Gorinthians (2 page)

Celdic waved absently as
several other students from the outlying farms began filtering
toward the city gate. Celdic had not really made any new friends at
the Tar Ri’ San, just acquaintances and a few enemies. Lendel, Li,
Cha'le and Celdic were friends with each other and no one else. The
other students did not seem to be very interested in their
friendship either, at least until this year. Cha'le and Li, as well
as Lendel seemed to acquire a flock of admirers. Celdic was
somewhat of an odd duck; he was always reading books or practicing
combat, and was unable to use his
yar
.

During his first three
years, many of the instructors and Elders had spent a lot of time
trying to discover why he was unable to use his
yar
. Their efforts came to an abrupt
halt after he spent three months with Tarya Kidel trying to reach
out with his
yar
.
Tarya Kidel had been an ancient man that had more wrinkles than one
of Celdic's shirts on a bad day. Tarya Kidel had given him a
tincture from a Jo plant, which he said would open the gateway in
his mind, allowing him to use his
yar
. No one discovered exactly what
went wrong. Within moments of drinking a small spoonful of the Jo
tincture, Tarya Kidel had instantly died, everyone within a mile
had passed out and the entire city complained of headaches for a
week.

The Elders had decided that
it was too dangerous to continue experimenting and told the
instructors to allow him to merely observe the exercises without
participating.

They waved at the gate
guards as they walked under the enormous granite wall. Celdic
recognized one of the guards as a girl who finished her training at
the Tar Ri’ San the previous year. The guards wore lightweight
fabric made from Chen Shrubs, a fabric that the sharpest knife
could never cut. They wore short swords belted at their waists and
two long bows leaned against the wall behind them.

Celdic smelled the familiar
scent of crushed Tally Flower as Li joined them. "I was wondering
if you could help me with the bow staves after class," Li asked in
her rich voice that seemed to stroke the skin behind his
neck.

"Of course," Celdic replied,
staring at the ground. He knew that if he looked into her eyes, he
would begin blushing.

"Thank you, Celdic." Li
brushed his arm lightly, causing his ears to burn as he stared at
the ground.

They continued walking along
the inner perimeter of the wall, toward the large green lawns where
the Tar Ri’ San gleamed in the morning sunlight. The Tar Ri’ San
consisted of eight smaller buildings, each the size of a large
barn, and three buildings that were the size of three barns
together. A large field of grass surrounded the entire mass of
structures, filled with racks of weapons and other training
equipment. Celdic had spent more time on this field than any other
one place since he had come to the Tar Ri’ San at the age of
eight.

A gravel path led them away
from the road and toward the Tar Ri’ San. Students from the city as
well as the outlying farms clogged the path. As they reached the
first building, Cha'le and Li waived and split off toward one of
the larger buildings. Li looked back over her shoulder at Celdic,
and he hurriedly looked up from where he had been looking to meet
her dark brown eyes that sparkled knowingly.

"Were you just checking out
my sister?” Lendel asked in mock astonishment.

"Shut up, Lendel." Celdic
said as his ears began turning red again. Lendel chuckled, looking
at him sideways, and Celdic felt his cheeks heat up as well. "So
what did Li say about me that Cha'le mentioned earlier?"

"I'm not at liberty to say."
Lendel said airily, "You will have to fight me for the answer
later."

Celdic sighed in
exasperation, shaking his head. They both knew Celdic would win.
Celdic could tell Lendel was up to something, though he probably
would not find out what until Lendel wanted him to.

They walked through the
large wooden doors to the building and turned in to the classroom
on their first left. Odd symbols that no one understood covered the
walls and a large glass display case held a sword unlike any other
sword Celdic had ever seen. Its blade was dark blue, and it shined
even when there was no light hitting it. More of the strange
symbols that surrounded the room also adorned the hilt and the
pommel stone was the same deep blue as the blade. Tarya Selindria
had told them that the person that bested her on the combat field
would be the new owner of that magnificent blade. She had taught
the oldest Elder in Chasel Ri’ Aven when he was just a boy, but all
of the older folk claimed that she looked the same as she had when
they were students. Most of them passed her longevity off as a
by-product of her proximity to the Rajan Gardens, as well as the
fact that the elongated pupils of her eyes resembled those of a
cat.

As Celdic sat down, the door
at the front of the class opened, and Tarya Selindria glided into
the room with a grace unequaled throughout the entire Mountain
City.

Chapter 2

Tarya Selindria looked over
her class with large, lavender, cat-like eyes that seemed far older
than the youthful face that framed them. She was very tall for a
woman, taller than most of the men in Chasel Ri’ Aven. She had a
graceful way of gliding that made her almost seem to float across
the ground. Her long black hair reached her slim waist, cascading
over what most would call an overly large bosom, though few thought
of Tarya Selindria in that manner. She had been teaching longer
than most of the other teachers had been alive. She wore her
customary garb of close-fitting black pants with a tight, black
shirt that strained over her large bosom, and soft black boots that
rose to her ankles. Her features were almost fox-like, with her
high cheekbones creating a fine line that pointed down to her
almost delicate chin. Many of the students secretly called her The
Panther, due to her elongated pupils that were set into lavender
eyes, as well as her customary garb of black. The students did not
think that she knew of their secret name for her, but there was
very little of which Tarya Selindria was not aware. Most people
thought her oddities were a result of living so close to the Rajan
Gardens, but that was not the case. She had a secret that she had
kept from the people of Chasel Ri’ Aven that she had no intention
of revealing.

