This looked like none of those.
Embossed into the cover was a picture of a man wearing armor like that I had seen behind the sheets in the temple. But the man was nothing like the soldiers I had seen in those paintings. This man did not belong in a temple. In my heart, I felt that the temple would explode in flames if a man like this crossed the threshold. Though it was only a picture, the artist had taken loving care in recreating the man's mane of curling hair, tumbling to his shoulders; the look of cruel disdain in his stern features; the lines of his muscles. The men in the wall paintings had muscles but they did not look real. This had a stark physicality, it was how a man might actually look.
In my life, the only men I had seen were elderly Priests like Senior Rowan, who all appeared to have been born at the age of eighty and swiftly aged from there. I had never thought of men as anything other than furniture, the sight of this one picture made them live in my mind in a way that tingled around my Devil's Doorbell, making it ring without me even having to touch it.
I scrabbled to open the book, eager to see more. As I had hoped, there were more enticing pictures of men within, which I found equally exciting, my mind opening up to the possibilities of men who weren't in their early nineties.
I hastened to read some of the text, eager to know who these men were, what sort of things they did, and, most importantly, where I could find them. The book proved to be a history text - the history of my people. I had been dimly aware that there had to be more men and women than just those within the temple precinct, but to find out I was part of a 'people', a people who populated a whole huge citadel that lay beyond the walls and beyond the jungle, was still a mind-blowing revelation.
It was the first of many.
I saw pictures of the sea. I had heard the word but the descriptions of it had only left me confused. Even looking at these pictures of a rolling, blue world, I could not quite grasp how such a thing could be real. The time flew by without me noticing it as I read on. I learned that our nation was at war with another nation, based at the far end of the island we shared. They were called the Norrens. I saw pictures of them - ugly and inhuman. The war had been going on a long time and the consensus was that it could only be won by the nation that was most favored by the volcano god.
I shivered as I skimmed lower, knowing I was going to be punished if I didn’t get back, but also compelled—no, driven—to read on.
And it was in the very next paragraph that I read the words that would change my life forever.
The only way to ensure the favor of the volcano god is through ritual sacrifice. Every half century, twenty-five Sudder virgins shall be fed to the maw of the mountain in order to strengthen our warriors for the next fifty years of battle.
I stared down at the calendar emblazoned in bold color across the page and my brain blinked out for what felt like a full minute as my heart stilled in my chest.
I had no idea what a 'Sudder virgin' was, but I knew one thing. There were twenty-five of us 'Chosen' in the precinct. And according to this calendar? The latest fifty years was up in ten days.
Holy Hannah…These pasty-faced prayer-mongers were going to try to feed me to a volcano!
Chapter 2
I had been wishing my whole life for a day to come that wasn't exactly the same as the day before. But apparently, I should’ve been more careful what I wished for.
My head spun as I tried to process what I’d read, and, more importantly, what those words meant for me.
I would die without having seen the sea in all its majesty.
Without having known a man who looked like the ones in the book.
Without having found out the full extent of what the Devil's Doorbell was capable of.
The hell with that.
As a rule, I didn't even think swearwords because I wasn't supposed to know any. By careful listening to the kitchen staff and the maids, I had picked up some, which I knew were really bad because the one time I said one in front of Caretaker Dawn, she was cutting a switch before I'd even finished speaking.
Thinking of punishment reminded me again of how long I had been down here reading. I dumped the book back on the table and ran towards the exit. If I had ten days of life left then I wasn't going to spend them scrubbing floors.
Breakfast had already begun when I entered - fresh fruit, as usual. If I never saw another peeled grape in my life then it would still be too soon. I didn't try to sneak in because if you're spotted doing that then you're already guilty. I walked in normally and Caretaker Harvest beckoned me, glaring.
"You are late and I did not see you in temple. Where have you been, you wicked girl?"
"I've been sick," I said, weakly. "I think I ate a bad grape."
Caretaker Harvest shook her head sharply. "There's no such thing. They are all perfect - created for us by the gods."
"Well, something's upset my stomach," I insisted. "I threw up." Then I played my trump card, leaning in and whispering, "Both ends."
Caretaker Harvest recoiled with distaste.
"I thought it best to leave the temple," I explained. "I didn't want to…unholy it."
"You cannot unholy the temple."
"What came out of me was definitely unholy."
The Caretakers have a very uneasy relationship with bodily functions of every kind - they want to believe they're demonic but are also aware that they're infectious. This sort of talk was guaranteed to get me some alone time.
"Go to your room," commanded Caretaker Harvest, trying not to breathe in. "I'll send someone to take care of you."
I hurried out, shooting an urgent look at Sadie, who recognized it and began to eat faster. I had to talk to someone about what I had found out, if only to get it out of my head.
When I got back to the dorm the whole situation hit me. To this point, I hadn't really had a chance to think about it because I'd had to get to breakfast, then fool Caretaker Harvest, and so on. Now I had nothing to do but sit on my bed and wait for Sadie, my mind was suddenly at horrid liberty to turn over the full import of this new world in which I found myself living.
