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by Jaymin Eve
Just to make a complete little monster set.
They all had varying shades of the same colouring, so when they were sitting close together, it was actually very easy to tell them apart. Yael had eyes that were mostly green, with only a little gold in them. His hair was also darker, with more black than gold. His colours made him seem almost earthy: I could see the forest in his eyes, and was sure that I would be able to feel the soot in his hair—not that he’d ever let me touch him. There was something oddly, uncomfortably real about him. Siret had a little more of the gold: the dark of his hair was tainted by it, lighting almost to pure gold as it reached the tips of the strands falling around his eyes. The green of his eyes was lighter, half of the pupil melded with yellow-gold. He had eyes like a cat. An evil cat.
And Aros …
Golden Aros. I couldn’t even make out the green in his iris from where I stood, or the black in his hair. He was a sun-blessed sol with shining, topaz eyes.
“Actually,” he drawled, his eyes flicking to the side of the room and locking onto me, “that’s wrong.”
I thought that he was answering my thoughts, but when the rest of the classroom swivelled around in their seats to stare at him, he turned his head toward Teacher Sing-Song.
“The Bestiary God isn’t as nurturing as you might think.”
Teacher Sing-Song stuttered, unsure how to deal with her authority being undermined. I had no idea what she’d even been talking about, because I had been too busy staring at Aros. I wondered how much time had passed.
“The Bestiary God was created by the Original God to populate Topia with animal life-forms,” Sing-Song replied. “In a way, that made him a creator in his own right. A lesser creator, maybe, but one all the same.”
“You described him as a nurturing, forgiving god.” Aros was smiling, his tone as smooth as silk, his posture relaxed.
I was sure that he was mocking her. I just didn’t understand why. She moved to her desk in the centre of the room, shuffling a few sheaths of parchment.
“Do you have information to the contrary, Aros?” she asked carefully.
There was so much tension in the air; even the sols were tense, their wide-eyed attention switching from Sing-Song to Aros, and back. Was a sacred sol trying to say something bad about the gods? I never thought I’d see the day.
“Yes.” Aros sighed. He was acting like it was his job to inform us all differently, and he was sick of the task before it had even begun. “Terence—the Bestiary God, the Original Beaster, is also the Original Asshole—well, other than Rau, but I’m sure nobody here wants to talk about him.”
Cue multiple brain explosions.
Sing-Song was shaking, her arm raised to direct a finger toward the door. “G-get out,” she stuttered, her face now sheet-white. “I’ll not have that talk in my classroom.”
I guessed there were limits to the Abcurse rule on special privileges. Even if they were going to become future gods, they still weren’t allowed to upset the current gods.
“Oh don’t worry.” Aros stood, but rolled his eyes. “The gods won’t smite you for hearing my words …” He paused, waiting as his brothers all rose to follow him out of the classroom, appearing completely unfazed. “And I have a feeling they won’t smite me either.” He winked at Sing-Song as he passed, leaving the rest of us standing around, mouths open, metaphorical pieces of our brain scattered all around the room.
I walked out of the classroom in a daze after class ended, not even paying attention to where I was going as two dwellers jostled my shoulders from either side. I was shocked when they quickly dashed away from me—when everyone quickly dashed away from me.
“Abcurse brothers,” someone muttered, right before the hall completely cleared of people.
I blinked, still a little dazed, and found myself face-to-face with the triplets. Siret jumped forward, snatching the timetable out of my hand.
“She’s in 2213 next,” he told Yael, who stepped forward, grabbed the timetable, stuffed it into his pocket and then bent until he was on eye-level with me, his hands on his knees.
“Hey there, Rocks.” He was grinning, the deep green hue of his eyes pulling me in, and in … until the world was suddenly fuzzy and nothing existed beyond him. “You’re going to skip your next class and come with us.”
Of course I was. Why would I do anything else? I nodded.
His smile deepened and he turned suddenly, striding off with the other two. As soon as he broke eye-contact with me, I snapped back to myself, as though a frigid bucket of water had just been tossed over my head.
“What the hell was that?” I snapped, even though my legs were carrying me obediently after them.
One of them laughed, and Siret turned on his heel, walking backwards while I still walked forwards. “Aren’t dirt-dwellers supposed to be silent?” he asked me, his expression painted in mocking question.
“If we were always silent, how would we be able to say yes master, no master, everything you need master, every time one of you sols—” I cut myself off, hearing a gasp to my left.
It was another of the dweller recruits. She had been scurrying along the corridor toward us, but now she was turning and going in the opposite direction. Apparently, she was so desperate not to be associated with me that she was willing to be late and feel the wrath of whatever teacher was in charge of her next classroom.
“Our new dweller is gonna die,” Siret announced, snapping back around to walk normally. He sounded highly entertained. “I give her seven sun-cycles.”
They were discussing me like I wasn’t even there. And they were predicting my death. Lovely.
“Let’s see how far we can push her first,” replied Yael, a laugh in his voice. “I give her three sun-cycles.”
“One sun-cycle!” Siret shot back.
