The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Six: Alia

A little before midnight, I tappedAlec’s shoulder to wake him up. He bolted awake, but didn’t say anything.

“It’s your watch,” I whispered,fully aware that Megan and Sabin were asleep close by and not wanting to wakethem up.

Alec nodded slowly. I could tell hewasn’t quite awake yet.

“Here,” I said, handing him my watercanteen. “You need help waking up.”

“Just give me a couple of seconds,”he muttered, taking the canteen. “I haven’t had to sleep on the ground likethis in a couple of years. It takes some adjusting.”

“Did you sleep on the ground often?”I asked, confused by what he was saying.

“Yeah, kinda. As part of myearth-elementest training, I stayed outside a lot. And sometimes, while I wastraveling, I couldn’t always replace a place to stay inside.”

“Oh,” I said. I didn’t really knowhow to react to this. Alec had told me a lot about his life in Einoth lastnight at Zig’s, but it hadn’t been about stuff like this. Mostly, he’d told meabout all the cool places he’d visited in his travels and how he really didn’tget along with Dad’s family.

Alec chuckled softly. “It’s okay,sis. You don’t need to feel sorry for me. Not all of us are privileged enoughto grow up with beach front property.”

I punched him in the shoulder. “Shutup,” I muttered.

He took a sip from the canteen.

“Mm, not going to happen. But youshould go get some sleep. We had a long day today, and tomorrow probably won’tbe any better.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” I said.“That’s the most riding I’ve ever done in one day. I honestly don’t think myass can take much more of that.”

Even though it was dark, I could seeAlec smirk.

“Yeah, same here. But seriously, getsome sleep. I’ve got the watch.”

I muttered some sort of agreementand settled down into my place around the dead campfire. I closed my eyes,thinking through everything that had happened in the past couple of days beforeI finally felt myself fall into the clutches of sleep.

I honestly couldn’t have been asleepmore than a couple of minutes before I woke up to every single one of my sensesscreaming about an unseen danger. I bolted to a sitting position, catching theattention and a strange look from Alec, who was still on watch duty.

He looked like he was about to saysomething, but I held up my hand to keep him quiet. Then I did something alittle odd. I closed my eyes and reached out with my telekinesis, sensing theworld around me and trying to figure out what the threat was. My other senseswere still going crazy, and I knew that something was definitely not okay.

Sensing things with my telekinesiswas a trick I’d learned at Edil, but truth be told it was just one of the manythings I’d developed from mimicking the water and air elementests in Valta. I likedto call this ability telekisenses (clever, right?). I’d gotten the idea behindit from the air elementest ability to sense densities in the air or placeswhere solid things blocked the airflow. I figured that if they could do that,then surely I could use my telekinesis to sense my surroundings. Telekinesisafter all (or at least the way I used it) was about extending yourself out intothe air or space and understanding the space and lack of space in yourenvironment and… actually never mind. That’s too complicated to try andexplain.

The point is, I can sense what’saround me up to a certain distance (I hadn’t yet figured out my limit). Rightnow I was trying to sense whatever or whoever was lurking in the woods.

Despite the fact I knew Alec wasgiving me a weird look, I extended my right hand outward. I didn’t need to usemy hand with my telekinesis since it's an entirely mental power, but I’dlearned that extending the power through my hand gave me better control of whatI was doing. It was the same for my telekisenses. I didn’t have to use my hand,but I could use it to better feel out my surroundings.

“Alia?” Alec asked timidly.

“Shh!” I hissed. “There’s someone inthe woods. And I doubt they’re very friendly.”

“What?” Alia asked, soundingalarmed. “Should I wake the others?”

“Don’t bother,” I said. “I want toreplace out who this person is myself.”

I opened my eyes and jumped to myfeet.

“Alia, are you insane?!” Alec asked.

“Probably, but that’s an argumentfor another day,” I said. I glanced in the direction I could sense the personin. “Question is, oh beautiful brother of mine, are you coming with me?”

“Geez Als,” I could feel him rollhis eyes at me, “you don’t really give me much of a choice. Someone has to keepyour idiot butt from getting killed. But I really think we should wake up Sabinand Megan.”

