6: Crossing Blades

 

 

 

6

CROSSING BLADES

 

 

“Experience teaches slowly and at the cost of mistakes.”
-James A. Froude

 

 

 

“Come on! Move the sword towards him, don’t just slice at any old thing!”

          Emma gasped for breath and wiped the sweat from her eyes. What did I do to deserve this? She thought. But she had no time to think on it; Tor had already recovered, and she had to bring her sword up to block the attack. Pain shot through her arms from the power of the blow.

          A month had come and gone since that first night in Telliandra’s quarters. They had started the next day at the rise of the sun. They had begun with ways to concentrate, and how to clear your mind of all thought. Eight counts in, eight counts out. Over and over and over again. Telliandra then proceeded to make her heal every cut, scrape, and bruise in the whole entire castle. “For practice” she told her. If that was not enough, she also taught her a new spell every day, and expected her to have it worked out and memorized by the next morning. They had been through not only healing, but more protection spells, how to break them, controlling plants, lighting fires, candles, and anything else that would burn; and one levitation spell!

          And then she taught her strange, random things like how to be completely silent in a room with creaky floorboards, and how to pick a lock.

          On top of all this she made her do fifty push-ups, forty sit-ups, and five laps around the training field every morning. She had also started her on spear, bow, and now sword.

          Emma had been extremely surprised to find out that Tor was a fantastic swordsman. So good, in fact, that Telliandra told her if she could beat him then she would know Emma was ready to compete against her.

Maleshen and Lyulf watched from the sidelines as Tor and Emma battled it out. Actually it was more like watching a taller boy pound a poor little first-year apprentice into one giant bruise. That’s how Emma felt about the whole thing.

She was getting better than she had been, but the sword still didn’t feel right, didn’t quite fit right in her hand. Tor struck again, harder than before, and Emma collapsed under the power of it.

Tor offered a hand and pulled Emma up.” Sorry, kidling. Didn’t mean to hit that hard.”  Emma had told him and Cassidi about her experiences with the strayrs, and Tor, finding the whole thing extremely interesting, had laughed at their name for her, and began calling her “kidling”. Emma had decided that the strayrs would like him: he had their sense of humor. (He had turned out to be a very good friend, but he was certainly a little strange.)

“Don’t apologize for fighting well. An enemy in combat won’t.” Telliandra said sternly to Tor. “Come on Emma. Get up. Let’s try it again.”

Emma stared at her in shock. Is she crazy?

But Tor had already picked up his sword and whipped it towards her. Emma, angry with her friend for starting even though he knew she wasn’t ready, blocked the attack and whacked him with her own sword, hard enough so that she knew it would hurt. The swords were blunted with magic, but in real life it would have sliced his side open. Tor fell, winded, and lay on the ground gasping for breath.  Emma kneeled beside him and took the edge off the pain.

“I’m sorry, Tor! I didn’t mean to hit that hard…” She trailed off, realizing that she sounded like she was mocking him. She really meant it, though. She hadn’t meant to knock the wind out of him.

          Tor wrenched himself away from her and leaped up to his feet, picking his sword up in the process. Emma barely had time to grab her own sword before he came down on her. His eyes flashed. He was angry with her, now.

          Emma got up off the ground in one fluid motion and struck his side, kicking out with her left leg to trip him. Tor sliced down and hit her thigh, making her foot go numb. Emma limped away. Tor came forward for another attack and found Emma’s blade blocking his.

          Suddenly the hilt of the sword fell into place. At least, that’s what it felt like. Emma spun, hitting his sword arm (he was left handed) and coming up underneath him, so that their hilts locked together. He pulled away, but her hilt caught his fingers against his own. Something crunched. He spun, hit her across the chest. Emma hit his side, hooked her sword under his arm, and tripped him with her left leg. He fell, his sword flying. Emma put her sword tip against his throat.

Clapping filled the room. Emma spun around to find Telliandra standing beside her. “Well done, Emma. Well done.”

          Emma offered a hand to Tor. He didn’t take it. Emma stared after him as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him.

She looked at Telli. “What did I do wrong?”

“His pride’s wounded. Leave him be for a while. He has a hot temper and it takes him a while to cool down.”

 

 

Tor slammed every door he could find on his way out.

“That’s not going to help anything. You’re just going to end up breaking something.” Maleshen told him.

“Yeah well, I hope they can’t put it back together!” He said angrily.

“Why are you angry? She’s improved. You trained her well.”

“She made fun of me! I apologized and she mocked me! She’s a little brat with no manners and I never want to see her again!” He screamed at her.

