First 5 Pages April Workshop - Ellie Rev 2

Name: Ellie
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Title: The Wicked and the Dark

Caetlin had had steadied her furiously beating heart as she rounded each corner, bracing herself for what would be there. It wasn’t like she wanted to find a body, but Jax had been missing after his patrol for far too long—even for him.

Jax liked to play tricks on his sisters, but he never disappeared on a patrol for longer than it took to scare whoever’s turn it was after his. He was serious enough about protecting their patrons that he wouldn’t pull a trick that would get in the way.

A frown tugged at Caetlin’s mouth. Something was definitely wrong. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions and scare Eloise and Peony, only to have their brother pop up later. Jax wasn’t just their older brother—he was their leader, the family’s first born, the strongest of them all. Caetlin refused to believe he could have been killed by a Shadeu or a rival guard.

"Damn you, Jax." Caetlin growled into the tunnel's dark crevices, the words muffled behind her face mask.

Not a single Shadeu, the flesh eaters that lived below ground, or opposing cabal member had been spotted the whole time she’d been on watch. It wasn't rare, but it wasn’t common either. There were nights when she had killed ten Shadeu in a single section, and other nights when there were none in any sectors—at least ones under the Three Bells, her cabal's, protection.

Still; there was something going on, her instincts were going crazy and her heart refused to stop pumping a frantic rhythm against her ribs. The air felt electrified with lurking eyes, watching her as she crept through the stone underground corridors.

She was kicking up black ash and dust as  her watch time crept to a close and she searched for Jax.  Her thoughts turns to her parents, up in Nahljie, looking into some orchards. Even if Caetlin wanted to, it would take at least three days for a letter to get to them. It was up to her and her sisters to find Jax.

The sound of shuffling feet broke the silence. A sound that would usually be soft and light echoed like grating chains. The scraping crawled through the dark tunnels, over the cobblestones and rocky walls, right under Caetlin’s skin. No one would make such a ruckus while traveling underground unless they wanted to be heard—or dead.

Hope soared in her chest. She sprinted around the corner, saw a shadowy human figure and stopped short.

A young man shambled towards her, slumped; holding the side of his stomach. All the hope in Caetlin’s chest crashed to her toes. The person in front of her wasn't Jax, he was a member of another cabal. He seemed to be around her age, maybe eighteen or so. Tall; then again, most people were taller than her five foot-almost two-inches. But he was still much shorter and leaner than her brother.

Caetlin’s hand hovered over the dagger at her side as her eyes skimmed over his weapons; two swords at his back and three daggers at his sides.

The stranger was dressed in a black and grey tunic, with a hood and matching pants. His face was covered by a metal mask, but she couldn’t make out the design on it with his head flopped onto his chest.

He lurched towards her, his hand going out. Instinctively, Caetlin palmed her dagger hilt and shifted her feet to root herself. “Who are you?” She demanded. Did he get wounded fighting Jax?Or was it a Shadeu?

The cabal guard didn’t say anything before he collapsed forward and crumpled to the ground.

Caetlin watched him for a few moments, noting how his back moved slowly and shallowly as he breathed. He was unconscious, not dead—at least not yet.

Usually the protocol for coming across a rival cabal member would be to leave them to be found by either a lurking Shadeu or—hopefully for the person—one of their own cabal members. But he wasn’t in his own section; he was in hers; she couldn’t just leave him as bait to draw Shadeu into her own territory.

With a muffled string of curses, Caetlin stalked over to a broken stone pillar with their seal etched on it, and pulled open a hidden rock door. Inside the small hole was a wire. She tugged it three times and replaced the rock.

Eloise and Peony would be there within ten minutes. Peony wouldn’t mind as much, since her shift started after Caetlin’s, at one, but Eloise always had the early morning route from three thirty until sunrise, and wouldn’t get as much rest now. But they would both want to know about Jax and the mysterious loner.

While she waited for Eloise and Peony to show up, Caetlin crouched over the fallen boy. He was outfitted in typical cabal style; dark clothing with a hood, leather armor for his front and back, fingerless gloves. Shining metal armor overlapped each plate up his arms and legs. She pushed him over onto his back. His metal mask covered his lower face, delicately designed like a beast’s jaw clamping down and bearing its teeth.

Caetlin let a small smile lift her lips. Snarling jaws and sharp teeth were very popular mask decorations in the cabal, especially for men who wanted to look more menacing than they actually were.

“Huh.” There was one thing missing that all cabal members wore: His crest; the insignia of the cabal he was a member of— usually worn with pride on the chest or somewhere else easily seen— was nowhere to be found. Was this boy a loner? Someone without a Cabal? He didn’t look like a tunnephile; one of the rich and bored who came down into the tunnels for fun during the day.

There was a tuft of dark brown hair covering one of his eyes. Caetlin’s fingers itched to push it out of the way. She wondered for a second if he was handsome, if maybe she knew him somehow from a party or ball, but disregarded the thought. Wondering if everyone she met in the city was a member of a cabal would just make her paranoid.

The light sound of approach pulled Caetlin from her thoughts. She stood and spun around as she palmed her dagger hilts.

“What happened?” Eloise’s voice vibrated through her mask, making it rough and indecipherable. She landed on the rocky ground next to Caetlin with the grace of a dancer. A thin blond braid escaped her hood that she quickly tucked back inside.

She must have taken the upper caverns to get here so fast, Caetlin thought. Some of the upper caverns weren’t stable, with the constant cave-ins of rocks and water leaks from the surface. They were Eloise’s favorite routes through the tunnels.

“It’s a boy.” Peony breathed through her own mask as she followed behind Eloise, not quite as graceful as her sister, but just as swift. “Did you kill him?” She asked excitedly.

“No.” Caetlin rolled her eyes. “I was looking for Jax when he stumbled out of the eastern wing there,” She pointed in the direction he came from. “And fell, right here.”

Eloise’s attention whipped from the unconscious man to Caetlin. “What do you mean you were looking for Jax?”