The Protection of Ren Crown by Anne Zoelle

Author:Anne Zoelle [Zoelle, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA, Fantasy & Magic
Publisher: Excelsine Press
Published: 2014-05-09T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen: Rumblings

Meeting at sunrise was not my forte, but my anticipation for rounds with Dare took on a new edge, and a different sort of excitement.

Dare's personal group of five—Dare, Lox, Ramirez, Straught, and Greene—and each of the five of us shadowing them, spent two hours at sunrise tromping around campus, examining everything from the perimeter wards the Department had placed on the Eighteenth Circle to the popular henges on Top Campus. Whereas Dare had assigned me to watching ports and paying attention to how the magic activated, the others were placed in charge of different tasks.

We were then to teach our assigned task to the group.

That went a little less well. Peters, in particular, was irritating about the whole thing, trying his best not to address me at all, or to patronizingly offer me his information on reporting protocol. In return, I tried not to feel satisfaction when he jumped at every small movement in his peripheral vision.

Junior Department eyes focused intently upon our group whenever we passed an enclave. They keenly tracked the movements of every combat mage—even Camille Straught, who was firmly part of the magicists' social set.

Camille Straught, in turn, watched me.

Information imparted by Dare in the group session was without the dimensional edge that his instructions in our solo sessions held—and I listened more attentively to what he was not saying to the group. Aloof and superior, he offered none of the personal anecdotes or tricks that he had shared with me.

That made a strange impression on me, and I questioned my interpretation of the events. It seemed as if Dare didn't care about the other four Justice Squad members in the group, even though he kept firmly demanding that I practice and pay attention to how to impart information to a group at large.

After the two hours were up, the combat mages went off to raid, pillage, practice, or protect something—they hadn't specified which—and the five of us trudged back up the mountain, thoroughly bedraggled.

“The Troop arrives in a few weeks, thank Magic,” one of the Justice Squad members said.

“Then we can stop going along with this madness,” another grouched. “The combat mages are insane this year. I didn't sign up for this.”

“And some of us certainly shouldn't be here,” Peters said.

I rolled my eyes and continued following after them, all of us heading to the dorms as the rest of campus rose to begin the day.

There was something special about sunrise. I just preferred to experience it behind closed eyelids.

The thought suspended as the world slowed around me.

No.

Shouting broke out across the grounds, jarringly, and three mages who had been watching us just moments before sprinted past and into the henge we had all been heading toward. They disappeared through an arch, and the other squad members hurried after them.

Returned to motion more quickly this time, I fished my reader from my bag and debated whether I should run after them while I read. I had turned my hologram setting off after

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