My whole body is frozen with shock. I’m going to be an apprentice. The Magic actually listened to me.
The Prophetess bangs a mallet against a handheld gong. “The Selection Ceremony has come to a completion,” she says. “Return to your clans. In two days, we invite you to the Apprentices’ Initiation Ceremony at the temple.”
Proctor raises his hand, and with the flick of his fingers, calls the five of us to the base of the platform.
“Congratulations on your selection. This will be your last night with your families.” Proctor’s sharp eyes take in the five of us. “A Sentry will arrive at your clan at dawn to escort you to the temple. You will bring nothing.”
Bring nothing? Leave tomorrow? My head spins. It’s all happening so fast.
“Can we bring a personal item?” Tor asks.
“How about my sword?” Rune pats his blade like he doesn’t want to part with it.
“If you must,” Proctor says.
Then he waves his hand, as if to bat away a sand flea, and spins around and strides over to join the other Paladins, his long cape billowing out behind him.
Prophetess slips in his place. “Give your stones to the blacksmith,” she orders us, nodding to a man standing next to her.
I hand mine over. I expect the blue to fade, but it remains. With quick efficiency, he places it into a metal clamp attached to a chain necklace. He hands it back to me, and I slide it over my head, letting it fall against my chest like a pendant.
“How clever,” Amala says as the blacksmith hands back hers.
After we receive our pendants, the Paladins leave to speak to the clan heads by the shrine. The five of us apprentices glance at each other as if we’re all in shock. Well, except Rune, who grins.
“You sure know how to put on a show,” Rune tells me.
“You’re one to talk.” I cross my arms. “I just wanted to be picked.”
“I bet you did,” Rune chuckles and glances over at Tor.
“Enough,” Tor snaps back. “We’re going to have to get along if we want to help Eden.”
“Not if I can help it.” Amala glowers at Tor darkly.
“Look at us,” I say sarcastically. “Already working so well together.”
Before we can continue our conversation, the crowd pushes in on us. Mother pulls me into a hug.
“Oh, Tara,” she says, and for the first time in my life, I hear pride in her voice. “You bring our family such honor.”
“I knew you were meant for great things,” Father says.
Some clansfolk congratulate us while others grab their torches and begin to shuffle their way back down the mountain. People pass by us, bowing with their heads, and their eyes are filled with awe. Lila congratulates me, but there’s a wall and stiffness to her that wasn’t there before. I shift, uncomfortable with this sudden reversal in treatment.
A little girl rushes to me, and with the tips of her fingers, brushes her hand across my braids. Startled, I step back. The girl’s large brown eyes gaze up at mine, her mouth open in a wide O, until her mother snatches her away, softly scolding her. Another man nods slightly, as if I accomplished some victorious act.
“Look at you,” Charise says, coming over to me, smiling. “All special now.”
“Maybe now you’ll be popular in the clan.”
“I’m already popular.” She lifts her eyebrows smugly. “But I’ve decided this whole apprentice thing is stupid. Because now they’re going to take you from me.”
“You’re being silly.” Heat spreads across my cheeks as I focus on my pendant. “I’m not any different than I was a minute ago.”
She hooks her arm in mine and nods to where the Paladins stand. “That’ll be you someday. Stoic and ancient.”
“Hardly.”
We laugh at the idea. Still, my stomach prickles like it’s being poked with thorns. What if she’s right? The thought of leaving her and my parents isn’t something I want to think about.
“I’ve always thought of the Paladins as sacred,” I murmur to her as we grab our torches. “I can’t even imagine myself becoming one of them. It’s impossible.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Charise grins. “If they’d seen you covered in mud after chasing the wild hogs out of the gardens, you’d never have been picked.”
I shove her lightly. “It’s not my fault the hogs love our onion roots.”
We laugh, and I’m glad to have something to take my mind off what just happened, but my thoughts move to Tor. With both of us being selected, what did that mean for our relationship?
