Oaken

by Melody Robinette

  “They’re all afraid of me.”

  “Why would they be afraid of you, though?”

  Victor looked surprised. He even stopped what he was working on to look at her. “You don’t know?” Autumn shook her head slowly. “Oh. I figured Burke would have told you by now.”

  “Avery?” she said. “Tell me what?”

  “He’s the reason everyone’s so afraid of me.”

  “How?”

  Victor busied himself with the fire beneath the iron pot. Autumn waited.

  He sighed as if he knew he would regret telling her what he was about to say. “I made the mistake of telling him what I am.”

  “What do you mean ‘what you are’?”

  Victor glanced surreptitiously around the classroom and then murmured, “I’m an Atrum. Or I used to be. I was born on Alder Island.”

  Autumn’s mouth fell open. She had learned enough in the past few days to know that Atrums were evil followers of Vyra Vaun.

  “But, you aren’t an Atrum anymore, right?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll always have Atrum blood, but I don’t speak with my family or any other Atrums I knew in my former life. I left the island a few years ago and came here. I didn’t want to be a monster anymore. I went to the king, asking his permission to stay and he was gracious enough to let me.”

  “Do you live with anyone?”

  “I live alone. My family was one of the wealthier Atrum families. I had my own money set aside and it’s been enough to sustain me here.”

  Silence fell between them as they each wrote a detailed description of what their nausea draught looked like. Autumn couldn’t stop thinking of Victor’s heartbreaking story. He was completely and utterly alone. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have absolutely no one to talk to, no one to help you if you needed help, or comfort you when you were upset. Her chest filling with compassion, she made a promise to herself to help him. If anything, she could be his friend and show everyone else that, if a royal elf like her could make friends with an Atrum, then so could they. Finally she could use her royal influence for some good.

  When Autumn finished her paragraph she turned it in to Coach Holt and returned to her workstation to clean up. She realized she hadn’t asked Victor an obvious question.

  “Why would Avery tell everyone that you’re an Atrum anyway?”

  Victor’s face darkened and the familiar end-of-class bells sounded in the distance. The room filled with noise as everyone rushed out the door.

  “I’ll see you later, Autumn,” Victor said as he walked briskly out of the classroom.

  She must have asked one question too many.

  “Hey, Summer!” Forrest called when Autumn entered the History Tree.

  She checked to see if there actually was someone named Summer standing around her before she realized it was just another name joke of his. Rolling her eyes playfully, she took a seat beside him. Drake, the flirty book-hater, sat in front of Autumn and turned in his seat to grin at her. She smiled politely back and focused her eyes elsewhere, though she still felt his gaze on her face.

  Autumn scanned the room to keep her eyes from wandering back to Drake, busying herself with looking at the maps that were pinned up in various spaces on the wall and found herself actually studying them. There was a map of Arbor Falls and then there was one of the entire Underground. She remembered where Victor said some of the magical creatures lived and saw that each territory was spaced far apart and were clearly marked on the map. Autumn frowned at this in silent disapproval.

  Magister Parkey arrived then. He looked to be in his fifties and had light brown hair with silver running through it. His soft green eyes scanned the room.

  “Everyone awake?” he asked, clapping his hands together with enthusiasm. People nodded and murmured half-heartedly. “Well that’s the majority.” He began to call roll. “Autumn Oaken?” he said as he reached her name. “New to the Underground I assume?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Well, welcome to History of the Underground. I’m sure at least you will find this class to be immeasurably interesting.”

  Autumn nodded in agreement and Kyndel whispered something loudly to one of her cronies—Dayna—who giggled.

  Magister Parkey finished calling roll and said, “Only three skips! It’s going to be a good day. All right. Today we will begin our discussion of the Great Underground War of 1872. Can anyone tell me what started this war?”

  Autumn looked around the room. Everyone was either looking at nothing in particular or staring at him blankly, with the exception of Drake, who was still staring at her. She turned to face the magister and tentatively raised her hand.

