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“Wake up!” a loud voice pierced through my dream of a million brilliant stars fallen from the sky. My eyes sprang open, expecting to find someone standing next to me. No one was there.
I sat up and glanced around the room. Daciana was sitting up on her bed, getting dressed. “We have training,” she said, without looking at me.
“I thought Ferko was supposed to train me,” I said. The contract hadn’t been specific on this account. It had mentioned training, but not who would lead it. I had assumed it would be Knight Ferko, just like Rooks led Pawn training most of the time.
Daciana pulled up her pants. “She’ll be there. Knight Kelsus, too. You’d better hurry or you’ll be late.”
“But it’s not even four AM,” I said, glancing at the clock on my night table. It read three forty-eight.
She slipped on her tall boots and headed for the door.
“You could have told me last night that I was supposed to be up early,” I said.
“Come in through the palace’s east entrance,” Daciana said as an afterthought when she closed the door behind her.
“Great!” I jumped out of bed, wishing I had time for a shower. Instead, I dressed quickly in the unmarked uniform I’d gotten from the palace and hurried out the door.
It was still dark outside, for which I was grateful. Daciana had said my vision should be back to normal today, but the memory of the lancing pain made me worry. Trying not to get distracted by the star-speckled sky, I kept my head down until I made it to the east palace entrance, which was nothing but a large oak door reinforced with metal.
I pulled the handle and entered into a long corridor with a stone floor. Nothing fancy. It was just simple, utilitarian. Gas sconces illuminated the way. I followed the sound of voices to an open door and walked in.
Kelsus, Ferko, and Daciana were standing around a table, a long paper scroll unrolled in front of them. They ignored me, even as my boots tapped against the floor. I glanced around the large room as I went. In addition to the table, there were barrels strewn all around, ropes hanging from the ceiling, free-standing wooden walls, sacks, carriage wheels, marble statues with missing parts, and more.
The place was in complete disarray, but there also seemed to be some sort of order to the madness.
When I got to the table, Knight Kelsus was the only one who acknowledged my presence with a nod of his head. Then the conversation continued.
The long piece of paper on the table turned out to be a map of Acedrex.
Daciana waved her hand over the middle of the map. “I finished searching this area. Squares E4 and G4. I found nothing. Over the next month, I will focus on A4 and C4.”
“Good,” Kelsus said. “Do we know if Neculai finished searching his assigned area?” He picked up a piece of paper that sat next to the map and read. “A5 and B5.”
“He never indicated he had,” Ferko said. “I’m afraid the search will have to begin again, which will cause delays the Queen will not appreciate. An untrained Rook,” she glanced at me, “will only make it worse.”
Kelsus sighed, looking preoccupied. Was he worried Lovina might try to eat him again? Until this day, I didn’t understand why the Queen had attacked him and nearly drained him of all his blood that day after her visit to Acedrex. Had she known what she was doing? Or had she acted blindly, the same way I had when I... fed on that man?
I pushed the images of his ravaged body away from my mind and told myself it had all been a bad dream. It felt like the only way to cope. Otherwise, I would crumble.
Ferko removed her jacket. “We should get started.” She gestured for me to take off my own jacket and follow her. I did so.
“First things first,” she said as she approached a barrel by the wall. Resting on top of the barrel was a wide-mouth ceramic pot. Ferko picked it up, removed its cork top, pulled something out, and offered it to me.
I put my hand out, curious.
“This is bloodshade,” she said.
I nearly pulled back as she said the word. Two leaves rested on my hand. They were oval-shaped and stiff dry. Familiar.
“Eat them,” Ferko said.
“What?” I blinked and examined her face to make sure she wasn’t joking.
“Eat them.”
I brought them close to my mouth, expecting their bitter scent to hit my nose, but their smell was different.
“They stink,” I said, turning my face away.
Ferko tapped her foot impatiently. “Eat them!” she ordered.
Reluctantly, I held my breath and put them in my mouth. As soon as I started chewing, I gagged, my stomach flipping itself into a knot. I heaved and, despite my best efforts to keep chewing, I bent over and spat the leaves on the floor. I retched and retched while Ferko laughed as if it were the funniest thing she’d seen.
“Now you know exactly how to identify bloodshade,” she said. “If I could, I would now let you sniff Varujan’s neck so you could learn what a Trove smells like, but the Queen won’t let anyone near him. I assure you, however, if you ever encounter a Trove who is not on bloodshade, you’ll know. Next lesson.”
