He stands. “That’s why we’re going to give you something else to think about.”
I raise an eyebrow and think about making a Spock joke, but keep it to myself.
“This power you have—your connection to this continent. With it, you could stand against an army.”
“I’m not sure I can do that.”
He places a hand on my shoulder like my father used to. “You will not stand alone.” He opens the door. “Get some rest today. Tomorrow, we start your training.”
22
Three weeks later, I wake to the sound of laughter. It is a noise that has become familiar again—so much so that I can identify the source and cause. The high pitched laugh belongs to Luca. But it’s mixed with the occasional playful growl from Em.
A tickle fight.
Em will eventually allow Luca to get the upper hand. Being scrawny and highly ticklish, the boy doesn’t stand a chance. I should know. But Em is a good sister. The kind I always wanted. I suppose, the kind I have now.
Though she’s not really an older sister. Neither of us really knows our exact age anymore. The underworld can do that. Physically, I’d place both of us around fifteen. Maybe sixteen. But because she lived underground for so much of her youth, she’s probably closer to twenty surface years old. Time is a screwy thing.
A high pitched squeal reveals the battle has grown more intense. Realizing a return to sleep will be impossible, I sit up on my bed with a groan. My body aches. Every inch of it. Tobias has been training me, physically, mentally and emotionally every day since my arrival. At first it reminded me of soccer practice. Mindless exercises. Running. Lots of running. But then he combined the physical activity with mental. While I ran I had to will a snow flake to follow me. That simple task made the running nearly impossible. After a week I could complete the run while moving a trail of snowflakes behind me.
At first, I thought he was insane, but as the days passed I understood that he was conditioning my body and mind so that I could use my abilities without getting physically exhausted. Creating a chain of snowflakes doesn’t sound like much, but the effort over time takes a brutal toll. When I had mastered the snowflake-chain run, Tobias ran with me. He would talk about my family, my past. He brought up a number of sensitive topics that tore emotional wounds like rusty nails—dirty and jagged.
Here was my weakness. My emotions. I cling to the past, to my parents and my childhood. Instead of facing what is in front of me, I’m always looking back. Always unprepared. Always hurt. Wounded. Sensitive.
I argued that these were the things that separated me from the hunters, but Tobias explained that it was my mercy and love that made me different. The rest just made me afraid. “It’s possible to be brave, even fierce, and still be good,” he told me. After deciding he was right, I embraced the exercise and fought to purge the demons that filled me with a fear strong enough to control me and give my enemies an advantage. So we pushed harder, exploring the current limits of my abilities.
And it was through this week-long push that we made a discovery. There are many things I can do on a grand scale that do not severely drain me. I can conjure a snow storm, the katabatic winds or roll in a fog from the ocean. These are all natural phenomena and can be accomplished with little effort. But moving a trail of snowflakes behind me, for miles, is not natural. Nor is opening a path through the earth, creating a snow storm underground or using the wind to jump higher, to stick a landing or deflect weapons. The unnatural uses of my abilities are created by my will alone and are not aided by the landscape; they are in defiance of it. As a result, the unnatural uses of my connection with the continent are where Tobias is now focusing his attention.
The strain is worse than ever.
And today will be the worst day yet.
The door bursts open. I reach for Whipsnap, but my aching body is slow and the intruder is upon me in a flash.
“Solomon!” Luca shouts. “Save me!”
The boy is all smiles. His blond hair—my blond hair—floats around his head, held aloft by static electricity. No doubt from hiding beneath a blanket. But that did him little good and now he’s seeking an ally. He normally runs for Tobias, who turns the tickling on Em. But today, he has come to me.
He’s gripping the back of my shirt. I can feel his quick breaths on the back of my neck. His breath smells like fish, which is our staple breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tobias once brought home a seal and I refused to eat it out of respect for Gloop and his pod. After I explained this, Tobias hasn’t brought home another seal.
