by David Wind
She is dispensable? one Master asked.
She is Afzaleem now, and with the abilities I have bestowed upon her these past years, she is strong enough to survive them, strong enough and smart enough. Do not forget we need her when it is time to destroy the witches of the Island.
What of Jalil? a Master from the middle of the circle asked.
Fasil lifted his head and pinned him with a hard stare. That will be for you to decide. Can you kill your father?
The youngest of The Masters smiled, opened his cloak, and took a sword from its sheath and raised it high. He spoke both silently and aloud, saying, “By the scimitar of my great grandfather, Afzal Mahmud Terak, the prophet of the Circle of Afzal, shall my father die. Only by his grandfather’s sword can our revenge be complete.”
That revenge shall be yours, so I promise.
<><><>
Six hours after eating their morning meal, saying goodbye to King Nosaj and Sirod, Mikaal, Areenna, and Neleh arrived at the deep forest bordering the Blue Desert.
Entering the forest, they rode for a mile and a half, following Areenna to the place she favored above all others—the place she had found Gaalrie, and where she always came to seek solitude, which made today no different from any time in the past.
When they stopped, Neleh slid from the saddle, the rantor held securely in both arms, and she smiled up at Areenna. “This is near where I found Duv.” Kneeling, she released the cub. “You’re getting too heavy,” she whispered.
The rantor gave a sharp grunt. A moment later, she laughed. “Go.” The rantor raced off, and then began to run in circles, its limp barely perceptible. Above, Gaalrie kept watch on everything.
After unloading their supplies from the kralet, and removing the saddles from the kraals, Areenna motioned to Neleh. “There’s a small creek behind those trees, would you take Duv and the kraals there?”
Neleh started toward the creek. On her fourth step, the kraals began to follow her and behind the kraals came the smaller kralet.
“Let’s set up camp, and hunt. More we cannot do today,” Mikaal suggested, tracking the sun to the point between the vertical and the tops of the trees. There was perhaps three hours of sunlight left, but in the depth of the forest, when the sun dropped behind the level of the treetops, it would bring an early dusk and quick nightfall.
While Neleh brought the animals to the creek, and Areenna set up their supplies, Mikaal gathered the long branches needed for the lean-to, which would be larger than usual to accommodate three instead of two. Working slowly, and with Neleh’s help when she returned, he set up the framework, and then laid the silks across the wooden struts from long pliable branches of a gazebow tree.
While he was straightening and pulling the sheets of silk, Mikaal looked up at the trees. Something had triggered his senses, but he could not find the cause. Turning, he stared at a spot that called to him, a tall, pale blue pine tree, with branches so thick they were impenetrable. He used his senses, pushed hard, but found nothing.
Shrugging, he went back to work, yet the sensation of something watching remained.
CHAPTER 16
“GAALRIE SPOTTED A dar nearby,” Areenna said after putting Duv down. She had just checked the rantor’s leg and found it perfectly healed. She knew he needed to be using it more.
Mikaal smiled. “I’ll go.” He started to stand, but Areenna stopped him.
“Let me. It’s time Neleh learned how we hunt. Duv must learn as well.”
“A rantor is born with the instinct,” Mikaal said.
“Yes, but he is an aoutem now, not wild. He needs to learn what is right and what is not. This one will be a giant. Bigger even than Ilsraeth’s aoutem.”
Ilsraeth’s black rantor was a hundred pounds of fierce fighter. Duv, not yet two months old, already weighed over forty pounds. Full grown, the rantor would grow well past a hundred, if his paws were any indication. And rantors grew very fast.
He glanced across the open area to where Neleh and Duv played. She was good with the rantor, patient and easy. Take her and teach her, I will finish here.
After Areenna and Neleh left, Mikaal finished gathering wood for the fire, moved the saddles under a gazebow tree, took the three water skeins to the creek, and filled them. After sensing the two women still on the hunt, Mikaal stripped down and went into the creek. He found a spot deep enough to cover him to his shoulders and lay there for several minutes, enjoying the cool water flowing against his skin.
