Gloria Oliver (29 page)

“I’m glad to hear it.” Lareen pulled the cowl back over her head. It hid her face completely. “Well, you’ve paid, so you can go on in. I have other targets to hit tonight.”

Talia shivered, not envying others the experience. “Good night.” Without another word, she opened the door and hurried inside. It wasn’t until she rushed upstairs, and her room was in sight, that it occurred to her to wonder whom else the Administrator might be expecting.

Luckily, she met with no one else. Taking a quick bath in the dark, she changed and went immediately to bed.

The next morning, she was satisfied to note both Clarence and Kel seemed in great spirits. She decided it probably meant her efforts last night were at least satisfactory. She decided not to mention to either of them her strange encounter with the Administrator.

Nertak’s cave was almost shining clean when her class finished their shift. The old man came inside as they were getting ready to file out, and after some serious scrutiny, gave them all a pleased, boyish smile.

Unfortunately, this somewhat soured things for Yllin. She wasn’t happy something she’d done made the letch happy. Mandee teased her about it all through lunch.

Over all, things were working out well. Or so Talia thought until she reached the stairwell leading from the roof on her way back from delivering Kel his dinner. The narrow-faced youth who’d questioned her a few days before was back.

“Evening,” he said. The student stood in the middle of the stairwell making it plain he wasn’t going to let her go past.

She slowed to a stop on the stairs, not wanting to get too close. “Evening.” She stood there expectantly with her tray, saying nothing else.

Smiling a thin smile, the boy nodded at her greeting and then pulled out a small bag from his vest. “I’ve come to get your answer on my question of the other night.”

Talia tensed, knowing what her answer was but not sure what he’d do once he heard it. Fervently, she reminded herself if he tried to come near her, she could throw the tray in his face and possibly shove him down after it, or at least be able to pull out her dagger. “I won’t do it.” She hoped she didn’t sound as frightened as she felt.

The student’s face sobered. “I’m so very sorry to hear you say so.”

Her grip on the tray turned her knuckles white. “I’ve given you my answer, now please get out of my way or I’ll have to call for a watcher.”

The student stared at her face, her stance, and then slowly nodded. “You’re a gutsy one, aren’t you?” He shrugged. “I’ll move. But this isn’t over yet.” His thin-lipped grin grew nasty. With a slight bow in her direction, he turned around and headed back down the stairs.

She stared after him until he was out of sight, and then sat down heavily on the stairs where she stood, her legs giving out from under her. Things went better than she could have ever expected. Still, it was too easy. She sighed, hoping, though she knew it was futile, the student’s last words were more out of bravado than anything else. She was sure he wouldn’t let go of this quite yet.

After she was sure her legs would hold her again, Talia gingerly got up and went back to the kitchen.

When she saw Mandee and Yllin not long after, she decided not to mention what happened.

By the next morning, she’d almost managed to put the incident behind her. After a couple of more days, she barely thought about it. It was nothing after all.

She fed Clarence for the morning and then finished her own breakfast. Telling her friends goodbye, she quickly made her way to the kitchen to pick up Kel’s tray.

On her way back through the dining hall to the main hall and the stairs, she took the shortest route between the tables as she normally did. She wove her way between students and watchers, trying her best to keep the tray out of harm’s way.

She made it halfway down the second set of tables when a booted foot abruptly shot out in front of her.

Seeing it too late to stop, she tripped and went down. Her tray clattered to the floor with a loud crash.

Stinging pain rose up her palms as she tried to keep her face from smacking the marble floor. Warm gruel rained around her even as laughter and startled cries overrode the normal din.

“Are you all right?” One of the watchers knelt down beside her to help her up.

She winced, her knees and hands smarting from where they’d hit the floor. Embarrassed, she stammered out an answer. “I’m-I’m all right, ma’am.” She felt warm goo slide down the back of her neck.

Two more watchers converged on her and stooped to gather up the fallen tray and bowl as well as clean up the mess around them. People from the two tables to either side looked on in curiosity or annoyance as a number of them cleaned off splatters of goo from their clothes.

