by E L Russell
Finna’s eyes and mouth went wide open. “You couldn’t help them?”
Leeth lowered his chin and spoke to the floor, his rage barely contained. “The Silva sacrifice those they capture by offering their live bodies to the Maelstrom.”
Jamal was aghast. “But surely your ability to time travel could save them?”
Leeth snorted. “The Time Overlords ruled otherwise.”
“Your Time Overlords? The ones who are on your side? The ones who told you to save us? Finna and me? Those Overlords? They said you couldn’t save your team? They—”
Leeth cut Jamal off with a slice of his hand. “They had their reasons. When the Time Overlords grant permission, I’ll fill you in on the political ramifications of what my efforts to save the four would mean to Earth.” He frowned at Finna. “I swear, that is the truth. He rubbed his chin and then slowly emptied his mug. I cannot continue this discussion.”
He slammed the empty mug down. "Enough." His gaze drilled into Finna as if to silence her permanently. "What did the two of you do wrong in the exercise that got you killed?"
She hesitated, watching him. He knew he was angry, frustrated, and feeling guilty, a terrible threesome to ignore. And nothing blocked the memories of the deaths of the people who would never be their teammates. Focusing, she said, "Well, for one thing, even though we were under trees, we were out in the open, for god's sake."
“Yeah,” Jamal added, “with no guard.”
“Try again.” Leeth turned from the table, stood, and walked away.
“That’s it? No advice, no insight from the great Seeker?”
“You’re the warrior, think of a better way.”
* * *
Finna woke on her fighting robe under a low cover of woven shrubs. This time, however, fully aware she was within Leeth's sarding dream training exercise, she sat up and grabbed her bow while looking in all directions, including up. Considering the number of times she'd died here, a surprisingly fresh cover of tall, green growth surrounded her. Leeth's time travel and play-it-again style of dream training left no chance of wilted or discolored vegetation to give her resting place away. Jamal slid down the tree from his watch some twenty steps away and crept closer. His hand signals told her a band of seven approached from the north. Once close enough to whisper, he asked, "Do we ambush from the side or the rear?"
"Neither," she breathed in a whisper of sound. "We'll hide behind trees at a greater distance from their path, so we are hidden in the deeper forest. Stay on this side of the path and work beside me. We'll each kill one then duck under the low canopy of scrub fern so they can't spot us. Make the remaining five chase you deeper into the cover of the trees. You are faster than they so make sure they see enough of you to follow, but not enough to shoot you. I'll stay hidden here until they pass. Then I'll creep in the bushes from behind them. You remember the terrain in the woods, right? Make good use of it."
With a nod, Jamal backed off several paces.
After they’d each killed an enemy, Finna retreated deeper into hiding and with great stealth froze beneath the cover of low oak-like trees waiting until more Silva passed.
The whistle of a small bird broke the silence then all grew quiet. It was a phony birdcall and knew Jamal would detect the ruse. She readied herself to take the last two. Jamal flashed a hand signal confirming he'd take the first two.
She spotted their chainmail vests and warned her partner.
She reviewed the plan through her mind and made sure Jamal did the same.
Finna notched an arrow, holding three others at the ready in her other fist. She sighted on her first victim, mindful of the second, and launched four arrows, killing two of the enemy before they could cry out an alarm.
Jamal's second kill came slower, and the man's moan alerted the remaining Silva. All but one hesitated.
When Jamal's second target fell, and the last man dashed for the cover of the woods, Finna shouted. "Take another." She ran toward the four dead to get their white cowls as proof for the official tally of killed or captured then returned to the deeper woods where she would meet up with Jamal. Although in one sense it was fun, and because it was all like some gigantic game, Finna questioned what she was doing. The game generated dead. She wondered where these warriors came from. Did they have families that would mourn them? Did they believe the gods of the Maelstrom had an afterlife for them?
She felt queasy about the killing, and the feeling was unfamiliar. When killing the men attacking them in the caves, she'd felt no qualms. When the killing was required to save a life, like on the ship when the men attacked Helena and Cecelia, she felt vindicated. She hesitated now and questioned her motives.
Jamal’s frantic voice intruded. “Let’s get out of here.”
Too late. The metal tips of fourteen arrows of white-hooded archers stared her down. Jamal was thrown to the ground at her feet, and Finna dropped her weapon and took off her red cowl.
“Kill ‘em,” the leader said. For a life or death situation, it was coldheartedly casual.
