Bonded Spirit

  Part of me smiled to pull my focus on him. He is just distracting me.

  “My nightmare.”

  “I was asking about Walter, but if you want to talk about that. I won’t stop you.”

  “You’re … so …” I bit my lip unable to find an insult suitable. I turned my back to him, unsure if I should leave. Where to? We were a day’s walk and more from the grounds now.

  “I know death. You will see more than you will like to admit. But the death of loved ones will drive us into a state of … pain. The idea that we are ageless is a burden more than any dangorian will know. You need to have grievance of his passing, otherwise you will not find peace.”

  “I’ve accepted his death fine Karson. He died, protecting us … me. That is simple. Why I dream about it bothers me the most.”

  “And what is the dream about?”

  I stared for a full minute. Intense, annoyed and finally I huffed an agitated breath.

  “It’s the same every single night. He’s dead. I can’t save him.” I bit my lip and eased another shaky breath. “The night the vipers attacked, we were all in the vaults. With a lull in the attack, and several of us came out to help the wounded, the men gathered supplies. I was with Miss Tally and … The viper came hard and fast.

  “It flew right above the township, flicking its tail along the street and through the side wall, where Walt was. I didn’t know I was running until I was staring at his face, fifty yards from town. He was … dead. There was nothing I could do. Crying at him in panic, screaming for him to wake. He was gone. The town’s people pulled me away, and … Well, you know the rest. EzanGuard showed up three days later. They talked about the tragedy, and then they decided to play a joke on me …”

  “It wasn’t a joke. Being chosen is a great honour, for the lands and for La’Kera.”

  “I know. I’m happy me and La’Kera are together. It was … just everything. Walter was gone. He wasn’t coming back, and then the guard, Jona. He was so eager to put the glove on me. He pulled me from the crowd, ignoring the other potentials. I was on my way to the bakery. But he insisted I try the glove.” I eased a breath to the memory so long ago; fresh as water.

  The straw basket in my hands as I walked past the gathered crowd.

  “Hey. What’s your name?” The man stared with a secret expression. “Do I know you?”

  “No. Don’t think so.” I realised instantly he was a Ryder and my face redden. I should have known who he was. He held out his hand.

  “Jona Lindale. A’Mystian.”

  “Okay. I have to go.” I stepped around him and he caught my hand.

  “Just a moment. We want to check something.”

  “Check what?”

  His eyes turned to the gloves.

  “You are not serious?” My thoughts, but another man’s voice. No Ryder in him, but he was annoyed. “She’s too old. Far beyond any dragon’s liking.”

  “She … is still worth a try. Have you tried the gloves before?” Jona asked me.

  “No. This is the first time you have come to Plumridge for testing the children as potentials.” I pulled on his grip, but he wasn’t having any of it.

  “One try then. Come on. All children of Dangora must try the gloves at least once in their lives.”

  “She’ too old.” Another guard spoke: “She’s not interested either. What makes you think she can be a chosen?”

  “Call it … interest.” Jona held the glove up; the other children were behind him, eagerly waiting. “Fifty gold says she is a chosen.”

  “I’ll take that bet …”

  “Make it a hundred and give her a shot at the white glove.”

  “Two hundred she won’t take.”

  “Deal.”

  I blinked in shock as the men gathered around, placing bets like a horde of drunks.

  “You should try them first, I need to leave.” I shrugged, glancing to the other children.

  “Here. Try it on.”

  The ashen white glove came into my view and the tingle was felt instantly. Something was different. My heart raced, my fingers fumbled with the touch and the idea I was putting it on. My heart was heavy with Walt’s death, but I was excited sliding the material in place. The tingle intensified and a splash of light settled behind my eyes, a milky peach colour became a haze and faded slowly as I blinked.

  “It worked,” he said. “She’s seeing the egg.”

  “What? No! You can’t be serious?” scoffed the other.

  “Two hundred gold. You owe me. She’s a chosen.”

  “Which sign?” asked another EzanGuard who hadn’t been there until that moment.

  “Dy’Monian.” That was all that was needed, the gasp, the congratulations and the looks of shock doubled around the town. I was a chosen. I stared at Jona, he smiled with pride. “Knew you had something special about you.”

  I exhaled a shallow breath from the memory, from the knowledge and the idea of what was, and now was happening. A look etched Karson’s features and slowly he relaxed.

  “The Ryder … Jona Lindale has a way to see power; you must have drawn his attention to have him use it so. It is a blessing to have him on the Potential Run. But you … he was spot on the mark with you being special Rehema.”

  “I’m no different to anyone else.”

