After the Dark Read online

  Pil looked around, his mind reeling, to see Felicity smiling in a superior way over at him. There was so much they had not known, so much being kept secret. What other secrets might Harlem be hiding from them?

  “But it has been tested in the past, and it is believed true, that only a Prestige can reach Enlightenment —” said Harlem. Sandy looked suddenly crestfallen. “That being the case, Prestige are awarded special treatment even among Exidite; namely, they can choose which squadron to belong to, even as Entri. As Entri all of you will be grouped in the same squad to start off — and then you are designated a position. Prestige have the option to skip this step if they know which group they want to be a part of.”

  Harlem turned to Felicity. “Ms. Falon, you are a Prestige; would you like to choose a group now?”

  Everyone looked at Felicity. Sandy was smiling in a knowing kind of way. Pil looked down to hide his face; he knew this would happen. Felicity was Prestige, no matter how much she tried to hide it. It was unavoidable that she’d be treated differently — better — than the rest of them. Still, he didn’t want her to leave…

  “I choose to be with the rest,” Felicity announced boldly, cutting across Pil’s thoughts.

  Pil looked up, shocked. And he wasn’t the only one; everyone was looking shocked and confused. Normally a Prestige would choose to be in Harlem’s squad, but to choose no special treatment… Pil was sure that had never happened. Even Harlem was slightly taken aback. Surely no other Prestige had ever chosen this. But Felicity wasn’t like the others, Pil knew. She was different; she hated the fact that she had been born Prestige, supposedly better. It was the reason she had kept it hidden for so long, choosing to play in the lower town with Pil and Dirk, abandoning her title. She chose to be normal. It was her reason for joining the Exidite — what did it matter how successful she was if she had an advantage? She wanted to be successful through her own strengths. It was one of the many qualities Pil admired in her.

  “Certainly —” said Harlem, without missing a beat. “Now that most of the information has been relayed, it’s time to meet the rest of the Exidite.” He gestured to the door behind him.

  Everyone filed out into the next room. Pil was the last to enter as the dark and serious room came into view. There was a large round table with several maps strewn haphazardly on it, small statues littering their surfaces. There were roughly twenty men in this vast room, all of whom looked rough and grim.

  “Attention!” Harlem shouted over the mayhem. Everyone stopped. Complete silence fell as everyone turned to their Captain.

  “These are our new Entri Exidite: Pil, Sandy, Brixton, Dirk, Felicity, Raven, and Pheonix… Treat them kindly.” The room clapped politely.

  Harlem turned back to the group of Entri. “Captain!” he yelled out commandingly. Three people materialized out of the group of men to stand by Harlem. One was a large burly man with short thick black hair and a mean look on his face. Scars covered his body like tattoos. The next had long thin blue hair; he was tall and skinny but fit looking. His eyes were a huge turquoise color, taking up a large amount of his thin pale face. Altogether, the man looked quite peculiar. The third man was robust, with a cheery red face and long hair tied back in a bun. The sides of his head were shaven to baldness. All of them observed the group of Entri before them.

  “Who wants them?” Harlem asked the three men casually.

  For a minute, none of the men responded and then the robust man spoke out. “Oh, for heaven’s sake! I’ll take them.” He turned to the thin blue-haired man. “Honestly, though, Avalon, you’re going to have to take a group at some point!”

  “That’s settled, then. This is Tiberius Tucker; he has claimed you. And here is Avalon Astro, and Baer Bells,” said Harlem, pointing first at the robust man, then the thin one, and finally the burly man. “They are the Scout, Stratedite, and Elysian Captains… You have been chosen by Tiberius. All of you will work with him for a year before he places you in a squadron that fits your abilities best."

  Bells? Thought Pil. Baer Bells? Now it made sense. Pil turned to Brixton, his expression was unreadable. He was staring stoically ahead as though he hadn’t heard a word that Harlem had just said. Baer Bells was Brixton’s father! And he was a Captain, no less! The resemblance was uncanny except that Brixton, while taller for his age, was nowhere near as big or burly as his father. Felicity, too, was staring at Brixton in shock.

