Eighth Fire (25 page)

No sooner had he said it than the lights in the
room went out. It was pitch black.

“One of the more difficult issues that delayed
students in the past in learning Spirit Sight was their inability
to recognize and focus on what they were seeing in the spirit world
and differentiate that from what they were seeing from their minds
eyes. In front of you now your instructors are setting some objects
on the coffee table. Among these objects is a set of instructions.
You are to read the instructions and complete the task indicated.
You will not use any source of physical light that you may have
with you. When you have done that you may leave the class for the
day.

“I know you are thinking at this moment that
this may be impossible to do, and it may be for some, but I doubt
it. In a couple of minutes there is going to be a strobe flash. The
flash will happen randomly between every thirty seconds and a
minute. What you need to do is be looking straight at the coffee
table when the flash goes off while holding your eyes perfectly
still and not blinking. A negative image will form on your retina
and persist for a few seconds if you continue holding your eyes
still and not blinking. You’ll then be able to position yourself to
read your instructions and perform the task. One of your
instructors will tell you when you have successfully completed the
task and then you may go.

“This technique has been most helpful in making
it easier for students to identify the type of vision they are
looking for when first starting out. Okay, start the strobe.”

It was still pitch black and Mark wasn’t sure
that he was staring directly at the coffee table, just in the
general direction. The strobe flashed. He concentrated on holding
his eyes steady. The image started to form and he blinked. The
image was instantly gone but he had seen enough to let him know the
paper with the instructions was right in front of him and he needed
to look down a little.

The strobe flashed again. When the image formed
he saw that he had his vision oriented just above the instructions.
He also noticed that he could see other students off to both sides
as well as see objects on the table. He inadvertently shifted his
eyes to look at the objects. The image vanished.

This time he was looking directly at the paper
when the image formed. In normal size letters the message read,
‘Place the peacock in the circle below.’ There was a two inch
circle on the bottom of the page.

Carefully not moving his eyes he noted about
fifty little figurines standing across the area of the table he
could see. None of them looked like a peacock. He blinked and
turned his head left to wait for the next flash. The next image
showed the torsos of several students standing around the table.
The peacock was not in the image he had. The next image revealed
several more students frozen in mid-reach or mid-step as they went
for their own figurine. He spotted the peacock at the far right
corner of the table. It took three more flashes before he had the
peacock in the circle at the bottom of the paper. An instructor
touched his shoulder and whispered that he could leave.

Jamal and Chenoa were waiting for him in The
Oasis. Chenoa slid over and patted the seat beside her. Before he
could slide into the booth Jamal asked, “How do you feel?”

Chenoa looked closely at where his hair had been
reattached. She couldn’t tell any difference in the way it looked.
There weren’t even any scars.

He hadn’t discussed it with any of his friends
yet, but his failure with the power source was frontmost in his
mind most of the time and he knew that was what Jamal was getting
at. It really wasn’t a question of how he felt; he’d failed, which
was both good and bad. He didn’t want to destroy it, but he didn’t
want everything he’d ever loved destroyed either. There was no
doubt in his mind that Benrah would make good on that threat. The
question was really about what he was planning to do next, and he
wasn’t planning anything.

Nick and LeOmi joined the group just before Mark
answered. “Mrs. Shadowitz believes it was my destiny to find it,
but she doesn’t know if it being destroyed will prevent them from
discovering
the sunstone
’s secrets.”

LeOmi laughed, “Poor baby, him sad.”

Mark ignored her. “She says there’s a very good
possibility the engineers will figure out another power
source.”

Chenoa said, “If they could make something like
that, they wouldn’t have needed to risk Mark’s life or anyone
else’s for that matter.”

Mark agreed, “If they could make it they
wouldn’t have needed me to go after it, but if I hadn’t gone after
it The Eighth Fire wouldn’t have been lit.”

Jeremy walked up order pad in hand and said, “I
know you guys have to be hungry.”

The first hour of combat class was sparring with
someone you’d never fought before, kind of a refresher of
everything you’d learned last year. This allowed Ms. Vanmie to see
who had been practicing over the summer. Mark’s opponent was Daniel
Forsythe: a thin boy about his own size with very short black hair
and also using a katana. Their riotous tips touched and immediately
Daniel launched into such a ferocious attack that Mark was somewhat
unprepared for it. His riotous almost fell from his grip but he
managed to hold onto it, albeit upside-down.

Mark found that blocking the onslaught of blows
with his sword held this way felt a little awkward but was rather
more effective than holding it upright. Although Daniel’s blows
were fast and seemed unending Mark easily blocked every single one
while expending very little energy himself. After a few minutes
Daniel was obviously tired. He paused in his attack ever so
slightly while looking at Mark’s shoulders trying to assess what
Mark was going to do. Mark used that instant to lift his left foot
a little signaling to his opponent that he was about to change his
stance in order to attack. In the brief moment of Daniel’s
hesitation Mark raked his riotous up his opponent’s abdomen and
poked him slightly in the chest over his heart.

