Page 9 of Kingdom of Tomorrow (Book of Arden #1)
Every lie you believe is a blade at your throat, soon to strike.
I was still reeling an hour later when Dr. Korey and her assistant returned to finish my exam and administer another injection. The high prince might be long gone, but his words stayed with me.
Killed before your first excursion.
Bubble Gum.
Chew you up and spit out your bones.
My hands curled into fists.
“Did we give her aidem?” the doctor asked, looking over the vials on the medical cart and frowning.
“What’s aidem?” The question slipped out before I could run it through an Is This Smart to Say filter.
“It’s a serum that prevents glowers from—”
“Quiet,” Dr. Korey snapped, and the assistant went silent. “I told you to check something, so check it.”
Shamefaced, he swiped up the file and poked at the screen. “We did. Right before the HP entered.”
“Then we’re done here.” She removed and trashed her gloves, then headed for the curtain, only to pause and glance my way. “Did you truly decline the HP’s offer?”
Her tone said what she didn’t: Are you a fool? I licked my lips. “I did, yes.”
“Not even a month,” she muttered before striding off, her disgust clear.
“I would’ve said yes in six languages.” The assistant pulled a stack of folded clothes from a cabinet. He tossed the garments my way. “Put these on and wait in the hall. Your bag and schedule are on the counter.” With that, he too was gone.
Alone at last. My arms throbbed from the shots, and my brain had yet to recover from the encounter with High Prince Dolion. Trying to control my breathing, I studied the clothes. Green fatigues with gold stitching, similar to my old school uniform.
I dressed in the world’s scratchiest clothing and glanced over my schedule.
Lady A.R.
Monday–Wednesday
0500–0530: Wake up / Breakfast
0530–0730: Warm up / Work out (Gym C)
0800–1000: Realms and Travel (Room 2)
1010–1230: Weapons (Room 6)
1230–1300: Lunch
1300–1500: Self-Defense (Gym C)
1500–1550: Battlefield First Aid (Room 1)
1600–1930: Drills (the Dome)
1930–2000: Dinner
2000–2200: Free time
2200–0500: Lights out
Thursday
Free day
Friday
0500–0530: Wake up / Breakfast
0530–0600: Travel to Theirland
0610–1600: Patrol *
1600–0500: Free time
Saturday
TBD by instructor
Sunday
0500–0530: Wake up / Breakfast
0530–0550: Travel to Ourland
0600–0730: Warm up / Work out (Gym C)
0800–1000: Evaluation (Room 2)
1010–1230: Testing (Room 6)
1230–1300: Lunch
1300–1400: Madness Basics (Room 3)
1410–1550: Driving (TBA)
1600–1930: Drills (The Dome)
1930–2000: Dinner
2000–2200: Free time
2200–0500: Lights out
* Breaks scheduled by superior
Both better and worse than I’d feared. Sighing, I left the relative safety of my cubby and entered the hall as ordered.
Medical personnel had cleared out. Around twenty other soldiers had exited their rooms, Roman and Mykal among them.
The two stood together, whispering. He radiated excitement.
Honestly, she did too. The stress had drained from her.
What had changed?
Two guards rounded the corner, dragging a hysterical soldier in uniform past us.
“The old gods will rise and bring the end with them. You know that, right?” His laughter echoed from the walls. “The Kingdom of Today is here!”
I grimaced. A Rock-worshipping Soalian dedicated to the destruction of Cured had infiltrated the military.
The medic who’d worked on me hurried over to inject him with what had to be a sedative. The traitor sagged into unconsciousness.
Fellow soldiers muttered among themselves, and I caught the words Tome Society .
Oh, please no! The Tome Society was a small faction of Soalians responsible for the deadliest attacks against Cured . Supposedly the god Soal’s finest warriors and those he trained to fight an army of sleeping immortals.
Only when the foursome disappeared inside a room with a real door did I breathe again. As murmurs rose from my peers, Jericho looked me over from top to bottom, wiggled his brows, and snickered. “I liked the other outfit better. But this one will look amazing on my floor.”
Nope, he absolutely hadn’t changed.
The former ruckus forgotten, everyone focused on me, curious to see how I would react to the implication. To my consternation, I blanked.
“You know what will look amazing on my floor?” Roman asked with a calmness I didn’t buy for a second. “You. Talk to her like that again, and I’ll mop it with your face.”
The other soldier went red and puffed up with indignation. “You can try.”
