Page 10 of Elex

“Here, drink this,” he demanded, pouring a small cup of clear liquid and giving it to me. I took it gratefully and tossed it back, thinking it was water, only to begin coughing and choking as it burned in my throat.

After coughing and spluttering for a few minutes I felt a tingling glow begin to spread through my limbs.

“Where did you get that?” I demanded, wiping tears from my eyes.

“Davidus,” he said, grinning. Davidus was a half-brother a couple of years older than us. He and Erix were good friends.

“W-what do we do now?” I asked.

Erix paced the small area.

“I think we should leave,” he said.

“They’ll be watching us,” I said. I’d already noticed the eyes of the guards following our movements and the Overseer had stayed much closer to us than normal.

“So we stay put for now, until things calm down, then we head out,” he said.

“Where?” I asked.

He smiled sadly at me.

“Where else?” he said. “We make for Illyria.”

My stomach roiled again. The thought of what might await us outside the doors of the palace was invigorating, but terrifying.

The punishment of runaway slaves made Agnes’ death look like a walk in the park.

Chapter 1

Elex

Something hit my temple. I looked up angrily from the book I was reading as the instructor droned on in the roasting classroom, only to see Maalik grinning at me maliciously.

“Knock it off!” I hissed quietly.

I glared at him for a moment, wiping the sweat off my forehead before glancing up to see if the teacher had noticed. He hadn’t, fortunately. I really didn’t want a whipping for damaging something as valuable as a book.

It had been two years since Mitera had died, and things had settled into a kind of monotonous routine. At first we had been watched too closely to even consider running away. Later on, life fell into a more normal rhythm, and to my relief, my brother hadn’t brought up the idea of fleeing to Illyria again.

Erix and I continued to hide from the other slaves. Maalik had made it clear that he would happily see us dead in vengeance for the death of his mother, but Erix and I knew the palace better than anyone else and had always remained a couple of steps ahead of Maalik’s cronies. The only time we couldn’t manage to avoid him was during school.

This class was for the eleven or so children of King Cyrius Alexus, both biological and legitimate. We ranged in age fromthree to fifteen years old and were all given an education to prepare us for the possibility that we could someday become an heir to the throne. That meant six hours of schooling during the day, then several hours of chores after school for those of us who were illegitimate.

We were seated at desks in rows in one of the classrooms. It was summer, so we were at the seaside palace. The heat could be overwhelming, but the children of the nobles sat toward the front, servants flanking them on either side, waving fans to cool them. The rest of us were seated toward the back of the room, separated from the legitimate children of the King’s household by more than just space.

My stomach growled and I looked a little enviously at the juice and fruit set on the side table for the legitimate kids. Three of them were children of the King: Luke, Terry, and Cass. Excuse me, Prince Lucien, Prince Therian, and Princess Cassia. They were the children from the marriage of King Cyrius and Queen Eurymenye. Their clothes were richly made, they were clean, and they looked better fed than the rest of us. There was no reason to waste food on those of us who might end up just a slave, after all.

Ignoring my stomach, I turned back to my book, trying to focus on the boring treatise in front of me. The legit kids weren’t so bad. It wasn’t their fault they were treated differently than the rest of us. Luke was only two years younger than us and tended to follow Erix and I around asking a million questions. Terry was only five years old, and adorable. Cassie was three and only spent a few hours a day with us.

Luke was my favorite. He was a sweet, quiet kid and super smart. He sometimes helped me in the library with my mathematics homework, even though he was younger than me. He sat up front, Maalik lounged in a chair pulled up beside him, slave or no.

Maalik always seemed to want to be near Luke. He took every excuse to touch him, be near him, and it sickened me. Luke obviously didn’t want him there, but even he feared Maalik’s ire. At least in the classroom I didn’t have to worry about him daring to torment Luke too much. Plus, Davidus would help if I needed it.

Of the eight illegitimate children, Davidus was the eldest of us at almost fifteen. Fifteen was the age of adulthood in Alexandria. If he made it that far, the King could declare him a human heir to the throne. Mara, Evan, and Maalik were fourteen, Zeer was six and Viv was three. My twin, Erix and I were thirteen.

Odds were that two or three of us would be Elusian, two would be Mageia, and the rest plain human. Not great odds for a throne, but it wasn’t like we had any say in the matter.

Another pebble hit my cheek and I glared at Maalik again. He snickered at me and made a rude gesture. He was determined to get me in trouble today. Or any day, for that matter, but today was not a normal day. It was the two-year anniversary of our mother’s death.