Perhaps it was rather smug of me but I had always thought of myself as the 'alpha dog' around here. Even when the Caretakers punished me, I still took pride in the fact that I had forced them into this - I had done the thing that they had told me not to and even if I had paid for it, I had still done it. I was the one calling the shots. It turned out that I had been a pawn all along. How they must have laughed behind my back at my petty little acts of rebellion. How it must have amused them to know that while I stole little victories by crafting weapons or practicing my fight moves, I was just a victim waiting for death.
I didn't like things this way around, and conflicting emotions burned back and forth through me; rage, fear and grief, fighting for supremacy. Rage won. How dare they do this? How dare they treat us like this? If they were sacrificing us to stop the volcano from erupting then I would understand - I would still be pissed but I would understand. But this? They were killing twenty-five innocent girls to make their soldiers stronger so they could go on killing other soldiers. What the hell kind of logic was that?
It occurred to me that if they didn't kill us they would have twenty-five more potential soldiers, which would surely be just as good as the volcano god's blessing - how good could that blessing be if we were still at war after all this time? But, of course, that would only count if we were men. I had made my own weapons and taught myself to use them. I could be as good a warrior as any man. I knew it in my heart and, right now, I was eager to prove it on the next person who walked through the door.
Sadie walked in and I sprang up as if I was going to attack her, making her jump.
"You're not ill."
One of the things I love about Sadie is that sweet innocence that means she is still surprised when it turns out I was lying about something. I took her hand and guided her to sit on the bed beside me.
"I have to tell you something important. Something that
will change your life."
Sadie crossed her legs. "I told you; you can't touch it. It's bad enough you touch your own. You'll get in trouble again. if you keep doing it."
"Not that," I hissed. "This is much bigger than the Devil’s Doorbell, Sadie."
Sadie looked at me suspiciously. In recent months, nothing had been bigger to me than the Devil's Doorbell and she was clearly wondering what could possibly have supplanted it.
"Okay then. I'll listen."
I took a deep breath and prepared to give it to her straight. "We're all going to be killed."
She blinked. "We are?"
"Sacrificed," I went on, narrowing my eyes menacingly, to let her know just how serious this was.
Sadie nodded slowly. "Oh. Okay then."
I stared at her like she’d sprouted a second head. "That's your reaction. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
She shrugged one lean shoulder and I let out a disgusted snort. Then, I gave her the whole story; the tunnel, the book, the pictures of men, the sea, the volcano, the pictures of men, the other nation, the war, the pictures of men, and the sacrifice. Sadie listened to it all with a mildly interested expression on her face. She waited until I was done and then spoke.
"Aleah, do you remember when you told me that eating lemons would make my breasts grow bigger?"
I sucked on the inside of my cheek before nodding. "Yeah." I probably shouldn't have grinned as I said it, but it was a good memory.
"It wasn't funny."
"No, of course not." It was really funny. "And I shouldn't have done it to you. You're a good friend and you don't deserve it." She didn't.
But it was still funny.
Every morning she'd weigh her boobs in her hands, trying to tell if they'd grown during the night. I still can't believe she kept up with it for two weeks.
"I haven't eaten lemon since."
"In my defense," I tried, "it gets incredibly dull around here and a girl's got to do something to beat the boredom."
"Like play tricks on her best friend?" It was kind of her not to say 'only'.
"Think how clean and fresh you smelled."
"It's not funny, Aleah," Sadie insisted. "And I'm not falling for it again."
"That was a long time ago."
Sadie nodded. "Yes, I suppose it was. Do you remember the time you told me you'd seen a unicorn in the jungle?"
That had not been so long ago. "I think I vaguely recall it."
"You told me it was scared of manmade items. Like clothes."
"I did do that, yes."
"I sat naked in that clearing for two hours, Aleah."
I laugh bubbled in my throat but I managed to swallow it back. "More like an hour and forty-five."
"Then it started to rain."
I held up a hand. "You can't blame me for that. I can hardly control the weather, Sadie."
"Maybe not, but I can blame you for my clothes being gone and nearly freezing to death in the rain."
"I brought them back to you as soon as the rain started," I pleaded. "And I wouldn't have let you get in trouble."
"You just let me get wet." Sadie shook her head. "I love you, Aleah."
"I know,” I murmured miserably. “Why is that again?"
Sadie shrugged. "You're your own person, which is something no one else here is. Truthfully, all the girls probably want to play pranks like that but they don't. Not because they're too nice, but out of fear. And they let their nastiness come out in other ways. You aren't nasty; you're just..." She strove for a word.
"Bad?" I suggested.
"I don't think you're bad."
"I don't understand why not."
"The point is," Sadie returned to her original train of thought, "I love you. But I have to stop believing what you tell me. Or sometime down the line, I'm going to stop loving you."
My stomach flopped like a dying carp and I dragged my gaze away from Sadie’s probing stare. I remembered the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, which the Caretakers had taught us when we were little. I'd always thought it was pretty dumb, but now I was finally understanding the point. Better late than never, I guess.
