Nada's Escape

49- Postings.

This is a horrifyingly inappropriate dress. For a start its all white cotton, so transparent in the light that I believe it might dissolve in water. As I swing my arms the blue peter pan collar and cap sleeves cut into my shoulders and to top it off the skirt is too short for anything but a worm.

No decent shorts can be hidden underneath and so I begrudgingly concede that point by picking the largest pair of underwear from the plastic-sealed ten-packs I'd grabbed at the marketplace yesterday. I then hunt down a pair of rust-eaten scissors in the kitchen drawers and cut the flower motifs off my sandals. They are just way too much.

I leave my bungalow just after eight, new keys jingling in the brown leather bag at my hip. It's almost a full hour before the ceremony but I want to talk to Amy and Macie beforehand, and after broken dreams of enthralment all night I don't feel like hashing things out with Finley yet. The sunlight is already warm on my skin and patches of the sunlit path begin to radiate heat through my sandals.

As I approach the gate, a warden with nondescript features and brown hair, steps from the gatehouse and hails me, "You're here early, Nada."

My skin prickles at his use of my name, giving me the unsettling feeling that he knows more about me than he should. Ducking under the shade of the wall I realise it's Martin and some of my anxiety cools.

"What's that old saying? Pluck the day?" I reply lightly as he pushes open one gate for me.

He offers me a proper grin, "Carpe diem. That's a good one." I notice that in the shadows of the gatehouse another warden glowers at me. A shiver of premonition runs through me.

I hurriedly step through the gate barely remembering to grant Martin a nod, warrior to warrior.

There's movement in the courtyard beyond the main hall but I head in through the visitor's entrance, breezing past the waiting tables. Looking through the grate into Seven's hall I smile at the buzz of activity. Macie is doing her thing, clucking about the girls, pinning hair and reminding them of their pledges.

It is going to be a very unusual ceremony. No one has sponsored more than one Sevener at a time before, let alone seven at once. The pledges had better be said simultaneously, we have decided, or else the ceremony will take all day.

Amy sees me before the others and saunters up to the grate, grinning. I grip her hand through the bars, glad that she'll be out of here soon.

"You're surviving Macie's fussing with surprising good humour." I say, anticipating Amy's half eye roll at the words.

"We have an understanding. She doesn't fuss at me and I'll wear the no-fuss version of Huntsmen Sunday best. Getting the musketeers to refuse the fuss, though, is much more difficult."

I look over her shoulder to see the ribboned braids of the musketeers. I shake my head, staying vigilant in the absence of obvious danger is a hard lesson to learn.

"Anyway, the more important thing is the posting list you slipped me." Amy continues. "Did you know that most of the Huntsmen have been leaving town over the last few weeks? It looks as though by tomorrow the town is going to be almost deserted... "

I shake my head in Amy's pause, but her bright, pale eyes are focused beyond me.

"And Finley. Did you know he's leaving tomorrow? On mission for two weeks." I feel a sliding sensation in my mind as I process this. Our number one ally, gone.

"Damn." I whisper.

"So, what do you think?" Amy prompts my silence.

"The town being deserted may be our best chance..." I spitball, though it's nothing Amy hasn't put together herself by now. "Still they might keep a close eye on us, despite the oaths. Anyone important staying?"