Queen of Song and Souls
Page 80

Ellysetta took aim, cocked back her hand, and flung the Fey'cha at the red circle on the tree. The dagger cartwheeled through the air and struck the tree dead center in the middle of the knot she'd missed every other time.
She gave a rueful laugh. "Now I hit it."
"Kabei. Now, try this one." Gaelen spun Earth again and another red dot appeared on a tree much, much farther away. "Do you see it?"
"You've got to be joking." The tree was at least two tairen lengths away.
"Can you see it?"
Ellysetta squinted. "Barely." The new target was little more than a pinpoint of scarlet against the distant tree.
"Kabei. Now try to hit it."
"Gaelen, don't be a dim-skull." Bel scowled at his friend.
"Shh." Gaelen put a finger to his lips. "Kem’falla? Take aim and throw your blade."
"It's too far," Bel protested. "If she can't hit a larger target at a third the distance, how do you expect her to hit a pinpoint at two tairen lengths?"
"Humor me. Teska, Ellysetta, take your stance."
Bel rolled his eyes but stepped back so Ellysetta could take clear aim at her target. She set her feet and drew back her throwing arm.
"Concentrate," Gaelen advised. "Calculate the distance, the force you will need to throw so far. See the blade's path in your mind. Do you see it?"
"I think so."
"Then throw."
Her arm whipped forward. The blade whirled through the air in a swift, blurred arc. It hit the target tree dead center... but again well below the red dot.
"Well-done, kem’falla," Gaelen praised. "Well-done indeed."
She scowled. "Well-done if you want me to hit consistently below my target, you mean."
"Nei. Your aim was perfect. You hit a target the size of a sand fly from two tairen lengths away."
Bel gave a disbelieving laugh, "I think you need the Feyreisa to check your eyesight, kem'maresk. She missed that tiny little red dot by two handspans, at least."
"The red dot wasn't the target." A slow, satisfied smile spread over Gaelen's face. '"Jonn, go inspect her blade. Tell me what you see."
The Earth master shot forward with a speed that seemed incongruous with his great height, and his exceedingly long legs crossed the distance in no time. "There's a second target," he called, "and she hit it dead-on. Gil, come look at this."
Curious, the black-eyed Fey leapt off the fallen log he'd been sitting on and ran to join his friend. After a brief inspection and an exchange of words Ellysetta couldn't hear, Gil yanked the blade from the tree and he and Rijonn came running hack.
"There was a second target." Gil held up the Fey'cha. A small circle of brown leather was pinned to its tip.
Rain, who had hung back with the Elves to observe Ellysetta's lessons, stepped forward. "Let me see." He held out a hand for Ellysetta's Fey'cha. The brown leather circle at its tip had been sliced almost in two—dead center, just as Gaelen had said.
"I wasn't aiming for that," Ellysetta confessed. "I never even saw it.”
Gaelen's smile grew wider. "I know, Ellysetta. I made the real target brown specifically so you (couldn't see it. But I put it where your blade would hit if your aim at the red circle was true.”
"I don't understand." She took back her Fey'cha from Rain and returned it to its sheath. "How can you say my aim was true when I missed what I was aiming at?"
"Because your aim was true. It's your reach that is lacking."
"Explain," Rain said.
"It's actually easier to show you than tell you. If you would indulge me?” He waved Rain and the others back. "This will require a little room."
Ellysetta had turned to watch Rain back up a short distance, when suddenly Gaelen called, "Ellysetta, bote hammanas!" Hands at the ready!
That was all the warning he gave her before one of his own black-handled blades flew through the air straight towards her.
Her mind froze in surprise, but an instinct she'd never known she possessed took command of her body. Even before she realized what she was doing, she snatched the whirling blade out of the air and sent it flying back towards Gaelen in a single smooth, graceful motion.
He caught the dagger on its return flight with similar ease and launched a second blade immediately. He launched a third before the second even reached her hand, then a fourth and fifth shortly thereafter. She caught and returned each blade until there was a constant stream of Fey'cha arching through the air between them, and her hands moved with a blurring speed that matched Gaelen's own.
He spoke a word, and the Fey'cha disappeared in the blink of an eye, re-forming securely in the sheaths crisscrossing his chest. Silently, he dissolved the barrier of magic he'd erected to keep Rain and the others from rushing to Ellysetta's rescue when the first of his blades had flown.
The moment the weave was down, Rain leapt forward. His hand shot out and a hammer of power exploded from his fingertips. It slammed into Gaelen and knocked the former dahl'reisen off his feet, flinging him several man lengths through the air to smack into a tree. Rain snatched Ellysetta up into his arms, his eyes glowing fierce and deadly bright.
"Every time I begin to trust you, vel Serranis," he snarled, "you insist on proving me a fool for doing so. You dare throw a blade at my shei'tani?"