“I am not bringing along those twokilljoys to help deal with something we can easily handle ourselves. Besides,just one of us alone is more powerful than the two of them combined. They wouldjust get in the way.”

Alec gave resigned sigh.

“Even so,” he said. “I don’t reallywant to see their reaction if they wake up and replace us gone.”

I lifted my hands, giving up onpersuading him to follow along with me.

“Whatever Alec,” I said. “You sithere and babysit the sleeping killjoys, while I go replace something to beat up.”

I started walking in the directionof the woods, only to have Alec reach up and grab my arm.

“Alia, please,” he said.

“Alec, I’m done discussing this withyou,” I said, pulling my arm away. “I’m going. You can come along if you want,but you aren’t convincing me to stay here.”

Alec frowned, staring at the placewhere the fire had been. Then, with another sigh, he stood up.

“Just to keep you from gettingyourself in trouble,” he said.

I grinned at him, then led the wayinto the woods.

As we walked through the woods, bothof us kept our senses on high alert. I used my telekisenses as best as I could,but I hadn’t yet master the ability of multitasking while using it, so I wasn’trelying on that as much as my usual senses.

I wondered if Alec was using the airelementest version of my telekisenses. I thought back to how I’d come up withthe idea for telekisenses from watching the air elementests back in Valta. Thevillage I’d lived in had been comprised of mostly water elementests, but therewere a few air elementests there as well. Actually, my cousin Waren airelementest. It was from watching them I’d come up with the idea for my owntelekisenses.

I was so absorbed in my thoughtsthat for a moment I neglected to pay attention to what I was doing. And thatmoment turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made.

They surprised me, and that’s notsomething that is easily done. Alec and I were within a few miles of the konnacamp before I felt a surge of energy around us, one several times larger thanthe trace we’d been following. Automatically Alec and I went back-to-back, bothof us slipping into fighting stances.

“Hey,” I heard a harsh gravellyvoice bark from above, “look like it’s going to be easy hunting tonight, guys.”A tremor ran through the ground, I felt and heard thuds as several pairs offeet impacted heavily with the packed dirt of the forest floor.

“They just came right to us,” ahigher pitched, nasally voice said snidely.

We watched as four figures emergedfrom the dark woods. Three guys and one girl. Even though it was dark, Irecognized one of the guys as the runner we’d faced earlier. I glanced betweenthe other three and took in as many details as I could about them, but it wasdifficult with the lack of light.

“Hey, you’re that guy!” Alecexclaimed, pointing at one of the guys. This one, from what I could see in thedim moonlight, was muscular with dark ebony skin. “The one who knocked me outearlier.”

“Glad you figured that out,” the guysaid. He turned to the three others with him, the girl and the runner were bothslight in stance, while the other guy was tall and beefy. “Surround them,” hegrunted.

His team answered instantaneously,encircling my brother and I on all sides. But just as they moved into position,so did we.

Alec and I moved in a slow rotation,keeping the four attackers in our vision, completely in sync with each other’smovement. I thought back to the academy, back to a lesson I’d received inpartner combat training. The trainer had told us about a level of fighting thatsurpassed what could be learned; of something that was a type of taboo in theworld of fighting, yet was something that happened on the rarest of occasions.What he spoke of was an innate connection the linked two fighters, his wordsbeing, “When they move it looks like a dance, like a secret language that onlythe two of them know.” I rolled my eyes at the thought that anything as poeticand graceful could ever be applied to my dopey brother and my klutzy self, yetat the same time, there was a little thought in the back of my mind, that maybethat might just be what Alec and I were doing right now. Despite never havingbeen in a combat situation with Alec, I just knew. I knew his patterns, the wayhe was moving and breathing, the weight he had resting on the balls of hisfeet, the tenseness of his muscles. Everything. It was surreal, and I wonderedif he could feel it too.

I shook my head, clearing out thethoughts and gearing up for what we were about to face.

“Easy hunting?” I smirked, takingstock of our opponents as I talked, trying to assess what we were up against. Icocked my head and put on a mask of innocent confusion, or at least I hoped itdid. “I don’t see any of that around here.”

