by E L Russell
She stopped abruptly. With her hands on her hips, Finna took deep breaths. “What . . . is this nonsense you spout?” She reached for his arm and missed him. “Stop.” She gulped air. “Explain.”
“Up there. Let’s go.” He pointed to an outcrop of rock. “That looks like a good place to sit.”
Thinking they ran a steep mountain trail, Finna followed him, glad of an opportunity to rest. It was not until she looked back that she accepted the truth of what he’d said. She saw no more than a large hill, with a low level grade, at that. Frustrated, she picked up a stone about the size of a goose egg and threw it down the path. It did not go the distance it should have.
“What’s happened to me?”
40
Training Day
Planets can be Different
There it was again, proof she’d lost her strength. “Damn, I’m a wreck.” Rubbing her shoulder, she followed Jamal to the designated sitting stone and studied the twelve-year-old son of her dead friend, Yasmin.
“You’ve grown taller,” she said, lowering herself gratefully to sit and catch her breath. “Your mother would be proud.” She reached for his head to rub his hair, but Jamal ducked away and said nothing.
Finna gave him her best fish eye and exhaled. “When did you start using words like ‘planet’ and ‘Earth’ or for that matter other statements that don’t make sense? No mountains? Heavier?”
“Leeth and I spent a great deal of time discussing the wild ones while he trained me. He taught me much about this place and . . . and about other things.”
She rubbed her legs. “What is special about Torg?”
“It is a different place.”
“That’s for sure.”
“I mean a really different place. We live on Earth, right? Earth is a planet. That’s the word Leeth uses. He says the sky has many planets . . . or something like that.” He stopped to reconsider. “No, he said space has many planets, but he used it in a strange way, not like we think of space. His space is what is . . . out there.” He flung his arms wide and looked up. “Now, we are on a different planet . . . a different world. Different from Earth, we are on Torg. Didn’t he tell you anything?”
“Hardly.”
“One of the most important things about this planet is that it’s bigger than our world. That makes everything heavier, including us.”
“What does that mean? What causes it?”
“I’m not sure. Leeth said something about gravity. It means we have to work harder here if we want to run as fast or as far as we did on Earth. That’s what he calls our planet, Earth. He says training helps us overcome our weakness and it works, Finna. I’m already stronger. Not like back home, but better than I was. You will improve, too. That’s why he brought us here.”
“The mountains, where did they go? There are many at home. The scenery here is . . . wrong.”
Jamal spread his arms. “The mountains never had a chance to get tall. Isn’t that amazing? The world’s gravity made mountains too heavy to grow.”
What Jamal said sounded like nonsense. Or could it be fact? “Is that why the trees are short?”
“I guess. Leeth said a lot about the consequences of extra gravity, but I didn’t understand it.”
Leeth owed her a better explanation than that and she planned on getting it. “I don’t understand, either, but if we’re going to stay for a while, we need to. Our arrows must fly true and we must fight like the warriors we are.” Even though the explanation eluded her understanding, she felt better knowing there was a reason for her body falling short of expectations. Thank the saints she had not turned into a physical weakling. She couldn’t stand that. “Come to think of it, the people on this . . . planet . . . are short, too. Hmm. And more round.”
“They’re also stronger. That’s why we’re training with them.” His chin pointed down the hill toward the courtyard. “We need to get as strong as they are, if that is possible.”
“We’ve been training for four or five days. Is that all we’ll need?”
He pulled his chin back and his eyes widened as if looking at her for the first time. “I’ve been training for weeks. Where have you been?”
Finna recounted her test in the forest to Jamal. She normally would have embellished it to make it a better story, but she thought it had enough excitement to stand on its own.
“What a great adventure. I wish I’d been there. Hold. What is this?” Jamal’s brows came down like a thundercloud. “That only covers half a day. What about the three weeks you were gone? And why didn’t I notice? What is this? More magic?”
Magic, indeed. Finna could come up with no better guess. They had fallen under a spell and Leeth was at the bottom of it. She stood. “Come on.” She started running down the path toward the keep.
Finna strode into the training area and found Leeth and a native she assumed was one of The People Knosh had mentioned, couched in a fighting position. They wore only their braises with thick belts and their sweat covered muscles bulged on their bare shoulders and arms. As they circled, their tugging and pushing showcased the strength in their legs as well. Sweat ran from Leeth’s naked torso giving his muscular arms and chest a polished sheen. Finna’s eyes locked on him.
Because he was taller than his opponent, Leeth had some difficulty protecting his long legs. When the Torg slammed a shoulder into his stomach and locked his arms around his thighs, Leeth teetered and almost fell.
Only by throwing a foot back and leaning all his weight into his adversary, did he find the strength to thrust one arm under the Torg’s arm and cup the back of his neck. With a grunt, he worked his other hand to the back as well and forced the man’s head down, nose first, into the ground. The man’s body followed. Finna admired Leeth’s agile footwork and his shift in weight to gain dominance.
