The Proteus Trilogy: Book One: Warrior

Chapter 4

The other leaders start to contemplate that. Then I have an idea. “Why stop there? Instead of whole battles, which would certainly end with several deaths, we have things more like duels? If someone has a problem with someone else from a different group, they take it up with them, and only them.”

Over the next hour, we convince the other leaders to abide by a pact that says that none of them will go out at night with the intent to fight, unless it’s to an agreed upon duel, which can have up to four representatives from each side in a battle, so that the largest these duels go is twelve combatants.

After everyone signs the pact, we each take a digital scan of it, and the pact is left in the care of the Dragons. Only after all the other leaders leave do I finally allow myself to relax. I smile and high-five Corith and Lee.

“We did it!” I exclaim happily. I’m not sure how well it’ll work, or if either of the other two groups will stick to it, but at least we have a set of rules now. As we stand to leave, I notice that there are a couple of instructors standing at the edges of the room, observing us. I whisper in Lee’s ear, “How long have they been there?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I was mostly paying attention to the meeting.”

“Alright.” I check the time. About five minutes to lunch, and the dining hall is almost empty, except the instructors and Lee and I.

“Where’d Corith go?” I ask her.

“He went to go tell our group about the agreement, as I suspect the other leaders have as well.” She replies.

I nod. “Well, then, let’s get in line.”

She smiles. “Let it never be said that we let a good opportunity pass us by.”

I smile back. Right now, anything sounds funny. As we start a line, and more people stream into the room, I’m struck by a thought. I tap Lee on the shoulder. She turns to face me. “What is it?” She asks.

“Where did you get that one book, Tales of Ethrona? You said you got it from outside, right?” I say.

“Sort of. I got it from a library, just not the one on Level 10. I’ll tell you about it later. I’ll show you tonight.”

I nod. “Alright.”

***

That night, or rather the next morning, just after midnight, I am awoken by Lee. I silently get down from my bed. Lee has the training sword in her hand, and so I take the throwing dagger. Even though we have a pact with the other groups, it’s better to be safe. Then we leave the room.

Down the hall, out of sight, we hear the clash of weapons. Apparently, someone from either the Wolves or Dragons has already challenged someone from the other group.

That didn’t take long. I think.

A few minutes later, we were in the elevator, going down to Level 10. The doors opened to the dimmed lights of night. There’s no one in sight.

Lee leads the way with sure steps, and within a couple minutes, we’re there. The Library. It’s exactly what it sounds like, but is little used. The reason for this is that any reading materiel we need we can get in some other form than books, which are bulky and heavy. But apparently Lee likes them.

Lee seems to be counting off steps as she walks. I hear her mutter under her breath as she walks, “Eight…nine…ten…”

Then she stops in front of a shelf packed with books. She points upward.

“Up there.” Is all she says. Then she climbs the shelf, and pulls open a grate that I couldn’t see in the darkness, and disappears inside. I copy her, first climbing the shelf, then getting inside where the grate was. It’s a large ventilation duct, which must run all throughout the building.

Once inside the duct, it’s pitch black. Lee thought to bring a light, and flicks it on. She whispers to me, “We have to stay quiet, otherwise the other groups might find us here, and it’d be…awkward.” I nod in agreement. With the grille the only way back to Level 10, as far as I knew, they’d just have to block it, and we’d be stuck.

Lee crawls forward until the duct splits into two directions: left and right. Lee goes right, and I follow. The duct turns at a right angle upward, and Lee starts to climb up. It’s about twenty feet, and we climb by bracing our feet and backs against the wall, and slowly getting higher by walking up the wall.

Eventually, we both get to the top. Lee continues to lead the way through a maze of ducts.

“How do you know your way around this place?” I pant. All the crawling has left me short of breath.

“Trial and error, plus a good memory.” She replies. “Ah, we’re here. Be careful though.”

“Why?” I ask. Lee points at a grille, which looks like it’s at floor level in a room. Then I realize why she said what she did. There’s a light on. Which means that there may be people inside. I slide up to the grille and look out. The limited area I can see looks empty. I whisper this to Lee, who nods.

I move away from the grille, and she pulls it open, then slides out into the room. I follow moments later. The library here is similar, no, identical in layout to the one on Level 10. The only difference is the books.

The library is empty. I glance at Lee. “Have you tried going outside the room?” She nods. “Yeah, but as soon as I crossed the door, an alarm of some kind went off, and I hid in the ducts. I haven’t tried since.”

I nod, thinking. Obviously, we’ve never had that problem on our levels. As I stand there thinking, I hear the door open. My eyes meet Lee’s, and we both decide the same thing. We hide behind bookshelves. It would take too long to get back inside the grille and put it back into place. I look around the corner of the bookshelf carefully.

Then I see who walked into the room.

It’s me.