Battle Strong by Elizabeth McCready (the ebook reader txt) 📖

odd about this place? There's an empty stables. Why have such a beautiful building without at least putting pictures inside. But no, that place is so dead I don't even think there are mice. And apparently, that is a lot to say for a barn. You know diary, I'm starting to get suspicious about this place. On top of the above list of horrors I have dealt with, the showers are in the commons and there are two rooms of three showers, but the doors don't lock, problem being I am one girl amongst six boys. 

I went on a walk today. On any other day, I would’ve been happy for Noeh to go with me. But today, I felt like I needed some time alone. These past few weeks had frankly been hell for me. I’m not entirely sure how to cope with the amount of change, I’ve never been away from my mother for so long. And we still have weeks before this is over, if we make it that long. It had always been the two of us against my father, against tradition, against the rules, against the world. I can’t help but wonder the dangers of being in here, if my father finds out that I am alive, I would be a target. If I’m a target, that would make my team a target. I don’t know that it’s worth the risk, what if he already knows who I am? What if my picture is being broadcast across the country? Of course it is! I’m in A1 there’s no way it’s not! I can’t think about that. Not now.

I’ve been noting the small changes in the woods each day, the changes in the wind and where it would carry the leaves, the smell and how it struggled between pine and fresh spring water scents, the sound of the animals scurrying over the sound of the rustling trees. The trees are starting to change color, too. It’s beautiful, these in between stages. When some leaves are browning, some are brightening to bold yellows and oranges, and some remaining the same dark green they have been all year. I have always considered myself a nature junkie despite not selecting it as my society assignment. I have too much of an advantage in battle by knowing the forests so well, it would be a waste for me to throw my fighting skills out when my forest skills can help me in battle. When the others and I were kids, there were very few that were actually allowed to explore. It was really against the rules, but there were no soldiers patrolling the forests for stragglers so we always got away with it. I doubted anyone else got the opportunities that me, Ander, Jaq, and Emylee did as children. Our parents were separated from the kingdom, they didn’t agree with what my father and the Quill were doing with Delahonte. Even though they were Lords and Ladies of the Court, they fled. Changed their names, changed their occupations, and raised their children in a quiet and inconsequential town called Humes. A town where the King and the Quill rarely visited, it was deemed fairly unimportant, and it was pretty ignored. They decided to stay in the country, after all they couldn’t abandon home completely. But they kept low profiles, and had never been pursued by the court.

 Us kids grew up free and strong because of it. But also mostly unaware of the lives they were born to live. Ander and I were the only ones that truly knew, we were held to much higher standards in the court because of who our parents were. Obviously, my father is the king, but Ander’s father Hollinde, he was my father’s right hand man. Ander was treated as if he were a prince alongside my older brother, Caimon. We were trained from young ages to be leaders, and I suppose it worked out that way in the end. I never really intended to stay hidden forever, though it is still dangerous to expose myself in any manner. That is why Jaq and Emylee were put into safe society assignments. Things that would not get them identified, their parents were terrified of the court finding them. Emylee’s parents especially, they once threatened to move out to the Kravinoff Islands, but they stayed for their daughters’ sake. She had made a life for herself, as did her sister Fallyn.

I never looked back when we left. My father had a terrible reign over our lives and it was constantly taking a toll on me, my mother, and my friends’ families. I was honestly somewhat happy when we left the court. I still think about the night we left, the whole journey was a series changing our physical appearances from one train station to the next to hide our identities, as they years went on, the news carriers stopped sharing our old pictures, we weren’t being chased anymore, not to mention we all looked older. We were free. All of us starting allowing hair to grow back to its old style and color, us kids had grown enough that the pictures barely resembled us anymore, and the women could hardly be recognized without the makeup they had worn everyday in the court. No one could identify us, plus we had all changed our names. We truly started a new life. Part of me wonders if Ander and I are going to ruin everything by being military leaders. We had always talked about returning to the court, reclaiming it from the King, putting an end to the disaster that was the Quill. We would build from scratch, form a whole new court and end the suffering that our country had been put through for years. Maybe he still feels the same way. Maybe we will be the change that our country has been waiting for. Time will tell.

 

Sincerely,

Beth

 

Chapter Eight

"Beth! Wake up!" Ander called.

