Maddox opened a door that connected to the next room. She seemed in a hurry, as if she couldn’t wait to be away from me. The feeling was mutual. “This is the parlor, where I spend each evening. It’s also the room that connects your room and your Barron’s living quarters. If you need anything, don’t ask.”
She shut the door behind her so fast I almost didn’t have time to register that she’d gone. Great. Not only did I have a full-time guard…she hated me.
Yawning, I pulled back the covers, content to sleep in my bloodstained, mud-caked travel clothes. I climbed into bed and felt my sore muscles scream their gratitude. I didn’t have time to think about how much I missed my parents, or meeting the Barron tomorrow. The moment my head hit the pillow, I was out.
C H A P T E R
Five
I woke in a puddle of drool, with crease lines from the sheets pressing into my cheek. The details of my dreams grew fuzzy as I awoke from heavy sleep, but left me shaken and homesick in the worst way, and there was nothing I could do about it. According to what my father had said as he lifted my trunk onto the wagon, the only time during the school year that I could see my parents was during midsummer break, when they were allowed to visit the school grounds. It would be an entire year before I’d see them again and, given their current state of popularity among the current administration, I wasn’t even sure if I’d get to see them then. My heart sank.
After watching my walls turn pink, then gold with the sunrise, I slid out of bed with my usual morning grace and stubbed my big toe on my trunk, which had been placed at the foot of the massive bed during the night. Apparently, I’d been so out of it that I hadn’t even noticed the mysterious delivery person. Swearing loudly, I threw open the trunk’s lid and grabbed a purple shirt and black leggings, and a handful of other things I’d need to make myself presentable.
Crossing the bedroom, still grumping about my sore toe, I opened one of the three doors along the inner wall, looking for the washroom, but instead found what looked like a walk-in closet and dressing area.
Dressing area? Seriously, who needed an entire room to get dressed in?
Remembering Maddox’s “princess” remark, I couldn’t help but wonder if all Healers were like that—spoiled and pampered. It was possible. But then it wasn’t like I knew many Healers. Just one actually. Myself.
After I gawked at the size of the closet for a bit—fak, it was almost as big as my bedroom back home—I eventually found the bathroom and headed through my morning routine.
I was meeting the Barron today. Sorry, “my” Barron. It wouldn’t do to have the headmaster hear me refer to him as “the” Barron, or I’d have to suffer the consequence.
Something told me I’d be suffering a lot of consequences during my time here.
Fantastic. I’d have bet some serious coin that he’d be everything my stress-filled thoughts had made him out to be. Ugly as sin. Bossy. Egotistical. Bratty rich kid. After all, that was just the way my luck seemed to be going lately.
I took a long look at myself in the mirror. There was no way this occasion called for casual attire, but that’s just what it was getting. You can’t steal a girl away from her life and imprison her in some weird place where Graplars are the norm and expect her hair to look flawless. Besides, I was tired. And homesick. And hungry.
As I was brushing some powder on my nose, a light knock came on the only door I hadn’t opened. With a deep breath, I opened it to Maddox. She didn’t say anything, only stood there looking irritated that I hadn’t turned out to be just a bad dream. I waited, but when she didn’t speak, I said, “Can I help you?”
“How nice of you to get all dressed up for the occasion, Princess. It’s not every day that you get to meet your Barron.” I didn’t speak, only sneered in her general direction. She rolled her eyes some and said, “You’re due to meet with the headmaster in a half hour. If you want breakfast, we have to leave now.”
Though I was sorely tempted to stick to my room for the remainder of my time here, I sighed, resolving myself to the inevitable. “Let me grab some shoes.”
After digging around in my trunk for some clean shoes, I slipped them on my feet and threw Maddox a glance. “So…what? You’re like my bodyguard or something?”
Maddox sighed, doing her best to appear exasperated. “I swear. Healers get dumber every generation.”