Finna and Jamal took seven arrows each to the chest and were dead before their body hit the ground.
52
Second Combat
More
Once more, Leeth stood over them.
* * *
Later that afternoon, when Finna and Jamal waited for Leeth to complete his examination of their dream training exercise, they both rubbed their wound sites. Although none-wound sites would be a better description, they wouldn't be any less painful. Rubbing their chest each glared at their mentor. "Those arrows may have hit us during dream training, but mine still hurt like hell. How about you?"
“The same,” Finna said. If this is to teach us to avoid getting shot, I think it’s overkill.”
Jamal went to the narrow slit in the wall that was built for shooting arrows, but was now was now filled with a crystal of some sort to keep out the sapping effects of this world. He gazed toward the forest. "Looks like it's raining in the woods beyond the barrier. Do you think that will end the day's fighting?"
“What do you think?”
“Yeah. Not likely. What did we do wrong, Finna?”
“I think we spent too much time collecting white caps. We should’ve hidden immediately after the initial attack and gone back for the cowls later.”
Leeth, always there, always looking down their necks, appeared out of thin air.
“Correct.”
God’s sarding bones. There was no privacy for them anywhere. Jamal's frown said he agreed. She removed her hand from her chest and flipped the failure to him." Some teacher you are, Seeker, why can't just tell us what to do?"
He gave her his patronizing look that made her grind her teeth. "Sit with me and listen, both of you. Except for allowing the enemy to kill you, your tactics weren't bad. Take some time to evaluate your actions."
Like they hadn't done that a hundred times over. Finna dropped cross-legged on the rug tried to kill him with her glare. She realized his guidance was well intended and even of a superior level, however, she was not willing to admit that failure was a good way to learn, certainly not when the pain of inadequacy was hers.
“We should have taken the time to scout out a larger area for white cowl backup soldiers.”
Leeth nodded at Jamal. “Yes.”
“But what they did was stupid,” Finna said. “They deployed seven close together. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Perhaps.” Leeth tapped his chin with a finger. “Is it possible you were lucky to surprise the first seven before their second seven, those there to protect their backs, could act? You, on the other hand, had no backup.”
Jamal
sat rubbing an arrow on the stone floor. “So both sides died of bad luck?”
“Luck is not a factor,” Leeth roared. He scrubbed his face with both hands and took several deep breaths. He rarely lost his temper and practically never shouted. “Your team attacked too quickly. You didn’t know how many were in the opposition. You didn’t know where the entire enemy was. You didn’t know how vulnerable you were. You didn’t know how easy it was for the enemy to kill you.” His voice rose again. “You died because of a careless, incomplete plan.”
Finna was tired of the repetition, tired of the pain in her chest, and tired to death of Leeth’s lack of instruction. “So now what? We do it again? What exactly do we do now?” She was tired to the bone. “More dream training?” Then at least they could sleep.
For long moments, Leeth said nothing, and when he finally did, she couldn't decipher his soft words.
“Again, Seeker. What did you say?”
“I said I can't watch you fail again."
Finna adjusted the bag she wore across one shoulder and checked that the strap at her hip had been tied correctly. She and Jamal had repositioned with Leeth to outside the castle, and she groaned at the effects of the gravity. It was her like first time on Torg. Maybe Leeth was right. Maybe they needed to get used to a heavy world all over again. Like the tyrant he was, Leeth had training plans.
They walked across the open area toward the path, which led through the scrub and eventually to the beach and the ring of water that surrounded their island.
“Before you join the others completing our team of seven and we engage with the real Silva, I want to know you are as physically fit as possible for conditions on the Spes’ combat planet,” he said.
She’d argued, of course, saying, “Fit? That’s the one thing we are. Fit.” Now she realized they’d been inside the protection of Castle Star Point too long. God’s Bones. She hated when he was right.
“We’ll see, he said” Get your weapons, water, and the gear you take into the field for fighting. We’re going to get some needed exercise with a cross-country run.”
So after all that, here they were. She gave Jamal’s back a hearty thump.
He adjusted the pack he wore over his left shoulder and gave her a frown of confusion.
Leeth raised his arm.
Leeth vanished.
Finna and Jamal attempted to viz the far beach to see him had no success. As Leeth warned, Vald had ways of blocking this ability.
With a soft displacement of air, Finna vanished. She arrived at Leeth's shoulder, and within seconds, Jamal appeared as well.
“You left without us. Why didn’t we go together?”