“Well now you’re just being silly. You like Emma, and you need a friend. You can’t have just me for an ally. She wasn’t trying to make fun of you. I felt her feelings, and they were sincere. You do wrong to call her such things.”

          Tor stomped into the stables and flung open the door to his horse, Ruby, a bronze-colored mare. Hurriedly he strapped on her saddle and threw the bridle over her head, synching up the buckles. He swung his leg over and kicked her into a gallop, leaving the castle and Emma far behind him.

          The scarce trees around Tanackniatah were silent, watching him pass with no comment. That scared him slightly; usually they were full of life at this time in the day.

          Maleshen kept pace with Ruby easily, running along side the horse gracefully, muscles rippling. Tor grinned to himself. He had expected a mouse, or maybe a bug for a familiar, never a tiger. Especially not a tiger like Mali.

          When they had gone a long ways from Tanackniatah, and Tor could feel Ruby getting tired, he slowed her down to a halt and dismounted.

“OW!”

 His fingers on his left hand had gotten caught in the reins. This was no new thing: he did that all the time when he dismounted. But it usually wasn’t painful. He toppled down to the ground and stared at his throbbing fingers, black and blue and swollen.

“She broke my fingers!” He yelled to no one in particular.

Maleshen looked down at his hand. “I don’t think she meant it. Her hilt probably smushed them when you were locked together.”

Tor rolled his eyes. “Great! Not only did she make fun of me, but she broke my fingers, too! Wonderful! What a great friend! I can’t believe…”

“TOR!”

Something hard hit his head. The world spun around and around infront of him, and his eyes went in and out of focus. Somewhere a man screamed as Maleshen tore into his flesh. Tor couldn’t get himself together enough to even move. He was dimly aware of someone locking something cold onto his wrists, and then the world just disappeared…

 

 

 

Emma was at the window when Ruby came back.

The horse was saddleless, and dragging her reins. Neither Tor nor Maleshen was with her.   

          Emma arrived in the courtyard just as Cassidi and Telliandra, along with Rishka, got there and got control of Ruby. The young mare was scared out of her wits, and pranced and reared around them nervously, which was unusual for Ruby, as she wasn’t easily startled. A good trader’s horse wasn’t.

“Cassidi, go get Cheryl and Alex. Tell them it’s an emergency.”

Cassidi started running for the Seer’s Temple.

“What happened? Where is he?” Emma almost yelled at Telliandra.

Telliandra just looked at her, didn’t say a word. Emma knew what had happened. They both did.

No. Her mind screamed at her. Not Tor. No. NO!

          Emma had never met Cheryl or Alex. They were both Seers, like Ty, possessed of the magic that let you see what hadn’t happened yet. Cheryl was an older woman, grey-blonde locks pulled into a bun on the back of her head, curls escaping their bonds. Her eyes were hazel-colored, and a tawny owl balanced gracefully on her shoulder.

“What happened?” Her voice was deep and calm.

“Have you met the trader boy, Tor? He galloped out of here on this horse and didn’t come back with her. Can you See what happened?”

Oh. Emma thought. She’s an Oracle Seer. She can See into the past, too. Read people’s memories. Emma wondered if Ty would end up as one of those. The ability usually didn’t show itself until the Seer was older.

Cheryl put a hand on either side of Ruby’s head and closed her eyes.

“They were riding. Riding fast. Tor dismounted and lay on the ground. The humans came up behind him. He didn’t see. Maleshen tried to warn him but it was too late. The humans hit his head, knocked him out. Maleshen tried to protect him, but fell when he did. They took him away. Ruby tried to fight them but they hit her, and she ran back to here, where it was safe.” She opened her eyes. “That’s all she saw.”

          The group listened in silence, Emma clenching her fists. A boiling anger began to take hold of her heart.

Cheryl turned to Alex. “Can you See where they took him?”

          Alex, to Emma’s surprise, was a girl. She had never heard of a girl named Alex before. She wasn’t exactly pretty, wavy dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail, her dark eyes out of focus at the moment, searching for Tor. She wasn’t very old, only around twenty or so. A red-shouldered hawk sat on her right shoulder.

“Not far from here, maybe a two-hour ride, at a gallop all the way. He’s… “ She stopped. “He’s in a cell.”

The boiling anger turned to icy fear.

Cheryl looked at Telliandra. “Alex is training to be a knight. She can use her Sight to make sure they don’t take him anywhere, and she’s a good rider. You can trust her with this.”

Telliandra nodded. “I know I can. Go saddle your horse, Alex. Be quick.”

