Food comes. It’s bacon and beans, served the same way as before. No one talks to me, so I just listen and observe as I eat.
The girls are talking too quietly for me to hear above the noise of the Feasting Hall. Marcus and the boy beside him are discussing the Black Tower. It is the same kind of myth and awe that I heard when I was in Blue. They talk about how strong the warriors are in Black, and how no powers can be used against them. I know why. I remember the girl from Black who managed to shut down my control of the air. Her name was Monica. I don’t want to face her again.
After the bowls empty, Rahab stands. The Hall goes quiet.
“Welcome to our great Feasting Hall,” Rahab says, voice booming magically as before. “We have three newcomers since our last Scouring. Two of them are with us here. Hank and Ellen, stand.”
At the far end of the table, near Seymour, the two of them rise. I take a deep breath, forcing myself to stay composed. Where is Emma? Others in the Hall applaud dutifully. Hank and the other new girl sit again.
“This brings our numbers to 91,” Rahab continues. “We remain near our lowest. There was a time when we filled two tables like this. Now we have grown weak, as Black and even Blue have grown strong. We must do better. Your task numbers are on the bottom of your stones. There are five days until the next Scouring. Let passion burn. Thrive like fire.”
Rahab’s words are identical to what she said before, except now we have 91 instead of 90. I wonder how long she has been saying the same thing.
Everyone begins checking under their rocks.
“Number 1,” Marcus says.
I push the flame-shaped tip of my black stone, tilting it over until it falls backward on the table. A chalky number 1 stares back at me. The crowd begins to rise. Most of them scramble excitedly toward the board of tasks. A few shuffle slowly after them. They probably know their tasks. They probably don’t like them.
“Scouring group!” Axe shouts, stepping down from his throne. “Gather around me!”
18
ELEVEN OF US huddle together like a football team at the front of the Feasting Hall. The others begin to discuss our strategy for the Scouring. Axe is the good-looking, bearded quarterback, sitting above us on the raised dais. The girls play flashy positions like running back and wide receiver. That makes the boys—Khan, Seth, Marcus, and me—the linemen. It’s better than the bench.
“What about Yellow?” one of the girls asks.
Axe has already said he wants to capture from Blue. He says they are the easiest. He doesn’t know that he only caught Hank and Emma because they came willingly for me.
“Anyone else?” Axe asks the group.
“Green.” It’s Jafari’s sister, Jacana. His spot in the Scouring group hasn’t been filled. “Green is right beside us,” she says. “If we go straight to them, that’s the opposite way from Black. We need to avoid Black.”
“We can take Black.” Marcus steps forward confidently. “I have battled lions in the Colosseum. I have survived the Black Tower.”
The Black Tower? Marcus? He never said a word about this during our whole trek for a dragon’s tooth. How much else has he kept hidden?
A few of the girls laugh at what he said. Khan and Seth look angry, probably because of what Marcus did to Jafari.
“It’s bold, and suicidal.” Axe fixes an amused stare at Marcus. “You mean the Roman Colosseum, the ancient wonder?”
“It was not ancient when I fought there,” Marcus replies.
“Very interesting,” Axe says. “My workers built a copy of this Colosseum. I won many bets there. My daughters loved to watch the fights.”
“Where was this?” Marcus asks.
“Macau, China,” Axe says. “It was a tourist magnet. I owned many casinos.”
“What are casinos?” Marcus asks.
The question makes me smile. Marcus has no reason to know what Axe means, but I do. Axe, or Max, must have lived in the same era I did. And he must have been rich if he had workers who built copies of ancient wonders. It’s hard to imagine. He seems so...physical.
“We’ll talk later,” Axe says to Marcus. “First, we need to get you paired.” He glances around the group of girls. “Any takers?”
A girl raises her hand. She has glitter on her long eyelashes and cheeks. She literally sparkles.
“I’m Zelle.”
“You must be strong.” Axe looks her up and down. “You were picked to take Rose’s place.”
