by Ann Macela
Saxt exchanged a glance with Jake before turning to Phil. From his tone, Bellman thought he deserved the place. Not yet. “Before we say yes to your last point, we’ll need to see you in action, to make sure you’ve mastered the exchange.”
“Fine by me,” Phil said with a big grin. “Some of my Indie friends are willing to help.”
“I’ll supply the Defenders you’ll work with,” Jake stated. “Meet us at three thirty in practice room eight.”
“I’ll be there.” Phil strutted off, his friends following.
Hoping his table mates wouldn’t ask about Phil, Saxt continued eating. This was definitely not the time or place to discuss personnel matters. Johanna, bless her, started talking about their newest Sword and took everyone’s mind off Bellman’s request.
After lunch, Saxt, Jake, Johanna, and Clyde huddled in her office before heading down to the practice rooms. Saxt asked, “What do you think Phil’s planning?”
“No idea,” Jake answered, “but I’ll be damned if he’s going to rig a team to make himself look good. I want to see if he told us the truth, so I’m going to call in a few Defenders below his level. In the past he couldn’t resist hogging energy when he’s with lower levels.”
“That seemed to be the case Sunday,” Saxt agreed. “He complained about their lack of power.”
“We should have another Sword in his test, someone in the ring with him to monitor his output and input,” Clyde stated. “I could do it.”
“No,” Johanna interjected. “Let me. You’re an eighteen, Clyde. Phil won’t dare try stealing energy with you in the ring. He always underestimates me, or considers himself superior, or tries to ‘prove’ he’s better. I’m ready for his shenanigans.”
“I agree with Johanna,” Saxt stated, “and, since I’m the one who warned him about hogging after his previous ring effort, he’ll be watching me closely. I’d be more useful on the sidelines, monitoring.”
“To go along with the idea of more lower levels,” Jake said, “Clyde, you stay away from the test altogether.”
“Be careful, Johanna,” Clyde warned. “I don’t think he’s realized your true level yet.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll modulate my energy to keep the color of my sword below his. I hope the test convinces Phil that he doesn’t have to prove his ability by challenging me to a duel again. That ploy is insulting to my intelligence.” She smiled grimly. “I do wish the man wouldn’t use so much aftershave, either. It seems stronger lately, and being in close quarters with him makes me want to gag.”
Saxt stayed behind when the other men left. As soon as the door closed, he pulled Johanna into his arms for a hug and whispered in her ear, “I thought they’d never leave.”
She leaned back in his arms and gave him a wide-eyed smile. “Is this how the vaunted ‘Falkner Plan’ is supposed to work? A few stolen moments?”
“Have faith, woman. I’ve refused all requests and invitations for dinner or meetings. What time can we leave here tonight?”
“Can you be at my place at six? We can decide where to eat then.”
“Works for me.” He kissed her softly, briefly, decided one wasn’t enough, and tried again. Better.
When he raised his head, they were both breathless.
“Saxt …”
“I know, the door’s not locked.”
“This wasn’t the kind of ‘get to know you better’ I was thinking.”
He grinned. “I know that, too, but it was fun. See you later.”
***
“Are we ready?” Jake asked the participants in Phil’s test in the practice room that afternoon. “Take your places.”
Saxt watched the Defenders in their colorful robes step enthusiastically into the pentagon engraved on the floor. In her black Sword robe, Johanna looked splendid, competent—and not at all eager to be participating.
Phil, on the other hand, was posturing for his buddies who sat on the stone benches by the walls of the five-sided room. He carefully arranged his robe and sauntered into the area.
“Remember, Bellman,” Jake ordered, “follow Johanna’s directions.”
“Yes, sir,” Phil smirked.
Johanna counted, and the team set the fortress. She counted again, and they generated the ring.
The team members Jake had picked were pretty good, Saxt thought, when they quickly spun the wheel. Fine. If he didn’t have to worry about them, he could concentrate on Phil. He walked around the pentagon to stand behind Johanna for a clear view of the big Sword.
