Rhys shook his head. “Just keep her there,” he said to Onaona. “I’ll take care of this.” He opened a closet containing cleaning supplies and pulled out a mop and bucket.
Onaona sat down next to me. “You really are remarkable,” she said.
“More like a freak,” I said. “I seem to do everything differently. I’m used to that on the Berserker side, but I’ve had so little Binder training that I’m not sure how different I am there, other than the snare.”
We sat in silence as Rhys began the extraordinarily gross job of cleaning up my mess. After a few minutes Onaona finally spoke.
“The Council teaches new Binders very little,” she said. “My training has been very...slow.”
“But why?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t they want us to master our powers as quickly as possible?”
Onaona shrugged. “I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times. They say it has to do with making sure we master basic tasks before we move on to advanced ones, but it seems more about proving your loyalty to the Council and obeying their decisions, than any kind of learning progression.”
I thought about what things I had been taught as a Binder and realized that it really had been very little. Mallika and Kara had been killed before I could learn much beyond casting a snare. Most of what I had learned came from instinct and discovery in the moment, not anything I had been specifically taught. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I knew what all the powers of a Binder were. If that Azark hadn’t been sent to kill me, would I have even known Binders could summon them? What else might be out there that I didn’t even know about?
“What do you know about Azarks?” I asked. I had never had the chance to get many answers about them. Maybe Onaona knew more about them than I did.
She glanced over at Rhys, who was finishing up with the mop, and she looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We aren’t supposed to talk about those in front of Berserkers,” she said.
“You mean Berserkers like me?” I asked.
Onaona considered this for a moment. “I guess you’re kind of an exception.”
“Look, I know about keeping Azarks a secret from the Berserkers in case you need to use it for an emergency,” I said.
That was putting it mildly. An Azark was a powerful creature that Binders had the ability to summon. They had the unique characteristic of being invisible to Berserkers and were the secret weapon that Binders kept in reserve in case a Berserker went feral or they needed to preemptively kill him so his blood couldn’t be used to free a Havoc.
Rhys and I had fought one several months ago and it had been my strange combination of being a Berserker and Binder that had saved us. But I couldn’t tell that to Onaona. The fact that an Azark had attacked us meant that one of the Binders wanted us – me in particular – dead.
“Rhys already knows about them,” I said, deliberately vague on the how part.
Onaona watched as Rhys finished cleaning the floor and took the mop back to the closet. She gave a heavy sigh. “Keep this between us,” she said. “I have a hard enough time getting them to teach me new things. If they find out what I’m about to tell you, they’ll never trust me again.”
I quickly nodded, eagerly agreeing to her condition. For some reason I trusted Onaona – unlike the rest of the Binder Council. There was something about the Hawaiian girl that made me instantly like her.
“Most of what I know,” she said, “is theory. The Council hasn’t done much more than tell me what they think Azarks are and where they come from.” She hesitated as Rhys closed the closet and sat down by me.
I resisted the urge to pull him close and hold his hand. I hated having to hide our relationship.
“The Council doesn’t know exactly what they are. They aren’t sure if they are creatures we summon from another dimension, or if they are simply magical constructs we create.”
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think they’re from another dimension. Otherwise why would they all have the same shape? If a Binder created an Azark, wouldn’t there be variation in what physical form the construct took?”
“Have you ever seen one?” I asked.
Now Onaona looked really nervous. She stood up, looked out the window at the path leading to the clearing, and then sat back down. “I could be in serious trouble for even talking about this with two Berserkers,” she said. “But yes, I’ve seen one.”
I looked at Rhys. We had seen one too – seen it and killed it. I wondered if the one she had seen had been summoned by the same person who had sent it after me?
“Who summoned it?” I asked.
“Sunee,” she said. “Only the most experienced of the Binders know how to summon one. It’s one of the most difficult skills and one of the last pieces of knowledge they teach you.”
