Spark (Legends of the Shifters) (32 page)

I
ripped off a chunk of the bread and bit into it. It was still warm
and tasted of rosemary with a slight hint of garlic. It was the best
thing I'd eaten since Hayman's Tavern.

Kurt
and Roland went back into the pantry, and I looked around the kitchen
before following them. The kitchen was smaller, but much nicer than
the one in the orphanage. The stove-tops here had been scrubbed of
grease and grime, and the counters were made of a beautiful dark
wood. The sink was deep and empty of dishes.

A
clanging in the pantry caught my attention. I abandoned the kitchen
and hurried inside to find Roland biting into a piece of chocolate
cake and Kurt digging into some sort of rice pudding. The source of
the clanging had been a pie tin, tossed aside with only a few crumbs
left over.

“
Were
you going to share?” I asked.

“
Of
course,” Roland said with a mouthful of cake.

“
Early
bird gets the worm,” Kurt replied, not even looking up.

Roland
rolled his eyes and stood, retrieving a plate and fork from a nearby
shelf. He slid a piece of chocolate cake onto the plate and handed it
to me.

I
smiled and sat down next to him, taking my first bite. The dessert
seemed to melt in my mouth.

After
eating the cake, I ate an apple and some cheese and crackers. I was
so full that I felt sick, and I had no doubt that Kurt and Roland
felt the same way.

To
take my mind off it, I decided to ask Roland a question.

“
Do
you know every city like the back of your hand?” I said.

He
laughed and shook his head. “No. Unfortunately, we don’t
get along very well with people in Ginsey, so whenever I did go
there, I had to keep a low profile.”

“
How
do you know Maven so well?”

“
She
was having trouble with her cart at the marketplace, and a thief took
advantage of her. I stopped the thief and returned Maven's things to
her,” he answered nonchalantly.

“
It
seems like crime is getting more and more common,” Kurt
muttered darkly.

“
Probably
because everyone senses that a war is coming,” said Roland.

War.
I knew the categories for all the other second forms, but I had no
idea what part I would have to play. “What would the
Conservatory people do in a time like that?” I asked.

Roland
shrugged. “I suspect that some of us would still act as spies,
but the majority of us would be shipped off to be part of a
regiment.”

I
grimaced. “I certainly hope that there is no war, then.”

Kurt
nodded in agreement. “If you thought that the conservatory was
tough, the military camps are ten times that. Punishment falls
quickly, sometimes resulting in death if your crime is big
enough...or if your captain just doesn't like you.”

“
You
know, Kurt, you're strong on land and deadly in the sky. You would
probably be promoted to captain in the first week,” Roland
mused.

“
And
you would no doubt be part of the naval regiment, the most important
weapon of them all, able to drown an entire ship with the flick of
your tail.”

Roland
laughed. “I don’t know about that.”

They
both looked at me, thinking.

“
I’d
bet that they’d send you to be a spy, Ivy,” Roland said.
“You’re smaller than both Kurt and me, and you obviously
have some wits about you.”

Kurt
tilted his head. “Or they might send you to be a warrior. You
could probably burn up a whole enemy brigade if you wanted.”

My
mind was flooded with horrors. Screams, the smell of burning flesh
heavy in the air, and people everywhere...
dying
.

My
food threatened to come back up.

Kurt
must have noticed my face turning green. “But maybe not,”
he said quickly. “What Roland said is just as true.”

“
Let’s
just hope that there is never a war,” I said, putting an end to
the conversation.

We
were quiet until Kurt said, “We should get to bed.”

I
nodded in agreement. “There is probably only a few more hours
until the sun starts to come up.”

“
We
can sleep in tomorrow,” said Roland. “We've traveled all
night, so we'll need it.”

I
stood and stretched, starting toward the stairs that Maven had walked
up, but Roland stopped me.

“
Not
those ones,” he said. “Those lead to her private
quarters.” He led the way out of the kitchen and to a staircase
slightly grander than the one leading up to Maven's rooms.

My
room key had the number thirty-one engraved into it. Its door was
located on the third floor, in the middle of the hallway. Kurt and
Roland stopped at their rooms before I got to mine.

I
opened the door and looked inside before entering. It wasn’t
very big, like Maven had said, but it was simple and comforting with
light green curtains and a small rug the same color placed in the
middle of the room, on the dark hardwood floor.

I
shut the door behind me and kicked off my shoes.

It
wasn’t until I laid down in the bed that I discovered that I
was exhausted. The bed was very comfy, and the pillow even more so.
It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.

I
woke up to someone shaking me. I blinked my eyes open and Kurt’s
blurry face appeared in front of me.

“
Come
on, you need to get up,” he said. “It’s almost
noon.”

