Gloria Oliver (10 page)

Witnessing another painful crash, she rushed to their final landing-place, and then quickly took charge of the new arrival. By taking them to Tammer and waiting for them afterwards, she did her best to ease their transition to what she knew to them would be a strange, foreign place. It also gave her something worthwhile to do.

Watching Clarence’s landings didn’t get easier. Once she watched, to her utter horror, as dragon and riders actually slipped past the edge of the cliff and fell. With her heart hammering inside her chest, it was a few breathless moments before she spotted Clarence’s large green form rise back into the air to attempt another landing. The second was much more successful.

As she did every time she saw them, she wondered how the dragon and squire could stand to go through this day after day. That they went and retrieved new students for the school made things bad enough, but every evening the two of them were out there practicing as well.

Early on her seventh day at the school, Talia was up and dressed and was only waiting for the morning knocks from the watchers before heading downstairs to breakfast. She frowned, as she glanced at her clock, realizing they were late. Making her way downstairs, she noticed a lot fewer people showed for the meal, though Kel, as usual, came in early, ate his breakfast in a blur and left. There were fewer watchers than normal, and even those there seemed to be keeping not quite as sharp an eye on everyone as usual. She worried about the strangeness for a while, until it dawned on her today was the day students kept for their own.

When Mandee and Yllin finally made their way in, Talia’s suspicions were confirmed.

“Oh, yeah. It’s
bucket
day…” Mandee’s tone hinted at horrible things. “The day we have to change the water and clean our rooms.” Her eyes narrowed with a sly look and she leaned close. “But after all that—then the day is ours!”

Changing the bed’s linen and cleaning up her room proved easy enough. Talia found these tasks a breeze compared to the pile of chores she’d been responsible for at home on a daily basis. The changing of the tub water, however, proved to be another matter altogether.

Getting rid of the water currently in the tub itself was simple. Mandee and Yllin told her all she needed to do was fill the buckets and dump the old water out the balcony. She made a mental note to never be out and about the grounds in the morning on this day.

Once she’d emptied the tub, however, she needed to take her two buckets and make the long trek to the mesa’s lake behind the school. Getting there wasn’t much of a problem, but coming back with two filled buckets, navigating around everyone else doing the same chore, and then trekking up the stairs without spilling it, was not.

The first two buckets barely seemed to make a difference to the amount of water she’d have to bring to fill the tub. By her fifth trip to the lake and back, her arms shook from the strain. As she sat down on the bottom of the stairs to take a short rest, she saw many of the other students weren’t doing much better.

Everyone was getting water—students, teachers, watchers. Massaging her arms, she watched the people go back and forth giving the impression of a long column of ants.

When she finally dragged her way back upstairs, Talia saw her tub was only half full. Steam was rising from the water. She frowned. The tub was obviously magical; she’d been able to figure out no other way the water could stay warm with no seeming source of heat. The lights in her room also must be as well—they came on and off exactly at the same time everyday. And the basin water never lowered or even got dirty. So why couldn’t they have used the same kind of magic on the tub? The basin even refilled itself very slowly, but the tub did not. Could things only be made to do one or two things, or did they just not feel like doing it so everyone would have to torture their arms out of their sockets? She could almost hear her father’s laughter. Talia had occasionally pointed out to him the futility of some of her chores, especially the weeding in the garden. For no matter how hard one worked and pulled, the weeds perpetually came back. She was sure if she asked him about this, his answer would be the same it was then. This definitely appeared to be a chore he would have approved of—it would breed patience and improve her character and strength. But what about her poor arms? She was suddenly intensely grateful her room wasn’t on the fourth floor.

Glancing over at the tub with disdain, she wondered if she couldn’t live with only a half-filled tub. She reached out to touch the water and then quickly pulled her hand back, her fingertips throbbing with pain.

It was hot! She sucked on her abused digits and stared at the water. It wasn’t this hot before. She wouldn’t be able to take a bath in that. She pouted a moment as she realized this, too, was probably done on purpose. It’d definitely stop anyone from being tempted to only do half a job. Her father’s robust laugh rang through her mind again.

