Part 36 (1/2)

”How do we know you're Zang Ho?” Damali pulled a blade from her hip. ”You looked different in the cave, your eyes-” ”You were using only one sense, your eyes. You will learn to use them all. You have been through many shocks, and you are each still purging the infection. In an hour, you will be yourselves. This is why I must work quickly with no arguments to test time or tempt fate.” He brushed past Damali and swiped her blade, then stood before Marlene and gave it to her.

Damali stared at her hand and then up at him. ”How did you do that? I didn't even feel you take it?”

The Naksong bowed and addressed the team. ”Pitch a tent just over the ridge. I will collect you shortly. There is so much work to do, so little time; so many questions, so many answers.” He smoothed his long, white beard and closed his eyes, as though staving off complete annoyance. When he opened his eyes again, they had become cloudy, white cataracts once more, and he pointed a bony finger at Carlos and Damali. ”You two. Follow me.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

”Where are we going?” Damali called out, trying to keep up with the agile little old man.

”Hey, hold up. Why can't we do whatever we gotta do with the team?” Carlos called out, also finding it difficult to follow the Naksong.

”You ask many questions,” Zang Ho said in an irate tone, while stomping on rocks as he climbed higher. ”But you ask the wrong ones. You forget true wisdom, but remember what should be forgotten. You fight about nonsense, instead of picking wise battles. You have tested my patience, but you have not tested your own!”

He grunted and slipped over a frigid peak, and Damali and Carlos practically fell over it behind him, sliding down a steep, gravelly incline until they landed with a thud within another gra.s.sy knoll.

Thoroughly agitated, they stood, dusting themselves off. Zang Ho folded his arms over his chest and motioned with his chin toward a blanket and two swords lying on the ground near the edge of a cliff.

”Now, we begin,” he said.

Carlos and Damali perked up and followed him toward the weapons.

”Observe,” the Naksong master said, pointing toward wild sheep grazing in the crags. ”It is rutting season, and the males will lock horns, but will not fall to their deaths-most times.”

The moment Carlos looked up, Zang Ho rabbit-slapped his face so quickly that his nose began to bleed.

”Yo, man!” Carlos shouted, blotting his nose with the back of his hand. ”What was that for?”

”Suck it up and taste the blood. Salty, yes?”

Carlos's eyes narrowed on the old man as Damali chuckled, but a swift pop to the back of her head made her hand go to the place where she'd been struck.

”Ow! What was that for?”

”Pick a weapon,” Zang Ho, said, motioning to the swords, ”if you can.”

Carlos began walking toward the thick, yak-hair blanket that held two long blades. The moment he stepped forward, his feet went out from under him, and he was flat on his face on the ground. Fury roiled within him as he immediately jumped up and made a quick dash toward the blanket, but the blanket moved to the other side of the glen.

”Have I made my point?” Zang Ho asked, studying the sun as he pet his beard. ”If you are not the weapon, an external one can always be taken away.”

Carlos held up both hands. ”All right, all right. Point made.”

”You are still not asking me the right questions,” Zang Ho said, popping Carlos in the back of his head, without ever nearing him, and making him lurch forward.

”Cut it out, old man. I'm not playing.”

”Ah. You have temper. Good. Use it, but use it well.” The old man crouched low in a fighter's stance.

”I'm not falling for that,” Carlos muttered. ”Besides, if we connected, I'd-”

”Hurt me?” Zang Ho shook his head. ”Because of appearances, you have made dangerous a.s.sumptions.” Zang Ho walked away, and turned his back to Damali and Carlos. When he turned around, he became a svelte woman, his robes filling out to a.s.sume his new form. ”If I were her,” he said, making them both squint as his voice remained crotchety, but so different from his body, ”you might have other designs on this form than warfare.” He turned around slowly and became a snow lion, causing Damali and Carlos to jump back. ”Or this might make you feel that victory would be impossible.” He returned to his original form.

”That is the smoothest shape-s.h.i.+ft I've ever seen,” Carlos murmured. ”In daylight, too?”

”Now we are making progress,” Zang Ho, said.

”You work with energies,” Damali said stepping forward. ”You use the energy from the Light, like Neterus do.”

”That is how I acquired your small dagger,” the master said. ”Now, when I tell you to fetch a weapon, do not waste time.

Materialize it in your hand.”

Damali stared at the blanket, focusing hard. They'd tried to teach them this before, but it had been so hard to focus like that lately.

”No. Stop!” Zang Ho ordered. ”That is kinetic energy. It requires you to move ma.s.s through the air, lift it, bring it to you, but during a battle, you must be one with the blade.” He stared at Carlos. ”When you were in the shadow lands, did you have to will your teeth to become the dragon's, or was that a reflex response to a sudden threat?”

”It was all reflex,” Carlos said, his voice containing more reverence. ”That is profound.”

Zang Ho offered the couple a slight bow. ”Before, they taught you to move objects. If a threat occurs, just like his dragon's teeth would appear, a blade should be an extension of your hand, should grow from it. Whatever element is in the universe can fuse with your energy to become your energy. Take it, embrace it, be it.” He clapped his hands twice. ”Again!”

Damali stood by Carlos's side. Both closed their eyes and opened their hands, but no sword was in it when they opened their eyes.

”Now. What question should you ask me?” Zang Ho folded his arms over his chest.

”Why the sword didn't-”

”No,” he snapped, swis.h.i.+ng away. ”You should ask what stillness must I achieve to obtain this reflex.” He walked in a wide circle, first staring at Carlos and then Damali. ”They gave you, the male, a s.h.i.+eld. Clap your hands, and the s.h.i.+eld appears-in an arc. Your line of vision can cut like laser, when provoked. These happen just like the dragon's teeth appear, yes?”

Carlos looked away and shook his head no. ”Not lately.”

”Ho? What is this travesty?” The Naksong bowed low and walked around Carlos peering up. ”Why not? This is old lesson.”

”My energy has been a little off center, and... uh...”

”Hmmm,” Zang Ho placed a finger to his lips. ”Yes. Something corrupted your energy fields. You need realignment.”

”Is it still there?” Damali asked in a worried voice. ”Whatever got into his system?”

”The first wise question I have heard this afternoon.” He looked at Carlos. ”No. It is gone. It fled.”

”Did it get into her, somehow?” Carlos glanced at Damali nervously.

The Naksong rubbed his beard. ”No. It tricked you, but it was never in her. It blanketed her, covered her, but never had permission to enter her. Hmmm...” The Naksong smiled. ”Very interesting, indeed.”

”But I saw-” Carlos attempted to say, summarily getting cut off.

”Your eyes see what you fear, not what is. Your greatest fear is yourself. That keeps you from accepting all elements of yourself.