Gloria Oliver (13 page)

Still trying to keep her eyes on the old woman, who was grinning again, she didn’t pay much attention as she moved the curtain aside and stepped through.

Hands fell on her arms and suddenly yanked her to the other side. A startled yelp left her lips but was abruptly cut off as a hand was placed over her mouth. Mad cackling laughter rang up all around her. As cold fear ran through her, Talia struggled to turn around and see who held her, but was actually released before she’d tried very hard.

Trying to catch her breath and still her speeding heart, she looked up and stared, startled, as she caught sight of who’d been holding her.

Helyn met Talia’s gaze for a moment and then looked away, her cheeks coloring slightly. Beside her stood the Administrator, who was grinning from ear to ear. Both of them were wearing the same type of cream-colored garments Talia wore. Theirs, unlike hers, looked to have been made specifically for them.

Lareen’s fit very close to her body, easily revealing her curves, and was cut low at the throat.

Talia opened her mouth to say she knew not what, when Lareen, in a perfect imitation of the old woman, brought a finger to her lips asking for silence.

Confused by everything that had gone on so far, she took a look at her surroundings for the first time.

The room they were in was wide with large shelves covering most of the walls. The shelves were mostly full, all types of armor and leather pieces stacked on them. In the center of the room sat a raised dais and on it stood a baffled Narilla as the giant armorer placed piece after piece of armor around her body. Talia spotted Tull not far from there, standing very still in simple, light, full body armor. The visor on his helmet was up and she saw his eyes move to look over at her, but the rest of him remained as still as stone.

“Now be a good little student, Talia, and stand over there until Seren is ready for you.” Lareen’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Isn’t this
fun
?”

Talia said nothing, not sure how to answer the question. Frowning, she moved to stand where she’d been told. She wasn’t there long before a frightened yelp followed by cackling laughter came in from beyond the curtained doorway. She shook her head, still not sure at all of what was going on.

Before the fourth victim was brought into the room, Seren finished with Narilla, and after helping her off the dais he beckoned at Talia to come over.

“Hmm,” he said softly. “You’re a small one, aren’t you?”

She said nothing, amazed by the difference in the man from when she’d seen him before. His voice was no longer harsh and loud, but soft and strangely gentle. The hungry look in his eyes was gone, replaced with one of light amusement.

From the stack of armor pieces set next to the dais, Seren took several back and front plates and set them before her. “Turn around please, and hold out your arms for me.”

She did so. Seren held up a few back pieces against her for fit and once he’d found one which satisfied him, he quickly found a matching front. Having her turn around to face him again, he set the two pieces together and hinged them on the left side.

As she watched, he gently put the two pieces around her and clicked them shut. “To get this off is easy, but only if you know how,” he told her. He gave her a half smile. “Just reach down with your finger to this spot, rub it twice, then run it upwards.” Seren demonstrated this as he spoke, using his callused finger to rub at a small indentation at the waist and then ran it up the side. With an audible click, the two halves swung apart.

Talia stared in amazement, realizing this, too, must be more magic. It seemed here, unlike everywhere else she’d ever heard of, it was used in just about everything.

Seren shut the two pieces together and asked her to try it. Once she did, he closed them again and then started adding pieces of leather and armor to the shoulders and arms. The more he added the more weighed down she felt, but not terribly so, which confused her. It was hard to say if the weight was dispersed more by ingenuity of design or by magic. She possessed no real way to tell the difference. By the time Seren finished, he’d covered her from head to toe in metal. When he set the helmet on her head, it felt as she was being buried in it. The air inside got hot and close and she could barely see out through the eye slits. She felt her breathing grow faster, until Seren lifted the visor and exposed her face to the outside once more.

“Are we doing okay in there?” His dark eyes studied her critically.

She gave him a quick nod, not really sure.

“Good. Now I want you to step down. Take it slow. This will take a little getting used to.”

Talia wasn’t sure she’d be able to budge at all. Gingerly, she made her leg move and took a hesitant step.

