The Girl Born of Smoke (17 page)

“Sure,” Tarana replied, turning back toward
her dresser. “Close the door on the way out, will you?”

With another sigh, Roxanne left the room,
closing the door firmly behind her. Blowing out the candle, Tarana
shuffled across the floor until her shins bumped into her bed.
Climbing back in, she pulled the thin sheets over her head and
curled up to keep warm in the drafty room. She fell asleep
listening to other people talking in the rooms next to hers.

In what seemed like only moments later, she
woke up to a loud knock on her door. As she squinted out from
underneath the blankets, she saw the room was lit in a dull gray
glow, illuminating Roxanne’s body as she opened the bedroom door.
Already dressed in armor and looking wide awake, Roxanne threw
something heavy and cold onto Tarana’s bed which clunked against
her legs.

“Your armor,” Roxanne said simply, “and
sword. Get dressed and get downstairs for breakfast. Hurry up or
you won’t get anything to eat.”

Irritated, Tarana threw off the sheets,
shivering violently as she fastened on the armor. It was heavier
than she expected and the metal felt icy through her clothes.
Running a hand several times through her hair, she stormed out of
the room, clenching her teeth to stop them from chattering. There
were several other people in the hallway all heading in the same
direction, several looking as if they had just stumbled out of
bed.

Following the others, Tarana trudged through
the dark hallways, down the stairs, and into one of the side doors
at the foot of the stairs. She found herself in a large dining
hall, lined with tables and chairs. The smells of dozens of meals
lingered in the air, mixing into something both grotesque and
appetizing.

Tarana fell into line behind several others
and slowly shuffled forward with them until she found herself
standing in front of a pot almost as large as the man standing
behind it. Noticing the empty bowls piled up beside her, she
grabbed one and held it out to the man, whose face was twisted into
a scowl. He dug a spoon into the pot and scooped out a pile of
something gray and mushy. Holding it over Tarana’s bowl, the food
clung for a moment to the spoon before it finally fell into the
bowl with a wet plop. Looking at it suspiciously, she sighed and
picked up a nearby spoon and turned toward the tables.

She noticed all the tables seemed to center
around one especially large table in the center of the room with a
gracious amount of space around it on all sides. Seeing that both
Roxanne and the general sat at the table, she headed toward it and
sat down next to Roxanne and across from Kendall. With a smile
toward Kendall, Tarana saw several people around the room eyeing
her curiously. Taking a bite of the lumpy meal, she saw Roxanne’s
eyes open wide as she noticed Tarana. “Hey, Roxi,” she said
brightly.

“Tarana, this table is for officers only,”
Roxanne hissed, the expression on her face a strange mix of anger
and apprehension.

“Who’s this?” Kendall asked curiously.

Roxanne stood, dragging Tarana up with a
hand on the back of her neck. “I’m so sorry, general,” she
apologized.

“No, no,” Kendall waved them back down. “Let
her sit here. Maybe she can actually carry along a decent
conversation,” he said, raising a bushy eyebrow at the rest of the
group at the table.

Squirming out of Roxanne’s grasp, Tarana sat
back down and smiled again. “My name’s Tarana,” she said to
Kendall. “Roxanne and I have known each other for a long time, but
I just recently joined the Wizard’s Army.”

Kendall nodded approvingly. “Roxanne is your
commander, then?” He turned to Roxanne, who had sat down
reluctantly, face red.

She looked down at her bowl. “General,
I-“

“Another promising recruit,” he cut her off.
“Most would turn away someone so young,” he glanced around, “but
this girl has promise. Have you been in battle yet?”

Tarana shook her head. “Not yet. I’m really
looking forward to it, though. I’m going to be the one to find the
wizard.” She grinned up at him.

He laughed and several people around Tarana
jumped slightly, including Roxanne. “I’m glad to hear at least
someone here knows what we’re fighting for,” he chortled. “So many
only join for the thrill of the fight and a chance for glory. They
have no concept of what it means to be in the Wizard’s Army, to
truly be fighting for a greater cause than their own selfish
desires.”

