“Why do you get to have all the fun?” Jaden grumbled. “Sven, do you have more suits?”
Sven chortled. “I have an entire rack.”
“You do?” Kayla asked, her face still ashen from the shock of the moments before.
“I do. When I worked on this project, I created a slew of prototypes. It was a project I regretted not finishing. So, after my rather sudden and unexpected departure, I had a trusted friend steal them for me. Since it was safer for both of us if he didn’t know where I lived, I met him at a place far away from here, where I took delivery. Then I brought them home, perfected the suit design, and now have all of them at my disposal.”
Kayla smiled. “Another case of fortune favoring the prepared mind or whatever that quote was?”
Sven laughed. “No. Here, I must confess I just wanted what was mine. I didn’t want those felons using what I had created against me.”
Nodding understanding, Jaden asked, “What now?”
“Now, I get to play in my workshop while you three learn hand-to-hand combat, courtesy of the suits.”
“Uh, I don’t think we’ll beat the Gaptor that way,” Jaden pointed out.
“No, but the exercises will hone your perception, agility, and balance, all skills that will help you should you have to fight another beast,” Sven answered. “After you and Kayla get your suits, I’ll load the training programs and show you how to toggle the controls so you can turn the training program on and off or change the routines. You need this knowledge so you can train without me. Because you’re doing that while I work on a weapon that will duplicate the relic stones’ effects.”
Chapter Twenty-One
An hour later, familiar with the program controls and kitted out in their suits, the teens were ready for the suits to run them through the drills they had programmed.
Jaden had been right. Kayla looked spectacular. He hoped his suit was as effective as Atu’s at doing all the work because Jaden doubted he could drag his eyes away from Kayla long enough to take evasive action of his own. His concerns were unwarranted. The program kicked in, and in minutes, he was having too much fun to focus on her.
It didn’t take long to work up a good sweat. The routines were physically demanding, and the teens soon learned it worked better if only two of them practiced while the third took a breather.
Muffled thumping, pounding sounds hammered out from Sven’s workshop, but he remained sequestered there for the rest of the morning. When their stomachs told them it was time to eat, they took a break, clustering around the counter in the kitchen as they made sandwiches.
“Do you think we should take Sven lunch?” Jaden asked when they were halfway through their meal and it became apparent Sven wouldn’t be joining them.
Atu and Kayla grinned at one another, knowingly.
“What?” Jaden asked, affronted.
“You only want to get inside his workshop,” Atu said.
“Well,” Jaden huffed, “even genius inventors need to eat.”
“Yes, they do,” Kayla agreed, laughing. “But it doesn’t hurt that it would also get you inside his workshop, or do you disagree?”
“Okay, I admit. It crossed my mind.”
He looked so deflated that Atu and Kayla laughed even more.
“Bro, you’re pitiful! Just take him the sandwiches,” Atu sputtered.
“Really?”
Atu and Kayla shook their heads and continued sniggering.
Scowling, Jaden grabbed an empty plate and slapped a few sandwiches on it. He stomped outside, but his eagerness to get a glimpse of the workshop’s interior soon put a grin on his face. Arriving at the workshop door, he found it locked. Using the intercom on one side of the door, he pressed the buzzer. No reply. He waited a few minutes, then pressed the buzzer a second time. This time the door opened so abruptly, Jaden stepped back in surprise.
Sven peered out, looking annoyed. “Yes?”
“Uh, I brought you some lunch.”
“Thank you.” Sven grunted, grabbing the plate of sandwiches. “Next time, please don’t trouble yourself. I have food here.” He slammed and locked the door.
Jaden stared. Was this the same person who had welcomed them into his home yesterday? His only conclusion was Sven resented being disturbed when working. Something I can identify with, Jaden mused, slinking back to the house.
“What wonders did Sven’s workshop hold?” Atu asked, when Jaden entered the kitchen.
“I didn’t even get to sneak a peek inside, let alone set foot in there. He locks the workshop doors with an invisible mechanism, and there’s no door handle!”
