The man was about to break as I kept my eyes narrowed in on him. I was trying to remember if he had been there and taken part in killing the two most important people in my life. He tilted his head back to his radio and said, “Sir, I’m going to need back up.”
“Good.” I snarled.
I noticed his throat move, and an audible swallowing sound hiccupped in the back of his throat. I leaned down in almost a crouch and then launched myself straight upward. With this momentum, I was able to leap onto his shoulders and pull him to the ground. I started to beat the man for holding me back, and as he slipped out of consciousness, I heard distant footsteps coming toward me with vigor.
“THAT’S ENOUGH.”
They stopped in their tracks, and I ran to the other side of the hall. I tried to remember which room I had come from.
“William.” His sharp, booming tone made my muscles seize up as if it was a direct order, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. “That’s right, you are in my clan. You gave your loyalty to me. It belongs to no one else.”
My eyes widened, and I wanted to cry. The man that was responsible for the murder of everyone I have loved. I loathed this man. My upper lip curled in distaste and anger.
“Kneel,” he ordered.
I felt my body struggle to move down. I fought as hard as I could, but his gaze was crippling. My knees buckled, and I fell to my knees, my head bowed, and completely submitted. I was utterly degraded.
“Good boy.” He sneered.
Hatred and loathing, I tell you. Completely loathed him.
“Clean yourself up. Dinner is in an hour,” he snapped and then turned to walk away. He acted as if I was nothing. I wasn’t a threat. I wasn’t an ally. I wasn’t a stranger. I wasn’t his son. I didn’t matter to him. The one man that I had beaten pulled himself from the ground and looked at me. You could tell both eyes were going to be black and swollen. His lip and brow were split open. Then there was the bright red spot on his jaw that would probably swell and bruise before the day was up. But none of that mattered either. All that mattered were the words he spat at me and the look in his eyes.
“I’m going to enjoy ripping you to pieces,” he said with a sadistic chuckle and then walked away, rubbing at the blood coming from his split lip.
I curled my upper lip and growled.
He just scoffed and walked away. I gave one last growl before turning around and taking a quick sniff in the air. Extending my senses, I could see my own scent from walking through the hall from the room I had woken up in like a magical pathway. The gold color floated in the air and swirled around me as I made my way back. In the room, my golden scent was mixed in with other colors. That’s one thing I learned, everyone has their own fingerprint and scent. So that’s what gets left when someone moves around. There was a feathery pink scent that had been all through the room. It was nice and pleasant. I followed it to the other door in the room and opened it to find a closet with a handful of clothes.
I moved my way to the bathroom to clean up and then get changed. I didn’t know where I was supposed to go when I was done. After I changed, I walked back down the hall, but as I went this time, I looked briefly into the other rooms. They were all alike. Just like mine. Minimal with a bed and bathroom. There was nothing else.
I checked the door at the end of the hallway. Locked. The handle wouldn’t move. I waited there until there was a clicking sound that came from the door and then it opened.
“Time to go,” the man said. He motioned for me to walk in front of him.
I walked ahead of him. “Where am I going?”
“Just walk.” He pushed me forward.
I growled back at him.
We came into a large room with bench tables, several young boys already sitting at them eating. As we entered the room, it went silent as I was pushed along the side where he nudged me into a seat away from others at the end of one table. He stood over me as a woman that had the same pleasant scent that had been in my room set down a plate that was full of meats and another one that had a tan slop looking soup. I had never eaten anything that looked like this before.
I looked around at the plates and bowls sitting in front of the other boys in the room. They all had the slop-like soup. I was the only one who had the plate full of meats.
The woman left and walked back into an area I’m assuming was a kitchen. I lowered my head and watched from under my brow as the other boys continued to eat their meals. Every once in a while, someone would look over toward me and whisper out of the corner of their mouth at their table mates.
I sniffed over the meat to see if it had been cooked with anything poisonous or dangerous. As I picked up the first rib, I sniffed it from end to end before I took my first bite. I dug into the meat and pushed the slop to the side.
“Are you going to eat that?” A small voice came from the other side of the table.
I lifted my brow and pushed the bowl of sludge toward him. He looked like he could eat more anyways. He seemed thinner and smaller than a lot of the other boys that had been looking around at us.
“Thanks,” he said quietly and then rushed off.
I watched the room of boys as they watched this one littler boy walk back to his seat to eat the gross slop I had given him. He sat and ate with a speed I couldn’t even understand.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” another boy whispered in my direction.
I turned to him and snapped, “Why not?”
“Because he’s weak and won’t survive the trials.” The other boy snarled at the smaller boy I had given my slop to.
As I noticed the boys in the room, I found we had several things in common. First and foremost, all boys, all between the ages of nine and probably thirteen, and we all were large for our age—that is except for the boy that was eating the slop I had given to him.
