Torrents by Meaghan Rauscher

Author:Meaghan Rauscher [Rauscher, Meaghan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meaghan Rauscher
Published: 2016-06-10T07:00:00+00:00

15. Altered

There are moments in life when days move with a painstaking slowness, creeping by like stagnant summer air. Each second pressing on your thoughts and nerves, until you feel as though you are going to break; but for the moment, time seemed to be the opposite.

Over the course of the following days I fell into a routine, upon waking I left the palace to begin my training. Zale put me through my courses, pushing me to the point of exhaustion and helping me in any way he could. When we trained, he was short and direct with me, stirring alive some of the anger inside, but I found it helped to drive me onward. With each passing moment I could feel the closeness of my looming birth date and worked tirelessly to develop the skills I knew I needed to protect myself.

The more I fought, the more I realized the training helped me in more ways than one. Not only did it give me confidence in knowing I just might be able to protect myself, but it also gave me a glimpse of how I could be helpful without using my voice. When I realized I could be of use to the Lathmorians in battle, I began to double my efforts in training, pushing myself harder than I ever thought possible. Anything to avoid having to use my voice again.

We were in the middle of another training session, the water swirling around us, as I tried to catch and slice at Zale’s dark fins. He always proved too quick for me, but I was getting better, and he was having to work harder to keep his tail out of the way of the fake blades I had strapped to my hands.

I had learned how to drive my body forward with a powerful kick, while aiming blades toward the tip of the mertail. Zale had told me it was a merperson’s strongest and at the same time weakest point. If I was able to separate the tail from the fins, then I would render my opponent lame and could finish them easily. The tricky part was avoiding the slashing blades from up above while the tail and fins could flicker one direction and in an instant be on the other side.

Throughout the day we worked, sometimes in the water and sometimes out. I knew how to duck faster, slash more precisely, and how to use my tail as a weapon by pounding it against my opponent’s chest. I had learned that one the hard way when Zale’s tail had caught me in the middle of my stomach. For a moment I had been stunned and thought my insides were bruised when his tail collided with my body, and yet, I had carried on, only to get hit again before I dealt him the same blow. He had smiled when my lavender tail caught him against his scarred back, and even as I trained now, I remembered the way he had grabbed my fins and pulled me to him, his lips meeting mine beneath the water.

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