  Magister Parkey wore a surprised yet pleased look. “Miss Oaken?”

  “The war started with a dispute between the trolls and the leprechauns. The elves came to make peace, but were pulled into the war instead. Then the ogres and giants joined in, and…yeah.”

  Autumn glanced at Forrest who wore an impressed, open-mouthed expression. Drake and Dayna had confused looks on their faces and Kyndel was looking at her with a mixture of surprise and loathing.

  “That is quite correct. You say you are new to Arbor Falls?”

  “Yes, Sir. Vic—uh—my Lab partner told me about the Underground War. That’s how I knew,” Autumn admitted.

  “Well, it’s good you listened.” He smiled and winked at her.

  Autumn met up with Luke, Crystal, and Avery after History. In an attempt to avoid Avery engaging her in conversation, she read her Literature book all through lunch. Autumn and Luke had Healing after lunch and they parted from Crystal and Avery to travel to the Healing Tree together.

  “Any new make-out sessions today?” Autumn asked.

  “Two, in between classes,” he said with a wide smile.

  “What were their names?”

  He shrugged.

  Autumn laughed, though she knew she shouldn’t support this kind of behavior in her brother, or any guy for that matter. But she had watched Luke strike out too many times in the Outside to not be a little happy for him now.

  When they entered the Healing classroom, Autumn saw that Bryan (or Tweedle-Dum as she liked to think of him) was in this class. Luke was about to take the seat next to Bryan when Autumn pushed him to keep going.

  “Good afternoon!” came a bright voice from the doorway. Autumn turned to see Magistra Ginger smiling at the class. She was an eccentric looking woman with flaming red hair that was piled on top of her head in a bun with pieces sticking out all over. Autumn thought someone with that bright of a personality would wear bright clothing, but the cheerful woman wore all black instead; maybe it was to balance things out.

  “Everyone up!” Magistra Ginger said. “I don’t like to stay in the classroom more than five minutes at a time. Almost a fifth of that time has gone by and this dreary atmosphere is already depressing me. Outside we go!” With this, she swept from the room. The dazed class followed her outside.

  She turned around so that she was facing the class and began walking backwards. “Today we will learn about pelpy. Pelpy is a healing herb found in the shallow waters of an Underground pond or lake. It can be used to heal someone who has been poisoned by one or many poisonous water creatures. Here—” she waved her hand towards a small pond on campus near the Numbers Tree, “you will find some pelpy just below the surface of the water. So take these.” She passed out a pair of long, rubber-like gloves to everyone. Some of the girls made disgusted faces as they pulled on the gloves and looked down at the dirty pond water.

  Magistra Ginger plunged her hand into the water, feeling around for a few seconds and yanked up a small, purple plant that looked like a wet feather duster.

  “See?” she said. “It’s quite simple. Now you try. Everyone, come on! They don’t bite, but the razor fish might, so it’s a good thing we’re surrounded by all of this pelpy.”

  Some of the students grumbled as they approached the water. They spent the remainder
of the class pulling up pelpy while Magistra Ginger spouted off random facts about water plants and their healing powers.

  One of the girls accidently slipped into the water. She screamed and splashed around before she realized the water was only about two feet deep. Luke crashed into the water eagerly and carried her to safety. The girl thanked him over and over for “saving her life” and called him her hero. Autumn sensed yet another make-out partner.

  “Well done, everyone!” Magistra Ginger said. “You guys pulled a lot of pelpy today. I’ll take this to the storage room for later use.” The bells rang and Luke whisked the girl he “saved” away to make out.

  Avery emerged from the Numbers Tree then, not far from where Autumn was standing. His eyes landed on her and he began to walk in her direction. Uh oh, Autumn thought. How was she supposed to avoid him this time? Although the more problematic issue was that she didn’t exactly want to.

  Bulls-eye

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Autumn tried to pretend she hadn’t seen Avery and turned to walk quickly in the opposite direction.

