Chapter 11
ELEVEN
ARYELLA
I’ve slaughtered so many innocents. It isn’t the sight of their bodies that haunts me. Once they’re gone, so is their pain. What haunts me is the terror in their eyes during those final moments, and knowing I’m the one who put it there.
—FROM THE BUTCHER OF NYRIDA’S LAST KNOWN LETTERS TO QUEEN ARYELLA I
Two men dragged me out of my cell. After a week of darkness, the sun’s rays were brutal and blinding.
I covered my eyes with my forearm, wishing my power was strong enough to dim the sun myself.
When my eyes adjusted, I saw young people strolling about in droves.
The gravel courtyard—quiet and empty a week ago—was now bustling and loud with excited chatter that galvanized the fresh spring air.
I let it cool and expand my lungs, grateful to be out of a musty cell.
“Captain Hoss!” shouted one of my escorts.
I followed his gaze to the statuesque captain with thick black locks.
Shera told me that she overheard Elias call her Valda.
She conversed with a young man who looked just like her.
A stunning smile brightened her previously contemptuous features.
When she turned, the sight of me extinguished her warm smile.
She bid the young man farewell and strode over. “Why is she out of her cell, Lieutenant?”
“She’s to participate in Commencement. Commander Winterton wants her integrated with the rest.”
With a tired sigh, she looked me up and down. “Of course he does.”
“She’ll be alone, though,” the lieutenant muttered. “No team to help her. Notice was given to all trainees the moment they entered the Barracks.”
Valda lifted an intrigued brow. “Hmm. All right. I’ll take it from here, then.”
The guards released me and thrust my bag into my chest. Passersby slowed to assess me with inquisitive eyes, but Valda strode away on long legs, giving me no time to feel self-conscious.
She led me to one of the cabins. Inside, four tables surrounded by benches and chairs marked the center of the room.
Wooden bunk beds with plain canvas-brown bedding lined three out of the four walls.
Above each set of bunks were rectangular cross-hatched windows.
Those, along with the skylight built into the tall, peaked ceiling, illuminated the room in pleasant, natural light.
The floor squeaked beneath my boots as I passed by Valda into the room.
She scowled at the scent of me, as if she hadn’t ordered me to be in a cell for a week.
“Showers are three buildings to the south. Use one. Pick your bunk and drop your things. If I were you, I’d go up .
” She nodded toward a top bunk. “Men tend to prefer the bottom bunk.”
“I’d prefer a bed with an easier escape,” I retorted.
“We are civilized people,” she said with a chuckle. “Cadets aren’t allowed to kill other cadets. You’ll be fine.” Amusement danced in her umber eyes when she added, “ Probably .”
How comforting.
I tossed my things onto the top bunk closest to the door and turned back for further instruction. “Center mess hall for the welcome dinner.” Valda was already halfway gone. “One hour.”
As soon as the door latch clicked behind Valda, I reached for Shera.
“ I did it. I’m in. I even have a bed. ” My excitement dulled when I realized they hadn’t given me my knives back, and I had only two more changes of clothing.
My pants would need to be mended. I’d used Viridian’s power to heal my wound just enough for it not to get infected, but that didn’t fix the tear in my clothing.
“ He’d be proud of you, ” Shera replied.
I froze with my hand halfway into my bag. “ I’m not doing this for him. ”
“He’d be proud because you’re doing this for you .”
Thinking of him took me somewhere warm and safe, where I could rest. I couldn’t let my guard down, not here. Still, Shera was right. Since when were cats so damn insightful?
I made my way toward the shower hall holding a towel and fresh clothing.
Upon entering, I was greeted by humid air.
The damp floors were made from rough cobblestone.
Iron shower heads lined the walls and steam hovered in the heated glow of candle-lit chandeliers.
Most stalls were wide open. I shuddered at the thought of baring myself so freely and found a private stall toward the back.
I turned the faucet handle that let in water from the fortress’s aqueduct system and groaned in delight at the hot, rushing water flowing through my dirty hair.
The feeling of water on my skin had always been inexplicably, deeply soothing, and I relished in it until I was thoroughly clean.
Then, I peeked above the stall door to ensure no one else was here.
Over a week had passed since I’d been alone to practice any of the gods’ power in my veins.