“What did you do with his food, then?” Kayla asked, her eyebrow lifting in surprise.
“Oh, I gave it to him, but I had to use the intercom to get his attention. Had to buzz him twice before he opened the door, and then he said about two sentences and shut the door in my face.”
“That’s a little bizarre,” Kayla murmured.
“Was he angry?” Atu asked.
“Perhaps, but I think it’s more likely he doesn’t want anyone to disturb him because he said not to worry about meals. He has food there.”
“Well, alrighty then,” Kayla responded, so dryly the boys burst into laughter.
They cleared the lunch dishes and then relaxed on the comfortable sofas in the living room while they drank tea.
“Why don’t we go flying this afternoon?” Kayla suggested. “I think our gliders are getting bored watching us fight on the ground. And I could do with fresh air in my face.”
“Yes!” Atu agreed enthusiastically.
Jaden grinned, and they finished their tea before strolling outside to give their gliders the good news.
“Finally.” Taz sniffed. “I was wondering when we’d be useful again.”
“They’re just too full of food to bounce around on the ground like they did this morning,” Han teased the boys. “How much lunch did you two consume?”
“Enough to give you a workout this afternoon,” Jaden snorted.
Han chuckled. “I seriously doubt that.”
Jaden reveled in the glorious sense of freedom flowing over him minutes later as he breezed through the air with Han. When he and the others discovered the suits helped them correct their balance more quickly and fluidly, his exhilaration only increased. So much so they began urging their gliders to try increasingly difficult routines, elated to find they could now execute these impeccably.
It wasn’t the same for Taz. “You need to practice without the suits—they’re making the exercises seem simpler than they are. And you can’t rely on having time to suit up before engaging a Gaptor.”
She was right, but the teens didn’t exactly relish suffering through her critical assessments for the afternoon.
It was Atu who came up with an idea that appealed to them all. “Didn’t Sven say he designed the suits to build muscle memory?” When Jaden and Kayla nodded, he said, “Well, let’s test that theory. Taz, would you be content if we kept the suits on for now but practiced the more difficult runs repeatedly? And then, when we’re nearly done for the day, we’ll take the suits off and see if our muscles really have retained what we practiced?”
Taz considered his request. “Well, if they’ll help you learn faster, then by all means. Han?”
“Anything to help our voyagers.”
Time became meaningless as they ran through the exercises, the gliders and teens equally impressed with how quickly they mastered techniques they had been grappling with for days. Over and over they practiced until even Taz had nothing but praise. It was still surprising when Taz pronounced them competent enough to try without the suits.
“There goes any positive feedback for the rest of the afternoon,” Jaden muttered to Kayla and Atu.
Without the suit, Jaden felt vulnerable. It had made him feel invincible.
“Who’s going first?” Han asked when they emerged from the house.
“I will,” Kayla said, astonishing them a
ll. “What?” she shot back when they gaped. “Better to get it over and done with; at least we’ll know one way or another whether the suits work.”
Kayla aerial connected with Taz, clearly feeling the weight of her own muscles again. But as the girls lifted higher, Jaden noticed her body moving more intuitively with Taz’s than it ever had before. And when Taz flipped upside down and began the long and complicated series of rolls, twists, and spirals, Kayla didn’t falter in her movements—not even once.
Jaden grimaced. Flying with Taz, she was in her element. Unlike yesterday, when she had pushed him away as soon as she felt she could walk unaided, making it clear she had resumed her earlier defensive attitude toward his affections. She wasn’t ready for more between them. Or rather, she wasn’t ready to admit she wanted more. Jaden was growing weary of giving her time to reach the conclusion on her own. He only hoped his patience would last to give her the space she needed.
Kayla loosed an ecstatic whoop, startling Taz if the slight wobble in her flight was anything to go by. Jaden could hear Taz protesting even from this distance.
“What was that for?”
Jaden heard Kayla’s reply just as clearly. “Celebrating the fact that you won’t be yelling at me anymore when we learn new routines.”
