answer.
Visions of the past!
They were old events from the time before he had lost his memory. Then the images stopped. Saba could see again. He was lying on the floor of the small building with his face pressed against the cold stone. He tried to move, to sit up, but his body was limp with exhaustion.
The voice in his head spoke once more, calmly this time.
{I knew it was you.}
The words or thoughts disappeared from Saba’s mind, and the man began to speak audibly once more. “How fortunate that you should lose your memory after what you did to me. I often wondered how you were able to live with yourself. In your mind you are a different person, but that does not change what happened. For thousands of years I have been alone with my thoughts. Trapped in a prison of your making. I have been waiting for an opportunity to return and take my revenge, and it has presented itself. It is so close now that I can taste it. You will stay confined to this jail for now, until I can come and deal with you myself. My only regret is that my vengeance won’t tolerate your sentence to last as long as mine. You will die far sooner than you ought!”
Saba watched from the floor, still unable to move, as the hem of a black robe passed in front of his face and floated across the room. The door opened and the man’s cloaked silhouette stood in the doorway.
“Enjoy your new home,” the man spoke, with his own voice this time. Then the door was shut and locked, and Saba heard only silence.
CHAPTER 20
The bright sunlight did little to warm Kael as he sat on a rock outcropping overlooking the ocean. The air was cold and calm, except for the occasional gust of wind. There were hardly any clouds to be seen, though it would not have mattered to Kael anyway. He sat, legs crossed, with his eyes closed. He had found this spot shortly after arriving at the monastery, though at the time it wasn’t the hiding place it had now become. Seven years had passed, and with each year, Kael had grown more distant from the people around him. His heart had become heavy, and he couldn’t figure out why. But it was always restorative to hear the ocean and feel the breeze on his face. Some days, when he had free time, he would sit in this place for hours with his eyes closed and try to feel everything that was happening around him. Today was no different.
Darkness filled his vision. Memory and imagination completed the picture. Years of watching the waves below and the wind as it passed through the pale grasses in the field behind him, told his mind what should be happening. The sound of his heart was loud in his head, even though he was not doing anything strenuous. He had lost track of how long he had been in this position, but it didn’t matter. It was soothing to his soul.
He tried to think back over the time he had spent in this place and the friends he had made. Even though he knew almost everything there was to know about each of his brothers, as they called each other, he was sure that they all knew far less about him. With the passing of time he found it harder to relate to those around him. Even the things he was learning in class made less sense lately. Sometimes Ukiru would be teaching a subject and it would remind Kael of a long time ago, when he and Saba would talk for hours. It seemed like he was doing more listening than talking lately.
Kael tried to push the thoughts out of his head. He had been dwelling on this matter for too long now and was tired of it consuming his mind. He took a deep breath and replaced the negative imagery in his head with the soothing feeling of nature. He could feel the air stir to his left and blow gently across his face. He imagined all of his negative thoughts floating away on the breeze. He imagined them tumbling and dancing like leaves off the cliff, out over the water. Occasionally one of the leaves would fall from the group and swirl downward until it was too small to see. The rest kept tumbling into each other as they moved farther away until they too were lost. Somewhere off to the right, just above the cliff face, he imagined the air stirring, driven by a lone seagull. It flew in from the ocean and hovered for a second above the rocks before pulling its wings inward for the slow landing. When it reached the ground, it let out a screech and tucked its wings close to its body.
Kael suddenly felt silly to be imagining such things, even though it was fun to let his mind wander for a time. He opened his eyes to the bright sun and blinked at its harshness, unable to stop himself from yawning.
A second screech sounded and Kael glanced to his right. It took him longer than it should have to realize that the seagull perched on the rocks, only thirty feet away, was real. He shook his head and looked back, but the bird was still there. He slowly got to his feet and watched as the bird, previously unaware of his presence, leaped off the cliff and spread its wings to catch the air. It glided for a while before it began to beat its wings, slowly descending to the beach below.
Did I watch the seagull come to a landing, or were my eyes really closed when it happened? Kael continued to watch the bird as it retreated. No. I’m sure I had my eyes closed the whole time. But just as he came to that conclusion, he dismissed the idea as impossible. If I had my eyes closed, then I saw it in my mind before it even made a sound. I’m definitely not feeling well! Turning around, Kael headed back to the monastery to get some sleep.
