Katrina, The Beginning (19 page)

I dressed quickly, so the
girls and I could spend some time together before dinner. We
gathered around the fireplace and I listened as each told me about
her training experience.

Then it was my
turn.

“Well compared to your
afternoon, I guess mine was quite boring. I went hunting…with
Damien.”

“What? Tell us everything,”
Kate prompted.

So swearing them to
secrecy, I told them everything from the beginning.

“Wow, Kat, that tops our
training any day,” Letta gushed.

“Maybe, but it does show
exactly why you have to take your training seriously. Soon, the
five of us will be out ‘saving the world’ as Damien said, together,
right?”

“Right!” they all answered
enthusiastically.

“We’ll be ready sooner than
you think Kat. We’re working really hard, and our trainers were
happy with our progress.

“I know Thomas and Avery
couldn’t stop praising you, . . . and your training went well too,
El added mischievously.”

We all laughed.

“They are great teachers,
it’s true, but there are things we have to do on our own. After
dinner we are going to talk about your gifts. Each is unique to you
and we can develop them to be great assets in battle and life in
general. But now we need to go. Your fathers are leaving tomorrow,
so this is our last dinner together for awhile.”

“Is Damien going to be
there?” Rosa inquired, an impish grin on her face.

“I suppose so, since he is
Lord of this palace, now his father is away.”

Dinner was uneventful, with
many toasts raised to one another. Of course the girls were very
interested in Damien, and he was only too pleased to entertain
them. As we were just finishing the last course, a guard entered
the dining hall.

“A message was just been
delivered, my Lord.”

As High Regent, Father took
the message.

“What is it, Fredrik?”
Mother asked.

“Well, it seems there was
an attempted robbery on the road to the village today. Let me read
this aloud. The Lord and Lady Ravonavich wish to thank the young
lady and gentlemen who rescued our son and his escorts earlier this
very day as they returned from a diplomatic mission. We invite you
and your friends and families to join us tomorrow evening for a
dinner to be given in their honor. We hope to meet you then and
bestow our deepest gratitude in person.”

He then dropped the message
to the table.

“Well, Katrina, Damien,
would you like to explain?”

“It was really nothing,
Father; right Damien?”

“A small matter, Fredrik,
we were hunting when Katrina scented trouble and of course took off
right towards it, leaving to follow. We dispatched three bandits
and captured a fourth. The driver of the coach had been killed, but
the occupants of the coach were untouched. We had Ivan take charge
of the prisoner and escort the travelers home.”

“Is
that
all?” Father was clearly annoyed.

“Yes, Father. I just
couldn’t stand by and watch these bandits kill and rob innocent
people. I had to help them.”

Father sighed, “Of course
you had to help them Katrina, it’s just I fear you are too
impulsive.”

“I assure you sir; she was
in no danger and in fact could have handled all four herself, even
at the half speed she used.”

Father looked down at the
note and sighed again. “I see. Well, then it appears we owe these
good people a reply. Send word we would be happy to attend and
thank them for the invitation.”

“I’d like to propose one
more toast,” Rosa raised her glass. “We’re proud of both of you and
here’s to saving the world.”

We all raised our
glasses.

“To saving the world,” we
laughed.

The five of us giggled all
the way back to our rooms. Quinn was waiting at the bottom of the
stairs.

“See you upstairs,” El
joined the others they left to afford us some privacy.

“I heard you had quite the
hunting trip.”

Although my pulse jumped, I
kept my attitude casual and off handed.

“Really, it was not that
special.”

“I was a little surprised
by your choice of a hunting partner.”

“He was going; I was
going…you wouldn’t have me go alone would you? Listen, all this
concern makes me think you’re jealous,” I crooned, as I traced his
jaw with my finger. He softened then.

“Of course I’m jealous.
He’s everything I’m not - royal, wealthy, older, not to mention
he’s a vampire.”

“You’ve got something he
doesn’t have Quinn.
Me
!”

Then I kissed
him.

“I wish I didn’t have to
go, but I do. I’m on duty.”

“I have to go, too. I’ll
see you tomorrow.”

We kissed again and he
left. Of course everyone was eagerly waiting for me when I
arrived.

“Everything’s fine,” I
said, heading off their questions. “I told him he had nothing to
fear from Damien, and I meant it.”

“Whatever you say, Sis, but
if you don’t want Damien, I’d sure be interested.”

That shocked me a little. I
wasn’t sure how I felt about anyone else being paired with
Damien.

“You’ll need to concentrate
on your training first,” I responded.

“Wasn’t that startling at
dinner tonight? What were you thinking as your father read that
message?”  Letta asked.

“My heart was pounding, but
I knew we’d done the right thing. Now, enough of that subject,
let’s get to work. Get changed, so we’ll be comfortable for the
next assignment.”

Now in more comfortable
clothing, we moved the sofa, so we could sit in a circle on the
floor in front of the fire.

“Tonight our task is to try
to find out what each of your special gifts might be. Some gifts
show up early, some later. As for me, my gift is my sight, as I
call it, which became obvious when I was six. My dog was lost and I
told Father I knew he was in the woods. We found him trapped in the
mud about a mile away. When Father asked me how I had known he was
there, I told him I’d smelled him. So let’s start with you, Kate.
Do you have any idea what yours might be?”

“I might, yes. Sometimes
flashes of people or objects enter my mind. It happened when we
were coming here. I tried to picture the palace, and when I closed
my eyes I could see it for a moment. When we reached the edge of
the forest, there is was, exactly like the picture in my
mind.”

