Page 28 of Cage of Starlight
Menden claps a hand on Tory’s shoulder before he can parse that exchange. “Glad to have you, Tory! Don’t think I’ll let you get away with just watching today! After the break, we’ll see what you’re made of, hmm?”
An awful groan drags Tory’s attention back to the yard as a balloon nails one of the trainees in the stomach, driving him back a couple of feet before he doubles over, retching.
Menden sucks in a breath. “Ohhhh, the gut’s the worst.”
“I . . . I don’t think I can . . .” Tory’s not even sure how he did it the first time.
Menden flaps a hand. “Boy, we can train you in simulated situations for years, but it won’t do any good. If I want you to survive a day out there, I need to throw real obstacles at you. Real harm. You and I, we’ll start slow today, but wewillstart.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Watching water balloonsbarrel toward people and being in the middle of the fray when it’s happening prove to be two entirely different things. After a brief break, Vantaras directs Tory to enter the yard and settles in beside Menden.
Figures the bastard would stick around to watch him suffer.
As promised, Menden has the others move in close, the wall-mounted cannons aimed steeply downward. Only two cannons lob the balloons farther out.
“These’ll have sort of a lazy arc to them,” Menden says. “It’s the easiest they’ll ever be for you. Good luck!”
That’s all he gets before the cannons open fire, eerily precise.
“Stellite targeting system,” Menden chirps as Tory barely avoids a balloon barreling toward his face. “Precision at its finest; stellite is drawn to almost every flavor of Seed energy, so you can’t run from it. It’ll just follow you!”
Tory trips to the left to avoid a projectile.
“Don’t dodge them, fool boy!Stopthem.”
“I don’t know how!”
“Well, then. Carry on!”
Vantaras leans back against a tree, arms crossed.
One to the shoulder doubles Tory over, choking and gasping. For an instant, with the force of the blow, the water feels hot. It’sfreezing.Another explodes against his thigh with the tissue-deep throb of a nascent bruise. Tory reflexively lifts his hands and closes his eyes, but it’s useless. This is nothing like healing.
Tory lurches toward Menden, grabbing his shoulders and steering him toward the cannons.Precisionindeed. The cannons follow Tory even with Menden as a human shield between them. “Tell me what todo!”
A projectile barely misses them, and Menden issues a shriek that tapers into high-pitched laughter.
“Harness it! You—if you let yourself, you can feel the energies. Youespeciallyshould be able to feel them. Regular CFR Seeds work based on sight alone—simple recognition and transference of energy. You’re a Channeler,and the world ismadeof energies. If the old records are right, you should be able to handle them all, which means you can—” they duck away from a balloon that would have nailed Menden in the face “—certainly handle the energies that drive these!” Another balloon splatters a foot away from them. “These things? Plain old kinetic energy. When you’ve improved, we’ll have Kineticists accelerate a slew of projectiles at you so you can get practice redirecting naturalandSeed-enhanced energies!”
They skitter back as two more balloons drive into the grass, spitting water up Tory’s ankles. He closes his eyes, but there’s nothing toharness. Just a biting wind and his body begging him for rest. “Seed enhanced? Aslew?”
“Oh, yes! You’ll be a great asset on the battlefield. See, the Arlunian soldiers—”
Tory drags them left.
“Merciless. Every weapon they use is Seed-modified—made faster, more powerful, more lethal.” Menden skips them back, far too graceful. “This is terribly inefficient, Tory, please. Anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard what they call this unit.”
Seedbait. TheCorpse Corps.
“We’ve hadnoSeeds capable of redirecting Seed-modified attacks before you, and our enemy knows it. CFR Seeds cannot handle the volume of energy that you can. We’ve had to trust our Fielders’ shields to repel the weapons they fail to stop—and they fail to stop a lot! They don’t have the Channeler’s rumored ability to discern energies and can only affect what they can see, so by the time the attacks get close enough tostop,they’re also close enough to cause damage when they fall, which in turn leaves far too heavy a burden on our Fielders. With Seed-enhanced weaponry hitting them from all directions, it’s only a matter of time until their forcefields fail.” Menden runs them ahead of the next balloon. “But if you can do what we expect you can, you couldsingle-handedlyfree the Fielders from that burden by redirecting massive volumes of both kinetic and Seed-directed attacks. Better still, you won’t tire as quickly. Handling different flavors of energy should theoretically be like using different muscles—you’ll have both wider range and greater stamina. Fewer fatalities, more opportunities to mount an offensive.” Menden laughs. “You could change everything!”
“That’s bullshit!”
He pushes Menden away and runs backward. The unblinking eye of the cannon follows him, belting balloons that nip at his heels. He tries to do what Menden told him. Sense the energy. It’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard.
The water makes sludge of the ground and slicks down the yellowing grass. Someone up ahead gets pounded in the chest with afull-speed projectile. The cold wind freezes Tory and locks his muscles. It’s useless. There’s no energy that sings to him, nothing for Tory to hold onto.