“After you demonstrate complete loyalty to them,” I added.
“You got it.”
There was something odd about Onaona’s expression. She seemed to be holding something back. Something she was very proud of.
“You know how to do it!” I exclaimed, suddenly making the connection.
As I said this, Onaona’s face turned to a mask of shock, confirming my guess. And it really had only been a guess.
“I...” she said, and wrapped her arms around herself, clearly at a loss of what to say.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “This stays between us.”
Onaona relaxed a bit. After a moment she relaxed her arms and smiled at me. “Yeah, I figured it out,” she said, clearly proud of what she had done. I couldn’t blame her. “They showed me once, but told me I wouldn’t learn how to do it for many years. I was getting sick of them dangling power in front of me like some sort of carrot, forcing me to go along with anything they said for fear of losing out. So, I worked it out on my own.”
“Can I see?” I asked.
The tension immediately came back into Onaona’s expression. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she said. She started nervously playing with a piece of her hair that had come out of her ponytail. “I’ve never done it in front of anyone before. I’m not entirely sure about my level of control.”
I wasn’t too worried. I happened to be uniquely qualified to take one on if it got out of control, but I couldn’t tell her that. I liked her, but I wasn’t prepared to reveal that particular secret just yet.
“Come on,” I said. “I’ve never seen it done, and if I have to wait until they trust me, I’ll be older than Davu by the time I learn.”
Onaona took in a deep breath. Once again she stood up and looked out the window. This time I joined her. The clearing and the path leading to the dojo were completely empty.
“All right,” she said. “But don’t blame me if this thing decides to eat you.” She attempted a smile, but was too nervous to really pull it off.
She stood up and spread her arms out wide, the palms of her hands pointed up. Slowly I felt power gathering around her, a sort of static build up in the air. Red lines of crackling energy flowed between her hands in an arc directly above her head. A small ball of energy formed at the apex of the arc and slowly grew bigger. It stopped growing once it reached about four feet in diameter, and a large shape made of jet black smoke flew out of the ball. The shape landed on the dojo floor with a loud thump. The dark smoke evaporated revealing a creature with six legs, sharp claws, a skeletal head full of razor teeth, and skin so black and smooth the creature seemed to be a shadow come to life.
It was just as I remembered.
“Is it there?” asked Rhys, and I remembered that as a Berserker, the creature was completely invisible to him.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
Onaona dropped her arms and the energy dissipated, but the Azark remained. I walked closer to the creature, circling it warily. It made no move to run or attack me. It calmly stood there, lithe and deadly, following me with its eyes, but nothing
more. It looked as if it were waiting for someone to tell it what to do.
Which was probably exactly what was happening.
I was contemplating reaching out a hand to touch it, when a sound of laughter coming from outside penetrated the walls of the dojo.
Someone had come close enough we could hear them.
Onaona’s eyes grew wide with terror. She ran to the window and let out gasp of dismay. “Tez and Miguel are coming!”
Chapter 6
A Bet of Honor
I ran to one of the windows and saw Tez and Miguel walking down the path toward the Dojo. The two of them were laughing, and it looked like they were each trying to kick the other in the butt. Strangely, they both seemed to find each attempt more hilarious than the last.
Either they were both drunk or they had somehow been regressed to a pre-pubescent level of maturity. Honestly, it was hard to tell the difference.
I turned back to Onaona. “Can you send it back?” I asked.
She shook her head and rubbed her temples. “I haven’t figured that out yet,” she said.
“What happened to the first one you summoned?” I asked.
Onaona looked fearfully at the front door and then back to me. “It just kind of faded away after a few hours.”
“Can you move it to the far side of the room?” Rhys asked.
“Sure,” she said. “That’s easy.”
“Do it, then,” said Rhys. “Move it over there and you and Madison work on how to get rid of it. Since we Berserkers can’t see it, they won’t know it’s here. Pretend to be working on Binder training exercises. I’ll keep them busy. While they’re distracted, take the Azark and slip out.”
