Read The Unspoken: Book One in the Keres Trilogy for Free Online Page B

the hall to a door numbered 29. He unlocks it and hands me the key. “ You will keep everything for Service in here, you ’ ll change in here and you ’ ll study in here. When you arrive every morning, come to this room and dress. I ’ ll turn up with instructions at some point. ” We walk into the room.
    It ’ s larger than I anticipated from the closeness of the doors in the hall. There is a desk, sitting area with overstuffed chairs and a love seat gathered around a low table. Bookcases cover one of the walls and a large cushioned mat covers the floor in the back of the room. Everything is surprisingly comfortable, even cozy, in appearance. Abbot shows me the light, atmosphere and other control boxes.
    “ If I don ’ t turn up before lunch tomorrow, you can start with this book. ” He thumps a volume on the desk. There ’ s no title on the spine and his hand rests on the cover so I can ’ t pick it up. So I just nod assent.
    “ Any questions? ”
    “ Yes. ”
    “ Well? ”
    “ What is our Service to Chelon? ”
    Abbot only grins and shakes his head. “ That is something for which you are not yet ready to know. ”
    He leads me back to his own den and stands me in the center of the room. “ This will hurt a lot less if you hold still. ” He reaches out to grab the collar of my shirt and I instinctively jerk back, knocking his hand to one side. He just smiles wryly and holds up a large metal stamp, then pulls my shirt down so the top of my sternum is visible. He places the stamp flush to my skin.
    “ Ready? ” he asks. I can only blink, but he takes this for a yes. He clicks the stamp down and searing pain surges through me, buckling my knees. Abbot inspects the place where he stamped me, prodding it with one finger. “ Not bad, ” he nods with self satisfaction. “ That ’ s your first tattoo and a very remarkable one at that. It will keep you quiet when you are not on the hall. Just try talking about what you see and learn down here and see what happens. You won ’ t like it, ” he says. The tone he uses is a strange mix of harshness and sympathy. I can ’ t make him out, I can ’ t make anything out but the throbbing pain on my chest. I reach up to feel the place where I was stamped. “ You want to see? ” he asks. He points to a three sided mirror to the right of the den ’ s door next to his wardrobe closets. I stand in front of the mirrors holding my collar open so I can see.
    Taking up a space about three inches wide and six inches tall is a raised black imprint of exquisitely detailed smoke black fingers, positioned so they look like they are pressing into my chest. I have been branded with the Heavy.

Chapter Five
     
     
    Abbot dismisses me from the hall. He tells me to eat as much as I can tonight and in the morning for breakfast, that I might need it for training tomorrow if he has time. Letting go of my collar, I pick up the pack from the chair I had been sitting in and walk out of the room to the elevator car. When I reach out to press the call button, my hands are unnervingly steady. My whole body feels like it ’ s shaking, but my reflection in the polished surface of the elevator door is perfectly still.
    Once I ’ m in the open air, I turn my feet towards the back gardens instead of to the Quad. Some time to process what has just happened, and not happened, is required before I can look anyone else in the eye. I ’ m overwhelmed with the desire to know what happens if I try to talk about Abbot and the hall. Given PG3456 ’ s feeling that I am weak and need to be coddled, it would be unwise to test my new tattoo in front of them. Finding a secluded spot isn ’ t difficult this close to feast time. I only pass a boy and a girl sitting close together on a bench. They fly apart when they hear my step, and I can feel their eyes on my back when I pass them. I crawl under a large weeping cherry tree and try to slow my heart rate. If the tattoo is going to keep me from physically