by Randal Sloan
Again they had to choose the weapon or weapons they would work with. Some of the knives were large, almost like small swords, and Julie didn’t even look at them. Instead, she chose a set of knives in a harness intended to be worn by the bearer. The harness was designed to allow the wearer to quickly reach a knife to throw.
Three of the students chose the big knives. They were sent off with another monk who had appeared as soon as they finished choosing the knives. Monk Candidate Jerrem remained with Julie and Master Hammond, having chosen a brace of knives similar to hers. The two students watched as Master Hammond demonstrated throwing the knives, placing a knife in the center of each of the targets.
While an assistant went to retrieve the knives, Master Hammond looked intently at the two of them, forcing them to make eye contact. He told them, “You have chosen the path that is more difficult than the others, but it is the more useful skill. As you just saw, I could take out several targets with one set of knives, quickly and without risk to myself. I will attempt to teach you how to do what I just did, and if you are able to master it, you will be an extremely dangerous opponent. Do you believe that you can do this?”
He waited until they both answered “Yes, Master.” Then he handed each of them a leather wrapped blade, the edge of the blade covered. “Very good. I need the two of you to stand a few feet apart. For a few minutes, I want you to just flip this knife in the air to get a feel for handling it.”
Both of them carefully flipped the knife in the air, nervously catching it by the handle. After a few minutes, both of them were able to get a good feel for handling the knife and could do so less nervously. But before they could move on, Julie had an idea. She switched the knife to her left hand and began to flip it again, becoming adept with it quickly. They stared at her but no one said anything.
Master Hammond went on with his instruction. “The key to throwing a knife successfully is visualize the target in your mind’s eye so strongly that you can see the knife landing there. Then throw it on that path. Candidate Jerrem, you try it first, using the closest target. Use the knives in your brace. The weight will be slightly different without the leather wrapping, so give a couple of flips to allow your brain to take that into account.”
Bowing to Master Hammond, Jerrem stepped over to the line laid out in front of the targets. Drawing one of the knives out of the brace, he confidently flipped it a couple of times and then threw it at the indicated target. The knife struck the target near the outside edge. At a nod from the master, he continued throwing the knives in his brace. By the time he finished throwing all the knives, Jerrem was hitting the target relatively close to the center, although he never got a bullseye.
While the assistant retrieved the knives, Master Hammond gave him a bow, the bow of pleased master to progressing student. “Very good start. We can work with that.” Then he turned to Julie. “Candidate Randolph?”
Julie gave Master Hammond her bow, student to master. Then she concentrated, easily visualizing the path of the knife to the target. She flipped it in the air one time to get the feel of the weight and balance. Taking a deep breath, she threw the knife. The knife hit exactly in the center of the target! The only problem? Julie had thrown it so hard that it buried the knife in the target to the hilt.
Both Master Hammond and Jerrem stared at Julie. Finally, Master Hammond smiled at her and said with a laugh, “Try not to throw it quite that hard. See if you can hit the second target.”
Julie nodded and concentrated on both the path and the velocity. She nailed the second target too. At a nod from Master Hammond, Julie threw knives at each of the remaining targets, hitting them exactly where she aimed, even the furtherest one, just like she could do when shooting. She deliberately kept the throws outside the bullseye on the last few targets. She knew she could have hit it if she wanted to, but just like she had done as Miranda when she first tried shooting, she deliberately did not show everything that she could do.
#
Even though Master Hammond had felt Julie would have an affinity for knives, he was still surprised and amazed. When the assistant had retrieved her knives, he had to ask her, “Can you do it with your left? You were flipping the knife in your left earlier. If you can do that, it will be a very valuable skill indeed.”
Bowing again, Julie told him. “I think so.” Then as she already knew she could, she again hit each of the targets, throwing with her left hand. And again she chose where she wanted the knife to hit and that was where it went. She also knew she could have thrown them a lot faster if she had wanted to do it.
Master Hammond was quite pleased. He watched as the other student threw his next set, occasionally offering a word or two in advice, but he kept thinking about Julie. He almost always had a student that excelled out of all his trainees, but very seldom did he have a student of this caliber. He also sensed she was holding back on him, and he wondered just exactly what she could really do. Now he did understand a little of what Master Kash had tried to tell him about her.
When he had first heard that he was supposed to teach her, he had gone to the Master with questions about his reasoning. He knew he had the respect of the Master, and that the Master would listen to him. He had been surprised when the Master had just smiled at him, telling him to wait and see. The Master had gone on to tell him this was a rather special student and if he had the second sight, he would know when he saw her. He had also told him that she would only be there for a very few weeks, but his expectation for all the Masters would be for them to teach her as much as they could in that time. Master Hammond had bowed to his Master and friend, and had left him with more questions in his mind than answers, but he did what he was told.