Unlike during his first attempt at sharing, Bellman was careful this time. As the ring revolved and everybody contributed energy, he kept his eyes open and his gaze mostly on his own hands—with an occasional searching glance at Johanna.
After one of Phil’s scrutinizing studies of her, a cold spot settled right between Saxt’s shoulder blades. Was it his imagination, or had the other man’s gaze been entirely too admiring? Too acquisitive? Too possessive?
No, he must be imagining. Must be “under the influence.” His reaction was simply the “Back off, buddy,” normal response of the male when another looked at his soul mate.
“Everybody, increase your output to your next level,” Johanna said, and the ring began to grow in thickness and rise in level when the threads multiplied and wove together.
As his center sent heat to the cold spot—see, it was the imperative—Saxt ignored the problem and walked around the fortress to a point where he could see both Swords. All was proceeding as planned.
Or was it?
Even though Johanna hadn’t made a sound or a movement, he felt a sudden tension emanating from her. An expression of distaste crossed her face for a second, then she frowned and shifted her fingers as though she was manipulating her energy stream.
Before Saxt could react, the tension vanished, and Johanna relaxed. So did he. Making a mental note to find out later what happened, Saxt concentrated again on Bellman. The big Sword hadn’t budged, not even twitched.
After a few minutes, the wheel glowed silver, and Johanna announced, “Here comes the ebb and flow.”
Saxt nodded at Jake, and they stepped into the pentagon on each side of Bellman. Both men reached into the ring and let the energy flow through their hands. The current was moving right to left and in and out of Phil, as it should.
Once or twice, Saxt felt a little ripple or eddy in the flow, like water hitting a rock in a river, and once or twice, he noticed a thread with a mottled or blotchy coloration. Must come from the inexperience of the team, he decided. Clyde’s team’s current glided smoothly, and all the threads glowed like crystal and stained glass, but of course, its members had more experience.
After several minutes, Jake said, “Feels good. Raise the power.”
The team increased their levels. The ring turned silver and gold, then mostly golden.
Saxt watched Phil, who, with clenched jaw, was staring at his own hands. The clockwise current fluctuated a moment before it steadied. Energy pulsed to and from each person. In fact, with the exception of Phil, everyone was enjoying himself, if Saxt could judge by their happy faces.
After a few minutes—Saxt and Jake decided beforehand to see how the test was going before springing their little surprise—Jake asked, “Phil, have you gone through the ring yet?”
“Inside the circle? No,” Bellman answered, and his eyes shifted nervously between the two of them. “I didn’t know that was part of the test.”
“We decided to add it,” Jake said blandly. “Stop sending energy to the ring, and walk through it. When you’re inside it, let your center settle down, and do not draw any power from the ring. Understand?”
Phil licked his lips. “Okay.”
Bellman cut his flow and stepped through the glowing, whooshing wheel. When he arrived at the center, he whirled around with a gleeful smile. “Holy shit!”
“What Phil is referring to,” Saxt told the Defenders, “is the rush you’ll feel when you go through the ring. You’l
l do that individually in a few minutes.”
Johanna joined Phil at the center with the pedestal between them. Since they were not destroying an item, it held an empty crystal bowl. She shifted slightly to the left so she wasn’t directly in his line of fire—just in case.
“Phil, face the pedestal, and back up almost to the ring,” Saxt said, keeping a close eye on the big Sword. Bellman was doing okay, thus far. The next bit was the real test. “Reach for the power and pull some into your well as if you had an item in front of you. Remember, take only a small amount. Don’t try to fill your center. Remember, the Sword on the other side also needs the power. Take it slow and easy.”
“Yeah, right, slow and easy.” Bellman rolled his shoulders and resettled his robe. He backed up and drew several threads from the ring. “Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man. I can really feel the heightened power.”