“What trials?” I asked.
“The Trials,” he said, “we all have to go through four years of trials before we get placed in our clan formations.”
“What are the trials?” I asked, feeling annoyed this boy didn’t really answer my question.
“The trials are what all of us go through to prove our loyalty and our strength through achievements and other tasks,” another boy said.
“Why don’t you know about them?” the first boy said. “Who are you?”
“No one,” I replied.
“You’re obviously someone; otherwise, you wouldn’t be here, so who are you?”
As the noise started up, more boys turned to join in to figure out who I was. The commotion got so loud that it seemed overwhelming. My ears started to buzz from the sound. As I started to stand to get them to stop, the door opened with a bang, and six men entered before the man I knew as my father followed them in with a menacing look to his already hateful expression. The noise instantly hushed as they watched him walk toward me.
“Ah, my boy, I see you are already making friends,” he said with pride.
I narrowed my eye on him.
He made a great big belly laughing sound and then looked around at all the boys that had started toward me. “You are,” he paused dramatically while looking at everyone, “the lost heir.”
Indistinct chattering started in the background.
“I will never be your heir.” I spat at him.
“You will. I guess it will just take time for you to see it,” he said then looked toward the men who surrounded him. “Take him to the chains.”
The men came at me all at once. Grabbing and gripping at me to hold me down. My heart started to pound, and the next thing I knew, I was stumbling toward the door, and all of the men that had come at me were lying in the floor, beaten to a pulp and barely breathing. The boys in the dining room were all watching me with their mouths agape and a fear I had never seen from anyone.
➣ Chapter 9
Trial or Tribute
The guards ushered us out of the dining hall. A group of older boys looked like they knew exactly what they needed
to be doing. They took the lead. A smaller group of boys looked hesitant but were followers to the first group. Then there was the smallest group of boys that looked weaker than the rest. The one boy I gave the slop to at the very back, alone, kept further away from the rest. I followed him. Watching the different groups of boys with their interactions was interesting. The first group of boys, eager, ready to do whatever it might be that we were going to do.
We came to an edge of a ravine and looked down to see some sort of crazy military training obstacle course. I wasn’t going to shrink back from it, but I wasn’t ready to go head first and be the first one to attempt it. I watched as the first group of boys looked at it; they were laughing and smirking with arrogance and pushing on each other.
“Listen up!” One of the head enforcers snapped toward our group, “Fastest run time is two-thirty-six. Average run time is three-twenty-four. If you are anywhere past that, you will be released of your duties.”
What the hell does that mean? I couldn’t believe how cavalier they were being with lives. Would they actually kill us? I looked into the lead guard’s eyes and could see a killer behind his dark pulls. I knew then that I had to do everything possible to make it through so I could survive to get out of this hellhole.
I watched as the first group of eager boys jumped down from the edge of the short cliff and started running at full speed. The next group started with the instructor’s indication to go, and then the last group, the group I was now with, was the last to go. When the instructor indicated for us to go, I caught a look at the younger, smaller, weaker boy that wanted a little more food. He was already struggling. Someone had tripped him, and he got started with a late jump off the cliff compared to the others in our group. I kept an eye on him as I moved my way through the course. He wasn’t going to make it. He’s so much smaller and can’t keep up.
I turned around and went back to him. “You’ve got to get up,” I ordered him.
He looked at me, ready to give up.
“NOW!” I shouted.
He got up, stumbling, and made his way next to me. I figured if I could do anything in this life, I would make sure this boy knew he had someone in his corner. Even though I hadn’t been raised with other kids around, I knew how to be a decent person. I jogged with him as he pushed himself through at my side. I made him keep up with me.
We were the last to cross the finish line. I wasn’t even exhausted, but the boy next to me was barely able to breathe. I knew he would develop more and be able to handle the physical exertion. He still looked younger than everyone else. Probably the youngest of the lot. As we passed the guards and the instructor, the looks on their faces were pure disgust. I wanted to tear them apart. I hated how they looked at us. Especially me, they looked at me as if I actually did something wrong.
As the day continued, we were forced through more tests and exhausted by the time they let us sit down to eat anything. I watched the weak boy the entire day. Stuck by his side, I wasn’t going to let anything happen to him. I could see it in his eyes every time he looked at me. He was thankful and scared.
He sat across from me, not eating. I looked up to find him watching me. Everything I was doing.
“What?” I asked, feeling irritated.
“Nothing,” he said quickly and looked away.
I sighed. “What’s your name?” I asked.
Startled by my question, he flinched and then said, “Jamie.”
“I’m William,” I said as I took another bite of the Salisbury steak type of meat and mixed it with potatoes.
“I know. You’ve been talked about for the last five years.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re his son.”
“I don’t claim him.”
“You should. He’ll help you survive this. He’d never want to see his own son fail.”