But this was not the time for my only friend to stop believing in me. I had to get her to trust me on this. Failure was not an option.
I took Sadie by the shoulders and looked into her soulful blue eyes. "Sadie, I'm telling the truth. We have to get the fu... We have to get out of here before it's too late. If we don't leave, then in ten days we're going to die."
I watched Sadie's eyes widen and wondered if I had actually gotten through to her. But when she spoke, she said, "No."
"Sadie..."
"I don't..." She was tussling with whether to believe me or not. "I don't know if I believe you or not, Aleah. I mean... I always believe you, but I'm trying really hard not to this time. But either way; we can't leave." Her eyes and mouth had widened to saucers now. "We don't know what's out there."
"The world," I said, plainly. "A world of people and places and animals we've read about and never seen. A world of beauty we can't imagine. We could see the ocean, Sadie. Water as far as the eye can see. Can you imagine that? There are all sorts of different people. There's ice that falls from the sky. Who knows, maybe there are actual unicorns out there somewhere." I took her hand and realized that I was starting to become emotional. "Please come with me. I need you."
Sadie looked into my eyes. "I can't."
I was about to go on, but just then Clementine walked in, looking suspiciously in our direction. Sadie pulled away from me and stood up.
"Thanks for asking," I could hear the sadness in her voice and saw a suggestion of tears forming in her eyes, "but no."
I had always been going to ask Sadie but, equally, I had been prepared for her to say no, because this was Sadie. I had been prepared to escape on my own. But theory and practice are very different things. Hearing Sadie actually say 'no' was like having my heart ripped out, and in that instant, I knew that there was no way I was going without her. But equally there was no way I was staying here to be sacrificed to a volcano.
Which meant I only had one choice.
I had to kidnap Sadie.
Chapter 3
If I had stayed in my room with my 'illness' then I knew that Clementine would have told the Caretakers that I had been looking a whole lot better when she'd seen me in the dorm recently, so I was forced to rejoin the others for the rest of another mundane day's activities. The main event this afternoon was making perfume from flower petals, which probably sounds fun unless you have done it a few thousand times before. It would have been an essential part of yet another day exactly like the one before, were it not for the fact that today had already gone way off track. No day would ever be the same again.
Having done it so many times before, I could make perfume with my eyes closed - and mine often smelled as if that was exactly what I had done - so while my hands went through the motions, my brain began to scheme. Horrifying though the day's news had been and gut-wrenching though it had been to find Sadie did not want to come with me, I had to guiltily admit that I was finding it all a bit thrilling. That was terrible, wasn't it? These other girls weren't nice but they didn't deserve to die, and here I was, glad that I had the opportunity to do something different that their imminent deaths afforded me. But in a strange way, this was the situation I had been waiting for my whole life - the chance to have an adventure. It was a shame that my best friend hadn't agreed to come with me, but that would prove an adventure all of its own.
That night, when we all went to bed, I stayed awake - yet another wicked sin. Once I was sure that all the others were sound asleep, I slipped out of bed and got dressed. It was irritating that I had nothing more adventure-worthy to wear than my white robes but they were the only clothes I had. I opened the window and peered out. There were still people moving about in the precinct, servants mostly, who worked to a different timetable to the Chosen, but that wasn't going to change anytime soon. I would have to
chance it.
I slipped out of the window and hoisted myself up onto the roof as I had done so many times before in the early hours of the morning. I had never felt more conspicuous in my life than with my brilliant white robes brightly obvious against the dark roof, but it was too late to turn back now. Actually, it probably wasn't, but I still wasn't going to turn back. Reaching the corner of the building, I shimmied down to the ground, then stole along the wall to the window of the herbalist's.
This was where we came when we got cramps or sick or whatever, and I knew that they had something in here that could make a person sleep. I didn't know what it was but it had put Senior Louis out like a light when he had his trouble. I had made a mental note of it at the time, thinking it might be useful in some mischief making, but now I had a more serious purpose in mind.
As I slid the window carefully open from outside, I wondered what the punishment might be for what I was attempting. The thing was that, even though they knew I was to be sacrificed in ten days - closer to nine, now - the Caretakers would still punish me. Was that because they needed my soul to be blameless when they pushed me into a volcano? Or was it that they were a bunch of evil-minded sadists? Either way, I wasn't planning to be caught.
The plan was to dip a handkerchief in the sleeping drug, then wave it under the noses of the other girls to keep them asleep while I dragged Sadie out of bed to the apple cart by the kitchen. I might be able to carry her some of the way but I'd have to wait and see. She might not thank me for it when she woke up but I was determined. I didn't even know what there was to eat out there in the wide world, but I was betting that it was different to what I had eaten every day of my life, and right now, different was more important than better.
It wasn't a perfect plan; in the dark of the herbalist's it was hard to find what I was looking for. I didn't dare light a lamp, so I had to take the vials of drugs to the window and hold them up to examine them in the moonlight, but finally I found what I was looking for and headed for the door.
Her Warrior Harem Page 2