Page 7 of Lies That Bleed
Every candidate who came to the Lottery packed a three-day bag for their time out in The Wilds should they be picked. This pack would keep you alive out there while you hunted your creature… or they hunted you. Tetra hadn’t brought one because I’d told her that she wouldn’t be picked, and now the buses were leaving to take us out to the border lands and if I didn’t get a pack for her she was as good as dead.
I burst from the dressing room with my own pack on my back and ran outside, where the families of those who were not picked had gathered. They now walked away en masse with their children, heading across Emberlane Park to the underground train station that would lead them north, probably to Cedar Creek where they lived.
I scanned the crowd in panic, searching for any face I knew.
Come on. Come on.
“Charline!” I screamed across the park and she turned, her mother, father, and three siblings in tow.
Taking great strides, I bolted across Main Street and into the park named after the very valuable substance that fueled the trains, buses, and factories that ran our city.
Charline was a strong girl. She would have made an amazing candidate to go into The Wilds. I knew she had aspirations to join the Imperial Fleet, and because she was not chosen and would not bond with a creature, she would have to join as a human and would live her life in a grunt position. Her face was downcast; I knew she was disappointed about not being chosen. We’d gone to school together at the Imperial Fleet Academy from grade six to twelve and she was adecent person. She didn’t kiss my ass based on who my father was, and also didn’t seem scared of me.
“Sorry about your name not being chosen,” I told her.
She nodded sadly. “Thanks, Aisling. Good luck out there.”
I eyed the pack on her back. “Hey, Tetra wasn’t prepared for her name to be called…”
Dawning understanding shone on Charline’s face and she gripped the straps of her pack tightly. “I would, I mean I want to help Tetra, but this stuff was expensive. I was going to give it to Truly for her Lottery.” She looked at her fourteen-year-old sister.
Truly and my sisters were friends.
Charline’s family wasn’t well off. Her father worked in a machine factory and her mother cleaned houses on the weekends.
I reached up and ripped the emperor’s patch off my chest, causing the garment to tear slightly, and handed it to her. “These threads are made with real gold. It should cover the cost of the pack and more, but if not, you can go to my house, ask for my governess, Elaine. Show her the patch and she will pay you in imperial coin if you prefer.”
Her eyes widened and she peered back at her mother and father.
The horn sounded for the bus caravan leaving for The Wilds and I rocked on my heels, praying to the stars that she would say yes. I had no other options.
I drove my point home: “Elaine will pay you whatever amount you ask. Triple what you spent on the pack.Andyou can keep the patch.” Elaine would. She would see the patch and know that I had given it freely. Charline was strong, but not strong enough to rip it from my chest.
Her mother nodded, and I sighed in relief as Charline unslung the pack.
“Is there a hunting knife?” I asked her.
She bobbed her head. “Water canteen, two days’ clothes, tarp for sleeping, dried meats, matches, a tourniquet. It’s fully loaded, we’ve been building it all year.” Her eyes welled with tears and my heart pinched.
“Hey, enroll in the Imperial Fleet anyway and work your way up. Even without a creature you can get a good paying station. Especially with how talented you are with a blade,” I counseled her. She was damned good with a dagger.
She brightened at that. “You think so?”
I nodded. “When I’m empress one day, I’ll even hire you on my personal guard.” It was a promise. I never gave someone my word if I didn’t intend to keep it. Charline was amazing with a blade and loyal to Amersea, and as my father taught me, loyalty was invaluable.
She stood a little straighter then. “O-okay.”
Her mother and father smiled, looking pleased.
The word of the emperor’s daughter was as good as a signed job contract.
I saluted her and she saluted me back. Taking the pack on one shoulder, now carrying two, I wished her well and then ran as fast as I could to the line of a dozen sleek silver buses, large chunks of ember glowing under the hoods.
Everyone was already inside with only a few stragglers making their way in the open doors. I groaned under the weight of two packs, but pushed through the pain of my burning muscles. Tetra waved me over to one bus from the window where she sat inside, and I made it just in time to toss both of our packs in the storage compartment under the bus and then slip in line.
Jace’s voice came from beside me. “Aisling, let me explain this morning…”
I growled. Was he serious? We were about to go and fight for our lives in just hours and he wanted to talk about why he’d cheated on me?