  “Righto,” said Tiberius genially. “Come along, then — I’ll give you a tour…” and he bounded away into the crowd of men.

  The Entri hurried quickly after their new Captain, jogging to catch up to the surprisingly quick figure. Every Exidite they passed stared down at them. Most of them were smiling superiorly, some were even frowning disappointed, but all seemed relatively friendly. At least none of them had that casual look of dominance and animosity that Brixton carried around with him. Pil tried to catch a glimpse at the maps on the table, but Tiberius whisked them around the other way.

  “This way; keep up,” he said, darting around the table.

  They swept across the room and headed for a pair of double doors on the left side of the room. Out they went, and into a hallway.

  “There on the right is our training room; on the left is a library —” said Tiberius, gesturing to each door in turn. The hallway opened into a large room filled with furniture. There were armchairs, couches, and a glass table in the center of the room, all next to a large stone fireplace.

  “This is the Entri lounge, and over on the right side of the room is where you will all sleep,” said Tiberius, pointing to a black door on the far-right wall.

  Tiberius took them along to a long corridor around the corner from the Entri room. They left through another black door, and the biggest room Pil had ever seen opened before him. It was filled with people; there were rows and rows of long tables that were all filled with Elfin Exidite eating, talking, and generally milling about. There was suddenly so much black that it looked as if a murder of crows had taken over the building.

  “This is the mess hall, as you can see! It is where we eat and the like — that over there —” said Tiberius, casually pointing to a long table where several Elfin were lined up for food, “that’s where you get the food that you’ll be dining on for the remainder of your lives. We get ales and the like on rare occasion, but it’s mostly fruits and healthy bits…” he said in a saddened tone. “And out that door,” said Tiberius, pointing to a black door directly to the left of them all, “is where the rest of the Exidite sleep. It’s all organized by squadron, so you’ll have to wait a year to get in there.” He turned to look at them all. “Well, that’s that. Feel free to wander about on your own. Only thing is, we have a meet tomorrow in the sparring hall — the room you all fought in today, I believe — be sure you’re there by bright orange!” He turned and walked away towards the food table, waving and shouting over his shoulder. “Good luck…” There was a stillness after the door had closed behind him.

  It had been a very routine — and slightly brief — tour. Felicity looked at Pil. “Want to look at the rooms?”

  “Sure,” he agreed, leading the way.

  Their room was large and empty looking. It had a simple bathroom on the right, and rows upon rows of hammocks hanging from the ceiling.

  “Not much privacy, is there?” Felicity commented, looking troubled.

  “I’m more upset about having to share a room with Brixton,” Pil grumbled.

  A shout of laughter rose from behind them. Brixton strode into the room. “Trust me, Persins,” he spat out, “you aren’t the only one upset about the company. I never would have thought people like you could become Exidite. You won’t last long, though. I don’t know how you fooled Harlem in the last test, Persins, but the Bahbeq won’t be quite so easy.”

  Pil stiffened. “Didn’t think they let people like you in either,” he started hotly. It felt good to finally be able to fire back at the boy. “But I guess being a Captain’s son h
as gotten you this far — don’t be quite so sure of yourself in here, though. Daddy won’t be around to help you forever.”

  Brixton’s face contorted with rage. He was about to retort back, but Felicity cut him off. “I’d be careful about what you say, Bells. Remember, I am a Prestige — and Harlem would much rather listen to me than some daddy’s boy.”

  Brixton looked about ready to explode or, at the very least, to lash out at them. “Your girlfriend saved you this time, Persins. But even a Prestige —” he spat the word at them, “can’t protect you forever.”

  He stormed out of the room, leaving only his threat behind.

  “What a bonger —” said Felicity angrily.

  “He’s a Captain’s son?” asked Dirk, confused.

  “Yeah, didn’t you hear the three Captains’ names? Baer Bells, the Captain of Elysian, is his father…” said Pil, brows furrowed. “Bet that’s why he was so sure of his idea in the second task, his dad probably told him what the test was.”

