Marker of Hope (33 page)

“It’s the armor you gave me for Christmas,” I
said.

“No, I meant your boobs.”

“It’s a side effect of motherhood,” I said.
Galilea continued to ogle me. I crossed an arm over my torso,
covering my chest. “Your gawk is making me prison-cellmate
uncomfortable.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, darling. You’re not
my type,” she said. “So what are the two of you doing in here?”

“Crash course in defense,” David told
her.

“Eh.” She wrinkled her nose. “Sounds boring.
Let me know when the sparring begins. I’ve been waiting for a good
excuse to kick her ass for a while.”

Galilea turned and left, and David and I
exchanged glances.

“She’s still upset at you,” David said, as if
it weren’t plainly obvious.

“Too bad.” I shrugged. “At the moment, I
don’t have time for her nonsense. Besides, she’ll get over it soon
enough. You ready to go again?”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I
swung at him with my left hand, and he blocked my hit. But he
wasn’t expecting the kick to his shin or my right fist on his face.
He went down like a block of steel. Sounded like one as he hit the
floor, too.

“You okay?” I looked down at him. His eyes
were closed. I panicked. “
David
?” No response. “Oh my…” I
lowered myself next to him. Half a second later, I was flat on my
back, bound to the floor by David’s hands, his legs straddling my
waist. I blew out a huff of air. “You were faking?”

“That. Hurt,” David said.

“Really?” I was pleased with myself, but
quickly rescinded the smile on my lips. “I mean, sorry.”

“Good job,” he said. “But you fight like a
girl.”

“That’s sexist.” I frowned at him. “You
trying to piss me off?”

“Yes, and by the looks of it, it’s working.”
He smirked.

I mimicked him.

“Ready to go again?”

“Are you?” I challenged, and then charged at
him.

For the next couple of hours, David explained
to me what he called “the basics”. He showed me how to take my
stance—dominant leg and hand in the back, non-dominant limbs in the
front. He explained how my fists should always be at chin or
cheekbone level for protection, and how my knees should be slightly
bent. Then we moved on to pivoting for added power in each
punch.

We took a break because Faith needed to be
nursed. Nyx suggested she begin bottle feedings with baby formula
so as not to interrupt my training. She reminded me how she’d
raised three boys and knew what she was doing. Begrudgingly, I
agreed and returned to the improvised gym.

David and I continued our practice. I landed
several more clean hits, and still, he refused to hit me back. By
noon, an audience gathered in the room. Frederick, Galilea, Galen,
and the Doctors Gunn observed us in silence. Occasionally, I’d
catch Galen glaring at Frederick, and vice versa.

“How am I doing so far?” I asked David.

“Great.” He wiped the sweat trailing down the
side of his head.

“I’m in awe,” Dr. Gunn said. “The growth in
your strength and speed are remarkable, Isis.”

“By your standards, maybe,” Galilea said, “By
ours, her reflexes are slow. Old-lady slow. No offense,
Eileen.”

Eileen huffed at her.

“You won’t be able to keep up in battle,
Isis.” Galilea shook her head. “Not like that.”

My ego deflated.

“Oh, love…” Frederick wrapped his arm around
Galilea’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Everyone’s start is rusty. Once
madam’s confidence increases, I have no doubt she’ll be quicker
than all of us.”

Galen snorted. “Commander, you’re quite the
Madam Isis brownnoser. She doesn’t need your pretty words to puff
her up. She needs you to be her instructor. But instead, here you
stand, wasting time, flirting like the damn fool you are.”

Frederick seemed unfazed by Galen’s remark.
Or at least, I thought. But he turned to me and said, “You should
take a break. I feel you need to practice on reflexes and evading
punches. And if it’s all right with both of you, I’d like to take
over the lesson after lunch.”

David and I nodded.

“Now you’re talking.” Galilea’s grin reached
her eyes. “Can I help?”

“Of course, love.” Frederick winked at
her.

“
Of course, love
,” Galen repeated in a
mocking tone. “Can you take your grimy paws off my woman?”

“Your woman? Put a ring on it, and then I
might consider.” Galilea slid out of Frederick’s embrace. “If
you’ll excuse me, I have a baby niece to check on.” She winked at
Frederick, and then gave Galen the stink eye as she left.