Talia’s embarrassment turned to anger though, as she suddenly glimpsed a grinning face she recognized not far from where she stood. It was the boy from the stairwell. So this was what he meant. Well he would have to do better than that if he thought he would stop her from delivering Kel his meal.

As she glared at the grinning student, one of the watchers tried to wipe off some of the gruel splattered on her hair and shirt. She was half tempted to point an accusing finger at the fiend and tell the watchers she’d been tripped on purpose, but didn’t. Though she was sure he was behind it, she possessed no way of proving it. It’d be her word against his.

Smoldering inside, she retrieved her things from the watchers and returned to the kitchen to get Kel more food. It only made her more angry as she realized the delay would also make her late to class for sure.

Her elbow twinged as she set the tray back into its usual spot. Massaging it, she looked around wondering whom she should ask for more gruel for Kel. As she looked around, she noticed several of the kitchen staff stop working and stare openly at her. Great. The one closest to her turned and called out toward the back of the room. “Tula! You’re needed over here.”

This made things even more wonderful. Pretty soon everyone in the school would know what happened today. Her anger rose a notch.

“Aleere, what are you—” Tula’s question stumbled to a halt as she caught sight of Talia. “What in the world happened to you?”

She felt her face grow hot even as she felt the eyes of everyone in the kitchen studying her. “I tripped.”

She didn’t look Tula in the eye.

“Did you now?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.” Her mouth tasted of something foul.

“Don’t trouble yourself about it,” Tula said. “We can fix this soon enough.” She pointed at a couple of the women standing about and issued orders for clean dishes and more food. Her piercing gaze then returned to Talia. “Did you hurt yourself? Do you need to go see LaSeren?”

She quickly shook her head no, no longer trusting herself to speak. She must keep this down to a minimum. Already she dreaded the number of questions she was likely to get from her friends once it got around that she’d provided this morning’s entertainment.

Tula nodded slowly, studying her up and down. “Here, let me get a rag so we can clean the rest of this mess off you.”

Talia put up quietly with the older woman’s ministrations, wondering now how bad she really looked. It was all that idiot’s fault. And it was so stupid.

Five minutes later, she was cleaner and held a reloaded tray. Thanking Tula, but still not looking her in the eye, she stepped back out into the dining hall. She gave the table with the boy who’d tripped her a wide berth, as she rushed out of the room.

By the time she made her way to the roof, her knees were complaining angrily. The palms of her hands were still red and still stung.

Kel opened the door after she knocked, but his welcoming smile faltered as he took a good look at her.

“Talia?”

Not wanting to talk about it, she sighed and cut past him. “I just had an accident. No big deal. I’m not hurt, just embarrassed.” She could have added a few other things, but kept them to herself. She set his tray on the table and immediately picked up the one waiting there for her from the night before. She headed back toward the open door, barely sparing him a glance. “I’m running late. I’ll see you at lunch.”

On her way back, she made a detour to her room and changed clothes and applied salve to her aching parts. She then hurried down to the kitchen and after that ran most of the way to class.

Helyn raised an eyebrow as she rushed in and sat down, but said nothing. Talia was quite happy with that.

Much to her relief, it seemed her classmates hadn’t heard of the incident, or if they had, they didn’t think enough of it to make much out of it. No one asked her any questions as they made their way to Nertak’s cave for their shift. Since the cave was now clean, the work groups were drafted to recreate the shelving for the place. In this, at least, she possessed some experience thanks to her father, and did better at it than a lot of the others.

For the next three days, whenever she took food to Kel and while people were still in the dining hall, she made sure to take a different route each time. She kept her eyes peeled for the boy she knew, not wanting a repeat performance of the tumble she’d taken thanks to him.

On the fourth morning, however, her luck ran out. She’d almost reached the end of the last table before the doors when she was hit from the side. She bounced off the back of a rising student as she tried desperately to keep her balance, and crashed to the floor.

