Sands of Sorrow Read Online Free PDF Page B

we get on our way?”
    He grinned and waved at her to enter the transport.
    After a few minutes, they were on their way, and Salika knotted her hands in her lap. For better or worse, she was going to see what she could actually do.
     

Chapter Six
     
     
    She followed his directions, worked up a charge and let the ball of energy streak across the ground. Melted stone followed as the jagged energy bounced and travelled for two hundred feet.
    “Now, call it back.” Imron watched from next to her. It was a very brave position for him to be in.
    “What?”
    “You heard me, call it back. It is your energy, made from your body. Call it back.”
    Salika looked at the bright ball and wished she had made it smaller. She pulled on the power, and it came barrelling back to her. She hunkered forward like she had seen children do as she grew up. When the ball hit her hands, she rocked back and held the sparking and churning ball of power.
    “Got it.”
    Imron watched her and he nodded. “Well done. Now, either you can dissipate it or you can send it up or down. Take your pick.”
    After six hours of work, she was simply ready to end the exercise.
    She grabbed a thread of power and sent it skyward into a bright-blue expanse. The ball in her hands unravelled rapidly as the crackling power surged upward.
    “Interesting choice.”
    Salika sighed and flexed her hands. The power climbed up, hit the cloud layer and dissipated into a light ballet that burned itself into her memory.
    “Well, for a first day, I would have to declare this exceptionally successful.”
    She looked at her instructor and smiled slightly. “Well, you are better at this than at combat.”
    He snorted. “Get in the transport.”
    She walked across the rocky foothill and toward the vehicle. Imron bounded past her and ran up the path ahead of her. She was too tired to race him.
    The vehicle was primed the moment she arrived, and as she pulled the door closed and settled under the covered canopy, a thunderclap rang through the air.
    “I didn’t see a storm coming.”
    “Your energy sparked it. A little bit of heat and energy added to the cloud layer and you have a storm.”
    His sprint to the vehicle now had another meaning as water lashed at the windscreen and they took off.
    “You may have to have a chat with the Avatar. Zenina-Balen tries very hard to keep the world under control, and this will cause an imbalance.”
    “Oh.” She scowled, and the world started to spin a little.
    “Are you all right?”
    “I am just a little dizzy. That was a lot of power to put out.” She sat back as he flew them through the storm toward the Citadel.
    He kept glancing at her as she slumped back in the chair.
    The medical team that met them at the landing site told her what she needed to know. She was about as weak as she thought.
    Imron helped her out of the vehicle and assisted her onto the gurney that floated into the building and the medical centre.
    “You are monitored?” Imron was keeping pace with her.
    “Yes. They haven’t seen one of my kind out and around before, certainly not a talent. They are learning about me.”
    “Good to know. At least you can’t get lost on Balen.”
    She smiled and tensed as they lifted her from the gurney to the full-body scanner. The scanner moved over her. Her body tingled with a craving, and she reached out to grab the band of equipment lighting up her body.
    The machine squeaked in shock, and the lights went dark.
    Imron chuckled. “I think we found the problem.”
    Salika scooted out from under the dead machine. She felt much better.
    Trel stared at her. “You ate the power.”
    Imron held out his hand to her and helped her off the table. “She did. She isn’t a generator. She is a capacitor. She holds the power until she needs it.”
    Trel looked at the information that had been sent from the scanner to her data pad. “You were running at a negative charge. How do you feel now?”
    Salika flexed her hands. “Better.