thenovl: Poisoned Blade: Chapter One by Kate Elliott No one must suspect what I plan to do tonight.
thenovl: Poisoned Blade: Chapter One by Kate Elliott No one must suspect what I plan to do tonight. I should stay in my bed, content with the place I’ve earned for myself as an adversary in Garon Stable. I should. But I don’t. In darkness I swing my legs off my cot. My toes brush the stiff straps of my leather sandals, which I remember to shake out in case a scorpion has decided to rest there. Nothing stirs that I can hear, and it is too dark to see. I have to go now before it’s too late. After lacing up my sandals I creep to the end of the cot. A cedar chest stores the few garments and necessities I possess. I finger through the folded cloth and gather up my formal parade livery, roll up the garments, and tie the bundle atop my head beneath a headscarf. The canvas curtains that divide the barracks into eight cubicles scrape the floor as I push past them. I wait, alert for any sound from one of the other four women who live here. They are adversaries too, competitors who run the Fives, the most popular game in the land of Efea. Running the Fives used to be all I dreamed about. Now that I have what I’ve always wanted, I should be ecstatic. “Jes?” Mis whispers from the next cubicle. “Is that you?” When I run the game of Fives, one of my strengths is that I know how to act decisively with a strategy already in my head. “Just have to go to the latrine,” I whisper back, hoping she doesn’t hear the tremor of emotion in my voice. She speaks the words I know she was desperate to say all evening at our victory feast, but was too kind to say in front of everyone else. Keep reading -- source link