“That’s fantastic. It makes
perfect sense, when you think about it’s, like what I do; I close
my eyes and it helps me ‘see.’ We’re twins, so it must work the
same way. Father suggested we should see if we can contact each
other using only our minds, but we’ll try that when we get home.
That’s a great start; Letta, how about you?”

She responded by looking
into the fire. The fire instantly roared, doubling in size. We all
gasped in wonder. When Letta looked away, the fire reduced to its
original size. Then she looked into the fire once more, closed her
eyes, and the fire went completely out.

We all clapped and
cheered.

“Amazing, Letta. Even if
we’ll all be cold now,” I laughed.

“Don’t be silly,
Kat.”

To prove her point, she
looked over and started the fire once again.

“I just discovered I could
do this since we arrived here, and heard you talk about us each
having some kind of gift. I like my gift, though I’m not sure how
I’ll use it.”

“Are you kidding, Letta? I
can think of a hundred ways. Fire is an element, and I’ll bet if
you can control one, you can probably control all the others -
wind, water, and earth.”

“Something just occurred to
me,” I could see Rosa’s mind churning. “Remember when we discovered
our birthdays were within days of each other?” We all nodded. “It
means we were born under the same sign, Gemini. I think when we’re
together our powers are strengthened and I would bet if we were to
close our eyes and concentrate we could magnify whichever of our
gifts we’re trying to use. Do you think that could be true
Kat?”

“I think it has to be true.
Let’s try. We’ll use Letta’s gift, but how about trying a different
element.”

“Wind, how about wind?” El
offered trembling with excitement.

“Okay, wind. First, Letta,
concentrate on creating a breeze right here in this
room.”

Letta didn’t close her eyes
but just stared, concentrating with every fiber of her being. And
sure enough, we started feeling a breeze. It was cool, blowing our
hair and giving our skin goose bumps. It felt as if a spirit was
floating by us. Then Letta closed her eyes and it went
away.

“I knew it! Now let’s see
if we can enhance her gift by concentrating with her. What did you
think about, Letta?”

“Just wind, I just thought
of wind.”

She was as amazed as the
rest of us.

“Okay, all of us think of
just wind, its properties of ebb and flow, scent,
temperature.”

The breeze came up again
exactly as before, no different.

“Well, that didn’t really
work. This time everyone but Letta, close your eyes, and maybe if
we hold hands it’ll help. Let’s try again.”

We all held hands and began
to concentrate once more. I could feel the breeze come again, but
this time it wasn’t just blowing by us, it was swirling around us.
My hands were getting warm, like being close to a flame. The warmth
seemed to move up my arm, across my shoulders, down my other arm,
and continued - as if we had completed the circle of self
perpetuating power. The wind became stronger and stronger until it
started to lift us off the ground. I opened my eyes and looked up;
it was like being inside a wall of wind. We were all looking up
now; our bodies were about twelve inches off the floor.

“Let go,” I shouted over
the roar of the wind.

When we broke the circle,
we dropped back to the floor with a thud, and the wind changed back
to the same cool breeze Letta had produced before. It continued
until she closed her eyes.

We looked at each other in
complete shock.

“Did you feel the energy
flow through you?” I asked.

“It made me a little weak,”
El answered.

“Yes, but I think if we
practice, it’ll be like anything else; we’ll build up stamina and
get stronger,” Kate added.

“This is unbelievable. I
think we can all agree we couldn’t have imagined anything like this
would happen when we first sat down.”

“That’s for sure, and Rosa
and El haven’t even revealed their gifts yet,” Kate
said.

“You’re right. Rosa, you’re
next.”

“It’ll be hard to top, but
I’m really excited to show you what I can do. It seemed so silly
before but now…”

“Just show us, come on,” El
urged.

“Okay, okay.”

Rosa stood, looked around
the room, walked over to the table, and picked up an apple. She
held it in the palm of her hand and stared at it. In a few seconds
the apple lifted from her palm and slowly started to spin. As she
looked up the apple followed, and when she looked right, it went
right. We all sat watching, eyes wide, mouths open like children at
a magic show. Rosa grabbed the apple out of mid-air, smiled, and
took a bow. We applauded her.

“Wonderful, Rosa! We’re
going to do great things with your gift. El, last but not least,
what surprise do you have in store for us?”

“I don’t know if I can take
any more,” Kate shook her head and smiled. “I wonder what the
Watchers think we’re doing in here with all the noise.”

“Are you ready to impress
us, El?”

El began
quietly.

“My gift is different from
yours and I discovered it when I was young. I had a servant whom I
loved dearly. She was my best friend. One day she fell down the
stairs and hit her head. I frantically ran down to her. I
instinctively put both my hands over the jagged wound, closed my
eyes, and strongly willed her to live. That’s when I felt the
energy, much like the energy we’ve all felt tonight. She started to
moan after a minute. When I opened my eyes and lifted my
blood-covered hands, the wound was gone; not even a scar remained.
If it hadn’t been for the blood you wouldn’t have known anything
had happened. She woke up as if from a nap, and I explained she had
fallen and asked how she was feeling. She thought she was feeling
fine. I helped her up. She was still dazed when we reached my
rooms, so I washed both of us up and sent her to her quarters to
rest. The next day she didn’t remember anything about it. I’ve used
this healing gift on animals too, but all these years I’ve felt
like I should keep it to myself. Now, you all know, and I’m proud
to have shared it with you.”

“I think we all feel the
same way, don’t we girls?” I asked, looking around our small
circle, seeing the nods and smiles that signified
agreement.