She moved away from the barrel and walked to the far wall of the room where a set of cubbyholes were carved into the wall. I quickly realized there were sixty-four of them, a grid of eight by eight, the outside edges of each compartment painted either black or white, just like a chessboard. And tucked inside every cubbyhole were hundreds of rolled up scrolls.
“These are maps,” she said. “Each slot is numbered like a chessboard.” She pointed at a label toward the middle that read D5. “Here, you’ll find all the maps that relate to Square D5. Before you head into any square in search of Troves, you need to study the maps for that area. They’ll show you all the residences, businesses, and their occupants. All maps are kept up to date by people in charge of maintaining an accurate count of Acedrex’s residents. You’ll notice there are fewer maps in the black slots. Those only depict the lay of the land as, for obvious reasons, we’re not allowed to search for Troves in those squares.”
I blinked at the many scrolls. I’d never known our monarchs kept such accurate records.
“In addition to the maps,” Ferko went on, “there are ledgers that list all the Troves ever found in white territory. Also, there are family trees for all the known Trove families in our squares. You’ll find those at the west wing library. I will show you later. So, as you can see, you’ll have a lot of studying and searching in order to find Lovina a Trove. But, as inexperienced as you are, I’ll surely beat you to it.”
Knight Ferko had promised Queen Lovina to find her a Trove, even though that was not a Knight’s job. Was Ferko serious? Or was she just trying to appear attentive and submissive to her Queen to hide the fact that she wanted to take the throne?
Putting on a satisfied smile, she added, “Once Varujan dies, the Queen will make sure to give her Rooks a nice incentive to hurry up and do their job. So I advise you to get familiar with these maps as fast as you can. You don’t want to find out Lovina’s cruel methods. Trust me.”
“Now,” she turned away from the maps and faced the room. “Let’s test your strength.”
I glanced around looking for Kelsus and Daciana. They were by the hanging ropes, climbing them to the high ceiling then sliding back down as soon as they reached the top. It took Daciana but a matter of seconds to perform the feat while Kelsus did it in half the time. It was astounding.
“How about a race against Rook Daciana to see who can climb faster?” Ferko said, noticing my interest in the pair.
“What? No, I couldn’t possibly...”
Ferko ignored me and joined the others. “Rook Flagfall wants to race your Rook to the top,” she told Kelsus.
Knight Kelsus seemed surprised for a moment, then just shrugged. “Sure.”
I walked to one of the ropes and gave Daciana a sheepish look. She sneered at me and grabbed the thick, rough rope with both hands. I did the same.
“Go!” Ferko commanded.
I awkwardly twined the rope between my legs and tried to pull myself up. I was barely a fraction of the way up—sweat already dripping from every unladylike corner of my body—when Daciana rang a bell at the top and, effortlessly, slid back down, throwing a derisive glance my way as she passed.
I let go of the rope and dropped the two feet I’d managed to climb.
“Again,” Ferko said.
“What’s the point?” I stared at the ground. “I need to practice.”
“No,” Ferko said. “What you need is to climb while you focus.” She pressed a stiff finger to my chest. “Focus on this.”
Her dark gaze drilled into mine as she leaned closer, and I didn’t need to be told exactly what she was referring to. I knew.
I could still feel that droning in my chest, the heat and cold that seemed to fight each other, trying to prevail. It had been there since the moment I tasted Lovina’s blood. It wasn’t as strong as it had been two nights ago, but the sensation hadn’t left me.
Ferko nodded knowingly. “Tap into that. Focus on it.”
Daciana and I took our places once more. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, focusing on the constant unrest in my chest. As I did so, it seemed to roil faster and faster, filling my limbs with energy.
Ferko issued the command. My eyes sprang open. Hand over hand, I pulled myself up. I reached the top, pulled on the bell, then slid down the rope all without thinking. Daciana landed next to me an instant later.
She turned her back on me and stomped away. “She just fed two days ago. Of course, she’s stronger.”
I stared at my hands in awe.
Ferko chuckled behind me and put a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Good job, Rook Flagfall. You learn fast and seem... especially talented. Don’t you think, Knight Kelsus?”
“Indeed,” he said, appraising me as if it were the first time he’d seen me. “Keep up the good work,” he added, then left.
Ferko addressed me again. “We have a few minutes before we need to meet the Pawns for their training. Let’s use them productively. How about we find out how strong you really are.” She turned to a row of wooden barrels in the middle of the room, all marked with large painted numbers. They started at fifty and went all the way to three-hundred in increments of twenty-five.
“Let’s start with one hundred pounds,” she said, pointing at the third barrel in the lineup.
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, approaching the barrel.
“Lift it.”