Instead of replying, Mara remained absolutely still and quiet, fighting her disbelief. Lucia’s eyes seemed so warm and kind for a second; she almost believed them. But even the dizzying emotions in her head couldn’t hide the malignant glow in Lucia’s gray eyes as she watched her reaction.
“Your bodyguard's name is Russell. Hopefully, you will treat him with more respect than you offer to me.” Lucia smiled, almost toothily, before walking away and leaving Mara to her misery.
Mara wasn’t ready to give up, though. Lucia hadn’t anticipated the truth about her or the deepness of her devotion and hatred. Mara was vengeful and spiteful when she wanted to be…
“Well, come on then.” Mara smiled at the soldier. With an elegant motion, she strode back towards her room with a sinister smile across her face. Two could play this game. “So, what’s your name?” Mara asked turning her head and favoring the soldier another smile, her fingers running through her black curls. “Russo?”
“It’s Russell.” The soldier said hesitantly. Clearly, Lucia had warned him of her.
“I’m sure we’ll be great friends,” Mara said, ignoring his reaction. She opened the door and let him into her room. “So tell me, what conditions has Lucia given you regarding me?”
“Uh… don’t let you do anything stupid. And, tell her if you are.” The soldier replied hastily, “But she wants me to be respectful of you.”
Mara smiled, kindly at the soldier. “Don’t worry; I’ll treat you kindly too… but take off your helmet first.”
The soldier followed her demands, slowly taking off his helmet. In person, he looked young and off-kilter. Russell had dark brown hair and a pallid face. Mara could almost feel his fear, and it was delicious.
“Proisenta.” Marah said softly. Four glittering daggers floated across the room from her cabinets before positioning themselves beside Russell’s neck and heart. A foot away, Emilie could hear his deep breathing.
“Now, Russell… I have some conditions for you… understand?” Mara asked. “You let me do as I please, and I’ll give you anything you money, food, weapons, anything you want. And, most of all, I won’t kill you.” One of the daggers beside Russell’s neck pressed closer, shaking with anticipation.
“I understand…” Russell said quickly, and his eyes widened in fear.
“Glad I made things clear.” Mara said, retrieving the daggers from the air and taking out her map once more. She knew their arrangement wouldn’t last long, and Lucia would find them out, but she would relish it while it lasted.
Chapter Twelve
The meeting room was full of people by the time we made it through Sybra’s streets and the Kartica. Some of the members nearby were discussing how easy a patrol had been, leaving me to strain my ears to try to hear the details. With the worst of luck, the members lowered their voices. I couldn’t even hear a single word they said.
After my first experience with the meeting room, I would have thought that my legs would turn into jelly-like they had yesterday night during the initiation. I seemed pretty calm today though much to my surprise. I knew eventually that people would get used to the presence of the new recruits. We sat down at a table, and I was glad to relax my muscles from the walk we took back to the Kartica. I had no doubt that they would be aching tomorrow morning from all this training and walking around.
James was already seated in the room, his typical indifferent countenance on his face. Even in the midst of the excitement, he seemed unaffected. I suspected that he was trying to remain calm so that the members wouldn’t feel biased about how the meeting would go or form conclusions on what it was about. It seemed like all the other Ones of Within members were looking forward to knowing what conclusions James had come up with regarding the training schedules.
Emilie, Kat, and Austin were discussing something, but I didn’t join their conversation because I was too distracted in my thoughts. I wondered what the meeting would be about. Maybe it was just about the schedule. I didn’t really want for the training to be broken down by the amount of experience each person had because then I wouldn’t get to see Adam or Emilie as often, and I was really enjoying having them around.
James clapped his hands, and it took seconds for everyone to quiet down. James’s ability to silence to loud crowd with merely a clap of his hands was impressive, yet I suspected part of their immediate silence was due to the fact that everyone was interested in the meeting to get started. A few of the more experienced Ones of Within members stepped over to stand next to James, Shay being one of them.
A few seconds later, James began speaking. “With the new recruits, everything has been very hectic and confusing the past few days. Still, we are pleased to have such wonderful new recruits amongst us. I have already heard great things from the trainers today.” A few people murmured in agreement from the crowd while the rest kept completely silent. “Some of the senior members and I have decided to alter the training system of the Ones of Within.” James motioned to the Ones of Within members beside him. “Instead of all of the members working with people in the same experience level, it will be mixed.”
James paused momentarily, looking around the room. “The Ones of Within training will be broken up into groups of eight. Each person will have a group they are included in. In each group, the members will train together. On the weekdays, the training will be grouped based upon a person’s experience like normal. Those schedules will come out shortly. However, on weekends, evenings, and other times the groups will train together. By knowing about the people you fight beside and take patrols with, you will be able to grow a strong unbreakable bond between the members of your group. Experiences that you have together will make you stronger against the forces of evil that threaten our existence. I find that getting to know your opponents is not always as important as getting to know your associates.”
“By mixing the recruits with more experienced members, we believe they will grow more quickly. Having less experienced members in a group will also help the more experienced members learn patience and how to share knowledge, two very important qualities not taught explicitly by the many courses offered here. We have created these groups with all of the Ones of Within members included and will announce them tonight. From now on, you will train as a group and study your friends as well as yourself. All of you will learn to make decisions together.”
