Chapter 34
Jane
By the time the sun rose, everyone was already cleaning up the charred wet mess of the camp and scavenging parts from the wreckage of the helicopters, before moving to the training field on the beach. The sun was fierce, another burning eye watching them. Jane studied the play of light on the lake but couldn’t find any patterns. She kept being distracted, thinking she’d glimpsed movement or a shift in colours from the corner of her eye, but there was only Livia glaring at her wherever she went.
Since she wasn’t any use as an Oracle, she decided to go for a run. She missed the sizzle in her blood and lungs and legs—so much more enjoyable when she wasn’t running to escape yet another horrible and messy end heading her way. She stretched lightly, heading out before the heat of the day became oppressive. The trail was uneven and narrow and she moved carefully, memorizing markers to find her way back--- a jagged rock, a lightning struck tree. She stopped to gather a branch from the split trunk. Lightning wood was rare and the best kind for rune stones.
Back at the camp she stopped for water, red-faced, panting, and down her camisole and cargo pants. “Where have you been?” Caradoc strode out from between two cabins, watching her intently.
She spilled water, surprised at his sudden appearance. Embarrassed, she wiped her chin. “I was running.”
“You just can’t run off into the forest.”
She winced. “Sorry. Are there bears? Wolves?”
“Men with guns, sweetheart.”
She felt stupid immediately. “Oh”
“This isn’t the Collegium track.”
She wanted to ask him how he knew about that. But he was too intimidating – radiating confidence and resilience and a kind of silent power you’d be a fool to challenge. He jerked his head to the beach were Nico was whooping, and flinging a guy twice his size into the air. “You’d be better served learning to defend yourself.”
She nodded and felt like apologizing again but he’d already turned away. There was a heavily tattooed girl scaling the wall up to his cabin roof. “Satellite on the left, Augusta,” Caradoc told her.
“On it. Not much I can do about the dying satellites.”
“I know.” He glanced at Jane. “Any word on that at the Collegium?”
“Omens say the satellites will only last until the end of the year, if that,” Jane replied. She remembered Oracles in the common room blurting out dates. “They’ve already restricted access. Enclave is trying to make radio and television the new fashion.”
He snorted at that. Jane didn’t know what else to say so she went to the training circle, refusing to picture the blood on the linoleum in the makeshift Amphitheatre, or Asher shoving her against the stairwell wall. Nico quirked a finger in her direction. Everyone turned to stare. “Your turn,” he called out.
She shook her head. “I only know basic self-defence.”
“Figures,” Livia sneered.
“But I’m good with a bow,” Jane forced herself to add.
“Then you don’t need to practice,” Nico pointed out. “Let’s go.”
Jane stepped forward reluctantly, feeling the weight of the gazes of a dozen Greencoats on her. She’d rather face another village full of Ferals than all the scrutiny. Not to mention the fact that she was about to have her ass handed to her. In pieces.
Nico shifted from foot to foot, brown skin gleaming with sweat. “Show me what you got.”
She planted her feet the way she’d been taught, one slightly in front of the other and lifted one arm to block, the other in a fist. She waited. Nico waited, eyebrow raised. “Come at me,” he finally said. “What are you waiting for?”
She’d been waiting for him to attack. The Enclave taught her how to defend herself and the parapet from arrows, attack, outright siege. They weren’t exactly quick to teach its citizens how to fight first. Jane took an awkward step forward. Livia snickered. “Knock him on his ass, Jane,” Will called out cheerfully.
She launched into a clumsy attack before she could talk herself out of it. Nico sidestepped her easily, popping up behind her. She whirled, swinging. He blocked her with the side of his arm, the force jarring her teeth. He danced back. She followed, thinking furiously. She wasn’t tall enough to kick him without him being able to flatten her first. She briefly considered taking a fall in order to grab a handful of sand to throw in his face, but it seemed dishonourable.
The familiar burn along her spine distracted her. Instead of gathering at the base of her neck in an electrical storm of pain, it diffused, branches of light curling up into her skull. She pushed all of her concentration on controlling the numen coursing through her.
She attacked blindly, knuckles skimming his shoulder. He pivoted, and grabbed hold of her wrist, pushing her into the stumble so that she lost her balance. A hit to the back of the knees and she suddenly had sand in her teeth. She rolled over, coughing.
Caradoc’s unsmiling face blocked out the sun and the sky and everything in between. “That’s not good enough,” he said mildly.
She scowled. “I’m aware.”
He grabbed her by the elbow and hauled her to her feet. “You’re weak.”
She had nothing to say to that. She crossed her arms mutinously, something undefined boiling under her usual politeness. She fisted her hands without realizing it. He glanced at them. “Better,” he said. “But not good enough.”
He nodded at Nico. “Again.”