“I’ll go get ready.” Emma said and headed off toward the castle. Telliandra’s strong hand stopped her.

“Ready for what?”

Emma stared at her. “To go rescue Tor.”

Telliandra raised her eyebrows. “This is not a job for an apprentice. Alex will do fine by herself.”

Emma almost thought she’d misunderstood. “You act like we’re talking about a package or something! We’re talking about TOR!”

“The rescuing of a captive is no job for a child! You will go to your quarters and you will stay there until I release you!” It was the first time Telli had ever yelled at her.

Emma just stood there for a second in shock, then started marching to her room. She refused to run.

“Telliandra!” Someone said behind her. “The Earth Tower needs your assistance.”

“I’ll be there in a second.”

 

 

Emma watched out the window as Alex took off at high speed into the woods.

Child. She thought. I am no child!

No. Said Lyulf. You aren’t.

Emma stared at him. It was as if he wanted her to do something. She remembered what she had first thought when she saw Telliandra. She can’t do anything worse to me than what the humans have done already.

          Emma strapped Matathulaz and the dagger to her belt and threw the bag that carried her flute over her neck. On went her riding boots and the leather coat. Child. She thought angrily. I’ll show you what a child I am!

          In the stables she put the tack on a horse she had ridden before, and knew was fast. A spirited white Arabian called Dancer.

          She moved the gelding into a canter and rode in the direction that Alex had gone.

 

The trees flew by at high speed as Dancer sped through the forest, Lyulf running beside them. Emma was leaned down in the saddle, urging the horse to go faster, faster!

          The sight of Alex on her brown mare made Emma grin in triumph. I caught her! She thought. But Alex didn’t seem to be surprised to see her. She only grinned when Emma brought Dancer up beside her.

“Finally! I thought you’d never get here!”

“You knew?” Emma yelled over the hoof beats.

“Oh, I saw it coming.”

Emma groaned inwardly. Seers.

          When Alex caught “sight” of the prison, she slowed the horses down and dismounted.

“Go quietly. Leave the horses here.”

Emma nodded and tied Dancer’s reins to a nearby tree.

          The companions crept silently to the window on the back of the building. Alex put a silencing spell on the window and slid it open carefully. She hoisted herself up and dropped lightly inside the cell. Emma came in after her, not so gracefully, and landed not so lightly on the dirt floor.

          Tor lay in the corner, curled up and silent. There were shackles on his hands. Telliandra had told Emma about them: they bound your magic to you so that every time you tried to use it they would become burning hot.

          Emma crawled over to where Tor lay and turned him over to see if he was wounded.

He was.

          His stomach was sliced open and was bleeding freely. Emma had to put her head between her legs for a second and take several deep breaths. Alex crawled over to the other side and was quietly sick.

          When she regained control of herself she gestured for Alex to pick up Tor and start trying to get him out the window. Lyulf got Maleshen awake just enough so that she could get herself to the window and leap through it. Emma crawled out last.

          Alex was already making for the woods and the horses. Emma took off after her; the sooner they got out of here the better.

          Emma helped Alex tie Tor to the saddle and then the two girls mounted and turned their steeds towards home.

Emma, Lyulf said in her head, Maleshen won’t be able to run fast enough. I’ll stay with her. You two ride ahead. I don’t think he can make it much longer.

Somehow the ride back seemed to fly by faster and yet slower than before.  They had gotten him out alive, yes, but for how much longer?

 

 

 

Tanackniatah rolled into view all too slowly. Cassidi was waiting for them in the courtyard.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

Emma didn’t reply. “Where’s Telliandra?”

“Still at the Earth Temple. I’ll go get her.”

Emma felt like screaming. They didn’t have time to wait for Telliandra. Tor had lost too much blood already.

          She had no choice.

“People…” She couldn’t hear herself think over the racket.

“LISTEN TO ME!”

Silence.

“I need someone to go boil rags. Lots. I need someone to help me carry him to the nearest room. I don’t care which one it is. Someone has to keep people from going in there when I’m working. Only the maids bringing the rags can come inside. Now HURRY!”

          The courtyard turned into organized chaos as the servants decided who would do what. Two of the men, Emma, and Alex carried the wounded Tor into the first unoccupied room they came across. Emma wiped most of the blood away on with the rags, then looked into her cor.

“Lyulf?” She called in her mind.

“We’re almost there, Emma.” He sounded distant.

“I think I’m gonna need your help.”

“Start without me. It’s just like healing a cut in the beginning. I’ll be there.”

          Emma dropped the image of her cor and looked into Tor’s instead. It burned a steady white. He was connected to Air.