Guess I wasn’t the only person on Galilea’s
bad side these days.

***

After lunch—and as promised—Galilea kicked my
ass in a sparring match. Toward the end of the training session, I
decided it was time to let go of my fear of both hurting her and
getting hurt by her. Also, she was getting rougher with her
punches, and though I told her to ease up, she wouldn’t. It was
irritating. She took another swing at me and knocked me to the
floor. This time, I could taste the iron from my blood in my mouth.
I wiped my lips and saw the smears of red on the palm of my hand. I
already had a headache from previous punches she’d landed, and now
my mouth was throbbing.

That’s it.

I went at her, releasing all my strength, the
heft of my fist landing dead on her nose. Blood splattered on the
mat as she fell.

“Whoa… Party’s over,” Eryx said, and left the
room. I was tempted to follow.

“Galilea,” I said, “I’m so sorry.”

“About time you grew some lady balls and hit
me back,” she said, taking a towel from David’s hand. She wiped her
nose with it and winced, purple bruises already forming under her
eyes. She put the towel down. “Is it bad?”

“Well…” I grimaced. “Define bad.”

“You’re lucky I like you. You’re even luckier
I have the ability to heal a broken nose.”

***

Twenty days passed, and I grew proud of my
progress. Frederick and I trained a little harder and a little
later each time. Every day, I felt stronger, more capable. The
Chios men helped me prepare by participating in training drills
assigned by Frederick. Even Samuel joined in on a few of them.

Nyx bowed out of the Isis Boot Camp and took
on babysitting duties instead, which relieved my angst of leaving
Faith’s side to a great extent. I trusted the new ensemble of
warriors to guard my daughter, but I didn’t trust them to care for
her—not after I found Faith wrapped from shoulders to toes in
diapers. It was Persia’s version of swaddling an infant.

Claire helped babysit Faith, as well. She
came by the house every day after work and on weekends, taking time
to watch me train. She’d been carrying on with work as if
everything were fine and dandy in our lives. Maybe it was her way
of dealing with all the craziness. Maybe she was trying to hang on
to what little normality was left in her life. On several
occasions, I noted the strange gazes Samuel and Claire exchanged
when they were in the same room. When I confronted Claire and asked
her about it, she told me I was imagining things. I wasn’t. To save
myself further frustration and worry, I left the topic alone.

While sparring, I found I was strong. Very
strong. Stronger than anyone in the household. I beat Galen at
sprinting and found he was a sore loser. He claimed Frederick
rigged the race when I won. Eryx imparted his knowledge of breaking
limbs at the joints. I squirmed through most of the lesson. The
most extreme part of my training entailed weaponry. Ayrie showed me
how to maneuver a sword and grip a dagger. Frederick stepped in to
show me how to handle nunchaku and strange, archaic-looking weapons
with spikes. Eryx presented me with a shield, which had belonged to
Alezzander and Alezzander’s father before him. Against my protests,
I accepted it—but only after David explained it was a gesture of
respect for a worthy warrior. I felt humbled to be given a gift
such as their family shield. My first heirloom, so to speak. I
didn’t feel worthy at all.

Once I achieved ease in handling the range of
artillery I’d been practicing with, Frederick informed me it was
time to spar again. This time, armed. My eye twitched when
Frederick asked for volunteers. Throwing a fist around was one
thing, but throwing a razor-sharp object around didn’t sprout any
profound feelings of confidence. I breathed a sigh of relief when
Frederick asked a second time for volunteers, and no one came
forward. Suddenly, everyone had an excuse and somewhere else to be.
The room cleared out in less than two seconds. Frederick and I were
left alone, but it didn’t mean I was off the hook. Frederick handed
me a sword and the shield. Needless to say, it didn’t end well.
During one of his fancy warrior roundhouse kicks, Frederick’s long,
black ponytail flew a little too close to my sword.

“Oops,” I said, looking down at the slab of
hair. “Sorry. Does this mean we’re done for the day?” He nodded and
bent over to pick up the black chunk of hair. “But, hey, on the
bright side, I saved you twenty bucks for a new haircut, right?” He
didn’t look amused. “I’m sorry, Frederick.”

