Gloria Oliver (32 page)

I hope I didn’t offend you this morning. It wasn’t my intention to do so
.

She stopped and glanced over her shoulder at the dragon, who was eyeing her shyly over the closed stall door. She sighed lightly. “No, no offense was taken.”

Clarence nodded.
He’s been awake for about an hour. Thanks to your ministrations, he’s in better
health than he would have been otherwise
. His mental tone changed slightly.
Though it would have
been no better than he deserved
.

She frowned at his words, her ire rising despite herself. “Why do you say such things?”

A puff of smoke curled up from Clarence’s nostrils.
Because he is a stubborn fool
.

“Then why did you pair yourself to him? It was your choice, wasn’t it?”

Clarence’s askew eyes focused on her for a long moment then looked away.
Perhaps I’m as big a fool
as he is
.

She waited to see if he would say more, but he didn’t. After another moment, she turned around and went back the way she came.

When she returned, the dragon said nothing, but took the second barrel and quickly emptied its contents into his mouth. After returning from taking back the first, she found Clarence with his back to her and his eyes closed as if he were asleep. She tried to be as quiet as possible as she retrieved the last barrel and left.

Disposing of the barrel and dolly, she went through the kitchen and picked up Kel’s meal. She took the stairs quickly, finding herself eager to see him since he was awake. Depending on his condition, she was already bracing herself to bring up the subject of getting LaSeren to come see him and the arguments he was surely going to bring up against it.

When she reached his door, she quietly let herself in.

She hesitated halfway in the doorway at the sight which greeted her.

Kel was half sitting up on his bed, one hand over his bruised side. A strange light emanated from his palm and spread out over his skin. She stared at this in wonder.

After almost a full minute, the light dimmed. The bruises which were so dark and prominent on his ribs appeared less severe than before. Breathing heavily, Kel fell back onto the bed.

She continued standing at the door and blinked several times, not sure if she should believe what she just saw or not. “How…?”

He glanced over in surprise. “Talia.”

“How did you? What did you?” She took a few steps into the room and then stopped. “Are you all right?”

His cheeks were flushed and perspiration covered a lot of him. Still, his color was better and both his eyes were open, the bruising on the swollen one almost gone. He sat up, but not without effort. “It was just a healing spell. They’re not difficult, just draining.”

A healing spell? Was Kel a wizard as well as a squire? She felt a shiver course down her spine.

“I really could use something to eat.” His clear gaze locked onto her own as if unsure of what she would do next.

She glanced away, and after taking a hard swallow, forced herself to come closer. As she spotted the dishes she’d left there in the morning, she noticed they were all empty. She frowned slightly, remembering Clarence saying Kel hadn’t been up long. Did magic take so much energy, or was it the healing itself?

How badly was he hurt? Her worry overrode her uneasiness. “Are you really all right?”

He gave her a half smile. “Don’t let it trouble you.” His chains rattled as he swung his legs out of the bed.

Talia set the tray on the table and then pulled it closer so he could easily reach it. As soon as it was close enough, he grabbed the bowl of gruel and shoved in spoonful after spoonful as if he were starving.

She watched this with strange fascination, even as she picked up the morning’s tray. “Are … are you a wizard?” She remembered the strange, cowled men who’d come to rid the school of the worms. Goose bumps rose on her arms.

Kel stopped in mid swallow, looked up at her and then laughed. The sound was clean and free. She was inwardly glad to hear it, even if it was at her expense.

He shook his head. “No, I’m not a wizard. Though I’ve been told I’ve got the aptitude for it.” He studied her, his eyes amused. “Simple spells are part of the fourth year’s curriculum. I’ve dabbled in it some since then, but not enough to be considered a true mage.” He gave her another half smile.

“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.

As Kel resumed eating, she turned to go. She almost made it to the door when he spoke again.

“By the way, thank you.”

She didn’t turn around, but only nodded, her cheeks feeling warm.

“Good evening.”