Rose, my Mom. He says this so casually, like he doesn’t even care that we lost her.
“The girls can tell you,” Zelle says cheerfully, “I summon fire faster than anyone here. I’ll take Marcus. He’s been to Black. That’s so...hot.”
Marcus’s cheeks go red. “Um, thanks.”
“It’s not so simple, Zelle,” Axe says. “Anyone else want Marcus? ”
“Me.” Boleyn steps forward. She’s the dazzling girl who escorted me into the Feasting Hall when I first arrived in the tower. “I’ll make him pay for what he did to Jacana’s brother.”
“Very well. Moving on...” Axe flashes a mocking smile at me. “Anyone want to pair with our new runt from Blue?”
The way he says this reminds me of the memory of the rower Johnny with Samantha, of Luther in the Blue Tower, and of every stud everywhere who has treated me like crap. I think about summoning the air and throwing Axe out of the room. I’m the most powerful. I can be the Alpha. But all at once the girls turn and stare at me and I forget about Axe. I pull at the collar around my neck, feeling the heat creeping up my neck and into my checks. No girl speaks. It’s like my memory all over again, looking up at the list of names who made the rowing team and my name is not there. Johnny gets Samantha, and I run home crying.
“He’s stronger than you think.” Seth breaks the awkward silence, and I instantly decide that he will forever be my friend.
“Rahab doesn’t like him,” Zelle announces without looking at me, like I’m not even standing there.
“I’ll consider him,” Boleyn says. “But I prefer Marcus.”
“Me too,” says another girl.
Axe laughs. “Well, you girls figure it out and pair before tomorrow’s feast. Assuming you hold your places in my group after the Arena.”
The girls exchange glances among themselves and tell Axe that they will. It sounds like their place in our group is not set in stone. Can the girl performing in the Arena somehow take their place? And how would they settle the dispute about the Pairing, anyway? Arm wrestle? Fire summoning contest? Maybe I should have said something better about myself, like Marcus did...
The group continues discussing which tower to attack in the Scouring. I learn that of the six girls, three of them are already paired: Melissa with Axe, Jacana with Khan, and a cute freckled girl named Amy with Seth. That leaves three girls who need to pair: Boleyn, Zelle, and Bea. They all want Marcus. Or maybe whatever boy takes Jafari’s place and joins us. No one wants me.
The stairs down to the Arena bring back memories. Last time I was at the back, with Seymour and Marcus. My Mom had been performing, and I tried to use my power before Rahab shut me down. But my Mom picked me as the winner anyway. Our time together was too short.
We’re halfway down the stairs when I turn to Marcus behind me. “You didn’t tell me about Black. What was it like?”
“Not bad,” he says.
“How was it different?” I ask.
“In every way.”
So...he doesn’t want to talk about it. I get that. It’s hard to talk about the other towers, and he rarely wants to talk about anything. Maybe yes or no questions will work better. He can’t hide as easily from those.
“Did you start in Black?” I ask.
“As far as I know.”
“So you didn’t have any memories when you showed up there?”
“None.”
“Did you gain any powers there?”
He doesn’t answer. His face is blank, but not hard to read. He’s not goi
ng to talk about it.
We enter the Arena and Axe leads us to a designated area for the Scouring group. He tells us that it’s the same rule as usual: no boys from our group can enter the Arena. It would be beneath us. This is training ground for the up and comers, a way for lower levels to impress a girl and get paired. I learn that tonight two girls will perform. First a girl from the Scouring group, like my Mom. She is allowed to choose a boy to replace Jafari. Then—the part that I missed after I got knocked out trying to reach my Mom—a girl who has not made the Scouring group gets a chance to impress the Alpha. If she’s spectacular, he can pick her to take another girl’s place in our group.
“That’s how Rose got into the Scouring,” Axe says. “Our last Alpha couldn’t resist picking her. Too bad she couldn’t save him in the Scouring. And this last time she couldn’t save herself.” He looks to his pair, Melissa. “Lesson learned?”
