Calla's Story

Chapter 7

Seven

It’s sixteen minutes to nine the next night when Mom knocks on my bedroom door and asks if she can come in. A quick wave at my closet brings my robe sailing through the air. I pull the blue fabric swiftly over my clothes before opening the door. I give Mom a sleepy smile.

“All settled in?” she asks.

“Yes, I think so.” I moved my things back home yesterday afternoon after Olive dismissed me with an annoyed “I thought I told you not to embarrass me. Get out of my sight now.” I spent last night and this evening unpacking my belongings. This place doesn’t feel like home, though. It’s hotter and smaller and creakier than our place in Woodsinger Grove, which is the only home I’ve ever known. Thanks to Mom and her paranoia, we’ll never live there again.

“Well, it’s nice to have you back,” Mom says with a smile. She wanders past me and brushes her hand over the pencils on my desk. “How were your first two days? You haven’t said much so far.”

“Oh, you know, I’m just tired from all the busyness.” I pull back my bedcovers and climb into bed. “But it’s been good. Great to finally be there as a real trainee.” I haven’t told her about my disappointments: disinterested mentor, unfriendly classmates, and failed Fish Bowl experience.

“And … you feel safe there?”

“Of course. It’s probably the safest place to be outside of the Seelie Court.” After The Destruction and Lord Draven’s reign, the new Guild Council made sure no one would ever break through the Guild’s magical protection again.

“That’s good,” Mom says, leaning against my desk chair. “You might not be safe here at home, but at least most of your time will be spent at the Guild now.”

I don’t point out that a lot of my time will be spent outside of the Guild on assignments. Instead, I say, “We’re fine here, Mom. After all the protective charms Dad got for this place, it’s probably as secure as the Guild.”

“Yes, well, let’s hope so. He certainly paid a lot for some of those charms.” The dazed look I’ve become familiar with over the years crosses Mom’s face before she shakes her head and turns away. She turns in a full circle, then pulls the chair out and sits.

Sometimes I wonder if my mother is just a little bit crazy.

“I should probably get to sleep,” I say, adding in a yawn for good measure. “I need to be up early. Looks like most trainees eat breakfast at the Guild, so I was planning to join them if … you don’t mind?”

Mom nods as she stands. She tucks a wisp of pale yellow hair behind her ear. “That’s fine.” I can imagine what she’s thinking. That I’ll be safer eating breakfast at the Guild than eating breakfast at home, or something silly like that.

She kisses my forehead—which makes me feel far younger than I am—and leaves. The door creaks shut behind her. I rest my head on a pillow and listen to her footsteps as she descends the stairs. When I can no longer hear her, I sit up. The enchanted clock hanging above my desk tells me I’ve got nine minutes until I need to be at the old Guild ruins. I painted the clock myself while I was at Ellinhart Academy. It’s an abstract mishmash of numbers, but I bought a charm that superimposes the time in shining gold digits over the painting.

I remove my robe to reveal long dark pants and a dark tank top. If this were an assignment, I’d cover up my pale arms, but it’s too warm tonight to bother with that. I step into my boots, which lace themselves up as I grab my trainee pendant from beside my bed. The boots aren’t helping with the heat, of course, but I don’t feel guardian enough without them. I return the robe to the colorful section of my closet—a section I won’t be using much anymore—and check that my door is properly closed. Then I open a doorway to the faerie paths on the wall beside it.

I picture the overgrown ruins of the old Creepy Hollow Guild. It existed for many centuries before Lord Draven destroyed it a decade ago. It was an enormous structure, concealed by exceptionally powerful glamour magic. Draven’s magic turned out to be more powerful, though. When the Guild exploded forth from the single tree it was hidden within, it demolished a large part of the forest. I never saw it back then, but I trained in the area recently with Ryn, and Zed took me there a few times during our years of private training. The forest has regrown within and around the ruins, reclaiming the area as its own. Trees pushed their way through, moss gathered on the stones, and vines crawled over fallen pillars and splintered wood.

