Gloria Oliver (14 page)

Three or four loud screeches followed the first. Helyn moved up to the front line and so did Lareen.

They set themselves several paces in front of the students and then motioned them all to start moving back. Lareen glanced momentarily over her shoulder and called out in a booming voice. “
Clarence
.”

Talia felt the floor vibrate beneath her as the dragon entered the dormitory from behind them. The hay-filled floor writhed like a living thing.

Lareen looked back only for a moment at the rest of them. “When I say the word, fall to the ground.

Now
!”

With rising fear, not at all sure how she’d get up again, Talia dropped down to the floor with a clang. A great whooshing sound rushed over them, followed by an intense wave of heat. Fire poured out like a stream of water from Clarence’s mouth and fell on the hay.

Screeching, pain-filled screams clogged the air even as hot air and a sickening numbing odor choked their lungs.

“Out, everyone out!” Lareen’s voice rose over the sound of the screeching and boomed at them to get moving.

Even as she struggled to her feet, Talia dared take a look at the chaos before her. The worms were everywhere, thrashing, biting, screaming in the fire, even as they were burned alive. Bile rose in her throat as some of the worms fell to attacking one another madly in their pain. Though her body was sweating profusely from the heat and exertion, her blood ran cold.

“Don’t just stand there! Go, get out!” Helyn pulled on her arm, bringing her fully upright, and then turned her away from the carnage. Talia ran after the others, not thinking, just doing, and didn’t look back. As she passed him, Clarence once more released fire into the room. She frowned as a part of her noticed he didn’t seem to be fumbling this maneuver at all.

When she made it outside, she collapsed on the ground with a number of the others. As she tried to catch her breath, she looked back toward the dormitory and spotted Lareen standing close to the entrance, watching intently at what still transpired within.

“Mistress Helyn, should we not go get water for the fire?” Sonsan was half sitting and pointed over to the small lake not so far away. Her accent was thicker than usual.

“No, it’s all right,” Helyn said. “The dormitory won’t burn, only the hay. When it was first built, it was made immune to this type of thing.”

Black smoke tinged with yellow rose from the dormitory’s thin windows. Talia rose gingerly to her feet and actually made it on her third attempt. She was standing up, her visor raised to get better air, when Kel came running from around the corner of the main building. Though he was unarmored, he sprinted to where the Administrator still stood watching the raging fire inside. The two spoke briefly, though both only had eyes for what was going on within.

Talia wondered what would happen now, when Kel made as if to go into the building after Clarence.

Lareen held him back and spoke to him some more. He stood quietly beside her and didn’t try to enter again.

After another ten minutes or so, it all looked to be over. Clarence sidled out from within the dormitory.

His crossed eyes roamed over all of them.
They are dead
, he said.
The danger is past
.

“Thank you, Clarence.” Lareen lifted her visor and beamed at him. She then patted Kel on the shoulder, saying something Talia couldn’t hear, before moving to join the rest of them. She saw Kel quickly check Clarence over before the two of them headed off toward the lake.

“You did very well today. All of you.” Lareen’s gaze rested momentarily on each and every one of them.

“And as I promised, here is your reward.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Administrator brought forth a number of small, tied bags. “Since things didn’t go exactly as I thought, you’ll find a little more in there than I originally promised.” She gave them a small grin. “Also, the armor you’re wearing is now yours. With your new bounty, you can go see Nertak and get a stand for your armor as well as the proper cleaning materials to maintain it.” She quickly handed each of them one of the small bags.

Talia just held onto hers, not trying to see what was inside, knowing with her gauntlets on she didn’t have a prayer of being able to open it.

“You may return to your classes now, with my thanks.” Lareen half bowed in their direction.

Helyn got the bunch of them moving back toward the main building. As they arrived, Kel was coming out followed by a bunch of unhappy looking students carrying buckets and mops.

She didn’t envy them their coming task at all. All she wanted to do at the moment was collapse and they’d not even been really involved in all of this. Once they reached their classroom, Helyn removed her helmet and gauntlets—revealing her hair, which was gathered up in a bun to keep it out of the way.

