Chapter 5

The tone of their training changed. When the Chayyoth yelled them awake in the morning, their manner was different. While the previous morning was difficult and all the yelling annoying, there had been a somewhat comical edge to everything the flight instructors did. That was gone. They still yelled, but there was a grim determination behind each word. The run was different; quiet. If someone couldn’t keep up, an instructor fell back and ran with them.

They were all walking off the field at the end of the run when one of the instructors said, “Where do you think you’re going? All Chayyoth are to run an extra mile. Form back up!”

The human companions laughed and taunted the Chayyoth as they fell back into formation. Neviah had a thought. Companions were supposed to do everything together. She jogged forward to stand by her companion in formation. Victoria and Asa fell in beside their companions, followed shortly after by the other recruits.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Corban looking at her before giving a single respectful nod of his head. She acted like she didn’t notice but couldn’t keep from smiling.

“There may be hope for this group yet,” the flight instructor said, starting their extra mile.

After breakfast, they were all ushered down to Uru. The flight students soon found themselves in the large courtyard within the School of Soldiering. If Neviah thought she was shunned by the other companions, it was nothing compared to standing in the training yard amidst hundreds of human soldier recruits. The only comfort was the other flight students were equally as excluded as she was. The soldier recruits stared at them as if they were from another planet, which Neviah thought was ironic because she and her friends actually were. Come to think of it, the Chayyoth sort of were, too.

The yard was quite large, easily spanning the length of a football field back on Earth, but any grass had long ago been trampled until only dry, cracked clay remained. The army recruits looked equally drab, with plain brown tunics and matching pants. The flight humans stood out in their blue and white uniforms.

A crusty old man walked into the courtyard, and everyone snapped to attention. “The flight students will be with us every other day so we can teach them to be warriors!” he yelled so everyone could hear him.

The soldier recruits gave a loud “Hurrah” in unison.

“I am Weapons Master Instructor Nadab. Today, you will all learn the basics of the sword. To your stations!”

All the recruits grabbed wooden swords and stood in lines, the companions doing their best to mirror the young soldiers.

The instructor walked over to the flight students. “You will be at a disadvantage in every class,” he said, speaking normally. “Only half your training will be spent on the art of combat. You will, however, only be learning the sword, spear, shield, and bow, so the days you miss will usually be spent going over the many other weapons, husbandry, and land tactics. Now, ready your practice sword and learn fast.”

The next hour was spent going through sword drill after sword drill. Then, they went through shield technique. Close to noon, they were all moved to the archery arena, where everyone was issued a bow.

“There is no such thing as a practice bow,” the archery instructor said as soldiers passed out bows to the newcomers. “The bow you are issued will be your bow. You will be shown how to care for it.”

When they came near, Asa pulled out the Sword of Re’u and let it turn into a beautiful silver bow.

“I already have one,” he said, drawing everyone’s bewildered stares.

Neviah and Victoria pulled out their swords and willed them to become bows as well.

None of the students were allowed to shoot a single arrow in that class but instead learned how to set a bowstring, how to keep it dry and strong, and how to prevent fraying. It was a boring class, especially since Neviah didn’t need any of the information, knowing her bow was indestructible. She managed to pay attention anyway, telling herself that anything she learned could be useful one day.

The pace changed for the evening classes, which were held back on Alya. It was the Chayyoth’s turn to learn how to fight. After sitting around most of the day watching their human companions, they were excited to try their paws at fighting.

Classes for the Chayyoth recruits were much fiercer, involving wrestling matches with each other and mutilating dummies with their claws and teeth. Instead of wrestling one of the recruits, Corban wrestled one of the instructors to be fair. It still wasn’t fair. Neviah could tell her companion was going easy on the instructor so he wouldn’t lose any credibility in front of the recruits. Corban would have ripped the instructor apart in a real fight. When class ended, Neviah looked at the setting sun with dread. They were one day closer to war.

***

The sign language class the next day hadn’t changed much, though the instructor didn’t allow anyone to speak. Everyone had to flip through a large picture book with the many different hand gestures painstakingly painted on the pages. It was fun in a way, almost like charades. It was fortunate that many of the hand gestures resembled what they meant.

The instructor had to get on them for monkeying around after one of the boys found the sign for “I have to poop,” which consisted of putting the back of his hand on his butt and wiggling his fingers. All the males were running around signing it over and over. Even Asa was doing it. Though Victoria didn’t join in, her laughter certainly didn’t discourage him.

The tactics class had Asa recount how he killed Nebo. The students and instructors hung on his every word as he recounted the tale: their imprisonment, his plan to slay the dragon, the failure of the original plan, and the slaying of the beast by trapping him in the tunnels while he was transforming from his human form. Asa used the word “we” a lot, stressing that it was teamwork, but Neviah knew they would still be trapped or worse if it hadn’t been for his plan to break out.