He’s talking to his family, who are slapping him on the shoulders, congratulating him. His bronze skin glistens in the torchlight, and a strand of hair has fallen over his eyes. I itch to push it back into place and feel the warmth of his touch. Still, our last kiss, stolen in the jungle, feels like a lifetime ago. Fear tugs at me that might have been our very last kiss.
We were supposed to have slipped away by now, the crowds and darkness hiding our escape into the jungles. Yet here we are. Apprentices to the Paladins. Had we made the right choice? Or had we sacrificed our freedom?
“I knew you were meant to be picked,” a voice whispers into my ear, breath warm against my skin.
I spin to find myself staring up into Rune’s blue eyes, a smile playing on the corners of his lips. My heart beats wildly, but I rein it back in place. I’m about to tell him to back off, but he strides away, leaving me feeling confused and unsettled.
***
“So how does it feel?” Charise asks, peeking inside my room just as I’m lighting a candle to prepare for bed. “To be one of the Selected?”
I sink onto my mat and begin brushing out the tangles in my hair. The motion of doing something familiar relaxed my muscles. Today had been too long, ending with too many goodbyes.
Goodbye to my beach, to my family, goodbye to my garden plot. The thought of tomorrow arriving within a few hours makes my stomach turn. I wish I could’ve talked to Tor before we left the mountaintop, but there wasn’t an opportunity. But I’m assuming I’ll see him tomorrow at the temple. I still don’t get how I’m supposed to be one of the future leaders of Eden. It seems ridiculous. But this is my chance to make a difference on Eden. I have to believe in that.
“Here.” Charise takes the brush from my hand. “This is our last night together as sisters. I’ll brush your hair.”
“What are you talking about, silly?” I laugh, but it comes out stilted. It’s not like Charise to be sentimental. “You’ll always be my sister.”
She shrugs. “That’s not what I’ve heard.”
“Okay, so that’s cryptic. Who’ve you been talking to?”
“Storyteller pulled me aside on the way back down.” She stares at the brush in her lap, plucking her fingers lightly over the bristles. “He said I should prepare myself because you’ll change.”
I snort. “He’s a loon, and you know it.”
“He said you won’t look at us in the same way. That Eden will become your family. He also told me the old stories speak of how the Paladins changed spiritually and physically to become our great leaders.”
“That’s just one of his absurd tales he uses to scare all of us.” Still, I can’t stop the chill creeping through my veins. “I’m starting to get sick of hearing about how important the island is. Like Eden is everything. There must be other places that survived the Hollowing other than us. I bet the Paladins told him to tell you that.”
“I don’t think so. And as annoying as you are, I’m going to miss you.”
Her lips are pink and her skin glows gold in the candlelight. My heart twists, thinking about being separated from her. How could I even have thought to run away from my family? At least as a Paladin I’ll get to come visit.
“I’ll miss you, too.” I push aside the brush and clasp her hands in mine. “But I won’t be far away. You can come visit me anytime you want.”
“Like I’ll have time to skip on down and have tea with you.” She twists me around and starts brushing my hair again in long, sweeping strokes. “Just promise me you won’t throw any of us in the Reformatory or let Healer pronounce us Sickly.”
“Never ever,” I whisper, dread pooling through me at the thought of my sweet sister become a Hollow.
Long after the curl of smoke from our blown-out candle has swept away, I lie on my mat staring up at my mobile spinning in the breeze. Over the years, I added my favorite shells to it. They clink against each other. Usually, they lull me to sleep.
I tuck my quilt under my chin. Bits and pieces of who I am fill every corner of this hut, and in just a few hours, I’m supposed to leave it all behind.
Unless that’s what the Paladins want. To forget who I am, so that Eden becomes my future. Maybe Storyteller is right. My thoughts turn to Tor, tall and strong like the pine trees.
I wonder if I’ll forget my love for him, too.