Akira Rises (25 page)

The young mage in his trance saw everything through the eyes of the alpha male. It was primitive, exhilarating, and when the alpha male went in for the kill, the mage felt the rush, the thrill of the kill. When the wolves came across a lone traveler he chose not to control the alpha male. The terror in the face of the man taken down was as clear as if he was there in person to see it with his own eyes.

When it was time, the mage would overpower the form of the wolf and the wolf would take on human form. The wolf was a powerful weapon for the possessing mage. The body of the wolf would get him up the mountain. The form of a man could gain him entrance into the monastery where he would spy and look for the baron’s daughter. It was a dangerous task to walk among the White Rose mages in search of the girl. But if he succeeded in finding her the rewards would be well worth the risk. He did not need to kill her. Finding her would be enough. Young and cocky, the entranced mage enjoyed the new feeling of power transferred to him. He enjoyed the feeling and power of the beast he possessed. Finding the girl’s location for the baron would elevate his position. What the baron would do with the information bothered him not one bit, for all he had to do was locate her, keep track of her. The baron would handle the rest personally. It had been made abundantly and unequivocally clear.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

L
ady Shy looked at her daughter critically. Akira was fit, strong and well on her way to becoming a warrior. The skills her daughter learned gave her daughter a new confidence. The discipline had taken the edge off her daughter's belligerence, especially towards men. Regardless of her training from skilled warriors there were skills only a mother or another woman could teach her. Lady Shy’s beauty had worked against her and against her. It had been a double edged sword and she decided her daughter needed to make her own untapped un-enhanced beauty work to her advantage.

“Akira, stand tall with your shoulders’ back. Your breasts are an asset. Do not be ashamed of being a woman.”

“Oh Mother, how can they be an asset?” Akira made a funny face.

“They can be tools of distraction my dear.” Shy smiled. “Is distraction not helpful sometimes?”

Akira cupped her breasts. “I did notice a few eyes fixating on them accidentally on purpose. Distractions? I suppose that could be true. I’ve been trying to downplay their existence as I do train and sleep among a lot of men. Mother! If they get any bigger, they will be a nuisance.”

“You do not have to flaunt them, but you do need to exude confidence as a woman. A little cleavage showing can go a long way to trick a man into focusing on your feminine traits and misjudge your strength and skills. At the right time and place, they can be part of an illusion. It is time you embraced your assets and enhanced them.”

Lady Shy wisely did not comment on breast sensitivity that enhanced love making. That conversation would be for another day. She smiled inwardly. Akira was almost ready to be tutored about the art of lovemaking. A mother ‘s duty was to prepare her daughter to know how to give and receive pleasure. The way Dimitri looked at her daughter boded well. As much as he pretended to be indifferent, he was attracted to Akira. Lady Shy’s intuition was perceptive and if she knew her daughter as well as she thought, Akira was also busy fighting her attraction to Dimitri.

“What do you mean?”

“Well aside from needing to stand tall and proud, those scraggly eyebrows need shaping my dear!” Shy pushed Akira into a chair and started plucking.

“Ouch, really Mother, are a few less hairs going to make a difference?”

“Yes, and you need to learn to accent your eyes with eyeliner like I do. Your eyes are one of your best features. Make them look piercing and seductive.”

“Seductive? Good grief, why would I want them to be seductive?”

“Because sometimes you can use a subtle seduction to get men to do what you want them to do without them realizing you are making them want to please you.”

“So what if you get too much of their attentions you don’t want?”

“That is where you need to be confident, flatter their vanity and always retreat before you wet their appetites to where they lose self-control.”

“This sounds very complicated to me. Half my life we try to make me unappealing and now I’m supposed to be seductive?”

