The Marksman [The Talent of Three: Book 1]

15 ••• One Week

Kayne came running toward Chip and Atheris, who were both peering over two separate letters, one from Atheris and one from Chip, that they had placed on the desk they had taken in the library.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Kayne whisper-hisses upon reaching them. "I got lost!"

"I gave you directions!" Atheris whispers back.

Kayne stops. "Yeah, well—" He pauses. "I lost them too!"

Atheris closes her eyes. "Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix... I'm calm."

"You count in French to calm down?" Kayne asks.

"Yeah, she's done that about five times since I got here," Chip says.

Kayne laughs. 

"Shhhh!" the librarian admonishes from a few bookshelves away.

Kayne shushes and Atheris taps the letters. "I'm guessing you have one, too?"

"Yep." Kayne places the third letter next to Chip's.

"Nothing's different except our names and Talent Packs," Atheris murmurs. She sighs heavily. "Crud. I was hoping for some differences between the letters... Maybe some suggestions and hints at what lies ahead."

Kayne shrugs. "We're supposed to get the Quest Introduction letters later today. Maybe tomorrow we'll have more to go off of."

"Flint said something a two nights ago...," Atheris muses. 

"Flint?" Chip asks.

"Our Marksman—our leader," Atheris supplies. 

"Gotcha."

"Anyway, I was thinking about his mini-speech. He said the bonds we develop between us are what will keep us alive. My thinking—we'll need more than an understanding of personalities. We need to learn how to work together with our thinking and our fighting. We need to train together. And while we have nothing about the Quest to go off of...why not train together?"

The two consider. 

Finally, Chip says, "I don't see why not."

"It's a good idea," Kayne agrees.

"We can teach each other different tactics," Atheris says as they gather the letters and start on the long walk to the training arena. "Come on, we're going through the tunnels."

"Tunnels, yay!" Chip says sarcastically.

"'Yay'?" Kayne echoes. "You're excited to go in the tunnels?"

"Sarcasm," Chip and Atheris say dryly in response.

"Oh."

•••

"Welcome to the training arena," Atheris says, pushing the door open to reveal a large room with two of the five walls covered in mats. A corner of the room is roped off in a sand pit and the rest is open. A rack of weapons—long- and short-range—cover the fifth and smallest wall. 

"This place is amazing." Kayne lets out a whistle.

"Highest tech available," Atheris promises. "And you haven't even seen the range."

"I wanna go see the range now," Kayne says immediately.

Atheris laughs. "You can wait—arena first, range second." She steps inside. The arena is deserted except for six other people, meaning two other teams. Redding is one, Suta in the other. Atheris nods to both before turning back to her companions. "So? Fighting skills?"