Code of Shadows

Chapter 4: Amazement

It took a while to walk to the capitol building. I barely noticed anything around me as I spent the whole time trying to avoid the touch of the last two guards. As it turns out, it is really hard to do...

My insides squirmed as we walked up the pure white steps of the capitol building. I had never entered the building from the grand entrance. Only people of high status got to walk up the pristine white marble steps of the building. Yet I found myself, Cait Agathist, walking up them, escorted by a group of high officials to go see the Prime Justice. My insides gave another painful twist. How did I get here?

As we entered, my eyes immediately flicked over to the 'normal' entrance--where I had always entered the building from. People were flooding through the door, not paying any mind to a small group entering through a different door.

I began to feel my palms sweat as we moved further into the crowd. I could feel me nerves stabbing daggers into my stomach. I tried to distract myself. I started thinking about names, something I did to calm myself. I decided on a name for the two guards behind me. Charles. Edwin. We walked to the end of the line of people waiting to get inside the main part of the building. I picked out two names for the two guards in front of me. Sam and Eric. We passed the line and started walking towards an open attendant. I named the lead guard. Dedric. We reached the attendant.

The group came to an abrupt and stumbling (for me) halt. The attendant looked up at me and I surprised my her black, almost blue hair and the intensity of her silvery eyes--magnified by her glasses. She glanced up from her station one more time, then pressed a button. A gate opened and she allowed us to pass through. She looked me up then down, then wrinkled her nose in disapproval. My eyes widened and my first instinct was to dark out of the capital building and straight back to my house to hide in some dark corner, but I didn't.

We walked through the gates, and the attendant did a quick close of her station, then motioned for us to follow her. I was loosing my pacience with the two guards behind be, and in one final warning glare the hands of the guards dropped away. I smiled, momentarily forgetting about my urge to dart. It came back a second later though.

The tension of the group was almost palpable. We were half way down the hallway when the attendant took an unexpected turn. We ducked behind a statue then the attendant entered a code into the padlock next to a hidden door, the door creaked, then squealed open. I cringed expecting something to pop out with the noise the it made.

Nothing did, and I gasped at the parts of the room I could see. An elaborately decorated sitting room was definately not what I expected. Why in the world would such a nice room have such a crappy door? I only had time to gape before the attendant led me through another door. I stared equally at this room too. It was like an elaborate bathhouse combined with a salon and a closet. A moment later my attention rested on two young women in the middle of the room.

They looked me up and down. Then the left one, who looked like the more friendly of the two, spoke.

"Hello Ms. Agathist!" the woman said with a bouncy voice.

"Hi." I responded lamely back.

"My name is Kasima, and this is Amandla," Kasima said pointing to her companion. "And we are going to get you ready for your meeting with the Prime Justice!" The butterflies in my stomach twisted and stabbed again. Who knew butterflies could be so vicious?

"Why am I meeting him?" I asked.

"I don't know, we're just his prep crew," Kasima said with a sigh, but her face still kept the brilliant smile. "Lets get you cleaned up."

Kasima grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards a closed of section of the room.

"Is this stuff normally here?" I asked.