  “Autumn!” he called out much too loudly for her to be able to ignore.

  Taking a deep breath, she turned around, plastering on an artificial smile. “Oh, hey, Avery! I didn’t see you.”

  “That’s okay. My friend Jastin and I are going to shoot some arrows at the archery range. Want to come?”

  His sparkling, gray eyes quickly made her forget everything that Victor had said in Laboratory. Autumn bit her lip. Yes, she would like to come. The real question was: should she? Then she realized she was being ridiculous. She shouldn’t have to avoid Avery. He was her friend and her bodyguard. So, she had a tiny, miniscule, insignificant crush on him. So what? That’s all it was. A crush. Surely, with time, it would pass.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, unable to keep the reluctance out of her voice.

  His brow furrowed. “Are you angry with me or something?”

  “Why would I be angry with you?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “So, you said you were going with someone named Justin?” Autumn asked, trying to change the subject.

  “Jastin. He’s in our Powers class. The one with the long blond hair. His Power is Pain.”

  Autumn remembered that Jastin had also been in her History class, sitting in the very back beside Charlotte, the dark haired girl whose Power was Fog.

  “Oh, yeah. I think I know who you are talking about.”

  “He’ll probably bring Charlotte too. That’s his girlfriend.”

  Autumn tried not to grimace at this. Now it looked less like friends casually hanging out and shooting arrows together, and more like a double date. Also, judging by how they interacted, she assumed Charlotte and Kyndel were friends, though she didn’t seem to follow Kyndel around like Ella and Dayna did.

  Autumn and Avery spotted Crystal near the marble fountain at the center of campus and Autumn desperately invited her to come along.

  “Sorry, guys. I wish I could, but I already told my mom I would work on a few gowns with her tonight.”

  Stopping by Arbor Castle, Autumn and Avery retrieved their bows and arrows and made their way to the archery range. When they arrived, Jastin and Charlotte were waiting for them.

  “Have you two met Autumn yet?” Avery asked them.

  “Not formally,” Jastin said as he shook Autumn’s hand warmly.

  “We have a few classes together,” Charlotte said with a pleasant smile on her face—not a sarcastic sneer like Autumn had expected. But she would have to reserve her judgment.

  The archery range was set up so that there were different levels. There were 10 ranges in all, each more difficult than the one before. The foursome walked onto the first range and Autumn noticed that the grass was cut close to the ground, almost resembling turf.

  “This kind of looks like a golf course,” she remarked, then glancing up at the others’ confused faces said, “It’s uh—well—never mind.”

  The idea of the course was to shoot three arrows as close as possible to the bulls-eye. Each target was more difficult than the last, with obstacles and trees making it nearly impossible to hit the middle circle. On the first target, Jastin and Charlotte whizzed through their arrows before Autumn had even managed to set up her first shot.

  “You two go on ahead,” Avery said. “I’ll help Autumn.”

  Charlotte shot him an amused glance as she and Jastin moved on to the second range.

  “Okay. Let me see you just try to shoot the arrow,” he said.

  Autumn shakily pulled back on the string and let go. The arrow shot a few feet ahead of where they stood and landed sadly on the ground. She sent Avery a frustrated look and he stifled a laugh.

  “That was…not bad.”

  Autumn rolled her eyes. “It sucked. Maybe I should watch you guys shoot the arrows. I’ll just be a silent observer.”

  He shook his head. “No. I can teach you. Besides, if you want to try out for the Warriors then you’ll need to know how to shoot an arrow.”

  “Great.”

  “Now watch me and pay close attention to my form.”

  He pulled the string back in a fluid motion and released the arrow, which sped toward the target and fixed itself square in the middle of the bulls-eye. Autumn’s mouth fell open.

  “Now come stand right here,” he said as if he hadn’t just done something amazing. He pointed to a spot in front of him. She hesitated. “It’s okay, Autumn. I won’t bite.”

