The Silent War

Chapter Eight

'Hit it! Push further, run harder, whatever it takes to feel that surge!' Thane's voice growled through the air as I sat and watched eight members of the Serenis community try their hand at Navitus. Thane had been asked to provide training in the art of deadly combat on the proviso that they were not to practice on anything other than boulders and trees.

Nine thick tree trunks had been placed in a row, standing proud and tall in front of the frustrated eight who consisted of Ben, Jay-Ry, Imogene, Mick, Belinda and two supers I had not yet been introduced to, but had seen a few times around the grounds.

Josh took his place next to me, providing commentary and giggling at the show being put on before us in the middle of the field. I had been given the all clear to finally get up off the cold steel table to come out and sit in the warm sun, but I had to keep walking to a minimum for at least another day. Overnight my back had pretty much healed; however, Rochelle was conscious of deep tissue healing which would take another 12 hours at least. It's funny how quickly we heal, though the herbs provided by Tobias, along with a foul-tasting concoction he forced me to drink made it a lot faster.

I sat there with my sunglasses on watching as Thane moved between the supers, showing them how to move in defensive poses as well as block a Navitus attack with what would be rival power provided by themselves. Josh leaned down and picked up a bottle of cold water from a tub filled with ice and handed it to me.

'Here, make sure you keep your fluids up. You and I will be out there in a few days.'

I took the water, pressing it against my collarbones to try and cool myself down. One side effect of being a super is that when you are trying to heal, your energy goes into overdrive trying to assist the wounds making it feel like a thousand degrees.

Josh laughed. 'Man Eve's you are sweating up a storm!'

I scrunched my face up as I grimaced at the thought. I hated sweating and had never thought it a very lady-like trait. 'I don't know if I'll be out there anytime soon Josh, it looks as though Thane is having enough trouble getting them to do anything. They could be out there for days at this rate.'

Josh and I had been sitting on the outskirts of the field for nearly three hours; however, the supers had been training for much longer than that. Teaching someone how to force energy to push items was no easy feat, and I didn't know who I felt sorrier for, the eight sweating, swearing supers or poor Thane who was trying his best to explain the theory behind it.

Josh leaned forward and studied the group before sitting back against the deck chair and closing his eyes. 'My money's on Genie getting the first hit on the tree trunk. She uses energy like a bandit and can do all sorts of cool things with it already.'

I remembered back to that day in my car when I heard the voice blow through the air vents, her voice to be exact and wondered if that was what Josh was referring to. Most supers could push doors closed, and Rochelle was certainly skilled, especially when it came to stealing peoples voices from them, something else I thought back to as I sat back and thought about my theories on who would be the first to knock the tree over.

'I don't know Josh, Ry seems to be getting closer to it, he pushed a fair amount of dirt over before, I thought he nearly had it.'

Josh yawned. 'Yeah, I guess. I am surprised he and Jay haven't joined forces yet to try and tackle it together. What do you think Phoebes?'

I turned my head to see Phoebe standing behind Josh's chair. I got the feeling she had been building up the courage to come over for a while as she stood fiddling with her hands, blushing bright red when Josh acknowledged her.

She walked over and sat on the ground in between Josh and I, carefully pulling her white sundress out of the small mound of dirt that had been pushed onto the grass. I looked over at Josh, his eyes still closed.