She turned her attention away from whatever omnipotent force she was talking to on the ceiling and back to me. “It’s my job as your guard to make sure you get fed and don’t miss your classes, and escort you around campus, and act as chaperone when you and your Barron are together. For an entire year, while you get adjusted to life at the academy. So call it what you want: bodyguard, babysitter, whatever. When all is said and done I’m stuck with you.”
My eyebrow twitched in irritation. It was sounding like, other than the time I spent in my room, I was never going to be alone here. For someone who greatly values her alone time, this was a tragedy waiting to happen. I stood up and folded my arms in front of me. We were going to hash this out before we did anything else. “Do you have a problem with me or something, Maddox? Because I’m not the one who peed on your pancakes, all right? I’m not any happier than you to be in this situation.”
She stepped closer, trying to eye me down. Tiny freckles dotted her small nose. It had to be a challenge to come off as intimidating with cute little freckles on your nose, but somehow, Maddox pulled it off. “I have a problem with Healers in general. I’d try explaining it to you, but I’m not sure you’d hear me way up there on your pedestal.”
It felt like I’d been punched in the chest. “And just exactly what do you mean by that?”
Maddox rolled her eyes so far up into her head that they almost disappeared entirely. “C’mon, Princess, I’ve been here for a while now. You’re not the first Healer that I’ve had to babysit. And every one of them has been the same. Why should I expect you to be any different?”
My jaw clenched until it ached. How could she judge me so harshly before she even got to know me? “Well, I’ve never met another Healer, so I can’t speak for them. You could be right. But I’m not a snob.”
“Never met another Healer?” Her eyes widened, a peculiar smirk melting the bitter purse from her lips. “How could you have never met another Healer? What part of Tril are you from?”
My defenses went up. From what my parents had told me, most of the Skilled lived among the Skilled their entire lives. The fact that I knew so little about how things worked in this part of the world meant I was an easy target for anyone who wanted to make my life here more difficult, which so far seemed to be everybody. I hesitantly replied, “Kokoro. The village of Kessler, near the river.”
For a moment, she didn’t respond at all. Then Maddox did what I was beginning to suspect was the impossible. She smiled. “No kidding?”
“Yeah, why?”
“So, you grew up around the Unskilled, not in one of these prissy boarding schools, huh?” The left corner of her mouth was raised slightly higher than the right, giving her smile a slight crook.
I couldn’t help but wonder where this was going, exactly. “So? Do you have a problem with Kessler?”
“Nah. I spent a summer in Kessler when I was eight. It was gorgeous. We stayed at this cabin and my dad and I went fishing. It was so much fun.”
That was enough to give me pause. For one, according to what my parents had explained to me, unless it was to trade tools or barter for food and supplies, Barrons and Healers didn’t tend to interact with the Unskilled. It was just socially unacceptable, for some stupid reason. As a result, the Unskilled had no idea that people like Barrons and Healers even possessed the skills they did. And for two, they sure as hell didn’t vacation among them. That’s how my parents had managed to stay hidden for so long, because they could always count on those certain sects of society staying separate. “Wait. How is that even possible? Kessler is—”
“An Unskilled village?”
Maddox nodded. “Come on, let’s go get some breakfast and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Once my shoes were tied, Maddox led me into the hall, which was relatively empty, and then downstairs, which wasn’t. She strode forward through the sea of students without effort, throwing a glance over her shoulder every few steps to make certain I hadn’t wandered off. At the end of that hall stood a set of immense carved wooden doors, which were standing wide open. Delicious, warm, breakfast-y smells of cinnamon rolls, pancakes, sausage, and bacon beckoned from within. My stomach rumbled.
Inside was a huge room with stone walls and wooden rafters. Tables and groupings of chairs were scattered all over the room, most of them occupied. At the far end was a cafeteria line. Maddox led me to an empty table in the corner and went to grab some food. If she brought me a cinnamon roll, I was totally going to rethink that whole not liking her thing.
