House of Bone

Chapter 10

 The first thing I see as I crawl through the vents is Mistress Hollia, carefully examining our – well mainly my – language papers from earlier today. I can hear her muttering to herself quietly.

"Tia is just as insufferable as always... and I applied to change placements to get away from her."

I hold back a snort. She clearly hates Tia as much as Tia hates her.

I force myself to carry on, trying not to get too into the separate lives of our mentors and mistresses too much.

As I crawl, I start to hear more clunking and machinery sounds. I have a feeling that I'm getting closer to the rooms where we hold our tests.

"Kimron!" yells the cruel, unnamed man from the tests.

I stop in my tracks. Was this what I was looking for?

"Hurry, we need to prepare out results for this month's meeting. It's been moved to Wednesday."

Kimron sniffles, "Yes, Vynn."

So the man has a name, and it's a fitting one as well.

I could hear Kimron's footsteps move somewhere closer to me.

I need to find an opening in the vents to spy on them, not just listen in. Because who knows? Maybe I'll see something I can't hear.

As I crawl along the vents to find an opening Kimron quietly asks Vynn something. I can't hear what he asked but I can hear Vynn's response.

"What do you mean you don't want to rush things?"

Kimron grumbles something back and presumably goes back to what he was doing.

But Vynn's reply gets me thinking, what does he mean by ready?

I shake my head and focus on the first part of Vynn's statement.

The part where he said, "we need to get her ready".

Who was her? There are only two females here that I'm aware of. There's me for one. And then there's Tia. I couldn't stand anything happening to her. Or myself for that matter, but better me than anyone else right? Especially if Tia's safe.

I shake my head, I can't get distracted now, not when I'm trying to find out what the hell is wrong with this place. Not when my or Tia's life is possibly on the line.

I think of Shade's lover, Bron. Was he being prepared for this as well? And what happened to him? The questions fill my head and don't stop.

And the meeting in two days, what will they talk about there?

Do Tia or Shade know? I have to tell them something, there's no point in lying to them, not when they've been nothing but kind to me.

Well aside from Shade's "putting me under" thing, but I can't blame them. I decide to head back, return the screwdriver and tell Tia what I've found out.

Who cares if I break a few rules, it's not like I haven't broken a few already. I head back the way I came and pass Mistress Hollia's class again, still marking my earlier work.

I did do a bit of work. I smile, proud of myself. Then I hear her snoring and realize she must've fallen asleep while marking it. I roll my eyes, Mistress Hollia sure is one odd mistress.

When I get back I carefully climb back down the bookcase, then screw the vent covering back on. I pull the book lever and the bookshelf slides back to its original position.

I need to tell someone about this soon, but first I need to sleep.