~
Kael slept from before sundown until the next morning. He awoke feeling refreshed and realized that it had been quite some time since he had slept so well. The morning’s activities passed in a blur, as they usually did, and he found himself in the arena, standing next to the other young men, awaiting the opportunity to act upon the instruction of Ukiru. The teacher, who was now only taller than a few of his pupils, paced back and forth in front of the group.
“In combat, a warrior may easily find himself in a situation beyond his control. Facing a number of adversaries at once may be such a situation. Regardless of how much you train and practice the skills of fighting, there are times when you cannot control what is happening around you. The only way to prepare for such a time is to recognize a bad situation and avoid it before you become trapped. Today
we will split up, and each of you will have a group of adversaries from whom you will have to retreat. You can defend yourself, but offensive tactics are not allowed in today’s training. The way to succeed today is to avoid being trapped by the enemies who outnumber you … and to hold out for as long as possible.”
As Ukiru ended his introduction, the group split up and each person found his own space at the edge of the arena. The sand flattened beneath Kael’s feet as he walked. Between each step, he tapped the soil with the wooden staff he held and watched it leave a dimple in the soft earth. When he reached the edge of the arena, he turned to find his adversaries following at a short distance. There were eight monks in all, dressed in their usual attire and carrying staffs of their own. Kael noticed that most of the other young men had only five enemies, except for Soren, who had eight as well. When starting a new training session for a particular fighting concept, they always used wooden instruments, eventually moving on to bladed weapons when a level of proficiency was attained.
Kael gripped the staff firmly in both hands. So we’re supposed to carry a weapon, but we can’t use it? He always liked how weapons felt in his hands, like they were alive and just wanted to move. He had the urge to twirl the staff around his body. He had done so a long time ago and was chastised severely for it. Ukiru had used him as an example that day to explain that a weapon was not a toy and should never be treated as such.
The enemy monks stopped twenty feet away and gathered into a tight group. Everyone looked to the center of the arena, where Ukiru stood with his hand raised in the air.
“Begin,” he shouted, and his hand dropped.
The group in front of Kael immediately spread out into a row and started to advance. Kael quickly moved to the left. The men on that side ran wider to flank him, and he quickly doubled back to the right, slipping past the men who waited to trap him there by the wall of the arena. Slowly at first, but with increasing frequency, he could hear the crack of wooden sticks hit each other as the other students tried to defend themselves. The sounds of combat meant that the others were not faring as well, as the purpose of this lesson was evasion.
Kael now had his entire group of enemies lined up behind him and closing in fast. He slowed his pace and turned out toward the middle of the arena so they couldn’t use the wall to their advantage. Again they fanned out, hoping to encircle him. He backed away, dodging to the side of the group before they could use the advantage of their numbers against him. It became a dance after a while, and his body moved through the evasion methods he had learned so thoroughly, allowing his mind to wander as his enemies chased him to no avail. After several minutes the sounds of struggle and wooden staffs beating against each other dwindled to silence, and Kael realized that he was the only one left who had not been defeated. Somehow, he didn’t take any pleasure in the thought. He was beginning to get frustrated with the concept of evading the enemy. He knew what Ukiru was trying to teach by this exercise, but he didn’t find it very efficient. He was also starting to get fatigued from the monotony.
Suddenly, one of his enemies lunged forward, and Kael realized that he had let the man get too close. He dodged to the side as the monk swung his staff in an overhead motion, trying to bring it down on Kael’s head. Kael raised his staff and deflected the blow to the side, sending his enemy tumbling past him into the sand. His knuckles ached and he realized the blow had glanced off his hand. Kael quickly swiveled around and jabbed the man in the back with his staff.
“You’re out,” said Ukiru to the monk from a short distance away. The monk stayed on the ground and pretended to be a slain enemy.
Kael turned back to the group only to find that two others were advancing at a run. It was too late to get away from them. He instantly made the decision to run at them and try to break through, which would place him, once again, beyond the reach of the other five enemies. It was only an instant before the two were upon him. The man on the left swung his staff at waist level and the other man jabbed for the chest. Kael spun to the left and blocked the jab, throwing the monk’s weapon into the path of the second adversary. The two blows met each other as Kael used his spinning momentum to dodge to the right of both men.
“What are you doing?” Ukiru yelled from across the arena.
Kael decided that there wasn’t enough time to stop and defeat the two monks. Instead, he ran for the safety of the open area behind the other five men. Ukiru was shouting something in the distance, but Kael wasn’t paying attention any more. The pain in his hand fueled his frustration with this exercise. I guess I’m just supposed to run around until one of them wounds me enough to slow me down. That’s no way to fight!