Still holding the man’s face down with his arms, Leeth spread his legs wide and walked like a crab to one side his body to his captured knee until his body was perpendicular to his opponent.
Leeth exerted pressure on the man’s neck and pushed his face away. With the Torg’s head immobilized, and his body unable to follow, he could only avoid a broken back by twisting his back halfway around. Leeth increased the pressure on his neck as a reminder that was not a good choice. He had to concede defeat or gain a broken back. Unable to speak with the pressure on his throat, the Torg gave the classic hand slap of surrender.
Leeth jumped to his feet grabbing the defeated man’s forearm to help him stand. Hands clasped, they pulled each other chest to chest and gave a hearty back slap to end the competition as brother warriors. Laughing and talking, they walked to a corner of the training area, where they dunked their heads in a barrel of water and sluiced the icy fluid over their torsos with their hands.
Finna couldn’t take her eyes off Leeth. Dark skinned by birth, his body was like burnished wood. Smooth and solid, she wanted to run her hands over the bulges and valleys. She wanted to taste him with her tongue and kiss his lean torso. A rush of heat infused her body and breathing.
What the hell? Where did that come from?
He annoyed her no end, yet it was with disappointment, she watched his body disappear under his robe. She blinked and looked up to his face. Blue eyes burned back at her.
Jamal broke the spell. “Are you coming or do you need help?”
41
Finna Fights
Training Applied
Finna sat in the shade outside the open door to the keep and Leeth leaned against a nearby tree. True to Jamal’s prediction, by the end of three weeks of running up hills, throwing large rocks and climbing ropes, she felt stronger than at any time in her life. Marveling at the firm feeling of her upper arms and the rock solid shape of her thighs she concluded there was something about this world beyond the mysterious ‘gravity’ Leeth spoke of. She wondered if there was something in the water, but he had laughed at her when she asked. Maybe the small red moon was responsible.
Motivated by her new strength
, she restrung her bow and notched an arrow, scanning the landscape for a target. She heard a satisfying thunk after it hit a branch at 500 paces.
She was ready for combat and told Leeth as much. To her astonishment, he pushed away from the tree and pulled her close, holding her tightly.
“I’m happy for you. I worried my medicine was administered too late.”
She wedged her hands between their chests, yet didn’t push him away.
He lowered his chin and gazed deeply into her eyes. She couldn’t look away and when his gaze dropped to her lips, she held her breath. She was sure he was going to kiss her. He did not. Holding her shoulders in his strong hands, he set her away from him. “I really didn’t want to return to that damn ship and restart the timeline all over again.”
Disappointed, she turned away. She wanted to shoot an arrow in somebody’s arse.
“I’ve upset you. I’m sorry, Finna.”
She walked to the door.
“Not that way, woman. Knosh won’t be in those woods for another three hundred years. Grab your bow and let’s finish your pee.”
She didn’t understand his meaning and turned to continue on her own and immediately bumped into the fat black tree she’d gone behind when she left Knosh.
She heard Knosh's voice from the other side of the tree.
“Hurry, Finna. I hear wild ones near the village.”
She did not understand this time travel thing. How had Leeth placed her in the exact moment she had left the man on the trail.
There was no time to sort it out now. She had a fight to win. With newfound strength, she leaped over the fallen tree she previously labored over and led the men down the path.
At a place just before the path made a sharp turn toward the river, Finna raised her arm and stopped. Gesturing for silence, she crouched low. “About ten of the Wild Ones came this way; they have hostages.”
Knosh pulled her upper arm close. “How do you know this?”
“I just do. What do your men do best?”
“Ambush from one side.”
“Good. Take them and make them well hidden. I’ll greet the Wild Ones as you did me. Make sure your team’s first five arrows kill five of the wild ones. Then we’ll stand a chance of saving your people. Understand?”
He made eye contact with his men and jerked his chin, gesturing them toward a nearby thicket.
Finna tapped his chest with her finger. “Do nothing until I take out the first two.”
He nodded and smiled slapping her on the back as he departed. The unexpected camaraderie would have knocked her flat had she not just finished weeks of training on the heavy planet. Patting her left hip, she felt the short sword sitting securely under her belt. She took a fist full of arrows from the bag slung over the back of her right shoulder and she notched one while positioning two more between the fingers of her right hand. She held three more in her left ready to load and tested the pull of the string. Her long sword hung comfortably on her right hip.
Adrenaline charged through her. Soon, she would get her first look at the Wild Ones.
* * *
Trying her best to look like a pathetic woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, Finna ambled along the path toward the approaching raiders. She kept her expression vacant, like one who lacks all her wits, and appeared to have little interest in the men as they came around the corner in the path toward her.
Seeing her as fair game, they ran at her full speed, screeching and shouting like crazed animals and swinging weapons that looked like wooden mallets. Alarmed in spite of her readiness, she loosed three arrows through the thighs of the leaders.
They never broke stride or lost a step.
She yelled, “Time to die, bastards,” and loosed three more arrows straight for the center of their foreheads. They dropped on the spot.
