Chapter 4
CHAPTER
We were evacuated from the warehouse before the next group started. Perhaps it was for the best—some of the screams still echoed in my head, as Rohan broke bones in pure frustration.
Mage-killers were molded into stone-cold fighters.
Having feelings was a weakness. Even if I had been a foot soldier together with Lionel before, this was completely different.
This was to prepare us for the things lingering outside of our borders, within which we had dwelled in safety the last couple of years.
Mages showed no mercy to those without magical abilities, and demons… they only knew of bloodlust.
I traveled together with Ashley, Nathanial and two other girls, accompanied by a soldier who showed us to our new base.
It was situated further south, closer to the wastelands, where few men lived and demons sought refuge instead.
Because of the sandstorms, people rarely ventured here; it was considered suicide, a place bad people were banished to after committing unspeakable crimes.
“Do you feel discouraged by being in a girl squad?” Ashley smiled daringly at Nathanial, who simply gave her a crooked smile.
“Don’t give him stupid ideas,” one of the other girls snapped, her braided brown hair dancing with each step she took.
“Oh, too late for that,” Nathanial smirked. “I’m all for snuggles.”
“Ugh,” she retched, glaring at him.
“You two know each other?” I asked, glancing back and forth between them.
“I’m his sister, Mey,” she answered, dryly.
“Oh,” Ashley chuckled. “You can snuggle with me instead.”
Mey fell silent, simply staring confused.
“I’m Carolyn Darleton,” the last girl muttered low, her hands fidgeting, while her grey eyes darted between us while hiding behind her dirty blonde hair.
“Nice to meet you,” I nodded, turning my gaze forward. “I’m Ethalyn.”
“We’re a unit now, then?” Mey asked, changing the subject, looking primarily at Ashley, as if she was the one with all the answers.
“You’ll be going to the Blackreach base, where you’ll receive your first mission,” the soldier in front interrupted, uninterested in introducing himself.
“Finally,” Ashley sighed, stretching her arms in the air.
We were walking by foot, through a flourishing forest. I saw no landmarks, no signs or anything—if we didn’t have the soldier guiding us, I would’ve believed us to be lost.
It bothered me that I had no idea where Lionel went. If we were heading to different bases, I had missed my chance to say goodbye…
“Were all of you soldiers… before this?” Carolyn asked, her voice still lowered, maybe she was scared to lure animals to us?
“Yes,” Ashley and I echoed.
“Nate was, not me,” Mey mumbled, almost as if she wanted us to miss it.
“They let people outside of the military take the trials too?” Ashley shot her a questioning glance, evaluating her with her sharp eyes.
“I—” Mey began before she was cut off.
“Guess so,” Nathanial filled in, his voice firm.
I gave them a quick glance. He looked like a soldier for sure, but his sister looked… hopeful, as if she wasn’t aware of the village’s struggles. Perhaps his payment as a soldier had been better than mine and was enough to cover for both of them, sheltering her from reality.
I wasn’t sure if I envied her or felt sorry for the wakeup call she would have to face soon enough.
“How about you?” Ashley shot back at Carolyn, who I had already completely forgotten about.
Her presence felt smaller than the others, the way she talked with a hushed voice, every step soundless… if it was intentional or not, she was making herself disappear easily in the crowd.
Carolyn opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by our guide who came to an abrupt stop.
“We’re here,” he confirmed, pointing up towards a tall fence made of barbed wire. “Welcome to Blackreach.”
It was in the middle of nowhere, I was unable to see how far the fence stretched to the sides, bushes and other greenery covering it in places. Large trees loomed around, opening up more at the gate.
We followed right behind him, passing guards that were stationed by the entrance. No words were exchanged—they were expecting us.
Once inside, there were over a dozen individuals around us. Some carried boxes, others looked through weapons. A bit further in was a massive area laden with small tents, probably hundreds.
We continued following the guide, we hadn’t received any other orders yet, after all.
We passed some strange looking machines, some that seemed to be made for digging, others to lift heavier equipment.
I had never seen such machines, but as a foot soldier, I had never left the villages.
My mission had mostly been to guard food and weapon storages, but on rare occasions I got to patrol the village’s borders too.
Someone pulled my arm, and my eyes darted to the side, as a group of mage-killers ran past us, weapons held tightly against their chests.
They looked blank, calm, polished… perhaps, they were in the middle of exercising?
I looked back and saw that it had been Nathanial who had snagged me out of their way.
“Thanks,” I muttered, adding a polite nod.
“Be careful where you’re going,” he smiled back as we kept going.
We curved off the main path, heading towards a larger open tent, with a table in the middle and a handful of people standing around it. They had a map placed out on top of it, small stone figures placed at various positions.
The strategists, in the middle of a briefing it seemed.
“Reporting in,” the guiding soldier raised his voice, interrupting them mid-sentence, saluting with his open hand against his temple.
Four men and a woman slowly turned their heads towards us. The man in the middle must be the one in charge?
