Kingdom of Scourge and Shadow (The Sightstone Series #1)

Chapter Eleven: Judith

"We were five, those of us who served the Allmother. There was Josephine, whom they called the strong, and Nemain of the Blade, as they call her now. There was the one they call Maeve of the Waters, and the one known as Adelaide the Fair. And I was the fifth. Five, fighting together, standing together as one."

-from the Codices of Saint Caroline the Heretic

***

 The members of First Battalion resided in the intimidating Saint Rowenna Hall at the center of the Sanctuary. The building was smaller than the other residence halls, as it housed only a single battalion, while the others were each home to at least two. Its imposing, marble facade was covered with twisting, twining vines, almost like they were trying to strangle the building into submission.

When Judith slipped through the massive door, cold air wrapped around her, as if the marble walls had leached away any vestiges of heat from the building. The entryway was stark and silent, and Judith shivered as she glanced around at the dark-veined marble tiles and the white wallpaper, pale and cold and impassive. The whole building seemed designed to encourage people not to linger.

Judith hurried up the curving staircase as fast as she could, eager to get out of that frigid, uninviting space. Her footfalls echoed uncomfortably loudly in the strange, still silence, and she winced with each step. To her, it seemed like the silence and cold were amplifying all her apprehension and her fears.

At the top of the first flight of stairs, a silver plaque pointed the way right to suites 1.01 through 1.05, and left to suites 1.05 through 1.10. The ones, Judith guessed, meant First Battalion, while the numbers after represented the units, so Judith continued up another story, then followed the arrow on that floor's sign, which guided her left for suites 1.15 to 1.20.

Judith took a steadying breath as she pushed open the glass door that separated the stairwell from the hallway. Her footsteps fell silent as she stepped from the marble floor onto plush carpeting. The corridor was dark, with a wide window at the far end that looked out over a grassy courtyard at the center of the building. The only other light came from silver sconces that hung at even intervals along the wall. On the left side were the odd-numbered suites, while odd numbers were on the right, with the suites numbered 1.11 and 1.12 nearest to the stairwell door.

Suite number 1.19 was located at the far end of the hall, and the silver numbers hanging on the white door shone in the light through the window. The door's white paint was pristine, without a single scuff, and the door handle had been polished to a shine that matched the numbers and the wall sconces.

Judith hesitated, nerves making her stomach constrict as she stared at that door. She took a tentative step forward and raised a trembling hand to knock, then hesitated, as if she could put off the inevitable. She remembered what the tester had told her, that most of the rest of her unit had already arrived, and her nerves doubled.

This was First Battalion, a little voice in the back of her head told her. First Battalion, where the daughters of ancient and powerful bloodlines ended up, where the strongest of the strong and the greatest of the great were called upon to serve. What could Judith possibly have to offer an organization like that? What would women like that think of a girl of no account from a nowhere village on the Skellan border?

How could she possibly fit in with people like that?

Still, she squared her shoulders and shook off her apprehension. There wasn't any use putting off the inevitable. Unless she wanted to desert, to spend her life on the run, she was stuck here, in the New Army, in First Battalion, with whoever the hell had also ended up in her unit.