  “You’re a Ryder, you’re a Dy’Monian Ryder.”

  “Yeah, and I’m still alone.”

  “You’re not as alone as you think. Yes, it is sad that your father died, taken so soon in your life. If he were here, would he be proud of you? Would he not be joyous that his daughter is a chosen—a warrior of Dangora.”

  “He … might be. I don’t know. He’s not here.”

  “Tell me about him. I want to know.” Karson inclined his head, folded his arms to his chest, and waited. He arched a brow, and then sat on the boulder by the stream. “I have a lot of patience.” He glanced around the area, amused.

  I dropped my eyes to my feet. I didn’t want to talk about this.

  “It helps. Trust me.”

  “Fine … He was a farmer. He knew all about crops, potatoes, carrots, even watermelon, which were the most common in Plumridge, along with the orchard of plums. Everyone had at least one plum tree in their yard. It was tradition.” I half turned, not wanting to say any more.

  “And.”

  “And what. He was a farmer, and then he died.”

  “There is more to it. He raised you. Loved you, cared for you and aided you. He found you and took you in. Tell me about that at least.”

  I gazed to the stream, releasing a harsh breath, and with La’Kera’s soothing rumble, I spoke of the day my life started with Walt. “It was the thirteenth day of the fifth month when he found me.” I peeked at Karson. “According to Walt, I was hours old, found in a cot made of brambles, floating down the Argon River. He was out, helping one of his Bal’horns out of the slush of the river bed. Said, if he wasn’t out so early he would have missed my bramble weed bedding. The sun had just risen when he spotted a strange creation of thorns, horns and all kinds of bramble floating towards him. What lay inside, me. To him, I was an angel. A child that he’d always wanted and never could have. He was only twenty-four at the time, he’d yet to marry, and for the most part, he was alone. He should have given me over to the wet nurse, to the other women, but he refused.

  “He visited me night and day, took me home a week later to feed me himself with aid from the town women. He fought so many arguments to keep me. I loved him regardless he wasn’t my blood father. He told me at a young age that I wasn’t his blood. He never lied to me, honest as always and he managed to make me smile. “Come out to the field there buttercup. I have some strange pest out by the old trees which need your special touch.” It was just a lame way of getting me to go spend time with him. I didn’t do much, but hiss at the stupid rats. When I was twelve, he met Evelyn. She became the mother I never had and always wanted. She became a big part of our lives and for a time we were a famil
y.

  “The night he was killed, she was so broken, like me. After the attack, we went out to retrieve the body and it was gone. I just don’t understand why my nightmare is so persistent. And with the ghost showing up, saying I can’t stop it, isn’t helping. I know I can’t stop his death, the attack. It’s already done.”

  “Hey …” Karson stepped towards me, his arm around my shoulder instinctively. He pulled me into his broad chest, soothing me. “You’re okay. You will be fine. It’s going to get better. You will see.”

  “You’re so sure.”

  “I have to be.” He brushed the tears from my cheek, adding a light tap to my chin. “You’re a lot stronger than you realise. Most potential’s wouldn’t have handled all that you have the way you have.”

  “Yeah, right. I’ve attacked students, failed my test, and now I have cried more times than I need in front of you. How is handling this, stronger?”

  “Simple. You would have run off.”

  “Hu.”

  He has a point … you could have left, not spoken about it.

  I need to know where this is going. What is happening? It’s for the best right.

  Yes. The best … both of us. And it is as he said, talking helps.

  “For what it’s worth. I’m sorry about your father. To lose him and to move away from your home, your family, is hard.” He squeezed my shoulder gently before pulling away. He heaved a breath as I did. It was oddly nice having him that close, touching me, comfortably.

  “How do you move so fast?” I asked, remembering him moving swiftly towards me when I was going to leave. A flash run.

  “All Ryders have the speed of instance. No dangorian could do what we do. Those beatings that you get, would cripple a normal man. It’s what Ryders are, energy. It flows through us, around us, in us, and it becomes our will. You learn to feel it, like the wind. It moves and lingers always.” In an instant, he was beside me, and then he was ten feet away, was nothing but a blink of my eyelids. He smiled wryly, showing off as he raised his chin a little too proud. “It’s a part of you.”

  “But how do you make it work? Can I try it?”

  “It’s a little … Well; you do have strength in your hits and speed. You might have some control on it.”

  “So how?”

  “Centre yourself, in your core, like meditation without taking on the state of dreaming.” He smiled, heaved a breath as I waited for something exciting to happen. He reached out again, this time holding my shoulders. “Close your eyes …”

  I did.

