A Dangerous Destiny: The Pure One Book I

Chapter Forty-Four

So who remembers where we last left Seleb? The poor kid had been beaten, branded, forced to watch his friends tongue cut out....Yeah he didn't have a good night;-) Well now lets see what he's been up to since then. Might give you an idea of some of the trouble brewing....

*Note: I have been working on eliminating exposition/blending it in better and have made some changes to this chapter in an attempt to do so. If it feels off here let me know;-) This is a slight challenge since we haven't heard from Seleb since the party but his life has changed quite a bit in a short period of time so SOME exposition is kinda unavoidable. I just didn't want to dump it at the start of the chapter. Also, might change Seleb's age to 15 in the next draft, so if you think 14 seems to young I might agree( thoughts?)

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Seleb

"All bets in, Seleb," his friend Tim said, giving him a playful nudge with his elbow, nearly knocking the dingy playing cards Seleb held to the ground. Seleb gave a glace to his hand and slid three wooden chips into the center of the circle, the action pushing up a small cloud of dust from the dirt floor of the basement in which he and his cell had been sequestered for days. 

Watching the dimly lit faces of his comrades as they peered over their own cards he wondered how many rounds of pointless games might pass before they would finally be allowed to breath fresh air again. The surroundings of the cellar were stagnant and gloomy, all brown dirt and dim light and with so little to do, the time seemed to pass at a snails pace. It made him anxious, especially since it had been well over a week now since Seleb had been able to contact Lord Mather and give him any report. 

After acting as a decoy on a few minor surveillance missions to test his skill, Seleb had begun to gain more standing within the rebel circles, sent to different cells throughout the Capitol and surrounding towns, employed on increasingly dangerous reconnaissance operations. In fact, he'd proved quite adept at slipping into places he wasn't meant to be, especially within the Capitol city, his boyish face and innocent appearance making him the ideal spy.  

He knew his current cell leader was particularly pleased with his  ability to report on the movements of the Guard and certain members of the King's Council as they went about their daily affairs in the Royal City. After all, Seleb had been employed but Mather for over a year before his arrest and knew well how servants might move among the highest of the Eresitan elite without gaining notice. But a recent close call while scouting in the central markets had lead the commander of Seleb's cell to sequester their ranks for the last week in an underground chamber beneath the tavern of a rebel sympathizer in the middle district. 

One of the others in Seleb's cell had not been carful enough, following too closely behind the servant of a prominent nobleman and catching the attention of the Guard. Though he'd managed to slip away before he could be arrested it was deemed to risky for any of their group to show their faces for at least a few days, and further orders had instructed that they remain hidden until they were given their next assignment. 

The wait was beginning to feel unbearable. Seleb had never liked small spaces and it was hard to erase the trapped feeling that crawled along his skin every time he scanned the cramped confines of their safe house. The space that reminded him all too clearly of his first few days with the Vox Populi, working as a spy under Mather's command.

After Tara's execution he'd been ordered to meet her contacts, as planned, by the Northern Gates of the Capitol. When he arrived at the meeting point alone, the men he found there were hesitant to accept him. Seleb was only fourteen and looked younger. He came with no recommendation from within the Vox Populi, and they were uncertain whether or not he might be trusted. But Tara had taught him what he might say to prove that he was an ally.