“Yes, stick with me,” Melissa says, spinning the large ruby ring on her finger. “Would you be the Alpha without me?”
“Fair enough.” Axe smiles. “Just don’t get captured.”
“That won’t happen,” she replies, glancing to me, “as long as we keep our Scouring team strong.”
Rahab welcomes everyone and announces the rules. The competition will go just like it did before. The boys around the Arena look eager. The girls look disinterested, but a little nervous.
Zelle takes center stage first. She starts summoning little fireballs that could fit in her palm, and juggling them. She summons more and more, until she has at least a dozen fireballs whipping up and down in a blur.
Boys spring into action. At least twenty of them drop over the wall and into the Arena. One of them is Hank. He’s a head taller than most of the boys, and fast. He ignores the weapons scattered around the sandy pit. He races toward the raised platform in the center. He closes to within ten steps before another boy trips him from behind with a staff.
Both of them go down on the sand. Other boys charge ahead, trampling over Hank like mad bulls. As I watch him rise slowly to his feet, then fall back to his knees, I wonder if it’s always like this when you put the male species around a single female. The males compete until she knows who leads the pack.
When it’s over, bodies litter the Arena. Most are still moving, but keeping their distance from a large boy who stands before Zelle with an axe slung over his shoulder. Rahab appears beside Zelle and whispers with her. Zelle walks away with the boy who won by reaching her first. That must be the normal way of things. It makes me appreciate even more that my Mom picked me even though I didn’t win.
A group of boys—who must be assigned the cleanup task—clear away the remnants of the first fight, including the bodies that didn’t rise. Hank manages to stagger out on his own. The crowd begins to chant for another performance.
A new girl moves to the center platform. She sings and summons fire. Her voice is magnificent, but her flames are very weak. They drift up only a few feet before fading away.
“Not spectacular,” Axe decides, before the girl has even finished. “I’ll keep looking.”
19
THE NEXT DAY, Hank is nowhere to be seen. The rest of us wake in the Barracks and go about our daily tasks. I’m still in the Scouring group, so I report to the training ground and receive a fine collection of bruises from Seth, Khan, and Marcus. At least they seem to take it easy on me. Khan and Marcus go at each other hard, but they end in a draw. No other boys show up, so Zelle must not have chosen the Arena winner for our group. Or maybe Rahab has someone else in mind. Either way, once we finish the training, I’m free to nurse my wounds, which means I roam around the tower, looking for Emma and Hank.
I get lost and find my way back to the Barracks and the Feasting Hall a dozen times. It gives me a better sense of how the place is laid out. Unlike the Blue Tower with its hollow core and long path winding up, the Red Tower has stairs and twisting corridors everywhere. Many doors in the highest parts of the tower are locked. I figure they lead to the girls’ quarters. There’s no sign of my two friends.
The horns bellow and everyone reports to the Feasting Hall again. The meal and the task assignments go about the same as the day before. Everyone treats me like the runt. Axe mentions something about his servants, which piques my interest. When I ask him who the servants are, he tells me that it’s none of my business. He could be hiding Emma, keeping her locked away. It makes me want to blast him with the wind again, but that’s not an option in the Red Tower. There must be some other way to knock him off his throne.
After another trip down to the Arena, with more boys charging each other like bulls and another girl not meeting Axe’s standards, we report back to the Barracks and sleep. I dream that I’m operating on a brain to remove a tumor. The patient survives. The tumor was not malignant.
In the morning, the boys form a line to head out for their tasks. Hank stands near the back. He must have come while we slept.
I rush to him before the Barracks door opens. “Hank, you’re back!” I say, noticing that he has a black eye the size and color of a plum. “Everything okay?”
“Good as ever, my friend.” He clasps my shoulder, appraising me. “How about you? You look rough.”
“I’m fine,” I say. “Just took some hits on the training ground. What happened to you after the Arena?”
He rubs the collar at his neck. “I woke up in a nice room by a fire. A sweet girl named Apple was there. She served me food, bandaged up a couple cuts. She told me I’d gotten trampled in the Arena.”
