Chapter 4

Chapter

Four

We reached the outer edge of the city that led to The Wilds just before sunset. The long stretch of road suddenly went from sparse trees to lush forest. The Wilds were like a vein running right through the center of Amersea and Imbria on either side of the river. It had been there since the dawn of time, and the creatures inside could not leave it unless they were bound to one of us. If they tried, they died at the border, gasping for air as if suddenly deprived of oxygen. They needed their bond to us to be free and move around the world, and we needed them to become more powerful in the war. It was a win-win. Some old tales said that The Wilds didn't exist until one day a giant star fell from the sky and cracked into the earth. They said it split the sky open, which was what caused the ember to rain down, only over The Wilds, and then the star brought the creatures down to the earth. But the story was told in so many different fantastical ways I never knew what to believe. All I knew was the bond was what allowed the creatures to live outside The Wilds and we needed them in the war.

One thing that always amazed me when I came to this part of the country that held The Wilds was the ember. I peered out the window up at the fire sky as we approached. Everywhere else in the country the sky was blue, but here, over The Wilds, it was an angry orange and yellow. The ember rained from the fire sky in varying sizes, from small glowing flakes to huge chunks the size of marbles—to the biggest one we ever found, the size of a melon. That melon-sized ember still powered our steel factory today, and it was found over a hundred years ago. Though now it was more like the size of a walnut, slowly shrinking each year with energy expenditure. It burned clean and wasn't combustible if struck, so there was no danger in that. You could heat your entire house for a whole winter with one ember flake the size of a sunflower seed. I'd put a chunk into my motorbike the year I got it and it still hadn't run out.

Ember was what fueled our society, more precious than all gold and silver, and The Wilds was teeming with it. A large portion of our Imperial Fleet went to guarding The Wilds from ember thieves. The soldiers stood every ten yards along the perimeter on both the Imbrian and Amersean sides. It was a well-known practice among candidates to take one piece of ember you found on your trip in The Wilds. My father allowed it for all candidates, but it was otherwise strictly prohibited unless you were an embersmith. The embersmith's were checked before and after their ember collection shift and all ember found was given to the emperor for sorting, assuming they made it out alive. My father divvied out portions to keep the city running, but it was a big responsibility. But for the candidates, willing to risk their lives to keep fighting in the war, he allowed them to take the biggest piece they could find. It was a little nest egg you could share with your family when you got it—if you made it out.

Though finding ember was at the back of our minds. First and foremost, we needed to be tracking creatures and staying alive. The bus approached the border of The Wilds and I instinctively held my breath as we drove through the almost clear barrier that created a bubble of sorts, like walls from the ground to the fire sky, all the way around The Wilds. To the trained eye it was obvious and I'd been here with my father plenty of times but my fellow Lottery winners didn't seem to notice that we had just officially entered The Wilds. Our scientist thought it was what kept the habitat safe for the creatures, but it didn't harm us. We could breathe just fine inside the almost invisible wall.

As if my very thinking had brought it up, I stared at the small flakes of ember, no larger than a winter snowflake, as they fell to the ground outside the bus. It glowed its magnificent orange hue, like it contained living fire.

"Ember!" someone screamed, and everyone ran to that side of the bus to watch the flecks sprinkle from the sky. The windows to the bus opened and the candidates reached their arms out, trying to grasp the small particles.

I glanced at Anika, noticing she was the only one from our alliance, other than Tetra, who didn't rush to see the ember.

"Aren't you interested in what it looks like up close?" Tetra asked her.

She flicked her gaze at my friend and held up her hand. I hadn't noticed it before but she was missing the pinky finger of her right hand. "I've held more ember than anyone on this bus. My father is an embersmith, and my mother and I worked in the sorting center."

Tetra peered down at her lap submissively and my gut tightened. When Anika had said her family worked in the mines, I had assumed the iron or copper mines in the northeastern mountains of Imbria. But now I knew she meant the ember sorting facility, commonly referred to as the ember mine among the people. The facilities were placed inside of the mountains around our region, with only one entrance for security purposes. Though ember was not carved out of a mountain, the sorting facility felt very much like a mine, with no sunlight and little ventilation. The working conditions there were grueling, and most didn't survive more than twenty years in that line of work without getting repeated lung infections.

"You stole?" I asked her, eyeing the missing finger. It was common practice in the sorting facilities to take a finger from a thief who tried to bring ember home in their pockets. They had creatures who could smell it on you, even the tiniest piece. First offense finger, second offense hand, third offense your life.

She growled at me but said nothing.

I rolled my eyes. The thief got what she deserved. I wasn't going to feel sorry for her. All ember was owned by the emperor, my father, and if she stole from him she stole from me and our entire country. It cost more than she could ever imagine to keep our beautiful nation running the way it was. Free school until twelfth grade, free healthcare for all regardless of station, work programs for the poor, an elite army, clean water, and prosperous farmland. Did she think if we let everyone steal the ember that she would have such a nice life?

Even Imbria, which had been reduced to rubble over a decade ago in the war, had been built back up to its former beauty in most places. Yes, there were still pockets of poverty and slums, but my father invested a lot of coin to take care of the newest members of our country, and if she stole from him then she was ungrateful.

Fool!

I crossed my arms and gave her my back. I was doing this to keep Tetra alive. I just needed to focus on the task at hand and remain unemotional like Elaine had taught me.

I whistled and called our group back over. There were nine of us in all.

