The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 (13 page)

Lucy watched in amazement as Maya and Gavin sparred. It looked like Gavin was toning down his abilities, but the show was still impressive. Gavin was wielding a practice broadsword. Maya had a shorter practice sword and a practice dagger. Practice blades were made of tightly bound reeds. They were hard and flexible, though lighter than actual blades. They hurt like the dickens and left red welts when they hit you, but they generally did not cause trips to the infirmary or loss of limb. The school frowned upon dismemberment.

Gavin lunged, and Maya parried, spinning off to the side and kicking out with her leg catching Gavin in the back of the knee. He started to go down, twisted, grabbed Maya, and brought her with him. At this point, Gavin noticed Lucy and Justin. He smiled and let go of Maya. Maya had her back to them and did not notice. She immediately stabbed her dagger at his side. Lucy had a chance to see just how fast Gavin’s reflexes were when he was able to stop her even while distracted. Gavin nodded in their direction, and Maya turned to look. They got up and brushed themselves off.

“How was your meeting?” asked Maya.

“Fine,” Lucy shrugged. “It seemed pretty routine to me.”

“Good,” said Gavin. “That means you will have no mental distractions while we work on improving your accuracy with a bow.”

“I was thinking,” began Lucy, “could you work on teaching me a different weapon instead?”

“Are you sure you don’t want to work on not injuring yourself with a bow?”

“Exactly, I’ll work on not injuring myself by learning a new weapon.”

“My expertise is at your disposal,” said Gavin with a mock bow. “What would you like to learn?”

“For some reason, I think I might end up liking a staff, so, can we try a sword?”

“I’m not sure I follow your logic.”

“Well, if it turns out I’m terrible at a sword as well, at least some preliminary instruction should help me from killing myself in class.”

“I’m not sure it makes sense, but I’m willing to give it a try.” Gavin simply enjoyed weapons. Whatever Lucy wanted to learn was fine with him. “The first thing to do is find a length you are comfortable with. You might learn how to fight with different lengths in class because there are advantages and disadvantages to each, but each person usually has a higher comfort level with a certain length.”

Gavin led Lucy to the room where the practice weapons were kept while Justin grabbed a staff and picked up sparring with Maya where Gavin had left off. Gavin started handing Lucy swords and asking her to hold them in a such and such a way or turn her wrist this way and that. At first, Lucy was not sure what he was looking for, but after trying to roll her wrist with a sword that was too long and almost dropping it, she began to understand. She tried different lengths and weights and settled on one about two and half feet long. Gavin grabbed two identical practice swords and led the way back out to the practice field.

Maya and Justin were working up a sweat, and Maya’s hair had come loose.

“Can we stop a minute so I can put my hair back up?” asked Maya, ducking a blow from Justin’s staff and returning it with vigor.

“Certainly,” replied Justin, “as soon as you kill me or yield. To my knowledge no battle has been called due to hair issues.” He swept his staff at her legs, and she managed to jump out of the way.

Maya narrowed her eyes through her hair and kept sparring.

Gavin and Lucy walked a reasonable distance away, and Gavin began with simple instructions on how to hold a sword and swing it with power. Not too much power that it threw you off balance. He explained how to block in order to slide your opponent’s blade and displace the force of a blow rather than try to absorb the full force of a blow with your body. Breaking a wrist while blocking a blow did not bode well for the rest of a fight. Then he stood next to her and slightly in front so she could see him without turning her head. He ran through a basic set of thrusts and blocks. Lucy followed along and did her best to memorize the routine.

“I want you to work on practicing that in your spare time. Right now how do you feel about some sparring?” asked Gavin.

“I don’t know,” said Lucy with apprehension. She had seen how good he was with Maya, and she could tell he had been holding back with that. “I’ve never sparred before.”

“Don’t worry; I’ll go easy on you.”

“What if I accidentally hurt you?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you hurt me, I deserve it.”

“Too true, your reputation would never hold up,” Lucy joked.

Gavin winked and got into fighting stance. Lucy copied him. They circled each other.

“Your move,” said Gavin.