Then, he let his senses free. When Areenna taught him how to do this as part of his training, it had taken effort and willpower. The effort had paid off and his ability to sense what was near was now entrenched within him, so that all he had to do was think and his senses spread outward.
All was calm; smidges lined the branches of trees, while others settled in before nightfall, the small birds gathering for protection. A family of craves nested in another tree, the father sitting protectively over the eggs, the mother hunting dinner.
A klirt rooted a few hundred yards away, seeking the shrooms growing just beneath the surface. A quarter mile from the klirt, Areenna and Neleh trailed a dar, Areenna teaching Neleh how to track. He smiled. The evening meal would be good.
With that thought, Mikaal left the water, grabbed his clothing and the water skeins, and returned to camp, where he dressed and started the fire with the wood he’d gathered earlier. Finally, he sat by the fire and closed his eyes. He thought about Neleh, and about what they would be facing in a few weeks.
His main concern was for Neleh in battle. She had only a small amount of knowledge of weapons, and little of fighting. Sadly, there was no time to train her fully. Although she was growing into a powerful sorceress, there would be times when she would need a weapon to survive. With Areenna, the training had been hard and at times fierce, but she’d had years of training with bow and with sword prior. Somehow, he had to find a way to train Neleh and give her enough rudimentary knowledge to keep her alive should she end up facing a ghazi swordsman.
<><><>
Hold Duv, let him scent the air, let him bring you to the dar, Areenna told Neleh, who knelt next to the rantor pup, her forehead pressed to his soft coat. We stayed downwind of the dar so it would not scent us. When he is full-grown, Duv will hunt for you, but now he needs to learn our ways.
Neleh drew back from Duv and looked at Areenna. He understands.
Areenna smiled at Neleh. “Good,” she whispered. Sliding the bow over her head, she pulled an arrow from the quiver. We want a clean shot so the dar goes down instantly. Any other way is cruel. If you cannot do so, then you wait until you can.
Neleh nodded. Will it hear us when we’re closer?
Yes, which is why we stay here. Send Duv around, so he is ahead of the dar, and then have him crawl closer. When the dar scents him, it will run toward us.
Neleh pressed her forehead to Duv again and, a moment later the rantor took off, moving in a wide semi-circle as Neleh had asked. Two minutes later, he emerged twenty feet in front of the dar. The instant he did, the dar stiffened, lifted its head and sniffed the air. It turned, and bolted toward Areenna and Neleh.
The dar was a small adult, perhaps forty pounds, and as it ran from the scent of the rantor, Areenna waited, her bow at the ready. When the dar ran into the clearing across from her, Areenna released the shaft. The dar went down in its tracks.
Areenna exhaled slowly. Thank you brother, she sent to the rantor, who now stood next to the dar. “Now, the real work begins,” Areenna said to Neleh with a half-smile, half-grimace. “We must clean it.”
<><><>
The night was upon them with all the sounds of the forest’s night dwellers. Their roof of branches and leaves allowed only a few glimpses of the star strewn sky. The cooking fire lit the small grove with dancing light and shadows, as the three finished their meal. Duv lay off to one side, gnawing on a bone almost half his length.
Gaalrie, who had hunted and eaten, perched on a thick branch whi
le Charka stood below the giant treygone, a habit the two aoutems had formed on their first trip to the Island: The bond between them was deep.
“How do you feel, Little One? Are you tired?” Mikaal asked Neleh.
She turned to him. Licking two fingers clean of the drippings, she smiled. “Good, I feel very good. I like it here. I’m not tired, why?”
“Then we begin our work tonight. And, tonight there is no magic,”
Neleh’s features turned puzzled. “Why?”
Areenna hid her smile. She and Mikaal had discussed this before leaving Caymir and agreed about battle training Neleh. “Because you need to learn how to protect yourself when magic cannot be used,” Areenna began. “Remember we spoke of the wolves of the Frozen Mountains…the ones the Black Sorceress controlled? We had to face them with sword and bow, not magic, for she also protected them with a powerful spell. There will be times when your life is in danger and you cannot use magic; but you must be able to protect yourself.”