The events sounded impossible, hearing them put together like a story. Asa did leave out the reason for his sudden urge to kill the dragon. How he thought Nebo killed Victoria. Neviah looked at the shy friend sitting beside her. Asa killed a dragon for the girl.

He continued the story beyond the death of Nebo so he could incorporate Rafal into the tale. The Chayya stood proudly while his name was put with the battle. It didn’t matter that he didn’t do any actual fighting. Having been there was enough.

When the story was over, the instructor asked, “Do you think it was the fiery explosion that killed the dragon or the crushing tunnels?”

Asa shrugged. “I think either could have done it. If I had to choose, the tunnels did the trick, though the explosion stopped him from escaping.”

The rest of the class was spent going over human and Shedim anatomy, both being the most likely enemies in the coming war. The biggest shock of the day came from the flight class.

“You will be flying next week,” one of the flight instructors informed them. At first, Neviah wondered why their training was being accelerated. Surely, they wouldn’t have the inexperienced companions ready to fight in time for the coming battles. Would they really want inexperienced fighters in the air?

Then, it hit her. The Sword of Re’u was the only way they could defeat a dragon. It could cut through anything. The training was being accelerated because the sword was the only hope of winning. She looked over at her flightless companion. She would be desperately needed in the sky, yet she’d chosen a flightless Chayya.

They were rushed through flight techniques, teaching the humans how to hold on and the Chayyoth how to move without losing their rider. The class went long, keeping them an extra hour to teach the humans how to fall.

“When you fall from your Chayya,” the human instructor was saying, “face your shield and weapon down, but spread your arms and legs wide to give your companion something to grab onto.” He laid face down on the grass and demonstrated.

“Sir, will we have parachutes?” Asa asked.

The instructor stood and frowned. “What’s a parachute?”

“That answers my question,” Asa said under his breath to Neviah.

“Did he just say when we fall?” Neviah asked.

“Anyway,” the man continued. “Chayyoth, you must be quick. Your wings can only counter so much force. If your companion is falling too fast, you will not be able to bank out of the fall, and you will both die.”

“So, you can see it is best to stay on your Chayya,” his companion said.

When the class was over, as Neviah walked across the clearing, she could not help but think about how horrifying it would be to fall off a Chayya miles above the world. The thought made her shudder. She paused when she realized Corban hadn’t followed.

He and Asa were standing off to the side of the clearing, talking. Asa was nodding, and as if they sensed her eyes, they looked toward Neviah at the same time. What could they be talking about? With one last word for Asa, Corban walked her way.

When he had caught up to her, Neviah asked, “What were you guys talking about?”

“He has an idea of a way to make fighting dragons more effective,” he said without stopping.

She followed him to a meeting of flight instructors. It was mostly administration stuff, and Neviah was more than happy to be done with it when they left. Victoria and Enya were already asleep when they made it back to the barracks.

After the morning exercise session, this one giving them a break from running to do some boulder climbing, they found themselves in the sword training yard again.

“The best way to drive home your lessons is practical application,” Master Instructor Nadab said, looking around to take in everyone. “Meaning, the best way to learn is by fighting each other. The instructors will walk around and give you directions.”

Neviah felt the edge of her wooden practice sword. It was made out of a soft wood with a rubber-like quality. The edge was blunt instead of sharp, though it would still hurt very much to be hit with one. After everyone was issued a battered wooden shield and hardened leather helmet, they were paired off. Neviah got a tall boy who looked annoyed at being paired up with a girl.

“Fight!” the instructor said, and the courtyard erupted into an amateur battle scene. The boy came at Neviah with an overhead strike, which she managed to block with her shield, though the weight of it made her movements slower than she liked.

Before she could counter, he’d already stepped to the side and hit her in the arm with his sword. It stung horribly, and she dropped her shield to rub the bruise she knew was forming.

An instructor came over to her. “When you block with your shield in a way that makes you lose sight of your enemy, you should expect an attack from one side or the other. Therefore, you need to block the strike you know will be coming. Like this.” He pretended like he was holding a shield and blocking up. As he brought down his shield to cover his left shoulder, he brought up his sword to cover his right. “It is also wise to gain distance by backing away from your opponent.”

Neviah nodded. It was good advice, similar to what she was taught during tryouts. She decided to take the offensive and sliced at the boy, who blocked with his sword and ran into her with his shield, bowling her over and knocking her to the ground. That really annoyed her. The soldier recruit let her stand, and the fight continued. Even when she blocked with the shield, the strikes jarred her all the way down to her feet.

