Twell and the Rebellion (8 page)

“
Mealtime is over. You
will now report to the following areas of camp for training as
follows.”

I listened for my skill sets’
directions. We were to report to the north side of the smallest
training dome immediately. I moved off in the right direction with
Kina and Lavi, while Shanna stomped past as though even our pace
offended her. It was only after I’d left the hall, I realized I
hadn’t even thought to look for Jonaz. I wondered how he would
train with others of his power and then suppressed a small shudder,
pushing the idea quickly from my mind.

Violence had once seemed a
foreign concept, an attribute of other races, safely confined to
other worlds. It was the way of our ancestors past, and not ever
meant to blemish our futures.

However, I was beginning
to realize it resided in us all and denial could not suppress the
truth for much longer in the face of war. If I could commit the
worst act of violence to save only myself, then what, by the
merging of our powers, were we capable of to save our world? I
realized I already knew the answer in my heart. We were more like
our enemies than I cared to admit, and much further from the
concept of ourselves than I’d ever known. My
heart was pierced with the sharp blade of truth. We were
capable of anything.

Chapter
Four

Conversation was sparse,
nervousness one of few afflictions capable of shutting me up. The
walk didn’t take long, and I was soon at the most northern dome. It
was about one hundred Comian lengths long and filled with soft
light filtered through the transparent roof. The floor was not
actually a floor at all, but the natural deser
t sand. Sand, as far as I was concerned, indicated the need
for a soft landing. I grimaced at the implication of pain and
suffering ahead.

I stood in the midst of about a
hundred other cadets, unsure what to think of the number of us. It
seemed a small percentage in comparison to how many cadets were
enlisted, and I peeked at the others feeling a little
self-conscious. It seemed everyone else was equally as shy, until
the awkward silence was broken by the already recognizable voice of
Shanna behind me. She was chatting (or rather preaching)
energetically to a group of cadets who were trying to edge quietly
away from her. I smothered a laugh before my attention was diverted
by the appearance of our trainers.

Introducing themselves,
the trainers got right down to business, explaining we’d be pitting
our powers against each other to build strength, as well as
combining them to create a stronger weapon of resistance and
defence. We were then split into teams and not to my total
surprise, my roommates were in my team. I wasn’t sure if this was
the best idea or the worst. I got that they probably wanted us to
get to know each other’s weaknesses and strengths, to bond and so
on. It made sense. But the idea of that much exposure to Shanna and
her abrasive personality was really not high on my list of
‘
things that make Twell
happy
.’

Before I had time to sulk
any further, I found myself thrown into one of the hardest sessions
of training I’d had yet. The sand’s purpose came into full effect
when I found myself up against a boy called Talon. He had very
intense, tawny eyes and wore his dark, gold hair in a braid that
came just past his shoulder blades. Although he wasn’t much bigger
than me physically, telekinetically he was very strong. I worked
hard to defend myself against his power, but I still hit the ground
so frequently I pretty much exfoliated every part of my exposed
skin.

Talon smiled apologetically each
time I scrambled to my feet, my cheeks burning with indignation. It
felt so strange to throw my powers out towards him, only to
experience the sensation of being blocked. It was almost like
hitting a solid wall. I’d discovered as a child that not only could
I pick things up and move them to me, I could also force them away
to protect myself. In combat, this ability would be invaluable and
it was soon obvious I wasn’t the only one who’d developed that side
of our power.

For the next task, I was put
with Kina and an auburn haired girl called Surina. We practiced
passing a CDT (consciousness deactivation tagger) without touching
it, or letting it fall to the ground. I found this much easier and
we soon had the weapon whizzing between us with such speed the
human eye could hardly trace it. We needed to use our powers to
deliver a weapon to another soldier in battle, or to defend
ourselves if our hands were tied, or worse.

As we practiced, unwelcome
images suddenly invaded my mind. My hands were blown away from bomb
blast and my blood sprayed from the open veins, baring torn flesh
and broken bones. I saw the enemy standing over me as I used my
powers to pick up my weapon and fire it straight at his heart. I
saw him falling into a pool of not his own blood, but mine. I
shuddered away from my thoughts, my flesh prickling into bumps,
despite the warmth of my body.

Naturally, I couldn’t resist the
chance to pit my power against Shanna when the opportunity arose
and soon enough we stood twenty lengths apart with a large square
inbuilt pool of water between us. It ran about ten Comian lengths
each way and about two lengths deep.

“
What does the water
represent?” I asked the female trainer who stood behind me to
observe us.

“
On Abwarz, the water
would be acid and would melt the skin off your bones where you
stood as they hosed you to death with it.”

Everyone who heard her
stopped what they were doing and stared at the water with horror
struck eyes. I’d thought the idea of being both wet and sandy was
terrifying enough without hearing what it actually symbolized, but
I knew the Abwarzians favoured this choice of weapon. It sobered me
immediately and across the pool, I saw Shanna’s face become sharp
and focused. A forgotten image of acid, rotted corpses lying dead
in the streets of Caran crept up on me, and fear clawed at my
mind.

“
The challenge today is to
move the water to knock down your opponent. Pretend they are the
enemy.”

I swallowed hard, my
throat suddenly dry with nerves. As the trainer shouted for us to
fight, it occurred to me I’d never used my powers to move liquid. I
hesitated for a moment, but that was all it took for Shanna to gain
the upper hand. She was fast and strong and in no time, a heavy
wall of water rose up over me, curving into an ominous arch.
Instinctively, I threw my hands out, even though this didn’t
actually help me at all. Shutting out all other sounds of battle
around me, I pushed the water back with my mind. The effect was
that it divided in the middle, rising over my head before crashing
over me. The water swooped and merged, collecting my feet out from
under me and carrying me straight towards Shanna. Just before
reaching her, it ran down, absorbing into the sand. Gasping like a
pannaray out of water, I pulled my face out of the mud and
pretended the tittering and guffaws erupting around the arena had
nothing to do with me.

