Legacy of Fire (The Blaze Trilogy - Book #1)

Chapter 15

The recruits file into the meal hall, all of us having enjoyed a shower. The hall is big enough for about a hundred people, with long rows of tables stacked in neat rows across it’s middle. We’re organised according to stages of training, and so our group is near the far wall, with the more experienced recruits sitting closer up. 

Parker stands on a small platform at the front of the room, waiting patiently as everybody takes their seats. He quickly reads the announcements; the champion of the advanced group’s combat tournament, a reminder to sharpen the arsenal’s rapiers after use, and a promise hunting down the person who keeps leaving dirty towels in the training centre’s changing room. 

Finally he’s finished, and we’re allowed to dig in. I shovel food onto my plate; heaping piles of stew, vegetables, and carbs in every shape and form. I can feel burning in my tongue as I scarf down huge spoonfuls of mash potatoes, but I’m so hungry that I barely notice. All of the food has been raised and grown here at Everwood - and it’s delicious. Zander must feel the same way, because he sits across from me, digging into his stew with equal vigour. The entire meal hall is virtually silent, save for the sounds of munching and the scraping of cutlery as a hundred hungry recruits get their fill. 

Miles and Leah sit to our right, and Miles keeps peppering Zander with questions about the North Sector. “Did they ever rebuild the Spine?” 

Zander shakes his head. “Consium thought it was an unnecessary use of resources.” 

“Oh.” Miles purses his lips. “How are things at the strawberry fields?”

Zander shrugs. “Sorry. I never saw them.”

Miles looks disappointed. “Oh, no problem. That’s where our Da still works - he didn’t want to come with Leah and I… he said it would be too suspicious, that he’d just slow us down.”

Leah’s eyes are squeezed shut. She clearly doesn’t want to talk about it. 

Keeta sits next to my left, her elbows bumping into mine as she eats. “So what’s the difference between the West and the North?” she asks me. “We’ve only got a couple of Westies here at Everwood, but I’ve never met any of them.”

I swallow. I have no idea what the West is like - I’ve never even been there. I know it’s too risky to lie about it, so I tell them the only half-truth that I can. “Well, actually, I was a servant to the South.”

With the exception of Zander, everyone around me stops eating. 

“Excuse me?” Jade’s peppy voice has turned cold and hostile. “What the hell are you doing here, then?” 

Zander shoots her a glare. “Don’t assume she served them willingly.”

But Jade crosses her arms at him. “Oh, really?” She glares at me. “Tell me, what exactly was so difficult about living among the most privileged people in the city?” 

Keeta gives her a disapproving look. “Zander’s right, Jay. No need to get hostile, here.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll answer her question.” I lift my chin and meet Jade’s gaze. “When you’re born in the West Sector, you automatically forfeit your right to a childhood. You get to spend time being young in the beginning, but you don’t consciously remember half of it. And then, on your twelfth birthday, you’re separated from your family. You never see them again.” The words are flooding out of me, like a truth I’ve always known but never had the courage to admit. “I was one of the lucky ones. I was sent to a Southern family who I was permitted to work for, bidding the time until my union. Others my age, however, weren’t so lucky.”