I walk out of the faerie paths and onto the ruins. The leafy treetops filter out most of the moon’s light, but glow-bugs and sprites with tiny lanterns always hang around here, and one of the varieties of creeping plants glows at night, further lighting up the area. I climb over and between cracked and crumbling obstacles, looking out for Saskia. Part of me wonders if she’s lured me here to meet some wild and dangerous creature instead of her, but then I hear her voice.

I look around and find her leaning against a fallen stone statue of a pegasus. The majestic creature has no head and only one wing and is riddled with cracks. Beside Saskia is a guy I recognize from our class. “There you are,” Saskia calls to me. “I thought you might be too afraid to show up.”

“Why did you think that?” I ask, heading toward the two of them. “It’s not as though I’m late.”

“Whatever.” She folds her arms over her chest and stands up straighter. “This is Blaze. He’s the one who came up with the initiation idea in our first year.”

“Hey,” Blaze says. “So I heard you’re willing to do whatever it takes to prove you’re one of us instead of some artsy freak.”

I look at Saskia. Clearly she did some editing when reporting our conversation to Blaze. She raises an eyebrow, as if daring me to contradict her. I remind myself not to let this girl and her pettiness get to me before turning my gaze back to Blaze.

“Did everyone in your year do this initiation?”

“Yes. Even the skinny nerds. Initiation isn’t allowed by the Guild, but this was all off the record, of course. We had our own ranking system too. We paired people up and made them race against each other to complete the task. It made our first few weeks as trainees a whole lot more fun than they would have been otherwise.”

“It was rather thrilling,” Saskia says, grinning at the memory.

“So what is this task?”

“You need to go Underground to Sivvyn Quarter, retrieve an item—anything. A book, jewelry, whatever—and bring it to us at one of the Underground clubs to prove that you did it.”

I look from Blaze to Saskia, then back again. “That sounds like a stupid task.”

The smirk on Blaze’s face turns to a glare. “Sivvyn Quarter is a residential area. That’s what makes it a challenge. You won’t just find something lying around. You actually have to break in to someone’s home and take something—without getting caught.”

“So you want me to steal something? Doesn’t that go against the very essence of who we are as guardians? We’re supposed to do good, not bad.”

Saskia lets out an exaggerated groan. “Jeez, Calla. Do you take everything in life so seriously? It’s just a game. And you don’t keep the item. You take it back.”

“That’s the second part of the challenge,” Blaze says. “Returning the item without getting caught.”

“And what’s stopping me from simply going home, fetching a necklace from my own bedroom, and bringing it to you?”

Saskia holds up a narrow strip of leather. “Tracker band. Your mentor probably hasn’t given you one yet, so you’ll be using mine.” She steps closer, wraps the band around my wrist, and clips it closed.

I touch the soft leather. “I assume you have access to one of those replay devices for tracker bands?”

“Obviously,” Blaze says. “My mentor never locks his office.”

“So, are you in or out?” Saskia asks. “And remember that ‘out’ means you’re obviously not guardian material.”

I watch two sprites flit hand in hand past us while considering this ‘initiation’ challenge. Steal something from Underground. The stealing part should be fairly easy, aside from the fact that I don’t agree with it. It’s the Underground part I’m worried about. I’ve never been down to the vast network of tunnels that run beneath Creepy Hollow, but I can imagine them. Narrow. Dark. Earth closing in around me. My chest constricts just thinking about them.

I push my panic down, telling myself the tunnels can’t be that bad. ‘Out’ isn’t an option if I’m hoping to be accepted by my classmates. And while I don’t need acceptance, it’ll make my time at the Guild far easier. A time that could very well last decades—centuries, even—since I plan to be a guardian for the rest of my life. Which means I need to get along with the people I’ll be spending every day working beside.

“I’m in.”