She gave a little sigh, finding it easier than she’d expected. Gaining courage from it, she took another. She took a third and a fourth until she reached the end of the dais. She looked downward, trying to recall how Narilla got down. She couldn’t remember. The distance to the ground wasn’t far, but she’d not done it wearing pounds of metal before, either.

Seren was right at her side, his hand half held out as if prepared for the worst. “Just bend your knees and step out, but keep your upper half straight. There’s nothing to it.”

She nodded, not entirely sure how she would manage it. She felt wobbly after her knees bent and she reached out, but still made it down. Concentrating on her every step, she walked slowly to join Narilla and Tull. When she stood beside them, it felt as though she’d just run up a long flight of stairs. She could feel the perspiration gathering at her armpits and neck.

One by one, each of the other students was brought in and fitted. The Administrator stood by the curtained doorway looking happy and content. Only when Willer’s panicked screams echoed in from the other room did a dark shadow momentarily cross her face. Helyn left to go help the old woman as Willer’s shrieks grew even shriller.

Minutes later, a shame-faced Willer stepped into the room. He wore the same cream clothes as the rest of them. As he spotted them across the room staring at him, his face turned crimson and he quickly looked away. It was obvious he’d allowed his imagined fears to run too far. If this was some kind of test, Talia was sure he’d not passed.

Lareen patted him gently on the shoulder, speaking softly to him, and personally took him over to the dais.

Once they’d all been fitted, Helyn and Lareen disappeared for several minutes before returning wearing suits of armor of their own. They approached the group of waiting students.

“Thank you, Seren, LaSeren,” Lareen gave the armorer and the old woman a half bow. She then turned to face the twelve of them. “Come, the dragon dormitory awaits.”

Talia clanked carefully along with the others, realizing that, up until this moment, she’d totally forgotten why they’d come to be fitted for armor in the first place. Could making them forget have been the actual intention of the strange pranks that went on before? She wanted to ponder this, perhaps even ask the others what they thought of it, but it wasn’t to be. Lareen set a fast pace though they barely knew what they were doing, and it took all of her concentration just to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Soft groans cascaded down the line as they reached the stairs leading up.

Helyn instructed them quickly on how to go about it, and she and Lareen stood attentively by, making sure none of them got into trouble. Going up was even worse than just walking and the whole process seemed to take forever. Eventually though, they all made it to the top of the stairs.

As they all breathlessly crowded there to rest a moment, Talia sidled over to stand by Willer. “Are you okay?”

The boy glanced over at her, his face growing red. “Yeah.”

“They’re just trying to keep us from thinking about the worms.” It was the first thing she could think of saying. She was surprised a moment later when she found out she was actually right.

Willer nodded without looking at her. “I know. It’s what they told me.” His features grew determined. “I won’t fall for it again.”

Not long after, Lareen led the bunch of them outside toward the immense building which served as the dragons’ dormitory. As they approached, Talia noticed a huge bonfire raging about a stone’s throw from the dormitory’s open doors. Crackling in the flames were what looked to be arm-sized tubes. Thick black smoke rose from the fire and its strange contents, filling the air with a fetid smell.

Not slowing, Lareen led the group to a pile of odd, triple-pronged tools, which sat beside the dormitory entrance. There, she turned to face them, armored hands on hips. “So,” she said. “Here we are.” Her eyes were bright. “Today you’re about to help clean out this habitat of one of the worst pests to plague dragons—the dreaded scale worms.”

Talia waited for her to go on, not at all liking the fact she’d used the word dreaded.

Lareen’s keen gaze swept across them. “The worms enjoy attaching themselves to the soft flesh beneath a dragon’s scales. They’re parasites, and an annoyance. And though not normally a major problem, we seem to have at present a rather large infestation.”

Talia glanced back at the burning pyre. She shuddered as she suddenly realized what it was that was burning in it.

“The older classes have already swept through, so we are only looking for stragglers. Seeing as this is not a normal part of the curriculum, however, you shall each be paid five small gems for your trouble.”