I
groaned tiredly. It seemed like I had only been asleep for a couple
hours.

I
crawled out of the bed and stretched, yawning.

“
Lunch
is already ready, so as soon as we eat, we can go.” Kurt said.
I combed my fingers through my hair and followed him, not caring
entirely about my appearance. I would probably be flying somewhere
anyway. I didn’t exactly register how many people I would be
seeing downstairs, probably because I was still foggy from sleep. My
mind felt like it was wading through sludge.

Kurt
and I sat at a table and waited for the food to be brought to us. I
was surprised that Roland wasn’t already here. He was always up
before me.

I
opened my mouth to ask Kurt about him, but he answered my question
before I could get a word out. “I woke Roland up, too.
Apparently, he takes longer than a girl to get ready.”

Three
plates of food were brought out to us, and I ate quickly. The food
tasted bland to me, probably because I wasn’t as hungry as I
was last night. Roland walked in the room when I was finished eating.
I noticed that his hair was combed down.

He
ate his food in a hurry, and when he was finally done, he looked up
at us. He noticed my messy curls and smiled.

“
Didn’t
want to brush your hair today?” he asked.

I
shrugged. “I didn’t think that it was very important,”
I replied.

“
It
really doesn’t matter,” he said. “This hotel is for
more refined people, but that doesn’t mean we have to look like
them.”

“
Why
did you brush your hair if it didn’t matter?” Kurt asked
him.

Roland
face turned a few degrees colder as he looked at Kurt. “Since I
was provided with the use of a bathtub, I thought I might as well
take a bath, that’s all,” he said.

Maven
came and took our plates, looking Roland over. “Since when do
you ever comb your hair?”

He
crossed his arms. “Is a man not supposed to comb his hair
around here?”

Maven
smiled. “It looks good,” she said, starting to walk away.
“Maybe you’ll finally have some luck with the ladies.”

I
scoffed and Kurt laughed. “I think you’ve already had
luck enough,” Kurt said. “All the “ladies”
were fawning over you at the school, especially January.”

Roland's
face twisted into a look of revulsion. “That can't be true.”

“
It’s
obvious,” Kurt replied.

The
thought of January and Roland being together made me sick to the
stomach. January didn’t deserve to be with Roland. Roland was
good and encouraging, whereas January was like a dark cloud, looming
over everyone's heads, ready to strike us down with lightning.

Roland
stood and both Kurt and I followed suit. “Where are we going
next?” I asked.

“
I
figured we could tour the town a little bit,” he said.

I
opened my mouth in protest, but he held up a hand. “Don’t
worry. We’ll be heading in the right direction. It’ll
just be the longer route.”

I
sighed. “I don't see why we should, but if you insist.”

“
I
do,” Roland said. He smiled as he went off to pay the bill.

Kurt
and I wandered outside, and were greeted with an explosion of color.
I hadn’t even realized that Nalla was so different from Achron
in the darkness of the night, but it was. Buildings were painted
blue, red, yellow, orange, green, and purple in all different shades.

“
They
call this the rainbow city,” said Kurt.

I had
never seen a city that looked so colorful and happy. “Why
doesn’t everyone live here?” I asked.

“
Many
reasons. For one, it’s a loud city. There are many troubadours
and acrobats and performers here.”

“
What’s
wrong with that?” I asked.

“
Some
people just don’t like that,” he answered. “Another
reason is because the people try not to focus on bad things that are
happening in the kingdoms. They try to keep themselves…ignorant.”

I
looked at him in shock. “Really?”

He
nodded.

I
shook my head. “That's ridiculous. The kingdoms' problems are
our problems.”

Roland
sighed. “I know. As much as I would love to have no problems,
that is not the way to go about it.”

We
were quiet as we weaved through a crowd of people. Each person had a
smile and a carefree look about them. It was as if they had
brainwashed themselves.

“
See
what I mean?” Roland asked after they were gone.

I
nodded my head nervously. Why would someone do that to themselves?

Ahead,
I heard running water and I saw that the pavement suddenly dropped
off just ahead. I looked over the edge when we got to it, and peered
at the crystal clear water. It flowed slowly, its smooth surface
reflecting the bright sun.

A man
was coming our way with a long, thin boat. He had a long pole to push
him along.

“
Would
you like to ride in boat?” he asked in a strange accent.

Roland
smiled and nodded. “Yes, we would,” he answered.

Kurt
snorted. “The canal. So this is what you meant when you said
you wanted to go on a longer route.”

“
Yep,”
replied Roland, climbing in the boat.

He
held on to my arm as I climbed in after him. He placed me in the seat
next to him, which was already very tight. The skin that he touched
tingled.