Chapter 8
Ryan:
Upon waking, we agreed to participate in a few of the classes. All four of us were placed with the youngest training group. We stood out: too tall and completely out of sync with the rest of our classmates. I was pleasantly surprised, though, to find myself not exhausted throughout. I had been anxious, but it turned out to be more like gym class than I would have expected, just longer, more intense. It wasn’t long before I was doing more push-ups, stretches, and sprints in a few hours than I had in years, but I still had breath and strength left in me.
It’s the air, I told myself. It feels different, smells stronger, tastes fresher. And I realized, yes, I was seeing it with new eyes, embracing it with my new-found talent.
The four of us took a break for lunch in the cool shade of the lower dining room. I expected Jason to bring the girls in on the talk we had last night. My new friend was distracted, though, by the tools we had been given during practice. They were small, unassuming things. They reminded me of tweezers, and of long flat needles with little handles.
“I wonder how you’re supposed to pick a lock with this thing,” Jason said, referring to what we had heard in class.
Meanwhile, I was concentrating on my gravy-covered meat. Was it from some exotic creature? I decided I didn’t want to know, and took a bite. It tasted like chicken.
“You really are new, aren’t you?” One of the nearby boys in our class joined in. “We won’t learn about locks for at least a year. They don’t want us hurting ourselves… or breaking the lock on the basement door. They say there’s monsters guarding the only exit from the valley down there, but I know it’s just where they store the guns.”
“How long have you been here?” Kris asked.
“What kind of question is that? We were all born here.” His blue eyes flashed with a certain pride when he said so. “You may be taller, but the way I see it, you’re a lot younger than me, so pay attention, and don’t ask silly questions.”
I looked away from the kid who thought a lot of himself. Kris and Erin seemed to sink a little lower on the bench. The trainees nearby, who had been listening in, looked away. None too friendly. I was grateful, then, for the gruff voice that broke the uncomfortable silence.
“You four, Jesen, Eran, and, uh, Kris?”
My three friends raised their hands. The gruff voice belonged to a short man, a bit younger than Hugo. His curly brown hair shook as he nodded. “You’re to come with me to the West Field. Some of the talent instructors want to meet you personally before afternoon classes begin.”
He looked at me. “Are you Ryan, then?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“You’re instructed to head to the roof to meet with Sensei.”
“Hey,” the blue-eyed kid interrupted, “why does the new guy get to skip class to meet Sensei? He’s the worst one of them.”
I kept my mouth shut. No point in flaunting status I hadn’t really earned yet. Sensei’s advice made sense at least that far. The gruff-voiced man looked at the loud-mouthed kid long enough to give him a frown before returning to me. “Is that understood, Ryan?”
I stood up. “Yes, sir.”
“Good,” the man said. “You should head out now. Leave your lunch. Sensei doesn’t like to be kept waiting. You three, follow me.”
I parted ways with my friends and headed up the stairwell.. I was stopped and questioned by the house guard, but they let me pass quickly once I told them I was going up to see Sensei.
I hesitated at the door we had used just last night, but the man had been clear when he said ‘ the roof.’ Continuing up one more flight of stairs, I broke out into the sunlight, and caught my balance. The hatch had opened to reveal a roof that was totally flat, with no guard rail and only a few small, squarish battlements to mark the edge. I felt a little wobbly on my feet in the high wind as I noted the four lookouts standing precariously close to the edges of the tower, to the north, south, east, and west. Sensei stood along with them. The lookouts all turned when I set foot on the roof, but quickly redirected their eyes back outward to the forest that surrounded us.
As Sensei approached me, he held out his hand and gestured toward the landscape. In every direction a steep cliff marked the furthermost edge of the forest, rising at least as high as the tower, before flattening out into rolling plains beyond. Further off in the distance, to the north and east, I could make out great blue mountains.
“Night comes quickly in the Forbidden Forest,” Sensei said. “Do you understand why?’
He must have been following my eyes. “Yes, I think so. The shadows from the canyon walls must grow very quickly.”
He smiled. “You are a smart boy, Ryan. The others look up to you, you know.”
He gestured toward the west. Looking down, I saw a few people mingling, near the edge of a large lake. I adjusted my glasses. Was that Jason, Erin and Kris?
“It’s a shame about those glasses,” Sensei said. “They won’t help you when it comes to flying, or fighting for that matter. You’ll have to tie them back, and be very careful with them. There are very few indeed who would be able to repair lenses like yours, much less make a new pair for you.”
“Fighting?” I said. “You’re expecting me to fight?”
Sensei let the question hang. It was a moment before I noticed that his attention had shifted. He crouched down at the very edge of the tower, peering intently into the trees. I walked over beside him, as the old man beckoned for the nearest lookout.
“There’s movement in that grove. Have you been watching it?” Sensei asked.
I squinted into green, but either their eyes were that much better than mine, or they were looking at something I didn’t know how to see.
“I think it’s the ogres,” the lookout replied. “They’ve been thereabouts since yesterday. They seem to want to hold that position. I might have mentioned it, but it was my understanding that you wanted to maintain the lull in the fighting.”
