Page 73 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
Hayle was leading me toward the food hall, though, so I’d worry about all that later, once I had a full belly and an entire jug of water flowing through my system. The healer had saidI was suffering from severe dehydration and the beginnings of malnutrition, though he couldn’t understand how that had happened so quickly.
I didn’t tell him that food had been scarce long before I’d been selected to be the Boellium War College conscript for the Ninth Line. It had begun when I was only allowed to eat table scraps, since food was for leaders, soldiers, and the farmers who kept the coffers of the Ninth Line full. Well, as full as they could be when my father drank a large portion of it and gambled the rest. Food wasn’t for girls who murdered their mothers, and who were completely worthless.
The cooks and my brothers probably would have gotten in trouble for the food they snuck me, but they’d been stealthy, and honestly, my father didn’t care enough about anyone but himself to police it too closely.
Luckily, I wasn’t the only conscript who’d come with malnutrition and dehydration, given the amount of Twelfth Line conscripts who’d enrolled this year. So the healer had everything he needed on hand to help me regain some of my lost strength. He shot me full of some kind of liquid with a big metal needle, gave me some green paste that he said I should eat every day, and sent me on my way.
The sounds coming from the food hall were cacophonous. Conscription day meant there’d be new faces as well as the old coming together after the small break they’d had over the solstice.
Hayle gripped me tightly, like he was worried I was about to keel over and die on the spot. He’d actually offered to carry me, which I’d refused immediately. It had been bad enough when I was unconscious. I wouldn’t start my time at this war college like some damsel. I mightn’t be a bloodthirsty killer, or particularly coordinated, but I would try my hardest to do what I was asked and fly under the radar here at Boellium.
However, I probably should have committed to that ideal before walking into the most populated area of the college beside one of the most powerful Heirs in all of Ebrus. The chatter in the room dulled until it eventually stopped, everyone’s eyes on me and Hayle.
Yeah, no thank you.
I scurried away from Hayle, but his hand snapped out and grabbed my wrist. “Where are you going?” he asked softly, his eyes filled with concern.
Dammit.“To get food and sit at my allocated seat.” It didn’t take an oracle to determine that the room was segmented by Line, and that mine was the empty one toward the back. “I don’t want… I just want to get through the next few years, Hayle. That’s all.”
He looked down at where his hand gripped my wrist, frowning. Slowly, like it hurt, he released me. “If it would be okay with you, I’d like one of my hounds to stay with you tonight. They’ll monitor you and make sure you’re okay.” I blinked as one of the hounds from earlier appeared at his side. The male one. “This is Braxus.”
I chewed my lip as I stood almost eye to eye with the huge beast. He had a dark gray coat, with piercing yellow eyes that seemed to see into my soul. His head reached my shoulder, and I noticed that everyone seemed to lean away from him when he walked across the room, an urge I completely understood. Braxus seemed… intelligent in a way that was kind of unnerving in a creature with so many sharp teeth.
As he leaned forward to sniff my hand, I held completely still. The hound sniffed my fingertips, then my palm, before finally brushing his wet nose over my wrist, at the spot where Hayle had held me. Then he licked me, his tail wagging softly.
I let out a huffed laugh. I didn’t want to die in my sleep, but I also didn’t particularly want Hayle in my dorm, or to thrust mywellbeing onto the conscripts from the Twelfth Line, despite the fact they’d offered. “Okay. He can stay.”
Hayle looked down at the hound, and the canine gave a quick yip before herding me toward the dinner line. I guess it was decided then.
I could feel dozens of eyes on me as I walked down the line, inconspicuously trying to get the layout of the college and the people in it. The Twelfth Line had the most conscripts here, with them all jammed around their table, some even sitting on the tabletop itself.
My Line obviously had the least. But there definitely seemed to be a lot of Third Line conscripts, and a healthy amount of First Line conscripts too.
As my eyes passed over the First Line table, they were ensnared by a set of icy blue ones. I felt like a spider, caught in a web, staring directly into the eyes of a creature that would be the end of me, but I was helpless to resist. I couldn’t understand the reaction of my limbs, which were aching to move toward him, even as my brain screamed to drag my gaze away—or better yet, run out the door.
Braxus nipped my fingers, pulling me from the hold Vox Vylan had on me. He was the third most powerful person in Ebrus, and definitely someone I should avoid. I concentrated on the back of the girl in front of me, the scent of hot food making me salivate. It had been too long since I’d eaten, and I was trying my best not to fall on it like a savage. When the girl in front didn’t move fast enough, Braxus growled low, and she hurried out of the line, her plate only half full.
The smile on my face felt like it had been put there almost against my will. “Thanks.” I loaded my plate high, even as my mind told me to be cautious. I was hungry, and I was going to fill my stomach, regardless of what people thought.
When I was done, I moved toward the end, where a bowl of bread sat ready to grab. Beyond it were squares of something wrapped in little pieces of wax paper.
It couldn’t be… right? Chocolate? Just sitting out there, to be taken by anyone, even those in the Lower Lines?
I looked down at my already overflowing plate, then back at the chocolate. It had been something forbidden in the Ninth Line Barony. The only time we got to eat it was when my brother snuck me some for my birthday. There were hundreds of people back in Rewill who’d never have the opportunity to taste it, because of an accident that had happened when I was a child. Because of me.
I dragged my eyes from the chocolate and walked toward the empty table, sitting down and ignoring the curious gazes on my back. I finger waved to my accidental heroes from the Twelfth, pointing to the bandage on my head, then set about eating with a single-minded focus usually only possessed by a dog on the hunt or teenage boys looking at boobs.
The heavy, gnawing hunger disappeared almost immediately, and I slowed down, not wanting to make myself sick. I picked up a piece of meat and put it in my hood for Epsy. Hesitating only slightly, I shared another slice with Braxus, who took it gently from my fingers as if I were made of glass.
He was kind of cute, considering I’d watched him lick blood from his muzzle earlier that day.
By the time I’d finished demolishing the small mountain of food, half the hall had cleared out, and I had a pain in my stomach. My limbs all felt heavy, my eyelids struggling to stay open. I needed to sleep for an entire week to recover my strength, but my classes started tomorrow, so I didn’t have that luxury.
Braxus let out a low, rumbling noise, somewhere between a growl and a grumble. I looked down at him, and by the timeI looked back up, there was a small pile of wrapped chocolates beside my tray.
Looking around at the nearly empty tables, I couldn’t see anyone close by who could’ve put them there without me noticing. I didn’t think teleportation was magic anyone possessed.
Feeling eyes on my face, I turned to the side and watched Vox Vylan swagger from the room, total confidence oozing from every pore of his body.