“I saw that. It looked bad.”
“Eh, I’ve had worse.” He waves off the concern. “Anyway, Apple and I talked a lot. I told her all about the Blue Tower, and how you led us in the Scouring. Last night she told me it was time for me to go. A boy came and brought me here to the Barracks with all of you chumps.”
“Did you pair with Apple?” I ask.
“No. It’s no big deal. She said she was still thinking about it.”
“Well I’m glad you’re back. Do you have a task today?”
“Number sixteen. Pig duty.”
“At least it’s safe,” I say, suddenly wondering if I can join him. Feeding pigs sounds better than another round of bruises on the training ground. And I want to hear from Hank what happened in Blue after I left.
I tell Hank to wait a minute and find Khan at the front of the line of boys. He grunts at my request but agrees to let me have a rest day, just this once, since we still have four days until the Scouring. Maybe he can see my bruises need healing, or he thinks training me to fight is pointless.
When I return to Hank, he’s with the two other boys who have pig duty: Seymour and Jafari. They are talking together, smiling, and making a very odd pair. Seymour is short, rotund, and has the pinkish hue of hot-washed skin. Jafari is tall, lean, and dark as a panther. But their shoulders and their smiles are both wide. Hank is taller than both but just as jovial. The three of them make a merry band.
Hank and Seymour introduce me to Jafari, which is awkward. Then Seymour starts prattling on about pigs in the way that only he can. He says we’ll be feeding them, washing them, making sure they’re happy. Then he starts speaking about the pigs by name. He says his favorite is Chuck.
The line of boys begins to file out. The Barracks opens to a hallway, where most of the boys head up. We head down. Seymour leads the way, talking non-stop. Jafari and Hank talk in front of me.
“Hey, you.” The voice comes from an open doorway as we pass. It’s Jacana, Jafari’s sister. She’s pointing at him.
He stops and instinctively straightens, shoulders back. “Who are you?”
“Jacana,” she says. “You had pig duty?”
He nods. “My first task.”
“Consider it revised,” she says. “I need help with something. You look like the right fit. What’s your name?”
“Jafari. Or so I’ve been told.”
“A good name. A fresh mind. We can work with that.” Jacan
a looks to me. “What are you doing here?”
“Khan gave me the day off,” I say. “So I’m helping them.”
“With pigs...” she says, like it’s an insult. “No wonder Rahab said you’re off limits.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.
“Girls have their ways.” She winks at me, then grabs Jafari by the hand. “You boys enjoy the pigs.”
She leads Jafari away. He’s docile as a child by her side. Docile, the same Jafari who fought Marcus! It’s amazing how getting wiped can change people. Maybe we do need a reset every once in a while.
“Where are they going?” Hank asks.
“No clue,” I say. “These halls and corridors weave all through the tower.”
“We’ll miss him!” Seymour says, motioning for us to start moving. “But the pigs await. We should be getting close. Can’t be much further. The stones are getting darker. Maybe we’ll take the next right. Then we’ll smell them. Oh, you’ll think it smells bad, but there’s something rich and living and natural about the pigs. You’ll learn to like it. Takes some getting used to, the manure especially. But they...”
Seymour talks more as we walk. He gets into pig anatomy and eating habits. I think about Jacana and Jafari. How is she going to help him remember? Just tell him everything he needs to know? She could pick and choose anything. She could shape his mind and his reality, like treating someone with amnesia. Respect the mind. If Emma has been wiped, I want to be the one to help her remember.
“Smell that?” Seymour says, taking a big sniff. “Almost there!”
He leads us around a few more turns and into a long, open room. The smell is sickly sweet, and so potent that I have to keep my shirt over my nose to avoid gagging. There’s a path down the middle, and along the sides are dozens of pens. We walk the length and I count four or five pigs per pen. That means there are hundreds of the animals in the room. It smells like more.
The Red Tower (The Five Towers Book 2) Page 10
