chapter nineteen

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-19-


When Mather roused Section 6 the next morning DETRA was silent. No one spoke as they dressed and scoffed down some toast, the hallways void of the usual chatter as they were led through passages she hadn't ventured into. The layout was imprinted on her mind, but Mather led them up and up until her mental map was no use.

He halted in a large room, waiting for the fifty agents to file inside. Elle glanced around, noticing the other agents were doing the same. Stone walls and ceiling, nothing out of the ordinary. Plain, aside for an ominous double door a few steps ahead of them.

Its baleful glare made the hairs stand on her arm. A simple knocker bore a symbol of a drooping flower, with long tendrils curling from the stem. Those flowers—her mouth opened slightly. Flashes from her memory, of Seren, the pair burning heaps of those flowers used as an offering to the coven's dark master.

Seren. The assassin reached for Ravaryn, but her fingers gripped around nothing but air. They were told to leave all weapons behind for the first elimination.

She sidled away from the carved image, not looking at it again. Focus was key, and she couldn't afford to lose. If the exercise went well, she could prove to Cerid that she was perfectly capable of training and acting of her own accord. Elle glimpsed Tan's curls peeking out over the rest, but no other Sections were present.

Mather grunted as he opened the leaden doors, she squinted as a crack of light shone through the gap. Were they at the surface? Catching Tan's eye, their expressions mirrored both trepidation and excitement. A gust of cold wind entered the room like an icy kiss. Their Section Leader strode through the doors, indicating the group to follow.

Then, they were outside.

Her boots sunk in a fresh blanket of snow. Darkness cloaked the agents as she found they were in the middle of the mounds, the city's lights shone in the distance.

"Recruits, this is your first trial of training. You will be split into various groups, and you will have to fight to retrieve this," Mather draws a golden disk, the size of a dinner plate out of his satchel. "The group who has it when the cry sounds will win." Immediately, Elle looks to the other trainees, her competition. To Rand, who stood with a cocky smile planted on his face. She wanted to slap that arrogance out of him.

The trees had wasted away to mere skeletons, some standing alone on the knolls. Elle touched her cheeks, cold already from the wind, her lashes already catching snowflakes. She really wasn't dressed for such cold temperatures.

Efficiently, Mather separated agents into random groups of three or four. Much to her dismay, Rand and Tan were shoved in a team together. He looked pleased with himself.

Crossing her arms and shifting on her feet, the assassin looked over to the agents she would be working with. A pallid boy stood, shivering, his limp hair slicked to his head. The final member of their trio was a broad-shouldered guy, whose navy trousers really didn't fit him. His long hair fell in front of his eyes. Facing forwards again, Elle sighed sharply. Seems it'll be a solo mission.

Had Mather screwed her over on purpose?

"You are allowed to maim or to kill with whatever you find in the zone. The disk is hidden within these 10 miles. Do not enter the city, that is forbidden. Once you have the disk, hold onto it until the whistle sounds and ends the first trial. You won't know when the whistle will sound, just get the disk." He grunts, putting the disk away. "We will be watching."

He stalked away. Elle watched until his figure disappeared inside the door, which was camouflaged from the outside. The stone doors shut with a resounding boom and the agents were left in silence once more.

A minute or so passed before a shrill sound echoed across the plains. Birds screeched and fled from the screeching whistle, Elle swore, covering her ears to mute the splitting cry. "Damned DETRA," she muttered. The games had begun.

Some teams immediately burst into action, sprinting in the direction of the woods. Others ran in the other direction, to hunker down in the plains and play the waiting game. Rand winked as he jogged away, whooping. Tan didn't look back either.

Elle ran a few paces, then turned to see the other two agents unmoving. "Come on!" She yelled, gesturing wildly. "We have to catch up!"

"No. We don't," the larger man crossed his arms, his muscles rippling under tanned skin. "Everyone will be in those woods." He jerked his head.