“Good evening,” she said in reply. Talia stared at her charge from the corner of her eye, marveling at his recovery. If she hadn’t been there after the others had left and seen his condition with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have guessed anything untoward had ever happened to him.

“Any trouble today?”

The question caught her off guard. “No. Should there have been?”

Kel looked away from her questioning stare and shook his head. “No. Just curious.”

She felt momentarily tempted to press him on why he expected her to have trouble, but didn’t.

“I think Clarence is worried about you for some reason.” Though his tone was light as he said this, his expression was dead serious.

“He said something to you about it?” she asked.

“No, but every once in a while I can pick up things, and you seem to have been on his mind an awful lot today.”

Talia looked away, sure worry for her had nothing to do with what Clarence might have been thinking.

“Is this something you get as part of the bonding?” What little she knew about the subject from Clarence went through her mind. Hadn’t the dragon said the two of them didn’t share a true joining?

“Yes.”

She detected something hidden in his soft reply but couldn’t quite identify it.

“It’s the reason some people don’t enter the lottery,” he added.

“What do you mean?” She found herself suddenly curious. She glanced over at him but he wasn’t looking at her anymore.

“To win the lottery means you will be bound to a dragon. This bonding is more than just being together.

It’s … a sharing of minds, of everything that makes you who you are. It’s a commitment you make for life.” His blue eyes turned to look at her. “Some people don’t want to share so much of themselves with another.”

“Did you?” The question was out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

He looked away again. “Actually, no. I didn’t contemplate participating once I found out everything that was involved. I—” Whatever he’d been about to say died away. “I’m pretty sure Clarence didn’t intend to participate, either. But Lareen can be quite persuasive when she puts her mind to it.” He gave her a sad smile. “She honestly thought a joining would overcome Clarence’s handicaps. She thinks there’s more to him than meets the eye, and I agree.”

“But something happened?” She didn’t dare breathe as she waited to see if he would answer.

Kel’s reply was almost too soft to be heard. “It … didn’t work out like it was supposed to. Our minds didn’t fully open themselves to one another as they should have. No one knows what went wrong. So we practice, we struggle, hoping we can somehow overcome whatever’s in the way and make it work.” He gave a long, tired sigh. “If we could merge, truly merge, Clarence would be able to use my eyes to fly, use my own equilibrium. But though I think at him until I’m sure my brain will explode, nothing changes.”

Memories flashed through her mind of the different times she’d seen Kel after he’d been riding with Clarence. So often he’d looked flushed as if he’d been exerting himself. Before, she’d assumed it was just part of surviving Clarence’s erratic flights. Now it seemed as if it might be due to something else. No wonder he’d snapped. Who could live constantly under that kind of pressure? But even as she realized this, another memory surfaced, one of Kel and Clarence leaping over Lareen in a precise and graceful arc. “But, but you have done it.” She looked at him, sure though not precisely how, they had indeed achieved it.

He stared back at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Talia glanced away from his intense gaze. “On … on the day of the attack. When you were chasing Nertak. The Administrator got in your way. Yet you and Clarence leapt right over her. It was a clean jump, a perfect landing. Cl—Clarence told me your anger caught him off guard and so he wasn’t been able to stop himself from doing what you wanted. Maybe…”

Kel stared past her, his brow furrowing with concentration. “I don’t remember. Everything was happening so fast at that point.” His face suddenly cleared, and he smiled brightly at her. “Maybe there is still hope.”

She found herself mirroring his smile, though in the end she wasn’t really sure how her revelation would help them. But she did enjoy seeing him happy. And maybe, just maybe, it would mean the episode with Nertak wouldn’t have been totally bad. “I hope so.” She truly did. “I’ve got to go.”

A small grin still on his face, Kel nodded to her, his eyes far away. Talia left.

The rest of the day passed by quickly. On her way back from taking Kel his evening meal, she spotted Mandee and Yllin waiting for her at the bottom of the roof’s stairwell.

“Thank you for coming.” She gave both of them a shy smile.

“No problem.” Mandee grinned back. “We’re happy to help.”