Em steps into the doorway, her fingers clenched and ready to tickle. She’s wearing a long yellow T-shirt with a Nike swoop that belonged to Aimee once upon a time. It hangs down to her knees. She looks pretty in it, but I feel no attraction to her. Not like I do when I think of Mira…or Kainda. Maybe it’s because of her relationship with Luca, the little me, but the bond between us is more like family than anything else.
Though it is a bond that is still being formed, hence her pausing at the threshold to my room.
Luca giggles behind me, shifting his weight back and forth in anticipation of the impending attack. But I’m not sure it will come. Em and I look at each other. We’re both hunters, or were, and this kind of face off usually ends in battle, perhaps with one or the other being killed. Our eyes meet and for a moment, we’re sizing each other up.
But then she smiles.
And attacks.
And I’m sandwiched between a brother and sister who are laughing and trying to tickle each other. For a moment, I’m lost. I’ve never been in this situation. I was an only child. I had no friends that played like this. Then someone’s fingers find my armpit and I burst out laughing. The attack comes from both sides as the former enemies unite against me. I fall back on my bed, doing my best to fend off the tickling attack, but failing miserably. If hunters used this technique in battle I would be defenseless.
I’m saved by a knock at the door. Tobias clears his throat and Em, Luca and I separate and sit up, doing our best to look serious and attentive (something that Tobias often requires), but he’s hiding a smile too.
“Get dressed and eat your breakfast. Both of you,” he says to Em and me. “We’re going to step things up today.”
“Can I go today?” Luca asks.
“Not today,” Tobias replies.
“But—”
Tobias tilts his head with a frown. “It’s too dangerous. You know that.”
“Then train me,” the little boy says, showing his fists. “I want to fight the monsters, too. Like Solomon!”
Tobias sighs. “When you’re older. For now, you must stay here. No more arguing.” He leaves the room before the little boy can complain.
Luca crosses his arms with a huff.
“I’ll train you,” I say.
His eyes brighten. “You will?”
A quick glance at Em reveals she thinks this is a bad idea. I smile at her and turn back to Luca. “I will. Lesson number one, tickle defense.”
I grab the boy and start tickling. His laughter breaks the tension. When I let up for a moment, he leaps out of the bed and runs from the room. I hear his feet padding down the hallway. “You can’t catch me!”
I look at Em and she’s smiling at me. “What?” I ask.
“You’re a good brother,” she says.
I shrug. “It’s easy to be a brother to yourself.”
“I wasn’t talking about Luca,” she says, and then punches my shoulder. “I was talking about me.”
“Thanks,” I say, and then punch her back.
Before she can hit me again, I leap from the bed and head for the door.
“I’ll get you later,” she says. “Father had me collecting rocks and I think he means for me to throw them at you today.”
I pause in the hallway and lean my head back into the room. “For real?”
She nods with a fiendish grin.
“Be merciful,” I say.
“Nah,” she
says, her smile widening. “That’s your thing. Besides, I haven’t practiced on a moving target in a while.” Her laughter chases me down the hallway, but an hour later I learn that she wasn’t joking.
23
The first rock that hits my leg feels like a hard punch. Justin would call it a Charley Horse. I’m not sure why. Never did look that up. But it hurts and slows me down. I’m just glad Em is throwing rocks instead of knives. Still, she could hold back a little.
One hundred five.
But I guess that would defy the point. I’m not training for the circus, I’m training for battle, in a makeshift ice arena hidden from view by what appear to be naturally formed walls of ice. You’d have to be standing on the edge to see us inside. A month ago, the fight we’re now simulating was real, and I lost. If not for Em seeing my shock of blond hair and deflecting Tobias’s arrow, I’d be dead.
One hundred ten.
Might be now, too, if Tobias hadn’t replaced the razor sharp metal barbs at the tips of his arrows with cloth-wrapped stones. When the first of those strikes my shoulder, I shout in pain, wondering if something is broken or dislocated. But I can still move the limb.
One hundred fifteen.
