A Gathering of Souls

by Dianne Keep

“Really? I’ve never heard of the training armor doing that.”

  Khrisk clapped his cousin’s back. “Now you have.”

  “Right, let’s get on with it,” Bayan said. “Khrisk needs a break from the shredding.”

  Bayan wasn’t as good as Khrisk. She went easy on him, only striking him a few times on the stomach, shoulders, and legs. None of her attacks returned on her like they had with Khrisk. Soon Bayan was out of breath.

  Signing for a break, Bree drove her blades into the dirt. “I’m done.”

  “I win the bet. She got you faster than me,” said Khrisk. “Let’s see if you could gut both of us at the same time. You don’t even look winded.” He put on a new suit of armor and hopped into the circle. “You’ve been trained for multiple targets.”

  “How would you know?” Bree grabbed her blades.

  Khrisk smiled. “I know your trainer.”

  “You do?”

  “Sure. I know all the trainers. Let’s see how much your body remembers.”

  “I don’t know,” Bayan said, sliding next to Khrisk. “She’s pretty good.”

  “You weren’t trying. The wilds will be more mischievous than her tomorrow.” Khrisk shuffled his feet. “Let’s fight.”

  Without the armor, both Khrisk and Bayan would be bleeding to death from the amount of hits she got in the first thirty seconds. “Are you two even trying?” She asked as she slid her blade across Khrisk’s ankle. The pain almost made her stumble. Every time she hit Bayan, nothing. With Khrisk on the other hand, she felt every hit as if she were fighting herself.

  Shane clapped three times. “I’m sorry, Zeir Bayan, but I’ve received a message from the Resh. You are needed.”

  “This very minute?” Bayan hopped over the low rope.

  “Yes, Zeir.” Shane handed Bayan the slip of paper.

  Bayan placed his swords on the table and removed his armor. “Sorry, my love, I must go.” He moved to kiss her, but she turned her head.

  She couldn’t let him kiss her in front of Khrisk. “I’ll see you later.”

  He frowned. “Yes, well.” He shook Khrisk’s hand. “Don’t die.”

  “Not planning on it.”

  Bayan waved once more before going inside.

  “So, I think our armor is glitching. I couldn’t feel any of Bayan’s hits.” Bree moved toward the table.

  “Whoa.” Khrisk grabbed her arm. “We’re not done. I haven’t seen your best moves. Let’s try laser pistols.”

  “How can we use them without the reflective shield on?”

  “We can’t.”

  “I’d rather not.” In fact, she’d rather take the armor off. “How about just blades, no hits. Whoever makes the other bleed, loses.”

  Khrisk threw his head back and laughed. “My type of lady.”

  They both removed their armor, but not without grumblings from the three nameless guards on her quad. Shane remained on the bench looking very pleased.

  They circled each other for about ten seconds. Khrisk shot his blades out first. Bree caught him mid-swing and tweaked the curve of her blade spinning his out, down, and back, flipping it out of his grasp.

  “Well done.” Khrisk tossed his remaining blade back and forth between his two hands.

  The members of her quad stood and pulled their knives again.

  “No need. Sit,” Shane told them. They complied but kept their knives ready.

  Khrisk shuffled to the right, left, and back while she copied his steps almost like a dance. Her blood thrilled at the energy between them. It was the most fun she’d had in three months.

  He attacked again, coming in below her waist. She blocked his thrust with one blade and struck at his thigh with the other.

  Khrisk fell.

  She’d forgotten not to touch.

  “I’m so sorry, so sorry. Sorry.”

  The three quad members let loose their knives. Instinctually, she blocked them with her blades. The knives thudded in the dirt by her feet.

  Shane shouted, “Stand down. Give her a moment. She didn’t mean it.”

  “I didn’t.” Bree looked at Khrisk. Her own leg burned, though it didn’t bleed. Khrisk’s blood bubbled from the slice right above his kneecap. “I can fix it.”

  She placed her hands over the wound, ignoring the commotion going on around her. With a thought, she reconnected the muscle tissue and sealed the skin. “There, good as it ever was.”