Nodding, Tarana noticed
that everyone at the table was now staring in her direction.
“I can’t imagine anything more important than
finding the wizard and returning the world to how it used to be.
And i
t’s up to us to find him.”

“Very true, very true,” Kendall replied.
“You’ll certainly do well in this army and you very well may be the
one to find the wizard.” Apparently done with the conversation, he
turned to the woman sitting next to him and began discussing towns
and names Tarana had never heard before. Uninterested, she quickly
finished her food and left the table. Ignoring Roxanne’s sharp
footsteps behind her, she left her bowl in a pile with the other
dirty ones.

As she felt Roxanne’s hand on her shoulder,
she reluctantly slowed and glanced over at her. “What?”

“So you do listen to the things I say
occasionally,” Roxanne mused. “Look, that was possibly one of the
stupidest things I have ever seen you do, but that’s also the most
I have ever heard General Kendall talk in the entire time since I
met him. I know you’re trying to suck-up to him and you probably
couldn’t care less about what the Wizard’s Army is fighting for,
but I really don’t care, as long as it doesn’t affect me.”

Tarana looked at her disdainfully. “Then
what’s the problem?”

Taken aback for a moment, Roxanne finally
fixed her expression into a glare. “Don’t take General Kendall for
a fool. You might have succeeded in deceiving him this time, but
keep your distance. You got lucky. I like having you around,
Tarana, but not enough to jeopardize my position in the army. This
is an official warning. If you get out of line or do anything to
upset my career, then you’re out of here. I don’t care how long
I’ve known you, this is my life.” She waited for a response.

Finally, Tarana rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Yeah, whatever. I don’t know why you’re so upset over nothing. I
didn’t get lucky, I knew what I was doing.”

“Sure you did,” Roxanne said tiredly. “Now
get outside. You have training after breakfast every day.” She
grinned suddenly. “And you have a lot of catching up to do. I've
got some other things to take care of, but I'll be out there in a
little while.” She briskly walked away, leaving Tarana to wander
outside.

The sun was low in the sky as Tarana entered
the courtyard - a dim warmth in the cold morning. Dew from the
stubbly grass soaked through her boots. A large group of people
were milling around in front of the stronghold, talking. Standing
slightly to the side of the crowd, she waited and watched as an
increasing number of people exited the stronghold and joined them.
After several moments of waiting, a group of soldiers, including
Roxanne, walked out the main door and headed toward the group. The
talking gradually grew quieter until everyone stood silently.

“Alright!” one of the other women shouted.
“Everyone in formation. Now.” Everyone hastily shuffled into
loosely formed lines, except for the group that had just arrived,
who Tarana assumed were the officers. She recognized several of
them from the breakfast table. The officers waited silently as the
soldiers shifted into slightly more organized rows.

“Real good,” Tarana overheard Roxanne say to
one of the other officers. “They'll skewer each other now.”

The woman giving orders sighed loudly.
“Spread out, will you?” she growled. When the officers were finally
satisfied, they began the training. The entire group, led by the
officers, drew their swords and went through simple thrusts and
slashes over and over again. Tarana's sword was much heavier than
she expected and her arm began to shake as she held it out in front
of her. Slowly, it began to drop down uncontrollably.

“You,” one of the officers walking by
noticed her. “Take a lap around the yard. Stick to the wall.
Go.”

Scowling, Tarana dropped her sword, but the
officer shook his head. Picking it back up, she sheathed it and
took off toward the wall. Sword clanking uncomfortably against her
thigh, she found the ground near the wall was bare and uneven; all
the grass had been worn clean away. The sun now high in the sky and
warming her armor uncomfortably, she jogged along the wall,
sticking close and trying to stay in the shade.

It took her several minutes to get all the
way around and by the time she rejoined the group, her arm had
regained some of its energy. The training went on all morning and
into the afternoon. By the time they were dismissed, sweat was
running down all their faces. Licking her salty lips, Tarana slowly
trudged back up to her room and collapsed on her bed, exhausted.
Her bedroom door slightly ajar, she heard the others coming and
going in groups, their doors constantly opening and closing as they
walked up and down the hallway.

