Vallen: The Marking (Vallen series #1)

Chapter 57

The three of us expected to have to face the consequences of ransacking Woodville's office. I expected him to figure out it was us, but Alaric and Eldon were sure that he wouldn't. That didn't stop the three of us from being very tense at dinner that evening. I figured he would make an appearance and publicly point us out as the culprits.

But then four days had gone by and the rest of the school hadn't even heard about what happened. The talk of the day was still Kamau, with some students even claiming that they were the ones to beat him up. It felt like we were waiting for a storm to hit us. 

 Eldon, unlike Alaric and I, was quite used to getting in trouble. You'd think that at this point I would be too, but there was a difference between sneaking out at night and completely destroying the headmaster's office. Sneaking out might land me detention, if we were caught for this I had no doubt in my mind Woodville would throw us out into the streets. 

Now that we had the sheath, all we could do was prepare for what was coming. The only problem with that was that we didn't know who was coming for us. Eldon tried to teach us some fighting skills, but Alaric and I were hopeless. 

"Try to actually block it." Eldon noted when I was kicked by Alaric once again. I put my hand over my sore ribcage and shot him an angry glare. 

"It's not exactly a fair fight is it?" I hissed at him. Alaric was twice my size. If I wanted to kick his ribs I needed to lift my leg a lot higher than he needed to do with me. Besides that, one kick from me hardly felt like anything to him. 

Not that Alaric was any better. He was good at sword fighting, but he was so terrified of accidentally hurting me again that he kept on tripping over his own feet. We looked like the saddest bunch of Vallens ever. Were we really the ones who would save our race?

Eldon quickly caught on to my bad mood and took my place in front of Al. In our third year, we can drop PE, Archery and Swordfighting and actually choose which sports we want to play. I already knew that I for sure was going to drop PE, but I didn't mind Archery all that much. Eldon had chosen to learn Krav Maga, but told me he wasn't going to choose it again for his fourth year. Apparently it wasn't worth the broken bones

 He hadn't walked away from it without learning anything though, he was a far better fighter than I thought he would be. Within three hits, Alaric was down on the ground with Eldon standing over him. 

"I hope that this is practise and not the Lauwers family breaking up." Dehaven said from behind me. I hadn't heard him approach so I jumped up in surprise. Eldon pulled Alaric back up and walked over to us. Dehaven didn't waste any time in telling us.

"I went to see Kamau." He said on a low tone. We were in one of the courtyards. It was entirely deserted, but we could never be too sure. "He is doing a lot better."

"No offence professor," Eldon said. "But we don't really care about Kamau's wellbeing." 

Dehaven nodded and looked over his shoulder to check if someone was watching us. "He suspects it was someone from the King's inner circle." 

That was what we had feared. In a way, it would have been a lot better if our new enemy wasn't the same king who got my parents killed. During that war, a lot of people had sided with the king and lost when he supposedly died. It was the one thing Vallens never discussed. Some of our teachers were probably loyalists. If he returned, another war would definitely come. One that would wipe out the Vallens completely.

"Why did he say that?" I managed to ask Dehaven. Even Eldon looked a little pale now. The three of us could take on a rogue Vallen. We couldn't take on the inner circle of the dead king. They were legendary in combat. 

"He said he looked familiar," Dehaven said, answering my previous question of which one of our teachers had been a loyalist. "Not familiar enough to be able to tell, but a son or nephew perhaps."

It wasn't absolute evidence, but it was the first we got when it came to who we would be fighting. I wanted to curse and kick something, but immediately shut up when I spotted Woodville heading our way.

"Dominic," Woodville said, never entering the courtyard but rather lingering in the door. "Nehenet Nahomi." Dehaven straightened his back.

"Henuk Akhan." He answered back. Woodville nodded and headed back into the castle. I didn't even need Alaric or Eldon to tell me what had just happened. 

Nehenet Nahomi, may this week be blessed. 

Henuk Akhan, may the young be strong. 

The marking week had begun.