Part 16 (2/2)
Surprisingly, Master Rahm responded and stared at me with wide eyes. Immediately, I felt bad. I wasn't my father or my sister, and ordering an older person like my tutor just seemed wrong.
”Please,” I added in my normal voice. ”I can't do this anymore.”
”Do what, Princess Lilith?”
”Sit in here every morning and afternoon studying the same things.”
”But your father said you're not ready for the Academy.”
”Then let's change venues,” I said and got up. ”Study outdoors? Walk on the beach? Visit the Academy? At least focus on something else every other day?”
He pursed his lips. ”History is your weakest subject, Princess.”
I sighed. ”I know. I just need a break from the monotony of it.”
”Okay. We can use the gazebo and focus on languages for the next couple of days.”
”Thank you,” I said with relief. ”You are the best.”
”Then we'll go back to history,” he added.
”I take it back. You are a slave driver.”
He kept a straight face and waited.
”Fine. Can we do it in another language?”
”We'll see. Come on. Gazebo it is.” We teleported outside and the two guards followed. I was learning to ignore them. As always, workers teleported in and out, pruning hedges and maintaining the gardens, but Green Eyes wasn't among them. He tended to appear during my sessions with Master Kenta.
A servant brought fluffy cus.h.i.+ons for the already-padded wooden gazebo benches, and another brought out a pitcher of lemonade and two gla.s.ses.
”Okay, we'll start with French,” Master Rahm said in French, picking up a book. ”Let's see how fluent you are.”
I chuckled. ”I understood everything you just said,” I answered in fluent French.
His eyebrows shot up. ”Nice.” He put the book down. ”Describe the gardens.”
I did, standing on the gazebo bench to see the pond and the colorful birds floating in it.
”Very good. What other languages can you speak?”
I shrugged. ”Pick one.”
”Okay, describe the gardens in Latin.” After forty languages, he said, ”Your grasp of languages is impressive. From now on, we'll study history in a different language every day. No eye rolls or groans. Your father insists you learn our history, Princess Lilith.”
”Why? I already know about Coronis, the Guardians, and the Great Battle.”
”To prepare you for your future, you must learn from your past,” Master Rahm said. ”History is more important than metaphysical training or math.”
”Meta what?” I asked.
”Your abilities or powers over elements.”
”But I want to see what I can do.”
Master Rahm's expression became reflective. ”Next week.”
True to his word, Master Rahm helped me work on blocking people from my mind, hiding my energy, and reading thoughts without anyone knowing it. All I had to do was will it, just like Green Eyes had said. The ease with which I mastered these stealth moves said I must have known how to do them before. Another thing I learned from the Guardians.
Everything always came back to the Guardians.
”What was my life like with the Guardians?” I asked Master Kenta one morning.
We were by the gazebo, taking a break after an intense round of handto-hand combat. I'd fought asking him this particular question, preferring not to dwell in the past. But after walking the streets of Mount Hermon City, I'd wondered how and where I'd been raised.
Master Kenta chugged water, then wiped his lips and squinted. ”The old man who took you in didn't raise you among the Guardians. He knew your father was searching for you, so he chose to live among humans.”
Now, that was a surprise. ”Humans?”
”He was married to one, a Gypsy. You stayed with his wife's people. When you turned sixteen and your powers started to show, he took you back to the Guardians' community.”
Was the old man the face I'd seen when my father had smiled? I tried to recapture that image, but it evaded me. ”Who was he?”
Master Kenta shrugged. ”A respected and revered Prime Psi, or Cardinal Psi as the Guardians called them. The others were wary of you and your powers because they came from your father. Even when they learned you were the wielder of the Nephilim's most powerful weapon, their att.i.tudes didn't change. I remember you in tears when your fellow trainees learned you were an empath and didn't want you near them. They thought you might read them. Another accused you of using air abilities to attack her during sparring when it was obvious you were a superior swordsman. A few times, you left the training room in tears.”
A lump formed in my throat. How could I forgive them? How could anyone on the island forgive them?
”They never trusted you enough to take you to Xenith, either. You didn't know why, of course. You were not good enough because you are your father's child.”
I wanted so badly to lead a raid against the Guardians and make them pay.
As though he knew what I was thinking, Master Kenta said, ”It's all in the past now, Lilith. You are home now. One day, you will rule over them, and then you can decide the best punishment for their treachery.”
His words stayed with me, and the idea of me as the future leader of my people started to sink in. I wasn't sure how Solange would react to that, but I wasn't going to worry about it. The whole leaders.h.i.+p thing depended on my wielding the Kris Dagger, and it still wasn't responding. My inability to link with it was beginning to eat at me. I tried several times a week.
”Okay, back to training,” Master Kenta said.
I drained my water and then I heard it, the clang of metal hitting metal. I searched for their source. ”What's that?”
”The knights training the guards.”
More metal hitting metal reached my ears. ”Where's it coming from?”
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