The Test by Todd Fahnestock

Author:Todd Fahnestock [Fahnestock, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780986375699
Publisher: F4 Publishing
Published: 2020-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Brom

The Dome was the building where all Tests of Separation were held. It was enormous—fully ten stories tall and three times that wide. It shone white in the sunlight and looked like a half-sphere of snow placed atop a flat, square, one-story building. It had four archways along the front, and wide, shallow steps leading up to them.

They all stopped at the base of the steps, the banks of snow high on either side of them, the cobblestone pathway meticulously shoveled.

“There are sixteen,” Oriana said.

Brom looked at her.

“Steps,” she said. “There are sixteen steps.”

Brom waited for her to explain why that mattered. She didn’t, her haughty mask back in place, and he suddenly realized she’d simply spoken because she was nervous, cataloguing something aloud for no reason.

Royal cleared his throat but didn’t say anything.

Vale, beyond Royal, looked down the line of them. “This is where we go our own way,” she said. “After the Test, we’re not Quad Brilliant anymore. We’re Quadrons in our own right.”

Because the Quad will be broken, Brom thought. Because one of us isn’t coming out of there. He put a hand to his stomach as if that could quell his misgivings. He wanted to vomit.

“But we are a Quad until then,” Oriana said.

Brom reached out and took Oriana’s hand. Her long fingers curled around his. They were cool, but they gripped his tightly. Royal’s beefy hand suddenly closed over Brom’s on the other side, engulfing it, and Brom glanced over at him. His gaze was fixed on that enormous dome, and he looked sad. After a moment’s hesitation, Vale latched on to two of Royal’s giant fingers with her small hand.

“We should go in,” Royal said. “They’re watching us.”

They started up the steps together. Beyond the arches was a foyer not unlike the grand foyer in Westfall Dormitory. It had a lower ceiling, but similar arches down the hall on either side. Everything was made of marble.

Directly ahead of them was an arch with two guards, one on either side. The woman, tall and rangy, wore tight chainmail under a blue surcoat emblazoned with the coat of arms of The Four: a red dragon, white owl, blue bear, and black moth. She had the look of someone who could move very fast if she wanted to. Her deep-set hawk’s eyes watched them carefully, starting with Vale, then moving to Royal, Brom and Oriana, then starting again with Vale and proceeding down the line once more.

The second guard wore snowy-white robes with the same coat of arms on the front, bordered in black. This man had light brown eyes and a round head with a thatch of black hair plastered to his scalp that did nothing to break its perfect roundness. Both guards had the same arrogant mien as the masters, but Brom hadn’t seen either of them in any classes.

“Mentis and Impetu,” Oriana suddenly said inside their heads, again stating the obvious.

At first, Brom was surprised Oriana would have opened one of her Soulblocks before the Test began, then he revised his thinking.

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