Tobias has forbidden me from using my powers for the first two minutes of the fight. Sometimes I’ll need to face enemies even when I’m tired and beaten, he said. Makes sense, I suppose, but I was tired and beaten when I got out of bed this morning.
As a hunter I should be able to dodge some of their attacks, but both have remarkable aim and seem to sense where I’m going to move next. I wonder if this is Tobias’s way of also teaching me what I am without my powers—not much. An average hunter. A useless—
One hundred twenty!
The arrow headed for my gut shoots wide as a gust of wind pulses in front of me.
A storm forms above us. It’s an easy thing to do and doesn’t tax my body or mind. All the elements were already there, ready to form on their own. I just gave them a nudge, and asked them to be harsh.
The temperature drops. I can’t feel it myself, but I see Tobias and Em react to it for a moment. The chill will sap their energy just as using my unnatural abilities steals mine. This is just the first phase of my counter attack.
But my opponents don’t let up. The stones and blunt arrows keep coming. And with each deflected shot, I feel my energy wane. So I try something new. Rather than focus on countering each individual attack, I pull the wind down, and around me. The effort is tiring, but not nearly as much as my previous efforts. A cyclone forms around my body, obscuring me from view and deflecting every single stone and arrow they throw at it. For the moment, I’m safe.
I hear Em shout a battle cry.
But that’s all. I just hear her. My defense has blinded me as well.
Her face bursts through the wall of spinning snow, her hands reaching out for me. But then she’s gone, yanked away and thrown by the wind. I hear her shout out in pain.
The cyclone bursts.
The wind stops.
And I turn around, looking for Em, terrified that I’ve hurt her. “Em, are you okay?”
A fist answers my question.
I stagger back, blood dripping from my nose.
I see a stone flying toward me, and I manage to deflect it with a gust of wind.
“You can’t be distracted by worries or concerns while in battle,” Tobias says.
I channel a long gust of wind behind me, knowing that Tobias is going to shoot me, but not knowing when or where. The arrow zips past my shoulder and buries itself in the snow. But the effort has worn me out. I’ve lost my advantage.
Or have I?
I’m surrounded by stone and arrows.
They’re larger and heavier than snowflakes, but the principle is the same. I’ve trained for this. I can do it.
I leap away, using the wind to put some distance between Em and I. She’s a brutal close-combat fighter, which is why she prefers the knives. And why I prefer to be far away.
I glance to Tobias. He’s reaching back for another arrow. Em’s taking aim with her stones.
Let them come, I think. I’ve been thinking defensively so far. It’s time to turn things around, literally. The effort might exhaust me, but I want to win this fight.
Em and Tobias time their next strikes so that rock and arrow will arrive simultaneously, forcing me to dodge one, but not the other.
I dodge neither.
Instead, I stand my ground, thurst my hands out toward the projectiles and with matching bursts of wind, force them back the way they came.
Tobias reacts quickly, rolling to the side as his own arrow passes over him.
Em is not as fast and takes the rock hard on her chest. It knocks the air from her lungs and knocks her over. This leaves Tobias for the moment. He’s back on his feet, nocking another arrow, but I don’t give him the chance to use it.
There are seven arrows lying on the ground. And thirteen stones. But all at once, they return to the air, hovering around me. And I direct them, one by one, toward Tobias. A grin spreads on my face as I watch him duck, dodge and weave to no avail. Not every shot finds its target but enough do. How does it feel? I think.
Tobias stumbles when a stone strikes the side of his leg, but he does not fall. The rules of the fight were simple. The first side to be knocked down wins. Em fell, but to end this fight, I need to also make Tobias fall. Unfortunately, he’s fast and tough. But I don’t stop. I reach out to the stones and arrows I’d already thrown and keep the barrage going. Sooner or later he’ll—
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Em is back up! I had assumed she would stay down, but I have to knock both of them down to win. As long as one of them is still in the fight, they’re both in the fight. I pull Whipsnap free from my belt for the first time in this fight, but Em is already inside my strike zone. She catches my weapon with both hands, leaps into the air and places her feet against my chest. She’s using my own ninja move against me! I think, as I’m pulled down and kicked up into the air.
