The Seventh Mountain (12 page)

Mark dropped the katana on the table beside
him in order to catch the short sword. Instinctively, he didn’t
drop the staff. The short sword also had the number thirty-four
stamped on the hilt.

“The best way to decide which one to study
first is to see which one you like best.”

Mark pulled each sword in turn from its
scabbard and tested the feel in his hand.

“Nick, your style is definitely the cutlass.
The cutlass is in the ‘stand-off’ class of swords. It has a wide,
long curved blade. Most have points; some don’t. Your length is
forty inches.” She retrieved a cutlass and tossed it to Nick. It
had the number forty stamped on the hilt.

Nick pulled the cutlass from its sheath and
tested the feel of it in his hand.

“Mark, have you made up your mind?”

“The short sword feels better in my hand,
but I think I have more control with the katana.” Mark had a sword
in each hand when he spoke. The staff leaned against his
shoulder.

Neither sword had been sharpened. They were
obviously for training.

“Control and accuracy are what you want in a
sword. It would probably be best for you to start with a katana.
Give me the short sword back, and you can keep the katana. Nick,
you can keep the cutlass.”

Mark spoke first. “We haven’t gotten our
signets yet. We can’t purchase anything without our counselor’s
okay.”

“You don’t need a signet or a counselor’s
permission to accept a gift.” Ms. Vanmie crossed her arms in front
of her and tilted her head to the left. “Besides, I am your combat
teacher. What I say about swords overrides what your counselor
says.” She raised her thin eyebrows and bowed her head ever so
slightly.

Both boys looked at each other. Their mouths
dropped open.

Mark said, “I don’t get it.”

“You two have quite a different attitude
than I get from other freshmen boys.” Ms. Vanmie approached them.
“Usually it’s just like you saw out there. ‘Oh Wow! I bet you could
really cut someone’s head off with this one,’ or a couple of boys
pick up swords and pretend to have at it. It’s refreshing to see
respect from freshmen. Thank you.”

Being paranoid doesn’t mean the threat
isn’t real
.

Both boys left the sword shop with their new
weapons slung over their shoulders. They decided to check out the
bookstore next. Not fifty paces out of the sword shop the boys
heard a voice behind them.

“What makes you so special?” Mark recognized
the voice without having to turn around. It was Ralph Lawrence.
When he did turn he saw that Ralph’s two buddies were still with
him.

“What?”

“You’ve got swords.”

“No one told you?” What Mark was about to
say came to him instantly, intuitively. “I can’t believe no one
told you.”

“Told me what?”

“That if you can touch Ms. Vanmie when she
is testing your natural defensive reflexes that she will give you a
sword. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.”

“You’re telling me that you actually were
able to touch Ms. Vanmie, the greatest living sword fighter in the
whole world. You’re a frickin’ liar.”

“Suit yourself. You’re right. She gave us
the swords because of our attitudes.”

“Yeah, right!”

“Okay then; you figure it out. I lied to you
and I told you the truth. Which was the lie and which was the
truth?”

“I’ll kick your butt.”

“Use your brain. Think now. I have a sword.
Nick has a sword. That means that something out of the ordinary has
happened. That means that possibly, just possibly, there is
something about us that you don’t know. Think about it. What do you
think that something might be?”

“Okay, you’re very fast or really lucky or a
good liar.”

Mark stiffened his stance and smiled. “Care
to take a chance and find out?”

Ralph stiffened. “I’ll know by tomorrow. And
just you remember; I’m not afraid of you!” Ralph turned and walked
off. Ricky and Keith followed him.

Mark and Nick continued to walk toward the
bookstore. “You know, I’ll bet that they’re heading straight for
the sword shop. You want to go and watch what happens?”

Nick smiled at the thought. “Yeah. If Ralph
takes the bait and tries to touch Ms. Vanmie, it’ll be fun to
watch.”

They walked back toward the sword shop and
saw the trio enter. Nick looked at Mark and said, “You were right.
They’re pretty stupid.”

Mark and Nick walked into the store just in
time to hear Ralph ask, “Is it true that if someone can touch you
when you test their reflexes, that you will give them a sword?”

