Ember (21 page)

As I looked up from my grip I became all too
aware of the stupidity in my hairstyle choice this morning. I'd
left it down and now the strands of long spirals were almost
completely covering my view. I set the sword down and twisted the
hair back a bit, praying that the fight wouldn't involve so much
action that the loose knot would fall apart.

When I picked up my sword and looked back at
Holdan he was standing weapon in hand with a large smile.

“Don't look so nervous,” he said. “It's just
the same thing we've been doing for days.”

I tried to lighten. “You'll go easy on me,
right?”

He gave me a face. “Of course.”

I sucked in a heavy breath and we both lifted
our swords.

“Remember, no pressure. We're just checking
to see where you're at.”

I nodded once and in the next second he was
moving in with an attack. I blocked it instinctively then
side-stepped away from him.

Jeez, whatever happened to ladies first.

He was smiling. “Good job.”

I smiled back, but there wasn't much
sincerity behind it. Once I started sparring with someone it was
hard for me to feel any sort of comrade-ish feelings towards
them.

Exhaling a calming breath, I considered my
next move in my head, then lunged at him loosely. As planned, he
easily knocked it aside. I used the momentum of this to spin the
sword around from the other direction. Again he blocked, pushing
his blade against mine until it swung aside, leaving me open.

He mocked a jab to my stomach and grinned. I
sniffed and wiped his blade aside with my sword.

My hair was falling now, blocking my view. It
only made me more determined.

I struck at him again and he blocked. It
continued on like this quite a few times:
lunge
, parry,
swing
, parry,
slash
, parry. I kept going from
different angles, but he blocked every time.

Yeah right, he'll go easy on me.

I decided to back up at this point, my arm
was fatiguing rapidly. Just when I was about to Holdan blocked and
prepared an attack from above.

My forearms were burning now, I knew that his
blow would knock the sword from my grip . . . it wouldn't feel too
good either.

With a final effort I dug my feet into the
ground and twisted my left arm in front of me to steady the blade
above my head for a block. Out of
very
bad habit I closed my
eyes and waited for the clash. . . .

~ ~ ~

IT CAME, BUT MY sword was still in place, my
arm felt no weight.

Blinking my eyes clear, I looked up through
strands of hair.

First there was my sword. Then, as expected,
Holdan's sword. The strange part was
another
blade, blocking
Holdan's from mine. My gaze moved across the sparkling metal to a
strong hand, a solid, outstretched, arm. Hard shoulders, clenched
jaw, dark hair. My heart began to speed uncontrollably. I was
almost grateful that the steady eyes weren't fixed on me.

“Going a little hard on her for a beginner,
don't you think, Holdan?” He said it with all the haughty
exuberance I remembered, and I had to bite my lip to keep from
smiling.

Holdan, to my surprise, looked utterly
annoyed at the comment. It was not something I expected of his
character . . . but the oddity didn't occupy my thoughts for long.
What
did
was a sudden self-consciousness, and, feeling like
an idiot still standing there with my sword above my head, I
stepped back a bit and let the blade fall to my side.

The two boys did the same as Holdan spoke.
“Jaden . . . you're back.” He smiled fakely. “I was just starting
to get used to you being gone.”

Jaden kept his face straight. “It must have
been very hard for you.”

Holdan snickered. “So, how did things
go?”

Jaden shrugged slightly. He still hadn't
looked at me
or
acknowledged my presence in any way at all .
. . it only made my blood rush hotter. “It went alright,” he
answered.

Silence followed. I tried very,
very
hard not to stare at Jaden the entire time, but considering that I
could picture his exact, outfit, pose, and facial expression with
my eyes closed, I must have been failing miserably.

Holdan moved towards me, pulling my
attention. “Well,” he started, “it was nice seeing you, Jaden, but
we're a little busy right now.”

My stomach twisted at the words. I tried to
hide my anxiousness as I glanced back at the brown-haired boy.

“Actually, I think I'll take it from here,”
he stated flatly, staring down now as his hands fiddled with the
edge of his sword. Holdan looked like he was about to object, but
Jaden continued. “Master Boron needs you at the gate.”

