by BC Powell
“You did well, Chase,” she says. “If you can stay in a fight with me as long as you did, you can take a Murkovin.”
There’s no ego in her voice. She’s stating fact, and her compliment gives me a true sense of pride and accomplishment. She relaxes her body and lowers her spear to her side. When she reaches a hand down to me, I take it in my grasp, dried blood staining my arm, and hurl her to the ground.
“You let your guard down,” I say, rolling on top of her with a smile on my face.
I press my lips to hers. Our tongues immediately dive into each other’s mouths. Her arms reach around me and she pulls me firmly against her body. After our mouths finally part, she lightly rubs her cheek against mine.
“I’m proud of you,” she whispers in my ear.
“That means everything to me,” I reply, lifting my face over hers and staring into the eternal beauty of Sash’s amber eyes.
“I know you didn’t want to do this,” she says, “but I feel better now.”
“I think I understand why you wanted to do a real fight. It did a lot for my confidence.”
She raises her head from the ground to kiss my lips again.
“Are you wrestling?” Larn asks from nearby, startling both Sash and me.
I roll off Sash and onto my back before she quickly sits up.
“We are,” she says with a devilish smile. “We just finished fighting with spears but ended up in hand-to-hand combat.”
“Based on the blood on his arms, I’d say Chase lost the battle,” Larn comments.
Tela stands a few feet behind him, also examining my wounds.
“He actually did quite well,” Sash says to Larn. “He’s ready for a Murkovin, that I assure you.”
“I have no doubt,” Larn replies.
Sash unclips the flask from her belt, pours sap into her palm, and rubs her hand over my arms. After the wounds heal, dried blood still smeared on my skin, I sit up and drink sap from my own flask.
“Are you too tired for traveling practice?” Larn asks.
“Not at all,” I reply, feeling the sap already rejuvenating my muscles.
Sash stands, gathers her things from the ground, and looks at me with a slight frown on her face. “I’m going to leave you with Larn and Tela if you don’t mind. I need to spend some time with the trees. I worry about them with the lack of Darkness.”
“Sure,” I say.
“It won’t bother you?” she asks, true concern in her voice.
“Not at all, Sash.”
“When you’re finished, will you summon me right away?”
I know she feels guilty about leaving me. Other than the few minutes with Larn after Darkness, this will be the first time she’s left me on my own since I’ve arrived.
“Of course,” I say. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, and I’ll let you as soon as we’re finished.”
“Chase,” she says, smiling, “you did very well.”
“Thanks,” I reply, resting a hand on my chest.
Sash does the same with her hand while holding my gaze for a moment. After nodding to Larn and Tela, she turns and sprints away. I shake my head in disbelief when she gleams into light after just a few steps down the side of the hill. Glancing at Larn and Tela, I notice that their faces also seem surprised by how quickly she was able to blend her light.
“What’s new with you two?” I ask.
As I stand up, they both look at me with their mouths hanging slightly open. It’s bizarre to me that idle chitchat doesn’t really happen in Krymzyn.
“We took children across the Delta earlier,” Tela says, ending the awkward silence.
“That must have been fun,” I say.
“Fun?” Tela asks.
I think for a moment, trying to phrase the simplest way to explain the word to Tela. “Satisfying in a way that makes you feel so good you’d want to do it again,” I finally reply, hoping she understands.
“Then I guess it was fun,” Tela says. Just like that, the word has been added to her vocabulary.
“Are you sure you’re not too tired for traveling practice?” Larn asks.
“No, I feel good, actually. The sap always charges me a bit.”
“What do you mean by ‘charges’?” Larn asks.
“Gives me strength,” I say.
“Of course,” he replies. “It’s very strange how many different ways you have in your world to say the same thing.”
“It is a little, I guess.”
“Just remember that while sap provides great energy, there’s still a point at which your body needs rest.”
“Sash and I didn’t spar that long, but I’ll keep that in mind. To be honest, I’m not tired at all.”
“That’s good, then. I think you’re getting very close. Just be sure to maintain your focus.”
We immediately begin the back-and-forth process between hills. First with Larn, then with Tela, I sprint across the meadow and return on their backs. After the first few tries, as I fly down the slope and cross the meadow, my entire body suddenly glitches. It’s the only word I can think of to describe what I see and feel.
For a split second, I lurch forward with no effort at all. The world flashes into a labyrinth of colored light beams woven over the ground and high into the sky. Like a three-dimensional color x-ray in motion, the light streaks in every direction around me. I’m so stunned by the explosion of color that I lose control and tumble across the ground.
“Are you injured?” Tela asks, stopping by my side.
“I don’t think so,” I answer. As I slowly stand, I shake my arms, feeling a few aches from the fall but nothing serious. “That was amazing!”
“You felt it for a moment?”
“I did, but it kind of freaked me out.”
“Freaked you out?” Tela asks.
“Startled me,” I say.
“That always happens the first few times.”
I walk towards the Traveling Hill with Tela at my side. “Can I ask you something?” I say to her.
“Of course.”
“When you carry people, why don’t you use a harness or something like that to make it easier? Like straps around your shoulders with handles.”