“There’s a teacher in the room three doors down, so we won’t have any problems getting help if we need it.” Yllin looked even more somber than usual.

“I owe you both for this,” Talia said, her heart full of emotion. “I won’t forget it.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just go do what you need to get done and leave this to us,” Mandee told her.

Yllin concurred.

Staring at them gratefully one last time, she turned away and headed off toward the kitchen. Once she dropped off Kel’s dishes, she headed out the back to make her way over to the dragons’ habitat.

Talia walked up to Clarence’s stall, where she was sure the dragon was waiting for her eagerly. She couldn’t have been more wrong. As she opened the door to the stall, she found Clarence lying on the ground, his eyes closed, thin streams of smoke rising from his nostrils. From the tense posture of his shoulders and flank, she knew he wasn’t sleeping. Had something else happened? “Clarence?”

Please, just get on with it. I’m not in the mood for conversation.

Troubled now by the irritation which came across in his thoughts, she walked softly over to the chests at the end of the stall to retrieve what she would need. “Have I … have I done something wrong?” Clarence had seemed fine when she brought him his dinner. She’d rushed through as usual, but promised him she’d come back to finish rubbing his skin. He’d seemed quite happy at the prospect. What changed?

You told him
. His tone was heavy and accusing, as if those three words should have cleared up everything. A large puff of smoke rose from his snout.

She stared at him, having no idea what he was talking about. “I don’t understand.”

One of his purple eyes opened and stared at her accusingly.
You told him of the leap
.

Was that all? What was wrong with it? “I thought you’d be happy about it. Doesn’t it mean you and Kel might still be able to make this work? That you might get your joining to be complete and pass the final test?”

Clarence closed his eye and turned his face away. He said nothing.

She waited, but he didn’t say anything else. Frowning, she decided not to press him further, though she still didn’t understand. Quietly, she dipped the mitten in the oil and picked up where she left off the day before.

Though she could tell he enjoyed her ministrations, he didn’t relax beneath her as he’d done before. She didn’t dare hum and disturb the silence he wove about them.

After she was done, she wished Clarence good night, but got no response.

As she left, she wondered if Kel realized Clarence didn’t want the joining to succeed. Did he change his mind after being talked into it by Lareen? If so, why didn’t he just say so? There was so much she didn’t know about the subject; she wasn’t sure what to think.

As she was about to reenter the main building, a form stepped out of the shadows. Not sure if this was yet another plan of the older classmen, Talia instinctively reached for her dagger. She suddenly relaxed, however, as she saw it was only the Administrator. “Evening, ma’am.”

“Evening. Did I startle you?” Lareen asked.

“Just a little,” she admitted sheepishly.

“How is Kel today?”

Her heart thumped a little harder at the question, but she tried to quickly tell herself it didn’t mean anything. No one knew what had happened except for those involved, and none of them were talking.

“He’s fine.”

Lareen’s gaze locked with her own. “His wounds are healed?” she asked quietly.

It took a moment for Talia to be able to answer. “Yes … He took care of them himself.”

The Administrator nodded, satisfied. “I would have preferred for LaSeren to have looked after him right away, but I suppose this way keeps things quiet. I applaud you for your discretion these last few weeks.”

Talia felt cold. “How did you…?”

Lareen smiled. “Know?” Her eyes grew serious. “There’s very little which happens in this school I don’t know about. Nertak’s not the only on who’s an expert at gathering information. Those involved have had notations placed on their records. It will make a difference later when they are placed.”

Talia shook her head, not sure she understood. “Why didn’t you stop them? Punish them? Wasn’t what they did wrong?”

Lareen half turned from her, her expression veiled. “No matter how much we may want to protect our children from harm or keep them from seeing the harsh ways of the world, we can’t. For in the long run it would hurt them more than help. They have to learn to cope. They have to learn to grow. We can only watch them, guide them if we can. We interfere when we must, but some things must play out on their own. And we learn a lot more about them this way.” She turned to face her again. “Can you understand?”