“Go slow, Phil,” Saxt ordered. “When I give the signal, draw your blade and pull more energy into your center, just as you would normally do. Bring in only about half as much, though. Keep your blade vertical. Let the power flow in and out. We’ll hold it there for a few minutes. When I tell you, cut the energy, and sheathe your blade. That’s all we’re going to do today.”
“Got it,” Bellman said with the expression of a kid on Christmas morning.
On Saxt’s command, the two Swords conjured their blades. Saxt was not surprised to note the size and design of the sword Bellman had chosen to cast. As befitted his six-foot-four height, Phil’s was a very large great-sword, easily five feet long, with intricate embellishments on the elaborate cross-guard and blade—a waste of magical energy to maintain as far as Saxt was concerned. It glowed violet with silver streaks, top of the level for fourteen.
Johanna’s elegant blade, however, shone a subdued violet with a touch of indigo, somewhere between thirteen and fourteen.
“Take a little more power into your center, Phil,” Saxt continued. “When you have it, try moving it around your body, out to your blade, and send it back to the ring.”
Saxt walked around the outside of the pentagon to a spot where he could see both Bellman’s and Johanna’s faces. Johanna was simply standing, blade upright, with only a slight glimmer behind her to indicate her energy connection. Although she appeared to be concentrating solely on her own weapon, her calm stillness reminded Saxt of a fighter ready to explode into action if her opponent as much as twitched.
Phil was in a “conquering hero” stance, arms almost straight out from his body, sword thrust upward. At his back a broad belt of power streamed to and from the ring. Eyes half shut, he was staring at his shining blade as though mesmerized by it—or by the energy he was sucking into himself.
As Saxt watched, the ring itself dimmed, and Phil’s connection with it flared. When the Defenders reflexively supplied more energy, the wheel brightened, but did not attain its former brilliance.
Here we go again? What would Bellman do? Saxt kept still and waited to see.
The ring fluctuated in color and brightness for almost a minute. Saxt was about to call a halt to the proceedings when Phil’s sword wobbled and slipped from vertical to a forty-five degree slant. Bellman must have finally realized he was hogging power because he started sweating. He frowned, shifted his body, and glared at his weapon.
Another thirty seconds passed. Even without touching the ring or the energy passing between it and Bellman, Saxt felt the current halt and reverse direction, from Phil back out to the ring.
The wheel recovered its golden hue. When Phil had the flow moving correctly again, he straightened his blade to vertical, and his ever-present smirk returned. He did not even glance at either Jake, Johanna, or Saxt. Probably pretending nothing had gone wrong.
After observing Phil practice with power exchange for several minutes without a repetition of his mistake, Saxt said, “All right, Bellman, sheathe your blade and come out of the pentagon. Jake and I want to talk to you. Johanna will help the rest of the team with the ring.”
“Could Johanna come with us?” Phil asked after he stepped out of the fortress. “I have a couple of questions for her and Clyde, if he’s available.”
Saxt looked at Johanna, who canceled her blade spell and shrugged. “Clyde’s next door helping with another group.”
Jake waved over one of the teaching masters who’d come in to watch the test and asked him to take charge. After telling Bellman’s friends that Phil would see them later and stopping to ask Clyde to join them, he led the four to a small conference room.
Chapter Fifteen
Johanna followed the men slowly. If a way to get out of this meeting had been available, she would have jumped on it. Any excuse for not spending another minute with Phil would have been welcome. As it was, she really wanted a shower—not, however, to wash her skin. No, she needed an internal cleansing to rid her center of the creepy feeling still present after sharing energy in the ring with him.
His hogging stunt exasperated her further—she could feel the anger bubbling in her veins and in her center. Even knowing the consequences, the man could exercise no self control. That being the case, who would possibly want to step into a pentagon with him?
She was barely over the threshold of the conference room when Phil announced, “Man, what a rush. I passed, of course. Told you I would.”
“That’s right,” Saxt said. “You passed. We’ll include you in the item destruction tomorrow. But …”
“But what? Johanna didn’t bat an eyelid, and I know I wasn’t pulling too much energy.” Phil waved a hand at Johanna, probably hoping for corroboration.