After looking doubtfully at her chair, Talia followed suit and then shoved herself inside it, despite the tight fit. She then looked around and noticed the rest of her classmates looked as ragged and dirty as she felt.

Helyn picked up her long pointer and clicked it against the desk calling for their attention. “Though most scale worms you’ll encounter won’t be of the same number and size as those we saw today, you should never make the mistake of taking them lightly.

“For though dragons are their preferred source of sustenance, humans and other animals will also do in a pinch.” Helyn took some chalk and drew on the board a picture of a standard worm. This one, unlike the ones they’d seen, was about as large as the size of a grown man’s hand. Talia puzzled over this, but was too tired to ask any questions.

“The worms are attracted to large-body heat sources and sneak beneath a dragon’s scales when they’re asleep. Attaching themselves to their skin, they live off their blood. They’re similar to ticks.”

Helyn then went on to explain exactly how the worms reproduced and propagated from host to host.

Though normally Talia would have found the information interesting, if not a bit scary, she was just too drained to feel much enthusiasm today. She was truly glad they’d not been told any of this before they went through the exercise. She doubted any of them would have dared set foot inside the dormitory otherwise.

Mercifully, once the lecture on the worms was over, Helyn released them early so they could go clean up before dinner.

After clanging upstairs to her room, leaning heavily on the well-worn banister all the way, she ran into a little trouble removing her armor, but not too much. Dried yellow goo, soot, and hay clung all over the metal surface, and she wasn’t looking forward to having to clean it at all. Pushing the thought aside, she got undressed and climbed into the bathtub. As she scoured herself clean, the warmth poured into her and was welcomed by every bone in her body. She relaxed in it once she was through, but didn’t notice her eyes growing heavy. Before she was aware of it, she fell asleep.

Talia awoke a while later with a jerk and sat up too fast, spilling water over the edge of the tub as she realized what’d happened. She glanced over at the clock and jumped out of the tub in panic as she took in that dinner was already half over.

Grabbing the first clothes she came across, she got dressed and then pelted from the room.

She ran all the way to the first floor and only slowed once she came close to the dining hall. The loud hum of hundreds of voices raised in conversation drifted through the doors as she came near. Hoping not to be too conspicuous, she inched one of them open and sneaked inside.

Her eyes roamed left and right as she walked between the nearest set of tables looking for her friends.

Snatches of conversations thrust themselves at her as she quietly walked by. From what some of the other students were saying, they’d all gotten a go at the dormitory today. More than once, she heard exclamations of disbelief at what they’d found there.

“They weren’t natural,” said a high lilting voice. “I’m telling you, she arranged it.”

Talia slowed, wanting to hear more despite herself.

“She does this every time. If it’s quiet for too long,
boom
! She comes up with some crazy thing to get everyone stirred up.” Many murmurs of agreement followed the pronouncement. “It’s as if she can’t handle peace and quiet. Hell, why do you think the silver and bronze seats are empty? Who in their right mind would want to deal with her crazy schemes!”

She was tempted to turn and see who was speaking but didn’t dare.

“Have you eaten?”

She suddenly found her path blocked by a watcher. “Ah, no, no, ma’am.”

“Talia!” She spotted Mandee waving from one table over.

“I was just looking for my friends. They’re over there.” She quickly pointed over to the other table, thanking Mandee mentally for having spotted her.

“All right then, get on and have some supper. Time’s almost up.”

She nodded and quickly moved to join her friends.

“Where have you been?” Yllin asked reprovingly. “You almost missed dinner.”

Out of nowhere, a watcher put a plate in front of Talia. Mandee started scooping meat and vegetables onto the plate for her. Talia felt her cheeks grow warm. “I—I fell asleep in the tub.”

Mandee giggled. Yllin frowned. “That’s dangerous,” she said. “As if we didn’t put our lives at risk enough today. You could have drowned! How embarrassing.”