Neleh looked from Areenna to Mikaal and at the weapons set against an old pine tree. “The sword is almost as big as I am, and your bow…” Neleh shook her head.
Mikaal laughed and Areenna smiled. “Yes, your size makes for problems. But it’s also the way to overpower your opponent, because they will be so large in comparison.”
Neleh frowned, “How is that possible?”
Areenna looked at Mikaal and thought of when he trained her in sword work. “There are many reasons; you’re small, fast, and smart! Those things give you a great advantage. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you trust Mikaal?”
Neleh shook her head. “Why ask so silly a question?”
Areenna’s lips went from a smile to a taut straight line. “Answer my question!”
Neleh blinked. “Without doubt.”
If you are to learn, then you are not to question; you are to answer when asked and do as we say. If you cannot… Areenna’s thoughts were to the point and harsh.
Neleh sat straighter, meeting Areenna’s stare before glancing to see that Mikaal’s eyes held the same hardness. I am sorry. What you ask, I will do.
“Then we begin,” Mikaal announced.
The three rose and went to the weapons. “Decide which you will use,” Mikaal told her.
Areenna watched the future Woman of The People begin on the left and look at each weapon carefully. The first was Areenna’s bow, which reached from the ground to her chin. She shook her head. Then she reached out to Areenna’s sword, but her fingers stopped short of it and she shook her head again.
Her brows furrowed when she stood before Mikaal’s long sword. She didn’t even attempt to touch it. Then she looked at the display of knives, Areenna’s single blade and both of Mikaal’s. Carefully, she picked up the longer of Mikaal’s two knives, the one made of trillium.
She hefted it, inspected it closely and put it back. Turning to Areenna and Mikaal, she shook her head. None seems right. Which shall I use?
Good! Mikaal told her. None of those suite you. He went to their supplies, where he picked up a long leather wrapped bundle. He returned, laid it on the ground and unrolled it, revealing a very short sword and a knife.
“My father made these for me when I was nine, and about your height. Take the sword.”
She lifted it with both hands, and looked at the blade. In her hands, the sword proved to be the perfect size. May I join with you?
Neleh opened to him. A moment later, Mikaal was entrenched in her mind, drawing upon the innocent gentleness that was so much a part of her. Once settled, he stepped next to her and instructed her on how to hold the sword for each type of stroke, moving her hands as he silently taught her. When he sensed she understood, he stepped back. “Areenna.”
While Mikaal instructed Neleh, Areenna took up her sword. He knew what they were attempting to do would be a very different method of training and hoped it would work.
Turning at her name, Areenna lifted her blade until it slanted over her right shoulder, both hands on the pommel as she set her feet and flexed her knees.
Mikaal, joined with Neleh, lectured, allow me full control, study and follow what I do.
Neleh released control of her body and Mikaal took it. Unlike the way the dark forces controlled those they subjugated, Mikaal’s was one of tenderness.
He changed the way she gripped the pommel and, once she settled her fingers in the proper grip, he drew the sword back and up, a mirror reflection to Areenna’s posture. Understand?
Yes.
Standing midway between them, he nodded to Areenna. “Now!”
Areenna’s eyes hardened. She took a half step forward, and feinted. Neleh’s muscles involuntarily twitched at Areenna’s move, but Mikaal over-rode her and held her still, keeping Neleh’s eyes, not at the sword, but locked on Areenna’s eyes. There was no need to explain, joined, Neleh understood everything he did, the instant he did it.
Then, Areenna attacked with a lightning sweep of her sword. Rather than block it, Mikaal moved Neleh’s body in a swift duck and spin. Areenna’s blade hissed over Neleh’s head, missing it by inches. While Areenna recovered, Mikaal straightened Neleh and swung.
Areenna’s sword flicked up and caught Neleh’s blade before it could get past her guard.
The clash of metal on metal was loud. Areenna backed away, her eyes locked on Neleh. “Straight on,” Mikaal told Areenna. “Hold nothing back.”
Areenna’s brows formed two curved accents above her green eyes. “Nothing?”
Neleh shook her head, but Mikaal spoke. “Nothing, My Princess. Attack!”