  “But he’s not allowed to — is he? Besides, didn’t his idea not work?”

  “’Course he’s not allowed to, but whatever person could raise that —” said Pil, pointing out the spot where Brixton had stood, “is probably not someone who plays fair. Anyway, it only didn’t work because our group had one less person by chance. Brixton’s too stupid to have realized that that would change things.”

  “That kid gets on my nerves. If he tries anything with you, Pil, I swear I’ll go right to Harlem.”

  “Fel, I can handle myself… I don’t want you getting involved.” Pil eyed them both meaningfully. “I don’t like the way he was talking — he sounds dangerous.”

  “’Course you can handle yourself,” said Dirk smiling. “But we aren’t going to let him do what he wants… he seems like he gets what he wants often enough, anyway.”

  “Yeah,” said Pil absently.

  “Anyone up for a game of Spot?” asked Dirk, suddenly pulling out a tattered deck of cards.

  “Maybe later,” Pil said. “Let’s get a good look around for right now; I don’t want to get lost tomorrow morning.”

  Brixton and the two brothers were nowhere in sight as they walked out of their room and into the living room. Sandy, however, was fast asleep on the couch in front of the fire.

  They checked out the library and the training room, but still, Brixton was nowhere to be seen.

  The training room proved to be very interesting. It had several dummies at the end of a long hall. Each of the dummies, they came to find out, spat out flying discs of thin wood when they flipped a switch on the wall. Next to this switch were several Elfin weapons to practice with.

  “How does this work?” said Dirk in awe as he flipped the switch and all three dummies shot discs from their open mouths.

  “Switch must be connected to some form of mechanism in the dummies,” said Pil, studying the bulky figures ahead. “I read about devices like this in Beings of Haven. Want to try it out?”

  Pil flipped the switch on and grabbed a bastard sword off the wall. Instantly the air was full of flying bits of wood. The other two followed suit, taking their favored weapon off the wall and taking up a position in front of a dummy.

  “Where do you reckon Brixton went?” asked Pil as he swiped several discs out of the air.

  “Who cares?” Dirk grunted as he smashed a disc so hard with his war hammer it flung all the way back into the training dummy. “He’s probably back in the food room, trying to cozy up to all the Captains.”

  A sudden flash of wood and a disc exploded right as it was about to hit Pil’s face. Pil jumped back in shock; he hadn’t been paying enough attention to his dummy, which was still projecting missiles at him. He stepped quickly out of the line of fire.

  “Thanks, Fel,” said Pil as Felicity swiped down several of her own targets with a casual flick of her whip.

  “We should probably eat something too… Who knows what tomorrow has planned,” said Felicity as she dodged several discs and dashed in to turn off her machine. “Did you hear we have a meeting tomorrow?”

  Pil nodded in agreement and hung his weapon back up. As they left the training room they ran right into Sandy who looked as though he were just about to enter it.

  “Oh — hey — I was wondering where you guys were. Have you seen the rooms? This place is pretty cool,” said Sandy with excitement in his eyes.

  “Yeah. We were just about to go back to the food room; are you hungry?” asked Pil.

  “Starving!” said Sandy happily.

  7

  Tomorrow

  The four of them retraced their steps and opened the doors that led to the mess hall. Chatter and laughter instantly filled the air as they stepped inside the room. Pil noticed Brixton was nowhere to be seen, as he scanned the mass of people eating and chatting.

  Pil led the way to the food table, squeezing through the tall crowd of Exidite. As they walked by very few of the men looked down at them; the novelty of new recruits had already worn off, and it seemed there were more important things to discuss.

  “Dunno wha’ he’s thinkin’; we only have one day,” said a voice from out of the crowd ahead.

  “Think he’s been lookin’ for somethin’? Like they say —” came a high-pitched reply. Two men were talking so loudly that the small group could hear them even over the chatter.

  “I dunno… if he is, well we aren’t likely to find it if we are all dead.”