Holdan narrowed his eyes. “If you're making
this up I'll—” Jaden glanced up at him and he instantly recanted.
“Fine.”

After a moment he turned to me and smiled.
“I'll see you later, Evelyn.”

I felt a little bad for him as I waved. “See
ya.”

After watching him disappear through the
trees, I turned my gaze back slowly.

I was all-too unprepared for the dark eyes
staring back at me. My breath caught. I tried quickly to think of
something to say. It all sounded stupid. Thoughts of Derrith
talking about the boy now standing in front of me being the most
powerful offense artisan came to mind, momentarily bringing me back
to my senses.

Remember, Evelyn, you already acted like a
weirdo before. Try not to bug him this time.

Although I felt in control of my actions, my
body was still rushing violently . . . somehow
he
seemed
quite content just to stand there, staring. I had to look away.

After what felt like an hour of awkward
silence, he finally spoke. “Are you ready?”

I looked up. “Ready for what?”

He moved forward, sword in hand. “Sparring of
course . . . I did promise I'd take over.”

He smirked now and my body turned to mush. I
hadn't seen him in so long and I'd been so worried about him . . .
I suddenly felt the strongest urge to run over and hug him.

And he wants to spar?

Instantly, I reprimanded myself and tried to
look normal. I don't think it worked. Even apart from my face, when
I lifted up the sword it was trembling slightly. “Okay, then,” I
managed.

He watched for a moment then dropped his
sword, eyeing me carefully.

I checked myself, sure that I must be doing
something wrong, but found nothing.

When I looked back at him he was, if I wasn't
mistaken, confused. I had never seen him look confused before, but
it still fit his character. Somehow he made confused appear calm.
Controlled.

Flawless.

My face started to redden with his stare.

“What?” I asked, still playing
indifference.

His eyes narrowed further. “‘
Okay.’?
That's it?”

I waited, now joining him in confusion.

He walked closer. “No arguing? No
yelling?”

My face went freshly red and I looked at the
ground. I heard him move closer then saw a wrist wave below me.

“No cuffing?”

I looked back up. The confusion was gone, he
was giving me his half-smile now.

I moved back. “Look, Jaden, about that. . . .
I'm really sorry for yelling at you, and . . . the other thing. It
was way out of line.”

He was getting thrown again. Somehow I
couldn't resist his silent urge to explain further.

“What I mean is. . . . You had every right to
be annoyed with me when I came here, angry even.” I looked out
towards the trees, becoming more ardent as I spoke. “And what I
said in the study, about you needing to be nicer to me, that was
just ridiculous. I was lucky to even have you speaking to me, let
alone babysitting. I mean, here I am, some nobody, and you are like
practically the most important person—” my eyes landed back on him.
His face was calm “. . . here.”

After a minute his mouth curved up to a cocky
smile. I guess he wasn't so confused anymore.

I gulped.

“I have to give it to you,” he said, my heart
thumping freshly at the sound of his voice, “you're not—”

Before he could finish a body came crashing
into me from the side. At first I wasn't sure what it was. But as
arms wrapped around me in a hug, a mess of light hair covered my
view and I knew immediately it was Ikovos.

As he squeezed me tightly all the worries of
the past days seemed to dissipate, and I slowly relaxed into his
hold. Eventually though, I did remember that Jaden was still there.
It made me feel more than a little awkward until Ikovos released,
grabbing onto my shoulders instead.

“How have you been?” he asked breathlessly.
“I've been worried sick about you.”

I looked down, sufficiently embarrassed. “I'm
fine.”

He smiled then, I had forgotten how brilliant
it was. I was almost disappointed when he let go of my shoulders to
look at Jaden. “How did you get here already? I thought you had to
go see Master Thoran.”

Jaden waved a nonchalant hand. “He was out. I
was going to look for him when I ran into her.”

Great, I'm just a her now.

Ikovos eyed him oddly for a moment. I
couldn't figure out what it meant. Then, so quickly I had to blink,
his eyes were back on me with a wide smile.