“Well, I’m here now. I might as well take a look.” He turned to me. “Ryan, wait here… No, we should take advantage of this.” He gestured me forward. “Come with me. We’re going to take a closer look at the ogres over there, and return to the tower. A very quick surveillance mission, if you will.”
I squinted harder, and did notice some movement, but it was a fair distance away. There would be nothing quick about going that far. My eyes widened. Unless we flew.
Sensei gave me a little push between the shoulders toward the edge. “We’ll jump together, and I’ll catch you if necessary, but I want you to try following me.”
A sudden gust sent a howl across the roof. I pulled away from the edge. More than the surge of talent I had felt yesterday, what I remembered most vividly was the desperate fear that sent me grabbing for the invisible power.
“I, uh…” I stuttered.
The old man dropped to one knee, his body oriented toward the disturbance in the grove beyond. His eyes, though, were on me, severe under his bushy white brows. “Ryan, you must understand that here I am Sensei, not only a teacher, but master of Sun Tower. If you wish to remain in the relative safety of the tower’s auspices, then you must follow the rules of order. Part of our discipline states that, as a youth, you must train, to defend against common attacks, and surveillance is a key part of defense. I do not have time to explain things further now.”
I was too afraid to answer. Surely there was something else I could do instead…
Unsurprisingly, the old man insisted. “If you wish to remain under my protection, you will have to trust me,” he said firmly.
The concerns I had shared with Jason bubbled to the top of my mind, but as I looked into Sensei’s unclouded brown eyes, I felt sincerity, hard and determined. His demeanor had been consistent with his words. He was a leader, and everyone here was following him. I had awoken yesterday to a dangerous world, but he was offering me a way to get above it, literally. And so I desperately wanted to trust him. If he can show me
how to fly...
“OK,” I said.
The old man smiled very briefly. “We jump together.” He grabbed my arm, surprising me once again with his strength. “Three, two, one.”
The next thing I knew, I had fallen three stories. This time, though, I immediately began looking closely at the air, feeling for something to grab onto. Stretching out my arms, I found that same something from before, pulled it under me, and began rising.
“Well done,” Sensei said, from slightly above.
It happened much more quickly this time. I not only heard but saw the air rushing from below to support him.
“Stay behind me, and don’t go lower than I do,” he ordered.
With a whoosh of cool air, he took off in a wide arc. The trees looked different from the lower perspective, and I began to worry. I hoped I would see the ogres, whatever they were, before they saw me. Sensei flew flat on his chest, with his arms and legs slightly spread, away from his torso. His white robes snapped in the updraft. I held my body likewise, and tried to follow his dip and turn.
Wobbling right, left, and losing altitude, it reminded me of trying to ride a bike. And so I quickly began steering with my body, rather than trying to pull too hard on the wind. I spread my arms and legs wider, caught more air, and regained altitude, constantly trying to maintain altitude, just above Sensei.
He dipped toward the trees, and his arc curved into a tight circle. Crusty gray monsters were moving between the branches. So these were the ogres! The harder I concentrated on watching them, the more wobbly my flight became. Sensei was heading back to the tower, and I was uncomfortably close to the tops of the trees.
Pulling harder, I completed an anxious turn, and was relieved as the tower, my destination, came into plain, unobstructed sight. Gently tapping my wind currents to the left and right, I was able to bank up and down, fishtailing my way back to the gray pillar.
Sensei’s feet dropped low. I watched him pull backward on the wind before landing on the near edge of the roof. Landing: there was something I had yet to try. Straightening my approach, I floated in a little above the circle of stone, and decided to aim for the middle. By the time I had dropped my feet to touch down, though, I had almost reached the far side. Too high, too fast!
I dropped heavily to the stone surface. Pain shot up my ankle, and I rolled toward the edge. Someone caught my hand, and when I opened my eyes, one of the lookouts was pulling me up. She had stopped my skid only a step or two away from the brink.
“They’re moving, toward the tower!” another lookout shouted.
Sensei rushed to one side and shouted down, “Talented, to the north field; ogres are advancing!”
By the time I had crossed the roof and rejoined Sensei, maybe a dozen warriors from the tower side of the lawn had assembled, facing the forest to the north. One of the lookouts had loaded a bolt to her primitive-looking crossbow. I dropped to one knee and massaged my ankle, a welcome distraction for my eyes from the battle I knew was imminent.
A roar erupted from below and demanded my attention. The gray ogres broke from the trees. I looked to Sensei, ready to drop once more from the roof, but this time the old man’s arm held me back. The ogres carried massive axes. A tree cracked and fell. Swords were drawn as more tower warriors joined the fight. Where were the guns? The lookout fired her crossbow. One of ours jumped, and there was a bright flash. Amid the confusion of the battle, my thoughts turned to my friends. I hoped that Erin, Kris, and Jason were safe. I didn’t have long to worry, though. In less than a minute, there were nine craggy gray bodies facing up toward the sky.
“They must have been desperate,” a lookout commented.