  “Listen.”

  I breathed slowly.

  “Relax and listen to your heart, to La’Kera’s hum … the song of never ending. Listen to the sounds around you; the taste of the wind, the smell of the air …” He waited a moment as I listened to all that he spoke of. “What do you hear?”

  I opened my eyes to answer him when his finger came to my lips, stilling my thoughts and my breath.

  “Keep your eyes closed, and focus on the core of who you are.”

  It was a moment of time before his finger lifted away, a strange sensation tingled my body, warming me.

  I closed my eyes, trying to focus on what he was saying; listening to the twittering birds, the trickle of the stream, and the mozzies. I parted my lips, tasting the air. My scalp prickled with the senses around me, and inwards to La’Kera. Her rumblings purred and hummed like another heartbeat. It was always there, as my heart pumped on, so did hers. She was in the north this morning, not as far as she hoped. I smirked to her thoughts.

  Not a meditation. She was right.

  I wasn’t practising Here and There. This was energy I was practising.

  The smell of fresh air stirred my senses. Earth, water, leaf, and the musky leather scent that came from Karson mingled like rust and wild forest leaves as my own scent of flowers lingered to me. I focused harder. Light touched and danced under my eyelids. The sensation of floating became a word without taking it on, and that was when I knew I was summoning energy.

  All around me, inside me, and it was there, endlessly there.

  “Open your eyes.” Karson was calm as he stood, releasing me, and taking in my expression.

  I was smiling.

  “You can feel it, can’t you?”

  I nodded, taking in the tiny particles floating in the air, the sight of dragon, so seeable on all things and somehow and an endless rainbow of colour.

  “It makes all things enhanced when you seek the energy, when you use it.”

  The pull touched my navel and I wanted to run, to release the energy as I needed, and so I ran. I breathed out and ran, taking in each twig, leaf, and branch. I knew where I was going even before I leaped, and I knew the outcome when I stopped. I had used my powers … my Ryders power at last. To my surprise, it was a good twenty feet. And Karson was surprised to see me so far; he smiled, relaxing at my position.

  “I did it!” I gasped at the knowledge I had flashed twenty feet away and Karson was lost with my absence.

  “Unlike magic, the energy you have as a Ryder is unlimited. You can call it at will, and be at your need always, though it is connected to the mânã you direct, your will can fall, and the magic can fade, but the energy will not cost you unless it is all you have left.” In a flash, he was beside me.

  Our eyes locked, he leaned in, I leaned in, to blink.

  He pulled away just as fast and glanced around the area, a touch of redness showed on his cheeks, which quickly left. I, on the other hand was blushing, an unable to stop it.

  “We better keep heading on if you want to camp in a different area tonight.” Karson walked towards our packs where we had dropped them, how long had we stood in this area, this stream.

  “Sure.” I touched on my core and flashed to the bags, laughing. “Beat you.”

  “You don’t want to over exert yourself. A rare talent so soon in your training shows great promise, but I don’t want to wear you out.”

  “That won’t happen will it?”

  “We have at least six hours of walking ahead of us. Don’t want you dropping to sleep before then.”

  “But … you said it’s unlimited.”

  “It is and can cause you to slumber if you use it constantly. It’s best used when needed most; small burst when you want to do something.”

  “But I should practice it.”

  “Yes. You should, but not while we are walking. I would hate for you to fall in a hole.”

  “Right.”

  “What you can do while walking is practice magic. Draw on your elemental powers, the lore of water.”

  I smiled; proud of myself, at least I had done something good for a change. I shouldered my packs, and started on Karson’s lesson in magic. Least with the knowledge of energy and soul-seeing, I was excited about the Ryder I should be, as Karson had said.

  It will be as we dream. La’Kera hovered over the valley, gazing in the direction I was and taking in the high cliffs of the south. She was too far for me to see and snorted her disapproval at Blade’Dur who wanted her to climb the grand tree.

  Maybe later on this afternoon I can see you... I hoped as she did and slowly conjured my mânã ball of water.

  “Master Karson. Why can I draw on the magic if La’Kera is so far away and in control of it?”

  “She knows it is in you, yours too will. For her, it is … air that isn’t needed, though annoying if too much is taken. And know that you can draw on magic no matter where La’Kera is, no matter how far she is, you will always be able to hear her.”

  “So … I can will it, but not drain too much, but my energy that is endless, could drain me.”

  “Something like that. It’s all about balance, caution and patience. You will have your answers soon enough.” He marched on and I followed with an orb-sized water-rune above my palm.