A grin crept out from the corner ofmy mouth as I turned to the guy who’d attacked Alec. I tried to remember hisname. Alec had told us, but not matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recallit. “Unless you’re referring toyourself, that is.”

I could barely make out his face,but his voice betrayed the reaction that I’d hoped for.

“You have no idea who you’re dealingwith.” His voice tight and filled with anger.

“Really?” I retorted. “Because rightnow it doesn’t look like much.” My grin broadened when I heard a low gutturalgrowl escape his lips.

“She’s mine,” he ground out. Then tothe others: “You take him. Use sedation if you need to. Remember she wants themalive.”

“Well isn’t that encouraging,” Iheard Alec grumbled under his breath.

I laughed. At Alec’s whit, at thissituation, at the fact that I was internally freaking out about the phrase wants them alive, and, us sedation if you need to. What kind ofsedation? Nothing that I’d like, that’s for sure.

“This is getting old,” I sighed.“Let’s dance, pretty boy.”

And with that the fight began.

I have to admit, as much as thissituation royally sucked, there was also a part of me that loved it. Reveled init. There was nothing in this world like the feeling of coming alive during afight. The electricity running down my spine, heat rushing into my arms andfilling my fingertips as my powers woke up with my adrenaline.

My feet were light on the ground asI ran at him. My heart pounding in my ears.

I felt it before I heard it. On theedge of what I could feel with my telekisenses. It was dark, swirling, andpowerful. More powerful than anything I’d ever felt in my whole life.

With a flash the forest lit up witha harsh light. Blues and purples, a lightning flash of darkness. He had hishand outstretched, much like I held mine when using my powers. The bolt ofdarkness shot towards me like a bullet out of a gun. If it wasn’t for mytelekisenses, I would’ve died then and there. I dodged the bolt, jumping up inthe air and rolling as it passed underneath me. As soon as my feet touched downanother one came hurtling towards me. I dove and rolled behind the nearesttree. Covering my head, expecting the blast to obliterate the tree into amillion splinters. Instead I felt sick to my stomach. I gagged as I turnedaround, still crouched behind the tree, or what was left of the tree. I lookedup and down, bewildered at what I saw. The tree had not been torn to pieces asI expected it would be. Instead It was decaying, as if it had absorbed theblast and it was sucking every bit of life out of the tree. Like the tree wassick. I could feel it happening, too. It made me want to wretch and let go ofeverything I’d eaten that day. The tree, every little piece of it that I couldsense, was dying. The life being sucked out so fast that it made my head spin.

Whatthe hell is happening? I fought to control my breathing, knowing Iwould have to move soon. I can’t let himhit anyone. Get it together Alia.

I ran in a crouch, coming out frombehind the now withered tree.

“Hey!” I shouted at Mr. Tall Darkand Life-Sucking. “That’s a pretty cool trick you have there!”

The air lit up behind me, his boltsstriking mere inches behind me as I continued running, trying to circle back tothe clearing we started in.

I could feel exactly where he was,where everything was around me. So I knew when he stopped, when the energyceased to crackle, smoking at his fingertips.

I kept running, wondering at thesame time why he’d stopped. A few more bounding steps and I was back into theclearing. I could still sense him, and knew that he was standing, unmoving, inthe same position he was a few heartbeats ago. I skidded to a stop, my heelsdigging into the earth. The voice of my drill instructor range loud and clearin my ears, “Stop moving, Alia. Stop,Breathe, and Listen. In battle you don’t have time to think, so when you have achance to analyze, take it.”

So I did just that.

Inhale. I smelled the forest, blood,and sweat…all mingling together. Exhale. I strained my ears. I heard thebreathing of my opponent, fast and shallow. Harsh from chasing me. There’ssomething else too, on the edge of my senses.

Alec.

I sharpened my senses, zoomed themin. I closed my eyes and took another breath. He was still fighting. Two of hisattackers were down, and he and the last one, the girl with the nasally voice Ithink, were circling each other.

I took off in his direction. They’ll have to try harder than that if theywant to separate us. As I approached them I slowed my pace, steppedlighter, and breathed softer.