By making the Ones of Within members work in groups where the experience levels were more diverse, the newer members of each group would learn off of the more experienced members. The more experienced members would still get the regular training they needed while the less experienced members would also get the regular training they needed also. Working with a group on the weekends would help create unity and strength in the Ones of Within. The whole group would be stronger if they were able to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Instead of working alone, they would always have others to help them. Together, they would be stronger than they could ever be alone. I could see everyone around me thinking over the idea. Some didn’t look all that pleased, but in general everyone seemed receptive to the changes. Loud voices vibrated through the room. It seemed as though all of the Ones of Within members had started speaking at once.
“Isn’t this great? We might be in your group, after all!” Emilie laughed. Apparently, she had gotten over the discussion from earlier in the restaurant.
James clapped his hands again, and the room quieted again. He spoke a few Jakost words quietly, and four bulletin boards appeared, hovering about chest-height in the air. James handed Shay a few papers from the small circular table beside his chair. “The groups will be announced on these bulletin boards. The title of your groups will be in Jakost. They will be used frequently as the name of your group when you are addressed.”
My eyes remained fastened on the bulletin boards while he talked. The boards were way too far away from me to be able to tell what the white sheets of paper said. I would just have to wait. The last piece of paper was
taped onto the bulletin boards. Before my eyes, the bulletin boards went in opposite directions, each knocking against one of the four walls opposite of the others. I stood up, closely followed by Emilie, and walked over to the closest bulletin board, eyes rapidly searching the papers for anybody’s name I recognized. People swarmed around us, trying to look at the lists. It took me a few minutes to find Natalie Quinn on the list. I was with a group of eight. Kat, Austin, Adam, Emilie, and Dominic were all in my group, but there were two other people I didn’t recognize.
“Emilie,” I whispered, “We’re all together!” I didn’t care who was with us. The only thing that mattered was after all that worrying, and we were in the same group. I looked above at our group name, which was Zeleti.
“What does Zeleti mean?” I asked Emilie. Emilie motioned for me to walk over to the others, who were waiting to see what we had come up with.
“We’re all together! Emilie announced. The reaction received from the words was normal. Emilie and Adam high-fived each other while I hugged everyone else.
“What does Zeleti mean?” I protested before I got distracted.
Emilie turned to me, a smile on her face. “Persistent as always. It means Moon in Jakost.” I wondered why Moon had been the choice of our title. Dominic seemed to be in his own world, a bit withdrawn from the group; I could tell by the way his eyes rested on the table that he was deep in his own thoughts.
“Hello.” The voice I heard from behind me was loud and masculine. I turned my head, wondering who it was. The person who had said the greeting was tall and muscular. He was probably six feet at least, making him tower over me. He had shaggy strawberry blonde hair with pale blue eyes. The man appeared to be in his twenties, but his friendly and slightly comical demeanor made him seem younger.
“Hi,” I said quickly.
“I’m Patrick, part of the new and improved Group Zeleti that was founded approximately 35 seconds ago. I recognized the new recruits,” He said to all of us. I moved to the side to let him through, embarrassed.
“And I am Lyte.” I averted my eyes in the direction of the words. It was the girl who had showed us the first move at sword fighting training this morning. Closer up, she didn’t look nearly as impressive as she did before with a sword in her hand, but I didn’t doubt her strength or experience. On her right hand was a crescent-shaped deep purple tattoo with a silver outline and a few silver specks beside it.
“Nice to meet you both,” I said. “I’m Natalie.”
The others introduced while I got over my brief discomfort. The two new members were both older than all of us. That meant they had more experience than us and knew a lot more than we did. From now on, they would become two of the people we would know better than any of the other Ones of Within members.
“How long have you both been training?” I asked them when the others were done.
“Seven years.” Lyte answered first.
“About ten now” Patrick answered.
They had both been training much longer than I had and were much stronger. I wanted to get better and to have a good first impression on them during training, but I knew improvement would take time.
“Yes, she acts like this a lot. Usually in her own thoughts…” My head rose as Emilie’s words jolting me from my reverie, as though a hand had been placed upon my shoulder. I frowned at Emilie. Had I missed something?
“What did I tell you?” Emilie’s hands splayed out to her sides.
“What did I miss?” I asked.
“Just wondering how you like Aughmortor.” Patrick laughed.
“It’s nice. I like it a lot. Very different from Earth.” I tried not to look too distracted.
Suddenly, a loud clap from James interrupted the talking of the new groups. He looked solemn as he stood before us, pacing back and forth. I knew, from his expression, that something was about to happen.
“Unfortunately, I wish I could leave our conversation at the introduction of new friends and positive changes, but I cannot. I have bad news.” James took a deep breath as the whole group hung on his words. “As we heard, one of the new recruit missions was interrupted by a Shadow Bringer. We brought him into our custody last night and intended to interrogate him today, but unfortunately, he has escaped.” Gasps erupted
James stopped pacing, and his eyes moved slowly over the crowd, his gaze hard and cold. “Last night, the Shadow Bringer was released from prison and is nowhere to be found. We have been following leads today, but we still have yet to find the culprit and believe that he has already left Sybra.”