  “Ah, don’t say that, Albur. Harlem knows what he’s doing, I reckon. No one has fallen under light yet —”

  “Still — it’s dead scary going this close to Afterdark.” Pil was pushed past the men, and their voices fell into the gentle hum of the room. What had they been talking about? Were they going on an expedition already? He had thought they would be properly trained first… Pil knew that it would be Afterdark in the outside world in two days' time and that it would remain bright out for another week at the least. Certainly Harlem wouldn’t plan an expedition this close to Afterdark — would he? They grabbed food and made their way to an empty table. Pil still couldn’t see Brixton among the crowd of Exidite.

  “Did you hear that conversation?” Pil asked Felicity when they had sat down.

  She nodded knowingly. “Sounds like we are going on a trip tomorrow.”

  “But what would we be doing?” Dirk cut in worriedly. “I mean, Afterdark is so soon… there’s no time to go on a supplies trip.”

  “What now?” asked Sandy over a bite of food. “We are going out tomorrow? Who told you that?”

  “We overheard it,” said Pil. “But it sounds like Afterdark is in two days… it makes no sense.”

  Sandy nodded, frowning. He gulped his food down. “Well, I mean, it’s Harlem, after all. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”

  “I hope so…” said Pil.

  “You think he’s searching for the thing controlling the Bahbeq?” Felicity asked Pil, worried.

  “Maybe — but what do you think it is? I mean, what in Haven could control an entire species?”

  “We should be asking you that, Pil,” said Felicity, giggling. “You’ve read Beings of Haven more than anyone I know.”

  “I love that book!” yelled Sandy as Dirk laughed and Pil looked down in embarrassment.

  “So do I,” came a friendly voice from behind them. Pil turned around to see a tall thin man with a sharp nose, deep fluffy red hair, and a kind smile.

  “You are the newbies, right? I heard Tiberius took you in. That means you’ll be in my squad. Nice to meet you, comrades. I’m Taydum Todford. You can just call me Todd; everyone does.” The man extended his hand and Pil shook it.

  “I’m Pil,” said Pil before gesturing to his companions. “This is Sandy, Felicity, and Dirk…”

  The man smiled warmly at them, his pale blue eyes twinkling. “Hope you don’t mind my disturbance; I heard your discussion about the Bahbeq, and I’ve heard a rumor.” Todd lowered his voice. “That Harlem thinks there might be
a Bahbeq that has taken control of the others — I mean to say, he thinks at least one of them has gotten more intelligent… Scary thought, eh?”

  Pil nodded in agreement. “So you’re from the Scouts, right? What’s that like?”

  “Hmm — not very exciting, to be honest. Mostly we just wander around and stay hidden; it’s dead boring, really.”

  “But you get to see the outside, right? Can’t be all bad,” said Pil in excitement.

  Todd laughed “’Course, that’s the best part of it, really. Other than that, there’s map making and categorization processes — but don’t worry about all that. You will be just scouting likely areas and keeping your eyes open…”

  “What do we have to do to get into Elysian?” asked Pil firmly. There was no point staying in Scouts any longer than he had to. From the moment Pil had heard of the Elysian squad, he knew that’s where he wanted to be. Where his mother had been…

  “Already know where you want to go, eh? That’s a good attitude to start. Talk to Tiberius ’bout it and he’ll watch yah’ to see if you’re up to it. You’ll have to be dead useful in the field, though. Elysian’s a dangerous squad to be in — they take the most risk, yah’ know — sure it’s for you?”

  Pil nodded, determined and then looked to Felicity and Dirk. They nodded their agreement.

  “Are you by any chance related to Persilla Persins?” asked Todd suddenly.

  Pil looked up at him, shocked. “She… was my mother.”

  Todd nodded. “You’re like her, you know… the hair, and determination.”

  Pil looked down, embarrassed. Todd smiled at him kindly.

  “She was a great woman, Persilla. Didn’t get to know her personally, but I heard a great deal. It is a shame what happened…”

  Pil nodded, still not looking up.