The World Walkers: Unknown World: Mallory: Making a Decision

[k_a_webb]

Getting away from my chaperon was one of the hardest parts of going to the school, but I knew I needed to be there and in order for that to happen I’d needed to agree to having someone watch over me. I felt sorry for Alban, because every time I managed to escape him he got hauled in front of the head once more, but that didn’t stop me from leaving him behind once more as I stalked across the field. Even though I could hear him calling my name, sounding angrier than I’d ever heard him sound, I kept going, as I was going to be later, again, for my appointment. Thankfully my mentor was understanding.

After tossing my bag through the hole in the fence I followed it through. The first few times I’d done it I had managed to get stuck and it was pure luck I’d got through before Alban came after me. Picking the bag up from where it had landed I made my way along the street, the same way I did three times every week, and breathed a sigh of relief. Once again I was free of the school and my chaperon for a few hours, but no matter how good it felt to be away from everything I hated I knew I’d have to go back. Unfortunately I was the only person in my cell young enough to be a student there.

“Where are you going?” Alban’s voice asked, from closer to me than I was happy about, and my only option was to keep walking in the direction of my mentor’s house.

The silence that followed his question was uncomfortable. I didn’t dare look back at him to see how close he was, but I could hear his shoes clacking on the ground and he appeared to be getting closer. Of course that could have been my worries making it seem that way, so I attempted to calm myself, because even if he did manage to follow me all the way to my mentor’s house I knew that he wouldn’t be able to get in. When his hand clamped down on my shoulder I jumped.

“You were only let into the school on the proviso that you weren’t following in your parent’s footsteps,” Alban growled, attempting to turn me around. “From what I can tell you’re heading in the direction of the house of the man who ran your parent’s cell.”

Shrugging, I pulled my shoulder out of his hand and turned to look at him. “It’s easy to lie to people you don’t feel any loyalty towards.” I ran a hand through my hair. “For what it’s worth I’m not there to harm the school or anyone within it.”

“How can I believe you when you’ve already lied?”

“I never once lied to you.”

“Barely speaking to me makes that easy.”

“Maybe I haven’t been fair to you, but I have a job to do and I’m not going to let anyone stop me from doing it. Right now you have two options. You let me go to where I should have been about twenty minutes ago and we never speak of this again or I’ll make you.”

Alban stared at me. Even though we were on different sides I was still attracted to him, but that wasn’t something I was going to admit to anyone. If I’d come across him somewhere that wasn’t the school I probably would have tried to chat him up. Unfortunately, as he’d become my chaperon, he knew exactly what my parents had done, and it was easy to see the disgust in his eyes every time he looked at me. He didn’t know they’d only told him half the story, so I didn’t hold it against him, but it made me angry all over again at the people who professed to teach the next generation what they needed to know.

“I’ll let you go if we talk about this when you get back.”

I shook my head. “That isn’t going to happen.”

“Why?”

“The school isn’t a safe place to talk about anything, let alone why I’m there, and I have no way of knowing what you’ll do with the knowledge.” I took a couple of steps backwards, hoping Alban wasn’t going to do anything stupid. “Just drop it before something happens that we’ll both regret.”

“Getting rid of you isn’t something I’ll regret and when I tell them my suspicions you won’t have a place at the school any more.” He smiled and I knew then that I’d underestimated him. “If you really do have a job to do that means you have to be there then I suggest we come to some sort of compromise.”

“What do you suggest?” I asked, hoping that what I thought he was going to say was what he said.

“I come to your appointment with you, so that I can learn what your aims are without us having to talk about it at the school, and then when we get back we can come up with some lie that makes things easier for both of us.” Alban glanced away, as though he was uncomfortable with what he was about to say, and then looked back at me, determination filling his eyes. “They’re watching me more closely that they’re watching you at the moment, because I’ve disappointed them.”

“How do I know you won’t use what you’ve learnt to your advantage?”

“You don’t, any more than I know that you’ve told me the truth. We’re just going to need to trust each other.”

“The problem isn’t so much what you’re going to learn about me, but what you’re going to learn about the people I work with.” Plus my mentor wasn’t going to be happy with the decision. “I’ll be trusting you with information about people I care about and that’s something I’m not sure I can do.”