I outstretched my right palm and reached for power.
The first time I’d gone to the temple in my mind, before healing the little boy in Tovick, I’d been suspended in the air by pure, glimmering onyx, and then dropped into the center of the wheel.
Now, I needed only to reach for it and I was there.
As if unlocking it once had been enough and since then, it simply was .
As if it had always been there inside me, dormant, and all I’d had to do was ask for the gods to provide.
I focused on restraining the power begging to be set free, letting it trickle rather than rush out of me in one uncontrolled burst. Water droplets beaded on my skin, then connected as if drawn to each other. Once together, they began to rise and spin into a contained, palm-size cyclone.
Loud, raucous laughter from the Barracks courtyard made me jump, and the thread swelled into a deluge, surging upward until it hit the ceiling and doused the room with water.
“Shit!” I hissed at the soaked circle in the wooden ceiling.
At least I didn’t put a hole in the roof.
My hair was still damp when I pushed through the doors of the mess hall.
Three long tables stretched the full length of a room with tall ceilings supported by massive wooden beams. Excited voices echoed in palpable anticipation around the sprawling space.
I hugged the wall, trying to be inconspicuous.
Elias stood on a wide, raised platform at the far end with Valda to his right. Perched on the step below him was a tall, striking woman with golden hair. She fawned over Elias, who appeared bored by her and other women throughout the hall gazing and giggling up at him.
“ The way they admire him, you’d think he was one of the gods ,” I said to Shera.
“Does he look like one?”
I refused to answer. Elias opened his mouth to answer the blonde, then saw me and paused.
I lifted my chin and held his stare, stone-faced. Both women saw me and scowled. Valda barked something indecipherable at Elias. He smirked at his captain, his cool gaze warming as he answered her. The way he tolerated Valda speaking to him so sharply made me think they must be close friends.
When Elias gave a firm command to a lieutenant on Valda’s other side, he slammed a wooden rod three times, demanding the room’s attention. Silence descended, and Elias stepped forward.
“Welcome to Commencement,” he proclaimed.
“I pray that the Selvaren blessed you all with a safe and pleasant journey. As you know, I’ve ordered all able-bodied people between the ages of eighteen and thirty to take up arms. In the past, you’ve been given a choice between training here or aiding in the efforts at home.
” He paused. “That was before Molochai ripped out the queen’s heart and let his Butcher dismember her body. ”
The fast-spreading swell of horrified voices overwhelmed any semblance of order. I caged in my fury at his inflammatory lie about Gavin Smyth. Clearly, most of them hadn’t known their queen had died, or they’d been spared the gory details, until now.
Valda released a shrill whistle, and silence descended.
“She was our greatest weapon against Molochai.” Elias stepped forward. “Without the queen and her power, there is no room left for choices. We must find a way to obliterate Molochai and his Butcher. We fight or we die. Every single one of us.”
Guilt weaseled its way into my heart. Was I wasting too much valuable time?
Elias was the one forcing them all to be here, and it was Simeon who’d crafted the elaborate web of lies that led to this.
I wanted my people to have choices, and yet I knew Molochai’s threat better than most. We needed everyone.
“Training begins tomorrow,” Elias pressed on. “You will each be assessed on three different aptitudes: speed, physical strength—” He scanned the crowd, and his blue-gray eyes stopped on me. “—and cunning.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Gods , he had no idea.
“You will then be split into teams that will compete in multiple tests. That is how I will determine your assignments. The winning team will earn their families a year in the finest suites in the Caves.” Elias’s tone turned dry, “And they’ll earn themselves a slightly better chance of not dying.”
My snicker earned me a perturbed glare from multiple people nearby. How dare I laugh at their beloved commander?
“Now eat.” He gestured to the tables spread with lavish amounts of food. “You’ll need energy. We begin in the morning.”
The chatter resumed. I ignored lingering stares and found a seat next to a young woman around my age with braided red hair and freckles. She looked safe and approachable. I listened quietly and reacted to nothing. It was an easy feat while cadets discussed the upcoming training.
But it didn’t take long for the subject to change.
“I bet the Butcher fucked her dead body before he ripped her apart.”
I froze with my fork in my mouth.
“I heard he ate her remains.”
“Probably bloody and raw,” scoffed someone else, drawing groans from the table.