Master Hammond instructed the two of them for some time. With Jerrem he continued to work on the basics. He was actually a very good student that with time could become quite skilled. But since Julie was able to hit all the targets, he moved on to more advanced tasks with her. He had his assistant move one of the targets to the furtherest end of the range and watched as she hit it too. He had the assistant set up the dummy that they used for advanced training, and showed her how to throw the knife with the hilt end first in order to knock out a target without killing them. Finally their time for instruction reached an end for the day.
First speaking with Candidate Jerrem, he told him. “You did very well today. Although it will be a few days from now, I will be instructing you again. I believe you will be able to continue improving your skills, if you will apply yourself and work at it.” He sent Jerrem along his way.
He turned to Julie and gave her a bow, the bow of pleased master to excellent student. “You are one of the most capable students I have ever seen. I have tried to impart as much of my knowledge with knives as I can in the short amount of time we have had. As soon as you can, you need to purchase your own set of quality knives. Then you can return the ones you have. I would recommend that you visit the shop in Hong Kong where we purchase our knives. The master of the shop will be able to make you a set that will be appropriate to your skill level. I don’t know where fate will carry you, but I suspect that you will need them someday.” He handed her a handwritten card with the information for the shop.
Dismissing Julie also, he thought of his next visit with Master Kash. That was going to be very interesting. If his instincts were right, Master Kash was the only one that he had ever taught that had the skill level of this one.
#
Not one to waste any time, when Loraine told her that Mama Kash would not be teaching them today, Julie went to her little room, making a quick VR call to the knife shop. When a young man answered, Julie told him, “Let me speak to your master. I wish to make a purchase, but I want to be sure I am able to get the best he has to offer. Tell him I need a set of knives and I have been referred by the monk order.”
The young man stared at her as if she had grown two heads, but he did as she requested. When the master of the shop came on, Julie smiled. She recognized the c
haracteristics of one who had trained with the monks. “What is this about the monk order? The monks do not accept women as students,” the man flatly told her.
“They do now,” showing him her training knives. She knew he would recognize them. “They don’t allow VR equipment either, but I have mine. As I’m sure you know, the Master still only carries his cell phone. Maybe someday he’ll see the light.” The thought brought another smile to Julie’s face. “At any rate, I have completed my knife training,” pointing again at the sheath of knives, “and I wish to purchase a set of your best throwing knives for each arm. I will also need sheathes that I will be able to carry concealed on my person.”
“What about the monk rule, ‘Do no harm’? Surely you don’t think you can follow that when carrying knives.”
“That’s not right for this group of monks. The monks find that to be impossible to follow. Their philosophy is to choose that which will do the least harm, but will get the job done. Always choose the side of good over evil. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but that is a good question to test my truthfulness. Perhaps you should contact Master George, if you need to verify my intentions. He acknowledged my dark side, but said I had a good heart. If you don’t think I can handle the knives, talk with Master Hammond.”
“No, I believe you now. It appears change is coming,” the Shop Master told her.
“Yes, the Master said that I was an agent of change. I suspect the changes I am going to bring are not going to be limited to the monks either. With his vision, he probably knows better than I do. I can only hope that most of the changes I bring will be for the good of mankind. That I strive for every day.”
“You do understand that what you are asking for will be rather expensive. Not my most expensive, of course. That I reserve for the fools who think they want toy knives with jewels in them. Those I charge double my normal fee plus the cost of the jewels.”
“No, I want a very practical blade, but it needs to be balanced perfectly and made of the best quality steel. I suspect that I will be pushing the limits to what you can do with them, but they need to be the best that you can make. Cost is no object, but I will need them to be ready when I leave here in two or three weeks.”
They haggled on the price for a few minutes, but Julie really didn’t care about the cost. She needed the quality, and she needed them ready on time. She had a feeling she would be using them in a few weeks in life or death situations. It was a strong premonition, and she had learned not to ignore those, especially after she had learned of her mother’s visions. She still cried sometimes when she thought of those last moments alone with her mother.
Julie also felt the anger at the men who had killed her. Soon it would be time. Something must have shown in her expression, because the man suddenly stopped haggling with her on the delivery date and agreed to her demands. Although he told her it was not required for a monk candidate, Julie still paid half in advance, with the remainder to be paid on delivery.
As Julie disconnected the call, she felt something fall into place. She didn’t want to have to use her knives, but it made her feel better that she would be ready when she had to do so. That evening at dinner, she ate with Loraine and Mama Kash, speaking cordially, but her thoughts were far away. Again something must have shown in her, because they didn’t push her for details.
But after dinner as Julie worked through her VR mail from Space Tech, she was distracted, wondering just how far she could take her newfound skill. Even the VR’s from Emily didn’t draw her in. The depths of her thoughts convinced her that she needed to ask Master Hammond if he would give her additional training with the knives, having a strong belief that she should learn as much as she could about using them. Something told her that someday her life would depend on that.