“No names need be mentioned.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It really is. To keep your place at the school you need to work with me, otherwise I will go to the head and tell her that I think you’re working with your parent’s cell. She’ll be so grateful for a reason to kick you out that my inability to keep an eye on you won’t be a problem any more, but you won’t be able to complete your job, and I’m pretty certain that the people you work with will be more annoyed with that then they will be with me knowing a little more than they planned on.”

“Your logic’s flawed.”

“How?”

“You’re assuming that the head will believe what you’re telling her, when she could simply believe you’re telling her lies in order to compensate for your inability to watch over me.” I shrugged. “There’s a chance, albeit a slim one, that you’ll be making things worse for yourself.”

“That’s a good point, but you’re just as right when you say it’s a slim chance that the head will believe that I’m lying to her. She trusts me not to, because I’ve always been honest when I’ve let you get away, and she knows now that I’m not the sort of person to make things up in order to save myself. Especially not when it might get a fellow student expelled. I believe that everyone, even someone like you, deserves an education, which is why I convinced her that it would be a good idea to let you enter and even now, with you causing me so much trouble, I’m glad I did.”

“All you’re getting at that place is half an education. They teach you what they want you to learn, not what you need to learn.”

“Let me come with you then.”

I realised then that I’d talked myself into a corner, which was annoying. Finally, sighing, I nodded. “As long as you realise that the person I’m going to see isn’t going to be happy with me bringing someone like you along, because it could bring our mission to an early end and then we won’t be able to do what needs to be done.”

“Nothing I learn from you today will be passed on to anyone.” Alban lifted his hand and I knew what he was thinking of doing, but there was no way I was going to do something that stupid. “I know exactly what you’re thinking, but it will bind me just as tightly as it will bind you and it’s the best option for both of us.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is actually,” a voice said from behind me, making me jump more violently than I had before, and I turned to stare at Gavriel, the man who had taken me on when my parents died, even though it meant having Alban behind me. “Now that he knows as much as he does we need some way of being able to control what he says, otherwise we both know you won’t be able to stay at the school, which will mean that lots of people are going to die horrible deaths. Including him.”

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough, Mallory. We both know what you need to do, so get on with it, girl. He was always going to be difficult to work around, so this is probably all for the best, even though I’m not exactly happy about it either, especially not as I know exactly who his parents are.”

“I know all about you, too,” Alban said from behind me. “Mallory says that I’ve only had half an education, so maybe it’s time I stopped relying on the information that I’ve been given and start learning about this for myself.”

“Words are easy to say. Actually doing this is going to be much harder and if you do make the oath you’re in danger as well. You have a choice now – walk away and you’ll be safe, but you need to keep everything you’ve learnt so far to yourself otherwise you’ll end up dead, or make the oath and become a part of something that may also see you dead.” Gavriel laughed. “I remember being in the same position once and there are still days when I wish I’d walked away when I had the chance.”

“That isn’t an option now.” Alban sounded so certain that I couldn’t quite believe how badly I’d misjudged him. From the moment we met I hadn’t even thought about giving him a chance because he was just another one of them, but I was beginning to realise why I’d been told several times before that I was wrong by a number of different people. “I could easily have walked away instead of following Mallory, but I chose to follow her and now I have to see this through.”

Biting hard on my lip I turned to look at Alban again. “No, you don’t. Walk away, stay safe, and let me deal with this. It’s my job.”

He shook his head. “I made this decision a while ago, Mal.” I stared at him, unable to believe he’d just called me Mal. “Don’t think this is the first time I followed you, but I let you know I was doing it this time for a reason. Ever since I found out what you were I knew I needed to do something about it and for some reason I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. You don’t seem like the sort of person to infiltrate a school without a reason.”

“I’m not.” Still unsure I held my hand out. “Make the oath if that’s really what you want to do, but, honestly, you’re better off not getting involved.”

Smiling Alban linked his fingers with mine, his palm warmer than I thought it would be, and I tried not to let how I felt show. “You never know what might happen now that we’re working together. I might be able to help you with whatever mission it is you’re trying to complete.”

“We aren’t working together.” Breathing deeply I focused on the well of power inside myself, because I didn’t want to think about what I was about to do. “This is simply a way of keeping you quiet.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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