  Khrisk checked the skin. “No scar.”

  Wailing.

  Pain.

  Men, women, and children all broken.

  Her hands made them whole.

  “I never leave scars.” Bree’s power rumbled.

  Khrisk slid his hand in hers and the fire boiling to the surface faltered. “Thank you. You lost, though.”

  Her thoughts tumbled. What had she been thinking striking at Khrisk?

  Instinct. He’s the enemy.

  Bree was glad to hear from the girl. Not ours, though. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  “You did promise you wouldn’t kill me.” Khrisk stood. “Excuse me.” Khrisk pushed Shane aside and whispered to the pack of riled guards.

  Are you back? Where’d you go? Bree gathered her blades and returned them to the table. She hesitated after she set them down. No way on the good earth would Osling let her have them. Not after the report he would get from her quad.

  “You always did enjoy using your hands.” Shane reached for one of her swords and wiped the blood off it.

  “What?” How could she have forgotten to do that? “What did you say?”

  “You enjoy using your hands.” He held a sword in front of her nose.

  “And how would you—” But Shane was already swinging. She ducked, tucked, and rolled out of his reach. “What are you doing?”

  “Continuing your training.” He took another swing at her head. “It’s better if you don’t have a physical object to block your attacker. Makes you think more.”

  Shane had lost it, and Khrisk and the other guards just stood by and watched. Khrisk must have talked them down, but she was sure the Resh would know about the incident before she stepped foot in the palace.

  She tucked, jumped, dove, and swerved to get away from the glinting blade that didn’t stop coming for her. She could hear it singing from the force Shane put behind it.

  Coming up from a back handspring, her throat met the cool touch of metal.

  “Gets you every time.” Shane pulled back. “Still, you bounced around quite well. Haven’t lost it all.”

  “Have you lost your head? You could have killed me.” Bree touched the spot on her neck. No blood.

  “Never, I live to serve.” Instead of placing his fist over his heart, Shane splayed his hand.

  A much younger Shane tumbled toward her, blades zipping through the air.

  A golden handprint lit up his chest.

  Bree’s lungs ached for air. She sucked it in greedily. What had she just seen? I’ve seen that handprint before. Was Captain Shane her trainer? Why wouldn’t they just tell her? His snippy comments suddenly made sense. He would know her weak spots if he was her teacher.

  Shane placed the blade on the table. “Your free time is over.”

  Bree glanced toward the palace door and met Ehre’s eyes. “It hasn’t been three hours.” Shane pointed at the sky.

  The sun was directly overhead. “Or maybe it has.” Bree put her split skirt and riding coat on and took a final look at the blades she’d used.

  Khrisk must have seen something in her eyes. He took her hand and whispered, “Don’t worry. We’ll be together again before you know it.”

  His words weren’t really comforting, but his touch was. Bree felt Shane’s eyes on her.

  “At the banquet? With Karra Elissa?”

  “With Bayan too.” Khrisk held her gaze. “Bayan wants a more private dinner, remember? Just family.” Her alhor sparked between them while the three jumpy quad members gathered around her. Then he broke the spell between
them by walking toward Ehre.

  Bree sighed.

  At the palace steps, Khrisk nodded to Ehre. “What will you two be up to this afternoon?” He took his hand from hers and moved outside the quad.

  “Lessons and more relic testing.” Ehre said.

  Khrisk smiled at Bree. “I’ll see you later then.”

  “Okay,” Bree said.

  He went into the palace in the opposite direction of the Seyh annex.

  Bree missed him already.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Ehre turned toward the Seyh annex. “Did you enjoy your morning with the boys?”

  The quad’s footsteps echoed in the empty entrance. “I did.” Bree glanced around. The palace was vacant. “What did you do this morning?”

  “I reviewed the results of a new energy source with the Resh.” Ehre smiled. “Very promising. None of the side effects we’ve seen with the thanum are present.”

  “Would that mean an end to the energy production plants?”

  “If the source holds. There are always variables we can’t predict.”

