Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (8 page)

“What’s your name?” she asked, turning to
face him.

“I’m Baltor,” he replied just before he took
another swallow of water. He grabbed a banana, and as he turned
toward her, he began to peel it open. He observed that despite her
dirty face and snarled hair, she appeared to be cute, for a little
girl, that is.

Just before he took a bite of the banana, he
asked, “You?”

“My name’s Vakshia.” Right away, she asked
with curiosity, “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t really know to be honest with you.
Months, I suppose,” he said just before he began to chuckle. A
couple of seconds later, he stopped laughing and asked, “You just
got here today, right?”

“Yeah,” Vakshia replied. “Is this place
tough?”

He laughed for like six whole seconds. After
taking another bite of his banana, he muttered, “That’s an
understatement.”

“Really?” she asked with a nervous tension to
her voice.

He swallowed his banana first before he
answered. “Yes, it is—I can’t lie to you. But you seem like a
pretty tough girl, Vakshia!”

There was still tension in her voice as she
sighed, “I don’t know. The things that my drill instructor is
telling me to do are impossible. He never seems to be happy even
though I’m trying my hardest!”

“Well, what helped me to get through all of
this were the encouraging words from a friend of mine. Now how did
she put it?”

Baltor paused to recall—he first scrunched
his eyes nearly shut, and when the recollection came a few moments
later, he opened his eyes while reciting, “‘As for you not doing so
well—nobody does well in the beginning. Remember this…soon enough,
any and all challenges will eventually be overcome. And also
remember this…success is a road that you must pave.’”

She silently pondered the words. The boy
wolfed down the final bite of his banana.

Finally, she said, “I will have—”

From the first obstacle course, Jeramone
interrupted their conservation, screaming, “Vakshia, to me!”

Baltor watched as she ran over.

Most unexpectedly, Humonus had somehow gotten
behind his student, just before whispering in his left ear,
“Baltor.”

Startled and frightened, the boy jumped
nearly a foot into the air. With his heart still racing, he turned
around while holding a hand over his heart, and asked, “Yes,
sir?”

Speaking at a normal tone, the drill
instructor briefed, “For the rest of the day, I shall let you
practice today’s lessons on your own. Practice as long as you want,
but remember this…the more you do, the better you’ll get. Do make
sure you eat dinner and get some sleep too.”

The boy snapped, “Yes, sir!”

“Dismissed.”

Once the drill instructor had departed the
area via one of the unlit tunnels, the student decided to practice
his rolls. Despite the pounding that he added to his already sore
muscles, he did continue to practice for nearly an hour or so—until
an interesting idea sprang to mind.

He thought aloud, “Maybe I could just
integrate the training and combine it all with the obstacle
courses?”

The boy jogged over to the first obstacle
course, noting that Vakshia was standing next to the knotted rope
and listening to her instructor screaming reprimands, insults and
curses. Upon drawing closer, he observed that tears had been
steadily pouring down from her eyes!

In between one of her drill instructor’s
yells, Baltor asked, “Sir—do you mind if I jump in and use this
obstacle course?”

Jeramone glanced over and muttered, “I don’t
care. Say, why don’t you do just that and show this freaking
weakling how it’s done?”

Baltor leapt onto the rope, and only about
fifty seconds later, he had already climbed his way to the top and
back down. Without looking back, he booked for the next obstacle,
while overhearing her instructor yell, “You see? It is possible!
Now you do it just like that! Get the hell up there!”

Long after the rest of the students had
departed, Baltor continued his hardcore training.

When literal exhaustion was just about to
take the boy over, he decided to call it a night, and so he headed
for the bunkhouse. Upon entering, he observed that Vakshia and all
the other students were zonked out. After eating dinner, he went to
bed himself.

The following morning, Humonus woke his
student just like the day before—without yelling. While the boy ate
a quick breakfast, he observed and noted that he was the only
student in the bunkhouse this morning and figured that everyone
must already be training.

