“Wait here until your turn. Applicants are called in alphabetical order. You are toward the front of the nineteen applicants. It won’t be long.” She left me alone and locked the door behind her.
I glanced around the room barely bigger than a closet and sat on the hard metal chair, the only thing in the room other than myself. I folded my hands in my lap, closed my eyes, and prayed for the perfect future.
My turn came way too soon. The door opened and the same woman beckoned me to follow her. She stopped in front of a set of double doors. “Through there. March to the front of the room. Do not look to either side or back at me. This is a solemn time. Approach the wheel. You will receive further instructions from the man waiting there.”
I nodded and pushed the doors open. No one in the two rows on either side of me glanced my way. From what I could see in front of me, there were maybe twenty people, not counting the five solemn men sitting on a platform next to a giant wheel.
As I approached, I could make out letters in most of the slots of the wheel. One slot was painted a solid red, another a solid black. My throat threatened to seize. What were the jobs those colors represented?
“Stop in the square painted on the floor,” a man bellowed from somewhere behind me. “Then raise your right hand.”
I stopped and raised my hand.
“Do you swear upon your mother’s head that you will accept the fate the wheel chooses for you?”
I nodded.
“Speak up, girl.”
“I … do.” My voice trembled, betraying my cowardice.
“Spin the wheel.”
All sounds ceased as I closed my eyes, gripped the handle, and spun. With hushed whispers the wheel spun around and around until the words and colors blended. I swore those in the room could hear my heart thundering.
The wheel slowed and finally came to a stop. Gasps filled the silence.
I opened my eyes to see the needle firmly in the middle of the black square. My heart stopped, and I glanced over my shoulder at the stricken face of Mams.
“Take your seat,” the man ordered.
I rushed forward and practically fell into Mams’s lap. She patted my back and muttered over and over that it had to be a mistake. They couldn’t take her only child. Except we both knew the wheel never made a mistake. I’d vowed to accept my fate.
I sat in stunned silence as others’ needle fell on normal jobs. One young man’s fell on the red and he was the only one ordered to spin again. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the red was meant only for the females. When all were finished, a smiling man in pristine white robes stood and invited us all to partake in a feast.
“Am I the only one who landed on black?” I asked my mother.
Tears filled her eyes as she nodded. “Only you, the smallest and prettiest.” She lifted her chin. “We’ll be fine. Wherever you go, you will be fine. I have faith.”
Oh, how I wished I shared her faith. I believed in the Supreme Being, I just wasn’t so sure He believed in me.
I sat in an empty chair next to Mams and stared at a pile of roasted meat and vegetables. How ironic that hours before I’d been starving, and now I’d lost my appetite. Not knowing what lie before me and, knowing I might need whatever strength I could get, I filled my plate, even folding a meal’s worth in my napkin and slipping it into my bodice.
Mams had the same idea and filled my pockets. We were poor, but we were smart, and always tried to be prepared. “I won’t be able to see you after the feast,” Mams whispered. “Stick this knife in your boot. I wish there was a way for you to take the water gourd. With no knowledge of where you’re going, we don’t know what you’ll need.”
“Won’t they supply me with those things?” My eyes widened.
“I do not know. Keep your wits about you. Be prepared for anything. Always think before you act or speak.” She cupped my cheek. “Make me proud.”
“I’m frightened.”
“Never reveal that to anyone. Never show fear.” She straightened. “You are a Dayholt. Your father worked the mines on the outskirts of the territory before his death. He did not show fear. Not once. Even when the ground closed above his head folks said he stayed strong.”
“No fear.” I forced the words out in a harsh whisper and focused on the food in front of me. Like a roboton I chewed mouthful after mouthful until my full stomach became uncomfortable.
“Crynn Dayholt, you will come with me.” A man with bright red hair stared at me from across the table. “The rest of you follow the man in green.”
I stood, clasping my Mams’s hand. I gave it a squeeze depicting all the love I held for her in my heart then, without looking back, I marched away.
The man led me to a large room full of weapons and piles of clothing. “You will have thirty minutes to gather what you will need.”
“What is my job?” I turned to face him. “How do I know what to take if I don’t know what I’ll be doing?”
He smiled without humor, a cruel glint in his dark eyes. “You, my tiny one will be the new leader of the Stalkers. Your predecessor died a few days ago. You, my sweet, will hunt Malignants in the burning recesses of the city.” He glanced at his watch. “Time starts now.”
2
A Stalker? Malignants? I’d never heard those words before. Did he mean the creatures
