Nyssa - Mecetti Province - Tapani sector
It began by candlelight. In the full darkness of the evening, when heavy clouds had obscured even the pallid moon, the door to the dormitories opened just enough to split the darkness with a flickering flame. Ander, who lay beneath the heavy weight of a wool blanket with his eyes closed in a mimicry of sleep, tensed as he heard the groan of the door’s hinges and the soft shuffle of footsteps against well-worn stone. His eyes flew open and for a moment he saw the candlelight cast across the bare bricks of the dormitory walls, lurching with shadows of figures unseen. Moments later all was darkness, as a hessian bag was whipped over his head.
The night chill crawled over Ander’s bare forearms as someone tore away his bedding and pulled him to his feet, shoving him roughly towards where he knew the door was. His toes curled against the bare stone of the dormitory floor at the sound of muted gasps behind him, as other sleeping forms were woken with just as much care. They were no cries or screams, however. If any of the sleepers were startled, it was only at being so suddenly roused from sleep. Like Ander, each of them had known that this was coming, that one night they would be torn from their beds and marched to stars knew where. Each of them had eagerly awaited it, knowing it would signal the beginning of a new phase of their training.
“Let’s go,” murmured a voice through the bag covering his head, the speaker close enough that Ander was almost certain he felt the heat of their breath against his ear. A familiar voice. Yes, there was no mistaking Maestro Fiore. It would be her hand at Ander’s shoulder, too, guiding him out into the corridor. In his mind’s eye, Ander pictured the hall outside of the dormitory: the long hallway, all exposed brickwork. At the end of the corridor, curved stairs spiralled up and down through a tower. If he counted the steps, he could anticipate where in the castle they were being taken. Would that help, to know perhaps minutes in advance which corner of the old castle they were going to? Knowing that wouldn’t tell him what the Maestro and her fellows had planned. A test of some kind, a trial of how much Ander and the others had learned? Ander had not seen how many others had been pulled from their beds, but there was every chance that not all of them would return to the dormitory...
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