Chapter 117: Stage 1, Completed

Eating together was not a rule. It was one of those things that nobody had ever written down but everybody enforced anyway. Every captain’s faction had a place at the great soldiers’ table, and if you skipped it too often, people started wondering what you were hiding.

Our table was made of black wood, polished so smooth that I could see the torchlight crawling across it like fire in a lake. It was long enough for six people, and heavy enough that I doubted even Lee could flip it without a Gift.

Tonight’s dinner was a thick slab of grilled Beast meat, still sizzling, with a rare kind of bread on the side that was actually soft. There was also a clay mug of ale in front of each of us.

I looked around the table while pretending to be absorbed in my bread.

Jeffrey sat on my left. He had perfectly ordinary features. Two stars shone on his chest, which made him the second weakest of us.

Across from him sat Jonas, who had sharp features and cold grey eyes that always seemed to be measuring the distance to my throat. Three stars. He ate like a man who was angry at his food.

Next to Jonas was Martha, a skinny woman with four stars and a habit of chewing very slowly, as if she were counting every bite.

Beside her sat Rico, whose features were ordinary but whose posture was not. He had the air of a scholar who had been dragged out of a library and given a sword, and there was a small mole on the right side of his neck that bobbed whenever he swallowed.

Five stars. The strongest of us and also an inferior awakened, compared to the others in the team who were fighters, according to the "official" ranking.

Captain Daniel had no stars at all, because he was the captain, and captains did not need to prove anything to a shirt. His long red hair was tied loosely behind his neck, and he held his ale with both hands like it was a chalice.

All of them were from Valemont. That was the reason I had been placed in this faction in the first place. Bianca had mentioned it with a cheerful smile, saying it would be easier for everyone if we could speak the same language. Easier for everyone. I had nearly laughed in her face. Because I was worried someone would know who I am, to my thankfulness, however, no one knew. Maybe, it was because of the concealment.

For a few minutes, the only sounds were chewing, the clink of mugs, and the distant murmur of the other factions at their own tables. The meat was excellent.

Then Captain Daniel set down his mug.

"Any special occurrences during your rounds?" he asked in his low voice.

It was the same question he asked every night, and he asked it in the same tone every night. Like a priest reading the end of a prayer.

"No, sir," Jeffrey, Jonas, Martha and Rico answered, almost in unison.

I stayed quiet.

Daniel’s eyes moved to me. "Peter?"

I did not answer immediately. I let a few seconds pass, long enough for my fingers to tighten around the mug and for my gaze to drop to the table, as if I were arguing with myself. Peter was a boy who hated being the center of attention. Peter would hesitate.

"Sir," I said slowly, "I’ve heard some rumors."

Daniel scratched the side of his head, and a strand of red hair slipped free. "What kind of rumors?"

"I happened to overhear two guests talking while I was walking my route." I cleared my throat. "They said one of the hunting teams ran into the Twilight Order out in the swamps."

The table went still. Even Jonas stopped chewing.

"And what did they say?" Daniel asked.

"That the Order is going to attack the castle." I swallowed, and the sound was loud in my own ears. It was a good swallow. I was proud of it. "And that there are at least two hundred of them."

Silence.

Daniel stared at me for a long moment. His voice was calm when he spoke, but there was something sharp underneath it. "Why did you not tell us this earlier?"

I flinched. Not too much. Just enough.

"They’re just rumors, sir," I mumbled. "Guests say all sorts of things when they’re scared. And we are under the protection of King Culex, so there should be nothing to worry about..."

I let the sentence trail off, and lowered my head like a student who was afraid he had said something stupid.

Inside, I was smiling.

This was the real reason I had joined the soldiers. As a guest, I had been one careless word away from being dragged into a dark room and asked, politely and with pliers, whether I was a spy of the Order. A guest could be questioned by anyone. A guest could vanish and nobody would notice.

But a soldier was different. A soldier could carry a rumor straight upward without anyone suspecting that he had started it. I did not need to lie about who had said it. I only needed to say that someone had, and let a priest turned captain do the rest. The upper levels of the palace would move because their own men told them to. It was a much better trick than frightening hunters in a swamp.

Daniel was quiet for another breath. Then he let out a long sigh and pushed himself up from his seat.

"I should report this to his majesty."

I nodded obediently. "Y-yes, sir."

He drained the rest of his ale in one long swallow, wiped his mouth and walked toward the stairs at the end of the hall. The stairs that led upward, to the throne room. His boots echoed on the stone until the shadows swallowed him.

I watched him go and picked up my bread. My hands were perfectly steady.

"Man," Jeffrey said, leaning toward me. His voice was lower now. "Did you really hear that?"

"Yup."

I took a bite and chewed with the calm of a man who had never lied in his life.

Nobody spoke for a while.

They were uncomfortable, that much was obvious. Jeffrey kept fiddling with his mug. Jonas had stopped glaring at me, which was a small miracle on its own. Martha’s slow chewing had gone even slower.

But under that discomfort, I felt something else. It was faint, like a candle in a drafty room, but I could see it flickering behind their eyes.

Hope.

I almost frowned. That was not part of the plan.

In my head, I had filed every soldier in this palace as an enemy. They wore Culex’s uniform, they ate Culex’s food and they patrolled Culex’s halls. They were obstacles. Pieces that would eventually need to be moved, or removed.

But if even they were praying for the Twilight Order to arrive, then maybe they were not enemies at all.

Maybe they were also victims who had been given softer beds.

’Don’t get distracted,’ I warned myself. ’Think about that later.’

"So," Martha said, finally breaking the quiet, "who were the people you heard it from?"

"I don’t know them," I replied, with an apologetic shrug. "I only saw their backs. I’ll try to learn their names, though. Give me some time."

She nodded slowly. Rico’s gaze lingered on me for a moment, thoughtful and a little too sharp for a man who was supposed to be eating. Then he looked away and reached for his ale.

I finished my meal in peace. The bread really was good, which made me angrier than it should have. When my mug was empty, I stood, gave a small bow to the others and walked back to my room with the stiff little steps of a boy who still could not believe he was wearing a uniform.

The door closed behind me. The room was quiet and warm, with the soft bed waiting and the mirror catching the lamplight.

I leaned against the door and finally let the smile climb onto my face.

"Stage one," I whispered, "completed."