Her presence felt smaller than the others, the way she talked with a hushed voice, every step soundless… if it was intentional or not, she was making herself disappear easily in the crowd.
Carolyn opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by our guide who came to an abrupt stop.
“We’re here,” he confirmed, pointing up towards a tall fence made of barbed wire. “Welcome to Blackreach.”
It was in the middle of nowhere, I was unable to see how far the fence stretched to the sides, bushes and other greenery covering it in places. Large trees loomed around, opening up more at the gate.
We followed right behind him, passing guards that were stationed by the entrance. No words were exchanged—they were expecting us.
Once inside, there were over a dozen individuals around us. Some carried boxes, others looked through weapons. A bit further in was a massive area laden with small tents, probably hundreds.
We continued following the guide, we hadn’t received any other orders yet, after all. We passed some strange looking machines, some that seemed to be made for digging, others to lift heavier equipment. I had never seen such machines, but as a foot soldier, I had never left the villages. My mission had mostly been to guard food and weapon storages, but on rare occasions I got to patrol the village’s borders too.
Someone pulled my arm, and my eyes darted to the side, as a group of mage-killers ran past us, weapons held tightly against their chests. They looked blank, calm, polished… perhaps, they were in the middle of exercising? I looked back and saw that it had been Nathanial who had snagged me out of their way.
“Thanks,” I muttered, adding a polite nod.
“Be careful where you’re going,” he smiled back as we kept going.
We curved off the main path, heading towards a larger open tent, with a table in the middle and a handful of people standing around it. They had a map placed out on top of it, small stone figures placed at various positions.
The strategists, in the middle of a briefing it seemed.
“Reporting in,” the guiding soldier raised his voice, interrupting them mid-sentence, saluting with his open hand against his temple.
Four men and a woman slowly turned their heads towards us. The man in the middle must be the one in charge?
His red eyes swept over us, unimpressed.
“Is Rohan sick or something? This is the second group he sent today,” he scoffed, earning a glare from his female comrade.
The man had light, fair skin, sharp jawline. As he crossed his broad arms, I noticed faint, black tattoos, spreading like veins. His eyes stopped on me, briefly, the corner of his mouth twitched mockingly, suppressing an arrogant smirk. I knew in an instant that he’d be a pain in the ass, a good looking one, but still not worth the hassle.
“They passed, fair and square,” the guide informed him without breaking his form, he hadn’t been allowed to.
“Got a problem with it?” The woman at the table straightened herself, putting a hand on each side of her hips as she stared the man down. “We need all the hands we can get.”
A smirk emerged on the man’s face, as he tilted it forward, his messy silvery-white hair danced over his eyes. “No, we could use some cannon fodder.”
I clenched my teeth.
“I’m better at bombs!” Ashley shouted out, raising her hand up in the air.
“Even better,” the man chuckled dryly. “But speak without permission again and I’ll end you myself.”
Ashley’s smile died, as she slowly lowered her hand. I wasn’t sure what she had expected; this was the army, and we were newbies, nobodies until proven otherwise.
Stepping out of line was punished—they didn’t like noisy. They wanted weapons, soldiers who wereoutstanding on the battlefield… those who were capable of killing another human without blinking.
“Here you’ll followmyorders. If I tell you to die, you better die within three seconds,” the man continued, his voice suddenly coated with the promise of an end. He rose to his full length, raising his chin and looked down at us, like we were parasites.
“Yes, sir!” the rest of the group shouted. I had no intention of dying at someone’s whim. I was here to fight, to be used as a weapon, not to die simply because someone told me to. If that was the case, I could’ve stayed in the village.
The man’s red eyes locked onto me, the corner of his mouth twitched. Slowly his arm raised, his hand formed into a gun, as he pointed straight at me.
“Bang,” he said, with no emotion in the word.“You’reout.”
Silence weighed heavy in the air around us. The people around the war table turned to look at me, as if they too waited for me to kill myself on the spot. I stayed strong, tall and met his intense gaze right on, without moving, not even blinking.
