The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Five: Alia

I fought back a groan as we entered the seventh hour of our mission. We’d been riding for nearly half the day across the Inon territory with only one very short break. We weren’t riding fast, since we knew we couldn’t tire the horses out, but the speed was painfully slow to me.

“This,” I muttered to myself. “This is what torture feels like.”

“Did you say something?” Sabin asked from where he was, a few paces ahead of me. He’d turned slightly in his saddle to look at me, but when I shot him a glare in return he turned back around.

“I was just wondering,” he said. “You’ve been silent this whole time. Actually, everyone has.”

“What do you expect us to say?” I asked. “We know what the mission is, it’s not like we need to talk about that.”

“Look Alia, like it or not we’re a team. All four of us,” Sabin said, pulling his horse’s reins lightly so he could slow down enough to be in pace with mine. “And as a team, I think we need to get a lot of the crap we have smothering us out into the open.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Gee Sabin, how poetic. Which of your leader training manuals did you pick that quote from?”

I knew my words were probably too harsh, and given the fact that Sabin was a ranking officer, it might not have been in my best interest to be so disrespectful, but honestly I didn’t care. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see him as a ranking officer. I mean, for crying out loud I knew this guy when he was just a kid putting worms in his little sister’s tea party cakes (I neither confirm nor deny playing a part in that). Either way, I wasn’t buying his “team building” bull.

“Sabin, we might be a team,” I said, “but that doesn’t mean I’m about to spill all of my darkest secrets to any of you. And the fact that we were all friends when we were kids means nothing to me, if you were about to argue that point. As far as I’m concerned, those friendships ended the night Satama was attacked and we all moved away. You guys aren’t my long lost friends that I’m going to go skipping off into the sunset with. You’re my comrades and my fellow soldiers. We’ll do the mission we’re supposed to do. Nothing more.”

Wow, I was a jerk. Still, I had my reasons—ones I hadn’t even revealed to Alec last night while we were talking. It all revolved around the real reason I had joined the military, and that was one secret I kept under lock and key. No one knew my motives, and that was fine by me. It was best no one knew the truth anyway.

Beside me, Sabin sighed. I felt a twinge of guilt, but at the same time I knew he’d be fine. I couldn’t have been the first person to be rude to him, and I definitely wouldn’t be the last.

“Hey Megan,” Sabin called out to where Megan and Alec were riding behind us. “Where is the location of the camp again?”

There was the brief sound of horses galloping as Megan and Alec caught up with us. As their horses matched pace with mine and Sabin’s, Megan pulled a worn map out of her saddle bag.

“According to the IGSs at Inon, the konna encampment is at the border of the Maala forest, in the foothills of Bundok’s southern mountains.,” she said, pointing to the map. “If we’re still heading in a southeast direction, then at the pace we’re traveling we should reach the camp… tomorrow sometime, possibly the next day? That is if we stop for the night, which as second in command I strongly recommend.”

Sabin scowled and countered Megan’s point. Soon they were full blown arguing. I rolled my eyes. This was going to be a long trip.

I pulled a loaf of bread out of my saddlebag and took a bite out of it, walking around the campfire as I did. In the end, Megan had won the argument over stopping and making camp for the night, much to the annoyance of Sabin, who was currently out scouting the area and looking for firewood. Megan was sitting close to the fire, her maps spread out in front of her. She was studying them intently, her brow creased in concentration. Suspended over the fire by three large sticks was a pot with what I think was some kind of stew. Megan had gone out earlier to collect some herbs and whatever else she could gather. Alec was sitting away from us, looking out to the north. I walked over and sat down next to him.

“Do you miss it?”

“Miss what?” Alec asked, not turning to look at me.

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Alec took a breath.

“Every now and then,” he answered. “Despite the fact Dad’s family shunned me, I did have some close friends. And life there really wasn’t so bad.”

“Do you think you’ll ever go back?” I asked. Part of me was scared to know the answer, but another part was slightly hopeful, because if Alec ever did go back, that meant I’d have a chance to finally see Einoth.

“Honestly, I don’t know Alia. I haven’t been back in three years… and Dad’s family told me never to come back if I left.” He shook his head. “It’s the same thing they told Dad when he left for Edil.”

I glanced down sadly. I knew Dad had a rocky relationship with his parents, but he’d never given us much more details than that. He’d left home after he turned fifteen to come train at Edil Academy. After graduating, he’d been sent on a mission to Valta, where he met Mom. They had started out hating each other—part of the whole fire-elementest/water-elementest rivalry thing. But eventually they’d fallen in love and moved to Satama, which is where Alec and I were born. (I was born first, by the way. About twelve minutes before Alec). They’d lived there for ten years before the fire.

“Sometimes I dream of going back and living in Satama,” I started, only to be interrupted.

“Hey guys! Come over here!” Megan called. “Or else Sabin will eat all the food!”

“Will not!” Sabin protested.

Alec and I turned and looked at her. Alec rolled his eyes but pushed himself to his feet. We made our way back over to the fire, where Megan had already poured Sabin some soup into his bowl. Zig had packed each of us our own bowl to carry in our saddlebags. Megan had been put in charge of the cooking pot that attached and hung off the side of one of her saddlebags.