          Her magic relocated itself to the wound, which was making itself bloody again. In her magical vision she could se it dying slowly but steadily, the life draining from it and disappearing into the air. She tunneled down to the bottom of the cut, which was deep. Whatever had sliced him had done its job well.

          She brought a thread of her cor down and began stitching the wound on his stomach, pulling it back together.

“Wait!”

Lyulf touched her leg gently.

“You have to heal the inside first, or the acids will eat his stomach away.”

Emma hurriedly undid the magic and looked in at the damage on the inside of his stomach.

“How do I heal that?”

“Remind it of how it once was.”

“What?”

“Don’t ask me what it means! That’s just what She told me to say!”

Who’s ‘She’? Emma wondered.

          She tried at first to imagine what it was like before, than found that that was impossible. Please, Flora, help me!

          An idea struck her. Instead of trying to understand it herself, she just told the injured cells to be as they once were. Even if she couldn’t know, they did.

          The cells did as they were told, remembering a life before they were so rudely interrupted. They did the work for her, remembering and healing.

          Emma did the rest. She pushed the broken skin together, forcing it, leaving only a faintly glowing line where the ghastly wound had once been. The world of healing slowly faded, and the room where her body had been standing came into view once more. Tor lay quietly on the bed, uninjured but not too pretty. The maids and servants were staring at her, eyes wide and mouths open. It was like she had just brought someone back from the dead or something. They were Mati, they should know better.

Emma was too tired to think about it.

“Try to clean him up a little. If he throws up blood later don’t worry. It's just because it’s still in his stomach. Call me when he wakes up.”

Telliandra’s voice filled the hall. “What do you mean he’s already been healed? There’s no one else…” She stopped talking abruptly when she saw Emma.

“Could I talk to you for a moment?” Her voice was calm but dangerous.

Emma followed her without a word. She knew she was going to get yelled at; Telliandra would have figured out by now that she had gone with Alex. Frankly, she didn’t care.

          Telliandra led her to a quiet balcony where they wouldn’t be overheard. She was quiet for a moment, then she turned and looked into Emma’s eyes.

“Did you go with Alex?”

Emma didn’t even blink. It was a stupid question, for they both knew the answer.

“Yes.”

“Emma, you disobeyed the orders of your Master and your Queen. A regular queen would have you hanged for that.”

“You’re not a regular queen.” Emma said calmly.

“And what if I was?” asked Telliandra. “What would you say to defend yourself?”

Emma tore her gaze away from the city to look at her teacher.

“I would say, your highness, that I did what I thought was right…what I knew was right. I watched my parents, my family, die at the hands of humans! Do you really believe that I am afraid of them? I may be afraid of what they can do to the Mythics, what they can do to us, but I am not afraid of what they can do to me. They have done their worst to me already. I will not sit in this bloody castle and let other people fight a war that I have every right to be a part of. If I am to be hanged when day breaks for that, then so be it. I would rather die at your hands then at theirs.” Telliandra seemed to be, for once, at a loss for words. Emma stared straight into those strange purple eyes. “If this is how you will teach me then I do not want to be your apprentice. I will fight for my people, and I will find my brother, whether I have to disobey your orders or not.”

          They stood there, locked eye to eye, an orphaned village-girl against a famous queen.

Telliandra was the first to look away.

She leaned against the railing and looked down at her city. “I’m sorry Emma. I’m new at this. I’ve never had any children, let alone an Apprentice. You are right. You have more right to be a part of this war than even I do.

          “My mother always told me that she would never order me to do anything, that I had a right to decide who I wanted to be. I suppose it’s time I gave you that choice, too. I’ve been meaning to get on the road again, to make things a little harder for these b******s. I think that you should go with me. There’s no magic that I can teach you that you couldn’t figure out yourself. What you need to learn now is Life, and that can only be taught where you can use it.”

She looked fondly at her pupil. “You really are an amazing person, Emma. A sheer daughter of cuChulainn. Your father would be proud.”

Emma almost blushed. That was the highest compliment she had ever received.

“In a week’s time we will set out. Just you and Rishka and I. Tor should be healed by then. Right now I suggest that you go lay down. They effects of using that much magic will kick in in a few minutes.”

          Emma nodded, and the two went back inside. Rishka was waiting there, and as soon as he saw Telli he started babbling away in that strange language, which Emma had learned was the Spirit language.

“Oh, go eat a bug, Rishka.”

Emma looked at her teacher questioningly. “A bug?”

Telliandra shrugged. “Spirits are weird.”