Compendium by Alia Luria Page A

his grip. “I was lost,” she said quickly, trying not to stutter. Her eyes were still averted. She had to think quickly. Saying that she was trying to head back to the barracks wouldn’t work. Everyone knew where those were. Think, Mia.
    SainClair sneered, shaking her again. She was already wary of him, already hated him for how he had alienated her from the others, but now she was terrified of him. His eyes held a manic glint, and his hair was wild. There was something not right about him.
    “You expect me to believe that, pretender?” he said with another growl, squeezing her neck tighter. “Do you know where you are stumbling about?”
    She didn’t for certain but had every intention of finding out.
    “I was looking for Brother Cornelius’s laboratory.” The thought popped into her mind with relief. “He sent me to fetch him some additional wands for tomorrow.” Her voice wavered, but she pressed on. “I’ve yet to visit the laboratory, so I got mixed up. Where are we exactly?”
    She immediately regretted that last bit, which engendered nothing but additional rage. Brother SainClair’s grip on her neck didn’t loosen even a fraction of an iota.
    “The laboratories are higher in the Compound,” he growled. “Are you a half-wit as well as a liar?”
    Sweat trickled slowly down her sides under her robes. “I must have gone down instead—” Her voice was cut off as his viselike grip on her throat tightened. She tried to breathe, but nothing filled her lungs.
    “You know what I think?” he asked casually, as if he weren’t choking the life out of her. “I think you were down here snooping around, trying to figure out a way to bring the Order down. I think you were spying on us.” His harsh, sharp face appeared ghostly white in the dim light. His scruffy jaw looked like that of weird bird with blond hairs protruding from around its angular beak, and the cold fire in his pale-blue eyes made it clear that he wasn’t jesting. He really thought Mia was a spy.
    There was no way for her to contain the quaver that shuddered through her body.
    Brother SainClair narrowed his eyes as if he took her shaking as a sign that he was correct. “You know what we do to spies, don’t you?”
    “Yeh…” She tried to speak but was still unable to draw a breath. His grip loosened only enough to let her lungs fill with air. She took a few ragged gulps but still was unable to form words.
    “You’ll soon find out.” He didn’t elaborate.
    Mia’s dizziness ebbed with each gasp. At least he wasn’t going to kill her right here in the hallway.
    “The Order required my presence at the Compound,” she said through gulps of air, regaining her composure and trying to add a bit of logic to his outlandish claims. “I didn’t choose to be here. Whether my father really did write that letter or whether Dominus Nikola made it up, being here wasn’t my wish. Why would I be spying?”
    At her reference to Nikola, SainClair’s face grew darker. “You accuse the Dominus of lying?” He shook Mia again but mercifully didn’t tighten his grip on her neck.
    “Er, I was making the point that I’m not here of my own accord.”
    “I grow tired of your lies and excuses.” He turned her away from him, his hand still firmly on her neck, and forced her along the hallway. Her feet raced to stay ahead of him and avert any further pain.
    Where is he taking me?
    He shoved Mia back up the tunnel, and they took the fork toward the barracks. Maybe he was just sending her there. Her optimistic thoughts were dashed when they took a right turn before reaching the dormitory entrance. This turn led down a particularly narrow passage that was exceptionally long and sloped back downward. After a long while, the ground finally leveled out at a slightly wider tunnel. Spaced along this tunnel were gourds that illuminated metal doors set into the stone walls along both sides. Brother SainClair pushed her along past a couple of the doors.
    They