“One rotation,” Aros teased, glancing at me over his shoulder. “Teacher Christin is pretty lenient, so let’s see which one of us can push enough of her buttons to get the dweller sacrificed by the end of this next lesson. It has to be a death sentence, too. Whoever manages it first will win a single favour from each of the rest of us.”
Holy shit. “What if I win?” I quickened my steps, trying to walk right behind them.
I was pandering to their obviously competitive nature, and hoping that I lasted longer than a single rotation in the process. It was a dangerous game, but dangerous games were pretty much the only games I knew how to play, so at least I was in familiar territory.
“Well then I guess you win the favours,” Siret returned thoughtfully. “Should we let her play?” he asked the others.
“She doesn’t have a gift,” Yael pointed out. “She’s way out of her league.”
They definitely underestimated the power of my clumsy-curse.
“So there’s no harm in letting me play,” I added gently. I was attempting to be coaxing. Siret snorted—he clearly wasn’t buying it.
“Sure.” He grinned, walking backwards again to show me the way his cat’s eyes were crinkling at the corners. “You can play with the big boys, little dirt-dweller.”
“But you guys can’t use your gifts,” I quickly added, now that he’d already agreed. “Because then it’s no fun, no challenge. You want at least a little bit of a challenge, don’t you?”
“Is the dweller trying to manipulate us?” Yael asked the others. He sounded unimpressed and bemused all at once.
“Cute,” Aros added, his silky voice doing funny things to me. “It manipulates.”
Wow. Ouch.
We entered a classroom, and even though I knew it wasn’t the classroom I was supposed to be in, I still attempted to move against the wall with all the other dwellers. It was Siret who stopped me, grabbing my arm with a chuckle and forcing me past a few rows of shocked sols toward the back row of seats. I suspected that people left the back row of each classroom purposefully empty, just for the Abcurse brothers. He dragged me into the row and forced me to take a seat beside him. Aros claimed the seat on
my other side, and Yael lowered himself into the aisle seat, indicating that I’d have to fight past two of them if I wanted to escape. I stared back at the sea of faces all now staring at me. They weren’t staring at the Abcurse brothers, even though they were clearly at fault for this. Nope. Apparently, I was going to be the one to take the fall, because nobody wanted to punish them.
Teacher Christin—or at least I assumed it was the same teacher that the guys had mentioned—strolled into the room, her nose stuck into a book, a mumbled, “Hello students,” floating eerily over the still-staring room full of sols. She glanced up when she realised that nobody had answered, and her eyes traced all the attention back to me.
“Dweller?” She seemed too surprised to think of anything more to say.
And now I had a choice. I could get myself sentenced to death-by-sacrifice, and somehow use the favours I won to get myself out of the death-by-sacrifice, or I could … Run? Hide? Play dead? Ask to use the bathroom? I really had no idea.
“Last I checked,” I attempted to drawl nonchalantly. “That’s me. I’m a dweller. Dirty, er, dirtiness and everything. What’s it to you, woman?”
Her mouth dropped, her fingers loosening around the book. I watched as it fell—seemingly in slow motion—toward the floor, landing with a deafening thump that echoed off the walls. She looked toward the sols either side of me, probably hoping for some kind of explanation. The sols admittedly looked a little put-off, but I was sure it was only because they hadn’t actually thought that I would try to get myself sentenced to death. Pfft. They clearly didn’t know me.
“Now insult her again,” Yael suggested, his persuasive voice washing over me.
He wasn’t actually using his gift on me, but he was making it sound as though he was. Now I couldn’t insult her again, otherwise it would be because of him that I got sentenced to death. I turned to glare at him, but he wasn’t paying attention to me. He was leaning back, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his green eyes almost shining, because he was just that entertained by the rapidly reddening face of the teacher.
“I’ll do what I want!” I exclaimed, surging to my feet and attempting to barge past Aros to poke a finger into Yael’s face.
Unfortunately, Aros had only drawn back enough for me to get one leg past before slipping forward in his seat again. His knees closed around my other leg, trapping me solidly. He was much stronger than he looked. I froze, my eyes locked onto Yael’s face. Whatever insult I had been mustering, ready to shout at him, died. I could feel it fizzle out, making way for shock. I didn’t even know why I was so shocked, I really didn’t. It had nothing to do with the fact that even sitting next to Aros had been making my head spin a little bit, and it definitely had nothing to do with the fact that him now touching me had scattered my brains to the far ends of the room. I was avoiding looking at him, but Yael was meeting my stare, and he had this knowing expression on his face that made me want to sucker-punch him in the face.
So …
Yeah.
That’s how I ended up sucker-punching a sacred sol on my second sun-cycle of being one of the Luckiest Dwellers in the World. He shot out of his seat, capturing my hand as I began to draw it back again. All three of the brothers were on their feet now, crowding around me. I had no idea what was about to happen, but the whole world froze when the teacher’s voice rang out, loud and cold and shrill.
“DWELLER!”
I froze, my eyes on the ground. There were three sets of shoes, all pointed toward my boots, only a few inches away. The grip on my wrist tightened, and I felt one of them moving against my side.
“Forget …” It was Yael, and the word had been whispered into my ear, though it rang around the room with the tenor of travelling magic. “Forget everything you just saw …”
The room became still, and I finally glanced up, meeting the eyes of Aros, who stood directly before me.