She spared a glance at Victoria. She wasn’t doing any better, with several large bruises on her forearms. Neviah exchanged another round with the tall boy, earning a welt on her shoulder. She found Asa in the crowd. He seemed to be doing okay. He sported a nasty bruise on his cheek, but his opponent was gingerly holding his sword. Asa must have gotten him in the hand.

Another round and Neviah received the first strike to her head. Despite the helmet, her vision swam for a moment. When her sight normalized, she yelled in anger and let loose all her strength on her opponent. He blocked and parried every blow until she had spent all her energy, then struck her in the stomach. Either the boy was extremely good, or she was extremely bad. When the sword training was over, she hurt everywhere. Asa healed Victoria of her bruises, but Neviah wouldn’t let him heal her.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I just don’t want you to,” she said more angrily than she meant. She knew she should apologize but was too frustrated to talk. Corban wasn’t.

“Why do you keep your bruises?” he asked.

“Because I earned them. They’re mine.” She’d meant the statement to be sarcastic, but he nodded.

“I understand,” he said, with something very close to approval in his voice.

The archery training was much better. Far away, there were fifty targets, which everyone lined up across from. The instructors walked down the lines, giving instructions where they were needed. By the time the first group had spent ten arrows, most were at least getting near the target. Very soon, it was Neviah’s turn. Victoria gave her a pat on the back before she stepped up to shoot.

Using the Sword of Re’u, she let it become a bow and drew back her arrow, holding her fingers against the side of her cheek so she could look down the shaft of the arrow. When she let loose the string, the arrow shot forward like a bullet. There was a loud crack as the arrow hit the bottom right edge of the target and traveled through it and through the stone wall behind it. The instructor beside her looked between the hole in the wall and her. Neviah and her friends were immediately issued regular bows.

“You can practice with your magic bows outside the city walls,” the instructor told them. With the wooden bow, Neviah was able to hit the target nine times out of ten, with one hitting the yellow center. She received one of the better scores.

Then, Victoria took her place. She looked around shyly, waiting for Neviah to clear her arrows. When she was far to the side and out of the way, the instructor signaled for the next wave of recruits to begin shooting. All let their arrows fly, Victoria in time with everyone else. Less than ten shots hit targets. Not only did Victoria hit the target, but the arrow also struck dead center.

“Great shot,” the instructor near her said. “But can you do it again?”

The recruits took aim and let loose another volley. There was a shower of splinters against Victoria’s target as the arrow she shot struck the nock at the rear of her first arrow. The second arrow had destroyed itself on the first. The instructors exchanged looks of wide-eyed shock before one of them walked over and removed the first arrow.

“Again,” the instructor told the girl. No one else shot as Victoria notched an arrow and drew down on the target. The arrow flew and thudded home, key-holing the last shot perfectly. “Impossible,” the instructor beside her said.

Moving the other recruits out of the way, the instructor drew Victoria to the opposite side of the courtyard, effectively doubling the distance between her and the target. She looked at Neviah worriedly, not liking all the attention. Neviah pumped her fist and nodded, letting the other girl know she was doing great.

“Show her some support,” Neviah said to Ebbe, who was standing beside her. He stared at her for a moment before turning his attention back to Victoria.

“You can do it!” he yelled to the blond-haired recruit. “Show these soldiers what the School of Flight is all about!” This got the other companions cheering for her until the instructor raised a hand for silence.

Victoria’s last arrow was removed, but she soon put the fourth one in the exact same spot. The recruits were abuzz with excited wonder. Neviah looked between the girl and the target. Normal skill with the bow couldn’t duplicate what her friend had done. There had to be something else at work. Borrowing a bandana from the recruit next to her, she approached her friend, who had five very stumped instructors around her.

“May I try something?” Neviah asked as she stepped up to their circle. She stepped up behind Victoria and placed the bandana over her eyes as a blindfold. The instructors quietly stepped back as Neviah helped Victoria ready an arrow.

“What are you doing?” her friend whispered.

“Just try to hit the bull’s-eye like you’ve been doing.” Neviah stepped back and waited. From her position she could tell Victoria was aiming a little too low but didn’t say anything. The arrow flew and actually split the one that preceded it.

A round of applause came from the recruits, who were getting quite a show. At last, Neviah understood. Somehow, Victoria was using her gift to guide the arrow. Though she was convinced, she had to do one more thing, this mostly for the others’ sake.

“Did I hit it?” Victoria asked as Neviah helped her ready another arrow.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Just shoot one more,” Neviah said and faced Victoria the completely wrong way. The recruits moved out of what they assumed would be the path of the arrow. She had to quietly wave them out of the way of the targets, too. “Now,” Neviah said when the path was clear.

The arrow sped from the bow and, as if it had a mind of its own, it turned, flew the opposite way, and drove home into the dead center of the target, dislodging the previous arrow.