“I bet Tyrone has already finishedoff your sister,” a female voicesneered.

Tyrone? That was his name, right. Icould still sense him standing in the clearing where I’d left him.

Whichwas totally weird, Ithought. Why did he just stop fightinglike that?

“You don’t know anything about us,”Alec snarled. “Alia’s probably already finished him off and is on her way herenow.”

Well, he wasn’t completely wrong.

Why wasn’t she attacking him? Icould see her better now that clouds have moved and allowed the moonlight tofilter through the trees. She was a head shorter than me, two shorter thanAlec. She had auburn hair, and as she moved I saw the muscles in her legs andarms protruding, coiled in preparation to attack.

But still she talked.

“You know nothing, Parker.” She spatout our last name like it was poison. “Once we capture the two of you it’s justthe beginning.”

“The beginning of what?” Alecgrowled, his voice low.

“Like that’s any of your business!”

As she said that I saw movementbehind Alec. The other two goons he’d taken care of earlier were starting towake up.

She’sstalling, I realized.

The tall beefy one got to his feet,but Alec didn’t. Panic threatened to take control of me, but I pushed it back.I would have to time my move perfectly if it was going to work. I watchBeef-boy shake his head, then, as he raised his foot to walk towards Alec Ishoot. The ball sized rock I hurled at him hits him square in the chest, Iheard several cracks as his ribs break and he falls back on the groundunmoving.

The girl swiveled her head around, awild look in her eyes as she looks to see where the boulder came from.

Alec closed his eyes, relaxed hisshoulders. Then with a wicked grin he blasted a gust of wind that knocked herbackwards fifty feet and smacked her into a tree. He jogged over to her, thencrouches where she lay unconscious.

“Told you so.” I saw him straightenand he looked at where I was, still in the tree line.

“Hey Als, pretty good timing youhave there.” I jogged over to meet him halfway.

“I was just giving you a second tocatch your breath. Besides, I can’t let them have all the fun.” I grinned andjerked my head towards the other two unconscious attackers. “Anyway, that’senough excitement for one night. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Not so fast,” a deep voice growledbehind us. Tyrone had caught up to us.

I spun to face him, Alec doing thesame. I was tired of running, and it was time for this to end0.

Without saying a word Alec and Iwent at him, a wordless understanding of each other flowing from my body tohis.

Alec ran straight towards him, fireon his fingertips, lighting up the trees around us. Tyrone engaged, throwingblasts of his dark-energy-stuff at Alec as he ran towards him.

I used Alec’s attack to run backinto the tree line, circling behind Tyrone. As I ran I unhooked a circle ofwire from my belt, something I always carried with me. As I came up behindTyrone I threw the wire in the air, unraveling it and stretching it in front ofme. I held the wire about ten feet in front, and above me. Alec still hadTyrone engaged in combat. I burst out of the trees, not bothering to be quiet,and yelled:

“Hey Tyrone!”

He didn’t turn, but I sensed a breakin his movements. That was all Alec needed. The ground underneath Tyrone shook,then exploded upwards, shooting him straight up into the air. I thrust out myhands, the wire moving with them, as Tyrone flailed his way back to the earthmy wire shot out, wrapping first around his arms, pinning them to his sides,then wrapped down from there, seizing his entire body. Just as he was about toimpact on the forest floor I jerked my chin, catching him and holding him therewith my telekinesis. I reached out with my telekisenses, pushing my powers totheir full extent. I felt Tyrone’s body. His chest heaving, sweat pouring offhis muscular frame. I pulled the weapons off of his body, able to sense wherethey were by feeling the difference between hot skin and cold feel of metal.

Two knives, a dagger, and a cappedsyringe fell to the ground with muted thumps. I held Tyrone where he was.

“Huh, let’s see what we have here?”

I flicked my hand and the weapons onthe ground flew to stand at attention in front of me. I ran my fingers over thedagger, tested the grips on the hilts of the knives.

“This is some high class stuff youhave here, Tyrone.” I snatched the dagger and twirled it between my fingers.“Oh and look! This one has an inscription!”