“How could this happen?” One of the Ones of Within members farther down, our table shouted out. The story seemed crazy; this Shadow Bringer managed to get through Stellah? Leave the Kartica right in front of the Ones of Within noses?
One look from James silenced the member. “As the prophecy mentions, there is a traitor amongst us — maybe more than one. The Larta might have more spies within us than we expected. We need to be prepared for the worse. I do not want to alarm you, and I don’t want to create division amongst our members, but we need to be realistic. We are at war. Our unity is everything in these dismal times.” James clasped his hands together, continuing his intense gaze on the crowd of Ones of Within members. “However, despite the need to remain united, we also need to be safe. Keep your conversations in the halls appropriate. Keep important Ones of Within information to yourself or only discuss it in controlled areas. Be mindful of who you are talking to and what you are discussing. And, lastly, if you have any legitimate leads on potential whereabouts of our missing Shadow Bringer, please bring that information directly to me. That is all.” James gave another clap, and worried voices erupted around the meeting room. At that, he exited the room through the door behind his chair, and the voices only became louder.
Emilie looked shocked like she couldn’t believe what she’d heard. “Is that crazy or what? He’s already been broken out?”
“There must be a lot of spies here,” Adam murmured, barely able to be heard over the crowd. “I hope James has a plan for weeding them out.”
“James says he doesn’t want to divide us but is also asking us to give him information about spies,” I said slowly. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Don’t you think it’s only going to make everyone more suspicious of each other?”
“No, the Ones of Within is a tight group,” Emilie explained, “Which you will see more the longer you are here. I think James is just realistic, but it still sucks all the same.”
I was about the respond, but Shay put a hand on my shoulder, interrupting my words.
“Natalie, James needs to see you, and I need to speak to Emilie.”
I suspected that I was being summoned to answer the questions for record that Emilie had warned me about, but maybe he wanted to ask me about the Shadow Bringer. Despite trying to remain calm, I found myself getting nervous at the thought of talking to James alone. I wasn’t sure why Emilie was needed, though. I quickly glanced around at my group, half-wishing I could stay here.
“I’ll be back.” I followed Emilie and Shay away from the group, feeling eyes on my back.
“See the door behind the chair. James sits in? That leads to his quarters.” Shay said, trying to be helpful, but I could tell she was trying to get rid of me so she could talk to Emilie. I walked away but sent a quick glance behind me at Shay and Emilie. Shay was whispering something in her ear, and Emilie was listening and nodding at her words. There was something unpleasing about the look on Emilie’s face; it seemed half-frightened and half-defiant. At the image of them, I felt a prickle of suspicion. What was so important for Emilie to know that the others couldn’t hear? The quote ‘fraternizing with the enemy’ slipped into my mind before I shook it away, dismissing ridiculous thoughts. Shay and Emilie had brought me here, and Emilie had to be the most supportive member of the Ones of Within member I had met so far. The enemy was outside of Sybra’s gates.
I turned back around before they saw me looki
ng at them. I could feel magic pulsing around the door to James’s quarters as I turned the doorknob. Emilie had said that I would begin to notice its presence eventually. The magic made my heartbeat accelerate. I didn’t doubt that if someone who meant James harm walked into this door, the magical protection would kill them instantly. I gulped, feeling the magic encircle me curiously for a moment before drifting away. The room I entered looked like a workroom. A huge pile of papers lay on the top of the desk. An opened cabinet was stuffed full of books. It was the first time I had ever been in a room alone with him. Even though he was eighteen, he looked like he was twenty, at least, perhaps older. James looked exhausted, the meeting had clearly worn him down, or maybe back here, he could just be the real version of himself instead of the leader of the Ones of Within.
“You wanted me?” I asked, keeping my voice polite.
James drew his eyes up from a sheet of paper before him, nodding. “We need a record of information about you. Just answer some questions and give it back to one of the senior members you saw standing beside me tonight.” James stood up and walked up to me, so he was about a foot away. He handed me the sheet of paper he had been staring at and a writing utensil that looked a bit like a stick of black chalk. I took it, self-consciously.
“Thanks, I’ll get it done as soon as possible.” I held the paper in a tight grip and felt exceedingly uncomfortable in James’s presence. I’d never been so close to him, and his presence was disconcerting. There was something about his attitude right now that seemed to tell me that he knew something about myself that I didn’t even know. And, even though he was as expressionless as ever, I felt like he was disappointed in what he had learned.
“How was your first day?” James asked. His deep blue eyes were peaceful and serene, even though I wasn’t buying it.
“It went well, I think. I’m excited to be apart of the Ones of Within.”
“That’s excellent. I hope you enjoy the days to come then.” James turned and walked back to his desk. I left his room, slightly baffled by the whole interaction. I headed straight to my group, noticing that Emilie had already joined them. I hurried over, hoping that I didn’t look too nervous.
Secret of Words Page 18