The Iron Butterfly (26 page)

“Stop it,” I yelled.

“Make me,” she yelled back, and as fast as the hole in the earth appeared it disappeared and was solid earth again. Syrani walked across the earth and came to stand in front of me. She raised one polished finger and tipped my chin back so I could look into her eyes.

“That is if you can?” she finished.

Anger boiled over and I pushed her finger away from my face. I stood up straighter and did the only thing I could think of to fight back. I punched her.

Syrani shrieked in pain and backed away from me, wiping her nose to reveal a small trickle of blood.

I smiled crookedly at her.

“I don’t care what the SwordBrother threatens to do to me,” she spat out between gritted teeth, breathing in rage. “You are dead.”

The ground shifted again, became finer, softer and I started to sink into the earth as it hungrily pulled at my boots.

Quicksand!

This was not how I thought I would die. It couldn’t be, could it? The sand was to my knees and I turned and tried to struggle toward the edge of the sandpit.

“Come on. Do something!” someone shouted.

Then another voice picked up, “Fight her back.”

I glanced up through sand-filled eyes and saw that everyone else had stopped what they were doing to watch Syrani and I battle. What surprised me the most was that they were cheering for me.

The sand pulled harder and faster; it was up to my chest. Desperately I swam through the sand, trying to find some sort of foot purchase or hand hold. A clap of thunder alerted me to the presence of Instructor Weston and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he would make Syrani stop.

I stopped struggling and waited for help. As the pull of the quicksand continued, I searched the crowd and saw Weston standing fifteen paces away; immobile. He didn’t move a muscle to help me; his grey eyes were riveted to me.

When it reached my neck; I knew that no one was going to help me. No one cared enough to help; and that infuriated me. My breathing became ragged and I had trouble focusing, the sand started to fill my mouth and I could only scream with rage. I was not going to be made a victim again. I had one final breath of air and then I was under the sand. It was cool, dark, and slightly moist against my body that felt too warm, too hot.

Pain wreaked havoc on my body. If I could have screamed, I would have as searing light burned through my body into my soul. I heard a loud crack and I felt as if a piece of me was broken in two. Something was wrong, it didn’t feel right. I wasn’t surrounded by light but by darkness.

Power like no other surged through my body, my fingers and bones ached with the electric current and I burned with anger. I wanted someone to pay for hurting me.

I could see with my subconscious; I could see through the sand and see the worry among the Denai students. I didn’t care, I wanted them to hurt.

I saw the light that surrounded Syrani and I pulled at it, her power, life, and squeezed. I could see her panic and start to cough as she tried to catch her breath.

THALIA. This isn’t the way,
Faraway’s voiced echoed clearly in my mind, calming me.
You must not steal power from others or destroy them, it’s not right.

“Then how?”

You know how.

And I did.

Looking down at myself with my inner vision, I saw that my own inner light was not a bright, glowing white like the other Denai, but full of darkness and shadows.

The Denai power isn’t free. It has a cost, physically, every time they use it. And for whatever twisted reason, I was now able to steal another’s life energy and use it without depleting my own strength. No, not able to, wanted to.

Something was wrong with me, something within me hungered for power that was not my own and it terrified me.

Faraway’s words made me see what I was doing and I released Syrani’s power, released her life. Instead, I reached for my own inner twisted darkness. It crackled; it jumped and flew to me willingly.

And the ground around my feet became solid and rose upwards, I started to rise from the sand like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, reborn with more power, strength and anger. Turning on Syrani, I saw her look of worry and disbelief, and I turned her own strengths upon her; earth.

Syrani began to sink into mud, faster than she was able to control it. I swatted her measly attempts to distract me with moving ground aside as she sank rapidly up to her neck. I walked over to the ground around her and made it harden and crack, trapping her beneath the surface; all but her head.

She struggled, mud dotting her pretty face, and she screamed in anger, “Get me out of here!”

I felt her attempt to move the earth around her, but I nullified it with my own force of will.

“Game?” a Denai student yelled, asking if Syrani conceded the win to me.

Looking up, I had forgotten we were still being judged.

“Game!” she called heatedly, refusing to make eye contact.

My anger which was so evident before dissipated almost instantly. Was that all it took to stop the practice? Was I so focused on being paired with Syrani that I missed the rules of the game?

My skin went cold and I felt the full effects of what I had done physically take a toll on my body. I felt weak, faint, and sick.

Weston dismissed us. A few stopped to help Syrani out of the ground, dusting her off, while others clapped me on the back congratulating me.

Once freed, Syrani stormed out of the arena, leaving a trail of dust behind her. A few hoots and hollers followed and the knowledge that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like Syrani, would have made me smile if I wasn’t feeling so sick.

A rumble of low thunder alerted me to Weston’s presence. Turning on him in anger I asked him, “Why didn’t you stop her? I could have died!”

“Would you now?” Weston spoke critically. “What makes you so certain you would have died?”

“I… just do.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Because…” he asked, waiting for me to finish.

“Because I stopped her. Instructor Weston, you don’t understand, I was dying. I was in pain.”

“And then you fought back, you won, because you were put through the fire, felt its burn and overcame. You’re stronger now, I can feel it. Or are you going to deny that it was really Syrani in danger, not you? It was you who tried to kill Syrani.”

The coldness started to spread throughout my body more as dread crept across my skin. He knew.

“I felt what happened beneath the earth. I was monitoring your life energy, and not once were you ever in danger of dying; after all, this is a special arena.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The arena won’t let you die.”

