Gloria Oliver (19 page)

Her desperate eyes searched the dark ground below, but she could see nothing. She was just about to rush out of the room and go down to look for them when a lilting laugh drifted down to her from above.

Startled, she looked up and saw Lareen drifting down through the air, wearing what looked to be sheer blue and green scarves sewn together into a dress.

“My, but that was delightful,” Lareen said as she came level with her balcony. “Who would have thought he had it in him?”

Talia thought the whole episode anything but delightful, but was having a hard time finding the words to say so between her astonishment at Lareen’s entrance and her fear she might have inadvertently harmed Clarence and Kel.

Lareen looked down toward the ground as if reading her thoughts. “Don’t worry, they’re all right,” she said. “Clarence may end up with a nice headache, and both will have a wounded pride, but it’s as it should be.” She looked over at her and winked. “Though it is nice to see Kel showing interest in someone—even if his methods leave much to be desired.” She gave Talia a dazzling smile. “I do tend to worry about him now and then.”

Talia nodded, still unable to say anything, not sure what she would say if she could. Kel was interested in
her
? They didn’t even know each other. Not that he seemed like a bad sort, at least not until she realized he’d been hanging out at her balcony every night. And he did have a nice smile. Still why would any of it be of interest to the Administrator? She felt her cheeks grow warm.

“I trust you will be discreet about this?” Lareen asked her quietly. “I doubt he will ever do such a thing again.”

Talia wasn’t so sure, but she nodded anyway. The whole situation and its unexpected results were too embarrassing for her to want to share with anyone. Already enough rumors existed about Clarence and Kel that she didn’t want to add to them, especially since she would then become a part of them.

“Don’t think too harshly of them. I’ve been watching them, and I’m sure they didn’t mean any harm. If I needed to guess, I would say Kel was using you as a focus to concentrate on, to see if it would help him and Clarence fly in place. Not that they’ve been very successful.” Lareen’s voice still rang with laughter.

“Good night, Talia.”

The Administrator drifted slowly up and out of sight. Talia could only stare after her.

Almost in a daze, she retrieved her bucket and stepped back inside her room. The Administrator knew her name. With all the hundreds of students here, she’d remembered her name. And she knew what Clarence and Kel had been doing? She shivered, realizing after this, Lareen wasn’t likely to ever forget her name, either. She wasn’t sure it was a good thing at all.

Worse, if she did know the two of them were doing this, why didn’t she stop them? Surely she didn’t think Kel thinking about her would actually help their current problems, did she? What did it all mean?

Not bothering to change, she crawled into bed. Sleep took a while in coming.

THE NEXT MORNING, Talia was up early as usual, though she felt tired and drained. She hurried downstairs and spotted Kel at his customary place. She watched him as she approached her table, worried, angry, embarrassed, all at the same time. But at least the worry eased a bit as she noticed he seemed the same as usual.

She sat down on the opposite side she normally did, with her back to him. She didn’t look his way again.

Daltan said nothing, as he joined her later, about the ruckus from the night before. She hoped it meant he knew nothing of it, but doubted it. Yet he perpetually kept to himself, so surely her secret would be safe with him?

Talia found herself listening to the gossip around her more sharply than usual. As far as she could tell, no one seemed aware anything strange happened the night before. She was only too glad of it, though she knew it was still too early to tell. Yet news of this sort would have spread like wildfire. By lunchtime, she’d know if she were in the clear for sure.

When the group separated in the evening, she still hadn’t heard anything. Only then did she truly feel she might be able to put this behind her. Just in case, though, she partially filled her bucket again in the event a certain pair came calling on her again.

Having set the bucket close to the balcony doors, she was about to undress when she was startled by a soft knock at the door. Frowning, wondering who’d come to see her this close to curfew, she went to the door. When she opened it, no one was there.

Her frown deepened as she glanced down both sides of the hallway and spotted no one. At her feet, however, were a small red box and a glass vase with a strange set of flowers. Looking both ways down the hall again and still seeing no one, she bent down and picked up both things and took them inside.