Talia frowned. Five gems for just looking for straggler worms? Either these people really possessed no idea about what money was, or they were being paid a small fortune for something which wasn’t as easy as it sounded. She got an uneasy feeling about the whole thing.

Lareen picked up one of the long-handled, pronged tools. Helyn grabbed several and passed them out.

“The worms have teeth and can be pretty nasty,” Lareen said. “This is the reason why you have been fitted with armor. If you happen to see one, stab it with one of these.” She quickly demonstrated how they were to be used in a downward stabbing motion. “For every kill, there’ll be an extra gem as a reward.”

Talia held her tool tight, having to verify by sight she actually had it, since she couldn’t feel it through the gauntlets. Three evenly spaced prongs shot out from a central bar, all three with flared, pointed ends.

With a shiver, she got the distinct feeling the tool had already been heavily used, for a thin coating of yellow ooze still covered the ends. She liked the idea of doing this exercise less and less. She was even more certain now all the strangeness from before was meant as a distraction so they wouldn’t even consider getting away until it was much too late.

“Please line up in two rows of six.” Lareen stepped toward the opening into the dormitory. “As you move on through, stomp and poke the ground to startle any remaining worms and flush them out. As soon as you spear one, switch places with the person behind you. Remember, at least four other groups have come through here already. There shouldn’t be much if anything left for you to find.”

Helyn lined them up, and as luck would have it, Talia ended up in the front. Mar stood to her left and Lana on her right. They stood one arm’s length away from each other, three from the second row.

“Lower your visors,” Lareen commanded, her voice taking on a tone brooking no argument.

Talia reached up and brought hers down. Unlike before, in the face of meeting a foe she knew little to nothing about, she felt comforted rather than shut away inside her armor.

“All right, step inside.”

Holding her tool hard in her hand, she stepped forward with the others.

The dragon dormitory was a huge, open room with incredibly large stalls set along the sides. Pillars as thick as trees fortified the roof and walls, set at wide intervals. The floor was made of stone, strewn heavily with hay, but looked to have seen better days. Cracks ran along its surface everywhere, the hay sticking to it with dried yellow muck, all giving evidence to a previous brutal hunt.

The stalls they passed looked to be empty, except for one at the end, which sported a riding harness over the door. Not having seen any dragons but Clarence since she’d arrived here, she could only assume it was his. Still, if only one dragon lived here, how could they have as bad an infestation as the Administrator was implying? Kel had assured her Clarence was worm free.

Gingerly, the group moved forward, stomping their armored feet hard on the ground and stabbing at the muck-covered hay, while trying to stay balanced on their feet. About halfway into the dormitory, when Lana tried to pull her tool back up from stabbing the hay, it scurried forward instead. A gray worm, almost as big as Seren’s large arm, wriggled out from beneath the hay and tried to squirm away from the girl’s weapon.

Lana was pulled down to her knees by the writhing creature. The worm twisted back around, showing a mouth that was all teeth.

Revulsion screaming through her, Talia didn’t think, but brought her own tool forwards and stabbed down. Yellow goo sprayed out as she impaled the worm, and it let out an awful screech. It abruptly stopped moving.

Her heart stomping at a gallop inside her chest, she helped Lana to her feet and they both moved back to the second line. With great distaste, she was forced to step on the worm’s body in order to get it off the tool. More goo oozed onto the floor. The smell coming off it seemed even worse than the stench of the burning bodies. She was even more grateful for the armor as it kept her from direct contact.

Moving lumps wove through the hay. Two of the others speared a couple of worms and moved back.

One of the girls screamed as a worm landed on her shoulder from a rafter above. Daltan and Tull quickly knocked it off and killed it, while one of the others helped the startled student back to her feet.

A loud screech issued from the other end of the dormitory. The lumps of movement in the hay suddenly intensified.

“I see too many. This isn’t right.”

Talia half turned to look behind her where Helyn and the Administrator stood. When Lareen spoke again, her voice was loud enough for all of them to hear. “All right, that’s enough! We’re going to back up slowly now. Keep facing forward and keep sharp!”