Yoos took the whips and handed one to me.
He had to give a few more orders, after which they brought us a basket of melons, old broken pots and a bunch of round logs.
All this was carefully topped on a wooden table, a little away from the trainees.
Yoos walked closer to this still-life-looking thing, took a tighter grip on the whip, gave a sharp swing… A whiz and a brief crack! The same instant one of the melons exploded into small pieces, as if it had been blown up from the inside. Another swing – and a pot turned into a pile of clay bits. After that he turned to the neatly arranged logs. He was wrapping them, as a wizard, with the end of the whip and throwing at a mannequin used for practicing stabbing skills, inevitably hitting it nowhere but at the head. Every single time!
“Swing, acceleration, hit! Set the direction as accurately as possible. And then stop sharply in the end. That will bring more force to the strike. That must produce this crack!”
He took another swing, and the whip made that very specific sound, leaving another pot shattered.
“Wanna grab something with it – you make a swing, stretch your hand following the whip, and then, in the very end, pull it back a little. This will help it pick the thing. Do not worry if it doesn’t work out right away. You will get your feel of it anyway. But you have to feel the movement, as if this was part of your body, part of your arm… Here, look,” he demonstrated all of the above, and another pot hit the same poor dummy.
“Well, we will learn the throwing a bit later. Get skilled in the lashing and grabbing first.”
I looked shyly at the whip in my hand. It seemed so easy while I was watching Yoos. However, I quickly realized how deceptive that impression was as soon as it was my turn.
“You do everything, exactly the way I showed. Try, learn,” Yoos said, while still throwing the logs at the dummy. And as he was doing so, that very same Nort was running around and arranging carefully all the logs back on the table, each time risking getting one of them hit him on the head. “I got to leave now. Will be back in the afternoon to check everything. Got it?”
I nodded hastily, and Yoos, throwing a couple of brief instructions to someone as he was walking, retreated, leaving me face-to-face with a new batch of neatly stacked household stuff.
Even though I took pains, I made no progress, to be honest. And yet I went on and on swinging the whip. It definitely refused to obey, every time trying to get me, its master, actually. Yes, I was right then telling Truvle I would kill myself before I would hurt any enemy.
Once I did manage to pick a log, but it made me so happy I pulled it too hard, and then it flew off somewhere to get lost in the crowd. Next thing I could hear was a scream of pain and a joyful exclamation. My unexpected back-up must have helped someone win a sword fight. I spread my arms in a gesture of apology, but there was no one to come forth with a complaint.
Some of the guards approached me a couple of times offering help, yet each time they realized quickly that no support or advice – sincere as it might have been – helped even a tiny bit, so finally they all had to leave and mind their own business, while I had to stay there, just none the wiser.
That was how I spent the rest of the day, and as it drew to its end my sole desire was to bite off my right arm up to the shoulder as I could no longer stand the pain.
Yoos came later to let me go, thus making me happy beyond words… My right arm even happier…
Having covered the distance between the fortress and Karun (and that never took me long) I was approaching home when the Sun went down behind the mountain.
Elcha, short in breath, jumped out shouting that she was going to pick some Dartor plant, and disappeared.
Mammy was not at home, so I had a quick snack enjoying absolute silence, and went to bed.
The Strange Talk
Elcha was walking down a dirty path leading to Water Mount, where the Noiser was pouring down from the western part taking its roaring streams to the city.
She was in a hurry as she had to reach the meadows by sunset – Dartor flowers would be opening then, and they had to be picked within the first half hour, before they lost their best power.
Actually, she had not had in mind any herb picking that day, planning to do it the day after as Mammy had loaded her up with a bunch of things long before. However, as for the day after, Elcha got an invitation from Selena who was throwing a birthday party, so she decided to have all Mammy’s errands complete in advance and then enjoy the following day’s afternoon.
Crickets were chasing one another in the grass, and twilight was hugging the mountains gradually. The path ran round another huge rock, and Elcha did not immediately notice two silhouettes standing a bit further away. Frightened, she quickly sat behind a stone, watching them intensely and trying to make sure there was no danger in approaching them. Judging by the shadows, they were a man and a woman discussing something quietly. As Elcha was about to leave her refuge and follow her way, bits of conversation reached her. It was the man talking, judging by the voice.
“You have to realize – she attacked once she will attack again! They have found us now! And there is less and less time left! Even if we do kill her, others will come, more of them… They know now that you are here.”
Elcha found the man’s voice somewhat familiar, as if she had already heard it before. However, as she was too far, and it was too dark already, she could not distinguish the face.
The woman replied something that Elcha failed to grasp. The man got indignant, “It’s not under control! How come they found you? You must be missing something. What if she attacks again? Should she do so all your cover-up is beaten! Literally! It was nothing short of a miracle we survived last time… She is no child now… That would be too much.”
The last words got drowned out by the infinite crackle of nocturnal cicadas so Elcha could get nothing again.
“Yes, he is teaching her! But I am afraid of…”
The woman’s low whisper sounded like a question, and the man’s exhausted answer came next, “He has torn it all apart. No lead… No clear sign or trace to catch at… I am not sure Arr has a hand in it… It’s proven all too much complicated…”
The woman answered something again, too quietly, and the man hissed, “We cannot return now… We’ll have to present some evidence. Right away, before everyone has time to know what is what…”
For another while they spoke too quietly for Elcha to get a word but at last the man raised his voice again, “Message came today. She was seen near the Azure Ridge and the Gray Hill. She
moves really fast since she manages to reach different parts of the mountains. And you should be perfectly aware that she will not escape this time.”
“Doesn’t matter, actually. The valley is sealed,” the woman’s quiet voice came, yet again so softly that the voice itself could not be recognized.
“Then keep them here all year round. Not a single step out of here!” the man hissed again. “I’ll have the perimeter sealed, too. I really hope your plan will work!” the man raised his voice and was almost screaming. “No magic to be used here, just block it all!”
Then they went on whispering again, after which Elcha could get another bit. “As long as the first is alive, they don’t need the other one… the older blood is more important! Goodbye! See you in a year.”
Next moment it was only the woman standing there in her dark cloak, her head covered with the hood. Another moment… and the path was completely empty.
Elcha was still waiting as she did not want the two to see her eavesdropping.
Strange talk, she thought. I wonder who they were and who they were discussing. Besides, she got quite curious about the valley being sealed. It means that our valley got some guarding spell cast on. But why? And who against? I think I’ll have to tell Mammy or