By the time Tez and Miguel had entered the room, Onaona and I were on the far side of the dojo with the Azark, pretending to be concentrating on casting a snare, and Rhys was on the opposite side, going through varé practice forms in slow motion.
“I told you they’d be here,” said Tez, elbowing Miguel. “Rhys has Samurai envy.”
Rhys didn’t miss a beat in his movements. “Why don’t you come say that to my face, Tez?” he said. The words sounded tough, but Rhys was smiling. This was obviously some sort of running joke between them.
Tez wasted no time. He ‘zerked and ran straight at Rhys. Rhys dropped his varé so as not to accidentally kill Tez, then ‘zerked and shifted position so his body was turned sideways to the charging Tez.
As Tez flew at Rhys with his arms wide open, Rhys grabbed Tez's arm, twisted to the side, and flipped him over his hip. Tez smacked into the floor hard enough that I could feel the vibrations from across the room.
As Rhys and Tez continued to roll around, Onaona and I focused on the problem of getting the Azark out of the dojo. Rhys had created a nice distraction, and Miguel was absorbed watching the fight and paid us absolutely no attention.
I quickly gathered Onaona’s things and packed them back into her gym bag while she concentrated on getting the Azark to follow her.
But it didn’t want to move.
No amount of coaxing, pleading, or threatening seemed to work. The Azark simply sat there, its gaze focused on Rhys and Tez who were still sparring.
“I don’t get it,” said Onaona. “Last time, it at least would follow me around. Now it’s just ignoring me.”
Then an idea hit me. I stood behind the Azark and shot out a snare. I flicked the Azark on the rump with one of the tentacles.
I had just hoped to get the stubborn thing moving, but when it felt the flick from the snare, the Azark leaped up, turning around in mid-air and landed back on the ground in a crouch, facing me. The Azark glared at me and growled, showing a mouthful of pointed teeth.
In defense, I raised the ten undulating tentacles of my snare in front of me. The Azark hissed and backed away. Onaona opened the door and the Azark followed her out of the dojo, giving me a final glare before it left.
I let out a huge breath when the door closed behind them. I was just glad to have them out of the dojo.
I turned my attention back to Rhys and Tez. They were still wrestling on the ground, with Tez on top of Rhys trying to punch him in the face. Rhys didn’t seem too worried and kept making little adjustments with his hips causing Tez to fall off balance and never really get in a good hit.
When Rhys saw that Onaona was gone, he quickly reversed their positions and wrapped up Tez in a painful-looking hold that rendered him practically immobile. Tez resisted for a few more minutes before finally tapping Rhys to signal that he gave up.
Rhys let him go and they both let go of the ‘zerk. Tez flopped onto his back and let out a huge whoop.
“I thought I had you that time,” he said.
Rhys shook his head. “When are you going to finally understand, Tez? You never had me. I just didn’t want you getting too discouraged so I took it easy on you.”
Miguel reached out both his hands and helped pull them back to their feet. “That was quite the technical display,” he said.
“Give yourself a few hundred more years and you’ll get it,” said Tez.
“Oh, it won’t take that long,” said Rhys. He gave me a mischievous grin and winked. “Madison’s been a Berserker for less than a year and she can already take you.”
Tez looked incredulous and scowled at Rhys. “Care to make a wager on that?”
Rhys shrugged. “Sure. What are you thinking?”
Tez responded immediately. “Three Honors.”
Rhys had already told me about the Berserker tradition of Honor coins – often shortened to just “Honors.”
Living for hundreds of years and having more money than you really know what to do with takes the fun out of acquiring more money and stuff. Since the Berserkers like to compete, they needed something hard to come by that they would value. Thus the Honor coins were born. They minted a limited quantity and Berserkers were awarded them for exceptional feats or acts of bravery. They acted as a sort of Berserker currency and could be traded or bet.