A gust of wind slows my descent and allows me to land on my feet, but Em has stripped me of my weapon, and the fight is beginning to wear on me. I’ve come a long way with Tobias’s guidance, but the two of them are still more than a match for me. As was Xin. But why? I beat Ninnis in the past. Kainda, too. Countless creatures and cresties. And I killed the giant Ull. What’s different?
Ull, I think. My Ull. I’ve lost that savage energy. But he is dangerous. He would kill Tobias and Em. He would—
A stone strikes my shoulder.
Distraction is your enemy.
A second stone finds my knees, stabbing pain up into my gut and knocking me onto my knees.
Forget everything.
Focus on the fight.
Not on yourself.
Not on who you’re fighting.
An arrow grazes my forehead, knocking me back.
My back arches toward the snow. My head hovers just inches from the ground. The only thing keeping me up is the fact that my legs, which are positioned beneath me, don’t bend that far.
In that moment, with defeat just inches away, I realize something. Tobias was wrong about one thing. I think about the photo in my pouch. I picture Mira’s face. My smile next to hers. I relive the moment. My parents talking in the front seat. The music playing on the radio. The smell of our car and aftertaste of Aimee’s chocolate chip cookies in my mouth. The memory gives me hope, and in hope, I find strength.
With a shout, I pull myself back up and thrust my hands out. The katabatic winds rush past me, pulsing at one hundred fifty miles per hour. It lasts just a moment, but that’s all it takes to knock Em and Tobias to the ice and sending them rolling to the other side of the make shift arena.
My head sags. I can barely move. But I’ve won. And I didn’t pass out, which is a bonus.
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause?
It’s not coming from Em or Tobias. They’re still on the ground, and looking for t
he source of the noise, too.
“Well, well, well,” says a voice that fills me with dread. “That certainly explains a lot.”
It takes a massive effort, but I manage to turn my head up. I see him at the lip of the pit, looking down at me with a rotted smile. Ninnis.
He found me.
Oh no…
He found us.
24
Under normal circumstances this situation wouldn’t be that bad. Tobias and Em are both highly skilled hunters. Their skills combined with my abilities would be more than enough firepower to take care of Ninnis. But I’ve just used the last of my energy to defeat Tobias and Em, and through that effort have pummeled their bodies as well. They’ll no doubt recover faster than I will, but Tobias’s arrows are dulled and Em’s knives are rocks. Still, if we can recover, maybe there is hope.
“Nothing to say little Ull?” a new voice says, removing any shred of hope.
Kainda steps up next to Ninnis, gripping her hammer. She appears healthy and strong, no doubt healed of her wounds by Nephilim blood.
As expected, Tobias and Em regain their feet and shake off my last attack. Were it a real fight, they would still have won. I’m all but defenseless right now.
Without a word, Tobias nocks an arrow, takes aim and lets it fly.
Neither Kainda nor Ninnis flinch. The arrow strikes Ninnis’s shoulder. He twitches from the impact, but the arrow bounces to the ground. It will leave a bruise. Nothing more.
Ninnis looks at his shoulder with a smile. “You’re going too easy on the boy. He excels when the danger is real.” He looks at me. “Isn’t that right, Solomon?” He speaks my name with venom.
Em and Tobias stand their ground, waiting for the inevitable fight. At close range, Em could probably do some damage with the few remaining stones she has. And Tobias’s bow still has the blades at either end. But as Tobias takes a step toward me, he limps.
I’ve injured him.
Maybe Em, too.
What was I thinking? I could have killed them!
I look up at Kainda, hoping to see a glimmer of change. I saved her and then spared her life. Even expressed feelings for her! She meets my eyes with a cold blooded stare. A killer to the core.
The Last Hunter - Pursuit (Book 2 of the Antarktos Saga) Page 12