The Second Siege by Henry H. Neff Read Free Book Online Page A

plop into his oatmeal.”
    Max slid David’s bowl of oatmeal safely out of harm’s way while his roommate continued snoring, his mouth agape.
    “Reckon you’ll be sleeping all day, too,” moped Connor, glancing at Max as Lucia and Sarah sat down to join them.
    “Nope,” said Max, finishing his oatmeal and stealing a bite of David’s. “I’m scheduled to do a Course scenario with a couple of Agents.”
    Connor nearly dropped his spoon at the mention of Rowan’s high-tech and rigorous training simulator.
    “You’re doing scenarios with Agents ?” he asked. “ Real Agents? That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard! What level?”
    “Six, I think,” said Max, wiping his mouth.
    “Our boy is doing Level Six scenarios with Agents, my dear!” said Connor, wiping away a fake tear and taking the opportunity to squeeze Lucia, who scowled and squirmed out of his grasp. While Connor turned and crowed to a nearby table of Fifth Years, Sarah narrowed her eyes and cleared her throat.
    “What do they want from you?” she asked pointedly.
    “What do you mean?” asked Max, feeling suddenly self-conscious under the combined stares of the three girls.
    “Let’s start with Acclimation,” said Sarah, folding her arms in the same imposing manner as Miss Boon, their Mystics instructor. “What’s that all about?”
    “Oh,” said Max. “We’re not really supposed to talk about it.”
    “There!” she said, snapping her fingers and leaning forward. “That’s exactly what I mean! They’ve got you doing things—dangerous things!—and then they get you to keep quiet about them.”
    “I don’t think Acclimation’s actually dangerous,” Max assured her. “Supposedly it works better if you don’t know what to expect—that’s why I can’t talk about it. Everyone goes through it by the end of Sixth Year—”
    “So why do they have you and David doing it now?” interrupted Cynthia. “We’re just Second Years, if they haven’t noticed.”
    “I don’t know,” said Max, shrugging. “They think we’re ready for it, I guess.”
    “Ready for what, exactly?” asked Sarah. “You’re thirteen, Max!”
    “What does that have to do with it?” he snapped. “Why don’t you ask the Sixth Years who trained against me over the summer? I whipped all of them!”
    Max found that he’d been speaking louder than he had intended. A number of Sixth Years glanced over from a table underneath the stained-glass windows. Among them was the last student Max had literally chased out of the Sanctuary. The older boy gave Max a sour stare.
    “Max,” said Sarah in a pleading voice, “this is what I mean—they’re using you! They’re manipulating you— sharpening you like a weapon! Did your father know about Acclimation?”
    “No,” said Max warily. “Not that I know of.”
    “So, they’ve got you hunting down students, training with Agents, and keeping things from your friends and father. Does that sound okay to you?”
    “Nobody’s using me, Sarah,” muttered Max, standing up from the table and stalking off toward the kitchens. Pushing through the swinging doors, he made a beeline for a nearby sink, splashing cold water on his face. From the next room, he heard the sounds of music and singing. His father’s enthusiastic crooning was unmistakable, as was Bob’s rumbling baritone, but the third voice was unfamiliar—a woman, whose deep and playful singing almost managed to rescue the jazzy number.
    Peering into the next room, Max saw his father bent beneath an exhaust fan stirring a monster-sized pot of what smelled like tomato sauce while Bob slid meatballs off a cutting board to plop into the sauce with a gurgle. A third person—Max thought it must be Mum—capered between them, mincing some leaves of oregano as she sang along with Ella Fitzgerald, whose vibrant voice issued from an old radio.
    Secondhand love I can’t see
    It’s good for some but not for me
    Oh, you can’t be mine and someone else’s,