I introduced myself to each one and learned their names. The males Dev, Kian, and Nikhil, were stacked with muscle and tattoos, much like Kohen, and looked like experienced fighters. Anika was clearly a badass if I were going on personality and attitude alone, but I worried about Meera.

I eyed the weaker-looking Imbrian. She was scrawny and shy, and seemed like she couldn't even heft a sword. "When we move in The Wilds, we move as a team," I told everyone. "We walk in a circle with Meera and Tetra in the center."

Meera made a noise in her throat as if she was offended, but Anika nodded as if she agreed with me.

"Now, imperial law states that murder in The Wilds is legal, so don't think anyone is going to be scared of being carted off to prison," I stated.

A somber mood fell on our group. It was claimed that in order to get the best creature you had to sometimes fight a fellow candidate, and death resulted. But the rule had blurred into it being okay to murder under any grounds. All I knew was that I was going to watch my back, even among this alliance. I'd practiced for this my entire life. I could go forty-eight hours without sleep if I had to. I brought coffee satchels for just that. This could all be a ruse to get Kohen's friends to kill me. But I had to partner up with someone for Tetra's sake, so why not them? The Avasan gang was notorious for the brutal way in which they dealt with their enemies. I didn't know how much was rumor and how much was true, but the scars on the knuckles of every Imbrian here told me most were probably true.

"Alright, we are almost there. List your talents quickly so I know how to use you. Anything that will help us survive." I started with one of my ex-classmates, Roc. He was a brute nearly Kohen's size, with a shaved head of brown hair and hazel eyes. He'd proudly slept with half the school, but he was really talented with hand-to-hand combat and hunting.

"Hand-to-hand combat, compound bow hunting, pleasing women," he said, and waggled his eyebrows at Anika.

A few of our group burst into snickers, but Anika wasn't fazed. She just gave him her middle finger and rolled her eyes. I actually kind of liked her. Her bitchiness was comforting. I hated fake-nice people.

Alek was next, another of my former classmates. His bright blond hair and blue eyes always put him in the pretty boy category for me. He was good with swordsmanship, foraging, and animal tracking. The Imbrians went next.

"Removing organs with a kitchen knife," Nikhil said with an eerie smile.

My eyebrows shot up and he and all the others burst into laughter.

I sighed. "Alright, you had me. Come on. Get serious."

"Street fighting. I don't need a fancy weapon, I can remove your eyes with a stick," he said. "And also pleasing the ladies." He winked at Tetra, who grinned. She liked bad boys. We were in trouble.

Roc reached out and fist-bumped Nikhil.

"Next," I sighed, wondering if these guys knew that they were literally never going to get laid again if they died in here.

"I'm fast, and good with throwing knives," Dev said, opening his jacket to reveal over twenty throwing knives. That was helpful.

"I like to blow things up," Kian said with a straight face.

I eyed his pack. "Did you bring a bomb or something?"

He just grinned in response.

Geez, these people were kind of maniacs. I was glad I was with them.

I peered at Anika.

She yawned as if bored. "I can kill a man with my bare hands and he won't even see me coming."

Now it was my time to roll my eyes. Egomaniac. Whatever.

I pointed to Tetra. "She won't admit it but she's amazing with a bow and has more courage than anyone here. She also has extensive knowledge of military strategy and logistics."

Tetra smiled at me gratefully. I knew she wouldn't want to talk about herself. Especially with no combat military training. She went to the Imperial Fleet Academy with us but only because my father got her accepted on account of my begging. She didn't take any physical battle classes and majored in war theory, sticking to the books and academic side of things. She was extremely intelligent, which wouldn't do her much good in The Wilds.

"And how about you, princess?" Anika asked. I wasn't sure yet if the princess thing was an insult. I was pretty sure it was. The Imbrians had royalty in their leadership, so calling me a princess was making me an equal to Kohen, their prince. My father stripped him of that title when he took over Imbria, but his people still considered him as such.

"I'm good with anything sharp, hand-to-hand combat, and leading teams. I've also taken survival training to live off the land and endure extreme situations," I said as casually as I could. Stating your strengths was weird.

Meera raised her hand and I realized I'd completely forgotten her. I nodded, giving her permission to speak: "I know how to make an odorless and tasteless poison from herbs found in The Wilds." She smiled.

I shared a look with Tetra. We were definitely with the most lethal alliance in this cohort.

"Remind me not to put you on cooking duty," I told her.

She nodded seriously, not getting my joke, but I saw Anika crack a smile.

The bus slowed then and pulled to a stop in a line of other buses.

This was it. Most would fall on the first night from creature attacks and fellow candidates. If you made it to night two, you would likely be weakened, injured, and exhausted. It was on that night you needed to bond with your creature, because going to night three was never really an option. We packed for three days, but no one lasted that long in The Wilds. It was too intense.

"Alright, let's move out," I ordered my team, catching Kohen's gaze as we passed.

I was going to treat this like an exercise at the Imperial Fleet Academy. I was squadron leader and these were my teammates. Goal number one: keep everyone alive. Goal number two: bond with a creature. Goal number three: survive said bonding and make it out in one piece.

I wished I felt more confident. Truth be told, I didn't have many weaknesses, I was raised not to. But I hadn't expected Tetra to be here with me. Her friendship was my weakness, and I feared Kohen had exploited it and tricked me into falling right into his trap.

There was only one way to find out if that were true…