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

Chapter 11| The Lunatic With the Bruised Face

Surprise is a thief.

It steals breath and the regular pace of a heartbeat. It robs any feeling of normalcy in the hands: palms heat, sweat blooms in the cracks between fingers, the whole hand trembles. Surprise loots the weight from stomachs and rips the voice from throats, leaving one merely gasping, gaping, and gawking.

Upon entering Treasurer's Place for her first meal at Elliott Way, surprise robbed Lilly blind.

Wyx, who was at her heels, laughed at her sharp inhale.

After last night, she should have known better. Elliott Way wasn't subtle.

Treasurer's Place was a dining room of sorts—there were wooden tables of various sizes with mismatched chairs around them. Five giant windows filled up the wall directly opposite of the entrance doors, showcasing the bridges that led from Elliott Way to the lawn and hilly clearing beyond. Light fixtures hung from the ceiling without rhyme or reason; some bulbs were naked, some had colorfully and texturally diverse shades, and some were not lightbulbs at all but rather three-inch-high winged humanoid creatures clinging to the end of cords while balancing small globes on their bald heads.

"You like?" Wyx asked over the drone of chatter in the cafeteria. There were so many people here...way more than Lilly had seen in the crowd last night. In addition, most of them were older, taller, and more muscular than she was. Intimidation crept up her back, uncomfortable as spiders on skin. This was a foreign feeling to her—she didn't let older kids bother her in Eldnac, but something about these kids...the way they walked, the way they so properly held themselves, made her feel on edge.

"Yeah," Lilly replied. "But...there are so many more kids here than I saw last night."

"People have been training here for the Bria Hungrian army for the past century," Wyx replied. "Original Bria Hungrian patriots, if you will. Yesterday all the youngsters like yourself came in cycles of two hundred at different times during the day. Everyone else was pulled from all the smaller training facilities and placed here in the ranks they were in when they left."

"Sounds complicated."

"War is coming; complicated is everyone's new middle name. And with those eleven monsters raging through towns, the Bloom is eager to produce new soldiers as fast as possible. Plus, Elliott Way has the best instructors in the world." Wyx paused, climbed atop Lilly's boot, and wagged a perfectly manicured talon at her. "You need to eat, and I've got some rats to kill on the training grounds before drills start. If you could please kick some trainee-butt for me on your first day, I would be most appreciative."

Lilly grinned. "I'll try my hardest."

As Wyx scampered through the shuffling combat boots back into the rotunda, Lilly planted her hands on her hips and stepped over the threshold into Treasurer's Place. The wonder and absolute rapture could have stolen her attention for a long time if it had not been for the commotion in front of her.

There was a sudden shift in the people around her; she was shoved and a girl behind her yelped as Lilly accidentally trampled over her foot. Despite the loud waves of chatter in the rest of the cafeteria, Lilly heard the unmistakable smack of a head against the granite floor.

"That guy just...pushed him!" the girl in front of Lilly whispered to her friend. "For no reason at all."

Lilly regained balance and looked up. Through the cracks between heads and shoulders, she could see the pusher...he was tall and lithe, narrow at the shoulders and hips, his bright blond hair shining white beneath the variations of light shining above. His back was to her, but she could see his victim's face, which was that of perfect horror and shock.