Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

Approaching the table swiftly, Siraay began picking at the food there—a mix of fruit, bread, and some beautifully sliced meat. A banquet, compared to what she had been surviving on previously. As she tasted various items arrayed on the platter before her, she looked up at Trelar, who was once again standing off to the side, awaiting any order.

‘Tell me,’ she asked the servant, ‘how did you arrive here?’

She had been wondering more about this as she had soaked in the bath, especially as Trelar seemed adapted, although resigned, to her surroundings and role.

‘I was captured in the forest, lady, not long after the days following our Change ceremony.’

‘Our’ Change ceremony. Siraay didn’t miss the usage of the word, and knew her earlier insight had been correct—this female obviously thought her old friend still existed somewhere in the body now standing before her. Siraay accessed the memory of that night, a memory that may as well have happened to a stranger, and almost laughed outright when she remembered how the old Siray had feared potentially never Changing.

Of course, now it was obvious that it had been her potential to choose from many forms that had made her stall, as it were, during the ceremony. And yet, others in her city had shunned her in the days following. Her eyes narrowed at the recollection as Trelar continued speaking.

‘They brought me to this city, pursuing and catching other newly Changed youths like me along the way. Said that we were needed for their army.’

Siraay pulled herself from the memories she had been scrutinising and instead examined the face before her that her former self had known so well. ‘You went through the training program?’ She eyed Trelar again, wondering how this delicate female could have survived.

‘No,’ came the quiet response. ‘His Lordship apparently had need of more servants within the palace, and on the first day of our arrival, the palace steward came down and picked out five of us. Five—from sixty.’ Trelar started to shake her head and then seemed to remember who she was now addressing, and looked down at the floor again. ‘The others were forced to go through the program, much as you were. And slowly their numbers dwindled, as the “weak” ones were either injured, killed, or broken.’

Sounds familiar, thought Siraay appreciatively. Only way, really, to be sure of having an army of warriors, both in skill and mind.

‘The final thirty were inducted into the main part of the army after they completed the training program. But the number varies each time on how many make it through.’ She laughed, and it was both a bitter and hopeless sound. ‘Not that it matters, as they all get clamped with the special metal bands afterwards—and they’re always different after that.’

‘Different how?’ Siraay was curious, but thought she knew the answer.

Trelar raised her gaze, eyes intense as they focused on the jewel resting coolly against Siraay’s throat, despite the heat of her skin from the bath. ‘They are darker, obedient to the wishes of the captains and trainers and, of course, Lord Chezran.’ Her stare drifted upwards to meet Siraay’s eyes. ‘And they never take the bands off. Never want to.’

Even from across the room, Siraay could almost feel the itch in Trelar’s fingers as the servant’s eyes slid back down to the swirling gold metal of the necklace that wrapped around Siraay’s throat.

Siraay knew Trelar was wondering if she could remove it. Almost hoped the female would try. But while it would certainly be entertaining, it would mean finding a replacement for the servant after Siraay killed her.

She watched as Trelar seemed to consider the idea for a moment longer before the servant’s shoulders finally drooped under Siraay’s calculating gaze. ‘The band doesn’t seem to restrict you much,’ she commented to the servant.

Trelar glanced down at the slim circle of metal wrapped about her wrist. ‘There are different types,’ she explained. ‘There are bands that merely inhibit the ability to Change, like this’—she raised her wrist, and the metal flashed in the afternoon sun—‘and ones that completely alter a person’s mind.’ Her gaze moved again to rest on Siraay’s necklace. ‘For those who wear the second type, they always treat their previous life as if that was the lie.’ Trelar’s eyes were sparking now, her chest rising and falling a little faster as she spoke.

‘And why don’t you wear one of those?’ asked Siraay curiously.

‘Because I’m not required as a soldier, and they like to reserve those stronger bands for the army. Besides, once they inhibit our ability to Change, what else can we do?’ Trelar shrugged, a despairing movement. ‘This palace, and the city beyond, is monitored day and night, and escape is impossible. And, if you’re caught attempting to flee, they kill you anyway.’

An effective strategy, Siraay thought, already aware of the punishment. But out loud, she said, ‘So you serve here, biding your time, then?’

Trelar just looked at her and didn’t respond, her face carefully blank.

Siraay stopped picking at the platter before her and pivoted to confront her servant. ‘I’d advise you not to hold out for any miraculous transformation on my part back into the person you once thought you knew. You may think that these bands, and indeed, this necklace, alter us in a bad way, but you’re mistaken.’ Siray took slow, measured steps towards Trelar, her gaze hard and uncompromising. ‘I’ve never felt more strong, more in control, or more aware, of everything happening around me.’ She smirked. ‘You think you know what is right and what is wrong, but that is because you still perceive everything through a mind that was raised to think a specific way.’ She ran the tips of the fingers of one hand over the detailing of the necklace, looking down at the tip of the gem she could just see. ‘The bands free those who wear them from those invisible boundaries. It freed me.’