New World Ashes Read Online Free Page B

man believed his self-proclaimed aristocracy merited respect. I silently took an oath to show him anything but that.
    “Right, because cracking your granddaughter across the face is an excellent way to prove you’re not a barbarian. You’re just freaking Grandfather of the Year aren’t you?” I turned to the handsome stone-faced guard that had pulled me from my cell. “You should really get him a plaque or something. You know, so everyone knows how wonderful this man is. Hell, it might even make this place feel downright homey.”
    In a stoke of defiant genius, I leaned forward and snatched one of the small sandwiches from his desk and took a huge bite making sure to chew with my mouth open. If he was going to crack me in the head again, at least it wouldn’t be on an empty stomach. I watched the young guard move to restrain me, but to my disappointment The Minister waved him off with a chuckle.
    “I nearly missed your smart mouth.” The Minister hesitated. “But I know the truth about that smart mouth of yours. That's just your way of hiding the rage burning inside of you. That hot temper I can see flaring in your eyes, you get that from me.”
    I nearly threw up my stolen sandwich. Swallowing it back down I said, “Lucky me.”
    “You and I are not so different you know.” He spoke softer now, his blue eyes eerily penetrating.
    “You don’t know anything about me.” I crossed my arms in an attempt to shut him out.
    “On the contrary my dear, I practically raised you. While you were more refined when under my watch, I guarantee that part of the girl I trained—that I nurtured—is in there somewhere. Despite your lack of memories, it’s still there. Ingrained in you.” He tapped the corner of his temple to emphasize his point.
    I barked out a wry laugh, spraying some semi-chewed food, and seized another sandwich. I shoved it in my mouth but my throat was so dry I nearly choked on it. I had never questioned my natural abilities when it came to combat or to how I could analyze every situation in seconds. I just always assumed it was some kind of survival instinct. It never crossed my mind that I had been trained, programmed to think that way. My memories stopped before my eleventh birthday, before my parents’ deaths. How many of those lost years had I spent being honed into a weapon? And what kind of parents would have let that happen?
    I gagged down the last bit of sandwich before speaking. “You said it yourself, I seem to be lacking quite a few crucial memories. Like why the hell I should give a crap about anything you say. You’re nothing to me. Not even a face I would notice in a crowd. How could you possibly delude yourself into thinking you have had any kind of influence over me.”
    The Minister laughed without humor. “Oh my dear child. How could you possibly delude yourself into thinking that you could have survived one second outside of The Wall without my influence?” He folded his hands on the desk while leaning toward me. “You survived that city for one reason and one reason alone. You are what I made you.”
    My lip drew up in the corner with disgust. “Your lies only than flatter yourself.”
    Fandrin snapped his fingers at the blonde man standing near the illuminated screens. “Careful who you call a liar, child.”
    I opened my mouth to retort, but fell silent as the monitors all flickered to the same scene. There were two small children sparring in a ring while a younger Minister Fandrin watched over them. While the black-haired boy moved with animalistic ferocity, it was the blonde child that caught my attention. She was nearly half the size of the boy fighting with her, but it was clear she was the stronger fighter of the two. She was uncharacteristically graceful for a child. I felt my fingers go numb as I watched the scene before me. There was something familiar in the way she moved. I knew those moves. I knew that face, those eyes…
    She was a younger version of…
    She was