Gingerly, she set the vase on top of her dresser and just stared at the flowers there. The back of the arrangement was a wall of ferns ranging from a deep green color to almost white. The flowers set before them were the most dazzling orange she’d ever seen. Each flower possessed six pointed petals with a black stripe running down the middle of them. The aroma was sweet, reminding her of tangerines. She was sure her mother would have loved them. She wondered if they would grow in the soil back home.

The small red box was bound with a pink ribbon, which she carefully untied. Inside, she found chocolates and candies nestled in delicate paper. A small envelope sat over them, her name written on it.

Nervous, though not entirely sure why, she opened the envelope and took out the card inside.

The card held but one word on it, in the same neat handwriting as the envelope. The word was “Sorry.”

Talia stared at the card in her hand, the one word telling her from whom the gifts came. Maybe Lareen was right after all. The gesture was definitely sweet, and at least he was trying to apologize; though this in no way made up for everything. Still, with a small smile tugging at her lips, she reached for one of the dark chocolates. She bit into it, the flavors of chocolate and sweet fruit tickling her tongue. It was definitely a good start though.

So the next day when she went down to breakfast, she didn’t sit with her back to Kel as the day before, but neither did she wave a greeting to him.

That evening, she slipped into her bath feeling more relaxed than in the last few days. No rumors about Kel and Clarence’s activities at her balcony were circulating at all. She was still pondering, though, why the two of them bothered to hover there at her window anyway. It’s not as if either of them could see anything with her curtains drawn. Plus the way Clarence almost constantly swayed from side to side trying to keep his balance would have kept them from seeing anything clearly even if the curtains were pulled back. So, the question was what were they truly trying to do? Was Kel really trying to train them to hover in place? Surely the Administrator’s supposition insinuating Kel was interested in her was wrong though. She sighed. In the end, she might never know. She wasn’t going to ask, and she doubted Kel would tell her. Besides, the whole thing was just too embarrassing.

Talia shifted her legs along the bottom of the tub, creating gentle waves in the water. She was still bouncing ideas along in her head, when one of her toes touched something sharp. Startled, she sat up and looked into the water but could see nothing. She reached out with her feet until she felt the gentle sting again. It moved when she touched it. Sitting up, she hunted for it not with her eyes but with her hands.

After a couple of minutes, she found the prickly object and fished it out. She looked at her find. It was a light, almost clear blue. The gem was cut in a multifaceted diamond shape and she guessed it was probably very expensive. But what was it doing in her tub?

Frowning, she looked critically around her room. Everything seemed all right, but hadn’t she left the bucket by her bed this morning? Someone had been in her room. To plant this? Confusion and annoyance swirled inside her. With the gem in her hand, she got out of the tub. Dripping, she grabbed a towel and walked to her dresser and set the gem there beside her beautiful bouquet of flowers. Her eyes lifted to the bright orange blooms, and her frown deepened.

Surely it couldn’t have been Kel. He’d already apologized. Didn’t he think his original gifts enough? And why would he break into her room and put it in her tub of all places? What was wrong with him?

She finished drying off and put on her nightgown still staring at the gem. Enough was enough. This would have to stop. Maybe Kel was mad. Clarence must have crushed him one too many times, just like Yllin said. She couldn’t let it continue.

Sighing, she crawled into bed and thought about what she’d have to do in the morning.

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TALIA RUSHED TO get dressed, wanting to make her way downstairs and get things over with. She wasn’t looking forward to this, so the sooner it was done with the better. People just didn’t do things like this at home.

She grabbed the light blue gem and stuffed it in her pocket on the way out.

The dining hall was deserted when she stepped inside. As she stood there, Kel came out of the kitchen with a loaded tray and headed for the Administrator’s table. She felt her stomach tighten as she spotted him, but made herself start walking in his direction. Her mind was set—she would go through with this.

Going the long way around, she passed the kitchen door and found her nostrils teased with the scents of freshly baked bread and sizzling bacon. Walking on, she reached into her pocket and held on tightly to the gem as she came up beside Kel. Though she hadn’t noticed it before, this morning he’d brought a book with him, and he looked to be reading it as he ate. She took a long, deep breath. “Excuse me.”