Watch and feel, he told Neleh the second before Areenna launched herself. Areenna became a blur in the night; the only thing visible was firelight glinting off the steel of her sword. Using Mikaal’s figure eight attack, she charged Neleh, forcing the small woman-child to defend herself as she battled relentlessly forward. Neleh’s blade caught Areenna’s time after time. No matter how Areenna spun or lunged, regardless of what avenue Areenna tried to cut through, she was blocked.
Five minutes into the fight, both were circling each other, their eyes locked tightly on the other. I understand, Mikaal. Let me try, Neleh requested.
I will tell Areenna.
No, it is your turn to trust me.
She will think it me.
I can do this.
He sensed her confidence, and with not a little concern, withdrew control, but did not leave her.
Trust me as you asked me to trust you.
Something about the way she said it made him take notice of the confidence racing through her body. Without saying anything, he withdrew from her mind completely. “Fight, Areenna, now!”
Areenna reacted instantly, as did Neleh. Mikaal watched the two meet, the sounds of their swords vibrating through his body with each stroke. A half second later, Areenna spun from Neleh, feinted in one direction and lunged in another. Before she was halfway through the eye blurring attack, Neleh’s sword was at her throat, the tip hovering at the carotid artery.
When Neleh lowered her sword, Areenna stepped back. She smiled at Neleh. “Did you understand how Mikaal did that?” she asked.
“Yes, but it was not Mikaal.”
Areenna looked at Mikaal. You were not joined?
She asked me to leave, asked me to trust her. I had nothing to do with the last fight.
Areenna turned back to Neleh, her eyebrows furrowed. How did you do this?
Neleh shrugged. The same manner as I learned to use the gift you gave me, the light weapon.
“I don’t understand,” Areenna said aloud. “Explain.”
Neleh shrugged again. “I can’t, join me, both of you, I can show you.”
Mikaal and Areenna joined with the fourteen-year-old and she brought up the memories of the fight with the Dark Master atop the double peak mountain.
She showed how, when she and Sirod and The People arrived on the midst of the battle, she saw Areenna using the blu
e-white light of her powerful weapon and joined with Areenna for a few seconds. In that short time, she learned how to bring up that ability. She had and, as Areenna watched the memory replay in Neleh’s mind, she saw something else as well.
“You drew power from me as well, and from Mikaal at the same time.”
Neleh shook her head, “No… I…” but she stopped herself and looked more closely at the memory. Then she nodded. “It is strange.”
Areenna looked at Mikaal. We must look into this, examine it, she told him in a silent message meant only for him.
Tomorrow, he replied, nodding toward Neleh, who was yawning.
CHAPTER 17
AREENNA SAT ON a rock at the edge of the creek, absently stroking Gaalrie, who had traded her perch for Areenna’s lap. Mikaal and Neleh were finding fruit. To her right, Hero, Charka, and Neleh’s kraal grazed on the short grass.
When she’d awoken that morning, it had been after a restless night filled with harsh dreams. At first, she’d thought it was because of the closeness of Mikaal’s body to hers, but after she had moved so Neleh would be between them, the dreams continued and she’d risen and left the lean-to.
Still unable shake away the shadowy feeling, she’d made herself busy enough to stop thinking. By the time she’d built a small fire, and set water and dar meat to warm, the sun had risen and, along with the sun, had come Mikaal and Neleh.
After eating, Mikaal and Neleh had gone off, and Areenna had wandered to the creek, where she’d sat and thought about the night.
Gaalrie moved, bringing Areenna’s mind back to the present. Gaalrie nuzzled her beak against Areenna’s cheek, the treygone’s touch giving her a more solid anchor into the day.
She looked back at the most important of her dreams, where she saw the Dark Masters together on a ship, and then, a moment later, they were gone and she was looking down as the ships split into three groups, each going in a different direction.
Her eyes snapped open; her breath exploded in a loud gasp of understanding. The dark fleet was moving toward their ultimate destinations and time was running out. She closed her eyes and went deep within herself, to the place The Speaker of The Eight had taught her. There, she called up her powers, and heat spiked within her.