  Blushing, she took her place in front of Avery. He grasped both of her hands and her breath caught in her chest. There was a pulling sensation in the pit of her stomach like some sort of gravitational force—a magnet trying to find it’s mate, which apparently resided within Avery. She felt him tremor slightly and then he cleared his throat.

  “You’re, uh, you’re going to pull the arrow back, keeping your left arm straight and your right arm elevated at the level of your chin, like this.” He moved his hand from hers and lifted her arm until her hand was level with her chin. She tried to breathe slow and deep rather than quick and shallow like her increased heart rate was telling her to. “Now,” he whispered, sending a shiver through Autumn’s body, almost causing her to let go of the bow, “release your right hand.”

  Autumn did as he said and her arrow soared through the air and landed a few rings away from the bulls-eye.

  “Wow,” she breathed.

  “Perfect!” Avery exclaimed, giving her arm a squeeze.

  “Thanks,” she said, her head swimming from the rush of both Avery’s closeness and successfully shooting an arrow.

  They finished shooting the rest of the arrows and moved through the course with surprising ease. They even managed to catch up to Jastin and Charlotte at the sixth range.

  “How’ve you done so far?” Charlotte asked Autumn.

  “Pretty well, actually. I haven’t missed a target and I’ve hit three bulls-eyes.”

  Jastin and Charlotte’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Wow, beginners never do that well,” Charlotte said.

  “Just lucky, I guess. Avery’s a good teacher.”

  Jastin smiled as he muttered, “I bet he is.”

  At the next range, Avery and Jastin decided to change up the game a little and see who could hit the most bulls-eyes in a row. Autumn and Charlotte stood back to watch.

  “So, are you and Avery…?” Charlotte trailed off.

  “No. We’re, uh, just friends. Oh, and he’s my bodyguard.”

  “Bodyguard? Oh right. I keep forgetting you’re a royal. You act so normal.”

  “Thanks, I guess. You’re different than I expected too.”

  Charlotte nodded in understanding. “Yeah. Most people think that just because I’m friends with Kyndel, I’ll be as unpleasant as she sometimes can be.”

  “Why are you friends with someone like Kyndel anyway?” Autumn asked, realizing too late that her question was extremely rude.

  “There’s a lot to Kyndel that no o
ne knows but me. We’ve been friends since we were kids, and I’m probably the only real friend she has. The way she treats people is her way of putting up a guard. It’s just a defense mechanism.”

  “Feels more offensive than defensive to me,” Autumn said.

  Charlotte shrugged, indicating she didn’t want to say any more on the subject.

  They moved on to the next course and Jastin and Avery were now trying to invent more creative games, like seeing who could make a better design by shooting arrows at the target.

  “How long have you been with Jastin?” Autumn asked Charlotte.

  “Almost a year,” she said with a smile. “I’ve liked him for much longer than that, but it took me a while to get anything out of him. He’s so quiet. I think it has to do with his Power. He’s a bit ashamed of it.”

  “Why?”

  “He doesn’t like to use it. Especially on people he cares about.” Charlotte looked at Jastin with a mixture of sadness and fond admiration.

  After archery, Autumn and Avery parted ways with the others and walked back to Arbor Castle in silence, which was surprisingly not awkward, but rather comfortable and almost familiar. The magnetic pull in Autumn’s stomach grew steadily stronger as time went on. Eventually it won over and she felt her arm brush up against his. Warmth spread through her, trickling down through her arm and seeping into the rest of her body. Rather than satisfying the strange feeling, it intensified and left her wanting a bit more.

  No. Remember the rules. Remember the rules, Autumn thought.

  She reluctantly took a small step away from Avery so they were no longer touching.

  “What’s the Outside like?” Avery asked.

  “You’ve never been?”

  Avery shook his head.

  Where to begin. Autumn took a deep breath and told him about her time in Texas and Ireland. About American politics and what little she had learned about the Irish government. She told him about the environment, Americans, the Irish, mankind as a whole. Avery listened intently, with a look of fascination upon his face as she told him about all of the technological advances humans had made.