The War of Elevens| Book 1 of the Space Thief Chronicles

Chapter 10| The Sassy Gibberkrab and the Opera Singing Wall

The outside of Elliott Way was a stark contrast to the inside in terms of architecture.

After all of the water knights melted into the ground and Instructor Amaranth gave a few more directions, the doors to Elliott Way flung open, and the kids spilled over one of the ten bridges. When they entered through the entrance doors, Kaitlynn gulped and grabbed Lilly's elbow in shock.

Lilly felt common sense leaching from her body.

The entryway was a giant round room capped by a glass dome. The dome had patterns on the glass, so the moonbeams falling through the glass cast a thousand constellations over the onyx walls. Stairwells corkscrewed through the rotunda, circling upwards, winding into different halls and wings. One stairwell had words painted on each step's base in giant turquoise letters: PERSEVERANCE, COURAGE, GENTLENESS. Plants moved on the sills of arched windows, humming off-key melodies someone behind Lilly dubbed as "Shifter lullabies." Ferns curled over the railing of another stairwell, and glossy black eyes peered through the thick green foliage wherever it grew.

Instructor Amaranth gestured to a set of closed oak doors on their left. "That's Treasurer's Place. Your meals, assemblies, and tests will be held there."

The Board Members led them through a hall that opened right across from Treasurer's Place—this hall was anything but normal, as clocks stuffed every square inch of the walls: analog clocks with their faces painted in brilliant neon colors, chirping cuckoo clocks, grandfather timepieces polished with silver filigree and mahogany furnishes. The hall ended in a round clearing at least a hundred feet across. Where the previous parts of the facility were whimsical, this part was structured to resemble a cathedral. The array of clocks ended, and tapestries that told old Shifter tales took their place. Ribbed vaults were carved where the tops of the walls curved into a high ceiling. Skylights dripping with plant life shone pale gold in rays of moonlight.

There were five doors in this round clearing, giant numbers engraved on their wooden surfaces. Instructor Amaranth laid a hand on a door with the number one engraved on it.

"Each rank is assigned to a different dormitory," she explained, her velvet voice echoing through the clearing. "Privates, Wayleds, Cadés, Mevists, and Battlés, in that respective order. So, Privates, this is your dormitory. And, ah...it would be wise not to enter another rank's dormitory unless you wish to lose your toes."

She pushed the door open and led the crowd into the dormitory.

Lilly only had to make a cursory glance of the room to know that all five dormitories for each rank were extremely bizarre.

The high, slanted ceiling was painted dark red and the walls were a deep, twilight blue. There were blue rocking chairs and yellow sofas surrounding a magnificent fountain in the middle of the room that spewed not water, but fire. Flames exploded from the brilliant stone structure in bright columns before arching downwards and sizzling into a great blue marble basin. The wall directly opposite of the entrance door was created entirely of glass, overlooking the vast expanse of mountains, forest, and sky. Another wall housed a colossal, glittering red silhouette of a dragon with its tail twisting around its body...and it was moving. The light fixtures hung from the ceiling on transparent cords—mere bulbs without shades—tiny winged creatures of all sorts clung to them.

Kaitlynn's hand was on Lilly's arm. "Oh my Gristin...Lilly with two ls, it's absolutely fantastic!"

"Yeah," Lilly agreed. Words were not her best friend right now—how could she possibly come up with a way to describe how she felt about all this? The colors, the ideas, the hopes and dreams and wonders she'd wished for when she was little coming to life? How could this place possibly be a military training facility?