“It’s fine. It’ll grow back. Just make sure
it’s not my head on the floor next time.”

A thought that hadn’t occurred to me.

“We’re doing this again?” I asked.

“How else do you plan on reinforcing your
skills?”

“You’re not one of those people with a death
wish, are you?” I asked. He shook his head. “Could’ve fooled me.”
From the pile of white towels laying at the edge of the mats, I
grabbed one and threw it to Frederick. I wiped the sweat from my
face and neck. “Frederick, I’ve been thinking. I want to address
the troops.”

“We shouldn’t be talking about this without
the proper precautions.”

“If you’re talking about eavesdropping,
scum-from-hell demons, there aren’t any here. I would’ve picked up
their stench.”

“You can do that?” Frederick asked, and I
nodded. “How?”

“Uh… With my nose? It’s the first-order
Turpis I had trouble with before, but I feel like my senses are
sharper than they were. As of two days ago, even more than during
the pregnancy. Tenfold.”

“How do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain,” I said. “Dr. Gunn
says it’s because the pregnancy may have been prohibiting the
development of the last of my powers. But now, everything in me has
intensified. My body feels different.
I
feel different.”

“And the hunger?”

“Under control,” I said. “Hey, let’s focus on
my monster abilities later, okay? I was saying I want to address
the troops. There are thirteen days left until D-day, and I’m
afraid the army’s growing nervous and impatient waiting for
instructions. I know Onarit and you think it best not to speak to
them because Turpis may be listening in, and I agree. But I also
think leaving them in the dark until the last minute is risky. What
if they desert us right then and there? They don’t know they’re up
against two different forces, and if any decide to leave, I’d like
to have a plan B in place if I’m left without an army for some
reason.”

“They won’t desert you,” Frederick said with
certainty. “If anything, they’ll see how brave a leader you are to
be going head to head with both enemy armies at once.”

“Brave or crazy?” I twisted open a bottle of
water and was about to drink from it when a thought crossed my
either brave or crazy mind. “How do you communicate with warriors
when you’re not at the campsites?”

“Via text messages.”

“That’s it?”

“
Encrypted
text messages. Sometimes,
we use emoticons.”

“Smiley faces…” I blinked. “Wow. I thought
you’d have something more technologically sophisticated in
place.”

“More sophisticated?” He laughed. “You’ve
never tried to teach a 100,000-year-old deity to text, have you?
Trust me, these devices are as high-tech as some can handle.”

“I see your point,” I said, remembering when
I had to teach Claire to text. “Is there a way to record a video
and send it to all their phones at once?”

“Yes. I use a mass-text application we
developed when we first…” He tilted his head a bit. “Wait a minute.
I know what you’re thinking, but I’m going to have to disagree with
you on this occasion. Your idea, it’s dangerous. Imagine a video
being played by two hundred and thirteen phones at the same time.
Your voice amplified, divulging our plans to the wind. Might as
well include a courtesy copy text to the enemy while you’re at
it.”

“Yes, I agree it would be unsafe to listen to
the video on a phone’s speaker. But you fail to remember earphones
can be adapted to cell phones nowadays.” I took a sip of water from
the bottle in my hand. “Lucky for us, plugging in earphones is a
lot simpler than teaching multi-millennial gods how to use text
messaging. All we need is a bit of Cezario’s camouflage magic to
keep the battalion and their phones hidden while the video
plays.”

Frederick’s dark eyes narrowed as if
considering the idea. “If you really want to do this, we’ll have to
figure out how to delete the video once it’s finished playing. I
don’t want anyone replaying it, increasing the chances of having us
found out. It may take a day or three to rewrite the software and
reinstall it on their phones. How soon would you like to address
your army?”

“As soon as you’ve got everything worked out
on your end.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll need the video to
upload as soon as the modifications to the software are finalized.”
Frederick walked over to the rattan chair he’d set his phone on. He
picked it up and pointed the phone’s camera in my direction. “Ready
when you are, madam.”

CHAPTER 37

The modifications for the texting software
Frederick projected to take a few days took longer. But when he
tried to do a test run, the app deleted the video I’d originally
recorded, so I had to record a second one, which got deleted as
well. The third and final video was recorded on the day it was to
be aired to the army. That day was today, a whole week later.