Kel looked up, a surprised expression on his face. “Talia?” He almost fell in his hurry to stand.

She would have thought his bumbling humorous if she didn’t feel so nervous. She knew she must do this, but it was just so hard to think anything bad about him when she was so near. But, if he wasn’t crazy, then … It didn’t matter. “Look, I—I appreciated the apology even though I really don’t understand what it was all about,” she said. “The flowers and candy were sweet, but now you’ve gone too far.” She tried to rush the words out and stared at Kel’s shoulder instead of his face. “Leaving things outside my door is one thing, but breaking into my room to leave gifts, no matter how extravagant, is just too much. I have to insist you stop.”

“What?”

Talia’s gaze moved of its own volition to Kel’s face at his tone of utter confusion. She felt a bolt of uncertainty course through her at the perplexed look on his face, but didn’t let it diminish her resolve.

Calculatedly, she reached for his hand and dropped the large gem into it.

Kel’s eyes grew wide as they spotted the gem. Talia held her breath as she then saw them abruptly go dark. Was this a mistake? Kel’s hand curled over the gem until his knuckles turned white. Tight lines filled his face, making him look cold and empty, even as his eyes suddenly blazed. “Damn
him
!”

Talia gasped at the abrupt change, not having expected this kind of reaction. Without realizing it, she took a step back. “Kel?”

As if he didn’t hear her, he jerked away from her and stomped off toward the exit, leaving his book and unfinished breakfast behind.

She stood there and stared after him, having no idea what had just happened. He looked so angry, but the anger wasn’t aimed at her. Why would a gem cause such a reaction? Why would it throw Kel into a murderous rage?

She shivered at the thought. A murderous rage—it was exactly what it looked like. And she brought it about. Now he’d stormed off to vent it, to do something horrible to someone.

Not thinking, only acting, she ran to follow him.

Once out in the garden, she hurried down the path leading to the closer exit. She reached the edge of the garden just in time to see the dragons’ dormitory doors burst wide open. Nostrils flaring, Clarence leapt out with Kel on his back.

Though she was too far to hear, she could see Kel was yelling at the dragon and pointing in her general direction. Clarence glanced back at his rider, Talia presumed so he could argue back, but then abruptly took off to the air. He didn’t go far before he turned in the direction Kel wanted and streamed down.

She watched, her heart racing, as the two of them flew past in a perfectly straight line and landed just before the entrance to Nertak’s cave. Clarence reared back on his hind legs, taking a deep breath and then let go. Whoosh—a gush of liquid flame ejected from his mouth into the opening.

“No!” She screamed, horrified as Clarence breathed into the opening again and again. She knew from the things Mandee and Yllin previously told her the old letch not only ran the store but used the cave as his home as well. They would kill him. “No…” Her knees turned to water and she dropped to the ground.

All this over an expensive gem?

A bright flash caught her attention as it flared several lengths to Clarence’s left. Singed and smoking in places, Nertak appeared, wearing only a long smock and night cap. He fell to the ground coughing.

It was then Kel noticed him. The hatred on his face burned hotter than the fire in the cave. “You
bastard

.”

The old man stood up uneasily, staring in confusion at the squire’s vehemence. “Kel? What in Vargen’s name…?”

Nertak disappeared as a burst of flame hit where he’d been standing. The heat of it washed all the way to where Talia sat. The old man reappeared fifteen to twenty lengths away. He took one look at Kel’s fuming rage and ran.

“Go after him!” Kel yelled this at Clarence, pointing after the spindly old man. The dragon shook where he stood but didn’t move. “I told you what he did,” he argued, his voice filled with impatience. “He has to pay for it. Now
go
.” He slapped Clarence on the side. It was as if a set of invisible chains were torn away by it—the dragon charged with incredible speed after the old man.

Her chest tight, Talia stumbled to her feet and ran after them. This was all her fault. She must stop them before they killed Nertak. If only she had an idea on how she could do it.