“You win,” he whispered, as the class began to stir back into motion.
“Yay,” I mumbled, my tone flat.
I needed my head examined.
Emmy was going to murder me, which hardly made sense as a punishment for almost having gotten myself killed.
“Dweller?” The teacher again. She sounded confused, this time. “What are you doing?”
“H-he left his … paper behind,” I spoke up, edging past Yael and breaking into the aisle. “I—I’m in the wrong classroom. I’m so sorry!” I dove for the doorway, escaping through before any of them could grab me and question me.
I ran through the maze of corridors, trying to read each of the numbers above the doors, even though I was moving too fast to read much of anything, let alone pay attention to where I was going. All I knew was that I had to get out of there; away from the Abcurse triplets. Away from the fear and the danger.
Away from the fact that I might have actually enjoyed it.
The rest of my second sun-cycle at Blesswood passed without incident. And by ‘without incident,’ I mean that I tripped three times, almost stabbed a dweller with a pencil, and accidentally started a tiny little fire in the kitchen. Gods, the way that Jerath had reacted you’d think I had burned the entire academy down. The fire had been barely two feet tall. Anyway, the point was that there were no more Abcurse sightings for the whole sun-cycle. They hadn’t been in any more classes, or at dinner that night.
Rumours abounded about what those boys got up to when they disappeared, but all I could think was that the gods were finally giving me a break. I hoped that the break continued … otherwise something told me that next time I crossed paths with one of those shiny, golden assholes, there wouldn’t be any more contests to break the rules. The only breaking which would happen, would be me.
Six
Early the next morning, Emmy was in lecture mode.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Will. Why did you have to challenge them? Why would you call attention to yourself? Sometimes I wonder how much of your curse is god-given, and how much is your insatiable need to stir up your sun-cycle. Your boredom is going to be the death of you!”
She’d been at it since just after the early bells. I’d spilled on the ‘classroom incident’ while we got ready, and now I wished I’d kept it to myself.
“How can you just take the abuse, Em? It’s not in me to lie down and let them crush me. I’ll stay out of their way as much as I can, but if they come at me, I’m going to fight back.”
I was totally kidding. I couldn’t ‘fight back’ against five massive sols even if my life depended on it, but I talked a good game. Talk was my thing, and I was working at perfecting it.
With a huff, Emmy pushed back her mass of silvery hair, artfully twirling it up into a neat knot on top of her head. I roughly gathered my own off my back and threw a few clips in there, hoping the curls would hold. No time for top-knots. I had some dorm rooms to sneak in and out of. Plus, I would only be covering it all in a cap.
I was fully decked out in Atti’s old clothing; Emmy had done me a solid and stitched up the hem and waist on the pants last night, so they fit reasonably well. I took a quick look in the mirror: there was no pretty gloss, shadow or powder on my face; my hair was hidden beneath the cap; and a dark, baggy shirt attempted to hide my boobs. The outfit was paired with boy-pants and my usual boots. I was as male as I was going to get without any actual magic.
“I’m heading out now,” I announced, interrupting Emmy as she started on her next lecture. “I want to make sure I’m done before any of them return.” I hoped like hell that Rome wasn’t in his room. He’d know that I was coming this time and with a little luck, he wouldn’t be there.
Right. Luck. Because that was a thing I was totally familiar with.
“This sun-cycle we have to clean and set up the dining room before the sols get there. You can’t skip cleaning duties!” She was all aghast and stuff. Sometimes, I wondered if she knew me at all. I skipped my duties back in the village all the time. I literally couldn’t seem to help from breaking rules
. Maybe that was curse-induced too. Or maybe duties just sucked. I didn’t believe what Emmy said; I didn’t have a death wish. I had the opposite of a death-wish. I had a life-wish, where I actually wanted to have a life outside of serving and working and being told exactly how to serve and work.
I patted her arm quickly, before sprinting toward the door. She lurched out to grab me, missing by an inch.
“If I get to the dorms early, there’s even less of a chance that one of those … sols will be back from their training,” I whisper-yelled as I left.
The words lingered behind me but I didn’t stop moving, grabbing a few pieces of breakfast rock-bread as I passed the common dweller area. I took the stairs one at a time, even though I wanted to jump up as many as I could. It was safer this way. A broken nose would slow me down and I was on a mission. The Abcurse brothers would not get a jump on me this morning. Willa was going to get one over on them. Yes, I now spoke about myself in the third person. It was that kind of mission.
The domed room was reasonably empty; I noticed a few dwellers slipping into the dining area—they had the not-be-seen-or-smelt thing down. Eating my food as I ran, I took a sharp left and continued sprinting toward the male dorms. My disguise instilled me with a little more confidence this sun-cycle, but I kept my vigilant observations up. I hadn’t roamed at this time before and had no idea who I might run into. The sols should be either at breakfast, or at training in the stadium, but it worried me that the Abcurse brothers had been missing for the second part of the previous sun-cycle. They were rule-breakers like me, apparently. Although, unlike me, it wasn’t going to get them killed.