"That's the point!" She wanted to shake him. "The aim of this trial is to retrieve that golden disk. I'm afraid we can't find it if we hide out here until someone else has already won."

The cold was pissing her off. Everyone was pissing her off.

"What's your name?" His gruff voice rang. They were the only ones still debating and arguing. Elle glared, "Vhiena."

When she didn't ask who he was he scowled and introduced himself. "Vars." Neither of them inquired after the boy who had turned a sickly green colour. Elle wrinkled her nose, "gods, if you're going to be sick, do it now." Her words didn't help him.

She slumped down at the crest of the hill. "So this is our grand plan? Staying here until someone with weapons comes and picks us off?" She mutters. Vars didn't deign to reply, scouting the tree line.

Unfortunately for them, the weather didn't improve. Snow began to fall harder and Elle found herself more cold and miserable than before. Her team were easy kills—hells, she would have taken advantage of a small group of exposed people, with no weapons!

After a good hour of grumbling, pacing and scouting the area for any movement, a series of yells and cries echoed from the forest. She rubbed her face with her hands, groaning. Vars looked up, "someone's found the disk."

"Yes, and that someone isn't us!"

He shook his head. "We can see for a good mile from where we are. No one can attack us without being seen. We aren't in the hotspot of action. This is a perfect place to bide our time."

"I understand that," the assassin stood and began to pace again, "but I am not here to bide my time. I'm here to win the damned competition."

It was at this moment the thin boy decided to hurl his guts up. Elle sighed, "feel better now?" Unsurprisingly, he didn't reply. A few hours of her incessant chatter and complaining later, shouts and cries of pain drifted from the forest. Immediately they scrambled to their feet, eyes darting to try to view the attackers. Then, within the hour, another round of cheers. A deep voice rang out from the rest, as fellow competitors began a chant.

"Rand! Rand!"

"Fuck me," the assassin wished more than ever she could have Ravaryn with her. Their chants continued in the backdrop of the snowy scene. "I've had enough," she announced. Vars merely lifted his brows as she began to walk away. "I'm going to steal that disk."

He waved her off as she left him in the company of the other boy.

Soon the pair were mere specks on a hill, as Elle approached the edge of the forest. Hoots and calls sounded from deep inside. Hiding in the trees would only do her so much good, since there were few evergreens which could conceal her from enemy eyes. Good thing she had had lots of practice of moving about silently.

The assassin focused on slowing her breathing, making each footstep a whisper underneath her. Her ears pricked when she heard rustles of agents tramping towards where she crouched, and ducked behind one of the logs, peering as four sets of DETRA boots moved past, missing her completely.

Combing her way through the woods, she followed murmurs from assassins' conversations as to Rand's whereabouts. On her travels she found a knife wedged into the root of a large tree. Wrenching it free, she grinned and wiped it on her trousers. The two on the hills would be bored out of their mind, yet here she was, winning it for them both.

Her stomach growled with hunger. She had ignored the pangs for a while now—water, she needed water. Remembering the maps she had memorised of Lorel and the city's location, the assassin knew the River Mor passed through the area. Through the spindly branches, a milky sun barely shone. It was just after midday.

Silently, she clambered up to the higher branches of a patch of evergreens, swinging between them with the knife in her mouth. She pushed down her hunger and thirst, focusing on making it to the river. If she were Rand, asserting dominance, that was where she would have gone.

Reaching the Western edge of the forest, the assassin peered over the hills, to the river and sure enough, Rand, Tan and one other agent were lounging. She leant out on her branch further, narrowing her eyes. When she finally spotted the disk her heart sank; it was glinting, pressed against Rand's side on the banks of the river.

Voices sounded to her left, she pressed her body to the trunk of the tree opposite from where they came from. A team of agents were crouching on the ground, a few metres beneath her. Clearly fixated on the golden disk, they discussed various ways to take it.

She tilted her head, listening intently.

A distraction. If the assassins could draw those at the river's attention away, she could snatch it from right under their noses. As those beneath her formulated a plan, so did she...

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