The Girl Who Dared to Think by Bella Forrest (best novels of all time TXT) 📗

down in Old World Market—one of the common areas toward the bottom of the Tower—trading this and that for that and this. He specialized in books, mostly tech manuals and the like (although I knew that more than a few of the outlawed works of fiction had found their way through there). His main profit came from recovered and restored tech manuals, and he sold them to a few interested parties with higher ranking in the appropriate department (as per the law), but not before Zoe got her chance to read them.

And I swear to God, she had a photographic memory.

Luckily, our instructor interrupted her rant partway through. He was a tall, fit man whose head was shaved bald, and a Diver’s mark shone blue on his white scalp, the tattoo wrapping around the back of his skull in intricate little lines. He smiled kindly around at everyone as he came to a stop in the middle of the room, nodding his head once.

“I believe this is Room 937D, is it not?” he asked in a pleased voice, gazing around the room.

“Yes, sir,” Eric said before anyone else had quite gathered themselves.

The man looked at Eric, then gave a kind smile of approval toward the eight shining on Eric’s wrist.

“Leristas, young man. I am called Phineas Lute, and I will be teaching you the special language the Divers use to communicate underwater. Does anyone know what the language is called?”

My hand shot up immediately, and Zoe gave me a coy smile as she kept her hands folded across her chest. Diver Lute looked over at me, and nodded expectantly.

“Callivax,” I said. “Named after Anthony Callivax, the first Praetor of the Divers.”

“Very good, Squire…”

“Castell,” I said, brimming with pleasure. Maybe I could use this class to get my number back up! Diver Lute seems nice—maybe he’s a little different.

A small hope, but it never hurt to have them.

Until they were crushed moments later. His eyes flicked to my wrist, the approving smile on his face growing tight and forced.

“Squire Castell. I see you are a three?”

My cheeks burned as I realized that everyone was now staring at me, and I nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

“Why are you here and not at the Medica?”

“I wanted to come here first. I didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to learn how to be of better service to the Tower.”

“You wish to be of service?” he asked, sounding surprised by my statement.

“Of course I do,” I said a bit hurriedly. I cringed, not wanting to seem argumentative, and cleared my throat. “I’m just not quite sure how to do that.”

“Well… you have to follow the Water Ways, my child.”

“Oh, great,” Zoe muttered, her voice so low it was almost impossible to distinguish from the hushed whispering of my peers around me. “Typical.”

The “Water Ways” was the spiritual belief system that all the Divers followed. Their ideology followed every other departmental philosophy—protect the Tower at all costs—but had spun a religion around it. A lot of it was based on the collective history of the Tower, but with moralistic rules about not being negligent or dissident, lest you get exposed to the toxic waste the machines in the Tower generated.

“The Water Ways can save you, child,” Diver Lute said kindly, his eyes urging me to say something.

“Oh.” It was all I could come up with, considering the uncomfortable level of attention I was currently receiving. “I’ll have to think about that.”

His face became disappointed rather than disapproving, but I didn’t care; his assertion that I needed the Water Ways to fix myself was irritating. He didn’t know me, but clearly the number on my wrist told him I was a lost soul in need of an intervention, and now that was how he would treat me. It was just so damned galling—I had gotten an answer right, and he should’ve left me alone. Not turned me into a spectacle for the whole class to watch, a warning to all of them to keep their numbers up.

“You do that, child. In the meantime, you’ll need to come up here and stand with me for the class. Protocol says that I must keep you within reach at all times.”

“Would protocol allow me to vouch for her, sir?” Eric asked, standing and angling his wrist to show Diver Lute his number. Irritation rolled over me as I looked up at him, silently condemning a system that would force a babysitter upon me. Of course I needed an escort; I was a dangerous element. I couldn’t even learn in peace. “I can keep a careful eye on her, and that will allow you to teach us without worrying about what she is doing at all times.”

“I don’t think there is anything in the protocols that disallows it,” the older man drawled, giving him a considering look. “You two are friends, are you?” he asked, obviously noting the fact that Eric and Zoe were the only two anywhere near me.

“Yes, sir,” said Eric, so quickly that I let go of my annoyance. It cost him nothing, yet meant the world to me, and suddenly I was grateful for his friendship, and that he was willing to spare me any humiliation. “Liana is the daughter of two Knight Commanders, and a Squire herself. This is a temporary issue, and I’m willing to take full responsibility for her actions.”

Phineas nodded, his smile growing wider. “See that you do,” he said, then turned away. “Now, if you could all take one of these manuals, we’ll begin.”

“Thanks for that,” I muttered as the class began to pass around a stack of small gray manuals. “I did not want to be standing up front as some sort of visual warning for what happens when your number gets too low.”

Eric grinned at me, a big, lopsided thing. “What good is being an eight if I can’t look out for my friends?” he asked, waving his wrist about.

Zoe laughed and punched him on the shoulder. “Look at you, acting