“Well now you are not so vulnerable. You can protect yourself and you have comrades to protect you. Strength, beauty and intelligence can all be in one package my dear.” Finished tidying Akira’s beautifully shaped eyebrows Lady Shy started unbraiding her daughter's’ hair. She clucked as she noted the crude hair trimming Akira had given herself. She trimmed Akira’s hair edges of hair so the ends fell evenly across her back. With practiced fingers Lady Shy re-braided Akira’s tresses so the front half of her hair was pulled away from her face in tiny braids that stopped at the crown of Akira’s head and then the tight braids were tied off with small strips of supple leather. The braids were bunched loosely to fall over the kinky waves that reached the middle of Akira’s back. Satisfied, Shy showed Akira how to outline and shadow her eyes. A waistband worn over long sleeved blouse laced up just under Akira’s breasts defined Akira’s shape as totally feminine and curvy. Shy undid a few of Akira’ blouse buttons so her collar bones showed and hinted at the cleavage below.

The pleased mother held a mirror in front of her daughter.

“Oh wow… I almost look like you, and you are pretty … we look like sisters!”

“Of course you are pretty, you always have been pretty, we just dared not let it be noticed. Sisters? Not quite, for you have a more youthful glow, and I’ve crows’ feet wrinkles near my eyes. You flatter me, silly girl. Now there is no need for you to try to look plain. You are beautiful, my daughter, and there is no need to hide it anymore.” Lady Shy hugged her daughter. “You are a beautiful young woman. You will be a strong beautiful warrior. I must leave soon and prepare a way for us to return to my family.”

“What? Leave? Can I not go with you, Mother?” Akira frowned.

“No, you need to finish your training here.”

“But you are all the family I have and I need you!” Akira’s face scrunched with worry for her mother. “Do you not remember what happened the last time you went ahead without me to prepare for our escape?”

“That was different my darling. I’ve the allies I was seeking to help us now.” Lady Shy paused. “You are not without family here.”

Akira’s eyes locked with her mother's. Lady Shy had been waiting for a right time to tell her daughter that Morgan was her father. She took a deep breath. “Your father is here. Mage Morgan is your father.”

“He is the cur who abandoned you?” Akira’s eyes blazed as her harsh words blurted out.

“No he is my true love who was forced to leave, not knowing he had a daughter.”

“He should not have left you!” Akira wanted to punch him. She clenched her fists.

“He had no choice. Rolfe would have killed us both. I thought he was dead and he knew if he returned and suspicion was cast, I’d be in mortal danger. You know how evil Rolfe is! You must promise me you will stay here while I go ahead. Dimitri is providing men to escort me down the mountain to travel to the coast.”

“But the passes are closed, how can you leave?”

“There is a secret ice tunnel that a special sled fits that can quickly take me to the base of the mountain. It cannot be climbed up. When someone is sent down it, a message is sent and the snow is cleared away from the secret opening.”

Akira hugged her mother tightly. “Why do you need to go ahead? What is so important?”

“I need my marriage annulled. If and when Rolfe discovers I’m not dead, he will not tolerate being made a fool of. If I’m no longer his wife he has no reason to follow us.”

“Why can’t we just kill him if he follows us?”

“Because we don’t want to start a war, my darling. Trust me, Akira...stay here and wait for me to send for you.”

“You will stay safe, not break anymore legs?” Akira tried to be light hearted.

Lady Shy smiled. “I promise not to break any more legs if you promise to become a strong and beautiful warrior.”

The women hugged and kissed. Mother would leave. Daughter would stay.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A
kira worked hard through the rest of the winter months. Her confidence grew as she became stronger. She mastered a quickness that made it hard for anyone to keep up with her. She almost seemed to float through the air, jumping with ease, twirling away from dulled dummy swords, and quickly touching her opponents with her own lighter sword, scoring death kill points. Bruises became less frequent.

It would have pleased Lady Shy to see Akira forming friendships with her comrades. And it would have pleased Lady Shy to see Akira’s attraction to Dimitri grow as hard as she tried to hide it. And had Lady Shy saw the expression on Dimitri’s face when Akira decided to make the most of her feminine assets, she would have been quite satisfied.