Ms. Vanmie looked at Mark and Nick. Mark was
remembering his first encounter with Ralph and how Ralph was
taunting Nick. Ms. Vanmie paused for a moment and stared at Mark.
Then she looked at Nick. A scowl came over her face and she said,
“I see.” Then she nodded slowly at Mark and Nick.

She turned her attention back to Ralph. “So
you think that you might be quick enough or lucky enough to be able
to touch me during the reflex test do you?”

“No. I was just asking if it was true.”
Ralph seemed very nervous.

“Well then, let’s test your reflexes while
you’re here. If any one of you can touch me then I’ll give all
three of you the sword of your choice. I’ll even let you say when
to stop.”

“The sword of our choice? Any sword?”

“Yes. You can pick any sword at all if just
one of you manages to touch me even in the slightest way.”

“All right. What do we have to do?”

“Follow me into the back room. I will get a
small bamboo pole. You can pick any riotous that you like.”

“What’s a riotous?”

“It’s any of several different kinds of
wooden practice swords.”

Each of the three boys followed her through
the door and returned with her. Each had a rather long wooden club
shaped like a sword, each with a handle and a hilt. She had a small
bamboo pole.

“Let’s go outside so that we will have more
room.”

Mark and Nick followed them outside. The
three boys lined up in front of Ms. Vanmie. Each raised their club
in front of them. Passersby stopped to watch.

She looked at the three and smiled. “I’m
going to hit you with this pole. Defend yourselves.” What followed
was almost a blur.

She jabbed Ricky in the solar plexus, her
pole swung up and slapped Ralph across the left cheek. Before Ricky
was fully bent over double, she had struck Keith twice on the
collarbone, once on the left thigh, spun and struck his right thigh
and thrust up, striking his right wrist. Before Keith’s riotous hit
the ground her pole slapped Ralph on the right cheek. She spun and
struck Ralph on his left cheek, came down to his collarbone and
raked the pole across his throat. She faced away from Ralph and
pushed the pole between her body and elbow, striking Ralph in the
solar plexus. Ralph bent double and hit the ground at the same time
his riotous did. Keith was backing away with his hands raised. The
entire event took less than three seconds.

She stood over Ralph. “You will find that
there is very little that you can hide from the teachers here.
Although bullies are tolerated here at The Seventh Mountain, they
are not encouraged. Bullies are tolerated for one reason and one
reason only. Magi must deal with bullies and the like in the world
at large. Dealing with bullies here at The Seventh Mountain is
considered good training. Consider yourself dealt with.”

She put her hands on her hips. “There is
another thing to add insult to injury. Practical jokes are actually
encouraged here. It helps Magi train in detecting and avoiding
traps. Points are awarded to the one who succeeds in the trap and
points are subtracted from the one who fails in the trap. Mark and
Nick are hereby awarded ten points each and Ralph, Ricky and Keith
each loose ten points. Now, get out of here.”

She looked directly at Mark. “Mark, Nick, I
want to talk to you in my office.”

Mark and Nick followed her into her office.
“You may be wondering how I knew what was going on.”

Mark tilted his head.

“Well, Mark, you have the very rare ability
that we call Rooack Dabar, spirit speak. You can actually project
your thoughts into other peoples’ minds.”

“Really?”

“I believe so. This ability is very rare. It
has not been seen in more than a thousand years.”

“How do you know I’ve got it?”

“That is how I knew the truth of what had
happened. Your mind spoke to mine. That is why I went along with
your little joke. I don’t like bullies either. But I warn you now,
don’t use that tactic again in the future. You must fight your own
battles and lying is never acceptable. The reason for this will
become clear later on in your training. Out of curiosity, why did
you choose to lie first instead of last?”

“First, I really don’t like bullies. Second,
I knew that he wouldn’t believe me no matter what I said. I was
just trying to convince him that he didn’t want to fight me.”

Ms. Vanmie frowned. “I see, you were
bluffing. That won’t work well with Rooack Dabar.”

“I guess not.”

“Okay, that’s all, you can go now.”

Mark and Nick left the sword shop and
continued their trek to the bookstore, resuming what they had been
doing before they were interrupted.

