Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Mace rallies in about three point five milliseconds.
He turns his back on me, heads for the back wall, and starts touching his hand to the metal panels.
I’m alternatively staring up at the chute – hoping that another teammate might drop out of nowhere – and at my shoes, so woefully inadequate for the mission.
It’s sinking in. The Test Mission. I’ve been selected for a Test Mission.
My stomach twists in knots, and it isn’t just fear.
It’s sheer excitement. Stella summoned me to the Commanders’ Ball, because I’ve been selected to be a part of a team.
I still have no idea why, but I’m going to lean into it.
Maybe the Ball was a chance for me to pretend for one evening that I’m someone successful, but I don’t need to pretend anymore. I mean, I could be someone successful.
Obviously, I’m not prepared for this. Neither mentally nor physically, am I ready to land here. But someone thinks I’m good enough to be a part of Team Gold.
Someone, somewhere, didn’t see me as a failure.
I’m pretty sure that no one will ever hand me an opportunity like this again. This might be my one and only chance to prove myself. To prove that I’m good at something.
Mace is still letting his hands wander over the walls, feeling at the seams of the metal panels. I take a deep breath and approach him. ‘Can I help?’
He twitches, as if he’d forgotten that I was even here. Yup, I remember. Mace can get absorbed, a little grumpy, when he’s focused. In his own world. ‘I’ve got this, Ellie,’ he says. ‘We need to get our orders first.’
‘And how do we do that?’
He pauses, like he’s mildly annoyed at the question. ‘You’re not prepared for this, are you? Have you done any drills in the field? Have you read the Test Missions handbook?’
It isn’t the most encouraging way to start the mission. To be truthful, Stella could have handed over that ominous handbook that Mace just mentioned, if she knew I’d be assigned to a team.
‘Nope,’ I say. ‘But I can learn.’
He exhales a world-weary sigh. ‘I’m looking for a connection point to Stella,’ he says.
‘This far down into The Citadel, they’re few and far between.
There’ll be even fewer of them when we go out into the Disputed Lands.
But if I find one, and if I can send a magical signal through it, I’ll be able to connect with Stella and receive instructions. ’
‘Got it.’ I move towards the metal walls, prepared to show Mace that I can do as much. After all, I have a pretty good connection to Stella.
But one of the metal plates already lights up, turning into a screen. Mace must have found a connection point. ‘Stella!’ I call out at the same time as Mace says, ‘What are our marching orders?’
Her golden-tinged, cloaked silhouette appears in front of us.
‘Greetings, Team Gold,’ she says in a cold impersonal voice.
‘Your first goal is to find your way out of The Citadel. Once you’re outside, touch the wall close to the exit and await further orders.
The five teams that finish the first challenge fastest receive extra points, per Warriors’ Quarter regulations. ’
‘Alright,’ Mace says, nodding. ‘Where’s the rest of my team?’
My team. That grates. It’s meant to be our team.
‘I’m not at liberty to provide that information,’ Stella replies. ‘They’ve been given the same assignment. You’re running against the clock here, Apprentice Hardfield. You should start finding the way out.’
Mace’s lips press into a thin line, and I can tell that isn’t good. But I’m not done. I have some questions of my own. I open my mouth to begin asking, just as Stella’s projection shimmers and disappears.
‘No! Wait, wait!’ I rush to the metal wall and press my palm in the rough vicinity of where Mace’s was when he called on Stella.
I send out a burst of power that flares out like an umbrella, reaching out to find a link to the system. I feel relief when I sense the echo-like reflection when my magic finds one of the connection points and Stella’s image blazes back to life.
‘Yes, Ellie?’ she says.
‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
‘What do you mean?’ Her voice is warmer, like the one she usually uses when she speaks to me.
I point at the shoes. ‘I wouldn’t have bothered to spend the entirety of my savings, if I’d known I was going straight into a mission. And … I could have at least read the book.’
‘Central Command expressly forbade me to communicate to anyone the exact time when the missions were scheduled to start.’
Yes, Stella is compelled by her programming to always answer to Central Command.
And Command can override any of the decisions she makes, but in order for The Citadel to run smoothly, much is left to Stella’s analysis and decisions, like the assessment and allocation of Apprentices to their respective Quarters.
She makes many of these decisions on her own, because it isn’t possible for Command to go through them all, and they only interfere when the citizens are of special interest to them, or when the decision has too many reverberations to be left exclusively to the AI.
Central Command has never, ever shown a special interest in me. Yet, Stella has. Though she hasn’t answered my question about why.