Aggression radiated from Roman. More than I had suspected his powerful body contained. Jericho braced, as if ready to launch the first blow.
This could not be happening.
“Arden!” Completely oblivious to the brewing cage match, or just uncaring, Mykal smiled and waved me over. “Did you hear my news? I’m—”
“Attention,” an unfamiliar voice called. “Nobility on deck.”
“Line up.” This hard baritone I recognized. High Prince Dolion had returned.
Everyone leaped to obey, rushing into the semblance of a formation as he strode down the hall.
“You’re Cyrus Dolion, and you’re here, within touching distance,” the girl from my school breathed.
“And you’re speaking out of turn.” He didn’t snap the words as he passed her, but somehow his measured delivery seemed far worse. “Don’t do it again.”
Mykal zoomed forward to take a post behind him. Oooh. He’d made his offer to her, and she’d accepted. That must be her news. And it was fantastic. Genuinely wonderful. And yet, regret overtook me. Had I made the wrong decision?
No. No, of course not. Eyes on the prize.
I forgot how to breathe as the HP stopped, faced us, and traced his gaze over every soldier. Hmm. Did his attention linger on me a split second longer than everyone else?
No, of course not. The strange blip of my heartbeat made it feel that way, that was all.
“You are here to learn how to protect your world and those in it,” he stated.
“But you cannot help others if you cannot overcome the danger to yourself. That is why you will first learn self-reliance.” He locked his hands behind his back.
“For the next six weeks, your highest priority is you. Only after each of you can hold your own will you train as a team. As your leader, I expect your best always, without exception or excuse. If I don’t get it, you’ll experience my disapproval.
” His gaze landed on me and stayed put. “Trust me when I say you do not wish to experience my disapproval.”
I jutted my chin, because my only other option was to wither.
“Come,” he said with a slight grumbling tinge.
He marched us through the prison side of the compound, snaking around corners, climbing concrete stairs.
Along the way, signs offered directions to different locations.
The commissary. Locker rooms. Medical. There were no plants, and the lack proved more disappointing than my new leader.
Why couldn’t I have gotten the archduke or the duchess?
Full-fledged lords and ladies, rather than those in training, strode about with knights, and most ignored us.
Several cast us sympathetic glances, as if they recalled their own first days.
No conversations took place, the regimented environment reminding me of my years at school.
Numerous windows shattered the illusion, however.
There were more panes here than I’d ever seen in one building, an occurrence I didn’t understand.
The maddened loved to break glass. They thrived on destruction of any kind, really.
On the walls without windows hung portraits of former leaders, intermixed with detailed murals.
Scenes painted to encapsulate the golden age before the Fall of Nations, a time when there’d been no Rock or Madness.
No guarded cities filled with a hodgepodge of mismatched buildings.
Flora and fauna had encompassed the whole world, rather than the top of a stone wall broken into small segments and placed throughout civilization.
I drank in a wide expanse of lush green grass, flowering trees, and soaring flocks of birds.
Clearly, I’d been born in the wrong era.
Though I longed to study the painted images in detail, the HP never slowed his gait.
“This is the Dome, where we’ll run simulations and tests,” he explained as we ascended to the next level. “Mostly independently, occasionally jointly.”
I admit, I gawked. Frosted crystals glittered from the ceilings and grew down walls that had a plethora of cutouts. Each cutout was big enough to fit a single individual. Crimson sand trapped in resin covered the floor. There were no windows or murals here.
We took another hallway and entered a spacious enclosure divided into an entertainment area with games and a dining room with four round tables, each seating five. Lining the perimeter, machines offered different types of food and educational resources.
“This commons is exclusive to your team,” High Prince Dolion said and kept walking.
Your team, he’d said. Not our .
We entered a hallway. A space filled with gurneys, medical equipment, curtained-off rooms, and Shiloh. We shared a quick smile, and my pulse quickened. He stood with six other medics.
“Learn the route to this medical wing.” Still the HP refused to slow. “You’ll need patching regularly.”
Shiloh made a funny face at me, there and gone, and I would’ve laughed out loud if I hadn’t pressed a hand over my mouth.
My group exited into another hallway, then strode through a set of thick double doors. Finally, High Prince Dolion stopped. He spread his arms and announced, “Behold, your rooms. You’ll bunk in assigned pairs.”
I tried not to cringe. Actual prison cells, complete with barred doors.
“Lady Pink, you’re with my assistant.” The line ahead of me parted until I had a direct view of our illustrious superior.