Scheming Against Devotion (Book 2 of The Transition of Pinn)

Ivy:

Sweat dripping off tanned muscular bodies. Half naked men jogging, lifting weights, and generally mulling about.

Why didn’t I ask Sean to bring me here sooner?

I look over at Sean next to me and see him giving me a stern look of disapproval. I realize I might have been staring at the men with a little too much appreciation in my eyes.

“Uh… do you see him?”

Sean just grunts.

I look through the group of soldiers again. The sun beats down on them as they go through the motions of daily exercise I suppose is required when it is your job is to kill people.

The barracks are a large rectangular building with an orange-tiled roof adjacent to a large outdoor field on which the soldiers exercise. The field is encased in a short stone wall of no more than two feet. The field is sparse save for whatever equipment the soldiers had dragged with them for the exercise.

Unlike so many other buildings in Haringshude, the place is lean of vines, shrubs, or even the mold of the less affluent buildings. Simple moss covering the ground underneath the soldier’s feet is the only greenery allowed.

This is where the Captain spends his days. Or I guess his days when he is not patrolling.

I just hope he isn’t patrolling today.

“Ivy?”

I turn to see the Captain next to us. Shirtless, sweaty from exercise and the afternoon sun, a group of twenty or soldiers in a similar state behind him. All of them are watching me. I suddenly see what Giddean sees in him. The Captain always had a cheery disposition, but I hadn’t realized he was a tanned god underneath it all. Suddenly I feel quite intimidated.

“Lead on, Lieutenant” the Captain orders.

A muscular redhead with freckles all over his head and shoulders steps forward and begins shouting “Ready soldiers! Run!”

The group takes off leaving the Captain behind with me. I eye him. No wonder Giddean isn’t interested in me when he has this absolutely delicious looking man.

“Is everything okay, Ivy?”

I eye Sean and the Captain turns to him too. Sean gets the idea and backs off, retreating around the corner of the field so he can still see me, but it’s far enough away that I feel some sense of privacy in speaking with the Captain. He doesn’t look happy.

I gulp as I face the Captain. I should have thought more about what I was going to say to him. I just reacted to the desperation of my situation without a plan. It’s unlike me.

“What’s wrong, Ivy?” he prods again.

“I…. I need to escape, Captain” I speak softly as if it would cause me pain to express my shame too loudly.

“Why?”

“He’s sending me back. I can’t… I can’t go there. I don’t know what will happen. At least if I run I’ll have some control over my future”

There I said it. I am probably doomed either way, but at least if I run I can pretend there is some hope.

The Captain looks at me as he fusses with his blond hair.

“Did he tell you he was sending you back, Ivy?”

I might die of embarrassment if I have to explain it to him explicitly. I can’t look into his eyes as I say it, and I look down at the hem of my skirt.

“He doesn’t want me”

I glance up at the Captain to see his face in a frown in thought. “I haven’t spoken to my ex in a while, but I can assure you that he wants you.”

“Ex?” I squeak out. What? When did this happen?

His blues eyes focus on me, “we broke up weeks ago so he could focus more on his relationship with you”

“Wha-?” my mind turns and I can’t even think of what to say. They broke up because of me?

“Have you tried talking to him?”

“We talk” I reply defensively.

“I mean really talk. Not about the weather or nonsense like that, but about your relationship”

“We talk” I repeat quietly, less sure of myself.

“Well try again.”

“How do I..?” I begin to ask.

He looks at me exasperated, “I can’t figure everything out for you. Just talk to him again… tonight. If he tells you he is sending you back then send that big motherfucker” the Captain points a Sean “to me and I’ll get you out”

I look over at Sean who is staring at us, “Sean wouldn’t betray Giddean”

The Captain snorts bringing my attention back to him, “In a heartbeat for a chosen. How have you been here this long and not noticed this about your guard?”

I feel like tearing my hair out but I instead settle for bunching my dress in my hands. I feel tears of frustration building up behind my eyes but I will them away. It’s not my fault nobody tells me anything.

He looks at me knowingly before filling in my unspoken question, “Sean is not only Giddean’s half-brother, but he has a very particular view of chosen. Giddean knows this and knows Sean will always go out of the way to put you first.”

I look over again at my guard, a man who rarely says anything to me beyond the necessary. Sean’s arms are crossed and he is watching us with his eyes squinting in the sun. Honestly, he looks mad and I know he didn’t want to come here.

“Okay,” I say quietly admitting that yet again I know nothing about anything on this stupid planet. I hate this so much.

“Good. Now I have to get back” the Captain replies looking down at me.

I nod. “Thank you, Captain” I don’t know for what. I am just more confused than I was before. Perhaps I do feel a small sense of comfort in the fact that Sean might be more my protector than my keeper. Maybe. I really have to think about that one.

The Captain takes a step back towards the entryway to the field, “Oh and Ivy?”

“Yes?”

“Ask Giddean about Julia”