A Collection of Ruins

Chapter 7 - Oh Darlin' What Have I Done (Ellie)

Elieanora

The punch landed with precision, and was met with the satisfying crunch of bone. People held their breaths, their keen anticipation a steady thrum in the air; a rising crescendo as the flames from the campfire flickered, snaking into the air and then retreating. A beautiful dangerous dance.

A young girl’s hands clenched around the fabric of her father’s shirt, “Daddy I can’t see!”

Once, the games had been a point of pride for Sterilis – men, women and children all clambering to watch the fights. Children trained from the age of six to compete at the age of sixteen. If you passed the tests, you could stay on at Sterilis; those who did not were either banished or dead. The test was known informally as The Fights. Three days of pitting children against each other. The higher you scored, the higher your position; leader, council, captain, warrior.

Our fewer numbers saw the fights drop to last no more than a day, the population consisting of no one over nineteen, with the exception of Ronan’s father all the other adults had died off long ago. Leaving behind children with violence in their veins, and anger in their hearts.

Skin on skin, Ronan came to stand behind me.

“Blaine—”

“…Is pissed to hell. He despises the girl, an’ he wasn’t exactly expecting the twins.”

“He’ll live.” I had made sure of that.

As for the twins, they were the best trained soldiers I had. At the same age as Ronan and I, the twins were relics from another life.

“Mattie might not. Word has it city boy’s already shed tears.”

“Of course he has,” I blew out a breath of air, “Jesus.”

Ronan’s smile twisted into a bitter slash of lips and teeth, “Apparently his brother tried to shoot him. With an unloaded gun,” The mirth in Ronan’s voice was cutting, but his dark eyes lingered on my face.

Bang. The shot that had killed my father resounded in my head, over and over. If I had had time for nightmares, that sound would have haunted them.

I raised an eyebrow, “Is that going to become a problem?” 

I had killed my father, and Ronan was about to sacrifice his. An angry gun-toting brother would gather no sympathy from us. 

“Nah, Met men are all talk and no show darlin’. Besides, Devin has a rough idea of where Mattie has been these past months. Nobody crosses a rebel.” It didn’t surprise me that Ronan knew the name of Matt’s brother; with a thirst for vengeance as big as our own, there wasn’t a detail we didn’t consider important. Devin was next in line for a council chair and, with Matt as blackmail, we had been manipulating the man for months. No longer would the men in the council determine the lives of mine. The fact that Matt suffered the consequences of our actions was unfortunate, it truly was, but it wouldn’t move me. Too many lives depended on this now.

“And the other girl?”

“Jev showered her with just enough attention; she gave him all we wanted to know. Tess, as she likes to be called, was known for walking the more dangerous parts of the Met late at night. It didn’t take much for Jev and James to intercept some rouge Infected and place them in her path. All Matt had to do from there was find the girl, so the Rats could find them. How he did it I don’t know and I don’t care. All the pieces are falling into place.”

“I hate that it has to be done this way.” I honestly did.

“Don’t let them hear you say that, El. We’ve already lost more than enough.”

The hair on my arms stood on end, and I turned to find Moss drilling a hole into my head with the intensity of his stare. The kid’s hands were clenched around his wraps although he couldn’t quite hide the slight tremors running through them. The boy would learn. He’d learn or he’d die.  I nodded my head in his direction, and he rose to a stumbling gait as he made his way towards me.

“I don’t— I mean I can’t— the stupid—”

I placed my hand over his, “Calm down.”

“They’re just wraps. Take a deep breath.” His beautiful green eyes were confused as he followed my instructions and sucked in a lungful of air.  Once he had settled and stopped shaking I hardened my voice. Babying would do the boy no favours either.

“Go out there and remember you’re good, Moss. Ronan wouldn’t have trained you to be anything else.”

“What if the other guy is better than me El?”

“Then you rub some dirt in it and try again, Moss.”  You couldn’t be a Sterelian unless you were a soldier, and you couldn’t be a soldier until you had taken your place upon the uneven, bloody sand within in the ring and fought.

“Win or lose don’t mean shit kid, as long as you fought.” Ronan added as he joined us. The rules never said you had to win.

“It’s the fight that counts.” I didn’t know if I was speaking to Moss or to myself. 

“He’ll do fine,” Ronan decided, “the kid has too much heart not to.”

Fine, in the end, equated to a bloody broken nose and a black eye. Yeah, the kid would be okay. Moss was one of mine. I would make sure of it.  Whatever it took.

                                                                                             ****

“You should have gone to see the girl yourself.”

Through the flames I saw Ronan’s father walk towards me. Slow and deliberate, his words a challenge and his presence a threat. This was the first time since the death of my father that Ronan’s had left his house, and behind me, I felt Roman stiffen. He didn’t move, though, to step in front of me. To do so would only symbolise me as weak.

“I have seen her.” My voice was relaxed. Better to be perceived as arrogant and oblivious to the threat he posed than panicked and worried.

“That’s not what I meant Elieanora. You should have gone to question her yourself.” The crowd shifted. He was openly downgrading my status as leader, and people were reacting.

“A pointless exercise, considering that the girl doesn’t know anything,” I tilted my head to the side just so, as if I was openly confused to his line of questioning. But everyone would read my body language as intended; an open indicator to my unwillingness to back down. And Matt didn’t think we were smart.

“It isn’t her we’re after.” I told him.

The crowd shifted again, their collective weight leaning towards me. I had appeased the mob.

“No.” Ronan called from behind me, his voice as slow and smooth as honey. “It’s her rat bastard of a father.”

“And as much as I appreciate the outside council, next time you speak to me, do so without the blatant condensation. Or I’ll make it so you never speak again.”

The crowd erupted at the promise of violence, and Ronan’s father walked away.