“I don’t care if I fail. He’s killed everyone I’ve ever cared about. My mother. My grandmother. The people who had cared for me for nearly a decade.”
Jamie hadn’t made a sound until I looked up and saw tears in his eyes. I wouldn’t let the kindness of this small boy wriggle into my conscious.
“Stop that,” I snapped.
“I’m not doing anything.” He sniffled.
A chair scraped across the room, and the boy that had come up to us this morning was headed toward us. His expression was determined, and his stride was fast. As he got closer, I could tell we were in for a fight.
“What are you doing? Are you crying? You’re such a baby.” He sneered. “Yeah, baby.” His voice taunted Jamie. “Baby. Baby.”
“Why don’t you back the hell off?” I growled low as I kept my head down.
“Fu—”
I rose and snapped my hand out and around his neck. My face only inches away from his. “I said back the hell off. Didn’t you hear me? Or are you just too stupid to understand?”
His eyes were wide as he tried to take in a breath. No guards tried to pull me off him. In fact, several of them stood smirking at the scene unfolding in front of them.
Finally, as he started to turn red, trying to tear at my hand, I dropped him to the floor where he coughed and gasped to get air back into his lungs.
“I said back the hell off.” I growled and then sat back down and scooped another bite of Salisbury steak with my spoon into my mouth.
As I finished eating, one of the guards came forward to get everyone’s attention. “Everyone to Rugger’s Hall,” the guard announced.
The boys started to file out. Jamie got up and came to my side. “We’ve got to go.”
He waited just a little longer until I started to join in at the back of the line of boys. “Why are we going to Hugger’s Hall?”
“It’s where they tell us who isn’t coming back.”
I rolled my eyes at the idea of it. But as I watched some of the boys file in and sit auditorium style in chairs lined around a stage, I began to wonder. Some of the boys looked overly nervous and some extremely smug. I wanted to crush that boy’s face in who decided to make everyone else miserable. He was just a bully. I sat next to Jamie, and he folded his arms around his frail body.
“Don’t be worried,” I said.
“Me? I’m more worried about you. The stories that I’ve heard if anyone even remotely tries to help someone else… it’s horrific,” he said as his eyes finally fell on mine. That was when I saw the true nature of what was going to happen.
“I don’t want you to be worried about me. I won’t be backed into a corner,” I said, feeling very determined.
He looked down and away from me as he very quietly said, “You’re the first friend I’ve made in a long time. I’m not going to let anything to happen to you.”
That was when a man came onto the stage and started to speak. “It is with great honor that I am introducing our Chief Commander of Military Intelligence, Franco Fabrizio.”
Everyone started to clap for this horrible man. The man who killed my mother and everyone I’ve ever cared for. I sat there with my arms sitting loosely on my thighs. He would get no applause from me.
“Thank you. It is an honor to produce such fine young men. The war is getting worse. With the night attacks and constants raids, we need to be able to strike fast and hard at our enemies.”
What the hell was he talking about? I’d never heard anything about night attacks or raids. I’d lived for nearly a decade in complete isolation, learning how to control my temper and working through my rage while learning about the mac tire history. Aodhan had taught me so much from our walks. He would have to have known something happened. I wanted him to look for me, but it was my fault Diane and John were dead. Why would anyone come looking for me?
As my father left the stage, someone else came up and started reading off a list. Looking around, I saw so many nervous eyes waiting to hear their name be called. I hadn’t cared. I’d rather be dead than to be here with him.
“William Fabrizio.”
There it was. I slum
ped down in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Jamie Dawson.”
Whispers wrapped through the auditorium. Everyone was looking around. I looked to my left to Jamie, who had sat next to me. His jaw had completely dropped, and his eyes were bugging out of his head.
“Di…did he just… was that me?” he asked.
“Is that your last name?” I answered.
“Mm-hm.”
“Then that’s you.”
“How?” he said and then looked over at me. “It’s because of you. It has to be. I would have never… you saved my life. You have my loyalty.” He took his right fist and brought it to left peck.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, blowing off the sentiment.
➣ Chapter 10
Getting Too Close
There were a handful of boys that didn’t make it through the trials. They were escorted out, and their place was empty that night when we ate. I hadn’t gotten a chance to know who they were. They couldn’t have been that bad of people but just the fact that they were here, and wanted to be here, meant I didn’t want to get to know them.
“It’s weird, right?” Jamie said, leaning in toward me from across the table.
“What?”
“They’re just gone.”
“Why do you even care? Didn’t they torture you?”
“Well, yeah.”
“So, who cares?”
“I guess no one,” he murmured.
Yeah, I felt bad, but what was I supposed to do? And now I felt bad for what I said. But it was too late to take it back now.
A Beast Among Gods (The Mac Tire Chronicles) Page 4