Page 11 of Lies That Bleed
“Ember!” someone screamed, and everyone ran to that side of the bus to watch the flecks sprinkle from the sky. The windows to the bus opened and the candidates reached their arms out, trying to grasp the small particles.
I glanced at Anika, noticing she was the only one from our alliance, other than Tetra, who didn’t rush to see the ember.
“Aren’t you interested in what it looks like up close?” Tetra asked her.
She flicked her gaze at my friend and held up her hand. I hadn’t noticed it before but she was missing the pinky finger of her right hand. “I’ve held more ember than anyone on this bus. My father is an embersmith, and my mother and I worked in the sorting center.”
Tetra peered down at her lap submissively and my gut tightened. When Anika had said her family worked in the mines, I had assumed the iron or copper mines in the northeastern mountains of Imbria. But now I knew she meant the ember sorting facility, commonly referred to as the ember mine among the people. The facilities were placed inside of the mountains around our region, with only one entrance for securitypurposes. Though ember was not carved out of a mountain, the sorting facility felt very much like a mine, with no sunlight and little ventilation. The working conditions there were grueling, and most didn’t survive more than twenty years in that line of work without getting repeated lung infections.
“You stole?” I asked her, eyeing the missing finger. It was common practice in the sorting facilities to take a finger from a thief who tried to bring ember home in their pockets. They had creatures who could smell it on you, even the tiniest piece. First offense finger, second offense hand, third offense your life.
She growled at me but said nothing.
I rolled my eyes. The thief got what she deserved. I wasn’t going to feel sorry for her. All ember was owned by the emperor, my father, and if she stole from him she stole from me and our entire country. It cost more than she could ever imagine to keep our beautiful nation running the way it was. Free school until twelfth grade, free healthcare for all regardless of station, work programs for the poor, an elite army, clean water, and prosperous farmland. Did she think if we let everyone steal the ember that she would have such a nice life?
Even Imbria, which had been reduced to rubble over a decade ago in the war, had been built back up to its former beauty in most places. Yes, there were still pockets of poverty and slums, but my father invested a lot of coin to take care of the newest members of ourcountry, and if she stole from him then she was ungrateful.
Fool!
I crossed my arms and gave her my back. I was doing this to keep Tetra alive. I just needed to focus on the task at hand and remain unemotional like Elaine had taught me.
I whistled and called our group back over. There were nine of us in all.
I introduced myself to each one and learned their names. The males Dev, Kian, and Nikhil, were stacked with muscle and tattoos, much like Kohen, and looked like experienced fighters. Anika was clearly a badass if I were going on personality and attitude alone, but I worried about Meera.
I eyed the weaker-looking Imbrian. She was scrawny and shy, and seemed like she couldn’t even heft a sword. “When we move in The Wilds, we move as a team,” I told everyone. “We walk in a circle with Meera and Tetra in the center.”
Meera made a noise in her throat as if she was offended, but Anika nodded as if she agreed with me.
“Now, imperial law states that murder in The Wilds is legal, so don’t think anyone is going to be scared of being carted off to prison,” I stated.
A somber mood fell on our group. It was claimed that in order to get the best creature you had to sometimes fight a fellow candidate, and death resulted. But the rule had blurred into it being okay to murderunder any grounds. All I knew was that I was going to watch my back, even among this alliance. I’d practiced for this my entire life. I could go forty-eight hours without sleep if I had to. I brought coffee satchels for just that. This could all be a ruse to get Kohen’s friends to kill me. But I had to partner up with someone for Tetra’s sake, so why not them? The Avasan gang was notorious for the brutal way in which they dealt with their enemies. I didn’t know how much was rumor and how much was true, but the scars on the knuckles of every Imbrian here told me most were probably true.
“Alright, we are almost there. List your talents quickly so I know how to use you. Anything that will help us survive.” I started with one of my ex-classmates, Roc. He was a brute nearly Kohen’s size, with a shaved head of brown hair and hazel eyes. He’d proudly slept with half the school, but he was really talented with hand-to-hand combat and hunting.
“Hand-to-hand combat, compound bow hunting, pleasing women,” he said, and waggled his eyebrows at Anika.
A few of our group burst into snickers, but Anika wasn’t fazed. She just gave him her middle finger and rolled her eyes. I actually kind of liked her. Her bitchiness was comforting. I hated fake-nice people.
Alek was next, another of my former classmates. His bright blond hair and blue eyes always put him in the pretty boy category for me. He was good withswordsmanship, foraging, and animal tracking. The Imbrians went next.
“Removing organs with a kitchen knife,” Nikhil said with an eerie smile.
My eyebrows shot up and he and all the others burst into laughter.
I sighed. “Alright, you had me. Come on. Get serious.”
“Street fighting. I don’t need a fancy weapon, I can remove your eyes with a stick,” he said. “And also pleasing the ladies.” He winked at Tetra, who grinned. She liked bad boys. We were in trouble.
Roc reached out and fist-bumped Nikhil.
“Next,” I sighed, wondering if these guys knew that they were literally never going to get laid again if they died in here.
“I’m fast, and good with throwing knives,” Dev said, opening his jacket to reveal over twenty throwing knives. That was helpful.
“I like to blow things up,” Kian said with a straight face.
I eyed his pack. “Did you bring a bomb or something?”
