Eos (The Eos Dawn Series Book 1)

by Jen Guberman

  “How do you expect to stay here and not get caught?”

  “We could just hide away in one of the darker parts, near the entrance of the cavern. We have a little bit of food left—it’ll suffice,” Zane answered.

  “I could share some of my rations with you guys. I’ll save what I can manage. But what if someone sees you?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when and if we come to it.”

  “Eos?” I heard Paren call out sleepily. “Eos, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Go back to sleep,” I said hurriedly, not wanting him to see my visitors.

  Too late.

  Paren grabbed Zane’s shirt from behind, pulling him away from me and pushing him up against a wall by his shoulders.

  “Woah, hey, watch it!” Zane snarled.

  “Who are you?” Paren demanded.

  “I’m a friend of Eos’s,” he answered calmly.

  Someone across from us began shiftily turning in his sleep and groaning from the disturbance.

  “Why are you here?” Paren asked in a hushed hiss.

  “I’m here to help Eos out.”

  Paren looked over his shoulder at me.

  “That’s Zane,” I said. “This is Leanne.”

  “You can call me Lamb.” She turned her lips up in a forced smile.

  Paren released Zane, who was now rubbing his shoulders bitterly.

  “How did they—” he started.

  I filled him in. After a little convincing, Paren agreed to help keep Zane and Lamb hidden from the rest of Bellicose. However, he didn’t seem so keen on the idea of me training to fight Cromwell.

  “You don’t stand a chance,” he protested.

  “Way to have faith in me,” I sneered.

  He gave me an unamused look.

  “Fine! I don’t stand a chance now,” I emphasized. “But you can train me. All three of you.”

  “Those two are thieves, what do they know about fighting?” Paren spat.

  “Hey, don’t forget I’m a thief too, and I may not be great at fighting, but I can defend myself well enough.”

  “We just have to train you to go on the offensive, and not just the defensive,” Lamb suggested.

  “Those two are thieves—they won’t be any good about teaching you how to fight!” Paren insisted.

  “They’re my friends—stop referring to them as ‘thieves’,” I growled through gritted teeth.

  “They are thieves—” Paren retorted, flinging little droplets of spit as he spoke.

  “So am I,” I replied quickly, clenching my fists at my sides. “What are you not understanding?”

  “Fine. But let me help.”

  “Of course—”

  “But—” Zane cut in.

  “I could use all the help I can get,” I said, glaring at Zane.

  “I have somewhere we can go,” Paren said. “No one really knows about it. Just a separate room in the caverns.”

  “That’d be perfect,” Lamb said.

  “Grab a couple lanterns and follow me,” Paren said, swiftly making his way toward the common area.

  There was no one in the common room except one of the few women in Bellicose. Her face was covered in skin tags and scars, with patches of missing hair on her scalp. She sat slumped over in a chair, unconscious and snoring.

  “Quickly,” Paren said as we hurried our paces to keep up.

  He darted under the low ceiling of the other entrance into the common room and out into the dark part of the cave. Holding his lantern steady ahead of him, he danced gracefully over jutting rocks as if this was a rehearsed routine. As for Lamb, Zane, and myself, we stumbled clumsily, occasionally tripping over loose rocks. Paren took a sharp left, and a couple of turns later, we found ourselves in a room with a high ceiling like the common area, but without the hanging bulbs. There were a couple tables, but these were significantly more rotted than any of the others in Bellicose. We set all of the lanterns down on tables, illuminating the space.

  “This is perfect,” Lamb squeaked, clapping. “We can start right away! The sooner you’re ready, E, the sooner we can get out.”

  “Speaking of getting out,” I started. “I know how you guys got in here in the first place, but how did you know I was here?”

  Zane smiled, reaching into a burlap backpack and pulling out my dagger.

  “Oh my gosh, Zane! Where did you find it?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “I wanna’ hear it.”

  “Alright,” Zane laughed, looking at Lamb and Paren for objections. When he realized they had none, he proceeded.