She ignored him and sat down at the table. Clyde did the same and raised his eyebrows at her. She mouthed the word, “Later,” at him. They both watched to the confrontation going on at the end of the room. Saxt and Phil stood facing each other—Saxt grim, Phil haughty.
“Phil, you slipped today,” Saxt said in a slightly exasperated tone. “Don’t pretend you didn’t. You managed to correct it—”
“Damn right.”
“—and that was good. The point is, you did lose control for a minute, and it took you another thirty seconds to re-establish order. That’s a long time when fighting an item. What would have happened if you’d actually opposed one? Could it have taken advantage of the lesser energy available to your partner to strike at her?”
“That won’t happen,” Phil stated, drawing himself up, crossing his arms over his chest, and looking down his nose.
Arrogant, over-confident idiot. Johanna had to work hard to keep a neutral expression.
“You don’t know that, and neither do we,” Saxt responded. “None of us is in a position to make unequivocal declarations. You need practice. We all need practice. Nobody understands how much energy this method is capable of producing. No one knows how to completely guard against the euphoria that comes along with it. We need to study and learn what the method can do for us.”
“I do agree with that,” Phil said with a “gotcha” smile.
Uh-oh. Johanna exchanged a quick glance with Clyde. Saxt had given Phil an opening neither of them liked. Sure enough, his next words confirmed her suspicions.
“That brings up the topic I wanted to discuss with Clyde and Johanna,” Phil continued. “I need a team to practice with. A good, strong team, a high-level team with experienced members, not these low-levels who can’t find their energy with both hands. Clyde’s and Johanna’s would be ideal. I’d be a big asset to it.”
The smug and crafty expression on his face made Johanna’s stomach lurch. She knew she wasn’t going to like whatever he said next.
Before anyone could respond, Phil addressed her and Clyde. “I know another benefit from my working with you. Clyde, you’re getting up there in age. You have to be thinking about retirement. Nobody’s better to take your place than me.”
Oooooh, the temerity and gall of the man. Johanna sat straight up in her chair, angry down to her bones. Her magic center snarled. It was a provocation of one kind fo
r Phil to pick on her, and entirely another when he went after Clyde—who gave her arm a “take it easy” pat. She did not relax.
“I’ll grant you that I’m growing older,” Clyde said mildly. “Aren’t we all? As for hanging up my robe and sword, who gave you the idea I’d be retiring soon?”
“Oh, everybody’s speculating,” Phil answered, before he added a tiny bit too quickly for Johanna to believe him, “It’s not only about you. The rumors are flying about everyone over sixty.”
“Sounds more like wishful thinking than fact to me,” Clyde chuckled, as though Phil had made a joke. “As for your practicing with us on a permanent or even temporary basis, the team would have to agree unanimously to your inclusion. Frankly, I don’t see that happening.”
“Why not?” Phil asked. He actually seemed surprised at Clyde’s comment.
“First,” Clyde said, “we’ll have to be certain that you have complete control over your tendency to hog. Remember, we’ve given you three different opportunities, and you failed each one.”
“Yeah, but that was before the new method,” Phil protested. “Your method. What do you want me to do to prove I can handle it? Set up the test, and I’ll pass it. You need a high level Sword—”
“Phil …” Johanna interrupted. Clyde was simply too nice and reasonable at times. Phil didn’t listen to “nice” or “reasonable.” She, however, was neither on this particular subject.
“—and I’m the only Independent above thirteen in the vicinity. Furthermore—” He turned back to Saxt.
“Phil …” She was not going to let him bulldoze his way onto their team. The method had nothing to do with their acceptance.
“—putting me on a team like Clyde’s will show you’re serious about making better use of Indies, and—”
“Phil!” She smacked her hands on the table and stood up. He was assuming he’d get what he wanted, and he wasn’t hearing a word to the contrary. It was time she spoke plainly and made her opinion absolutely clear. “Will you listen for a change?”