Rhys had shown me one once. It was surprisingly big. Not like a quarter, more like the old silver dollars. It was much heavier and thicker than a normal coin. The coin actually looked like a miniature representation of a Havoc seal – gold with a recessed red handprint in the center.
Typically Honors were only bet one at a time. Some Berserkers might bet two if they were extremely confident they would win, but three was practically unheard of.
Rhys considered it for a minute. “Fine. Three it is, but I chose the weapons.”
“Done.”
I grabbed Rhys’ arm and pulled him to the side. “Hey, wait a second,” I whispered. “Do you think this is a good idea? Shouldn’t we be helping Onaona get rid of the Azark? Besides, how do you know I can beat Tez?”
“Don’t stress,” said Rhys. “We are helping. This will buy her more time to get rid of the Azark or at least get it out of the way. And I have no doubt at all that you can take on Tez with a sword.” He walked over to the wall and pulled off a metal sword. He hefted it, testing its weight, and then gave a nod of satisfaction. “I trained you, after all.”
The rules were simple. First person to score three hits on the other won. Rhys and Miguel moved everything away from the center of the room so Tez and I had plenty of room to spar.
To say I was nervous was an understatement. I really didn’t have that much experience in fighting people, with the obvious exception of Rhys. Aside from that, the vast majority of my other experience had been killing Bringers with my varé.
It wasn’t that I thought I would get hurt. Our Berserker powers would prevent us from seriously hurting each other. I was nervous about the bet. Three Honors was a lot, and I didn’t want to let Rhys down.
Tez and I ‘zerked and brought our swords into position. He gave me a smile, but I could see the intensity in his eyes as he did so. There was no way he was going to take it easy on me. He wanted to win this bet.
Rhys signaled the start. Tez immediately lunged forward, and thrust his
sword straight for my chest. Unfortunately for Tez, by the time his sword reached that space, I was no longer occupying it. I spun to the side and easily avoided his strike. He must have been hoping to take me by surprise, because it was a stupid move that left him exposed.
I took advantage of his dumb move and swung at his outstretched arm. Tez had to drop to the floor and roll to avoid my counterstrike. It was a nice move that saved him the embarrassment of getting struck so quickly, but it left him off balance.
I pressed the attack, thrusting and slashing. With each stroke my nerves calmed. I was used to sparring with Rhys who, I was discovering, was way better than Tez. With Rhys I had to use my full concentration just to keep up. This time I found myself thinking several moves ahead, anticipating Tez’s strikes before they came. Compared to Rhys, this was easy. Bit by bit, I drove Tez back until he ran out of room.
I patiently waited for an opening and struck when he was late bringing his guard back up. My sword sliced him across the stomach, cutting his shirt, but thanks to his Berserker powers it left him completely unharmed.
Tez glared at me, clearly humiliated. Inwardly I groaned. He was one of those kind of guys. The kind that could never lose without getting angry or blaming everything and anything but himself. And my being a girl made it ten times worse. If we kept going this would end one of two ways: I would either win and make an enemy for life – which could be a long time for Berserkers – or I could deliberately choose to lose, which would embarrass Rhys and cost him three honors.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” I said. If we quit now, there might be a chance to not make an enemy out of Tez. “Let’s just stop here and call it a draw.”
But Tez wouldn’t let it go. “No way,” he said. “We’re just getting started. You got one lucky hit in. It’s not happening again. The bet was first to three strikes.”
I gave Rhys a pleading look. This whole thing was his fault. He needed to stop it. But much to my annoyance, Rhys ignored my pleading and set us up to start a second match.
This time, Tez began much more carefully. He kept his strokes short and never left himself exposed for long. Patiently, he tested my defenses, and each time found himself thrust back. His scowl grew deeper and deeper as we continued. I could have struck him several times, but I was hoping for a miracle that would force us to stop if I waited long enough.
Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) Page 8