The rest of the pack ended their attack. All but one, who hurled a large lance. Finna reacted without thinking. She shot an arrow into the shaft near its head, knocking it off course and before it hit the ground, she loosed a deadly arrow straight for his craven heart.
Where was Knosh? She scanned both sides of the path. She’d killed four men and Knosh and his men had not attacked. She notched another arrow and made six more ready. When she drew her bow and pointed it with a menacing scowl at the closest remaining man, he turned and ran for the woods. The rest of the wild pack followed him.
Blood cuddling screams of pain alerted her to the location of Knosh's ambush. The cowards had run into his trap and would not return. Finna rushed to reassure the women and children captives who had been left behind.
When Knosh joined her, Finna found it difficult to quash her irritation. “You didn’t stick to the plan.”
“We took a position higher on the hill to be in a better position to intercept them. We know they always run for higher ground, but it took us longer than expected. When I observed your skills, I knew they’d be running fast to get away and we barely had time to get into the better position. The rest was easy. It was obvious they preferred anything to risking their lives with you. You are a champion warrior. I salute you. We allowed one to escape to sow the fear and respect you deserve.”
His words of praise deflated her anger and she stuttered for what to say. Seeing Knosh's men embrace their families, she said, “That . . . that’s what I respect. Family.”
He nodded. “Let us see if our village still stands.”
42
Jamal Learns
Time and Place Matter
Jamal stopped cleaning his sword. “Sir Seeker, tell me—”
“Call me Leeth, boy.”
“Yes, sir. Please call me Jamal.” The two enjoyed the by-play and laughed. He liked the big man. Unlike Finna, he trusted him . . . or he never would have jumped off that ship. Talk about a leap of faith. That was about the scariest thing he’d ever done. He couldn’t even swim.
“Based on what I have seen, you more than qualify as a man, Jamal. I will remember that. What do you wish to know?”
“Where’s Finna?”
“She completes her test in the woods by fighting alongside the Torg and helping them defend their village from the Wild Ones.”
“That’s not quite what I meant. I know where the woods are. I want to know when her battle occurs.” Jamal had acquired a small understanding of time travel, at least enough to accept the concept. Leeth was at the center of his universe, the supplier of all knowledge. He hoped that was a good thing and didn’t dare think beyond that. He and Finna were at the man’s mercy. They didn’t really know where they were or even when they were, so for peace of mind, he accepted what Leeth said.
“Of course.” Leeth rubbed his hands together while he gathered his thoughts. “She is helping the local people fight off an attack about three hundred years in this future.”
Jamal rubbed his temple. “You said when we first got to Torg it was about the year 900 here, so since she is still on Torg, it’s 1200 something for her in this same place. That future?”
Leeth nodded, “Yes, I took Earth’s calendar when I arrived because they don’t number their years here. If these people used Earth’s calendar, that would be true, but I numbered their years the same as Earth to make it easy for me to track time.”
Jamal tilted his head looking like a confused dog. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“Tell me, how you think I am,” Leeth said.
Jamal frowned. “You never mentioned your birth year.”
The Seeker chewed on the inside of his cheek. The boy didn’t know about his original identity. He only knew him as Leeth Letholdus, the first Christian to scale the wall at Jerusalem in the First Crusade. That would have to do for the conversation. “I, Leeth Letholdus, was born in 1066, Earth time.”
Jamal put his hand to his chin and calculated. “The number I got couldn’t be right.” He did the arithmetic again. “Then, since Earth time and Torg time are counted the same, you would be . . . you should be a hundred fo
rty years old.”
Leeth nodded.
Still rubbing his chin, Jamal said, “That’s most interesting, you said you were thirty-three years old at the time you scaled the Jerusalem wall, in the First Crusade, about the same age as when the Christians’ Christ was crucified. Did that information help to motivate you to get over the wall?”
“Ah. You are suspicious.”
“Finna tells me you are probably a sorcerer with many magical skills. Is that why you are still alive at such an old age?”
Angered, Leeth slapped his hands together. “I am not a sorcerer. I don’t know why Finna persists in that. As to my age, I did nothing to cause it except have good genes and strong fighting skills in battle. I simply am this age. Do you understand?”
“No, I don’t understand. Are you mad, sir? What are genes? What it is you claim to be and will I be thus cursed?”
“I hope so, my son. I hope so. Finna will as well.” He waved the back of his palm from Jamal’s chest to his own several times. “We are so much more than old people. We have our strength and our minds. We acquire new amazing skills. Skills I do not yet fully understand, but we have them, and you will too, some day.”
“Meaning what, sir? And who is the ‘we’ you speak of?”
“You, Finna, me and others. Know that there is much more you need to learn. We are people who have become more.”
“How do I become more?”
Leeth rubbed his hands together in thought. “Try this. Think of a three-year old-girl and her mother.”
Jamal frowned. “Why?”
“Because they are both people, but they are not the same. One has grown and matured and the other has not. They are very different physically. The mother can do things that she could when she was younger. She developed these abilities as an adult. Do you understand the analogy?”
