“Oh, I can never be sure with you lot!”
Troy pushed past me toward his friends. “Seriously, enough guys, we all have our orders, our places. My father and Anaya will bless the weapons soon enough. Why don’t you guys go get us some food?”
“Food.” Robert grinned.
“Grab a weapon. Let’s get some training in while we wait for sustenance,” Tatos said to Troy, while pushing the others out the tent’s flap.
“There are two of those.” Troy smiled, and dug into the crate beside me.
He handed me the other strange looking blade.
“Sai come in pairs,” Willard commented.
“Heavier than I expected.” I rested the blades in each palm.
Troy laughed. “No, like this.” He turned the blades around in my palm so that they were facing toward my body, cradled inside my arm. His gentle fingers brushed against my forearm and over my hands. Goosebumps rolled over my skin and settled in my bones. The purple amethyst pendant glowed around my wrist. I suddenly understood its function, and what he had meant by ‘he got into me’. It acted as an amplifier for his effect on me. I stared into his eyes, but I never knew what he was thinking. I loved that he was so unpredictable, a dangerous smile hid behind his cheeky dimples.
“Are you ready?” Tatos cut us off.
“Let the games begin!” Robert shouted from the door.
“I thought you had already left,” Troy shouted, his voice traveling through the thin, brown canvas. He grabbed the blades from me and placed them in one hand, then gently tucked me into his body with his free arm and nudged me toward the door.
“Wait.” I tramped back, then took Anaya by her shoulder as she leaned over Maya. “I need a minute.”
She nodded.
I moved my sister’s hair from her ear, I was sure she would hear me. “I am here,” I told her and kissed her temple. Pins and needles intensified on my lips, the zing vibrating into my cheeks. I drew back slowly.
“Baby,” Troy called when I lingered over her.
His words took my heart with wings.
The Zulu village was hardly recognizable through all the clutter of tents and equipment cramped together in neat, stacked crates. I heard kids laughing and shouting in the distance of the valley, playing in the puddles the rain left behind. Three young Zulu kids ran past us chasing one another with mud balls, their shrills emanating true joy; red rope bands tied around their ankles and wrists for luck and protection against unseen spirits. My eyes followed their little pitter patters until they rounded the corner.
“Can we join in?” someone asked from behind us.
“Join in?” I snapped.
“Not today, Dave.” Troy punched his arm softly.
“Next time then?” he pushed.
“You and Rob will take over here in the meantime,” he said, resting one hand upon Dave’s shoulder. “I’m not sure if everyone can be trusted, the Council has spies everywhere.”
“Yes, sir!” David saluted with amusement.
We turned to walk away, Troy heavy in thought, probably over the general’s death and the cause thereof. The attack on our city had been way too convenient. The general had been killed for his betrayal, and the rebellion exposed. It left our friends homeless. I had freaked out, and chaos had followed quickly behind. I couldn’t help but feel that if I had not run to that apartment, the city might still be standing, even if Troy had told me it would have happened anyway and the girls were lucky I had been there to help them escape the fire.
“Oh, and Dave,” Troy called. “Kim?” His eyebrow raised in question.
The mere mention of her name pulled at my gut. She could be the snake, or she could be on our side. I wasn’t too sure at the time.
“She will resume the informant position since our post in the city has been destroyed.”
Troy nodded once. “Good.”
I looked at Troy as he led me through the maze of tents, wondering why he still trusted Kim. I was sure she used her prying mind to dig into mine, to manipulate me, reporting back to the Council on all of the things that took place and in a way, I wondered if just like Enoch, she was a master at suggestion and mind games.
The grass crunching beneath our feet somehow became louder, colors brighter as I conjured up memories of the day they asked me to leave the city, and then wondered why they took me back after my fall from the rocky cover. I already knew the answer, but hoped it wasn’t so; they had been watching me everywhere I had gone, and took the chance of my much needed hospitalization to insert that tracker in my finger. They’d played me, us, for months, studying me and the secrets to the Minoan race. Perhaps now they used Enoch as their scapegoat, as their distraction. I felt myself smile a little. If I knew Sam and Sage the way I thought I did, they no doubt would have spread the true reasons for the attacks to every student they could.
