“How was your day, your Highness?” Mirren asked me, with a straight face. I grinned.
“It was very enjoyable. How was your day, Mirren?” I asked her cheerfully.
“Very enjoyable too,” she said, and her face broke into a smile despite her attempts to remain serious. She rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said, as she opened the front door, and I followed her cheerfully out to the waiting car.
Nothing could spoil my happy mood; not even Jonah’s fussing and bowing as I climbed into the back of the car. Morgan climbed in beside me, and Mirren followed him, leaving Jonah to sit in the front of the car with the guard.
I couldn’t look at Morgan on the way to our class. Every time I glanced at him, he glanced at me too, and he was still trying not to laugh. I had to look away because our driver was one of the guards who’d followed me to school this morning and he kept looking at me suspiciously in the rear view mirror.
Our weapons class was held in a rented industrial shed and we walked through a roller door into a wide open area shielded from the outside world by screens. Large, industrial fans turned in the ceiling and the shed walls smelt of unsealed cement and metal shavings. We were obviously working on our bow skills today as our instructor had set up two cylindrical, human sized targets at the far end of the shed, and they’d been marked with coloured circles at the target zones. There were also various targets suspended from the ceiling by ropes and there were two large, free standing industrial fans blasting air on us as well. Our bow training always involved learning to hit moving and standing targets in different environments, and in different wind conditions. Sometimes, if there was a convenient, and suitably isolated, location nearby, we were taken hunting in order to further hone our skills. In this time segment though, hunting in general wasn’t accepted by the locals, so we used cloth targets, ropes, and fans to practice instead.
I chose a bow from the ones on a rack and Morgan chose one too before we headed to the quivers that stood on stands beside the bow racks.
“Warm up,” barked our instructor, in a loud voice. She was short and unsmiling, and her steely grey hair was braided tightly down her back. She stood behind us with her arms folded and I took an arrow and fitted it to my bow. I glanced at Morgan who’d fitted an arrow to his bow too. He grinned.
“After you,” he said, and I was aware of him watching me as I raised my bow and lined up my target…..
I missed of course. My arrow fell short and our instructor let out her breath sharply and shook her head. I pressed my lips together. How was I supposed to concentrate with Morgan standing right beside me? He was still grinning as he raised his bow and I frowned as his arrow landed perfectly in one of the circular markings on the padded cylinders. I ground my teeth together. Somehow, I’d have to find a way to ignore his presence, and I breathed out slowly as I loaded another arrow determinedly into my bow. I rarely shot my arrows wide of their target and I certainly didn’t intend to miss again….
We practiced for the next clock turn and, when we were down to our last few arrows, our instructor asked us to aim for six small, cloth targets which were swinging from ropes at the far end of the shed.
I’d managed to focus solely on my bow after I missed my first shot and I loaded and released my last few arrows in quick succession. Each arrow lodged itself firmly into one of the tiny, cloth targets and I was finally able to relax as I turned to watch Morgan fit the last of his arrows into his bow. He frowned slightly and, when I smiled at the expression of concentration on his face, he hesitated and adjusted his stance.
This time, it was Morgan’s arrow which fell short of its target and he glanced at me and let out his breath as if it was somehow my fault that he’d missed. I continued to smile. We were even now……..
That night, I sat on my bed and turned my Nomadic Era coin over and over in my hand. Beneath the leather that bound it, my wrist felt too warm again and I held the coin in my palm as I fidgeted absently with the leather bands. The bands themselves felt warmer than usual too and it wasn’t the first time I’d noticed this. My wrist had felt strangely warm on and off over the last few days. I shrugged as I stashed the coin in the pocket of one of my jackets which hung neatly in my closet. My wrist wasn’t painful, just warm, and I doubted it was anything to worry about.