As she surveyed the
classroom with her youthful face, her gaze rested on Celdic, who
sat on the back row staring into space. She pondered the unnatural
occurrences that had plagued his adolescent life, idly wondering if
he could ever become a Guardian. The talent was definitely there,
but without learning how to use his
yar
, he would never have a chance of
becoming one of the elite protectors of Chasel Ri’ Aven.

A polite cough from the
front row brought her back from her wandering thoughts and she
silently berated herself for losing focus. Focus was the primary
element that she hammered into all of her classes. Without focus,
none of the talent in the world would save you from your
enemy.

"Welcome back class. I hope
that you have had a good morning so far.” Tarya Selindria always
started her classes off with a polite welcome. Her voice possessed
a pleasant lilt to it that made people stop to listen to her.
"Today we are going to be studying evasive defense. To start off
with, can someone please tell the class what is involved in evasive
defense?"

Andaya immediately raised
her hand. She was a short girl with a long, dark braid hanging over
her shoulder.

Tarya Selindria nodded at
her, "Go ahead, Andaya."

Andaya cleared her throat;
"Evasive defense is using your
yar
to create elements of confusion, doubt, fear and
other emotions to put the opponent off-balance. It can cause
temporary paralysis by keeping the opponent too worked-up in his or
her own emotions to compete competently. This form of blindness
opens a perfect window for escape.” She finished with satisfied
smile on her face. She was always the first student to raise her
hand to questions and almost never answered wrong. Tarya Selindria
was fairly certain that Andaya would become a Guardian at the Time
of Choosing.

"Very good, Andaya.” Tarya
Selindria told her with a brief smile. "One of the things we will
discuss today is how to create these emotions in others. Most
people do not have a
yar
powerful enough to alter another human
being’s
yar
.” This
caused the class to pause for a moment. She knew that the other
teachers taught them that no one could affect another
human’s
yar
, but
she knew differently. "Because we cannot change their emotions by
altering their
yar
, we must change the atmosphere around them so it will cause
an instinctive reaction.” She looked around the room at the
different faces raptly watching her and noticed that Lendel seemed
to be woolgathering. "Lendel, what is the raw emotion that you feel
when a summer thunderstorm passes through?"

Lendel jerked out of his
reverie, blinking at her uncertainly. "A thunderstorm?"

"Yes, a thunderstorm,” Tarya
Selindria said with exaggerated patience. "Lots of rain . . . loud
bangs and crashes . . . lightning."

Some of the students laughed
as Lendel flushed slightly. "A little uneasy, I guess,” he replied
with a shrug.

"Why do you think a
thunderstorm makes you feel that way?” Tarya Selindria probed. "You
have been through many thunderstorms before, so you know they
really don't hurt you."

"Not unless you happen to be
standing under a tree at the top of a hill,” Lendel said dryly,
grinning slightly as the class laughed. When he saw Tarya Selindria
staring at him humorlessly, his grin disappeared. "I guess it is
probably the noise. I don't really mind the lightning too much, but
it is the low rumbling noise that makes me feel uneasy."

"Thank you, Lendel.” Tarya
Selindria had trouble keeping the smile from her face, but she knew
that if she let the class draw her into their humor, she would lose
their focus for good. "That is exactly what we do to cause emotions
of doubt and confusion in others. We alter the
yar
of the atmosphere around us to
create low, subterranean vibrations. These extremely low sounds
cause this discomfort; much like a thunderstorm does for Lendel.
With practice, you will be able to create tones that cause much
stronger effects than mild uneasiness. With a strong enough tone,
you can overpower someone's senses, causing them to lose
consciousness. I am going to do a demonstration on how to do this
and then we will spend the rest of class practicing on each other.
I want you all to pay close attention to what I am doing with
my
yar
."

Tarya Selindria carefully
gathered her thoughts and concentrated on her
yar
. She could feel the power of her
spirit reach out from her body and begin altering the room’s noises
to a lower tone much too low to hear. As her
yar
touched the elements throughout
the room, she felt her being expand as she always did when using
her
yar
. It made
her feel like she was no longer just a body with arms and legs, but
a much larger entity with no limits to what she could become. An
intensely ominous feeling began to pervade the room. Some of the
students began to look frightened; others glanced around nervously.
As she increased the intensity of the tone, more of the students
began to panic, unable to control their bodies as their instincts
took over. She abruptly felt something building from where Celdic
was sitting, as if a miniature sun was charging with energy. With a
sudden feeling of foreboding, she immediately pulled her
yar
back in. As she did,
she felt the energy that was charging Celdic fade away. His eyes,
however, shone with an ecstasy, as if he had indeed been a sun for
a moment. Slowly, his face returned to its normal
countenance.

Looking around the class,
she realized that it was somewhat of a mess. A few of the students
were on the brink of panic, and most of the others were still
looking uncomfortable from the experience. "Are you all ready to
try it now?” Tarya Selindria asked, as if nothing out of the
ordinary had happened.

Tarya Selindria paused,
noticing the reluctance on almost every student’s faces, "There
isn't anything to be afraid of,” she assured them. "Most of you
will not be able to detect the vibrations you need to alter today
anyway. This skill takes a lot of practice. I am sure you can see
how useful it will be when you are up against a large number of
people. Let's start with...”

Tarya Selindria broke off as
the door flew open and Tarya Dekel rushed into the room. He was a
short man in his later years with a few white wisps of hair
sticking out above his ears, leaving the rest of his head a shiny
bald egg. His face was white as a sheet as he walked quickly over
to her, stretching on to his toes so that he could reach her
ear.

"Someone has breached the
barrier,” he whispered nervously. “We need you in the council right
now."