Suddenly he felt the urge to attack by rotating to the left. He hadn’t ever felt the sensation to perform a particular attack before, but as he fought Natalia, he could sense Lazuran somehow wanted him to attack in this way. At first, Anders hesitated, but then relented, moving left and advancing. She began to falter and he was able to hit her on the knee with the flat of his blade, following that with a score to her arm.
Hey, that actually worked, he thought to himself.
Natalia looked shocked at his sudden ability to gain an advantage over her. “How did you know to do that?” she demanded with a scowl.
Anders shrugged, “I’m not sure. I just had a feeling that it would work,” he lied, not mentioning the sensation he felt from the sword.
She eyed him warily. Sheathing her blade, she said, “That’s all for today. We’ll pick up here again tomorrow. Report to Ivan.”
“But,” Anders called as she turned to leave.
“Report to Ivan,” she demanded through clenched teeth.
Anders was left wondering what he’d done wrong. She was clearly agitated by something. Did she know I lied about knowing to attack in the way I did? he wondered. He quickly dismissed the notion as they didn’t share a bond and he couldn’t possibly figure out how she would know such a minor detail he’d left out of his explanation. Anders sheathed his blade and rushed off to find Ivan.
Chapter 29
Merglan’s Prophecy and a King’s Request
When Anders found Ivan, he was sitting on the building’s stoop thumbing through Merglan’s journal. He quickly closed the book and tucked it into his pocket when Anders approached.
“Why aren’t you training with Natalia?” he asked, clearly irritated that Anders would cut short on his duties.
“She dismissed me for the day. Told me to report to you.”
“So, what did you do to make her want to quit early?” he asked.
Anders shrugged, “We were sparring, I got two hits in on her, and then she told me we were done for the day.”
“Strange,” Ivan said under his breath. “Her injuries weren’t bothering her were they?”
Anders shook his head, “No, it was weird. She suddenly seemed offended and took off.”
“And you didn’t cheat, landing the blows on her?” Ivan asked skeptically.
“No, honestly, I didn’t. We were practicing the forms I’d read about and then I felt an urge to attack in a different way. I did, landing the blows, and she called it over for the day.”
Ivan rose to his feet, eyeing Anders. From their practice during the previous day, Anders could feel Ivan probing him with his mind, gently but to ensure Anders wasn’t hiding anything from him.
“You don’t need to do that,” he said.
Ivan retracted, “Well since you seem to suddenly have become master of the sword, we’d better go over some battle strategies. You’ll need to study them if we’re going to meet Merglan in battle.”
Anders followed Ivan down to the library. At the center of the vast cave sat a large rectangular table. Anders had studied at the table the past couple of mornings. Ivan walked to the table and began to run his hands along the edges, searching for something.
Anders watched, intrigued, “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for a trigger,” Ivan said as he bent over to more closely examine the table’s corners. “It has been awhile since I’ve used this.”
“Why would a table have a trigger?” Anders asked as Ivan rose with a satisfied expression.
“Because of this,” he said while pressing in on an acorn carved into one side of the table. With that the surface of the table vanished, revealing a box filled with sand.
“Wow!”
Anders stepped forward to take a closer look.
“It is used to explain visually how certain battles have played out throughout history. Using the table’s index, we can select a battle that’s been recorded and the sands will form the topographic layout of the battle’s location. The events that took place during the conflict will unfold as quickly or slowly as we want. I’ll take you through them step-by-step, using struggles from the past to help you recognize how and why decisions were made on the battlefield and, in some cases, how you might want to change your approach.”
“This table can do all that?” Anders asked astonished.
“With a bit of magic, yes. This table can replay any recorded battle in the history of Kartania.”
“When will we learn more magic?” he asked eagerly.
“After you’ve learned to create a decent mental block,” Ivan said sharply. “Until then we’ll hone other skills.”
For the remainder of the afternoon, Ivan showed Anders several battles that had had defining outcomes in Kartania’s history. The sand table’s visual element was far more useful than any book in Anders’ opinion. The magic even showed the armed forces rushing across hills, their numbers dwindling as the battle progressed. Ivan could pause the fight and explain to Anders why the commanders ordered their soldiers to move in certain ways depending on the circumstances. There weren’t any dragons in the battles Ivan chose to show Anders, and when Anders asked if he could see one, Ivan explained that he must first learn the basics before adding such a transformative element to the field.
Before their meal, Anders and Zahara faced Ivan once more in their mental exercises. Hard as they tried, neither Anders nor Zahara could keep Ivan from breaching their walls. Though Ivan’s magical abilities had dwindled, he held onto his specialties much better than Anders had anticipated.
That evening, seated around one of the dining hall’s long rectangular tables, Anders and Zahara spoke about the progress they’d made that day. Zahara informed him about the maneuvers Gendavie had shown her and how she’d improved already. Anders filled her in about the sand table in the library and about his short lesson with Natalia. He eyed the door, wondering when they would return. Natalia had disappeared after their sparring came to an abrupt end and he hadn’t seen Maija since right after lunch when she ran after Cora.
“Where are Natalia and Maija?” Anders asked Ivan between bites of seared salmon and roasted vegetables.
Ivan went silent for a moment, closing his eyes. He pointed his fork toward the door just as the two elf sisters entered the hall. “You know, you could use that gift Zahara gave you.”
Anders slapped his hand on the table, “I can’t believe I didn’t think to do that.” He felt foolish for not having tried searching for them with his mind before asking Ivan.
