Rise (23 page)

“Do I need to take anything?” I asked Anders, swinging my arms and stretching.

“No. Just go through that archway. With any luck, you’ll be back in a few hours.” He smiled encouragingly at me. The simple gesture stirred something inside me that I didn’t recognize or understand.

“Okay,” I said, pushing my hair behind my ears. “I’m ready.”

“Good luck.” Vidar forced a grin on his face. He had waited so long for this moment. Once I had my weapon, the Order of the Krigers could rise.

Turning to Anders I asked, “Any last instructions?”

“Trust your instincts and you’ll do fine. Now get going—we have a kingdom to save.” His eyes were bright, shining with excitement. I couldn’t help but smile.

Walking into the dark tunnel, unable to see, I stuck my hands out before me to make sure I didn’t smack into a rocky wall. After a dozen feet, a soft glow emanated ahead of me. Nearing the light, it got brighter and morphed into a ball, floating in front of me. The center of it was white, the outer portion a soft blue. The ball rose above me and then circled my body before drifting down the corridor.

I followed it, knowing it was leading me to my first challenge.

The floor abruptly ended. The ball of light zoomed down thirty feet, hovering above a pool of green water. The light glowed brighter, beckoning me. What if the water was too shallow? Perhaps my courage was being tested. Steeling my resolve, I took a big breath and jumped. Falling through air, my stomach did a somersault before I crashed into the frigid water.

Kicking, I rose to the surface, relieved.

The light circled above me and then plunged into the water. Not wanting to overthink it, I took a deep breath and went under, following the ball as it sank lower and lower. Then it shot into an underwater tunnel. Swimming as fast as possible, I followed it. Leaving the tunnel, it bolted upwards.

I broke the surface and gasped for air, my heart beating wildly. The light flew to the shoreline and disappeared. I swam over, my arms weak and shaking, and climbed out of the water. This was a small cavern. The walls glowed a soft gold, giving the illusion of sunlight. Lying on the ground, I basked in the warmth. Had I passed my first challenge?

The ground beneath me rumbled as part of the rocky wall slid open. Scrambling to my feet, I tentatively headed over and peered inside. It was a room filled with half a dozen
soldats
. My father was kneeling in the center of the room, a sword pointed at his neck.

“Kaia!” my father yelled. “Get out of here!”

I ran straight for the man who held the sword to my father. He prepared to strike me, so I slid on the ground, ramming my feet into his shins. He fell backward, his head hitting the ground. I rolled and reached for his dropped sword, springing to my feet. Another
soldat
lunged at me, and I swung the sword up, blocking his strike. When he came at me again, I grabbed his shoulders and thrust my knee into his groin. He fell to the ground.

My father engaged two men in combat. Another one came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my torso. I flung my head back, banging his face. He released me, and I spun around, punching him. He dropped to the ground. Another one came at me and I ducked, missing his blow. Flipping my sword around, I flung the hilt toward the man’s head, rendering him unconscious. My father managed to knock the remaining two men out.

There were six men on the ground—not a single one dead. My heart pounded and adrenaline coursed through me. As I turned to my father, his body vanished, and the blue light appeared in his place. Had that been my challenge? It felt real, even if it wasn’t entirely logical that
soldats
would have been here with my father.

The light moved to the opposite wall, and the rocks parted, revealing yet another room. Keeping a firm grip on the hilt of my sword, I followed the light, wondering what was next. The blue light disappeared, and the entire room glowed pinkish red. The room contained twelve alcoves, eleven of them empty. My eyes landed on the twelfth one where my bo staff rested. Mesmerized, I moved toward it.

A laugh echoed behind me. “You’ll never get it,” Morlet said.

I spun around to face him.

“Surprised to see me?” he asked. “I always show up for this part of the trials.” He pushed his hood back and folded his arms, intently watching me.

He couldn’t be real. He had to be a figment of my imagination, like my father in my last challenge. “What do I have to do? Kill you?” I gripped the hilt, ready to wield the sword if necessary.

“Yes,” he murmured, “if you can.”