Everyone was silent, not knowing what to think of this obvious show of power they didn’t understand. Victoria took off her blindfold and realized what Neviah had done. She looked at her friend, the obvious question left unspoken. How?

“It’s your gift,” Neviah said. “You are controlling the arrow somehow.”

It was several minutes before the instructors were able to restore order and get the recruits lined up for the next round. In the next group was Asa, who Neviah knew had to be a good shot because he killed Ba’altose with an arrow through the heart. When the instructor gave the order to fire, every eye was on Asa, even those belonging to the shooting recruits. His arrow soared through the air and didn’t even strike the target. The next missed, too, sailing far over it. In fact, only one of his arrows even hit the target.

Had Victoria guided Asa’s arrow that day? Had she unknowingly helped slay Ba’altose? It was time to find out more about her friend’s strange gift.

The combat training for the Chayyoth that day was actually fun. Each Chayya was decked out in hardened leather armor and the humans had to throw rocks at them to teach them how to move so their armor took the impact.

“Stop dodging Rafal!” an instructor yelled when the Chayya ducked under a rock. “Are you trying to get Asa killed?”

The recruits’ instinct was to shy away from projectiles or to dodge them altogether. If a Chayya’s instinct was to duck in combat, the move could leave their companion vulnerable. Corban excelled at this, though Enya showed agility that surprised the other Chayyoth.

That night Neviah convinced Corban to keep the oil lanterns on after their normal bedtime. He and Enya watched as the girls sat on the floor with a glass jar in between them.

“I don’t think I can do it,” Victoria said at length.

“You’ve done it before,” Neviah said. “I’ve seen you make lightning before.”

“But I can’t control my gift like the rest of you.”

“You controlled it today. How did you make the arrows hit the target every time?”

Victoria shrugged.

“Were you thinking about Re’u?”

“No. Do you guys think about Re’u when you use your gifts?” Victoria asked.

“No,” Neviah said. Their gifts came to each of them naturally.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything. The instructors told us to clear our minds and focus down the arrow.”

“Maybe that’s it,” Neviah said, happy to have a clue on how to begin. “I want you to do that now. Forget about me, Enya, and Corban. Don’t think about anything except for making lightning. In the jar,” she added quickly.

Victoria closed her eyes for a moment. Nothing happened. She tried staring at the jar but still nothing.

“Do you feel anything?” Neviah asked.

“Sort of,” came the slow response.

“Can you describe it to me?”

“I see energy, I guess. Different energies. It’s everywhere. There are three enormous tree trunk-like beams of energy connecting to everything. It’s like I can almost touch things.” She reached out a hand while looking at something Neviah couldn’t see.

“Can you touch the energy tree things?” Neviah asked.

Victoria opened her eyes wide and shook her head. “No. I think it would be like touching a powerline.”

“Okay, never touch those. What about other, smaller energies?”

“Living things have energy. Each of us has a little ball of energy in us.”

“That’s neat, but maybe we don’t touch those either,” Neviah said.

“I can feel the static in the air,” Victoria said.

“Perfect,” Neviah said, feeling like a blind person trying to teach another blind person how to drive a car. “Concentrate like before, but try to touch the static.”

“I’ll try,” Victoria said and took a calming breath. She stared at the jar for a minute.

“You’ve got this,” Neviah whispered encouragingly.

Victoria nodded and softened her stare. Slowly, she lifted her hand as if she were reaching for something. Suddenly, there was a spark in the jar. Then another. In seconds, there was a little lightning show. Enya quietly rose and cut the lanterns down low.

“Amazing,” Corban said in awe. “Re’u has given you something wondrous.” The lightning was beautiful, the way it danced around the jar.

Tears were flowing from Victoria’s eyes.

“You did it!” Neviah whispered as tears welled up in her own eyes. She stared at the lightning for several minutes. Why was it so hard for Victoria to use her gift? Asa didn’t have to concentrate when he healed. Adhira’s gift was simple and constant. Even her own gift of prophecy only required her to wait sometimes. Something was consuming the other girl internally. Neviah could see it in the way she withdrew from people.

Grabbing Victoria’s hand, Neviah lifted her to her feet. The lightning show continued as Neviah led them through a simple dance, which made the other girl laugh. The lightning reflected off the wall and their faces as they twirled around it. Neviah allowed her dance to become more complex until the lightning finally vanished, and they were standing in the dim light of the lanterns.

“You held your concentration for quite a while,” Neviah said.

“I did!” the other girl said excitedly. “Can we do this again tomorrow?”

They got together every night for the next few days, practicing with fire, water, and anything else they thought she could do. Each time, they would dance until Victoria lost hold of her manifestations. It was so new and exciting. It wasn’t until Neviah woke on the tenth day that she realized there were only three weeks left in the month.