“I know what you’re thinking but I’ve studied Kim, I don’t think she would betray us.”
His hand pointed to a path leading past two narrow tent walls. “Unfortunately, trust is one of those luxuries we have never had, the more we expose and risk, the quicker we will find out who we can count on, perhaps find a lead to where the Council is heading with all of this,” Troy said, when he saw the unpleasant twist of my face.
He took hold of my hand and at first, the pins and needles ruptured into a violent tingle, and then a starburst of comfort and warmth stayed constant beneath his touch. The longer I stayed near Troy, the more the memories came to me, like previously erased pages slowly bleeding out invisible ink – it all spilled back in. Memories, thoughts, ideas and emotions of my former self. With the other hand, I pulled the straps of my bag over my back, feeling the gentle bump of my box against my frame.
Swiftly, Tatos, myself and Troy, made our way through the network of tents and found ourselves in front of an elongated brown tent. Stepping inside, the air was heavier, my lungs immediately took a knock. One of the military boys quickly closed the flap behind us and zipped up the gap.
“Wow, it’s cooking in here,” Troy said, letting go of my hand to rub the sweat from his neck.
Because of the pendant amplifying Troy’s effect on me, I could feel the warmth a moment later. He bounced on his heels, looking uncomfortable. My eyes adjusted in the unusually dark tent. Two boys just nodded at us from the corner where they played with what looked like some form of card game. Hair clung to their faces and necks, their torsos glossy from all the moisture.
“I’ll send someone to bring you some water.” He nodded to them.
A red-haired boy cleared his throat. “Thanks.”
The other two boys went back to attending the huge scales behind them.
“Now it is ready, the temperature is just right,” Shane said, as they entered the tent through a hidden flap at the back.
I turned to see one fold-up bed, and a litter of bags still resting by the door. Clearly, there would be no sleeping in the tent. As Shane came out of the other compartment, he lifted a black, welding helmet from his face with a smile.
“What’s up?” His face was covered in black soot and only sharp blue eyes and white teeth grinned back, but for a moment a flash of a memory – a face in my mind, that of the Isithunzi, the evil witchdoctor – made me shiver despite the heat in the tent.
“Shane?” Troy laughed.
“What?” He gave us an innocent flash of a smile.
“I hardly recognized you with all that black stuff smeared over your face.”
“Whatever, whatever,” he said, brushing the statement off. “I managed to get the process of oxygenation just right.” He motioned to some strange looking devices that cut from the room we stood in, to the tent wall and into the other tent where the heat behind the flap was coming from. Troy nodded, grabbing a blade from the table beside him. Dull light illuminated the edge of the hilt as he turned it, then knocked it on the metal table real hard, causing us all to jump.
“What’s going on!” Tatos shouted from the entra
nce.
“Weapons testing,” Troy yelled back, keeping his eyes on the front tip of the dagger lying on the dirt floor next to his boot.
“Yeah, it took a few tries,” Shane said, wiping his dirty hand on an old, gray t-shirt hanging over a metal chair.
“I see so,” he concurred, stepping forward to have a glimpse behind the hidden flap.
“Whoa!” Troy said, pulling a face as he stuck his head back out.
“That’s why you wear the gear, man.” Shane made a show of presenting us his black, heat- protection gloves and helmet.
I frowned at him. I was slightly distracted as I felt the crystal’s properties fade, my skin oblivious once again to the surroundings.
“Weapons manufacturing,” Troy said bluntly, raising an eyebrow. “Not that it should interest you, my lady,” he mocked while bowing, and extended his hand toward the rejected weapons table. All the weapons seemed to be replicas of those in the ancient box, perhaps a little shinier, but the marking seemed identical all the same.
