The Iron Butterfly

by Chanda Hahn

  Joss came in and made his way over to me. Avina moved over to make room for Joss, but before Joss could sit, Kael’s large form occupied the spot.

  I rolled my eyes at Joss over Kael’s head and he grinned and sat behind me, giving me a quick shoulder squeeze. Kael glared at Joss’ hand until he dropped it back into his lap.

  “Faraway,” I called to my horse. Instantly an image of him in his stall came to my mind.

  Yes?

  “Remind me that the next time Kael and I are near you, that you will kick him for me.”

  He sent an image of Kael face down in a mud puddle back at me. I chuckled, until I saw Kael looking at me. Feeling somewhat chagrined, I waited patiently until the assembly began.

  Each of the Adepts spoke in turn, congratulating various students and guards for their prowess and abilities. Joss was recognized for his kills. I was announced as the winner of the game, since I had taken out two attackers and was able to kill the SwordBrother. Looking sideways at Kael I felt a blush run up my cheek, and I decided that my feet were more interesting. I felt guilty in the way I had won, considering Kael had just saved my life and I killed him to probably save mine. Today Kael seemed saner, but not by much.

  Commander Meryl arose and awarded his soldiers and Captains with prizes and medals. Garit was given top marks for taking out the second most students. I whistled in encouragement when his name was called.

  When Commander Meryl talked about Kael, the room became quiet and still. He described the SwordBrother’s cunning and courage, how he disguised himself as a student and walked in the front door. When the Commander counted out how many of the students and guards were taken out by him alone, the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Kael alone had taken out seventy percent of the guard and student population. The meanings behind the sheer numbers woke up the students and the guards. I could feel the mood of the room shift to apprehension.

  Commander Meryl became deadly serious when he made his final address. “Students, faculty, guards; one man alone decimated over half of our numbers. This tells us that we have become slack to the notion of being attacked. Yes, we have lived in peaceful times for over a century but that does not leave us any excuse for what happened.”

  Adept Pax and Lorna stood up next to the Commander at the podium.

  Pax spoke up first. “Last night, during our training session, a real attempt was made on one of our student’s lives, and it was the SwordBrother that intervened.” A shuffle in the crowd followed as necks strained to turn and look at me. Heat flushed the back of my neck and I tried to make myself invisible or sink into the floor.

  “But we will never again be caught unaware. You must understand this is highly unusual; well actually, unheard of; but SwordBrother Kael has agreed to help train you and you will give him your respect. This is indeed a great honor.”

  Exited whispering and more glances my way made me start to squirm in my seat. Adept Lorna stepped forward and looked grim.

  “We have talked about canceling the Founding Celebration this year in lieu of what has happened.” The whispers turned into gasps and pleading. “But,” she paused dramatically, “we feel that we will be better prepared and will continue with the celebration. The Founding Celebration will take place next month as planned.” Shouts and applause drowned out anything else she was about to say.

  I saw her make eye contact with me and nod toward the side door. When we were dismissed, I made my way out the side door and met with the Adept.

  “I see by your expression that you have something you wish to say about your guard,” she grinned at me.

  “Please, what did I do to deserve this?” Waving my hands dramatically I continued. “I will do anything you ask, but I beg of you to please give me a different guard.”

  Her brows creased with worry. “What’s wrong? Did something happen? I thought you would be happy to have the best, considering he already saved your life. I thought you would be grateful.”

  Now feeling guilty and terrible, I let out a long sigh. “No, it’s just we don’t really get along well.”

  Adept Lorna laughed, “Oh, nonsense, it’s just the SwordBrother ways. Remember, there aren’t many of them. If you want to learn more about him, maybe you should visit the library and do some research.”

  Nodding my head in agreement, I felt like a child just trying to appease their parent. Quickly I filled her in on how I was attacked in my sleep and her frown became deeper. I told her about Joss and she didn’t blink an eye.

  “We need you to catch up on your defensive training as soon as possible. And I will have to discuss this with the Council.” Her hand went to her hips. “Now remember,” she went on, “you are to go nowhere without Kael, unless he is busy instructing, then you are to either have Captain Garit or Joss with you at all times. Any questions?”

  I opened my mouth for a rebuttal, but she cut me off.

  “Good, now get going.”

  ~~~

  The next couple of days settled into a different routine: classes, combat training, meals and sleep. I worked hard from sunup to sundown.

  In the mornings, I would report to Garit who put me to work running laps around the compound and practicing hand to hand combat. Even though it wasn’t required, I still enjoyed working out with Garit, and his jovial attitude was a relief from the stern, almost hateful attitude of Kael. Then I would attend morning classes in the arena, always careful to follow another student through the doors. If I was late or if I was early, Instructor Weston was usually waiting by the doors for me.

  I was so frustrated in my inability to do the simplest task that I wanted to rip the doors off of the Arena, march in there and destroy something. Of course today was a day when my patience had been worn thin by Kael and I was at my wits end.

  My mind was in such angry turmoil that I walked straight up to and then through the great winged doors before realizing that Cassiel had opened for me and I wasn’t accompanied by a Denai.

  Turning to the great steel man, I whispered a quick thank you, before taking my seat along the bench. Instructor Weston announced his arrival with his regular clap of thunder, and I was proud that I didn’t jump. That pride didn’t last long when he told us to pair up for training.

  Looking up, I saw Syrani smirking at me. “Are you ready, rat?”

  Taking a quick glance around, I noticed everyone had already picked a partner. I had a gut feeling that Syrani orchestrated our pairing on purpose. We were supposed to test each other’s limits and I knew that this was going to get ugly.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got,” Syrani smiled serenely at me. That was all the warning I was given and the ground shifted beneath my feet and giant pillars of stone shot out of the ground, knocking me backwards.

  I gasped in surprise as I rolled out of the way of the falling pillar of stone. She was gifted in earth; somehow that wasn’t what I had expected.

  Her tinkling laugh filled the air in challenge, “Come on, lil’ Thalia! Show your teeth!”

  I couldn’t do anything but run when she caused a giant hole to erupt around my feet. The earth I stood on crumbled and fell away into nothingness, and I backpedaled to keep my feet on solid ground. But I kept sliding with the earth toward the hole.

  Screaming, I reached out and caught a tree root and held on as my feet dangled over nothingness.

  “Come on, Thalia! Show me how strong you are; show me what impressed the Adepts so much that they thought you worthy to train among us.”

  Did no one see what was going on? Was no one going to help me?

  More laughter rang in my ears and my anger started to build. Reaching hand over hand, I pulled my own body weight out of the hole using the tree root, and I stood back and glared at Syrani in challenge.

  “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.”