The Marksman [The Talent of Three: Book 1]

12 ••• The Tradition of the Marksman

Sure enough, the dormitory was loud and the girls rambunctious when Atheris stepped inside.

"Atheris!" Pippa calls. "You're late!"

Atheris only shrugs.

"Flint's gonna kill you," Demitria warns.

Atheris rolls her eyes. "I'll be fine. I've been doing research for the Quest."

"Care to let us in on the secret?" Jadis calls from the small kitchenette.

"Every man for his own!" Atheris shouts back. 

"So what's the Assassin like?" Scout asks, appearing at the door of the living room

Atheris shrugs, words to describe either of the two she would be Questing with escaping her mind. "We didn't really...talk much," she says eventually.

Ninia raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Then what did you do?"

"We walked around the city," Atheris says. "Chip and Kayne already know each other, anyway."

"Ah, so you're the odd-one-out?" Jadis asks.

"Not really," Atheris says. 

Demitria rolls her eyes. "You keep telling yourself that, Ath."

"Oh, shut it, Tria," Atheris snaps.

Jadis raises an eyebrow. "Someone's in a mood."

"Don't even start, Jad," Atheris warns.

"Touchy!" Scout yells before running away from the angry redheaded Archer.

Pippa is the only one who has said nothing. She shakes her head as Atheris moves to follow Scout.

"Just let it go, Ath," Pippa says. "Let it go." Her tone is soothing. Pipa has ways been kind; that's why the girls call her the peacekeeper.

She'd make a good Marksman, a good leader, Atheris thinks. She's the one that should lead us. With kindness and wisdom.

Before Atheris can say anything on her contemplations of Pippa's character, the bell tolls, calling them to the mess hall.

Atheris sets aside the anger at her roommates the way she sets aside her bow and her quiver full of arrows and follows the rest of the girls down the tower and through the tunnels to the mess hall.

•••

"Archers," Flint says, his eyes sweeping the room and making eye contact with everyone before continuing, "this upcoming week will be the week you test your bonds as a group of three. I severely hope you began to understand your Questmates today." Atheris cringes. "The bonds you developed today will be what you survive on."

Oh, good job, Atheris, the young Archer thinks scathingly. The only "bond" you possibly made today: you have Ann air of "leadership" according to Kayne. Nice going.

"Archers, I wish you best of luck," Flint says. "I can guarantee that the Quests will break you, in one way or another. Let it be for good rather than for bad. Embrace the change the Quest will bring to your character and life and you have nothing to fear."

Atheris glances at Pippa. Will the Quests take her kindness? Will they make her heartless and cruel? Atheris thinks of her own temper and a jolt of fear goes through her, as if it is lightning and she the lightning rod. What will the Quests make me?

•••

Atheris sits at her small desk and pulls out the charcoal-etched paper. She has already locked her door to keep the others out.

Atheris starts to read.

Upon accordance with the needs of the people, henceforth there rises the Marksman. Leader of the people, he is the protector and the helper, wise and strong.
Qualities of the Marksman will appear in times of peril—therefore, the Quests become a likely time of choosing for the Marksman.
Marksman of current—it is you who must choose the name of the one who shall follow in your steps from the brazier. Should you not, the Marksman will not be true and will not have the trust of the Archers. The balance and the law of the Marksman will forever be thrown off.
Marksman after Marksman will follow in your footsteps, just as you have followed the footsteps of the Marksman and the other Marksmen before you.
Arrows guided straight and true, student—reveal the Marksman in you.

Atheris gasps. The last line—she knows she has never seen that before...except in Flint's account of his student years, which was painted into the walls of the mess hall.

Atheris glances at the clock. She has about twenty minutes before the mess hall doors are locked and she is expected to be in bed.

I can make this, Atheris decides in a split-second. She takes the paper and runs. 

Somehow, she finds herself in front of the painting in the wall fifteen minutes later, with only five minutes to spare. Panting, she scans over the painting and finds the same exact words as what is written on her paper, on the statue.

But Atheris isn't quite sure that the words on the paper are the same ones on the statue. Frowning, she stands at the painting, waiting and watching. Suddenly she hears voices and scuffling. She recognizes the voices of Eryx, Echis, and Flint.

Atheris takes off at a run.