His red eyes swept over us, unimpressed.
“Is Rohan sick or something? This is the second group he sent today,” he scoffed, earning a glare from his female comrade.
The man had light, fair skin, sharp jawline.
As he crossed his broad arms, I noticed faint, black tattoos, spreading like veins.
His eyes stopped on me, briefly, the corner of his mouth twitched mockingly, suppressing an arrogant smirk.
I knew in an instant that he’d be a pain in the ass, a good looking one, but still not worth the hassle.
“They passed, fair and square,” the guide informed him without breaking his form, he hadn’t been allowed to.
“Got a problem with it?” The woman at the table straightened herself, putting a hand on each side of her hips as she stared the man down. “We need all the hands we can get.”
A smirk emerged on the man’s face, as he tilted it forward, his messy silvery-white hair danced over his eyes. “No, we could use some cannon fodder.”
I clenched my teeth.
“I’m better at bombs!” Ashley shouted out, raising her hand up in the air.
“Even better,” the man chuckled dryly. “But speak without permission again and I’ll end you myself.”
Ashley’s smile died, as she slowly lowered her hand. I wasn’t sure what she had expected; this was the army, and we were newbies, nobodies until proven otherwise.
Stepping out of line was punished—they didn’t like noisy. They wanted weapons, soldiers who were outstanding on the battlefield… those who were capable of killing another human without blinking.
“Here you’ll follow my orders. If I tell you to die, you better die within three seconds,” the man continued, his voice suddenly coated with the promise of an end. He rose to his full length, raising his chin and looked down at us, like we were parasites.
“Yes, sir!” the rest of the group shouted. I had no intention of dying at someone’s whim. I was here to fight, to be used as a weapon, not to die simply because someone told me to. If that was the case, I could’ve stayed in the village.
The man’s red eyes locked onto me, the corner of his mouth twitched. Slowly his arm raised, his hand formed into a gun, as he pointed straight at me.
“Bang,” he said, with no emotion in the word. “You’re out.”
Silence weighed heavy in the air around us. The people around the war table turned to look at me, as if they too waited for me to kill myself on the spot. I stayed strong, tall and met his intense gaze right on, without moving, not even blinking.
It was a test, I was sure of it, trying to scare us in order to sort out those of weaker minds. Not me.
“Stop playing around,” the woman sighed next to him, her dark bob hair framing her sharp face.
His eyes lingered, refusing to break away, but his hand lowered, slowly, deliberately.
In the blink of an eye, he pulled out a knife and sent it flying right at me. No hesitation, no room for questions. My body jolted, by pure instinct I ducked, avoiding the danger.
A sudden thud sounded behind me, followed by a low groan.
Wide-eyed, I glanced behind me, only to see the knife stuck into a passing soldier’s chest. His hands dropped the small wooden box he had been carrying, reaching for the knife’s handle, looking down at me before he fell backwards, slamming against the ground.
A few coughs sounded from him, as blood trailed down his mouth, down his cheek and onto the ground.
Slowly, I rose, not able to pull my eyes off of him, terror spreading inside of me.
He killed someone. No, he was aiming to kill me, but… had he known someone was walking behind me at that exact moment?
“Sir!” the woman hissed angrily behind us.
As if her voice snapped me out of the enthrallment, I turned, painfully slow and met with the burning red eyes again.
He had a wide grin on his face now, sending chills along my spine.
What the hell was wrong with him? Rather, wrong with them?
No one stopped him, no one punished him…
The man she had called out to shrugged. “Accidents happen when you don’t stay alert. She lives because she sacrificed someone else. That’s what it means to have survival instincts.”
The air felt colder around us, the rest of my group had stiffened in place, exactly like me. This was the grand welcome we got for finally making it into this place to become mage-killers… or as they liked to be called, the Ashen Corps.
The white haired man grabbed a jacket off a chair and pulled it over his shoulders as he began to stalk closer, until he was towering right in front of me.
He was huge. My eyes caught the silver bar on the sleeve; First Lieutenant.
Shit.
“Mages don’t hesitate, you either kill them or get killed. It’s that simple.”
I said nothing, barely breathed as I stared straight forward, right into his chest, avoiding eye contact.
But my mind eloped, knowing what was lying on the ground behind me, well aware that the man standing in front of me did it and that he was capable of sending me on my way along with the corpse if I didn’t fall in line.
It wasn’t my fault.
His death was not my fault.
Yet, I felt how my skin heated, my hand itching for a weapon, as if prepared to fight my way out if needed.
The man clicked his tongue annoyed. Had he hoped to get a reaction from me? He pushed my shoulder aside, as he walked past me, before the others in the tent followed suit.
“At ease,” the woman said as she passed, finally allowing our guide to stop saluting. His arm was shaking as he slowly lowered it, trying to maintain his image. I waited a brief moment, before turning my head around. I saw how others had already gathered and started to remove the body.
Apparently, the prize to keep on living was to live in hell.