“Oh, gosh! I’m so sorry!” A girl Talia didn’t recognize stood up. “Let me help you.” She reached down for her and grabbed Talia’s arm.

Talia snapped her head around as the girl squeezed it until it hurt. “You’re hurting me.”

The blond-haired girl bent down close. “I know,” she whispered, a gleeful look on her face. “But you brought it on yourself.” She half yanked her to her feet.

Talia tore her arm from her grip as soon as she could stand and stared. She was one of them. One of the ones wanting to hurt Kel. “You
witch
!” She shook where she stood, rage welling up inside her. Warm gruel dripped from her arms and back.

“Is everyone all right?” Two watchers hurried over to them.

The blonde’s face changed as if a lever were pulled. Gone was the gleeful, menacing look—all one could see now was an embarrassed older student. “It’s all my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going and bumped into her.”

The only thing Talia could do was glare at her in anger. She knew if she said anything now, she’d look spiteful. Oh, how they’d planned this. She glanced around and noticed a sprinkling of older students at the tables at this end of the room. It wasn’t normal. The age groups tended to cluster, not pepper the area like this. Most of those she saw were looking in her direction, barely hidden grins on their faces. She even spotted the one who originally offered her the bribe in the stairwell, and he was grinning the brightest of them all. Who did they think they were?

Feeling as if she might explode, Talia forced herself to look away and got down on her hands and knees to clean up the mess they helped her make.

“I really am sorry.”

She didn’t give the girl the satisfaction of even glancing up. If it was people like her who made up the guild, what was the point? The dishes clattered on the tray as she dumped them onto it. The two watchers helped her with the mess and soon she was on her way back to the kitchen. She kept her gaze centered on the floor even as she felt the burning gazes of other students stick to her as they saw her food-covered form walk past. No way the story wouldn’t make it around this time. She was positive her tormentors would make sure of it. It made her want to scream.

Talia looked at no one as she entered the kitchen and set the tray back in its niche. She waited patiently for the inevitable. It didn’t take long.

“Tula!”

“Yes, what is it now?” The thickly accented voice carried over from the back. “By the gods!”

Talia’s hands coiled into fists at her side. “I’m sorry. But I had another
accident
.” She didn’t glance up to look at the older woman though she could feel her presence nearby.

“Again, you say?” Tula’s voice was low.

She gritted her teeth as she forced herself to lie. “
Yes
.”

“Still, I have a problem believing you could be so clumsy,” Tula remarked.

She said nothing.

“Well, let’s get you cleaned up as best we can then.” Her voice rose as she sent out orders to those closest to them in the room.

With quiet sufferance, Talia stood still as Tula wiped Kel’s breakfast from her hair and clothes.

“You know, child, if you have troubles, there are those who would help you.” Tula’s whisper was very close.

By this point, her anger cooled a little. “I—I know.” And though she would appreciate the help, she wasn’t sure it would really make any difference. She could prove nothing. It was still her word against theirs. And how did you go about stopping people from hating another for no reason? She’d thought those belonging to the guild would be better than this. It was a miracle they’d lasted this long since they weren’t. But some were worthwhile, she quickly reminded herself. Still, how would the guild guard against those who didn’t hold its best interests at heart?

She would do this on her own. She just needed to try harder. She knew what she was up against now.

Luckily, Tula said nothing else to her. As soon as the tray was readied again, Talia thanked her quietly and then went on her way. She was still trying to figure out some kind of strategy to outsmart those other students when she reached Kel’s door.

“Good morning.”

Despite herself, she looked up at his cheery greeting and saw his expression sour from a ready smile to a deep frown. Frowning herself as she saw it, she brushed on past him.

“What happened to you?” Kel’s concerned question followed after her even as the rattle of chains echoed in the room.

“I was clumsy. I fell down.” She set the tray down a little too hard on the table.

“But didn’t this—”

She cut him off. “I’m
very
clumsy.” She didn’t look at him as she shifted to pick up last night’s tray.

Grabbing it, she turned to go.