Énouement

Chapter Thirty Nine

It was late one evening, just after 2100, as I stood in front of the Battleroom. Ender was holding practice with his army and trying out something new with Bean, so their practice was running a little late. Ender and I had decided to see each other tonight. We were going to celebrate my first victory, but here I was still waiting for him.

I shook my head and smiled as I watched their practice. I was glad Ender was taking Bean under his wing now and they worked well together.
"Ender we have plans tonight! Will you let these boys go already!" I shouted up to him. Ender turned towards me, not having noticed me before, and smiled. The other boys turned towards my voice as well.

"Well if it isn't the reigning queen of the Battleroom!" Crazy Tom called down. The boys laughed and Vlad struck him upside the head.
"You're such a piff! How can she be a reigning queen when she's only had one battle?" They started pushing each other around. Ender sighed.

"What are you doing Tori? You come here, and they get distracted." He smiled teasingly. I shrugged.
"Dink says they fall in love with me, like puppies."
"Must be your goddess charm." Ender remarked and I giggled. He only kept them a few minutes longer, but we both knew I had ruined his practice.

It was 2140 by the time Ender dismissed them. His army walked through the corridors back to the barracks. Ender and I walked among them, not talking, but listening to their talk. I slipped my fingers through Ender's and softly held his hand, like when we were kids. Ender squeezed my hand back but kept following the army.

As we walked the corridor, I noticed several older boys seemingly engaged in conversations in branching corridors and ladderways; some were in their corridor, walking slowly in the other direction. It became too much of a coincidence, however, that so many of them were wearing Salamander uniforms, and that those who weren't were often older boys belonging to armies whose commanders most hated Ender. A few of them looked at him, and looked away too quickly; others were too tense, too nervous as they pretended to be relaxed.

I squeezed Ender's hand, suddenly afraid. What will we do if they attack Dragon army here in the corridor? Ender's boys are all young, all small, and completely untrained in gravity combat. They weren't like me and Ender. They hadn't taken classes to defend themselves.

"Ho, Ender!" someone called. Ender stopped pulling on my hand as we both looked back, It was Petra. "Ender, can I talk to you?" I knew that if Ender stopped and talked, his army would quickly pass us by and we would be alone with Petra in the hallway.

"Walk with me," Ender said.
"It's just for a moment." I tilted my head at Petra, confused. Was she blind? Ender turned around and tugged me forward as we walked on with his army. I heard Petra running to catch up. "All right, I'll walk with you."

I could feel Ender tense when she came near. Was she one of them, one of the ones who hated him enough to hurt him? "A friend of yours wanted me to warn you. There are some boys who want to kill you." I thought she was his friend.

"Surprise," said Ender. Some of his soldiers seemed to perk up at this. Plots against their commander were interesting news, it seemed.
"Ender, they can do it. He said they've been planning it ever since you went commander."
"Ever since I beat Salamander, you mean." I snorted.
"Great, so I'm next?" The boys snickered, but Petra disregarded me as usual.

"I hated you after you beat Phoenix Army, too, Ender."
"I didn't say I blamed anybody."
"It's true. He told me to take you aside today and warn you, on the way back from the battleroom, to be careful tomorrow because--"

"Petra, if you had actually taken him aside just now, there are about a dozen boys following along who would have taken him in the corridor. Can you tell me you didn't notice them?" Petra finally noticed our interlocked fingers and her face flushed.