As the two silently made their way to the
training area, the student wondered if he had now acquired his
teacher’s respect.

Upon reaching the weapons rack, Humonus
began, “Today, we shall review yesterday’s lessons and see how far,
or how little, you’ve progressed. Assume the stance.”

The boy instantly did.

The drill instructor, however, noticed some
imperfections, for he kicked his student’s rear foot lightly until
it was right and then he stated, “I said ninety degrees. Now roll
forward.”

Baltor leapt forward, extended his hands,
tucked his body in, did the roll, and was back up on his feet.

Humonus yelled, “I said, ninety degrees!”

The boy looked down at his feet, and as he
saw that they weren’t so, he shifted his feet until it was.

“Roll left,” the drill instructor next
ordered without emotion. Baltor made his roll, but his feet must
not have been right—Humonus ran up and screamed at the top of his
lungs, “Ninety degrees! How many times must I tell you this?”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m really sore,” the
student explained in truth. “My body’s not working like it
should.”

The drill instructor balefully shook his
head, sucked in a deep breath, and then relaxed.

“Fine then,” he ordered, “sit down on the
ground.”

The boy sat.

“Extend your legs straight out, stretch your
arms out, and without bending your knees, reach for your toes with
your hands,” the drill instructor ordered.

Baltor found that his flexibility wasn’t that
good, and that he couldn’t reach his toes without bending his
knees.

Humonus sighed in frustration, before he
replied, “Well, then. I see we’ve found another weak
spot—flexibility. From now on, we will begin to work on that area
through stretching exercises before you begin your morning training
sessions with me. For now, follow me.”

“Yes, sir,” Baltor said as he painfully stood
up, and followed.

The drill instructor led the way as they
entered one of the unlit tunnels on the right side of the cavern.
Not only was this twisty tunnel one that the student had never
entered before, eleven more dark and unique tunnels did they pass,
along with six deadly pitfalls. The longest tunnel was maybe a
half-mile, while the shortest was forty feet. In the tenth tunnel,
they both had to crawl on their bellies to squeeze through.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity to
Baltor, sunlight streamed down from what appeared to be a sewage
grill in the middle of this particular tunnel. There was a
twenty-foot ladder leaning against the wall, right under the grill
itself.

The drill instructor climbed up the ladder,
opened the grill, looked around quickly, and after a gesture with
his hand to follow, he disappeared.

The boy followed. Upon reaching the top of
the ladder, he discovered that his eyes weren’t used to the sun
whatsoever. He narrowed his eyes until they were tiny slits. Barely
was he was able to make out that he was in someone’s backyard, as
there was a blurry mansion that was far too shiny for him to focus
on. Looking the other way, there was a mostly red, yet blurry
garden.

“Well, come on and be quick about it,”
Humonus ordered.

The boy climbed his way out before the drill
instructor shut the grill.

“Follow me,” Humonus said—he led his student
to a nondescript fountain and ordered, “Hop in and wash yourself
down real quick, yet real thoroughly from head to toe. No dirt or
mud on you.”

By the time Baltor had finished washing his
body down, a full minute later, he found that his eyes had gotten
semi-used to the sunlight—only five seconds later, the drill
instructor ordered, “Follow me.”

“Yes sir.”

He next led his student down to a large,
round and cemented stone underground pool, whose waters were both
bubbling and steaming even in the hot air. “Take off your clothes
first, other than your underwear, and then sit down in the
pool.”

After the boy had taken off all but his
underwear, he slowly stepped his first foot into the pool,
immediately becoming very surprised by the intense heat of the
boiling water. Upon sitting down in the neck deep waters, slowly
but surely, he found his very tense muscles begin to relax and his
eyes wanting to close.

In fact, nearly ten seconds later, Baltor
realized that the pool felt incredibly wonderful! After opening his
eyes, he looked over and surprisingly saw that Humonus was already
sitting next to him in the spa—his boots, socks, pants and shirt
were neatly folded on the ground behind him.