I undressed in the semi darkness and, when I lay in my bed, I smiled to myself because Morgan thought I was beautiful……and tonight, I slept almost straight away……… and I didn’t listen to my music at all………
CHAPTER 11:
We only had two days of school left before it closed for the holidays, which meant we only had two days until we left this segment for good to begin our final challenges. And, on each of those two days, Morgan tried to convince me to miss school again so we could travel somewhere together. He tried everything. He told me he knew of a marker where we could ride the world’s biggest roller coaster, and of a marker where we could eat the best pizza he’d ever tasted. He said he knew of a marker where we could join a tent city peace protest and of a marker where we could go wild yak hunting with a local tribe. He also said he knew of a marker where we could swim in the most beautiful rock pools he’d ever seen and he told me the water was always warm at this marker, and that the sun was always shining. He said the water at this particular marker was perfectly clear and that thousands of tiny, colourful starfish lived in pure white sand on the bottom of those rock pools……I was tempted by that one and I think he could tell I almost gave in, but, at the last minute, I once again refused to travel. My guards were already suspicious and they were being much more vigilant since they’d lost sight of us on Wednesday. They followed us more closely than they’d ever followed me before and, while Morgan assured me he could still lose them without any trouble at all, I didn’t want either of us to lose our pendants. I didn’t want to put Mirren in any danger of being found out either, and I wanted us to spend time with Josh before we had to say goodbye to him for the very last time. Morgan rolled his eyes at this last reason, and he wouldn’t accept it as a valid excuse, but he did suggest it would be kinder not to tell Josh that we weren’t coming back to his school.
“That way, he won’t have to spend his holidays pining for you,” Morgan said, with amusement, and I frowned at him. “He’s smart enough. He’ll work it out for himself when you don’t turn up next term,” he added dryly.
I took his advice, but I think it was because I’d found I was a coward when it came to goodbyes.
Mirren was completely relaxed around me now and it was a shame we only had two days to spend like this together. She let me help her prepare meals and she ate with me whenever she could. She remained tight lipped about her man, but she talked to me about everything else. We spent our tutoring sessions talking about the different time segments we’d lived in and I told her about my other tutors. She told me about growing up in the Community in Aldiris and she told me her mother and father were textile weavers. Apparently, she’d been identified at an early age for scholarship and she’d attended the Aldiris University with her class of scholars while her siblings had learnt the family business. She had three sisters and a brother, and when she talked about them, she sounded a little sad. But, she assured me she didn’t miss them all of the time. Mirren asked me about my life in the Palace, and when she said I’d truly looked like a Princess on the night of the Tournament Celebration, I rolled my eyes. I told her I was quester not a Princess, and she looked at me a little sadly again and reminded me gently that Morgan was a quester too. I knew that, but I had no control over my feelings for him and Mirren knew that too. I changed the topic quickly and we talked about Jonah and his recipes instead. Mirren hadn’t realised he was a good cook and she said she might ask him for some hints, because she could only make very simple food.
Morgan and Jonah ran with us each morning now and I took all my scheduled classes with Morgan as well. We became combat practice partners, officially, and I was able to beat him in a sword training session too, w
hich he didn’t appreciate. He said, I cheated because I made up my own moves instead of following those we’d learnt in our classes. I didn’t tell him I’d learnt those moves from a Samurai warrior in a time segment I’d lived in when I was very young.
When Saturday finally arrived, I ran with Morgan behind Mirren and Jonah in the cool morning air. There was no reprieve for us from our schedule just because this was our last few clock turns of official, tutor directed training.
“Someone else will get to enjoy Jonah’s cooking as of tomorrow,” said Morgan, a little wistfully, as we passed the park gate and continued along the jogging path to begin another lap.
“New students will move into our houses. Poor Mirren will have to worry again,” I said quietly, and Morgan glanced at me.
“No one will move into your house. It’s reserved for Royalty only,” he said, and I looked at him suspiciously, but he definitely wasn’t joking. I shook my head.
“I didn’t know that. No one tells me anything,” I muttered. Morgan grinned.
“Mirren will move back to the house on the other side of mine. Our people own that one too and Jonah told me she’s been the tutor assigned to that house for the last two turns,” he said as we ran past a couple jogging together.