That day, and all the days afterward,
training took up the better part of the day. Besides eating,
training and recovering made up most of Tarana's time between
sleeping. As the days passed, more and more people showed up at the
stronghold and the meal hall grew louder and the training sessions
more crowded.

She assumed that soon she would be forced to
move back in with Prisca. As she attended more training sessions,
Tarana began to grow less tired during the endless, repetitive
motions. Each morning, her muscles were slightly less agonizingly
sore. Slowly, she found herself adjusting to the grueling
schedule.

After a little over a month of living in the
stronghold, Tarana finally found herself one afternoon with energy
to spare after training. Standing at the foot of her bed and
feeling slightly surprised that she didn't immediately feel the
need to collapse, she instead walked back out of the room without
bothering to take off her armor. It occurred to her that she had
never ventured further into the stronghold than her own room.

She wandered down the hallway, light
spilling out of the open doors on either side of her. Following the
hallway around a corner, she discovered it was identical to the row
of rooms she had just passed. At the end of that hallway, the
corridor split off into two different directions. She continued to
meander through the stronghold, seeing fewer and fewer open doors
and other soldiers as she moved deeper into the building.

As she turned one of the corners, she heard
a familiar laugh. Slowing her pace, she saw the door next to her
was only slightly ajar. Reaching out to push it open, she halted
suddenly when she noticed Kendall lying on the bed in the room,
hands behind his head. He spoke in a low voice and she strained to
hear what he said, then froze as Roxanne walked in front of the
doorway. Without even daring to breathe, Tarana saw her pull her
shirt over her head and toss it to the side, her back to the
door.

“Well, I think I might have saved a little
energy for this,” she said, apparently replying to what Kendall had
said. Without turning around, Roxanne reached behind her and firmly
shut the door. Staring at the closed door, Tarana heard her laugh
again, the sound muffled. She edged away from the door, breathing
quickly and shallowly. Walking quickly away from the bedroom, she
gradually slowed and began winding her way back to her bedroom,
avoiding eye contact with everyone she passed.

It took her a long time to find her way back
to her room, since every hallway looked familiar and every door
looked like her own. When she eventually stumbled across it, she
immediately lay down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She
found that if she stared, unblinking, for quite some time, the
shadowed indentations in the stone above her would appear to move,
swirling into a massive whirlpool of liquid rock.

Prisca peeked her head in the door. “Hey,
Tarana,” she called, “I'm going into town to buy a few drinks. You
coming?”

Tarana lifted her head and opened her mouth
to say no, then shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I guess I'll come.”

Nodding once, Prisca turned away and paused.
“Oh, and I already checked with the commander this morning in case
you cared,” she said over her shoulder.

“Not particularly.” Tarana hopped off her
bed and pulled off her armor and clothes damp with sweat. The
evening breeze through her window felt deliciously cool on her bare
skin. Rummaging through her drawers, she found a plain set of
clothes provided by the army and slowly pulled them on, muscles
aching. Without hesitation, she also picked up the small knife
Roxanne had given her and strapped it to her belt, tucking it
underneath her loose shirt. She strolled out of her room and found
Prisca waiting for her down the hallway.

“That's what you're wearing?” Prisca asked,
wrinkling her nose. “You look ridiculous. Did you even comb your
hair?” Prisca's own long hair was pulled back in a tight braid
without a strand out of place.

Tarana shrugged. “You're one to talk.”

Smoothing back her hair with one hand,
Prisca shot her a glare. “Whatever. Let's go.” The two walked down
the long steps out of the stronghold and down the gravel road into
Ralinos. The sun lazed low in the sky behind them, illuminating the
streets and buildings. Tarana followed Prisca into a bar lit
brightly by large fireplaces on opposite sides of the room.

Chatter and laughter enveloped the room,
echoing off the walls and blending into one loud drone. The room
was uncomfortably warm and smelled like alcohol and sweat. Prisca
strode confidently across the room to sit at the bar. “This is
where the locals go,” Prisca stated proudly as Tarana took a seat
next to her.