During her brief absence, I took the time to survey the room. Less than half of the students were dressed in white soft-soled shoes, white cotton leggings and matching tops that wrapped around the front and tied closed at the waist. They must have been Healers. The other half—I guessed they were Barrons—dressed in black cotton pants that clung gently to their legs, black, loose-fitting, wrap shirts, and soft-soled black shoes. The Barrons with longer hair wore their hair tied back with leather thongs, but the Healers didn’t, for some strange reason.
I noticed that everyone was sitting in small groups. Boys with girls, girls with boys, boys with boys, girls with girls. Some were Barrons and Healers, some Healers and guards, some small groupings of Healers, Barrons, and guards. But none, it looked to me, were sitting alone. Like I was.
I bit the inside of my cheek and sighed. I was also the only one without a uniform.
My parents hadn’t told me very much about the academy—just that the training sessions had been the best part. I wasn’t exactly a force to be reckoned with, but I was adept enough to take down my father once or twice while we were goofing off in the backyard, to everyone’s surprise including my own. I was looking forward to proving myself. But just because I was born a Healer didn’t mean I wouldn’t have to fight for my life on the battlefield.
As I continued my examination of the crowd, I noticed a flash of silver hair three tables over. Even though he was facing away from me, I’d have recognized that hair anywhere. I smiled, recalling the way that he’d saved me from that horrible monster in the woods. Then I frowned at the memory of his weird departure. Why had he looked so irritated with me? Was my company really that bad? Hmm…Maybe I had bad breath. Or maybe he just hated Healers. Almost as though he could sense my presence, he stiffened. Then he stood and disappeared into the crowd with his tray.
Maddox returned with a tray for me, piled with a variety of things. I looked over the mountain of oatmeal, muffins, toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, fried ham, banana, grapes, orange juice, and milk she’d brought and said, “You’re joking right? There’s no way I can eat all of this.”
Maddox shrugged. “Well, I didn’t know what you’d like. So I brought you what I usually eat for breakfast.”
Looking at her lean figure, I raised an eyebrow. There was enough food on my tray to feed three people. I had wondered if my parents’ appetites had been a fluke or if all Barrons ate that much. I was about to ask when Maddox confirmed it.
She shook her head. “I always forget that you Healers require many fewer calories than us.”
“Are you hungry? I’d hate to throw most of this away.”
Maddox shook her head again, rolling her eyes some at my lack of common knowledge. “A guard can’t eat while they have a charge. It’s Protocol. I’ll eat while you’re in class.”
“Protocol.” I rolled the word over on my tongue. It tasted bitter. “Something tells me I’m not going to like that word very much. What is it?”
She raised her left eyebrow sharply. “Your parents never taught you Protocol?”
When I shook my head, she said, “Protocol is a strict set of societal rules, put in place by the Zettai Council. It basically governs how people are suppose to react in certain situations.”
Biting the inside of my cheek slightly, I said, “I see. And what happens when you break Protocol?”
“Depends on whether you get caught.” Maddox winked and let out a chuckle. Something told me she could give a fak about following the Zettai Council’s rules. I liked that about her. “It also depends on what you did and who saw you do it, and how old you are. From what I hear, adults can be punished with anything varying from paying a simple fine to the Zettai Council, to something as drastic as death. For minor infractions, students get extra duties. For something major, you can get sent on some pretty harsh patrols or your family can be fined. Or worse.”
Worse. I had a feeling I knew exactly what “worse” would be in my case. I sighed. “Well at least sit down or something. You’re making me nervous hovering over the table like that.”
But the look on her face said it all. “Let me guess. Protocol?”
Maddox grinned. “You’re catching on, Princess. But we can talk. You probably have questions. I can probably answer them.”
Chewing on a bit of bacon, I swallowed and said, “So how is it a Barron vacations with the Unskilled anyway?”