The dagger was lying flat on my palmas I squinted at the inscription, trying to make out the words with themoonlight that trickled through the treetops. It was useless, I couldn’t readwhat the dagger said. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, letting the feelof the dagger, the rough edges, the cool bite of the metal, everything about itfill my mind. I felt along the tip of it and worked my way down to the base ofthe blade, where the inscription was.

There.

I felt the start of the inscription,the dip in the metal, the worn grooves and edges. It read,

UNTILTHE END.

I let the dagger drop from my hand,making it fly, end over end, till the hard point of it was a millimeter away fromTyrone’s forehead.

He didn’t flinch.

“What’s so great about this dagger?”I said, my voice mocking. “Was it a present from a special someone?” Iemphasized the last two words. “What’s with the fancy inscription?”

At this Tyrone smirked at my, a wrytwist of his lips, yet still said nothing.

“Alia, we need to go back,” Alecsaid, his voice firm. “It’s going to be light soon, and honestly I don’t reallywant to get on Megan and Sabin’s bad sides. We’re going to be in enough troublewhen they replace out we ditched out on watch duty.”

“Yeah?” I said. “And what aboutthem?” I nodded my head towards Tyrone and his unconscious friends.

“They won’t be waking up for awhile, so don’t worry about them,” Alec allowed a small smile. “And as for thisone, we’ll take him with us. I’m sure Megan would love to interrogate him aboutthat weird power he has.”

“Whatever you say, little brother.”I smirked and started towards Alec, Tyrone trailing ten feet in the air up andbehind me. We walked to the edge of the clearing, side by side. Alec turned hishead towards me and said:

“Oh and another thing I meant to--”

He cut off with a small cry of pain.He clutched his neck, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped tothe ground like a rock.

“Alec!” I screamed, dropping to myknees beside him. I grabbed at his neck, trying to see what was wrong.

“Alec, wake up!” I shook hisshoulders. A thud sounded behind me, and it registered in my panicked mind thatit was Tyrone. No time to worry about him, he was tied up. I had to figure outwhat was wrong with Alec.

A throaty chuckle sounded behind me.I whirled around.

“Didn’t they teach you anything atyour academy?” I heard a voice sneer.A girl, it was a girl’s voice. My head whipped around, but I didn’t see anyoneexcept for Tyrone lying immobile on the ground in front of me. I moved to standin front of my unconscious brother.

“Who are you?!” I shouted at thewoods. I reached out my power fanning out over the clearing. There. She was standing twenty feet awayto my right. My eyes ravaged the area, yet my eyes saw nothing to confirm theperson I felt moving and stalking towards me. She’s invisible.

I let my eyes rove in the otherdirection, my heart pounding in my ears. I couldn’t let her know that I knewwhere she was. I realized that this was probably the same invisible person thathad been with this group yesterday when we were attacked. I hadn’t sensed herthere until it was too late, but now I was positive that it was her.

“Who am I?” Her voice was sickly sweet. “Oh no one really, what matters iswho you are. You and your dear brother, that is.”

Keepher talking, make a plan.

“What do you want with my brotherand me?” I did my best to push my fear away, while still hiding the fact that Iknew where she was.

“If you think you can hurt us…” Iswallowed the bile that rose in my throat as I forced myself to sound like Iwasn’t absolutely panicking right now. Alec was unconscious, I could sense thateasily. But I couldn’t tell what had made him lose consciousness. Fortunately,hiding my fear and most other emotions was something I was good at. It wassomething I’d been doing for a long time, ever since…

Now’snot the time for reminiscing, Alia. Iscolded myself. Focus. You have to getAlec out of here.

She laughed, loud, deep, and clear.“So this is the great, Alia Parker! I honestly was expecting more.”

I closed my eyes. They were no goodagainst an invisible opponent anyways.

“You disgust me,” she spat. “However, I know more about you than youthink.”

My eyes flew open.

“Oh that’s right,” she laughed, “Iknow all about you little telekisenses.” Sarcasm dripped like honey from hertongue. “What an idiotic name.”

How the hell did she know about mytelekisenses? More importantly, what gave her the right to call the name I’d socleverly thought up for it idiotic?