“I prefer to play black in chess, if you don’t mind,” replied Lucy.

“If you insist.”

Gavin jabbed at Lucy’s shoulder. It was a light jab and not very fast. He was testing her reactions to find out how fast he could go. He wanted to challenge her but not hurt her. Lucy brought up her sword in a move they practiced earlier, and the blow slid away. Maintaining some of the momentum from the block, she continued the movement and tried to hit Gavin in the side. He blocked it easily. They continued back and forth.

Lucy found she preferred to block rather than attack. That could be a problem with an opponent like Gavin who could simply wear her down and then kill her. Even if she did not manage to win the sparring exercise, at least she had so far avoided self-inflicted bodily harm. Always a plus when dealing with weapons.

Gavin kept pushing Lucy. Every hit he went a little harder or a little faster, trying to find out how much she could take. She was keeping up pretty well for a first timer, but he could tell her arm was beginning to tire. Finally, he went just fast enough to work past her defense and the practice sword slammed into Lucy’s side. She grunted in surprise and pain, and Gavin lowered his sword.

“That stung!” said Lucy, wincing. “I suppose you had to do that?”

“Of course,” Gavin replied. “Someone has to hit you first, and I thought it might as well be me. Besides, now you know what it feels like so you don’t have to fear the unknown.”

“No, but I can fear repeating the known.”

“There is that,” said Gavin, and he appeared to think it over.

Justin and Maya and joined them.

“Tired?” Justin asked Lucy.

“Yeah, and I can tell I’m going to be sore tomorrow.”

“That’s your body telling you that you accomplished something.”

Everyone laughed at that.

“At least this soreness will be from muscles used as opposed to personal incompetence,” said Lucy, and everyone laughed again.

“Gavin,” said Justin, “you have any energy left?”

“I have enough to beat you,” said Gavin.

“We thought so,” said Maya, “but do you have enough to take on both of us?”

“I welcome the challenge.”

The three faced off. Lucy, deciding she wanted nothing to do with that many people and weapons flying around at that point in her training, moved off to the side and sat down to watch. After a few minutes she decided she might as well stretch as she watched and began to feel better.

After the three way spar, which ended in a tie, they went for a ride.

Justin and Lucy walked in together on their way to shower before eating. They discussed the ride and how Lucy might not be as inept at weapons as she had first thought. Then Lucy decided to bring up the meeting with Eric.

“I don’t know why, but he’s putting me on a faster training schedule, if that makes sense,” said Lucy.

“You have shown a lot of talent. Maybe this is his way of challenging you,” said Justin noncommittally.

“Archery is a challenge.”

“True, but not one that challenges your skills as a mage. I was watching you with that matchbox. You’re learning quickly.”

“I’m not the only person to ever learn something quickly,” said Lucy defensively.

“No, but you are the type of person who might get frustrated if the rest of the class is too slow too often.”

Lucy nodded in agreement.

“Besides, there could be another reason.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know what that reason is would you?” asked Lucy. Justin had not shown any surprise at her revelation even though it was obviously not a common practice. He must know something.

“Your door, I believe,” replied Justin.

“You know something.”

“I know many things.”

“Don’t be difficult, just tell me.”

“We can do this one of two ways. You can be patient and wait for things to be revealed. To be honest I don’t know much more than you, but I am not allowed to tell you what I do know.”

“The other way?”

“The other way involves me giving off subject answers and flippant responses until you get exasperated and go in to take your shower, most likely slamming the door in my face.”

“Those are the only two options?”

“Sadly, yes. You may pick either one though. I have no problems being exasperating.”

“That I’m sure of. However, I think I’m too tired, sore, and hungry to care to be exasperated on top of that so I’ll choose option one for now.”

“Sounds like a plan. Enjoy your shower; I’ll see you in the Dining Hall. By the way, if you need any help with the faster lessons, all you have to do is ask.”

“Thanks, I might do that.”

Justin turned and walked down the hallway. Lucy shut her door and began to strip off her clothing. The muscles in her right arm hurt from somewhere around her ear, down her neck, and all the way to her fingertips. Also her left side was beginning to bruise where Gavin had hit her with the practice sword. She might ask Justin to heal that for her after dinner. There was no reason to suffer through bruises if she didn’t have to. Lucy sighed as hot water flowed around her body. Hot water is a beautiful thing.