  “So, at Delaisse, Tanner told me that he had already talked to you and told you I went home. He didn’t know where we were from, and I assumed you didn’t tell him. At first, I was skeptical that you would just go back to Avid, but I knew you weren’t going back to your city. I decided to look for you around Delaisse when I got away from Tanner. He wasn’t too eager to let me go, but I escaped and then I searched—with no luck… Though I did find the Delaisse key—it was in the sewers where we were, in a little spray-painted box. I found a bunch of other things in the box with the key. Apparently, the people of Delaisse didn’t care what the key could be for, they just thought the box was a good place to hide drugs.” Zane chuckled. “Eventually, I figured maybe you really did go back to Avid, so I began the trek back. When I got there, I had to wait by the gate carefully for a couple of days before a truck finally came with rations. I snuck into Avid by jogging alongside the truck as it came through the gate. Back in Avid, I searched your room and I knew you hadn’t been there, so I asked Lamb about it. She said she hadn’t seen you, but I had to explain to her why the two of us had been missing so long.”

  “That’s when we decided to pack up some supplies and head out in search of you,” Lamb added. “He thought maybe you went to a different exile town to look for another key. When it was dark that night, we went to the dump to look for things that might be useful to bring. We didn’t find a whole lot—these bags Zane and I have now, some rope… random stuff like that. But then, there was something shiny that caught my eye, so I picked it up, and it was this blade, but it was covered in dried blood.”

  “Why would they send my dagger off to an exile town?” I asked.

  “I don’t know if they meant to—they just combine garbage from the cities and some gets sent to Avid. If they have a big load of garbage, they bring it somewhere else because Avid can’t fit all of it. I don’t think they really cared about the dagger itself—they just needed to confiscate it from you,” Lamb answered.

  “She showed me the dagger and I told her I gave it to you. The only reason I could think of that it could end up there is either if you went all the way to Avid just to throw it away—which didn’t seem logical—or you had gotten caught with it and had it confiscated. The dried blood is what led me to believe you got caught doing something a bit... messy. I had a hard time believing it, but nonetheless, I thought that maybe you were here, so we decided to make this our first guess. A couple days later of hiding in Lamb’s room, a truck came one night to Avid to deliver rations. Just as it was about to leave, we threw ourselves into the back and hitched a ride. They stopped at Delaisse before Bellicose, so we just hopped out and hid until they were done, then we continued until we got here,” Zane said. “And you know the rest.”

  Zane held the dagger’s hilt out for me.

  “I cleaned it for you,” he said.

  “Thanks,” I smiled, turning it over in my hands, admiring the way the lantern light made it glimmer.

  “You ready to fight, darling?” Paren smiled, teasingly putting up his fists and bouncing in place.

  “‘Darling’?” Zane snickered in a whisper to Lamb.

  Lamb elbowed Zane in the side without her pleasant expression changing or ever even looking at him. Zane hunched over and grabbed at his side, glaring at Lamb. She looked down at him, crouched over to eye-level, and shrugged with a full smile.

  “
Yeah,” I said. “I’m ready.”

  “I want you to fight me. Pretend I’m Cromwell. I won’t actually hurt you, but you just do you. I’m just going to try to block.”

  “Alright.”

  I awkwardly stuck my fists up. I crept closer to Paren slowly and threw my left fist weakly toward his chest. Without even trying to block me, he put his hands down and just looked down at his chest.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “A punch,” I answered plainly.

  “Is that what you call it?” His laugh echoed in the room.

  “I’m right-handed, but my wrist is still hurt,” I said, pointing out my splint. “You should know—you put the splint on.”

  “Give it,” he said, holding his hands out.

  I looked at him confused.

  “Just give me your wrist. I want to look at it.”

  He looked it over for a few moments, gently pressing on a few points on my skin.

  “It isn’t broken,” he said surely.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “Look,” he said, turning my wrist over. “It isn’t swollen or anything anymore. It isn’t even bruised. Has it even hurt in a while?”

  “Not for a few days, really, but I’ve been worried to take the splint off.”

  “You’re fine. It’ll probably be a bit stiff, and I think it is a good idea to avoid punching with it, at least for now. You know what? Let’s focus on other things besides punching right now,” he said, chucking my splint to the floor.

  “Like what?” I asked, rolling my freed wrist around and wiggling my fingers.

