The Annex

Chapter 9

'There is always more to it than you'll ever know.' Gallo's words haunted me during my training the next morning. He had stormed off without another word, leaving me dumbfounded. I'll admit, I was stoked to have my lessons cut short, but anxious as well. Gallo's warning brought me back to the reality of my purpose here. I picked up my pace to meet with Tomas. We had just finished our warmup.

"I think that I'm finally in a place where the warmup doesn't kick my butt like it used to," I told Tomas.

"That means you're getting in shape," Tomas laughed.

"I thought I was in shape until I started training with you guys," I muttered.

"To be honest, I didn't think you'd make it very far at first, but you've proven time and time again that you can keep up, if not best us."

"Yeah, right," I rolled my eyes.

"Today's archery," Tomas said as he jutted his chin out towards a rack of bows and arrows. I bent down to fix the laces on my boots. "Who do you think has the best shot here?"

Having trained with these men every day now, I had come to a pretty good understanding of some of their personalities and their skills. Marcus was loud and cocky, but he had a right to be, he surpassed almost all of us by far. Brute, had a gentle disposition that contrasted his gigantic build. The man seemed to be pure muscle. Dorian seemed to fly under everyone's radar. Sometimes, I almost forgot to notice him. He neither excelled or lagged behind, but he was certainly clever. Cassius, like me, was small but mighty. He excelled in all forms of contactless combat. In hand to hand combat however, he had much still to learn. Not that I performed much better.

I had spent more time these past weeks with these soldiers than I had with other Candidates. We trained every morning and we saw each other get our butts whooped and cheered each other on. I knew I wasn't a soldier, but these men felt like my comrades. Tomas had quickly become one of my best friends. He had a lovable personality and took to protecting me like the brother I never had.

"Cassius, maybe. Marcus too but I'm rooting for Cassius. I'm sick of losing to Marcus, he's got a big enough head."

"I've got my bets placed on you," Tomas grinned as he handed me a bow. I closed my hand around the grip and I rolled my eyes. I wouldn't lie, archery was one of my stronger skills, but I still knew my place. I wasn't a soldier. I didn't want to let pride take over, just in case it came back to bite me.

"You have far too much faith in me. How exactly are we supposed to see our targets in this weather," I turned to Tomas as we all filed into place. A heavy fog had drifted into place sometime in the early hours of the morning.

"Knowing Grim, that's probably the point." The majority of us began to fall into a circle, chatting away.

"Speaking of Grim, I haven't seen him at all this morning. Do you suppose we're meant to just start?" Marcus sidled up to us.

"I don't know, but I'm sure Grim would whoop our asses for dawdling." Brute chimed in. Brute still was unable to look me in the eye. He seemed embarrassed having been defeated by me, but he had respect for me now, something I hadn't commanded before.

"Well I suppose we could start," I walked over towards the training field and collected a quiver full of arrows as I did. We began to position ourselves in front of targets.

"I bet I can get more bullseyes than you," Marcus called out over his shoulder to me.

"I bet you can't," I called back, my competitiveness getting the best of me. We set off a volley of arrows before the others had joined us.

"Retrieving." Marcus yelled to let the others know we were heading toward our targets. The targets stood adorned with our red fletched arrows. I quickly counted my target and then Marcus'. I clapped gleefully as I saw one more red fletched arrow in the center of my target than in Marcus'.

"I beat you!"

"The day isn't over yet, you have a meek lead, Vos," Marcus said, his voice tinted with sourness.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement in the trees and as I strained to see through the fog, I realized there was an archer hidden in the trees. In his hand was a bow, nocked with an arrow. The arrow was aimed at me. Marcus still pulling his arrows out of his target, was oblivious to our guest and continued to chat away. I didn't have time to warn him as he accidentally stepped into the line of fire just as the arrow was loosed from the bow.

"Marcus!" He jerked forward as the arrow plunged into the back of his bicep. Confusion followed the initial surprise before he cried out in pain. I looked to where the archer had been only to find the tree empty. Marcus clutched his arm and I stared, shocked at the arrow protruding from his arm.

"Oh my Goddess," I mumbled. I shook away the shock and tried to focus.

"Shit that hurts," Marcus muttered and I ran to him.

"Oh Goddess, are you alright," I turned him around to look at the entrance wound. Protruding from his arm, the fletching of the arrow caught my eye. A brilliant blue.

"Yeah I'm-" Marcus collapsed and I was left struggling against his weight.

"Help! Tomas, someone!" I cried as I tried to drag him. I scanned my surroundings, trying to reassure myself that whoever was out there had fled. I didn't want them to come back to finish the job. Marcus had not been their intended target, that much I knew. Gallo's words flitted across my mind again as I tucked my arms underneath Marcus to drag him toward the others. Tomas was the first to meet me, when his vision cleared enough to see us through the fog, he broke into a sprint.

"What the hell happened?" Tomas helped me drag Marcus until Brute appeared. Brute lifted Marcus in his arms like an infant and brought him back to the center of the training grounds. We focused on getting Marcus to the infirmary and several guards took him from us as. We were ordered to stay where we were and a group of soldiers began to fall in, curious at the commotion. Brute graciously discouraged them from crowding me as he turned around again. Brute, Dorian, Cassius and Tomas all turned to train worried gazes on me.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Tomas took my hand comfortingly.

"Well-" I started but Grim came storming toward us.

"Vos, get your ass over here. You need to be debriefed." I shrugged at Tomas and the rest as I made my way towards Grim. "What happened, girl?" Grim led me to a meeting room near the barracks. I sat down before I recounted what had just happened.

"Marcus and I decided to shoot a volley before everyone else got there. We finished and were collecting our arrows. When we got there, we were talking about our competitiveness and I looked over his shoulder and I saw a figure perched in the tree with his arrow trained on me. Marcus stepped in the way just as the arrow was flying. I think that I was the intended target."

"Did you see any defining features, anything?"

"I saw the blue fletched arrow. But the archer was hooded, and I could barely see through the fog. I just saw the arrow, the intended target and then it was all over."

"Did you see which way they ran?"

"Well, no. I was kind of focused on Marcus' injury."

"Did you catch anything out of the ordinary when you got to the targets?"

"Well, no."

"So you have no useful information," Grim stated flatly. I looked down at my hands, embarrassed of my inability to provide any aid in catching who had done this.

"Is Marcus going to be okay," I tried to change the subject.

"The arrow was poisoned. The healers are working on figuring out with what. His condition is stable but he is not out of the woods yet. Go visit him." Grim softened.

I held it together the best I could and got up from my seat. As I exited the meeting room I found myself in a hall. At the end of the hall, stalking toward me, a hound after the fox, was the Commander. His steel grey eyes caught mine before darkening. My palms shook under his gaze and I froze as he passed, his hand shifting to shield the contents of his left hand. My heart turned to ice as I processed what was in his left fist. A quiver of blue fletched arrows.