The bookstore was very large and several
stories tall. It flanked the entrance hall opposite The Oasis.
There were rows and rows of white book shelves everywhere. Books on
shelves lined every inch of wall space. Freestanding shelves loaded
with books formed aisles all over the place. Small tables with two
chairs were situated at the end of every aisle. A large spiral
staircase lead to the next floor. The upper floors were circular
balconies overlooking the first floor. The ceiling was very high
overhead. A large skylight illuminated the entire bookstore.

A couple of hours passed while they browsed
every bookshelf. The store was arranged in sections with each
section representing a level of study. The higher the level, the
more subsections there were. The senior level had well over several
hundred subsections, maybe as many as a thousand. It seemed that a
Magi could branch out and study just about anything in the world
that they might want.

Harmonious Thorpe walked up in front of Mark
and Nick. He was a very muscular man. His long, thick blond hair
and goatee made him look like what Mark thought an English knight
would look like without his armor. Mark didn’t think that this man
would ever need armor. His eyes glowed neon blue. His voice was a
deep bass. When he spoke, you felt it; every syllable penetrated
like rumbles of thunder from an approaching storm.

“Good evening, gentlemen. Ah… Mr. Young and
Mr. Poparov I see.” Mr. Thorpe squatted and put his face very close
to Mark’s face.

“Mr. Young, you will find that just because
everyone has dreamed about you that it does not make you special.
What differentiates you is what is in here.” He touched Mark’s
forehead with his dill-pickle-sized finger. “And in here.” He
touched Mark’s chest over his heart.

“Thank you, sir, I don’t mean to sound
disrespectful or anything, but I already know that. What do you
mean that everybody has dreamed about me?”

“Ah… I’m glad to see that you are a
know-it-all as well.” His tone was mean to the point of almost
being hostile, which was curious, because Mark had never met the
man and didn’t even have an idea of who he was.

“Everyone has seen, in their dreams, your
birth and your retrieval of that staff you carry. Most freshmen
don’t remember their dreams. They will know that the boy with the
staff is, shall we say, a déjà vu. Everyone else here does remember
their dreams. That staff identifies you as one that Teknon Kakos
wants out of the way. Evidently, you and that staff mean something
to him.” His tone remained disapproving, even threatening.

“Excuse me, sir. All of this is new to me.
How can everyone dream about me and who is Teknon Kakos?”

“Dreams are a normal part of life for
everyone. This is especially true for Magi. Magi learn the ability
to dream-cast. Only, the dreams about you were not dream-cast by
any Magi. A Magi that casts a dream is always in the dream. There
were no Magi in the dreams about you except for Tim and Gerod and
they didn’t cast the dreams. The dreams about you are a mystery. As
for Teknon Kakos, he was also known in ancient times as Benrah.
Both names mean ‘The Son of Evil.’”

Mark remembered the voice in his dream that
kept telling him that he was going to die. The name, Benrah, was
the name that he had on the edge of his mind and just couldn’t
quite bring out. It also came to him where he had seen the name
Thorpe.

“Don’t you think that the staff you carry is
a little short for a shepherd’s crook? If you look at the bottom of
it you will see that part of it is missing. We believe this staff
to be very special. Benrah derives his power from artifacts such as
this. He will stop at nothing to get it. It is
your
destiny
to prevent that from happening.” He acted like the word “your” left
a bad taste in his mouth.

Mark remembered the dream of his birth and
how the horse had tried to kill his mom. “Yes sir. I know.”

“I’ve been selected to tell you this so that
you will be on guard for any action or deception that would relieve
you of the care and custody of that staff. With every artifact he
collects, Benrah becomes stronger.”

“I think I understand, sir, but why me?”

Mr. Thorpe rolled his eyes and stood up,
towering over Mark and looking down on him.

“You were selected for this destiny long
before you were born. That was made known to your forefather,
Joseph Young. He put things in place so that you could find the
staff before Teknon Kakos figured out where it was hidden. You were
chosen because of your bloodline, a noble bloodline indeed, but
that little detail is something that you must discover for
yourself.”