With a heavy sigh, she picked up her buckets and headed for the door.

Taking frequent breaks to ease the strain on her arms, it was almost noon before she was able to reach her floor with the last set of buckets. As she came to her door, she found someone there waiting for her.

“Hello. Are you Talia?”

She nodded quickly, not sure if she’d ever seen the longhaired, sweet-faced woman before. “Yes, ma’am, that’s me.”

“My name is Helyn. I will be your teacher for your first year.” The tall woman took a step toward her.

“Here, let me help you with those.”

Talia gratefully let the teacher take one of her buckets, and they both stepped into the room. With deft expertise, Helyn tipped her bucket over the side of the tub and poured the water in with a minimum of splashing.

“Three more students will be arriving this week, so five days from now, we’ll be starting classes.” She smiled. It was a pretty smile. “I wanted to make sure I got to meet all of you before then. And if it would be all right, I thought those of us who’re here would meet after lunch so I can show you where our classroom will be and what you’ll need to bring to class.”

The prospect of classes beginning appealed to Talia. She’d gotten a little restless the last day or so, with nothing definite to do. “That would be fine.”

Helyn’s smile grew even wider. It made her face glow. “Wonderful! After lunch then, I’ll wait for all of you at the garden’s exit.” She moved toward the door. “I’m really looking forward to our class. See you.”

She left, giving Talia a delicate wave as she did so.

Lunch was as informal as breakfast and consisted of different types of breads, smoked meats, cheeses, and fruit. As she sat with Mandee and Yllin, Talia took her time as she ate, not wanting to antagonize her aching arm muscles more than she’d done already. They would never be the same again.

“So, did you get your tub filled yet?” A hint of amusement danced in Mandee’s eyes.

She glanced at her friend, wondering if her discomfort was so obvious. “Yes, I just finished a little while ago.”

“Bet your arms are sore.” Yllin commented between bites.

Mandee smiled in sympathy. “We overdid it our first time, too. Yllin here thought her arms were going to fall off.”

“Did not,” Yllin replied indignantly.

“I’ll bring by some salve later that will help. I won’t be needing it, since we finally came up with a system that works without killing us. It does take longer, but…”

Talia noticed the amused look was back in Mandee’s eyes, and though she was doing exactly what the girl wanted her to do, she didn’t care as long as it’d be able to help her from straining her arms like this again. “What do you do?”

“It’s quite simple really,” Mandee watched her intently as she spoke. “We just make sure to only make one trip an hour. It makes all the difference.”

“Oh.” She felt like an idiot. It never occurred to her, yet it made perfect sense. Mandee and Yllin both laughed at the dumbfounded expression on her face.

“It sounds simple, and you want to kick yourself once you realize you can do it this way, but you’d be amazed at the number of people who’ve not thought of it,” Mandee said. “Everyone just wants to do it all at once and get it over with.”

“Especially the boys.” Yllin rolled her eyes as if this said it all.

“One day though, the two of us realized since the whole day was ours, it wouldn’t matter how long it took us to do it as long as it got done before lights out,” Mandee gave her a smug smile.

Talia nodded thoughtfully. She wasn’t sure how long it would have taken her to come to the same conclusion, but the idea was a good one. And her arms would definitely be grateful. If only she could do something to help them feel better now.

Yllin interrupted her thoughts. “They won’t really start to bother you until later. We’ll get you the salve long before then.”

“Will it really help?” She didn’t want to get her hopes too high.

“Oh, sure. The stuff is real good. I think it’s one of the more popular items around here,” Mandee said.

She didn’t doubt it. “Thanks, I’d really appreciate it.” The thought of actually having some relief brought an easy smile to her face.

By the time lunch was over, Talia found herself getting a little excited as the time to meet with Helyn drew near. Having already told her friends about the meeting, she parted company with them when they came out of the garden back into the building proper.

As promised, Helyn was waiting for the new students not far from the door. She was the third to join her. It wasn’t long before the rest of the students arrived. She was somewhat impressed as Helyn greeted each of them by name.