  “You’re significantly smaller than Cromwell—”

  “No, you don’t say?” I rolled my eyes. Zane laughed.

  “You just have to use it to your advantage,” Paren said, ignoring my snarky comment.

  “How?”

  “When he goes to punch you, since you’re shorter, it’ll be easier to reach his abdomen—his arm will be up and he will leave it unprotected. That’s when you jab him with your best hit. We don’t have to practice hitting with any force today. Just use your good arm and pretend to punch me. Practice your timing.”

  Paren put his fists back up, readying himself in a fight stance. He eyed me seriously for a moment, and without blinking, shot his fist toward my face. I ducked reflexively, my heart racing and my eyes wide.

  “I wasn’t actually going to punch you!” he hollered in incredulity. “I can’t believe you don’t trust me at this point!”

  “It certainly looked like you were going to! Your fist was going straight for my nose!” I protested.

  Paren sighed.

  Try it again.”

  Again, I failed to react the way he hoped.

  “Again!” he barked.

  We kept trying until I successfully tapped the bottom of his ribcage with a careful fist.

  “Again!”

  “But I did it!”

  “Do it again.”

  We continued drilling this move until my shoulders burned so much I couldn’t continue.

  “We’ll work on another skill tomorrow,” Paren said.

  “I can teach you something tomorrow!” Lamb offered.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Paren smiled. “We can take turns with who teaches Eos what. I’m going to head back—it’s probably close to breakfast time. I’ll save a little of my food for you guys, too.”

  Paren made his way out, and just as I was about to follow, Zane yanked me back.

  “What?” I asked, startled.

  “Why did you tell him about the Skeleton Key?” Zane hissed.

  “You told Lamb! How is that any different?”

  “I couldn’t just come back after being missing without an explanation—she’s my friend. I had to tell her why I was gone, why you were gone, and why we can’t stay there.”

  “Paren is my friend, too!”

  “How long did you wait until you told him?”

  “Not—not very. But that’s beside the point! You have no idea what I’ve been through since you disappeared!”

  “Don’t get all defensive. I’m not mad at you—I’m just not sure we can trust this guy. He’s in Bellicose—he’s a murderer.”

  “No, he isn’t! He’s never—” I stopped myself, thinking of Mikael.

  Zane cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “I mean… that isn’t why he’s here. They aren’t all murderers. He was defending someone. Paren is a good guy. You can trust him.”

  “He isn’t coming with us,” Zane warned.

  “He hasn’t expressed any interest in doing so,” I said snippily.

  “Well, he’s certainly hanging around you an awful lot, isn’t he? If nothing else, he seems to be really into you.”

  “Are you jealous?” I squinted in disbelief at Zane, turning to Lamb to back me up, but she just shrugged.

  “No! I just don’t trust him!”

  “Why not? He’s been nothing but helpful this whole time! We’d be better off if he did come along!”

  “He may not be a huge guy, but he’s bigger than me, and definitely bigger than you and Lamb. If we are out there searching for the Key, and he decides to take the exile town keys just before we get the Skeleton Key, or if we get the Skeleton Key and he takes that—there’s no way we could get it back!”

  “Paren isn’t going to take anything! He’s not a thief—that kind of stuff doesn’t interest him anyways. The only reason he would want to leave with us is to be free from this place.”

  “I just don’t trust him.”

  “You don’t have to,” I said, storming off after Paren.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The week was spent sneaking portions of Paren’s rations and mine to Lamb and Zane, training in Paren’s secret room, and discussing tactics with him in the common room. As initially planned, my friends took turns leading the training. Paren focused on teaching me how use my size to my advantage, Zane had me practice methods of speedy attacks, and Lamb taught me how to dodge and defend.

  “Not quite,” Lamb said, as I moved sideways to avoid one of her punches. “See, if he tries to punch you this way, and you move to the side, he can throw his other fist at you and you might not be able to react as fast to the second one. If you duck and then use the techniques Paren taught you, you can dodge the punch and get a hit in all in one motion! Here, go like you’re going to punch me and I’ll show you.”