“Put your hood back on.” He needed to look like Morlet, not a normal person.

He shook his head, his blue eyes sparkling with amusement. “You have to look me in the eyes when you stab me in the heart.”

Beads of sweat covered my forehead. He made no indication he was going to defend himself as I neared. “Do you plan on using magic?”

He shook his head. Raising the sword, I prepared to strike.

“Kill me,” Morlet said, his voice gentle, almost pleading.

I swung the sword toward him; he didn’t block me. I pulled back at the last second, barely missing him.

A smile spread across his face. “Can’t do it?”

I lowered the sword. “I want to. Especially after all you’ve done. You’ve killed innocent people, you tortured me. You deserve to die.”

“But I also healed you.” He took a step toward me.

“Only to keep me alive so you can kill me when it benefits you.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s the only reason that makes sense.”

“You should kill me because when I get the chance, I won’t hesitate to take your life. There is nothing worth saving nor is there anything redeeming about me.”

“I think there is,” I whispered. At least a sliver of who he used to be before Skog Heks’s evil magic consumed him. If only there was a way to help him, to save that part of him, instead of killing him.

“My dear Kaia.” He removed his cape, the black fabric puddling on the ground around his feet like water. He reached out to me, resting his palm on my chest, directly over my heart. “Never change.”

His face contorted in pain as his body turned into smoke, melting into thin air. I dropped the sword, and it clanged to the ground.

What had just happened? Had I failed the challenge since I couldn’t kill him? The blue light reappeared in front of me. It slowly drifted over to the bo staff. Before I could get too close to my weapon, the light darted away and went to the wall on my right.

A wooden door slowly opened, revealing yet another room. The light went inside, so I followed. Stepping through the archway, an elderly woman was sitting on a rocking chair, mashing leaves in a bowl with the handle of a wooden spoon. This was Grei Heks’s hut.

She looked up at me. “Hello, dear. Have a seat.” She pointed to the chair at the table.

I sat down. “I failed.” My shoulders slumped forward. She kept mashing the leaves, not answering. “I’m not well suited to being a Kriger, seeing as how the one thing Krigers are supposed to do is the one thing I can’t.”

Grei Heks put the bowl aside and looked at me. “My dear child, you did not fail.”

“I didn’t?”

“No.”

“But I didn’t kill him.”

Grei Heks slowly stood and walked over to me, placing her hand on my shoulder. “The only way to regain balance is with Morlet’s death. I sense your feelings are torn on the matter. I’m sorry—it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I had envisioned another way, a better way. But Skog Heks destroyed her and changed everything.”

“I don’t understand.”

She pulled me up, and we headed toward the other room, our arms linked together.

“You don’t need to worry about Morlet right now. Nothing can be changed. The spell is cast, the curse is underway.” We stood in front of my bo staff. “All the other Krigers have a small seedling of
Heks
power deep within them. When a Kriger dies, the seed moves on to the next male human child born so that there are always eleven Krigers. The only way for each of them to access their power is with their individual weapon.”

“Is it magical?”

“It is infused with
Heks
power. It only works with the right Kriger. You’re different. The
Heks
power inside of you is stronger. None of the other Krigers can use their power without their weapon like you can.” She pointed to my bo staff. “Yours is also more powerful than the others. Before you can even think of going up against Morlet, you must learn to control both so they do not control you.”

My bo staff was made from a beautiful, dark red wood. I reached out and took hold of it. It was taller than me by about a fist and felt perfectly balanced between my hands. Toward the top, there was a strange marking.

“That means
choice.
All of them have a different saying engraved on them.”

“Did you create them?” I asked.

“Yes. Once things fell out of balance, my magic increased so I could cast spells in order to undo the evil done.”

I slid my hands up and down the smooth wood. Power pulsed through it, and my hands tingled with energy.

“You must go,” Grei Heks said. “You have much to do.”

“Thank you,” I said, wrapping her in a hug.

She placed her soft hands on my arms. “You are the twelfth Kriger for a reason. You passed the trials not only because you showed compassion where it was due, but also because you thought for yourself. You didn’t fight or kill blindly.”

