Nada's Escape

12- Ceremony.

The girls of Seven and Huntsmen alike are forming a standing arc on either side of me. I am shuffling to join the circle when a hand brushes my elbow. I turn to find Finley holding out a stylish cream hat with a sweeping brim.

"I thought you might like a hat?" He asks. Very clever, I think, don't approach me until I'm in the middle of a crowd.

"Thanks!" I reply, not meaning it all. As I pull it on the exposed skin of my face and neck sigh with relief at the shade. I am about to demand where he had been yesterday when I feel a pair of eyes boring into my skin. I turn to see a tall man in a grey button up take one step into the circle. His heavy gaze is on me for a few quiet seconds and my breath stills until his eyes pass on. A Mexican wave of hush and attention follows his gaze until all is quiet.

"Huntsmen have always been a part of this world," He intones in a rich, deep voice. "We are constantly fighting hordes of eldritch creatures on battlefronts far from the homes of our innocent human brothers and sisters. In our duty to protect them we take up positions of servants and peasants. And this is how we are remembered in their myth; as merely the huntsman, the gardener or the maid. In the human world we are invisible.

"But here by the walls built by our own Seven we hold our own court; where we are the kings. We are the true hunters of the wicked, the warriors against the chaos and the wardens of the world. We are the Huntsmen... and today we welcome two more to our crusade." The Huntsmen in the grey button-up steps back into place.

As the gathering waits for the next step I cast my gaze across the faces until I meet the stare of the enthralled worm. Macie is trying to usher her to step forward but she shakes her dark curls around her, eyes glazed with a detached kind of anxiety. Then she blinks forgetting the sea of faces for a moment and steps forward slowly.

"My name..." She mumbles and then stares intently at something on the ground. Macie whispers in her ear and she looks up. "My name is P- Penny," she tries again.

Macie confirms Penny's success with a nod and a kind smile before pointing out the man who had first spoken. Penny walks with slow steps first to the middle of the circle. Then she frowns and turns back to Macie. Macie nods towards the man, making little shooing motions. Penny sedately makes it over to him and stands there like a statue. I wonder what thoughts, if there are any at all, are looping around inside her head.

The man picks up her hand and places a red ribbon on the caramel skin of her upturned palm. His gaze is apathetic and arrogant.

"I swear fff..." She mumbles before fading out.

"Fealty," stage whispers Macie.

"Fealty." Penny repeats with conviction. "To the Huntsmen council, ww..." She loses her train of thought again.

The man's features do not shift as he folds each end of the ribbon over her palm again. Then he addresses the crowd. "We welcome you Penny".

Penny doesn't need to be told where to turn next. Her whole body swivels like a compass point to a teenage boy, just four people to the right of me. Her face changes, the creeping frowns of confusion and anxiety burnt away like mist to reveal an expression of utter serenity. She drifts to his side, the picture of contentment. The warden-boy has a nervous smile ready on his dark lips as he steadies the ribbon, which is dangerously close to slipping from her drooping hand.

"I swear I will be yours if you will have me," Penny starts her promise and I have to look away from the drooling admiration of the oath. This is why I have hitherto avoided these ceremonies. The only appropriate response is gagging.

Still I can't unhear her words. "I swear never to run and never to hide from you and your people. I will be obedient, graceful and loyal until my death."

"I accept you." The warden-boy pronounces, looking so far into Penny's skull that a lobotomy would be less invasive. He passes the ribbon over her wrist once more, tying a bow in the top.

Macie begins clapping and the rest of the circle follows suit. Cheering breaks out from some of the wardens. The warden-boy pulls Penny into a hug, slipping outside the circle.

But the ceremony is not yet complete.

"Penny. Henry." The voice is like a bass drum and all noise is sucked away in a vacuum for half a second. My head whips towards the man with the grey button up, the leader of the huntsmen council, I now recall. With a little pitter-patter through the crowd, hands raised in applause fall listlessly to people's sides.

With all gaiety successfully ceased the leader strides to the pair and snatches Penny's hand where the ribbon is slipping again. He tightens the knot with a vicious tug and then pours a glass of clear liquid over the ribbon. The leader passes the glass back to whomever had handed it to him and returns to his place in the circle.

"Next." He commands.

Everyone shuffles back into a circle and I end up beside Penny, the wet ribbon dripping onto today's new sandals. I frown at the stench of methylated spirits permeating the still air.

The other worm steps into the circle, holding a skinny green ribbon. She looks around the circle in awe. As she turns towards the leader I see her chest rise and fall erratically in excitement.

The proceedings this time stay on script. I can feel the whole circle relaxing into the rhythm of oaths.

"I swear fealty to the Huntsmen council, wardens of this world."

"We welcome you daughter."

"I swear to be ever grateful for this generous opportunity you've granted me." She speaks the oath which befits the participants of the "New Life" program to her sponsor, a once-handsome older Huntsman. "I will never run and never hide from you or your people. I swear to always heed your advice as you prepare me to become a model citizen of your community."

Her sponsor knots her ribbon as well, his fingers lingering on her skin as the leader strides over to douse their hands with an amber liquid. I have a feeling it's not apple juice.

Macie soon has the silence filled with applause and descends on her girls to congratulate them. I robotically pat Penny on the back with a painted smile.

"Stay safe," I whisper, though she doesn't hear me. Her warden-boy Henry is speaking to her. The circle is dispersed in a wave of chatter and I slip through to the edge of the crowd. Finley has disappeared. I stalk crowd edge, looking to interrogate him but all I find is my fighters. They're lurking against the wall of the schoolroom, keeping watch as the ceremony segues into a luncheon. Smart. Keep a wall at your back whilst there's so many Huntsmen around.

"You must be Nada," a hand touches my shoulder and I spin, catching sight of an awkward looking Henry. He wipes his hands on brown shorts and offers me a nervous smile.

"And your Penny's sweethearts sponsor." I reply, not at all impressed. He nods.

"You see, Macie asked if you could sit with us for the luncheon. She says you were- are- a good friend to Penny." I blink at the lie. Penny is only capable of having a single friend. Henry.

"Please?" He pleads. "Being surrounded by familiar faces really helps her. I know it must be hard to see her like this... but some things just can't be undone."

His sincerity sways me against all my fighter instincts. And that is how I end up at a table with Macie and Penny, pretending to be happy under the scrutiny of the leader of the Huntsmen.