AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Up kujaa! The drums beat to wake the laggards. This means the Sab?r Hawk cadets rise as one for the first drill session of the day.’
Killen tried to peer beyond the gloom of the tented dormitory’s open flap and groaned. ‘Drills? But it’s our day off?
‘Fokk days off. You train when the commanders say you need to.’
‘What time is it?’
‘Long after the first cock crow and time for you to rise.’
‘But I’ve not slept. Sand flies kept me up all night.’
‘Dust midges, eh, chief?’ Kaxim mocked, his eyes falling to the empty bottle beside Killen’s bed.
‘Took a rest down at the edge of the plain. Must have fallen into the dunes. I crave more kip,’ Killen groused.
‘Nada. Sleep is the cousin of death, and you’re about to learn how to stay alive today. Get up now before I drag you out of the tent myself!!’
Apologies for the harsh rhetoric, Kaxim said into Killen’s mind. But I have to keep up the ruse that you’re a country bumpkin from a small kíjí.
Fokk you.
Kaxim grinned as he strolled away.
As Killen knifed up and tagged his boots, he chomped down hard on a wedge of klaw. His jaw moved with vigour as he sought a quick hit of the stimulant it always delivered.
Kaxim swept away, shouting at more prone forms curled up in the narrow beds, and more drill sergeants advanced across the enormous tented hall.
Moments later, Killen found himself outside in the crisp cold of the wee morning.
He stumbled behind other cadets while they powered through a brutal circuit for the next three hours, led by Kione, Kaxim and their fellow Sab?r Hawk trainers.
They started with numerous laps around the camp, followed by fast-paced jogs up and down the steep valley slopes and a series of excruciating muscle-building repetitions.
More of what Killen and his companion novices had endured these past weeks.
Their ears were subjected to loud teasing and ribald mockery from the camp’s kínduna generals, who stood nearby covered in thick feather cloaks.
Their breath formed misty clouds in front of their faces, giving them a ghoulish appearance in the gloomy first light.
As his body woke, Killen began to buzz, especially when the entire squad took to the air in a series of wind drills, which were his favourite.
He unfurled his vast rachís and found a gust, swooping in swift, agile flight with astonishing manoeuvrability.
Throughout his young adulthood, he’d mastered incredible aerial momentum on Devansi.
Even now, as a full-fledged warrior, he loved the thrill of high speed, and he pushed his skills, taking powerful, shallow beats interspersed with glides on the level sail, his aerofoils in a narrow V, pressing forward.
It didn’t take much urging for him to race his fellow warriors, and he was soon outstripping them in the air.
Later, muscles aching, skin torn and rubbed raw and famished after a night of excessive queasiness, he grinned to himself.
He’d survived another brutal experience, which was fokkin’ ecstatic.
Along with the other recruits, he lined up at camp’s mess kajan for a hearty meat and lentil stew, served with large chunks of bread and tankards of light beer.
A group of lancers who resembled the fierce giantess spear warriors guarding the commander’s tents doled out the meal.
At one point, Kaxim strode to the first table and leapt onto it, addressing the cadets. ‘Eat fast, hawks and eagles,’ he growled. ‘The afternoon is focused on assessing your sab?r skills, so get a move on.’