“When we kill Morlet and the evil magic returns to Skog Heks, will everything be as it should?”

“Skog Heks’s power won’t return to her. It will die with Morlet.”

“Won’t the kingdom be out of balance?”

She smiled, the look grim instead of happy. “The spell I cast all those years ago ensures that once Morlet dies, both Skog Heks and I die as well.”

“Why?” And how was that even possible?

She kissed my forehead. “Some things you are not meant to understand. But know this: you are special, and I expect great things to come from you.”

Overwhelmed, I had no idea how to respond. She motioned for me to leave the room. She waved goodbye and the door slid shut.

There had been so much more that I wanted to ask her, that I wanted to say. Her words echoed in my mind:
You are special, and I expect great things from you.
Holding my bo staff, a sense of calm spread over me. This was my destiny, and I would end the reign of terror and save Nelebek.

The blue light appeared before me. Instead of going into the water as I feared it would, the light went over to the other side of the cavern, revealing a wooden ladder built onto the side of the rocky wall. The light shot upward, so I started climbing. My arms and legs felt like mush, but I kept at it until I reached the top, coming to a small room.

The light disappeared, and a door opened, leading to Anders and Vidar who were sitting in the cave waiting for me. I entered, and both men glanced up. Relief washed over Vidar’s face, and a slow smile spread across Anders’s.

“Congratulations,” Anders said. “You did it.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” I asked.

“Never.”

“Spread your feet shoulder width apart,” Anders instructed.

I huffed, annoyed that he insisted on telling me what to do. My father had trained me to fight since the day I could walk. If Anders bothered to look at my feet, he’d see they were already in the correct position, my weight balanced. It was insulting he thought otherwise. Gripping the bo staff with both hands, I felt the smooth wood hum with power.

“You feel it, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yes.” I held the weapon parallel to the ground while a subtle vibration pulsed through it. “It’s amazing.”

“From what the other Krigers have told me, the trick is to send your will or desire to the weapon, and that in turn will unleash its power.” Anders stood before me holding a long, thin tree branch about his height. “I’ve never seen a Kriger use the bo staff before, but I imagine the power can be unleashed from either end.” He angled the tip of his branch toward my torso, showing me what he meant. “So then the power would hit you.”

I imitated him and he jumped back. “Don’t point that thing at me!” he yelled. “You don’t know how to control it yet.”

I’d been able to use my hands to wield my power; the bo staff couldn’t be that different. “I’m not willing it to do anything right now, so you don’t need to worry.” It quivered, and then blue light shot out of both ends, startling me. The tree to my right burst into flames while a boulder to my left exploded, sending thousands of rocks raining down. “Oops.” I held the weapon still, shocked at the sheer power it had just produced. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. “Didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Anders stuck his head out from behind the trunk of a nearby tree. “All clear?” I nodded. He slowly came around and observed the damage. “So, as I was saying—”

“I need to learn to control the power in it.”

He folded his arms and looked pointedly at me. “Yes. Others have found it helpful to learn how to use the weapon first, and then channel the power afterward.”

“Yes, I think that’s a wise idea.” I tried not to laugh at Anders’s stern expression as he stood between the rocky rubble and the blackened tree.

“I was trained to use many weapons, including this one.” He gingerly took it from me and placed it on the ground. “Let’s go over some basics. You should use a long stick until you’re ready to harness your power.”

After finding a fairly straight tree branch on the ground that was approximately my height and one inch in diameter, I stood next to Anders, ready to work.

“This suits you well,” he began. “Since you’re small, it allows you to attack your enemy without getting too close.” He grabbed another branch from the ground and broke it in half, holding one of the pieces before him like a sword.

Taking a deep breath, I pretended he was a
soldat
from the King’s Army. When he raised his sword to strike, I angled the branch upward, blocking him.

“Excellent,” Anders said. “See how much room we have between us? Use that to your advantage.” He attempted to hit me from the side. I spun the branch, blocked his sword, and then turned one of the ends toward his chest. The branch was unbelievably fast and easy to control.