“When we carry children to the Infinite Expanse,” she answers, “we do use a traveling harness. Our arms need to be free due to the long distance of the journey. It would be impossible to grasp their legs for that long, and the children could never hang on for the entire time. We keep the harnesses near the gate. But across the Delta or to the Mount, the traveling time is so short that we don’t need a harness. We also want them as close as possible to us so they can feel our particles. Even though most of them will never be able to fully blend their light the way Travelers can, they still learn from the process.”
“That makes sense,” I say. “It really helps me to feel what you and Larn do.”
“That’s why our training procedures are the way they are,” she replies.
We briskly climb to the top of the Traveling Hill and stop in front of Larn.
“You released your particles,” he says to me. “Well done.”
“I felt it for a second . . . a moment,” I say.
“It’s a major step in the process. Now just attach your particles to the beams you wish to travel with.”
“Easier said than done,” I reply.
“You lost concentration when it happened,” Tela says in her usual monotone. I know she’s not being critical but trying to offer help. “As Larn once told you, it can be very abrupt the first few times. But that’s the moment you have to find the beams moving in your direction and increase your focus on them.”
“It really stunned me,” I reply. “The beams were everywhere. I mean, this is something that’s impossible in my world.”
“You have to unlearn what you can’t do,” Larn says, “before you can learn what you’re truly capable of doing. Shall we try again?”
“Absolutely!” I reply.
Chapter 12
I experience the momentary jolt forward each time I cross the meadow. In that split second, a maze of light bursts into my vision. Over and over, I run between the two hills with Larn and Tela taking turns by my side. The prickles from the light passing through me grow more intense each time I glitch, but I’m never able to latch on to the beams.
Despite a constant flow of sap into me, I gradually tire as the latter part of the morrow wears on. Finally near exhaustion, I stop on top of the Traveling Hill, clutching my sides with my hands.
“I think that’s it for now,” I say to Larn, trying to catch my breath.
“You made great progress,” Larn replies. “I would suggest that you not attempt this when you’re alone. You may suddenly find the blend but not know how to control it.”
“Good advice,” I say.
“Would you like one of us to transport you to your habitat?” Tela asks.
“Thank you for offering, but I don’t think so. I actually feel like walking for a while.”
“Then we’ll see you on the morrow,” Larn says.
“I really appreciate all your help,” I reply.
After we all bow to each other, they sprint down the side of the hill. Rays of light soon disappear over the next hilltop. Wanting Sash to know I’m finished for the morrow, I kneel to the ground and press my hand to the grass. I can’t wait to share with her what I experienced during the training session, but I don’t want to tell her about it until I see her in person.
“Sash, I’m going to our habitat.”
“I’ll be there soon, Chase,” her voice replies.
Once I finish the last drops of sap from both of my flasks, I pick my training spear up with one hand and my real spear with the other. As I casually stroll to the southwest, I revisit the glitch in my mind. Although I may not be able to fully blend with the beams yet, it feels like a major breakthrough to actually see and feel them around me. After a long, slow walk, I’m about halfway to our habitat when Sash’s voice speaks inside my head.
“Chase, Larn, Darkness. Meet on the Empty Hill.”
I immediately dig my feet into the grass and race across a meadow. As I sprint between two hills, I glance up at the sky. The scarlet light dims, the billows begin to swirl, and raindrops splatter against my face. Surrounded by full Darkness, I continue running until I enter the long valley that winds to the Empty Hill. I eventually reach the narrow gorge that leads to our habitat, but as I pass by, a smear of white catches the corner of my eye.
Grinding to a stop on the wet grass at the end of the ravine, I stare in the direction of our habitat. A black-veined beast leaps from a ridge and lands directly in front of the door. My eyes widen at the sight of the Murkovin one hundred feet in front from me. When his eyes shoot back at mine, I drop to one knee and plunge my fingers into the ground.
“Sash, Larn, Tork!” I blurt out. “Murkovin at Sash’s habitat!”
Red eyes flaring through the rain, the Murkovin charges at me. I drop my practice spear to the grass and rise into a crouch. As I clench my real weapon with both hands, every moment I spent sparring with Sash strobes through my mind. I have to anticipate, think, focus, but my body trembles with panic and my heartbeat throbs inside my head.
Bearing down on me in a sprint, the beast is ten feet away when he lunges his spear at my face. As the tip rockets towards me, I’m frozen in place, the world suddenly in slow motion. Waiting until the split second he’s off-balance, the moment before the point pierces my skin, I jerk my head to the side. The steel just grazes my hair before I uncoil in a frenzied spin.
While whirling my spear through the air, I lock my eyes on his head. Following my aim, the steel point slams straight into his skull. Light bursts around the shaft when the tip skewers his brain. Thrusting down with all my might, I crush his head against the ground.
I glare at the limp creature at my feet. Black blood spews from his head into the downpour of rain. I’m completely numb, unable to even feel my hands clamped around the shaft of my spear. Shaking from the rush of adrenaline, I feel no remorse at all from killing the beast. Sash’s words ring in my ears.
