Mercy’s mom squeezes her arm and walks off the stage behind Kian and Nova. A few other leaders follow. Mercy does a quick headcount, noting there are still two dozen remaining.
“How many Seekers will be chosen?” someone calls from the crowd.
“Six.” Her father holds up his hand again, waiting for quiet. “There will be a series of tests, similar to a regular Proving, only these ones have been designed to test for ingenuity and resilience. I’d like to stress that entering this second Proving is entirely voluntary.”
Mercy glances away, knowing her father will be looking directly at her. She doesn’t want to volunteer—of course she doesn’t—but it would be nice to make her own decision in this. She’s a leader, after all. Her parents hadn’t helped her in the Proving. She’s more than capable of working out her future for herself and knowing that she’d have to be half mad to put herself forward to the kind of life her father just described.
“What are you going to do?” Sam whispers to her.
Mercy shrugs, fighting back the tears that are stinging her eyes. It’s obvious what Sam’s going to do. It doesn’t even really matter what the test is for, the moment the words the best of the best were spoken Sam was in. No matter what her chances are, Mercy knows Sam will try.
As for Hawk, this is his dream come true. Mercy always assumed that one day he’d go to live in the Newlands. It’s his island after all. He was the one who discovered it. At least this way he gets to go with some people he knows. There’s safety in numbers.
Which means her two best friends will be leaving her. She’d planned on growing old beside them, just like her own parents are with Kian and Nova. Their kids were going to be friends and they were going to share their joys and troubles, knowing they always had each other. Mercy doesn’t have any siblings like Sam and Hawk. Her cousins are all she’s got. Without them, all she has is a bunch of annoying younger cousins to drive her crazy for the rest of her life. She’ll be stuck living with her parents, ending up paired with someone like Gust and having kids with turned up noses and freckles across their cheeks.
No thanks.
Besides, there’s only one person Mercy’s ever been interested in being paired with and he left Askala years ago. She’d probably have a better chance of finding him in the Newlands than by staying here. But that’s too high a price to pay for a maybe.
She really can’t win no matter what choice she makes. This has got to be the worst day of her entire life.
A tear slides from the corner of her eye and trails down her face.
Sam notices and squeezes her hand. “Don’t worry, Mercy. You’ll make it through. We can work together.”
This causes more tears to escape, and Mercy has to wipe at her eyes with her sleeve. How can she survive without Sam here to make everyone laugh by totally misreading every situation she finds herself in? If Sam’s in the Newlands, Mercy will never get to see her as a proper grown up woman with a family of her own. She’ll never find out how long it’s going to take Sam to figure out how Hawk feels about her.
“Will you run this new Proving, Dex?” a woman in the crowd calls out.
Mercy’s father shrugs. “All the leaders not competing to be a Seeker will run it. Although anyone with a child competing will be compulsorily excused.”
Great. Mercy sniffs, realizing her decision just got even more complicated. If she competes, even just for the heck of it, then her parents don’t get to run it. And they live for tests like this.
“Before I explain how the tests work, is there anyone who’d like to leave the stage?” Mercy’s father smiles encouragingly at the remaining leaders.
Four of the older leaders immediately step down.
“Anybody else?” her father asks.
Mercy glues her eyes to the floor, refusing to look at him. The least her father can do is allow her to stand beside Sam and Hawk for a little longer if she’s going to be robbed of all the years she’d planned to spend with them.
“Well, you can leave at any time, I just want to make that clear. Any time.”
Jagger coughs from the front of the crowd, urging him to continue.
“There will be a series of tests,” he says and Mercy wonders if everyone else can hear the way his voice is straining. “But instead of the leaders selecting who’ll become a Seeker, the participants will be responsible for making the decisions.”
A murmur ripples across the crowd.
“As those who are successful will be required to live in the Newlands, it’s important they’re the ones to decide who goes with them. In each test, the participants will earn tokens that will be used to vote for who they think deserves the chance to become a Seeker. The better someone performs in a challenge, the more tokens they can potentially earn. They may vote for themselves or someone else, as they deem worthy.”
Mercy’s ears prick up. She could do this. It would be one last adventure to have with Sam and Hawk by her side before she has to say goodbye. And she could help them! If she can earn some tokens, she can vote for them. She doesn’t have to vote for herself. And as hard as it would be to actively play a part in either one of her cousins going away, she knows it’s what they want. Voting them would be like the best farewell gift ever.
“Please, be sure before you agree to this that you’re prepared to go through with it,” her father says. “Our expectation is that if you’re chosen as a Seeker, that you will indeed go out and seek.”
The remaining leaders glance around at each other and Mercy runs the numbers in her head.
She has a one in four chance of making it through.
And a three in four chance of life going on like normal. Well, as normal as that can be without Sam and Hawk by her side.
Mercy’s mom coughs from the crowd and despite her better judgment Mercy looks at her. She regrets it immediately. Frustration is exploding from her mother’s small frame as she tears at her hair, pleading with her eyes for Mercy not to do this.
Taking a step toward the stairs, Mercy feels herself being pulled to her mother as if by a magnet.
She can’t do this. She doesn’t want to go to Newlands. Maybe if she leaves the stage, Sam and Hawk will follow. Then there’s no decision to be made. They should all leave together. If only she had time to convince them of this.
There’s a noise at the back of the ballroom and the people part, gasping and stepping aside to let someone through.
Mercy freezes as she tilts her head and waits, hoping that whoever it is will buy her some time to talk to Sam and Hawk. Maybe it’s an Outlander invasion? Right now, that sounds sort of appealing. Anything other than the reality of what they’ve just been told.
But it’s not an Outlander.
Or rather it is, but it’s one who declared allegiance to Askala back when he was a small boy, only to grow up and leave again, saying he had unfinished business to attend to. He’d even gone as far as passing his Proving, making him the only person to ever reject the title of leader in favor of a more nomadic kind of life.
Luca.
Her older cousin. Well, technically her older second cousin, and not even by blood. But still, he’s the boy she’d grown up idolizing until they got to an age where her feelings morphed into something more closely resembling a crush. An appropriate word given the way her stomach is contracting at the sight of him.