“Does everyone know about this?” This was absurd, I thought.

“Only the Denai students who have graduated through our program know. I could feel the power surround you and I have never in my life felt such strength, such power. You actually used Syrani’s gifts against her; it goes beyond the safety that is afforded by the arena.”

I collapsed to my knees in the dirt and shook my head, my dark hair falling forward to cover my face. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“I’ve never seen a Denai do what you did; use someone else’s strength instead of their own. I was about to intervene, when you stopped and used your own. Thalia, how can a Denai do this?”

“They can’t.” I looked up and around the beautiful arena in longing, knowing that I may be giving everything up by my next sentence. “No Denai can,” I whispered.

“Then how?”

“I’m not a Denai.”

I let the words sink in. Hearing them spoken aloud made it seem more real.

“I don’t understand,” Weston frowned. “Cassiel opened for you today. I watched him. I just assumed it was because you were too new into your gifts that the doors wouldn’t open.”

“I don’t know why either. Maybe you should ask him.” Pushing up from the ground, I turned and headed out of the arena. My stomach rolled from the physical exhaustion I felt, and the nervousness I had at the possibility of the doors not opening for me again.

Cassiel didn’t keep me waiting as he opened for me, and I bowed my head in thanks and walked through into the hallway knowing that Kael would be out there waiting for me to silently escort me to my next class.

He was, and instead of heading to my classes, I returned to my room, collapsed on my bed and slept through the night until morning.

Chapter 25

It wasn’t long before everyone had heard what I had done. My newfound confidence brought a spring to my step as I made my way over to Joss for our lessons with Kael. I had been hiding behind Joss’ presence ever since Kael had been assigned as my bodyguard. I made sure that I was with Joss or Garit as much as possible, trying to prove to Kael that he was unneeded and unwanted. Joss also enjoyed all of the extra time I was spending with him.

Kael ignored me most days as he ran us through combat training. I studied Kael whenever he wasn’t glaring at me, and I looked for any hint of the madness I saw earlier. His eyes, though stormy, were sane, but I always kept my guard up either way.

Kael trained us to fight with a variety of weapons including long sword, short sword, staff, knives and even an axe. Each change in weapon made me feel gangly and uncoordinated, but I stubbornly worked through the routines and practices. And with Faraway’s whispered hints, at least I wasn’t the worst student.

When a mace was dropped at my feet and I looked up into the smug face of Kael, I’d finally had enough. He was enjoying watching me struggle through these exercises.

“Kael, are you insane? I can’t see myself ever having to use half of these weapons in battle. Shouldn’t we be specializing on just one weapon instead of ten?”

“Who are you to question me or my sanity?” His voice became louder as he stalked me, drawing the attention of the other students. His tall body blocked the sun as I looked up into his angry eyes.

He spat between clenched teeth. “I’m a SwordBrother with a lifetime of knowledge and experience. I live, breathe and eat fighting and battle. This is what I was trained for. You, Thalia, are nothing, a nobody, a mere pip of a girl who doesn’t know anything about surviving in the real world.”

“I do too!” I clenched my fists to my side and spat out at him. “And you know it.”

Joss came up behind me and reassuringly put his hand on either side of my shoulders, and stood firm against Kael’s anger.

Kael glared at him. “Back off, Denai! I won’t hurt her. This is between teacher and student, don’t interfere.”

I gave a look to Joss indicating that I would be all right. Joss reluctantly stepped away.

Kael shook his head at me. “Do you even know what you will be up against?” Dropping his voice to a bare whisper meant for only our ears, he continued. “Did you ever expect to find yourself in a prison, tortured, attacked by dogs, being hunted by the Septori?”

“You forgot to mention being attacked by an angry SwordBrother.”

Kael’s eyes narrowed in anger, but he didn’t deny it. “Well, did you? How do you possibly know what you are up against? What I’m teaching you right now, despite your complaints, could one day save your life.”

His angry words made my breath catch and I duly listened to his chastisement, my lungs burning for air. My heart hurt from his angry words, but at the same time my injured soul cried out for action against him.

Kael began to move away from me and turned at the last minute toward me in rage. “And don’t you ever question a SwordBrother again!”

A few of Syrani’s cronies who had stopped practicing to watch the spectacle we were creating, clapped and hollered in encouragement to the SwordBrother.

My cheeks flamed and my eyes stung with unshed tears that I quickly blinked away. A quick glance at Joss showed that he was angry at Kael, and he looked like he was about to challenge him when I strode away. Practice was over and I kept walking straight to my room, motioning for a guard to follow me.

I couldn’t take this kind of treatment and I refused to allow Kael to treat me like this. So I skipped the following couple of days of practice and instead opted for private lessons once again with Garit. I was still training; just with someone else.

Faraway was my eyes and ears on the practice field.

You know he’s mad.

“I don’t care.”

For every practice you’re not there, the cloud around him get darker. And he takes it out on the other students, making them practice harder and longer. He has even begun challenging students to combat. He’s been ruthless to Joss.

I had no idea what Faraway meant by a cloud, but I was happy to finally be free of the headache that was Kael and also the one that seemed to follow me whenever I was in his presence. Lately I’ve been able to make it a mind over matter and I barely even notice it anymore. But I felt a small victory in having won over Kael.

The victory was short lived, as after the fifth day of skipped practice, a knock came to my door. I was surprised, but at the same time not, to see that it was Kael. His angry posture and demeanor spoke volumes and Faraway was right, I could actually see a slight darkness around him.