“When it’s kill or be killed, there’s no hesitation, no thought, and no regret.”
I snap my head to four more streaks of white on the hill above our habitat. The hideous creatures soar over the ridge and into the ravine.
“Shit!” I yell.
After ripping my spear from the skull of the corpse, I dash towards the Empty Hill. I may have killed one, but I won’t stand a chance against four.
Glancing over my shoulder as I run, I see all four Murkovin in pursuit. One suddenly blasts into dull beams of light. In an instant, the point of his spear gouges my calf, sending me sprawling to the ground. I slide to a stop on the slick grass and roll to my back.
With veins bulging from his spectral white arms, the beast rams his spear at my head. I swing my weapon up just in time to knock the point away from my face. Before either of us has time to make another move, a blur smashes into him and pounds him into the grass. In a flash, Sash’s spear splits his skull open. She wheels around to the other three Murkovin while I jump to my feet.
It’s not a battle. I wouldn’t even call it a fight. When Sash unleashes a torrent of death from her spear, it’s a massacre.
She ducks a weapon jabbed at her head and instantly rams her own spear up through the creature’s jaw. A geyser of blood and light sprays out of the top of his head when the tip shatters his skull. The muscles in her lean arms ripple as she lifts the brute’s body off the ground and slams him into the next Murkovin who reaches us.
While the creature staggers backwards from the blow, Sash yanks her spear out of the skull of the dead beast at her feet. Twisting to her side, she avoids the point of a weapon the third Murkovin thrusts at her chest. With one hand, she grabs his stringy black hair and pummels his face into her knee. After throwing him to the ground, she rivets the point of her spear straight into his forehead.
The stumbling Murkovin recovers, launching his weapon at Sash. She ducks under the tip, springs forward, and hammers an elbow into his jaw. With my spear cocked in my hands, I jump in from his side. Exploding with fury, I torpedo the steel point all the way through his chest. As blood gushes from his heart, I bash his body down to the ground. In a final outburst of vengeance, Sash viciously spikes her weapon through his skull.
Staring at one another, Sash and I both slide our spears out of the creature’s body. Raindrops splash on our heads while we hold each other’s eyes. Four bloody corpses lie at our feet, a fifth dead body on the ground fifty feet away. Sash clenches her jaw, narrows her eyes ever so slightly, and nods to me. No words need to be spoken in this moment.
“Your leg is bleeding,” Larn says from behind me. “I would have joined the fight, but it was over by the time I arrived.”
I turn to Larn. He’s standing with his spear in front of him and his eyes alertly roaming the hills.
“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Sash says.
“Do you have sap?” I ask Sash. “I’m out.”
She takes her flask from her belt, kneels beside me, and rubs sap on the wound in my calf. As she stands again, she hands the flask to me.
“Are you all right?” Sash asks after I take a long drink.
“I think so,” I reply.
“The people need sap,” she says. “I’m going to get the rest of my stakes from our habitat. I left one pack near the Empty Hill.”
Without waiting for a response, she turns away and runs in the direction of our habitat.
“Wait!” I call out.
She stops to look back at me. “What?”
“They were going into our habitat,” I answer. “Others may have gone in before I got here.”
“We should wait for Tork and the Watchers to arrive,” Larn suggests.
“No!” Sash barks. “I don’t want to waste a moment of Darkness.”
“Then we’ll all go,” Larn says.
The thr
ee of us run through the storm to the habitat door. After Sash swings it open, we cautiously step through the tunnel. Flashing red light and deafening screeches pour out of the cavern and into the passage. We all stop walking when we reach the opening, our spears at the ready in our hands.
“Peace!” Sash yells.
The pulsing light fades to black and the sounds dissipate to silence.
“Awaken,” she commands, igniting the amber glow.
We creep forward through the entrance, but Sash suddenly leaps inside. When her feet touch the ground, she spins in a circle, her amber eyes flaring as they dart around our habitat. She cocks her head to the side for a moment, listening for any sound, before walking towards the waterfall cavern. Larn and I follow her across the main room.
Sash guardedly steps through the stream until reaching one side of the fall. A dull clang is partially muffled by the water when she jabs her spear into the rock behind the flow of silvery blue. Larn and I crouch in the center of the cavern while Sash drags her spear across the wall of stone concealed by the water.
“None came in,” she says, reaching the far side of the fall.
After whisking by us, she briskly crosses the main cavern. She takes two cylinders of empty stakes from the hooks on the wall and throws them over her shoulder. Larn and I trail close behind as she runs through the tunnel. We return outside to the deluge of rain to find Tork and four Watchers standing over the Murkovin corpses.
“What happened here?” Tork asks when we reach them.
“I ran by our habitat after Darkness fell,” I answer. “I saw a Murkovin near our door and fought him.”
“You killed one?” Tork asks.
“I did. Then four more showed up, so I ran. Sash came and killed the others.”
“You killed one of the other four,” Sash adds.
Tork and the Watchers glance at Sash and then at me. I expect to see the respect in their eyes when they look at Sash. But when I see the same look of approval directed at me, complete with nods of their heads, I feel both surprised and honored.