“Once we produce, we bless the metal so that it will penetrate any dark magic.”
“How do you bless them?” I asked.
“If I tell you, I might have to kill you.”
“Ha!” I huffed, unamused.
My eyes fell on a few silver, star blades and a number of long and short-bladed daggers, but as I moved from one end of the metal table, the light moved, too. The color shifted from silver to the lightest gold.
“That is why you brought the ‘sand’ back,” I said, remembering that the moon’s surface was coated with a fine layer of golden dust.
He nodded.
“What is the melting temperature?” Troy asked, shifting star blades around, metal scraping against metal.
“About 1064.43 degrees Celsius.”
Troy nodded. “I’ll send water. Shane, get it right this time, our time and production is of the utmost importance. Our enemies have doubled, and might triple the longer we take.”
“You don’t have to remind me bro,” he said.
The other boys waved as we left the tent. Immediately, the heaviness lifted from me as we left the dark, dingy tent. By then, Troy’s hair around his face and neck had clung to his moist skin. I blew out a breath as he grabbed my hand, and a fresh breeze blew over my skin causing goosebumps to erupt with the pricking of sensation returning. It was the strangest sensation, almost electrifying. I noticed my white shirt was drenched, clinging to my stomach and lower back. It was not the greatest of feelings to feel yourself sweat. But every time Troy held me and I could feel, feel him and my immediate surroundings, I felt almost high from it. I took a mental note of how long the crystal’s properties and replications of Troy’s powers had lasted on me.
Tatos had lingered outside, and his face was colored with annoyance.
“What took you so long?”
Troy just glared at him.
As we walked through the outskirts of the Zulu village, Troy showed me how to flick, tuck and spin the sai in each hand; together and the separately. Due to them being heavier than I had first thought, I had to concentrate on the precision, especially because I had short arms. The blades sometimes hooked on my inner elbows. I attempted to swing them in and out again, faster and with smaller movements each time.
“Here.” Troy took my thumbs, twisted them the other side of the rounded hilt and explained, “Let the handle rest in there.” He pointed to the soft, thin muscle between the thumb and pointing finger. “Let it glide, rest that part.”
I tried it, the blade swirled quickly in and around into my palm.
“Yeah.” I nodded, and did it again and again.
“Little things make all the difference,” he stated, staring at me.
I looked up, thinking he was also talking about something else.
“Didn’t think you liked weapons very much,” Troy teased.
“It’s kind of fun,” I said, absorbed on the extension of my arm, the swift flick-back and the sleek arc outward.
“Until you kill someone with it,” Tatos groaned.
“I have kil…” I stopped mid-sentence, almost dropping my sais as the words left me with a twisting guilt. He wanted me to admit I had killed before.
“Apparently, not so successfully,” he grunted, obviously implying Enoch. “If your intentions are impure, it always comes back to you.” He kept his glare on the path ahead.
“Thank you, Dr. Tatos, I will keep that in mind next time I want to off something trying to end us.”
“There is wisdom and truth in those words,” Troy agreed, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I closed my eyes, soaking up his touch. First the exploding pins and needles, then a dull ache followed by heat, and then a sweet release.
We came to a standstill on a hill overlooking the village. I stood for a while, noticing the spot the old, stone throne used to stand, now a forgotten memorial garden. Flashes of wooden stakes and skulls touched my memory with harsh intent. The dark fire of death wafted at my nose, reminding me that the hole inside of me was large and might never be filled. Troy took my elbow, leading me away from the scarred land of evil’s touch. His silent caress forced air back into my lungs, and as silently and deadly as the flashes had come, they dissipated without a trace. My eyes shifted over the charred, black trees growing out between green vines, trees that had yet to heal, or might never heal – only time would be the revealer. The scarred land surrounded by yellow, grain fields was almost a circle of poisoned land; a beacon, a reminder of a past that would never be uttered by the villagers again. My feet remained bound to the spot – I would not let myself forget, it had to be a reminder of who I didn’t want to be. Anger clung to my lungs with a bitter taste, and through the bristle of the wind’s delicate fingers, the ocean of yellow grasslands roared and bent as it swooped past and over the Zulu land, the sun glinting off waxy stems. His voice pulled me back to the real.