Lucy reflected on her meeting with Eric. Even if the reasons were unknown, Lucy was interested and excited to learn at a faster pace. She had better do some of her homework tonight and then try to have some fun tomorrow. It might be one of the last days that she was not swamped with homework. She had a feeling her work load was about to double. Even with that possibility Lucy was sure of one thing. She loved this school.

The next week was unbelievably busy for Lucy. She worked very hard in all her classes and loved every minute of it, but at the same time, she was overwhelmed by the amount of information she was learning.

Having chosen Kinowenn, Lucy no longer needed her Intro to Other Worlds course. Instead, she jumped right into a course on Kinowenn geography. She was only a week behind, which wasn’t too bad, but it did require some catching up. Her teacher, Howard, handed her a blank map of Kinowenn and instructed her to fill in all areas, mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, deserts, and major cities by Wednesday. In class, they were learning about which animals and plants you would find in the Karranga Mountains. Lucy found this fascinating and was excited to work on her map.

In Intro to Healing, she was not moving much faster than the rest of the class. They were still working a little with tea, but they had also moved on to other tonics and tinctures. She did however have extra work. Besides learning the basics that appeared in most worlds, she was also given a book on the healing plants of Kinowenn. Bree was going to give her a written test on Friday to see how well she read the first ten chapters.

Intro to Magic was still her favorite and easiest class despite the workload. Her reading assignments had her flying through her book. It was a good thing she was an English major in what already felt like a former life. She had already mastered reading while doing things like eating, walking down the hallway, and brushing her teeth. In class, she still shared a table with Darren and was required to spend the first few minutes practicing whatever the rest of the class was doing that day. Maryn felt that it was good for her to review a skill even if she had already learned how to do it. After those first few minutes, Maryn would come by, see how she was doing, and set her on another task and later on another and another depending on the difficulty of what she was learning.

In one week, she learned to levitate objects, even managing to levitate herself, which Maryn had not instructed her to do. Lucy learned how to snap her fingers and create fire. This came in very useful in lighting candles or fireplaces. She learned how to fill an empty glass with any liquid. She learned how to move objects out of the way. With Darren’s help, since he had mastered that day’s lesson, she learned how to pass by others in small spaces without them being able to feel you brush up against them. She also learned how to slow down another’s speed.

Maryn gave her a book to read about the effects of using magic on Kinowenn. Lucy did not understand all of it, and Maryn assured her that was ok. It was more important that she read it. Magic behaved differently in different worlds. The school was somehow between worlds so there were no other side effects. In some worlds, using magic caused the person to grow older. In other worlds, magic came from the earth, and in drawing magic from the earth, you had to give something of yourself in return. Students who had not learned to control that balance correctly had ended up becoming trees. In some worlds, changing form made you forget who you were so it was advised that you stayed yourself as much as possible. Some students were flying around as hawks and could not remember a time when they were not hawks.

On Kinowenn, magic took strength from the user. The user had to remember that using more magic or using it constantly would tire one out quicker and cause the need for more sleep and food. This part made sense to Lucy. The part that left her confused was the part that mentioned magic could take a toll on more than the physical strength of the user. The consequences of this were different for each person so Lucy had no idea what to expect, but she was glad she should know to expect something.

Lucy’s Intro to Potions classes went ok, but Lucy did not quite see the need for them. Unless you intended to stay in a permanent residence and brew potions often, the class was obsolete. Once Lucy arrived in a magical land she’d never been to before she had every intention of seeing as much of it as possible. Anyone traveling could not carry half the ingredients necessary to produce the more useful potions. Then there was the fact that some potions need to sit for a month or so before they would reach full potency. Some potions were so delicate that trying to brew them while traveling would be pointless at best. A bit of dust blowing in them would render them useless. She allowed it was a useful skill to learn, but not one that would do her much good. She was not sure what Eric intended for her, but she was sure it included travel.