Beth's body lifted from her mattress, in a daze of confusion as lightning lit the open air outside of the cabin. In a bout of adrenaline she asked, "What's going on? Is everyone okay?"

"There's a bad storm, its starting to flood. It's going to get bad, Beth. We are trying to get all the horses inside the stable but Calypso isn't budging, she's panicked and I think she's going to get hurt-" Before he could finish his statement, Beth was running for the pasture. She splashed and jumped through ankle-deep water to get her horse before the water or its contents could hurt her.

"Calypso!" She called over and over. The sound of a horrific neigh sent Beth flying over the fence into the already flooded pasture. She waded through the water that was almost to her waist in the pasture until she found Calypso rearing and neighing near the giant oak that towered over the rushing waters below. "Easy," she soothed through the sound of the rain drumming on the pooling water, "I'm gonna get you out of here but you need to trust me."

The horse stomped her feet, eyes wide and ears pinned. Beth, in a frantic attempt to get the horse to safety, removed her soaked jacket from her body and wrapped it around Calypso's head, covering her eyes. With her eyes covered, the horse didn't know how to protect herself so she followed Beth's leading hand.

*~*

Ander was just short of losing his mind. Between the flooding and soaked, whiny soldiers, he felt out of control. To make matters worse, Beth was missing and there was a very high chance they would all have to sleep in the stables. A crack of thunder sent him barreling back into reality.

"Pietre, find a place for all of us to sleep." Pietre nodded and took off searching for a place that had not yet been compromised by horse or water. "Quinn, find us bedding; blankets, pillows, and anything than can be used as such."

"Does straw count for anything?"

"Only as a last resort, look for better options first." Ander turned to Noeh and Stievan. "You two go back to the commons, find food that you can bring back here, water too."

Once everyone was scattered with their tasks, Ander ran into the wall of rain.

"Beth!" He called out blindly.

"I'm here." Her words startling Ander. "Get the door so I can get Calypso inside."

Ander obeyed hastily and observed the rising water before pulling the door shut.

"Come on, let's try to get you dried off."

"Her too, horse's can get skin rashes from rain."

"And you, Donaway, can get life-threatening illnesses, I'll have Pietre or Quinn take care of Calypso, okay? It’s cold and you are soaked."

Beth nodded and Ander wrapped an arm around her, guiding her to a warmer place to dry off. Ander watched as Beth shivered helplessly beneath the horse blankets he’d found lying around the tack room. 

“Why did you go out there? With the water that high, you should’ve let her get to safety herself.” He tried to sound less judgemental and angry, but he wasn’t sure if he was convincing.

“She could’ve gotten injured out there, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but both her and I are okay.”

“Beth, she’s just a horse, this could’ve ended completely different.”

“Ander, it’s just a little rain, and compared to what we experience from day to day, I think sky water should be the least of our worries.” She soothed him, with the most simple of words she calmed the storm that had been raging inside his head. 

“Ander, I brought some towels back to use as blankets from the commons. They’re in that bag.” Noeh said moving to a lumpy green cloth bag leaning against a stall door and pulled a towel from it, handing it to Beth with a soft, apologetic look.

“Thank you.” She said quietly, avoiding eye contact and started away from the boys towards the office, the only spot in the stables with chairs.

“Beth, wait-” Noeh called after her, he soon found a firm hand pressed to his chest keeping him from following Beth.

“Don’t.” Ander snapped. “She will come to you when she is ready. Until then, you are going to leave her the hell alone.” Noeh pushed Ander away, the two glared at each other as Ander followed Beth and Noeh remained where he stood. 

“You okay?” He asked her as he walked into the office where she had already sat in the dustiest chair he’d ever seen.

“I’m fine, how many times will I have to tell you that rain won’t be the knife to kill me?”

“I’d prefer you not be killed by any knife.” He said and watched as a smile formed on her lips. The silence grew and Ander found himself staring at her, he was still partly in disbelief, and partly waiting for the moment he wakes up to find that this was all a dream. 

“Ander.” Beth said with a grin, and he quickly snapped back to reality. “You’re blushing, Rockwell.”

Ander’s eyes dropped to the floor where dust had obviously been accumulating for a century. He stared, his mind wandering back to the knife that had almost killed her. The fear he’d never thought he’d feel, and how good it felt to rip the life out of the men who took her.