Jaden and Atu cracked up. Even Han joined in.
“Humph,” Taz responded, but her smile showed how delighted she was that her voyager was carrying out the exercise more than acceptably.
When they landed, Han and the boys cheered.
“The suits really do live up to Sven’s promise!” Jaden said. “Atu, are you ready?”
“You bet!”
The four of them took off, and Kayla watched from the ground as they too executed the program without error. By the time they landed, the sun had already slipped behind the steep, craggy cliffs forming the valley, sending shadows creeping along the ground.
“Time for dinner,” Jaden said when his stomach grumbled.
“Food, food, food,” Han moaned. “Does the boy ever think of anything else?”
Jaden smiled but was too tired for any repartee. The gliders took off again in search of their own dinner, and the teens trudged indoors, feeling the strenuous effects of the day’s training.
Jaden hadn’t felt this wasted in days. He wasn’t as strong or as fit as he thought their training had made them. Glancing at Kayla, he could see she was just as worn out. Her lovely green eyes had lost their sparkle and were dull with fatigue. Her limbs dragged. Despite this, she retained her graceful movements, lethargic though they were. He wished he had the strength to pick her up and carry her inside, then grinned as he imagined her response. Just as well he lacked the energy.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It disappointed Jaden when they didn’t see Sven that evening or the next day or the following evening.
“Do you think we should check on him?” Kayla asked over dinner that second night.
“No, I think he wanted us to leave him alone,” Jaden answered. “If his mind works like I suspect it does, he won’t leave that workshop until he has a functional weapon.”
“That could take a while,” Kayla mumbled.
She was right. But Sven didn’t need as long as she thought he would. It was only a few days later when Sven surprised them by bounding in when they were eating lunch.
“I think I have it!” Sven boomed. “Come, let us test it!”
Jaden leaped up, eager to see the weapon. Only Sven didn’t reveal his invention immediately. Instead, he put them to work, setting up the various objects he planned to test the weapon on. It surprised Jaden when the gliders even pitched in, their own curiosity piqued by the potential weapon.
When they had arranged the testing area to Sven’s satisfaction, he retrieved the much-anticipated weapon from his workshop.
It was nothing more than a carving knife. Keen disappointment lanced Jaden. He looked at the others finding them just as dubious as he was. This will kill Gaptors? How can we even get within striking distance with such a short blade?
Sven grinned, aware of what they were thinking. Then, deliberately, he held the knife out in front of him and pressed on the hilt. An elegantly long, brilliantly white, sizzling blade of light slid out, curving as it did.
“Rad!” Jaden shouted, joined by Atu and Kayla’s exclamations of approval.
Even the gliders cooed their admiration. It was like nothing they had ever seen before. The blade crackled with electricity—or at least, a charge of some sort. It flashed and sparked, begging to unleash its energy.
As if answering the blade’s unspoken request, Sven raised his hand over his head and slashed toward a rock thirty feet away. A ray of energy separated itself from the blade and hurtled toward the rock. It fell short of the target, landing in the snow and searing its way down to bare earth before dissipating. Sven cursed under this breath, moving ten feet closer to the target. This time, the beam did not miss. It struck the rock with a resounding crack, splitting it in half and sending sharp echoes up and down the valley.
“Wow!” Jaden breathed.
“Well done, Armorer!” Taz murmured.
Sven grinned and bowed. “Thank you. But can this weapon do what the relic stones can? That is the million-dollar question, as they used to say. Let’s test its powers against other mediums before we get too excited, no?”
In quick succession, Sven lashed out at the various objects they had set up, determining the beam’s effectiveness against wood, glass, ceramic, various metals, and a host of other materials. Most of the items fragmented immediately, some even disappearing in a puff of black smoke. But a specialized ceramic jar and two metal cubes proved impervious.
“I understand the need for limiting the use of your relic stones, but it would help enormously if we could eliminate some variables. Any chance we could apply the power of your stones to those items?” Sven begged.