“I’m glad you could all make it,” she said. “Come, let me show you our classroom.” Helyn led the way down the hall.

All the classrooms were set in the middle area of the first floor. The walls, unlike all the other ones in the school, were made of a dark wood rather than stone. As they went through the small mazelike hallways between them, Helyn explained how the walls in this area were not permanent, but were made so they could stand alone or be moved to create different sized rooms depending on the need. Talia stared at the solid walls around her, finding it difficult to believe they could be moved. The only thing that gave credence to Helyn’s statement was the fact neither the hallways nor the rooms possessed a ceiling, and could be looked down into from the floors above.

Their own room was close to the center of the maze. Twelve large desks were arranged inside it in two rows bent in a large semicircle, the desks staggered so none would impede another’s view. The chairs behind the desks were large and padded, but also short to accommodate their non-adult-sized legs. She couldn’t help but smile, thinking these desks and chairs extremely luxurious compared to the stiff wooden benches they all shared at school back home. She wondered fleetingly what her old friends would make of all this.

A tall, wide desk faced all the others and a massive blackboard was hooked to the wall behind it. Giant rolls of paper lay stacked on the large desk. Talia was curious as to what they could be for.

“This will be your classroom for the next year,” Helyn told them. “I’m greatly looking forward to getting started.” The teacher’s face almost glowed as she looked at each of them. For several minutes, Helyn encouraged them to look around and try the desks and chairs, before she led them back out and promised to meet them after breakfast four days from then.

As she returned to her room, Talia found herself more excited by the prospect of school than she would have thought. Her eagerness surprised her, not ever having felt this way about being taught before. Still, she felt she would be able to learn things here she’d never imagined knowing. And something about this held a lot of appeal.

After she made sure to write another letter to her parents, despite the deep ache settling into her arms, she took an early bath and soaked her unhappy appendages in the water they’d labored so hard to bring up. Once she got out, she felt heavy and slow. She got dressed and then decided to lie down on her bed for a minute. Before she realized it, she fell asleep.

A knock at her door startled her awake. Momentarily disoriented, she scrambled out of bed, almost smacking her head against the upper frame. Her arms and shoulders twinged in displeasure at the sudden movement. She grimaced in discomfort as she stumbled over to open the door.

“Hi!” Mandee’s bright smile greeted Talia. Yllin stood beside her. “We’re not disturbing you, are we?”

“No, please come in.” She opened the door wide. “I—I accidentally fell asleep.” She quickly ran her hand through her curling hair and hoped it wasn’t too out of order.

The two girls came in. “Sorry to wake you, but we did bring a gift.” Mandee pointed dramatically at Yllin and the other held up a small, earthen jar. “Yes, we know you can’t believe it, but it’s true. Salve for your aching arms and shoulders—delivered to your very door as promised.”

Talia’s arms and shoulders throbbed as if the prospect of relief meant they needed to complain more.

“Thank you very much.”

“Sit down and let me put it on,” Mandee offered. “You look like you could really use it.” Mandee steered her to sit on the bed while Yllin opened the jar. A strange, pungent odor filled the room.

As Mandee smeared the greenish concoction on her arms, they began to tingle.

“Where’d you get this?” she asked.

“The old pervert.” Yllin looked away. “When I first came here, one of the other students told me about it.”

“Yeah, she was hurting so bad the first time even the threat of the old man leering at her didn’t make her hesitate.”

Yllin threw her friend a dirty look. Mandee laughed.

Late that same evening, Talia woke up in the middle of the night, but wasn’t sure why. As she lay in the darkness, not really sleepy anymore, she frowned as she recalled this happened before. Even as she sat there and thought about it, she heard a small, barely perceptible sound coming from the direction of her balcony.

Not sure what it could be, or why it’d be at her window, she slowly rose out of bed, a chill of mixed fear and curiosity moving down her back. As she stared at her balcony doors, she thought she could make out a large shadow through them, but couldn’t really be sure if it was something she was seeing or just a trick of the night. She drew closer.