“Looks good, Megan,” Alec said as he dug out his bowl and handed it to her. “What’s in it?”

“You’d be surprised how many natural ingredients you can find,” Megan said with a grin, handing Alec’s bowl back to him and taking mine. “After spending nearly half of my life growing up in the lowland plains of Suba, I picked up on a few things. There’s plenty of similar stuff here.

I took my bowl back from her and sat down on the ground next to Alec.

“What was life like in Suba?” Sabin asked.

Megan paused taking a sip from her bowl to answer.

“It was the way you’d imagine life to be,” she said. “Nothing fancy. It was mostly just my mom, Zig, and myself. Some of Mom’s family lived in the same town as us, but we didn’t see them too often.” She looked over at Sabin. “What about you? Your family moved to Aelston, right?”

Sabin nodded.

“After… after Satama fell, Dad was transferred to one of Aelston’s bigger sectors. It wasn’t as nice as Satama had been and since we were close to the main port, it was more densely populated, but it was okay.” He frowned and looked down at his soup bowl. “Nicki and I still got to go to school and everything, though the second level school there was crap compared to Satama’s.”

I snorted in spite of myself. When all of their eyes turned towards me, I cursed under my breath. I had been hoping to avoid getting involved in this conversation. But too late now.

With a sigh I said, “At least you went to an ‘official’ school. Living in my family’s village, we didn’t have a real school…”

I stopped suddenly, biting back my words. I didn’t like to talk about growing up in Valta, despite there really had been nothing wrong with it, but now it seemed like I didn’t have much of a choice. The other three were all looking at me expectantly. I sighed, took a long sip from my soup bowl, and finally spoke up.

“In my village, we only had a first level school. I went there until I was almost eleven. After that, I learned everything on my own. I didn’t really have anyone to help me, since pretty much everyone in the village was a water or air elementest.”

Megan frowned. “But how did you get into Edil then? Especially without a second level education?”

I tried and failed not to grimace. The story of how I actually got into Edil was another item on my “don’t talk about” list. Fortunately, I had already prepared for this question; knowing Megan would have already seen my files.

“The same way you did,” I said. “I proved I was worth having around. Of course, you’re still working on that, aren’t you? Can’t be easy being an undeveloped in a developed world.”

Megan’s flinch was almost imperceptible, but it was a flinch all the same. I could see I’d struck a nerve.

“How did you convince them to let you in as an IGS anyway?” I asked. “I guess having a brother who was one of the highest ranked in his class helped, huh?”

“Alia,” Alec warned beside me. Megan was glaring at me from across the campfire. With the fading sunlight, the fire was really our only source of light and it reflected brightly in her eyes. For a brief moment, I regretted what I had said. But I knew she was hiding something, and I was determined to figure out what it was.

“That was it, wasn’t it? Big brother Zig pulled some strings to get Megan into the school and one of the better specializations.”

Megan slammed her soup bowl down onto the ground.

“Enough Alia,” she snapped. “Enough.”

She took a shaky breath with closed eyes. After a few seconds of composing herself, Megan opened her eyes and looked straight at me.

“I’ll have you know I proved my worth the same way any of you did,” she said in a cold tone of voice. “No shortcuts, no deals made with my brother. I applied to the academy when I was fourteen. I was accepted and started when I was fifteen. I trained my ass off to become good enough for the Intelligence Gathering specialists. And now here I am. The top of my specialty. On my first mission. About to graduate in a month. Same. As. You. Oh, and you know what? I also outrank you. Don’t forget that, Kappa.”

We glared at each other for nearly a minute until Sabin cleared his throat.

“Uh, Alec,” he said. “What about you? What was life like in Einoth?”

Megan turned her attention to Alec, but not after giving me one last look that was something like “don’t try me”. I fixed her with my most pointed glare in response before turning to Alec as well.

“Well, schools are different in Einoth,” Alec started. He went on to explain how they didn’t have first or second level schools like we did, but instead everyone was educated according to their skill levels. Alec said his school experience wasn’t really the norm either, since he jumped between colonies to learn how to control the other three elements.

I couldn’t really focus on what he was saying though. I was distracted, thinking about that the way Megan had glared at me while she was going through her whole speech. I really wanted to ignore her, but I couldn’t shake the growing sense of unease. Something had been different about her when she’d looked up at me. She’d composed herself, and when she did something had changed. It may have been a trick of the campfire light, but I didn't think so. As Megan had glared at me, I saw her eyes change color. Normally a light blue (kind of close to the color of the sky, I guess), her eyes had shifted to be shades darker.

I don’t think either of the boys had noticed, or if they had they weren’t saying anything. When Megan had turned her attention from me to Alec, her eyes had gone back to their normal color… if they had changed at all. As Alec finished his story, Megan and Sabin asked him a couple of other questions about life in Einoth before Sabin finally stood up and stretched.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “I’m going to do one more quick scan of the area, just to make sure. Be back soon.”

With that, he transformed into a large owl and took off into the sky.