“Hey, why are you out here anyways?” he
asked, then chuckled, “I know it's not to enjoy the sun.”

I joined him. “No. I was training.”

He looked curious. “Oh? With who?”

I cleared my throat, glancing quickly over at
Jaden. As expected, he
did
look a little upset. For whatever
reason Holdan and him didn't seem to like each other much.

I looked back to Ikovos. “Holdan.” I
answered, somewhat uncomfortably.

Ikovos burst out laughing as soon as I said
it. Only stopping to question me. “Really?”

I nodded and he started again.

Jaden still didn't appear too happy, but at
least he knew what was up. Once again
I
was the one left out
of the loop.

I sighed before Ikovos turned to Jaden. “Wait
. . . was he still here when you came?”

Jaden gave him a look to kill and Ikovos
barely managed to stifle another laugh.

“So how was he, Evelyn?” Ikovos asked,
turning back to me.

My face went from one confused look to the
next. “Hunh?”

“Holdan,” he clarified. “Was he a good
teacher?”

“Oh,” I mumbled. “Ah . . . yeah. He was very
nice, and I learned a lot I think.” I tried to keep it short for
Jaden's sake.

Ikovos smiled, if I wasn't mistaken from
enjoyment over the other boy’s grief.

“Sorry,” he said, reading my mind again. “We
just got back and I'm already using you to torture Jaden.”

He said it with a wicked smile, but my face
barely had a chance to go red before his features darkened. He
stepped closer. “I'm so sorry we didn't come back on time, Evelyn .
. . that must have been terrible.”

Feeling instantly overcome with emotion, I
forced myself to respond the opposite, waving a hand. “No. It's
fine. I barely noticed.”

He wasn't buying it. “Well . . .” he began,
“Jaden started explaining what happened already, right?”

In that moment I felt both awkward and
validated. Each made me want to look at Jaden. The first to check
his reaction, and the second to point at finger at him and declare
that I wasn't crazy and he should have said something about being
late.

Neither happened. Without seeing his
expression, I smiled sweetly and turned to Ikovos.

“He was just about to tell me when you came,”
I said.

Ikovos looked surprised for a second, then
grinned. “And he apologized?”

I nodded without hesitation. “Profusely.”

Obviously he was pleased. “Really?” He said
it rhetorically, but I nodded anyways.

When I spared a glance at Jaden he was
studying me tersely. I hoped he wasn't upset considering that I'd
fibbed so that he
wouldn't
get mad at me.

Looking away he cleared his throat. “Well,
I've got to go find Master Thoran, so I'll see you guys later.”

Ikovos glared over at him. “Yeah right, we
just got back and you're like one of the only people Evelyn knows.
I think you can go to lunch with us.”

I didn't get a chance to see Jaden's reaction
. . . I was too busy choking and coughing uncontrollably.
Man,
that boy can say anything.

By the time I'd regained my composure they
were both staring at me, suspicious, curious, skeptical. For no
reason at all in that moment I felt irrevocable elated that they
were back. Of course this was quickly followed with my face
flushing red. I grasped my throat fakely.

“Sorry,” I swallowed, “something caught in my
throat.”

They looked back at each other with barely an
acknowledgment of my explanation. Jaden spoke first.

“Alright. I'll meet you there in a few
minutes.”

With that he let his eyes linger on me,
smirking devilishly, no doubt over my rant from before, then walked
off into the trees.

I noticed at his departure I could breathe
again. That was nice. I didn't dwell on the thought though, turning
instead to Ikovos with newfound bravery. He was smiling of course,
but it vanished when I narrowed my eyes at him playfully.

“You are in big trouble,” I stated.

His features widened. “What? Why?”

I tapped a finger to my chin. “Let's see,
where do I begin. Hmm, I could start with the part where you went
off somewhere that I knew was dangerous and then didn't show up for
days, leaving me here to think you were dead or worse.”

He tried to interrupt, but I stopped him.

“Or the fact that I had to practically lie to
Cornelius to keep you guys out of trouble.”

I paused as he made a face that was somewhere
between a wince and a smile.