“What exactly is your point?” I demanded, dropping the fearful facade, “Becausehonestly, I’m getting rather tired of standing here being lectured to.”

“I’m going to be taking you and yourbrother to our compound where you will tell us every military secret you knowand betray your leaders.” I could feel her grin.

“Over my dead body,” I snarled,tensing to attack her.

“Oh there’ll be plenty of time forthat later! Right now though, you’re going to come with me.” She said this allin such a pleasant tone, it made me want to vomit.

“Like hell I am.” I flew at her,Tyrone’s blades gripped in my hands, the dagger in my belt.

Her formed stayed motionless as shesaid, “Unless you want your brother to die within the next hour you will stopand you will come with me.”

I stopped dead in my tracks,growling, “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing that can’t be reversed,”she paused, “As long as you do exactly what I say.” The glee in her voicerepulsed me, but I snarled back,

“You’re lying.”

I looked back at Alec’s unmovingsilhouette; crumpled on the ground, doubt creeping its way into my heart.

“I assure you I am not.” She took astep forward, I didn’t move. I kept my senses locked on her, to make sure shewouldn’t surprise me, since she obviously had no desire to make herself visibleanytime soon.

She turned and started walking in acircle around me.

“What your brother is currently dyingof is a highly concentrated dose of Tyrone’s energy burning through his veinsand dissolving his very essence. Normally, one of his blasts is enough to kill an average powered person. Forsomeone like you,” she nodded her head towards Alec, “or him, it takessomething a little more strong.”

She stopped behind my rightshoulder, I could feel her breathing on my back. “We found out that his power flows in his veins.It’s extraordinary really. A power that has, in the history of Sankruus, neverbefore occurred. He’s a bit like you, actually.” She smirked. “An anomaly,rare, and powerful beyond imagining. Too bad he’s going to outlive you.” Sheshrugged her shoulders. “Oh well, these things must happen.”

She stalked back around to stand infront of me. “And you, Alia Parker, are going to come with me because it is theonly way that your precious brother is going to live.” She took a step closer,inches from my face, and breathed the words: “And we both know that you’ll do anything for you family, isn’t thatright?”

She sneered at the end, letting thewords sink into the deep recesses of my mind, knocking up against memories thati’d long since buried.

I closed my eyes as the memoriesfought against their walls, attacking me with a barrage of pain and stabbinglight.

I screwed my eyes open, forcing thememories back into submission, back where they couldn’t touch me.

“Do you swear he will live?” Myvoice was wound as tight as my body.

“Of course!” she said happily. “Whyelse do you think we’d be going through all this trouble to capture you two? We need you alive.”

She spun around and started walkingout of the clearing. She stopped halfway across when she realized that I wasn’tmoving.

“Well let’s go!” Her voice wasedging on impatient. “Do you want him to die or not?”

I blinked once, slowly. Thiscouldn’t be happening. I couldn’t go with her.

Youhave to or Alec will die.

We’d just found each other. I wasn’tgoing to let him die.

I turned on my heel and walked backto where Alec was lying. His breath was shallow, I laid my ear against hischest. His heart was beating faintly, slowly. I leaned by his ear, breathingthe words I knew he couldn’t hear,

“I’m sorry, Alec.” My voice caughtin my throat, damn emotions. There was a good reason I always hid them, becausewhen I didn’t they got in the way. I rested my head against the side of his,“But I can’t let you die here. I’m so sorry.”

With that I got on my knees,kneeling beside him. I grabbed one of his arms and pulled it over my shoulder,then the other. He was draped limply across my shoulders, arms dangling on oneside and legs off the other. It was a struggle to stand, but I didn’t care thathe outweighed me, I’d carried heavier on my back in training. Also, I couldn’tbring myself to use my powers on him, to let him trail along limply in the airbeside me like I’d been carrying Tyrone mere minutes ago. I needed to know thathe was still breathing, to be able to feel his heart beating. I was not goingto lose him. Not when he was the only family I had left.

I stood as tall as my brother’sweight allowed me and looked her dead in the eyes, not needing to see them toknow where they were.

“I’m ready. Let’s go.”