“That must be a cool power to have,” Megan mused. She picked up his empty soup bowl and glanced around. “Uh, Alec, would you mind going and filling the big pot with water? That way I can clean the bowls at least. There’s a stream not too far west of here.”

Alec glanced between the two of us like he wasn’t really sure it was a good idea to leave us alone after our argument earlier, but he nodded and took the pot from Megan.

“Play nice,” he muttered to me as he walked past. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.

Megan scrapped what was little soup was left in our bowls into the fire. We’d all been so hungry from traveling all day that we’d eaten almost all of the soup. I sat awkwardly, watching the flames dance in the night air. I was about to get up to go find more firewood (though we didn’t really need any) when Megan spoke up.

“Okay, the guys are gone. If you have anything you want to say to me, I’d rather you do it now.”

I frowned at her, especially since she didn’t bother to look up at me while she spoke. But I decided to take the bait anyway.

“I know you’re hiding something Megan,” I said shortly. “I don’t know what yet, but I want you to know that if whatever this is puts our team in jeopardy in any way at all, I will make sure you pay for it.”

“Are you going to kill me, Alia?” she asked in an almost bored tone. But I noticed the way her hands tightened on the bowl she was holding, confirming my suspicions that she did have a secret that could potentially get all of us in trouble.

“I don’t know yet,” I answered, mimicking her tone of voice. “Depends on how bad your big secret screws us over. Because it will eventually. I hope you realize that.”

“Same goes for yours,” Megan said, finally looking up to meet my eyes. I noticed hers were flickering between light blue and dark blue again, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that meant anything, or if the campfire light was playing tricks with my mind.

“My what?”

“Oh please,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Alia, you think I’m the only one on this team with a big secret? Because I know for a fact that you have your own specific motives for being here, and just so we’re clear: if your secret puts the team in jeopardy, be sure that I will do whatever it takes to make sure that no harm will come to Sabin or Alec.”

I had to admit I was a little taken back by Megan’s proclamation. How did she know I was hiding something? There wasn’t really any point in denying it, so I didn’t. But I couldn’t let her see she’d managed to get under my skin. Forcing a poker face, I raised my eyebrows at her.

“Okay fine, maybe I do have a secret,” I said. “But that doesn’t change anything. My threat to you still stands.”

“As mine does for you,” Megan replied coldly. Her eyes had changed color again and were now completely dark blue. The uneasy feeling in my gut returned, but I tried to ignore it.

“Fine, as long as we’re clear on where the other stands,” I said.

“Fine.”

Megan blinked and her eyes returned to normal. Before I could think it through, I found myself asking:

“Why do they do that?”

Megan looked up at me with confusion. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Your eyes,” I said. “They change color. One minute they’ll be light blue like they normally are, and the next they’ll be dark, dark blue.”

Megan didn’t say anything. Her eyes widened in what I assumed to be surprise, but then she shook her head.

“No. No, no, no,” she said. “That can’t happen. It can’t!”

“What can’t happen?” Alec asked, walking up behind me.

I opened my mouth to tell him, but the look Megan gave me made me stop in my tracks. She was pleading with me, I realized. This was something she didn’t want everyone to know about. I didn’t really understand why, but if the uneasy feeling I got every time her eyes changed color had anything to do with it, then I could see why it might not be a good move to tell the guys just yet.

“I was just telling Megan about a book I’ve been reading lately,” I told Alec. “Apparently, Meg and I both like the series, and this one is the most recent. Only problem is, Megan hasn’t had time to read it with all of her IGS final training stuff, so I was telling her about it.”

It was a believable enough story. Even when we were younger, I’d been obsessed with reading. Megan had struggled to read at first, but she loved hearing the stories, so I’d always told her about what I read.

Alec seemed satisfied with my answer and handed the pot of water to Megan.

“Sorry it took so long,” he said. “I found the stream well enough, but while I was there, I had the idea to fill up my canteen pouch thing with water so I can use it later if need be. You know, for fighting and what-not.”

“Good plan,” Megan said to him. She glanced at me and mouthed quickly thank you.

No problem, I mouthed back, smiling slightly.

As Sabin came back, Megan and Alec had just finished washing and drying the dishes.

“We should get some rest,” Sabin said. “I’ll take…”

“No, you won’t take first watch,” Megan said firmly. “Out of all of us, you have had the least amount of sleep in the past twenty-four hours. Let someone else take first watch. You sleep.”

“I’ll do it,” I volunteered.

“Sounds good to me,” Alec said, leaning back against his saddle. “I’ll take second. Wake me up in a few hours.”

He was snoring within seconds.

Megan and Sabin agreed Megan would take third watch and Sabin would take fourth, then they both settled down to sleep as well.

I sat there alone with just my thoughts, listening for anything out of the ordinary. It was a quiet night, and as the fire died out it got to be a bit chilly. I wrapped myself in my saddle blanket and thought about my conversation with Megan.

So not only did we both have secrets of our own to deal with, but now we had the mutual agreement of not talking about Megan’s eyes changing color as well. I still wasn’t completely sure why Megan didn’t want to talk about it, but judging from her reaction, it definitely meant something. I just wasn’t sure what it meant.

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