Maddox looked longingly at a slice of French toast. It had to be ridiculously hard to only eat when your ward was in class or sleeping. How often could that be? Just a few hours during the day, and a few at night? No wonder they ate such huge portions. My father had been known to eat most of a whole ham in one sitting, and my mother never appeared to gain an ounce, despite the mounds of bread she’d consume over dinner. Whereas my pants got tight if I so much as glanced at dessert.
Pulling her attention from the food on my tray, she said, “My parents went AWOL after I was born, and raised me just outside of Drago. I didn’t know any Barrons or Healers besides them until I moved here two years ago. What about you?”
Drago. I knew Drago. It was right down the river from Kessler. My mom used to take me shopping there. They had a killer pub. Best sandwiches this side of Tril. As far as I knew, anyway. I’d never traveled to Kaito or Haruko, and had only barely seen an eighth of the continent of Kokoro. My father had promised to take me to some of the northern villages of Haruko someday. But apparently that—along with the rest of my life—was on hold now. Maybe forever. Strike that—probably forever.
The thought of my parents stole my hunger away and I returned a half-eaten slice of bacon to my plate. “About the same. Did the headmaster threaten your parents too?”
Maddox stiffened, that hard, cold look returning to her eyes. But I could tell it wasn’t for me. “Not exactly.”
A momentary, uncomfortable silence settled between us. It was all I could do to break it. “We don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”
She plucked a grape from my tray and, with a glance around to make sure no one was watching, popped it into her mouth and chewed quickly. “My dad was a Barron; Mom was a Healer. Thanks to my dad’s exemplary war record, they were allowed to retire early. Only they didn’t want to raise me where my only future would be spent on the battlefield, so we moved to Drago. When I was fourteen, a group of Barron guards knocked on our door and told my dad that I would have to come to Shadow Academy and train to fight. My parents resisted. My dad had been out of practice for a bit too long and the Barrons were fresh out of training and very fit. It wasn’t even a contest.”
I furrowed my brow. The Barrons claimed to be fighting against tyranny, but something told me they needed to look the definition of it up again. “What happened?”
“The guards killed my father, imprisoned my mother, and brought me here.” Maddox shrugged casually, but I could see the pain in her expression. I thought I knew pain, being forced away from my family and home, but there was nothing like watching one of your parents murdered by the very people you were being forced to live and work among. “I never saw her again. She died tw
o months ago.”
“Oh…” It was all I could manage to say for a moment, as the horror of her loss sank in. As discreetly as I could manage, I passed her a handful of grapes. She nodded thankfully, both for the food and for not hugging her and making a scene. “Where’s your Healer?”
“My Soulbound Healer died at birth.” She shrugged again, but this time it was far less painful. “So my parents pretty much died for nothing. The war will go on just fine without me. It’s not like I can fight without a Healer. Without a Healer I couldn’t quickly recover from any wounds I might receive. It’d be suicide.”
Furrowing my brow, I said, “Could they put you on the battlefield anyway? Without a Healer?”
Her eyes darkened some, and I saw how much the subject bothered her. “Technically, yes. They don’t do it often. Unbound Barrons generally are assigned Healer guard duties, though a few get stuck with gate guard duties—normally inside the wall, but outside as well. The truth is, the safest place I could be right now is following you around campus.”
Maddox had been through so much pain, so much loss. No wonder she seemed so hard. “Will you get a new Healer?”
Maddox shrugged and popped another grape into her mouth. “Not likely. See, there aren’t really enough Healers to go around, so there’s this list they put our names on. If your family is part of high society or they donate a lot of money to the school, your name gets moved to the top. Then there are people like me, who they put on the list just for show, when we all know it’s never gonna happen. But then, it’s not like I’m anxious to hit the battlefield. Of course, I could do with some companionship…”
Companionship. So I wasn’t just expected to heal the Barron I would be Bound to. I was supposed to be his steady girlfriend too. Good-bye, romance and freedom of choice. Hello, Shadow Academy. I swallowed the bit of muffin I’d been chewing. It didn’t go down easily. I looked over the crowd once again. “Are all Bound and Soulbound couples…you know, couples?”