I frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe.”
As we piled into what was clearly some sort of communal living space, Talon stopped and turned to face us. Again, each wall sconce lit—as did the candles in the overhead chandelier.
Wafting at the dust motes dancing in the air, I took in the underground room. Many divans, chairs, and small tables were spread around the large space. Smoke-marred walls were near a pit that was clearly used for cooking.
There were storage niches in the walls. Some held lanterns. Others held books, decks of cards, thin blankets, or pots and pans.
I swallowed around a dry throat, hoping we were permitted to eat soon. The gnawing hunger in my belly was a—
An elbow bumped mine.
I looked to see that Atticus now stood beside me. He didn’t look my way, but a little smirk flirted with one corner ofhis mouth. What he thought was so amusing about deliberately bumping my elbow with his own I had no idea.
Realizing I was restlessly flexing my fingers, I knotted them together to keep them still. I wasn’t the only one of the candidates struggling, I noted. Many were fidgeting—shifting from foot to foot, rolling their shoulders, twisting the cuffs of their tunic, swaying their arms back and forth. Lear’s sort-of-boyfriend Reeve was bobbing his head, as if listening to music only he could hear.
AListen upwhistle rang out.
I snapped to attention, my focus zipping straight to Talon. He gave a chin-tip to Ajax, who responded with a curt nod.
“This is one of many underground hides within the Pines,” said Ajax. “Officiates often come here in small groups. They remain here anywhere from five days to three weeks before other officiates come to replace them. The only reason there’s no one here now is that we’ll be using it for a few days.
“Generally, two at a time will work observation duty—or Ob-duty, as we refer to it. They are rotated every so many hours. Since there are quite a few of you, four people at a time will work Ob-duty—one of the four will always be either Talon, myself, or Quillen. You’ll be constantly on rotation. We want you to get a feel for how it is to have your sleep disturbed and your body clock messed with.”
How considerate.
“You’ll be given food and water rations as usual,” Ajax continued. “We have a waste disposal system for tending to your personal needs—I’ll show you how that works in just a minute. First, we need to get the ground rules out of the way. One, nobody wanders off. It is extremely easy to get lost down here. You do that, we will not look for you. You will be expected to find your own way back to us.”
Well that was nice.
“Two, nobody touches the food rations in the storage room—those are for officiates who come here, not for you. Three, donotattempt to leave. If you find it difficult to deal with being underground, tell us—you’ll be taken out of here. But you’ll also fail Xalbia. And no one will take you back to Deimos. You will camp up on the surface alone until it’s time for everyone to leave.”
I wasn’t surprised by that merciless revelation.
“In terms of sleeping quarters, each are relatively small and have two bunkbeds. You’ll later be told who you’ll be grouped with.”
Atticus looked at me, his lips kicking up. “I do hope we’re sharing the same quarters,” he whispered, but the sound echoed enough that it carried to the others.
Quillen’s head snapped toward him. “Then you’ll be disappointed to hear that you’ll be sleeping in the same space as me. And let it be known that I really don’t like you.”
Atticus swallowed nervously.
I was honestly glad he’d stupidly blurted that out, because it had occurred to me how incredibly easy it would be for someone to corner and kill another person down here. There were many shadowy alcoves to conceal such a crime. And unless the body was found, others would assume that the victim had broken the ‘no wandering off’ rule and subsequently gotten lost—no one would attempt to find them.
By letting that veiled threat slip, Atticus had pretty much announced that if I were to go missing or be killed, he was the one responsible. For me, there really were perks to him being an idiot.
Ajax’s eyes went slitted as he regarded Atticus. “I would imagine you remember what happened to your friend, Klemens. I can’t think why you would want to …”
The rest of his words got lost as my heart began to pound like crazy in my chest.Shit.I held myself perfectly still. Too still, really. Nobody paid me any attention.
Except Talon.
Ifelthim watching me; had the sense that he suspected I was in such a heightened state.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him move. Saw him begin to slowly prowl around the space, coolly calm yet hypervigilant.
Saw him headingin my direction.
He purposely brushed his upper arm against mine as he passed by. He was testing my body’s response, I knew. But I’d been braced for it, so I didn’t flinch. Didn’t move a muscle. Didn’t look at—
