The Ways of War

Chapter 12

I knew there was no way out of it, and from the looks on the others' faces none of expected the meeting with the Admiral to go all that well. Then again, did anything with the Admiral go well?

The four of us had set out after the Admiral soon after the area was clear, and I was hoping that that meant that word would not have spread that quickly. I should have known better. The only thing that the riders are better at than fighting, is gossiping. I should know, I had been an active participant in the gossip mill back at the school.

But that gossip mill was turning on me, as was evident but all the voices that hushed as Nico, Kelly, Lucas, and I drew near as well as all of the eyes I could feel burning into the back of my head after I had passed. For people who had to sneak up on the enemy- riders were really bad at being subtle.

Kelly seemed to sense how uncomfortable I was and made sure she was walking beside me. From the corner of my eye I could see her biting her lip, and I knew the researcher in her was dying to question me, to find out what had happened and how. I felt slightly bad about not acknowledging her questions, but at the same time I was almost positive that if anyone tried to question me I would snap. I liked Kelly and I didn't want to yell at her. Thankfully, before she could work up the courage to question me, we reached the stairs and were forced to focus on the task of not slipping and falling to our death (though many times I saw Lucas look over the side of the stair was as if he was seriously considering the option).

I didn't blame him; the fall was looking way more pleasant than the Admiral.

Unfortunately, before Lucas or I could follow through with the plan we reached the top of the stairs. This time the exertion took slightly more out of me than the first time that I took the climb, but the small rest I took to wait for Kelly to top the stairs gave me enough time to catch my breath.

But as soon as she reached the top it was back to what we came for. The narrow walk was made slightly less so by the suddenly alert guards, all of whom had apparently heard of the situation on the ground and felt the need to blatantly stare at our convoy as we passed. This time, when we reached the Admiral's tent the guards simply held the flaps open.

Lucas walked in, followed by Nico, but as it was my turn I found myself frozen in place. It took a shove from Kelly behind me to get me to enter the tent. I heard Kelly enter behind me before the sound of the flaps closing reached my ears, at about the same time that my eyes adjusted to the light.

This time the Admiral wasn't standing to greet us but was instead seated behind a large desk. I have no idea how they got it to the top of the wall, or if it was really worth it because there was literally nothing on the desk- as in not even a candle.

The Admiral stared us down for a couple of minutes before he stood from his empty desk. He continued to stare at us, mainly me, as he rounded his desk and sat on the edge of it. There were a couple more seconds of awkward silence before the Admiral started to speak. "What the hell just went on down there?" He asked, his voice implying that he didn't really expect an answer, but he still paused. When none of us answered he continued on. "What just happed was the single greatest act of insubordination committed by anyone individual! You are lucky that it payed off!" He yelled obviously focusing on me.

Though I took offense at the single greatest part, so I cut in before his yelling could continue. "I was told there were attempts on your life, I feel like that's a slightly greater act of insubordination!" I stated as I crossed my arms across my chest. "Also, I'm supposed to be the Missionary! I'm supposed to connect with the Tsoro, one way to do that is to show empathy! Besides that act gave us major headway, something that would have taken me years to learn I just mastered by simply touching that medic!" I said defending myself.