Dimitri’s eyes had widened the first time Akira decided to practice enhancing her appearance as her mother had encouraged her to do. His heart beat faster and he had gulped before he shuttered the surprised and appreciative expression on his face. The changes Akira made to her appearance were subtle, other than what she had done to her eyes and hair which made her blue eyes startling, exotic, and almost mesmerizing. She was petite for a warrior candidate, lithe, bold and beautiful. In his mind, her eyes were a secret weapon he hoped she never turned on him until he was in a position to make them reflect a mutual passion. Her sooty thick lashes seemed longer, and when he looked deep into her eyes it was tempting to let himself be pulled into them.

He left more and more of Akira’s training to his men. It puzzled and disappointed Akira that he seemed to avoid her. She worked harder, honing her newly acquired skills until every action she made was a smooth motion, a quick dance around slower stronger opponents. Waiting for word from her mother and Dimitri to notice her, made her seek the solace of Pegasus in the stables. Little did she know Dimitri watched her and felt stupidly jealous of the horse that could nuzzle her breast and nibble treats from her hand.

She waited for word that a journey could be made to the coast when spring warmed the mountain and opened the passes. Akira asked Mage Morgan if she too could use the secret tunnel and join her mother. The mage shook his head, explaining that it was too dangerous to use the steep rocky tunnel as spring approached. And signs of spring were everywhere. Already the ice in the secret tunnel was melting leaving the tunnel impassable unless one did not mind being shredded by razor sharp rocks. The warm trickles of water that had been no match for winter’s cold, were no longer forming ice. Instead the warm trickles were melting the ice, and becoming bigger trickles. Soon the opening of the secret tunnel in the valley below would be hidden by a waterfall.

Spring was when the guardian training session would be completed. Spring would bring the time of bestowing the shields of the White Rose Order to the successful candidates. Akira longed for and dreaded the arrival of spring. Dimitri would leave the monastery in spring. She dared not ask which side of the mountain he would descend. Hope burned that she could attract his attention when free to do so as a warrior. Hope burned that he might feel some of the same angst when they were together that she felt. Some nights she told herself to harden her heart. She made herself relive every indignity that she knew a man had demonstrated in the past. She warned herself that she would be weak if she succumbed to needing a man. Then she wondered how much she could allow herself to need a man, and risk losing her new found independence and purpose

Nothing was cut and dried anymore. It had been easy when she hated men. She stood outside the opened doors of the stable, breathing in the mountain air, looking to the west. Her daily visit with Pegasus made her as restless as Pegasus. It was time to exercise him longer each day, ready him for the journey down the mountain. She longed to gallop Pegasus, clear her thoughts with the wind whipping through her hair.

Mage Morgan could not convince Akira that an oppressive weight visualization would be applicable with hand to hand combat. Mage Morgan had to practice patience with his new found daughter. Akira was stubborn as a mule sometimes, and still unwilling to treat the him as a father figure.

As much as Akira was assessed and tutored by the other mages in the mountain monastery, none could find evidence of any more magical talents in the young protégé. The mages concluded she was very fortunate as a halfling to have the power she did possess. All agreed she should concentrate and develop her one gift. All but Mage Morgan. Mage Morgan sensed there was hidden talents and gifts yet to be revealed. He argued with the other mages that it was not his own vanity resisting the fact he could have fathered a daughter with mediocre abilities. He maintained that as a father he inherently knew more about Akira than they did. Something was holding her back. He told the other mages to be patient. Patience was something he had plenty of. Something about her eyes was disturbing. Something told him Akira had another gift. To his consternation she had not mastered her levitation potential and been able to float in the air as she had done in a fevered unconscious state. It rankled that he had not tapped into and discovered what other gifts Akira possessed

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

T
he wolves piercing eyes were fixated on the village at the bottom of the mountain. They watched the comings and goings for several weeks, carefully hunting away from the human presence. The possessed alpha wolf looked for an opportunity to get inside the village in human form. The wolves were careful, sinister, and cautious. For they did not want to be hunted themselves. They had failed to ascend the mountain. The deep snow and avalanches made it impossible. Finally, an opportunity to enter the village presented itself. The alpha wolf and his underlings found and took down a lone traveler making his way toward the village. The alpha wolf drove the other wolves away. The alpha wolf howled as its body was stretched into the form of the mage possessing him. The howl carried for miles and the men and beats who heard it felt fear.