The Unspoken: Book One in the Keres Trilogy by A. E. Waller Read Free Book Online Page A

stage above us. I push everything out of my mind. The Solace feels years in the past and the hall with Abbot and his pulsing tattoo doesn ’ t feel foreboding in the least as I spin around the courtyard in Frehn ’ s arms.
    When the fiddles and pipes of the miners finally die away, Fauna Management is announced. Everyone clears the dance floor, the animals already being moved into position. Fauna Management is always the highlight of the feast night. Unless you are part of the Service, you don ’ t get to interact with the animals much. All of the lines use them in some way, hauling and transport generally, but we almost never interact with them out of harness. The horses, muscles rippling under their lustrous coats, carry a special weight with us. While they comply with the trainers ’ commands, you get the feeling they only do it out of compassion. Like the horses know we are beasts of burden too.
    The poultry is showcased first and they fly from one trainer to the other, wings whipping the air. A row of peacocks, tails spread wide, are guided up from the back of the stage. A dozen horses leap over the peacock line as sprays of fire sparks shoot up from the four corners of the dance floor. The crowd gasps, then applauds wildly. The trainers, dressed in long coats that spill over the sides of their horses, begin to move in high-stepping patterns across the dance floor. I glance at Merit. He could be one of those trainers in a few years. It seems impossible that our Service training starts in a matter of hours. Yesterday we were still thirteen, today we are fifteen. The Solace took our remaining childhood, our last years of freedom. Tomorrow we are adults.
    Harc lays her hand on my shoulder and I know she is thinking the same thing I am. Polar opposites in every way, I never understood how she and Merit were always the closest pair within PG3456. Her strength seemed to count for both of them and his gentleness acted on her like a calming spell. They spoke without words somehow, the rest of us kept at a certain distance without being excluded.
    I remember when Harc was in a rage over marks she received at the end of a Pedagogic year. Merit simply sat while the rest of us tried to calm her down so The Mothers wouldn ’ t overhear.
    We were completely unsuccessful, only making her eyes blaze. Once we gave up, Merit crept up to her, put his forehead on hers and just whispered something quietly. Then he walked away as she sank to her knees in the dirt, holding her head in her hands. Merit herded us away and when Harc rejoined us an hour or so later, she was completely calm. It was as if her tantrum never happened. I wished a hundred times while I was struggling and lost under the Heavy that I had known what he said to her. Perhaps it could have helped me.
    Fauna Management ends their entertainment with a series of cross jumps with silk flags flying from the horses ’ harness and the trainers ’ hands. The streams of color blend together with the rapid movement. I can ’ t take my eyes off the animal on the end of the row, his countless white spots on the sea of gray that makes up his coat are not like any other horse I have seen. The tip of his nose would come just to mine, I think. I ’ ll never be close enough to him to know for sure. Merit will though and he can tell me.
    The last line ’ s entertainment approaches the stage, as the Healers always end the Oath of Service feast night. Their large string instruments have such low methodical tones, they sound like they are lamenting the pain and death that accompanies their Service. People trickle back out to the dance floor and just kind of sway around. It ’ s mostly Banded couples now, but there are a few teenagers among them. PG3456 doesn ’ t have the luxury of joining them. Un-Banded teenagers take a certain amount of risk when they parade their preferences during the Healers ’ songs. They risk feeling more for each other than The Mothers allow, and with that