His expression was so hopeful, his tone so beseeching, Jaden reconsidered their earlier ban on the use of the stones. Besides, he reasoned, it would be an excellent opportunity to establish exactly how the stones worked. That way, if they encountered another Gaptor, they would know what they were doing instead of leaving it to chance.
Jaden submitted his thoughts to the gliders, who agreed this would be a wise use. Asking Kayla and Atu, Jaden confirmed they felt the same way. Sven whooped when they consented. Jaden chuckled. Then he and Kayla strolled over to the remaining objects, stopping when the ceramic jar separated them.
“Okay, let’s work on our operation manual for these rings,” Jaden said.
“Yup, we need to get the hang of how to control them before we meet another Gaptor.”
“Yeah. Best that we figure that out now. Ready?”
“I’ve always enjoyed playing with fire,” Kayla confessed, grinning.
They raised their hands. Anticipating some process for adjusting the angles of the rings and the placement of the object between them, they both flinched when lightning flashed. An almighty clap rent the air, and the ceramic jar vaporized into a fine mist of ash. Euphoric shouts followed shocked silence.
“No skill involved at all!” Kayla hollered.
“Yeah, just point and shoot in the general direction, and the rings take care of the rest,” Jaden said.
Sven and Atu sprinted over to where the two of them danced gleefully, ignoring them as they darted about, trapping the drifting ash in glass jars.
Kayla giggled, observing Sven and Atu’s hurried movements. “What are you doing?”
Jaden ceased dancing as his mind engaged on another level. “I’m guessing Sven will analyze how the object’s chemical composition changed. That’s how you’re working out what force the rings deploy?”
“Maybe I’ll let you into my workshop,” Sven said. “You might prove useful.”
Jaden tried suppressing his excitement. “Really?”
Sven chuckled. “Yes, really. You think I don’t know that was what you were angling for when you br
ought me that meal the other day?”
Jaden grinned. “That obvious, huh?”
“You’re not too hard to read when it comes to technology,” Sven said as he labeled jars. “Now, we test the stones on those metal blocks, no?”
Sven and Atu stepped back, giving Jaden and Kayla space. They assumed positions on either side of the first metal cube. They expected the sudden blazing light this time. Eclipsed by it for an instant, the block reappeared only momentarily before melting into a pool of gray, bubbling liquid. As they watched, fascinated, it seeped into the snow.
“Catch what you can!” Sven yelled, tossing each of them a glass jar with a spatula inside, rushing forward himself and scooping up as much of the disappearing fluid as he could.
Atu was already on his hands and knees, ladling the snow and molten metal into his own jar. Jaden and Kayla scrambled to assist, each salvaging at least some gooey liquid before it disappeared.
“Well, that was unexpected.” Sven muttered, labeling the new jars. Motioning toward the last block, he said, “I expect that one will turn to ash too. Here’s a pre-marked jar for each of you. You know the drill.”
And, as expected, the block turned into a pile of ash just as Sven had predicted. Only none of them had expected the ash to be red.
“I’ve never seen red ash before,” Atu said. “What does the color mean, Armorer?”
“Another variation I didn’t expect, but when I consider what happened to the first block of metal . . .” Sven drifted off, his mind puzzling through the problem. Reaching a conclusion, he addressed Jaden and Kayla. “Would you be averse to confirming the rings’ powers on a second boulder and a second wooden object? I have a theory I’d like to test, and this would be the quickest way of proving my hypothesis.” When they hesitated, he hurriedly added, “Please, I understand your concerns about using the stones, but if I can just see the results, and if they’re what I now expect them to be, we’ll get a functional weapon substantially faster.”
Kayla looked to Jaden for confirmation.
Jaden cocked his head to one side and raised the corresponding shoulder in resignation. “I guess we’re going all in. If more Gaptors have come through, we’re already in trouble. If not, hopefully, Sven’s right.”
Destiny Series Boxed Set Page 42