“Sir, how is it that the water is so
hot?”

“
Ahhhhh
.... They call it a spa,”
Humonus answered. “An underground furnace heats it. As for the
bubbles, they come from compressed and heated air that continuously
circulates through tubes into the bottom of the pool. I only
discovered this place last week but have been here four times so
far.
Wonderful!
”

As the boy’s eyes had readjusted to the
sunlight, he spent this time taking “a good look” around. They were
in the middle of a beautiful rose garden, concealed from the
outside world by a fifty-foot tall cemented wall that surrounded
the entire perimeter. Including the three-story mansion that looked
just like a greenhouse, except for the fact that all of these
window panels were darkly tinted, reflecting back dozens of
brilliant, bronze suns!

By the time he had completed his look around,
he felt so completely relaxed that he actually began to find
himself getting a bit sleepy. After a short yawn, he asked, “Where
are we, sir?”

After glancing around to ensure that the
coast was still clear, Humonus answered, “Let’s just say that we’re
someplace we shouldn’t be. If the owner and his large entourage of
guards should happen to come back home and discover us here,
they’ll probably kill us!”

Looking and sounding confused, Baltor asked,
“Why did you take the risk?”

“I see some serious potential in you, Baltor.
You have raw talent that most thieves never acquire. It has only
taken you months what others have taken years. I considered the
risk well worth it.”

“Thank you, sir!”

“Don’t get used to this nice treatment,” the
drill instructor countered neutrally. “You have much more to
learn—I have much more to teach. Let’s go.”

He got out of the pool and began dressing, to
which his student followed suit.

Once dressed, Baltor felt incredibly
refreshed and great—by the time they had made it back to the
training area an hour later, he felt more than ready to take on
anything that his drill instructor had to teach.

Not surprising, Humonus was back to his old
self as he began, “I shall now teach you those ten stretching
exercises I was talking about earlier. Of course, I want you to
perform them alongside me. Later down the road I’ll teach you
advanced stretching exercises that’ll really help you in your
fighting skills.”

The student replied, “Yes, sir!”

One after the other, the drill instructor
began to teach and demonstrate the ten exercises.

The student, once he figured out how to do
the exercises, performed them. Only twice was correction
needed.

Fifteen minutes later, once everything was
thoroughly stretched, the drill instructor made his student
repeatedly demonstrate his somersaulting abilities for the next
several hours until lunchtime. For the most part, he performed them
perfectly.

Only seconds after Baltor had begun to eat
lunch, Humonus said, “I’m releasing you for the day. See you
tomorrow morning.”

“Yes sir.”

Humonus exited the area, via one of the dark
tunnels.

Once Baltor had finished eating, he spent the
entire afternoon and well into the night training hardcore on his
own, though the last of the students and drill instructors had
departed the training grounds two hours earlier.

After eating dinner in the training
area—three loaves of bread, two oranges and some water—he headed
back to the bunkhouse, noting that all of the students were already
sleeping.

Right away, he hopped into bed, sleeping like
never before—blissfully away!

Upon awakening early the next morning, he
discovered that the other students were
still
sleeping—he
simultaneously discovered that he was feeling in
tip-top
shape
.

He got up and silently ate his breakfast in
the bunkhouse, only then deciding to meet his drill instructor at
their training area. Not a student had woken up by the time he had
left the bunkhouse.

Upon arrival at the training area, five
minutes later, still another idea sprang into Baltor’s mind, and so
he began his stretching exercises all on his own, so that by the
time his drill instructor did arrive, they could immediately begin
to train.

About twenty minutes later, only seconds
before Humonus was about to enter the tunnel that led to the
bunkhouse, he heard his student ask from their training area,
“Sir?”

Looking over and seeing Baltor rising to his
feet, the drill instructor’s mouth dropped open a bit in
astonishment, though that look lasted for only a single moment in
time.

“Are you ready to perform your stretching
exercises, Baltor?”