  Normally, at least one or two servants went back and forth from the Seyh annex through the back hallways to the main palace during the day. But today, no one.

  “Where’d everyone go?” asked Bree.

  Ehre opened the door at the end of the hall. “There’s some festivities in the marketplace.”

  “So, everyone left?” Bree noticed Shane tilted his head slightly toward her.

  “Not everyone. We’re here. And some of the other Seyhs. Most people like to get out of the palace now and then.”

  As they walked up the staircase, Bree peeked out at the training yard. Empty. “Did Osling give the troops the day off too?”

  “No, they’re out reinforcing the perimeter around Stav. The candidates are required to stay outside the boundary during the Ranking. Unless they’re injured. Then they can come inside the perimeter. You saw the healing boxes in the arena.”

  “It’s still kind of terrible,” Bree said. “Bayan said they were allowing healings, but what if a candidate can’t walk?”

  Shane sneezed, and Bree peeked at him. His eyes pleaded something.

  “It is what it is,” said Ehre. “Be glad you don’t have to go through it.”

  “Khrisk doesn’t seem worried.”

  “Khrisk doesn’t worry about his own life.” Ehre unlocked the door to her workrooms. “He does anything Osling asks.”

  Bree waited on the threshold, gazing at Shane, trying to figure him out. Had he been her trainer, and just couldn’t tell her? That would explain her ability to sense his emotions. Right now, he was staring at the floor, grimacing. The other quad members stood at attention across the hall. She waited two more seconds, hoping Shane would look at her, but he didn’t.

  She walked in and closed the door. Boxes cluttered the surface of the table were Bree usually had her lessons. “What are all those for?”

  “You’re testing relics until you have to get ready for the banquet.” Ehre opened a box and picked up another disk.

  “I thought Bayan requested a private dinner.” Stifling a groan, Bree went over and took it. “No mesomatrix?” As soon as her hand touched the metal, the device beeped.

  “You’ll eat separately at a banquet, so technically a private dinner. And, no mesomatrix. Your talents are returning without using it,” said Ehre. “If you decide you want to learn more about charm weaving, I suppose we could try, but I doubt the mesomatrix will do you any good now.”

  “Why did I have to study it then?” Bree turned the disk over in her hand and pressed the button on the back to stop the beeping.

  “Were you thinking of anything particular when the disk activated?” Ehre asked. She’d moved on to the next box.

  “No. Why?” Her power simply activated it.

  “I was just wondering.”

  Bree dug through the boxes while Ehre set out relics on the table. “How’s the Rishi? Did you see her at breakfast? She wasn’t able to join me as an escort this morning.”

  “She’s still well. As are the rest of the people. They’re back to work.” Ehre opened the door to her study. “More will be ill by the end of the Ranking, so you’ll be a busy girl after the wedding.”

  “What? No. I can’t marry Bayan right after the Ranking.”

  “Did you expect him to wait?”

  Ash tainted Bree’s tongue. She didn’t want to think of marrying Bayan after spending most of the morning with Khrisk. Not that she hated time with Bayan. He was nice enough, but she didn’t long for him or miss him or even love him. Lines of fire seeped out of the amber jewel, caging her.

  Bree didn’t quite manage to stifle the wince. “Why aren’t they marrying you off? We’re about the same age.”

  “Don’t worry, the Resh has plenty of plans for me.” Looking at Bree’s neck, Ehre sighed. “Is it still going off?”

  “Yes. For the strangest reasons, though I’m no longer paralyzed by it and I can push the latticework back inside the charm by myself.” Bree touched the hot gem, forcing the lava on her skin to return to the charm. The honor chain weighed heavy on her. Her hands itched to yank both necklaces off.

  “That’s something new,” Ehre said in a neutral tone. “I’ll make a note of it.”

  Should she not have told Ehre? But her mentor needed to know. “Anyway, we’re supposed to be looking at these relics.” Bree picked up one that had two handles attached to a point. “Have the researchers found out anything about them? I can’t imagine what they were used for.”