Daniel was astonished, “That’s not in the book.
Where’d you learn that?”

“I didn’t learn it; I just made it up. You
almost knocked the sword out of my hand. I had to do something or
you would have killed me.”

Ms. Vanmie walked up chuckling. “That technique
will be taught in more detail in your third sophomore year. For
now, Daniel, let me see you defend using that technique while Mark
attacks.” She turned and called to the class, “I want everyone to
watch this.” The class stopped sparring and gathered around.

As soon as their tips touched, Daniel flipped
the sword down, switched his grip so that the sword was
upside-down, edge toward Mark. He brought it up in time to block
Mark’s blow that was coming for his head or shoulder. Three more
quick blows followed for the same area before Mark changed and
aimed for his leg. As Mark’s momentum bent him over a little Daniel
saw that Mark’s head and shoulders where unprotected. His sword was
in the right position for a stabbing strike to this area. He made
the strike as he jumped to avoid Mark’s blow.

Ms. Vanmie called, “Hold!” She looked around at
the class. “Mark stumbled across this technique a few minutes ago
while defending against Daniel’s attack, which was pretty good for
this level of study I might add. Students don’t usually get exposed
to this method until they are fairly proficient at single combat,
of which none of you are...yet. Yes LeOmi, yes Slone; that includes
you too. This technique makes it fairly easy to defend against one
or two opponents at most. It also makes it difficult for you to
attack your opponent except in a few circumstances, one of which
you just saw. The thing it is good for is letting an inexperienced
or relatively unskilled opponent just wear themselves out while
attacking you. Any questions?”

Someone asked, “How do you know how experienced
or skilled an opponent is?”

“If it’s a Magi, just look at their signet. If
they have more bands than you do you need to figure they can carve
you up into itty-bitty pieces. If it’s not a Magi and there is the
slightest question in your mind about their skill level being
better than yours, it probably is. It that case, unless you’re
protecting someone’s life, it would be better just to run away, if
you can. If not, you need to get as much help as you can. The only
time that you really need to stick around and fight is when you’re
protecting life and limb. No exceptions. Property can be recovered
or replaced. Artifacts can be recovered later if need be. Any more
questions? Okay back to sparring; try out the new technique if you
like.”

After class Mark’s group perched atop the second
inset corner wall and watched as the freshmen had their first
experience with the entrance to combat class. Mark’s brother James
had already made it up. It was against the rules to let freshmen
know what to expect, but James had picked up this tidbit of
information from Mark’s thought projections last year when the
family had met with Mr. Diefenderfer. After getting permission he’d
been practicing over the summer at the corner store just down from
their house in Virginia. The store had a propane tank room in the
back. The walls were made out of fancy rock face concrete blocks
and abutted the stone wall of the store. This formed an inside
corner wall similar to the wall students had to walk up in order to
get into the classroom.

James walked over and sat down with his legs
hanging over the edge. “Forty feet is a lot harder than eight
feet.”

Mark answered, “You’ll get used to it in no
time. Are you going to try out for Flags?”

James shook his head. “I’m trying out for
motocross.”

“I didn’t know you could ride a motorcycle.”

“I can’t yet, but I’m pretty good on a bike and
that’s the only prerequisite; tryouts are on BMX bikes.”

“BMX bikes are a lot different than regular
bikes.”

“I know; I’ve been using yours.”

The fact that classes ended earlier than any
other year allowed the group to prowl the mall when it wasn’t as
crowded as it usually was. Chenoa needed to get a pair of goggles
since her first flight lessons would be in an open cockpit biplane.
Jamal wanted to get a quality set of kitchen knives for himself
since his elective was gourmet cooking. Nick wanted to stop by the
electronics store in order to start stocking his lab. Mark and
LeOmi wanted to go by the bookstore for a book or two on emergency
rescue in order to get a better idea on future courses they might
take.

Slone and a few of his crew were in the combat
section of the bookstore looking over videos and didn’t react when
Mark’s group walked by on the way to the stairs to the upper
levels. Mark felt a twinge of anger just before he saw Slone and
knew at once that it had to be coming from LeOmi. He took a couple
of quick steps to catch up to her. He put his hand on her shoulder
and whispered, “I think I’ll write a book on strategy for getting
the bonus flag.” The emotion she was radiating, albeit weak, turned
briefly to annoyance and then to absolute skepticism. She didn’t so
much as look over her shoulder, much less laugh. The emotion she
was emanating faded after a couple of seconds and he knew she was
working to better control what she was feeling, or at least how
much she was transmitting.