‘Come on. I could have prepared.’
‘Move along, Apprentice Errington. You’re wasting your team’s time.’ Stella sounds amused. ‘Good luck, Ellie.’
Then she disappears.
So I have no choice but to leave it be. I turn to Mace. ‘What now?’
He’s studying me, his expression unreadable. He says nothing.
‘What?’ I say. I could never bear extended silences.
At last, he says, ‘Intriguing.’
‘What’s intriguing?’
‘The way you speak to her. But never mind. I think you should go back, Ellie.’
‘Back where?’
‘To The Citadel. To your living Quarters.’
‘Why?’
He bites his lip, as if he’s unsure how to go on. I get an itchy feeling. I’m not going to like this.
‘Ellie, it’s really dangerous out there,’ he says. ‘And Central Command is pretty ruthless when Apprentices don’t cut it. They don’t care if people lose their lives. That’s why high-level Apprentices spend their final year training for this – so they’re prepared for what awaits them.’
My hackles rise. He’s trying to take away from me the only chance I might have to prove myself. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t spend half my life training for a mock mission.’
‘How did you spend it, then?’
Pining after you. I’m not stupid enough to tell him that, though. Especially when he’s being like this. ‘I’ll tell you some other time, Mr Grumpy,’ I say. ‘While we drink hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire, braiding each other’s hair.’
He shakes his head. ‘Ellie. I’m not telling you this to piss you off. I’m telling you it’s not worth risking your life over this.’
Yes. Yes, it is. He has no idea. ‘You have no clue what my life is like.’ An old rage rises to the surface.
All the you’re-not-good-enoughs. The reasons why the two of us haven’t spoken in the past nine years. That distance that I was never able to cross, and that I’ll try to erase, if it’s the last thing I do.
Nope. I refuse to listen to another second of this.
‘This way?’ I ask, and make for the exit up ahead, where the tunnel splits in two different directions.
Mace is hot on my heels. ‘Ellie,’ he says. ‘Don’t be stubborn.’
‘Mace,’ I reply. ‘I think you’re wasting our team’s time. Didn’t you hear what Stella said? We need to hurry. You Warriors are about high rankings and getting good scores, aren’t you? Highly competitive folk.’
He lays a hand on my shoulder, applying enough pressure that I’m forced to face him, at least this version of him with the rough stubble and the deep frown between his eyes. I don’t know him anymore. We’ve grown to be such different people from the inseparable kids we used to be.
‘As Team Captain, I rule that you need to return to The Citadel,’ he says.
‘Wait. Can you even do that?’ I say, folding my arms.
‘Of course I can,’ he says. ‘You have to follow my orders. Warriors’ Quarter regulations. It’s all in the booklet. If only you’d read it.’
I slam my hand to the wall, sending my magic through it, hoping to find another point of connection. Stella’s image flares up next to us.
‘Yes, Ellie?’
‘Is it true? What he just said, that as Captain, he can order me back to The Citadel?’
‘Yes, it’s true. Warriors’ Quarter regulations,’ Stella says. ‘Orders from the people higher in the chain of command are irrefutable and not up for discussion. But Mace hasn’t been selected as captain yet. The entire team needs to cast their vote.’
‘Good to know.’ I smirk. ‘See, Mayceron Hardfield. I might not have read the booklet yet, but I’m pretty good at getting the information I need.’
He shrugs, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.
‘So,’ I say, ‘how about we get moving?’
But moving forwards isn’t that easy, since my physical fitness leaves a lot to be desired. With Mace ahead of me, we jog through tunnel after tunnel after tunnel, and I’m breathless – while some kind of ‘Warrior internal compass’ guides him.
There’s still no sign of the others.
I swear I can almost hear the ticking of the clock. Or maybe it’s the way that Mace’s jaw ticks. He’s clearly displeased at the slow progress we’re making.
‘Why don’t we use the ART to find our way out and the rest of the team?’ I ask.
‘Because our ARTs would have been switched to standard test-mission mode by Stella. This means we can’t make calls or send messages to anyone. Some of the other functions would still be active, though. Do you know absolutely nothing about the missions?’
He’s just trying to rile me, so I give him an unhinged smile. ‘Obviously not. How about using the ART to find our way out of The Citadel?’
‘If the mission specifically says that we’re meant to find our way out, then the tracking function will have been blocked,’ Mace says slowly, as if unsure of my mental faculties.
‘I’m unprepared, not stupid,’ I hiss.