  “Yes,” said Ehre, scanning the items on the worktable. “The researchers have cataloged most of these, but they can’t always figure out the purpose of each device.” Ehre bit her thumbnail. “I asked some of the relic researchers if they had seen other disks like this. They found five in the sorting room down in the lower levels.” She pointed to a leather bag on the floor. “I brought them here.”

  Bree dumped the disks on the table. They beeped in unison, their screens blinking. The noise rattled her nerves, erasing every thought of Bayan or Khrisk. She would focus on machines—impassive things—and ignore the way she felt. “They must work together somehow.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Ehre pressed the button on one and the beeping ceased. “But how, and for what purpose?”

  “What did people need two hundred years ago? They had an endless supply of energy cells. They could have made anything. If there are a lot of these, then I would suspect it was something for everyday use.” Bree wrote down a list of items she used every day. Nothing popped out. “It’s not a clock or an alarm. No dials, words, or keys.”

  She pressed the button on another disk and held it down. One of the disks on the table stopped beeping and made a static noise. “Take that one to your bedroom.”

  Once the door closed, Bree held the disk close to her mouth and whispered, “Can you hear me?”

  The door to Ehre’s bedroom slammed open. “I can hear you.”

  “They’re communicators. I wonder what the range is between them.” Bree skipped to her mentor. “Go to the grand courtyard on the other side of the palace.”

  Ehre went to the door and shoved Shane into the room. “You, stay with her.”

  Shane sat on the bench. “Find something interesting?” His eyes scanned the objects in the room. “Quite a collection.”

  “It seems the Resh is obsessed with old things.” Bree shrugged and counted the seconds it would take Ehre to reach the grand courtyard if she ran. She waited one minute more. Holding the disk close her lips, she said, “Can you hear me?” She waited. “Press and hold the button and speak into the disk.”

  “I can hear you,” Ehre said.

  Bree squeaked. “We did find something interesting, Captain.” She held the disk to her lips again. “See if we can still talk if you go outside the palace walls.” She let the button go and waited for Ehre’s response.

  “Ehre will be returning to you,” Osling’s voice
answered. “There are other relics that need activation.”

  Bree dropped the disk on the table. Its green screen flashed.

  “Looks like you’ll have a busy afternoon.” Shane pressed the buttons on the other beeping disks. “Smart one, you are.”

  Bree tried to smile. “Thanks.” Sitting, she pulled a box close and inspected the contents. “I don’t suppose you have any experience with relics?”

  “I do. I have a collection at home.” He winked.

  “You do?” Bree saw white sparks flicker in his ice blue eyes. Her stomach did a little flip. “Are people allowed to keep them?”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “So, earlier in the training yard, are you, I mean, were you my trainer?” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Because I see you sometimes. I get these flashes of memories or visions and I just wondered why you, why I might remember you.” Her alhor snuck over the table.

  Shane frowned. “Seyhs have strange minds. They see things that are real most of the time, and sometimes they see what they want to see.”

  “I want to see you as my trainer?” Bree’s cheeks flushed. Her cage of feelings rumbled. There was something more. “I want to know you?”

  “Maybe you already do, and you just can’t remember.” Shane splayed his right hand over his heart. “What do you see?”

  This time she didn’t see the glowing handprint. She blinked. Still nothing. “I saw a handprint. It glowed over your heart.” The picture resurfaced in her mind. Longing coupled it.

  “Well, that’s interesting.” Shane stood. Her alhor chased after him. “But now?”

  “Just your hand.” The ache made her eyes water. She was so ridiculous. Why should a glowing handprint matter to her? Why did Shane matter? Her chest pounded, pushing her to feel something dangerous.

  “Keep your eyes open.” He gave her a small smile, walked to the door, and opened it. “Ehre.” He bowed and returned to the hall.

  Ehre walked in. “You didn’t sort anything while I was gone?”

  “I, uh, no. Sorry,” Bree said. Her alhor funneled back to her skin. “The table is full. Let’s test these first, and then maybe unload the other boxes?”

  “Sure, sure.” Ehre cleared away the other boxes.