“At least, our first morning in the Quest house will be the seventh day, so there’ll be no morning run,” I said cheerfully. My lungs were burning as usual.
When we finished our run, we went back to our houses and, after the morning meal, I packed my clothes and put Josh’s music cartridge into my largest, leather travelling bag. I packed all my home clothes but I left my school uniform, and some other Synthetic Era clothes, hanging in my closet in the house. Mirren was packing also because she had to move too and she reminded me to get my freshly washed clothes from the washing basket.
I helped Mirren prepare lunch, which we ate early, seeing as I had to be ready to travel just after set twelve. We ate our lunch slowly together, but eventually, it was time for us to collect our bags and for each of us to go our separate ways. That was the moment I realised I may not see Mirren again, or if I did, it may not be for a very long time. We stood together at the front door and Mirren let out her breath sadly and smiled.
“Be careful Livia,” she said gently, and I knew she wasn’t just talking about my safety in the challenges. I nodded.
“You too, Mirren,” I said, and an unexpected tremor had crept into my voice. Mirren smiled at me fondly and she smoothed my hair before she opened the front door for me. I could already hear Morgan’s voice as he spoke with Jonah outside my gate.
We left together in the same manner as we had for the orientation weekend. Mirren and Jonah watched us from the path and we double checked our pendant settings before walking onto the centre of the grassed area. I glanced at Morgan and I smiled because we’d travelled alone together a few times now. Morgan grinned too and we signalled to Jonah and Mirren in the manner of questers as the air patterns began to move slowly around us. Jonah and Mirren put two fingers to their brows to signal to us too and, as the temperature dropped, I was pleased to notice Jonah had completely forgotten to bow to me.
The park disappeared all of a sudden and the dark blue pain seeped into my bones, and it radiated through me as we travelled through the circle of time. This was the life of a quester and I was still smiling as the darkness became colours…..and we found ourselves standing in the walled courtyard at the back of Zurina’s house.
“Move to the side please.”
Zurina’s crisp instructions were familiar and, as soon as Dominic and Seth arrived, the first thing she did was ask us to speak the words ‘open’ and ‘close’ into the house control panel so she could program our voice patterns to the front and back doors. I glanced at Morgan and he tried not to laugh.
Once again, as we had at orientation, we followed Zurina through the house. The Early Era shield had not been replaced on the wall and we passed by the solemn array of wooden, name plaques and the door to the quester’s locker room. I expected Zurina to escort us up to our rooms again but, instead, she paused as we passed the dining room and she pointed to a basket of small parchment rolls and a glass jar of writing sticks which sat on a wooden stool by the window.
“There are parchments here for your convenience. Please pass your messages to one of the guards by Tuesday morning and be aware that incoming messages from Aldiris will be distributed sometime around the evening meal on a Tuesday night,” she said briskly, before she continued along the hall. Again, I expected we’d go up to our rooms, but Zurina paused again, at the sitting room this time, and she walked into the room itself before she instructed us to leave our bags in the hallway and to come in and take a seat. We eased our leather bags off our shoulders and sat on the sofas while Zurina folded her arms and tapped one of her fingers impatiently against arm. When we were seated, she began to speak to us briskly in her all too familiar, commanding voice.
“Your first quest challenge will be one where you will find yourself in a hostile situation or environment without prior preparation. I have researched your markers intensively and I’ve also travelled to each of them over the last clock turn, so you can be sure that I’m well aware of the dangers that each will present. You may arm yourselves with a bow and your quest will be simply to survive the dangers at your marker, using whatever means you can, for twenty four turns of the clock. You will be graded as partners and a pass will be given to those of you who return to the marker here at the allocated time, which I expect of all of you, by the way,” said Zurina sternly, as she folded her arms and glared at us. “May your quest be short and your rewards be ever long. You leave in a quarter of a clock turn from now and, depending on your marker setting, you may return just before, or just after, midday tomorrow. When you return, the midday meal will be served,” said Zurina briskly, and we stared at her for a moment before Caspian leant forward in his seat.
