Rebirth - Chapter Three
While Sanna's ultimate fate is debated, she finds herself pitted against her rival in a deadly training exercise...
The head of the Sanders Colony Church, Brann Köler, sat quietly on his throne in his private consultation chamber. Disciple Morinn and Senior Disciple Ruben sat in two of the chairs in the circle of eight.
“This girl...” Köler murmured. “You are certain about her?”
“I am.” Ruben remained still, glancing at Morinn as she shifted, and cleared her throat.
“The initial testing is not promising.”
“The initial testing concerns studied knowledge that she has not been exposed to. That is not the purpose of the care facility. Raw aptitude ... we will see, but I am confident she will excel.”
Köler looked to Morinn, who shifted again. “Senior Disciple Ruben may be proven right ... and the girl is certainly suggestible. She was easily led to the prayer chamber, as the others were. That suggestibility will certainly assist in purging her of sin, and her ascension to Disciple, but beyond that, I fail to see what he sees.”
“Once we got into the prayer chamber, she realised the danger, even after consuming some of the drugged apple. She had no reason to suspect us with the information she had. yet she did. Other sacrifices have eaten the entire apple without question. The Lord intervened, spoke to her, and gave her a warning. The Lord also gave her the strength to resist in a manner to communicate holy will to me.”
“It is written that the Lord speaks in such ways,” Köler murmured.
Ruben sat back. “Morinn speaks truly. The girl is suggestible, and will respond well to the teachings.”
“She is also violent,” Morinn murmured.
“Yes, she is. That violence can be directed, however.”
Köler held his hands together and stroked his index finger with his thumb, as if he were trying to comfort himself. “A soldier?”
“Certainly, but I have a feeling she will be more even than that.”
Morinn leaned forwards, her face twisting in incredulity. “You aren’t suggesting that she could be a Saint!”
“We will see if she has the aptitude, but it is not for us to say.”
Köler leaned back. “The crusader fleet are on assignment. When they return ... the girl will be judged.”
***
Sanna jumped from platform to platform, rising ever higher.
Her legs were beginning to burn. Even with the techniques she had learned, swinging herself up with her momentum, and landing softly on the ones below, her body could only take so much. But she had to move fast, as fast as she could.
She couldn’t let Rohna win. A year older than Sanna at thirteen, the snooty bitch wore her age like a military rank. She had relentlessly mocked Sanna for her low comprehension scores, her low mathematic skills, her difficulties in every academic subject the Church’s tutors had tried to teach her.
Annoyingly, Rohna was very good at the physical training too. The blonde was two platforms ahead of her. From the corner of her eye, Sanna watched her sail through the air and lever herself up onto the flat, circular level. Rohna jumped to her feet, already eyeing the next one and judging her timing and strength for the next jump.
Sanna’s jaw set. She sprang onto a platform rising beside her, requiring little more than a hop, and bent her knees. Rohna got closer and closer.
Sanna saw her glance down and furrow her brow. When Sanna rose to within reach of the platform Rohna was on, Rohna jumped to one parallel to them. Sanna dodged the right foot sharply aimed at her head.
She was so shocked by the attempt that she almost didn’t notice when her rising platform suddenly stopped and began to lower. Sanna leaped up as quickly as she could. She caught the edge of the floating oval, and groaned as her weight strained her from fingertip to shoulder, then shot down her back.
As she had been taught, she focused herself and pulled herself upwards enough to grab the edge with both hands. Then she engaged her stomach muscles and rose enough to wrap a leg around it, and rolled onto her back.
Rohna was now three levels higher.
Sanna growled through her teeth and jumped up. With two more leaps, she closed the gap to two levels. By the time Rohna reached the ropes that led to their goal, the platform at the very top of the training hall, Sanna was right at her heels.
The older girl was tiring. That burst of speed that had given her such a commanding lead over the rest of the trainees was taking its toll, and Sanna could hear the heavy breathing from above her as she took hold of the rope next to Rohna’s.
Beads of Rohna’s sweat dripped down on Sanna as she scaled the rope, hand over hand. The older girl may have been faster, but Sanna was fitter. Had Rohna ever had to fight four other children at the same time? Sanna doubted it. Had she fled from matrons who had caught her out of bed? Clearly not. Sanna was right behind her now, and Rohna knew it.
Rohna paused and jabbed down and across with her foot, trying to catch Sanna in the face. Sanna kept a tight hold on the rope and hunched away. The heel struck her shoulder, but her grip stayed firm.
Rohna climbed a little higher before she glanced down, checking her work. Seeing Sanna still right behind her, she hissed and and raised her foot higher. She thrust her leg down, and Sanna batted it away with her left arm.
Rohna let out a cry as her clammy hands slipped on the rope, and she abandoned the next attempt to kick Sanna off. She held on tightly and screwed her eyes shut as Sanna sailed past, powering upwards.
Sanna grinned. The end was in sight. She could see Senior Disciple Ruben at the finish, watching the trainees below.
Before she could revel in her triumph, a hand snaked around her ankle.
Sanna felt Rohna pulling, trying to get her off the rope, trying to throw her down. Sanna didn’t look down. She had been trained not to look down. Besides, she didn’t need to. She knew exactly where her rival was.
Sanna whipped her leg from the older girl’s sweaty grip, and as the rope swung back, she snapped a kick into Rohna’s head. She heard the grunt from behind her as she flew up the rope. Her shoulders began to burn, but she quickly reached the top.
Senior Disciple Ruben extended a hand to her as she panted on her knees at the stop. She looked up at him and smiled in triumph.
“Get up, Sanna.”
She steadied her breathing and grasped his hand. The Senior Disciple’s voice was so neutral in tone it made her nervous. “Did I do well?”
“You’re the first to the top.”
Sanna stood up. Now that the adrenaline was settling in her body, her legs were starting to shudder and ache. Ruben supported her, and planted a hand in the small of her back. Gently, he turned her around.
“Look down.”
Sanna frowned. She wasn’t supposed to look down ... but she was at the top now. It was probably fine.
They were so high up, Sanna almost couldn’t believe it. The training hall was three hundred feet tall, and looking down rather than up truly put that into perspective. She felt a little stab of nausea, and swallowed it quickly.
When she peered over the lip of the platform, she expected to see the other trainee girls climbing and jumping between the floating levels, or scaling the ropes. Instead, all of them were still, and peering down at the floor. Sanna glanced at the ropes. Rohna should have been close to the top by now.
Down on the floor, three hundred feet below, a tiny crumpled figure lay in a blossoming pool of red.
“You know who that is, Sanna.”
She did. “Who is it?”
“Your kick to Rohna’s head was enough to stun her, to the extent that she didn’t even scream on the way down.” Senior Disciple Ruben’s voice remained entirely level. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
She probably should have kicked me harder.
“She tried to do that to me.”
Sanna looked up at Ruben who nodded. “She did. She failed. She died because of her failure. That is a lesson for you, Sanna.”
She stared up at him. “You’re not angry?”
“No. When someone who deserves to die dies, it is not a sad thing. Someone so stupid, so arrogant, would be no asset to the church.” Ruben fixed her with a glare. “If you must kill, you had better not hesitate, and you had better not be sloppy.”
Sanna blinked. “You want me to kill people?”
“If you have to.”
His gaze never wavered. His voice stayed exactly as level as it had been when she reached the end of the training course.
Sanna looked back down at Rohna’s bloody body. She didn’t feel sad. She didn’t feel happy about it either.
She felt nothing at all.