“You lose, you die,” the
officer said helpfully as I spat out a mouthful of sand and rubbed
at my eyes. They were full of grit, temporarily blinding me and I
blinked frantically as I heard the squelching sound of Shanna’s
boots sucking into the mud as she moved towards me. I flailed
around; my eyes squeezed shut in pain as I struggled to my knees
and focused on the sound of Shanna’s movement. Then I went still
and felt for her with my mind, somehow sensing her exact location.
Throwing my powers towards her I caught her off guard, and she went
down with a squelchy satisfying
smack!

“
Ow! What the heck!?” We
both struggled to our feet at the same time, my mind buzzing with
pent up retaliation as I prepared to strike.

“
Enough!” The trainer’s
words barely scraped my subconscious and I probably would’ve
disobeyed orders if Shanna hadn’t spoken.

“
I was coming to help you
up, you moga!”

For some reason, her use of my
favourite insult, along with her outraged expression, struck me as
funny. I started to laugh, aware of how stupid I was for
overreacting. Not to mention how ridiculous I probably looked with
mud clumped through my hair and every other place imaginable.
Shanna stared at me in confusion for a moment before her lips
twitched into a smirk.

“
Sorry,” I gasped between
snorts of laughter.

“
Luckily for you I’m more
impressed than offended,” Shanna grinned. “You have spirit and I
respect that. Even if it is misplaced.”

I’d hardly begun to wonder if I
felt pleased or offended by that statement before the sight of
Brazin, staring at me across the dome, distracted me. His huge
muscled arms were crossed over his broad chest and he was shaking
his head at me in a way that gave me a nasty case of déjàvu. As
much as I’d matured over the past lunar year, my ability to harness
my own temper was yet to be mastered. I hung my head in shame for a
moment and when I glanced back over, he was gone.

“
How did you do that
without your sight?” The trainer appeared at my side and handed me
a vial of water to rinse my eyes.

“
I don’t know.” I
shrugged. “I could just feel where she was.”

“
That’s very… unusual.”
She stared at me with uncomfortable scrutiny.

“
Is it?” My stomach
lurched. Now that she mentioned it, I’d never realized I could even
do it.

“
It could prove very
valuable.” The officer looked excited at the discovery. “This will
be documented for further development.” The trainer hurried off
over to the other trainers and soon they were all looking back at
me with interest all over their faces. Embarrassed, I turned back
to look at Shanna and met her jealous glare.

“
How’d you do that?” Her
tone was accusing.

“
No idea.’ I
shrugged.

Shanna’s eyes narrowed to
sceptical slits.

“Really!” I insisted. “It
was a first.”

“Hmmm.” She muttered. “It
seems I really have underestimated you.”

“Perhaps you have.” I
cocked an eyebrow at her. “So you better watch it.”

“
I knew you had it in
you.” Shanna snorted a laugh. “You and I are more alike than you
think.”

“
When mogas fly,” I
retorted huffily. “I’d never be as careless as you.”

“
I’m passionate about what
I believe in.” Shanna’s smile faded. “There’s nothing careless
about that.”

I didn’t reply. It wasn’t a
debate I wanted to get into with so many ears around. Instead, we
went back to training and concentrated on moving the water with our
minds instead. It wasn’t easy, not even close. Working with an
element that could move and change was exhausting and we struggled
to contain and control it.

By the time the session
finished for the day, the moon had crept halfway up the sky and I
was hurting in places I didn’t know I had. We filed out into the
twilight, too exhausted to talk as we moved towards the hygiene
quarters where I fervently hoped to ease some of the stiffness
already seeping through my body. Our sun was so far away that the
sunlight was feeble on the best of days, so I could only hope the
solar power had captured enough sunlight to convert into warm
water.

Claiming a cubicle, I
stripped off my sodden clothes and turned on the mister. It was
blissfully warm, but unfortunately the water allocation controlled
by a timer, was devastatingly short. I’d barely rinsed the last of
the sand from my hair before the water shut off, and I wasn’t the
only one shrieking in disappointment.

Drying off in front of the body
dryer, I ran my fingers through my long hair to loosen any tangles.
Then I had a moment’s panic wondering if I had to put my sandy
clothes back on, before I saw a stack of clean nightwear. I slipped
on the standard size, bone coloured pants that tied at the waist,
and a matching wrap around top with long wide sleeves. The cubicle
was immediately taken up by another cadet as I left and I looked
around for Kina or Lavi without success before deciding to head to
the meal hall by myself.

I was just dawdling past
the male hygiene quarters when I heard someone call my name. Avin’s
light hair was wet and slicked back, emphasising the fine angles of
his face. His clothes, identical to mine, moulded to his body in a
way that showed he was undeniably fit. He strode towards me with
such determination in his expression that I fought the sudden urge
to flee. Unwilling to show my unease, I ignored him and retained my
casual pace towards the hall. But my pulse took off as I heard the
sound of his feet closing the distance between us.

“Hey, Twell.” His voice
was soft, his touch firm as his hand closed over my shoulder. I
spun away from his grip, putting several steps between us as I
glared at him. My body stiffened as my powers tingled in warning,
ready to react should he come any closer. His silver eyes appeared
startled at first, before they clouded over at my defensive stance.
He held his hands, palms out towards me like I was a wild spitting
serpent, or an equally unpredictable swamp maiden that might attack
at any moment. Intuitive, he was. “I’m sorry, I thought you heard
me.” His voice rolled over me so calmly I had to fight the urge to
be subdued by it.

“
I did.” I turned my back
on him and kept walking.