“How close is the setting marker?” he asked Zurina curiously, and Zurina almost smiled as she pointed towards the front of the house.
“The setting marker is in the front courtyard, Caspian. There are two markers here, almost upon each other and you’ll find their settings written on a parchment in your lockers. I suggest you memorise them and I expect you to always return here through the marker from which you leave. As you can imagine Caspian, having both a rising, and a setting marker, right at our doorstep makes this an ideal location for a Quest house,” she said, and she gazed at us all for a moment before she asked us dryly if were all ready to go. We stood up hastily and hurried towards the stairs.
“Wear a warm jacket,” said Morgan quietly, as he hurried up the stairs beside me and I nodded. We could always take our jacket off if we found ourselves in warm weather but, even with our emergency vest, it was going to be difficult to warm up if we found ourselves in a mini ice age, or a blizzard.
It only took me a moment to swap my jacket for my warmest one and, when I was done, I placed my travelling bag inside the wooden chest at the end of my bed. As I hurried from the room, I noticed Erin folding her clothes neatly, item by item, but I left it to Imogen to tell her there was no time for that. Outside the dorm room, I met Seth in the hallway and he paused and bowed his head before he spoke to me in a rush.
“It’s a surprise to be going so soon isn’t it your Highness?” he said, as he let me run down the stairs in front of him.
“It’s Livia, and it couldn’t be better if you ask me,” I called back to him, and he smiled a little and followed me as I ran quickly through the house towards the locker room. I met Morgan coming out of the dining room and I looked at him curiously, but he looked back at me innocently before he followed me into the locker room too. We changed our boots for the heavy duty ones in our locker and Morgan and I were first of us to leave the room. We both carried our backpacks, bows, and a quiver of arrows, and we’d remembered to put our emergency cylinders into our inside jacket pockets too. As we passed Erin and Imogen in the hall, Morgan spoke t
o me very quietly.
“I convinced Marko to give us three slabs of last night’s bread so we won’t have to starve,” he said, as we walked towards the front door. I shook my head. Morgan was almost always hungry and I wasn’t surprised he’d immediately thought to take something for us to eat.
“Does Marko know he gave us this food?” I asked Morgan suspiciously and he looked at me and frowned.
“Yes, he knows. I told him he makes the best food I’ve ever tasted and he gave it to us gladly,” said Morgan, innocently.
“I thought you said Jonah makes the best food you’ve ever tasted,” I said.
“Jonah does make the best food I’ve ever tasted,” said Morgan, and he grinned as we walked out through the open front doors to where Zurina waited for us in the middle of the front courtyard.
Dominic and Seth soon joined us too, followed by Erin and Imogen, and Caspian hurried into the courtyard behind Evangeline as he stuffed his book of parchments into his inside jacket pocket.
Zurina gave us our marker settings one at a time as she sent us on our way and she sent Erin and Imogen off first, to a year in the Nomadic Era. They disappeared together into a year which was well known to be a turbulent time of war and famine in many parts of the earth. Dominic and Seth were sent off next, and they were sent to a marker in the Discovery Era. When they disappeared and the air patterns calmed, Caspian and Evangeline walked out into the very centre of the courtyard. They were given a setting in the Synthetic Era which corresponded to the time of the Meltdown. As they set their dials, Evangeline muttered something to Caspian who frowned at her and shook his head firmly.
“Caz,” said Morgan suddenly. “Don’t share it with her unless she’s asks you nicely,” he said and he grinned at the expression on Evangeline’s face as he threw Caspian a slab of the bread Marko had given him from the kitchen. Caspian caught it neatly and grinned as well, and, as soon as he’d added it to his pack, the air patterns in the courtyard began to move. As the temperature dropped, Caspian and Evangeline disappeared too, leaving only Morgan and I in the courtyard with Zurina. She was already frowning at Morgan on account of the bread.
TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) Page 18