Mandee suddenly roared with laughter, though Yllin was obviously quite serious.

Talia decided it was time to change the subject. For once Yllin appeared as if she might give in and throttle her best friend. “Say, I—I heard someone say Lareen arranged for the worms to be in the dormitory. Could it be true?” Her question caught the interest of a number of the others sitting at their table.

Yllin was the first to answer, her expression even more grave than before. “I wouldn’t be surprised.

There’s talk she’s been behind a lot more things than people suspect.”

“It makes no sense. And how could she do that?” This came from the usually subdued Daltan.

“Magic.” Yllin whispered the word as if it contained all the mysteries of the universe. She now held everyone’s attention. “She is after all the head of this school. She’d have access to that kind of power.”

Several nodded in agreement.

Sonsan spoke up. “The guild does seem to be pretty liberal with it. I’d seen a little magic in the city, most of it fake, and all of it incredibly expensive. Yet here they treat it as if it’s nothing special.” More nods made the rounds around the table.

Talia ate and listened, though their animated discussions didn’t really get them anywhere. Still she found the whole question intriguing. Why would the Administrator do something like this? What did she hope to gain? Was it to just add a little spice to their lives as someone suggested? It seemed to be an awful lot of trouble merely for that.

She walked the garden route with the others once they were released from dinner, but excused herself once they reached the end. Mandee and Yllin seemed reluctant to let her go, until she told them where she was going. Yllin gave her a hard look. “Just watch yourself.”

Talia almost smiled. “I will.”

She returned to her room just long enough to retrieve the small bag of gems Lareen gave them, as well as a letter she needed to mail to her parents, then headed back downstairs. She made her way to the store master’s cave.

The large cave looked even more full than the last time. She was a little surprised when as she walked down the first aisle she immediately found what she came there to buy. Almost as if he expected it, Nertak had filled the lower shelves with armor stands of all shapes and sizes. Above them sat materials for cleaning and maintaining the armor as well.

“Come to make a purchase?”

Talia snapped around, not having heard anyone come up behind her. How did he
do
that? She felt a nervous shudder course down her spine. “Y—yes, Master Nertak, I have.”

“Hmm, needing anything in particular?” His old eyes seemed to dance before her.

She swallowed hard. “Yes, I need an armor stand and cleaning materials for armor as well. I—I’m not exactly sure what it is I really need though. Would you have any suggestions?”

His face broke out into a wicked grin. “Yes, of course! I would be delighted to help.” He actually looked like he meant it. “Now, were you looking for a decorative or more of a utilitarian stand?” He pointed to a number of them on display. Studying them more closely, she noticed they were more varied than she expected. One of them even contained inlays done in gold and jewels.

“I’d prefer something strong and durable,” she decided.

“Well, then you probably want to pick one of these.” Nertak indicated the set of stands farthest away from the entrance.

After looking them over, she chose one of the smaller stands available—the pieces of the apparatus were fitted rather than nailed together, and were composed of a dark, almost black wood. “I’ll take this one, please.”

“Nice choice.” Nertak nodded slowly in approval. “Now for your cleaning materials. Do you wish for the full range? And would you prefer low or high quality materials?”

She hesitated a moment, not really sure what would be best. She looked down at her small bag of jewels and then thought about the grimy state of her armor. “All of it, and the best, please?”

“Now you’re my kind of customer.” The old man gave her a big grin and a wink. Talia hoped she hadn’t just got in over her head.

Nertak quickly walked down the aisle and grabbed several brushes, three kinds of oil, two kinds of polish, assorted cloths, and a number of other things she wasn’t sure about. Carrying the bundle in his arms, the old man took the lot to his counter in the back of the cave. He then disappeared behind it for a moment and came back with a large sack. “Would there be anything else you’d care to purchase today?”

His eyes shone like polished brass. “I have some special options which could come in handy for your armor. And for a favor, I’d let them go at a discount.”

Talia felt suddenly nervous. She didn’t like the old man’s expression; it had something seedy about it.