  I drew my fist back and flung it toward her as she dropped to an almost squat, throwing a punch that stopped only a hair short of my stomach.

  “Is my input allowed on a day that’s not my turn to train her?” Paren asked with a dimpled smile.

  “Of course!” Lamb chirped, moving over to give her place up to Paren.

  “No—no stay there, I’m going to show you,” he said, stepping behind her.

  Paren put a palm just below her ribcage, looking at me as he spoke.

  “Right there is where you’d want to punch. It’s a weaker spot and you’re more likely to knock the breath out of Cromwell if you position it right.”

  Lamb’s pale face burned a bright crimson as she nervously smiled at Paren, his hand still resting at the bottom of her ribcage.

  He stepped in front of Lamb and nodded as if signaling her to continue her lesson.

  “Are you okay, Lamb?” he asked, seeing her red face.

  “Yeah!” she sputtered a bit too quickly. “I just—yeah!” She smiled, her eyes shifting from Paren to me with a twinge of panic.

  Paren stared at her with concern for a moment before taking up his place next to Zane along the wall again. He nodded his head for us to commence.

  When training was done for the afternoon, Paren and I made our way to the common area for lunch. Cromwell stood by his open door, staring me down. He motioned subtly for me to come to him.

  “Uh,” I mumbled to Paren. “I’ll—I’ll be back in a few minutes. Go ahead and get your food; I’ll join you in a minute.”

  “Everything okay
?” he asked, an inquisitive look on his face.

  I didn’t answer. Instead, I jogged off to Cromwell, slipping into the room and disappearing behind the door.

  “Have you given any more thought to my offer?” Cromwell asked, as if doing business.

  “I have. I’m going to do it. I’m just trying to get ready.”

  “Do you think you have a chance?” he laughed.

  “Uhm… Not particularly, if I’m being quite honest.”

  His chuckle echoed in the small cave room.

  “Why do you even want me to fight you?” I asked. “Especially if I don’t have a chance?”

  “I know you’ve been training. I know who you’ve been training with—”

  “Wait, what?” I interrupted. “What do you mean?”

  “I know you’ve been training with Paren and those two who thought they were clever for sneaking in here about a week ago.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, dumbfounded.

  “Paren isn’t the only one who uses that little room your friends are staying in. I saw your friends in there the other day. They were sleeping, so they had no idea I saw them.”

  “Why do you need that room? You have your own bedroom.”

  “Next time you are in that room, take a closer look at the walls,” Cromwell advised plainly. “Anyways, I know you’ve been training.”

  “I’m sorry—I just needed some help preparing, otherwise I may as well not even try to fight. This is the only way I remotely stand a chance.”

  “I’m not angry—this is what I wanted you to do—albeit I didn’t anticipate people coming to Bellicose to help, but I have no intentions on reporting them. I wanted you to train; I wanted you to dedicate yourself to this. You are.”

  “Why are you letting them stay? Why aren’t you reporting them?”

  “Do you want me to report them?”

  “No! That’s not what I meant. I just meant, like… why are you being nice?”

  This comment elicited an even more booming chuckle from Cromwell.

  “You have an interesting definition of ‘nice’. I’m not reporting your little team because, like I said, I see potential in you, and it’d be a waste to not let you develop it. Plus, if you plan on going in search of that key, you’ll probably need to know some skills. How do you plan on going through the city to get the Skeleton Key, once you have the exile keys? Do you plan on going through, sprinkling flowers and sunshine as you walk? If that’s what you think, you have another thing coming. Why do I want you to succeed? Go ahead, ask. I know that’s what you want to ask next! The reason I want you to succeed is because I’m sick of this system. I didn’t kill people for fun, and I wasn’t some mass murderer or serial killer. Yes, I killed a couple people. It wasn’t my goal, I didn’t enjoy it, and I don’t plan to do it again. For the situation I was in, if this were before the war, I would have been sentenced to jail for some years and then I would be released. Because of this system, I’m stuck in here until I rot. For once, I’d like to see someone defy the city officials—even if it’s just some thief finding some hidden key they’re hanging onto and using it to have some personal freedom. It’s the closest we can get to spitting in their faces, and I love it.”