The Drifting (26 page)

There is one thing I do remember for certain and I will never forget again.  Tharin loves Kalis.  He belongs with her.  They have loved each other forever.  What was it that Mellis told Julia?  Tharin swore his love to her in some garden?  I wonder about that garden.  Will I be in it one day with Tharin after we marry?  Or will I be there alone as he goes off to meet with his true love.  I won’t let that happen.  I’ll go home…home where there are no pointed-ear princes to invade my thoughts with false promises that were never meant to be kept.  What a fool I am to believe the kiss meant anything to him.

My thoughts take me back to the path when I laid eyes on Kalis for the first time.  I can see why “everyone” would be in love with her…she’s beautiful.  I watched as I held my breath when he moved to stand only inches from her.  When he took her hood off, she stole the breath I was holding and I felt as if I would be sick.  Tall, athletic and that cloak she wore couldn’t hide her long legs…and that face.  With the light from the floating panswa they brought with them, I could clearly see her flawless, tanned skin, and long swan-like neck.  She looked fierce – like an avenging angel coming for her man.  The look she gave him almost broke me.  When she smiled up at him I knew she was seeing love on his face.  Not that I could tell from where I was standing, I only had a partial view of his profile.  But her look and smile said it all. 

I stood there among the trees too stunned, hurt and numb to move.  If Sema hadn’t pulled me behind the tree when they passed, Tharin would have seen me.  But I saw him.  I saw how he hugged her to him, eyes closed as if he was sorry that he ever had left her.  I watched as they rode away and Kalis snuggled back against him as if it weren’t the first time.  No matter how hard I try to forget all of it, my thoughts seek it out to replay over and over again, tormenting me.  It’s my punishment for being involved with a guy who’s taken.  It’s what Marilyn would call karma. 

Marilyn.  All of a sudden I miss her so much, and I want to go home more than anything.  Not that it would matter.  She would be in
Australia
by now with her sister.  I wonder if she misses or even thinks of me.  I wish I had grabbed my cell phone…I would be on it with her right now.  Then again, I don’t even know if there is such a thing as reception for cell phones in this realm.  I feel a tear make its way down the side of my nose and I let it drop.  I wish for my brother, for Julia, for Marilyn.  I even wish for the woman in my head.

I wipe at my eyes angrily, there will be no pity party here.  I won’t cry, not for him.  He doesn’t deserve it.  I won’t cry, I won’t cry, I won’t cry.  I bury my face into my pillow and force myself to sleep.  To my surprise, instead of crying my eyes out as I thought I would, I find I’m mad.  I mean…I’m really, really mad.  I hope he and his warrior goddess live happily ever after…jackass.

~ * ~

Chapter
Nineteen

~
Lily
~

For the past week, Ziri and Alorn have been relentless on my training.  They took me out the day after I witnessed Tharin with Kalis.  I suspected that they knew, of course they did…they were there, but I’m not sure if they knew that I knew.  They didn’t say a word to me about it and I didn’t bring it up.  I decided that next morning that I was done and over it.  I knew of Kalis and I still let him get close to me…never again.  What Tharin does with Kalis is his business, not mine.  I gave him my word and I’ll stick to my end of the deal, as long as he sticks to his.  I just hope he was actually there when I made the pact. 

The first part of my training was learning how to run.  When I told them I use to run track in school, Alorn and Ziri stood and looked as me as if I was speaking a foreign language.  I finally gave up trying to explain myself.  I would just do it and show them that running was one lesson I really didn’t need.  I was wrong. 

I was to do ten miles and I thought,
Okay, this is doable
–
running is my thing
.  What I didn’t know was that after every mile they used the trees to set up stairs, about a quarter mile up and back.  Going up was tough, of course, but at least the steps were wide enough.  Coming down was another story.  The steps somehow shrunk coming down and my momentum had me speeding downward to a face in the dirt. 

Alorn and Ziri were at the bottom, so I thought they would catch me.  By the time I reached the last few steps – I’m flying.  My arms flaying, I reach out to them as they stand, arms folded and shaking their heads at my uncoordinated feet.  Did they
try to
catch me?  No.  They let me go on my merry way until I finally trip over my own feet and go headfirst into the mud.  Oh yeah, these elves don’t care what the weather is like – training is training.  Needless to say, on my first day I didn’t even make it past the three-mile mark.  The stairs became steeper with each mile, and by the third stairs, I walked down, grabbing anything I could hold onto, much to the dismay of my trainers.  I don’t think Alorn or Ziri cares it’s the first day.  I also found out that unless I lose a limb, am knocked unconscious or keel over, there is no sympathy. 

My second day was back up on the net with Kulzo.  He was no better than the other two in thinking he would go easy on me.  What was I thinking?
His job was to catch and pin me.  My job was not to get caught or pinned.  It was difficult to move on the net and I noticed that there were no vines for me to hang on to.  I look over at Ziri and he gives me a smug grin. 

Before we started, Alorn stated there would be no weapons allowed for now, which meant Kulzo couldn’t use his knife, and I couldn’t use my voice to blow out his eardrums.  We started off at opposite corners, and if I could make it to his corner without being pinned, I would be ready to move to the next level with Kulzo.  My first three attempts were worthless as the tree dwarf caught me, lifted me up easily and slammed me hard onto the net, followed by a death grip as he pinned me…easily.  The first two times he pinned me, I couldn’t breathe and it felt as if my ribs were broken.  And each time Kulzo got up he would say, “C’mon girly, get up, or I’ll throw you off the net.” 