#
For the next several days, Julie’s day more or less followed the same routine. Mornings, she started with the simple breakfast, meditated in some form or fashion, and then worked with Mama Kash’s group with the movement exercises. The time spent with the group working together was the highlight of her day. Their little group had become very close and she really enjoyed their time together, especially when they were doing the “dance.”
Julie was often able to carry the aftereffects from that time throughout the day, so she no longer even had to think about her nanites to control her movements. The evenings were also enjoyable, the time spent with Mama Kash and Loraine. The sight training went very well, although they didn’t have another session like the first, which had opened the eyes of both Julie and Loraine. But it was the evening meals that Julie enjoyed the most. The time spent with the two of them was something Julie knew that she would always treasure.
The afternoons were the only blemish on Julie’s days. The group of five didn’t bond at all, but instead most of the group treated all the others as competition. Julie got along pretty well with Jerrem, the other candidate that had completed knife training with her, but other than knife training, their interests completely diverged. Jerrem tended to move toward the heavier and more lethal weapons, while Julie tended more toward the more defensive type weapons. Of course, aside from the knives, give Julie an assault weapon or sniper rifle and she knew she would be quite lethal.
Despite the negative feelings, Julie still thought the afternoons were productive. Most of her training in the afternoon was either learning moves for hand-to-hand combat or in the monk equivalent of the classroom where she learned more about how the monks did business. She still didn’t learn much about why they did what they did, just how they went about doing it.
Julie very much appreciated her time with Master Hammond. When he was able, he gave her personal instruction, as if he also knew she had only limited time. He worked again with her using the staff, certifying her to be qualified in it. He had already certified her in the knives, so she had her two weapon certifications required. She got only one other chance to work with him in her knife training, but he put their time to good use. This time he worked with her alone, asking her not to hold anything back. She quickly agreed, knowing just how important she felt it to be.
Master Hammond even taught her to throw blind folded, so that she had to use all of her senses to hit the target. At first terrified to even attempt such a thing, not knowing where the knife would go, Julie eventually grew comfortable with using her other senses to build a picture in her mind of the target. She knew he was pleased when she reached that point, so that she was once again able to hit the targets even without physically seeing the target. She found it exhilarating to be able to do that even blindfolded. Once again, Julie felt something fall in place as she threw those last knives. Somehow she knew that skill would be very important to her one day soon.
Just before the end of the week, Brother Crizel brought the whole group of accelerated trainees together. He told them all, a frown on his face, “For reasons only he knows, Master Kash has decided to move up the monk position competition by a couple of weeks. But that means you will only have a couple of days more training before you must begin testing for the opportunity to compete. I had hoped to have those weeks to prep you more for the competition and even give you some time to prepare for the tests to come. But since that is not to happen, I can only tell you to work hard for the rest of the week at the tasks you are currently working on and wish you the best in your testing. If you don’t make this season’s competition, don’t worry. You will get another opportunity a little later in the year.”
Julie smiled sadly to herself when he said the last. She knew she only had the one chance. Who knew where she would be in the coming months?
CHAPTER SIX
Obstacles to Be Overcome
The next morning after the simple breakfast Julie was surprised to find a different monk was waiting for her, but he was wearing a red robe, so she immediately knew he was there for more than the normal activity. He gave her the bow of master to student candidate. “I am Master Tresden. I am here for your first test. Please follow me
.”
Julie returned his bow, then followed him as he led her to yet another path. He immediately started down the path, along the way explaining that she would have three tests to complete to become a monk. The first he would give her shortly. The second test would be an obstacle course she would have to complete with a group. She would have to complete it within a time that was in the top five times of the group to pass. The final test was the competition that she already knew about. He had a friendly disposition about him, somehow making her feel at ease. When they reached the end of the path, they came to the side of a mountain with a number of caves visible. The caves were remarkably uniform in size, all about the right size for one person at a time to enter. They were also all very dark.
Master Tresden stopped, with his arm indicating the five caves. “You are here to complete your first level of testing. There is something in each of these five caves. Starting from left to right, go in each cave, stopping after exactly five steps. You must identify what is there by your senses only, without any light and without touching any of them. You cannot continue to the next level until you finish this test, so it is very important. You may take as long as you want in any one cave, but you only have one hour to finish the test. I will tell you that very few can pass all of them, so do not worry if you miss one. You must have at least three to go on.”
Julie nodded, quickly entering the first cave. She dropped into her meditative state, using all of her senses, pushing them to the limit. This one didn’t take her very long. From the sounds echoing in the cave, she could tell that it was a small item, not made of metal, glass or stone, or the echo would be louder. So wooden. From her sense of smell she knew what it contained. It was a wooden bowl just like the bowls the monks used for all their meals and it contained fruit like she had just had for her breakfast! She exited, telling the monk what she had sensed. He merely nodded.