“I was hoping to give them a little scare,” Sensei said with a shake of his head, “but they ran the wrong way.”
“How awful,” I said. The goblin I had first seen crossed my mind. The ogres were human, too. (Humanoid?)
Sensei smiled. His eyes on the lookout, he said, “Ryan shows empathy for the adversary. A proper reaction! He has a good heart, does he not, Verax?”
The lookout’s smile had a trace of bitterness. “I suppose so. A little naive for his age, though,” she said.
I bit my lip. I hated it when adults talked about me like I wasn’t there.
“You both make excellent points. One of the reasons I brought you up here, Ryan,” Sensei took my arm, and walked me away from the lookout, “was to explain to you the nature of our existence here. Look again at the canyon around us.” He turned me in a circle, his hand gesturing outward, away from the bodies of the fallen ogres. The tower really did seem to be in the exact center of a roughly bowl-shaped canyon.
“Those of us who live at this tower do so mainly because there is no escape from this canyon. The closer one gets to the canyon walls, the stronger the gravity. Did you notice it as you were flying?”
I thought for a moment, then slowly shook my head. I had been too busy between watching the ogres and trying not to crash to notice whether or not the gravity was any stronger.
“Fair enough,” Sensei said. “Believe me when I say that the further one goes away from this tower, the heavier everything feels. It starts slowly at first, but, at those sloping canyon walls, only those with the strongest physical talent are able to bear the weight of their own bodies. I have tried countless times to fly, even to walk close to the canyon edge... but the fact is that we are sealed, imprisoned by Devidis’ design.”
He paused, took note of the confusion in my eyes, and continued. “It’s true. The one who brought you here by force is the one who keeps us all here now. There are those of us who would resist him, but that is a tall order when survival in this place is such a challenge.”
He pointed to the closely cropped green trees at the edge of the clearing around the Sun Tower. “Strange people and things are constantly appearing. Sometimes we are fortunate, and people like you, kind-hearted and smart, materialize out of nowhere. More often than not, though, nightmarish things find us.
“Some of them may come out of... nowhere, like you and your friends did, but usually dangerous criminals are thrown in here by Devidisian soldiers who patrol the rim of the canyon. The soldiers are guardians in name, but, in truth, they are spectators to our struggles, criminal versus criminal. We prisoners are, on the whole, killed and replenished with grim regularity.
“Many of our fellow prisoners are too awful to be kept in Devidis’ empire and no less dangerous here, but, then again, every so often we find a friendly rebel. Bound together by necessity and resentment of the heavy hand of the emperor Devidis, those prisoners, who are peaceable and willing, continue to build the community of the Sun Tower, little by little.”
He examined my expression, my reaction. I tried to keep from betraying any weak emotion, after panicking earlier. “Your fellow trainees,” he continued, “those born here who know almost nothing of a wider world, may be able to take comfort in the simple tower life, but it will not be so with you and your three friends. This place is in truth a prison, but as long as this is our best option, we prefer to think of it as our refuge, the Sun Tower a triumphant symbol, standing tall and bright in the face of oppressive Devidisian rule.”
He turned to the female lookout, “Lorna, what would you say is the goal of our Sun Tower discipline?”
She rested her crossbow across her shoulder and scratched beneath her fingernails before answering, “We defend our Sun Tower family, work for safety, peace, and comfort. We search for outside help, hoping that someday we will find a way out of the canyon, a way toward a just victory over Emperor Devidis, who, lest we forget, is our captor.”
Sensei smiled. “Very eloquent,” he said.
Turning back to me, he continued, “And so I understand you have chosen to stay with us for a time, to train, defend, and prepare for the possibility that one day we may find a way over the canyon walls. Your alternative is freedom from the tower.” He spread his arms wide, directed toward the dark jungle below.
“Y
ou would be free to fend for yourself,” he continued, “for however long you may last, though I do not recommend that path. Without proper training, I promise that you will not survive long, your obvious talents notwithstanding.”
I looked off in the distance. Against the canyon walls, the blue sky seemed suddenly far away. Swallowing, I said, “We have missed out on a lot.”
And with that admission, the questions, the fears, came pouring out. “Will no one come to help us? What about my friends? If I say yes now, is that the last word, forever?” I asked, my voice nearly cracking.
“Wise questions worth considering. Your decisions are each your own,” Sensei said in a deep voice full of ominous authority. “Your friends will be approached soon, and they will give their answers. You must decide individually, though you will be treated a team for the foreseeable future. As I said before, none of us here is sure of the state of the world beyond Devidis’ reach, for our informants on the outside tell us the empire has grown truly wide. I promise that the training we provide here will better equip you to search and survive in the Forbidden Forest, and perhaps, one bright day, it will help you survive in the wider world, independent of the tower’s safety. No one will force you to stay forever. You always have the option of leaving, though the option of staying is at my discretion, and the discretion of my council. …You will stay, then?”
“Sounds like one way or another, we’re going to need some training,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll stay.”
“Good,” Sensei replied, clapping me on the shoulder. “Then we fly together.”