I wouldn’t put it past him, so I would crawl back to my corner and prepare for the next try.  On my third try, I rolled off after the body slam when he leapt into the air to pin me.  My brief escape was just that…brief.  He still caught me at the waist as I tried to roll away.  He pulled me back to him and pinned me.  Once he pinned me, there was nothing I could do.  The dwarf weighed a ton. 

“All right, Kulzo, let her up,” ordered Ziri as he approached us.  I felt the net move again and looked up to see Alorn standing opposite of him.  They stood staring down at me shaking their heads. 

“This is really sad,” said Ziri sighing.

“Maybe we should bulk her up,” offered Alorn.

“More chicken pasta?” asked Ziri, giving Alorn a serious look.  All three of us have had enough of Sema’s chicken pasta, but none of us have the heart to tell her otherwise.  I groaned at the threat and reached up for them to help me stand, but they both gave me raised brows while shaking their heads again.  They left me to get up on my own with Ziri calling, “Get up on your feet, Lily.  We’ll keep doing it again and again until you can escape Kulzo completely.”

At the end of day two, I knew what a pretzel felt like.  I ached all over and felt bruised…everywhere.  I never did escape from Kulzo that day, but I knew he started to lighten up on his attacks toward the end.  He had accidentally elbowed my left eye, and even though they stopped to make sure I was okay, Ziri threw me back in. 

Today
is
day three.  This morning
I refuse
d
to get out of bed
, but
I only jump out when Alorn threatened to come in and dress me for the day’s workout.  I’ve learned to take their threats to heart.  These guys are serious about their training.  I dress
ed
quickly, at
e
a bowl of chicken pasta and then drag
ged
myself to the branch that would take me down. 

The second I hit the ground an arrow flashes past my face.  I instantly hit the
mud
, memories of the night Tharin knocked me down rush back at me.  “Lily, get up,” calls Ziri from a distance.

I look about me but don’t see him.  I looked down at myself
–
I’m covered in mud before the day has even started.  Call it cranky, but I get up as another arrow flashes by me.  I give a hard look a
t the direction where Ziri called
out
from
.  I walk over toward an opening in the trees where the rain pours unimpeded.  When another arrow flashes by me, again I ignore it and keep walking, refusing to play his game.  When an arrow hit
s
the ground before me, I step over it.  Once I’m out in the open, I tilt my head up to let the rain wash over me.  I’ve been taking baths since I got here, and even though the rain is cold, the feeling of being showered feels good.

I take my time in the rain – making them wait for once.  When I’m done, I turn to head back but run right into Alorn’s chest.  He stands before me, a hard look on his face.

“Are you done?” he asks quietly.

“Yes, yes, I am.”  With one hand, he stops me from stepping around him and pushes me back before him.

“Is this what you want, Lily?  Do you want to depend on others to keep you safe, to fight your battles?  What if you were in danger and we weren’t there to help?  Or if you were with Julia and she was hurt and you needed to defend her?  Or anyone of us?”

Crap.  I stare up at him feeling small.  I glance behind him to see Ziri waiting among the kavi, his face unreadable with a bow in hand, quiver at his back.  Feeling a little ashamed of myself, I looked back at Alorn contritely. “I’m sorry.”

He stares at me for a moment before giving me a nod.  Without a word, he turns and walks back toward Ziri.  I follow behind slowly, feeling as if I’ve let them down. 

The day didn’t get any better.  There was a quick lesson on how to aim and shoot, three shots at a target, and that’s it.  The rest I had to do while running.  I must have tripped a dozen times just trying to nock the damn arrow and when I finally did, it slipped out of my wet hands.  And that was just the first half-mile. 

What Alorn said earlier got to me, so no matter how many times I fell, no matter how much it hurt my arms from pulling back the bowstring, I wouldn’t give up.  The worst were the steps going down.  There hasn’t been a time yet that I haven’t fallen, even when I’m walking down them.  By the end of the lesson, I have more bruises than I started with.  I also have a large gash on my left forearm from where the bowstring hit it several times.  One time when the arrow slipped, it made a deep cut from the bend of my arm to my wrist.  Because of the rain and the constant soreness, I didn’t realize there was a gash until the end.

The training went as such through the week.  I did sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups; I did squats and footwork.  I learned how to use a knife, but when I cut myself for the third time, Ziri took it away from me and replaced it with a stick.  I learned to leap, jump, swing from the trees, crawl in the mud and the underbrush.  I learned to breathe and breathe and breathe with every step I took, and every move I made.  At the end of the week, Alorn worked with me on the basics of fighting, mostly footwork.  He tied my hands behind me and had me defend myself by avoiding his strikes.  Yeah, another black eye and fat lip later and my footwork still needed work.

When the training with Ziri and Alorn was over, I worked on my abilities to control energy through my will with Sema.  I had an hour to clean up and rest before she took me up to our platform to begin my lessons.  With Sema I learned to thank the Mother Earth for her gifts, the trees, plants and every living creature that she provides and cares for.  Next, Sema would have me learn to breathe and breathe and breathe.  It’s like I’ve never breathed in my entire life before coming here.  There was also meditation, which she would cut short because I would end up falling asleep.  I couldn’t help it – I was always exhausted after training with the guys.  I had asked if we could do her lessons first, but she told me that the physical part helped clear my mind and body.  And because I was physically cleansed, it left my body and senses open to the energies around me.

It was during one of our lessons about using energy to heal that I mentioned the trees at the small clearing with Tharin.  I explained how the thela that Tharin was in had been under attack and he needed my help to get back.  I told her about transferring some of my own energy to give him strength in order to continue on.  I then told her about how even though I was in the
drifting
state, I felt the call of the trees being attacked.  I tried my best to explain to her about how I fed the trees some of my own energy by touching the ground.  She listened carefully, never interrupting me.