“I will lead the team,” says Celia. “We all go. We all learn. We work in pairs. The pairs may change in future; this is for tonight’s raid. It’s up to you to make sure you’ve got the equipment you need from the stores we have.”
The little group of fighters has naturally split into two groups, Celia in the middle. Gabriel, me, Nesbitt, and a young woman, a Half Blood, are standing together and looking at three White Witches. I can spot Greatorex straightaway. She’s the ex-Hunter, the deserter. She’s tall, with pale, freckled skin and hazel eyes, a broken nose. I guess she’s in her early twenties but she looks younger. She’s wearing similar combat gear to Celia. The other two Whites are also young. They’ve spent the whole meeting so far trying to look tough.
Nesbitt smiles at them. “Sorry, ladies, but you’ve missed your chance to be partnered with me. Better luck next time.”
The girls don’t even look like they’ve heard him.
He mutters but in a voice loud enough for them to hear, “Shit. You’d think we were the enemy.”
They begin to loosen up and almost smile until Nesbitt adds, “You’d better partner up quick; whoever’s left over goes with Marcus.”
The girls look around and laugh nervously.
Celia says, “Marcus will not be having a partner. I’ll brief him separately on what’s happening. Greatorex, you go with Claudia. Olivia with me. Gabriel with Sameen. And Nathan is with Nesbitt.”
I grumble quietly to Gabriel, “This better just be for tonight.”
Gabriel replies, “It’s a sensible plan to put Sameen with me. You’d terrify her and Nesbitt would confuse her totally.”
Sameen is the Half Blood: half Black, half fain. Her eyes are a strange brown and turquoise mix.
I say, “Yeah, it makes sense. But it is noticeable that we’re not exactly mixing—Whites and Blacks.”
“I think that’s sensible too for the first mission. We’ve not even had time to train together. We have to trust our partners.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not with Nesbitt.”
The Forager
That afternoon Annalise and a group of White Witches walk into camp, carrying heavy loads. Annalise looks tired. She’s supposed to help put up some tents and I ask her to leave her chores for a while but she insists on finishing all her work so I help her. One of the other girls, Laura, looks terrified of me and jumps if I look at her. The other girl, Sarah, can’t stop asking me questions: “Do you have the same Gift as your father?” “Which are the other Blacks?” and “Is Marcus really in the camp?”
I’m relieved when Celia sees me and shouts, “Nathan, the others are training! You should be too!”
I find the other fighters and watch for a few minutes. Greatorex is giving instruction on basic self-defense. She’s good and the trainees aren’t complete beginners. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do so I sit and watch. Sameen is practicing with Gabriel, Olivia with Nesbitt, and Claudia with Greatorex.
They take a break and Gabriel comes over with Sameen. She says, “Hi!” and smiles and keeps glancing at Gabriel. I think she’s already got a crush on him.
Nesbitt is talking to Claudia and Olivia but they keep looking over and smiling at Gabriel too. Gabriel, it seems, has more chance than anyone of winning over White Witches: he just has to smile at them and they go weak at the knees.
Thankfully, Greatorex seems immune to his charms and is still business-like. After a few minutes she says, “Right, let’s partner up again. But change partners. Nathan can join in on this with Claudia.”
“No,” Celia says, striding quickly to us. “I’ll spar with Nathan.”
I say to her, “You sure? You’re looking a bit old and slow these days.”
“I want to see how much you’ve forgotten.”
I give her a smile. I’ve forgotten nothing.
*
Later, when it’s getting dark, Annalise finds me where I’ve set up my own little camp on the edge of the trees away from everyone. I don’t have a tent but I do have a small fire and a sheltered spot by a tree. Annalise and I sit together, a blanket wrapped round us both.
She asks me what happened at training. I say, “I trained.”
“I heard you beat up Celia. They had to pull you off her.”
I remember seeing Sarah standing with a group of White Witches after it was over. They’d been watching. No doubt Sarah has been gossiping.
I tell Annalise, “That’s not true.”
And it isn’t, though Nesbitt was making jokes about who would replace Celia when I’d killed her. But mainly I blanked them all out. I was concentrating. Celia landed one good kick. I landed about twenty, not that I was counting.
“Anyway, Annalise, that’s what we do. Celia can heal fine. She’s done worse to me many times. We used to practice fighting every day and she beat me up every day.” I reckon that’s seven hundred times minimum over two years, so there are six hundred and ninety-nine more of those due to Celia.
“I’m glad I didn’t see it.”