“You need to forget.”
I nodded, turning into his arms. I wasn’t sure how I could forget the one mistake that would haunt me for all of my beastly existence.
“Just think how far it would have spread if we didn’t stop it.”
I swallowed hard, fire burning behind my eyes. “It should never have been.” I walked away, eager to start my training, shoving the pain down with a wall of ice logged in my chest. Attempting to clear my mind, I took on the fresh, crisp scent of forest, and the mix of ocean air blowing up from just beyond a hill. On the hill, we stood at a vantage point, able to hear anything move through the thick of the forest and from the hill on the other side, we would see anyone approach through pale, yellow grasslands. Gray clouds still hovered, the wind twisted and cut through the grass, leaving a faint shimmer in its wake. The smell of the bushveld and grain twirled around me, gently tugging at my bangs.
“Are you ready now?” Troy called to me. The gravity of that moment made me feel alive, more than in any moment before. It was a moment that had not been forced, it just was. I smiled into his eyes. That is what it felt like to be Ava. I felt free for just that moment as his hand touched me, it all came to a singularity. I was just about ready to lean in and kiss him, when he spanked my butt with a sheepish grin.
“Snap out of it, we have work to do.”
Urgh, he is such a tease! Tilting my chin to the sky, I took in the smell of fallen rain. The seasons were finally returning to our planet after many silent cycles and from the storms, the wind, the heat and sudden cold, it seemed like they were coming all at once. Clearing his throat, Tatos pulled his bow, then his arrow from its sheath and placed them at his feet, this was followed by grabbing his braids and tying his hair away from his face.
“Hey, I can see you.” I laughed, but found myself staring at his neatly shaped features instead. Turquoise eyes caught mine. “It is rude to stare, you know,” he said to me, while tugging on the string, releasing some tension in the bow. But the long, stick bow was still strapped to his back, blue feathers twisting in the wind.
“Really? Well, it’s rude to keep reading my mind!” I snapped back.
“It is for your own good,” he mocked.
Rolling my eyes, I said with a grimace, “So you keep saying.”
“So, you keep doubting our intentions.” He stared back, tone more clipped this time.
“Okay you two, enough.” Troy placed a navy bag full of weapons on the floor beside us. The clutter and clang rang throughout the quiet surroundings. By then, a light drizzle had begun to fall as dark clouds slipped through the high branches of gigantic silverwood trees. As I placed my bag inside Troy’s bag to protect the contents from the rain, Tatos moved closer to me. From beside me, Troy pulled off his shirt and threw it into the open zip of the bag. I am sure they both saw me smile at the sight of naked torsos just before I shifted my gaze to the floor.
“Your turn,” Troy bantered.
“What?” My arms automatically closed up over my chest.
When his lips twisted into a cheeky grin, I punched him in the gut to which he pretended to double over in pain.
“You punch like a girl!” Tatos mocked.
“And you look like one.” I flashed a smile.
He snorted.
“Ready?” Troy beamed, shaking out cold muscles in his arms and legs.
Pulling my sleeves up to my elbows I released the sais from my harness, spun them into my palms, and then tucked them in under my arms so only the hilt protruded from my hands.
“Okay, you’re just showing off now.” Troy snickered. “So, when you are about to attack someone…” he said but stopped, lifted his eyebrows and stared at me. “Because we all know that is your first line of defense.”
“Then we need to start with defense,” Tatos cut in.
“Don’t mock my methods,” I stated.
“Hmm.” Tatos’ expression turned somber.
“The way you are holding them now, you are opening yourself up. You might strike, but a quick blow might sneak up and hit you right in the chest,” Troy said, and moving swiftly he tapped my chest right between my breasts. I lifted my brows at him.
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