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The next day, just as Nick was about to leave for morning drills, David stopped him at the front door and said, ‘You’ll train with me today. You need to learn how to shield.’
He held out a rough leather scabbard. Nick drew the sword and studied the blunt blade and grimy hilt. A large part of him wanted to refuse to go, just to spite David, but on the other hand, he was curious to learn more about this strange maléya. The temptation was too great to resist, so he followed David downstairs.
As soon as they’d stepped into Market Square, people stopped what they were doing to stare at David or salute. Some of them waved and called out ‘Nallindéra’. Nick scowled, trying to figure out how David had managed to convince so many people to love him.
They went to a large sandstone house around the back of their apartment block. The soot-stained walls and broken window shutters made it appear abandoned, but once Nick passed through the unlit entrance hall, he found a large enclosed courtyard with hard packed ground. Despite the daisies growing from cracks in the paving stones and thin stringybarks nudging the walls, this area was well-used.
‘Put the sword aside,’ David said. ‘I’d like to see what you know first.’
He removed his jacket and flexed his arms. He had the intimidating physique of a halfback player. Nick ran through all the Yándi combat moves he’d practiced yesterday and began planning ways of countering them. He lowered his centre of gravity, raised his guard, waited for David to prepare as well. But he didn’t. He just studied Nick’s stance with interest.
‘Well? What are you waiting for?’ David asked.
Nick aimed a jab at his chin. He tried a few more Bandála combinations but didn’t even get close to making contact. He decided to try some moves of his own and swung into a roundhouse kick. David caught his foot then swept his other leg out from under him. Nick crashed onto the dirt, grunting as the wind was punched out of his lungs.
‘You can do better than that,’ David said.
The amusement in his voice spurred Nick on. He sprang up and attacked without hesitation, trying every move he knew, but nothing got past David’s guard. Three more times David slammed him to the ground, leaving him sucking air, blinking stars from his vision, and raging even more than before.
‘You’re better than I expected,’ David said, holding a hand up to stop Nick’s attack. ‘But from now on, try to pace yourself. If I was an Arai, you’d already be dead.’
Nick wiped the sweat from his face. ‘You told me to fight harder.’
‘Yes. I did.’
‘So what are you saying? If I want to win I shouldn’t fight?’
‘I’m saying you shouldn’t have listened to me. The Arai focus a great deal of their training on defence and provocation. They’ll try anything to stir you into a rage and then ward off your attack until you get tired. That’s when they go in for the kill.’
Nick pushed his dreadlocks off his forehead. They flopped right back into place. ‘Okay. Don’t fight first. Got it.’
David unsheathed his sword, but before Nick had time to get his, David said, ‘You won’t need yours yet.’
Nick eyed David’s sword and asked, ‘The blade’s blunt, right?’
David ran his palm along his own weapon but his brown skin remained unbroken. ‘Wouldn’t slice through boiled roots.’
‘Why aren’t you using a curved sabre like the ones the Bandála soldiers carry?’
‘These are Arai weapons. They’re the ones you have to learn to avoid.’ David patted his chest. ‘Most of the time our maléya can protect us. The vast majority of Arai don’t have that advantage. When they’re in a fight, their weapons are all the defence they have. You have your shields, but you should only shield if it’s absolutely necessary. Shielding tires you out, and it’s hard to swing a sword when you don’t have much strength left. In fact,’ he added, almost to himself, ‘we should probably start with staffs, since your maléya is already awakened.’
He scooped up a wooden staff, spun it in his hands, around his back, over his head, then speared it into the ground. Nick stared, open-mouthed.
‘There are two parts to maléya training,’ David said. ‘Awakening and honing. Awakening is very painful.’
Nick edged away.
‘You’ve used your shields already,’ David continued, ‘which means your maléya is already awakened.’
‘Oh. That’s good.’
David held up his staff. ‘The next bit is honing. Let’s see how long you last. Concentrate on keeping your shields raised rather than blocking each blow. If you do that, you shouldn’t get hurt.’
Nick watched the staff spin faster and faster, blurring into a brown wheel. His fingers tingled, senses sharpened. A dull numbness spread across his skin like a chill. Everything around him became hazy till only David was sharply defined.
Without warning, the staff changed course and cracked against Nick’s shoulder. A bright flash lit up the courtyard. The force of the blow threw him off balance and he staggered back. He didn’t feel any pain but prodded the spot where the staff had connected, just to be sure nothing was broken. He couldn’t feel the touch of his fingers on his skin. At first, he thought all his nerve endings had stopped working. Then he realised there was something between his fingers and his arm, an invisible, protective barrier that continued over his shoulder, down his chest, and across his entire body.
He grinned. ‘Cool.’
Another hit sailed towards his head. His arm whipped up. The courtyard brightened again. Time after time David struck, aiming for Nick’s chest, back, sides, head, legs. Nick managed to deflect most of the blows, but the ones that shot past his defence did nothing more than force him back a step.
After a while, David tossed the staff aside. The numbness on Nick’s skin disappeared and in its place came a throbbing ache that shot through his whole body. He collapsed to his knees, panting.
‘Maintaining your shields for any length of time takes a lot of getting used to,’ David said.
‘How long did I last?’
‘About two minutes. That’s not bad for your first try.’
Nick wiped sweat from his brow. ‘Two minutes? It felt like at least twenty.’
‘Twenty minutes takes years of training.’
‘Years? But I thought...’ He trailed off, realising how stupid he’d sound if he finished that sentence.
David chuckled. ‘You thought you’d learn how to shield one day and be invincible the next, right?’
Nick shrugged.
‘It’ll take months of hard training before you come close to cracking even the three-minute mark,’ David said, then added in a quiet voice, ‘You can’t rush something that important.’