As he ran to the edge of the arena it occurred to him that he just didn’t trust any of the things he was being taught. Is that what’s bothering me? As the question came, it triggered a memory from two years ago when he had pointed out a flaw in one of the attack stances that Ukiru was demonstrating. The awkward position left the attacker unable to step backward quickly, and therefore would leave enough time to react if the defender decided to rush him. Kael had never seen Ukiru lose his temper the way he did that day. After being scolded and belittled in front of the others, Kael was sent to his room without dinner and was not allowed out until the next morning. Ever since that day, Kael began to find problems with many other things about their training. It eventually bothered him so much that he devoted much of his personal time to developing his own methods of combat, though he would never have the chance to use them outside of the privacy of his own bedroom.
The seven remaining enemies stopped in the middle of the arena at Ukiru’s command. Kael could see his instructor’s face flushed red with anger. “You men,” he shouted at a group of other monks who were standing nearby. “Join in with the others.” At his command, twenty other monks joined the ranks, and Kael’s enemies nearly tripled. “If you insist on disobeying me, this will indeed become a painful lesson.”
The rest of the students were watching intently.
Maybe I will get the chance to put my private studies to good use. Kael closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The sight of twenty-seven monks with their wooden staffs quickly gave way to darkness. Ukiru’s yelling voice slipped into silence. Kael tried to put everything out of his mind except the awareness of his own body.
He could feel his heart beating heavily in his chest.
He could feel his lungs expanding and contracting as air rushed in and out of his body.
The sand moved beneath his feet as he shifted his weight from left to right.
There was another sensation as well, at the edge of his perception, but just out of reach. It nagged at him until the sound of approaching footsteps caused him to open his eyes.
In that instant, he saw and felt the position of every man in the approaching group. Not only could he see and hear them approaching, but he could actually feel them as if they were extensions of his own body. It took only a fraction of a second for him to know where the weakest point of the mob was. And that was where he ran.
The stern faces of the monks shifted to surprise as the young man charged willfully into the insurmountable odds.
Kael closed the distance to the group before they had the chance to adjust their order to meet him. Even if they had the time, there was hardly any reason for so many full-grown men to consider the perfect way to approach one young trainee. And that was the weakness Kael planned to exploit. As he came within striking distance, Kael twirled his staff above his head in open rebellion against the instructions of Ukiru, and brought it down at the limit of his reach on the head of the closest man. The blow caught the monk by surprise and shoved his head downward toward the sand, causing him to topple forward.
Kael kept his forward momentum and stepped onto the monk’s back, springing off his defeated enemy in a spinning motion. His staff shot outward as he spun through the air, smacking into hard surfaces in rapid succession. Kael didn’t have time to notice what he had struck until he landed in
a somersault and came to his feet again. Turning around, he saw the group now trying to deal with the changing direction of their prey.
Four men were lying on the ground, holding various parts of their bodies in an attempt to soothe their pain.
Kael had just broken through the thinnest part of the mob and would not get the same opportunity again. The remaining men split into two groups and began to circle back on him, trying to flank him on both sides. Before they could get into position, Kael sprinted to the left and watched as their ranks broke formation. The men in front ran as fast as they could to keep Kael from getting around the left side of the group. As the closest man approached, he swung his staff in a level arc, aiming for Kael’s head. Kael ducked under the attack and somersaulted across the sand, sweeping at the man’s leg with his staff. The counterattack caught the monk on the knee and brought him to the ground, as well as two others behind him, who tripped over their fallen comrade.
Kael tried to keep his momentum, but was too slow in getting back to his feet. By the time he spun to meet his attackers, they were too close to run from. He crouched into a defensive position of his own making and waited for the men to advance. The rear group spread out to encircle him as the group in front attacked to keep him from running.
Three monks advanced, and the one in the middle jabbed his staff out at Kael. Parrying the jab with a two-handed block, Kael struck the monk in the face with the same motion. Before the attacker on the right had time to bring his staff up to protect himself, Kael spun around and jabbed his own staff into the man’s stomach. The third monk swung for Kael’s head and Kael dropped to his knee, spinning his staff once above his head and smashing it into the man’s chest, driving him backward into his group.
Kael could feel a blow coming for the back of his head and spun to block the attack, but he was too late—the staff knocked him on the side of his head and dazed him for a moment. Then he was jolted by another blow to his back. Several more strikes crashed into his body before he fell over to the ground.