Gloria Oliver (5 page)

Though Talia came to learn both Mandee and Yllin had only been at the school for six months, they seemed to know a lot about the place. They took her outside to the grounds and showed her the planted fields she’d caught a glimpse of before. Since this time she wasn’t clinging onto a dragon for dear life, she was able to study them more critically. This was something she knew a little about. Each square field grew something different, giving Talia the impression the farmers rotated their crops. Corn, wheat, lettuce, and others she easily recognized, though some vegetables she didn’t. Each of the fields looked incredibly healthy and abundant—almost amazingly so. She wondered how they did it, and knew her father would give almost anything to find out.

The forest bordering the fields was lush and thick. She saw patches where it appeared some of the trees had been cut down and later replaced with rows of saplings. Her curiosity was piqued as she spotted a couple of trees near the dragon’s landing area. These showed torn limbs, and some were cracked, one of them almost in half. Yet it didn’t look as if lightning was responsible. “What happened to those trees?”

“Clarence, that’s what happened to them.” Yllin snorted. “He’s a menace. It’s a miracle nobody’s been killed riding him.”

Talia stared at the two trees and could only too easily imagine the dragon careening into them. Was Kel riding him at the time? That was harder to imagine. How in the world could he have survived it? She still didn’t have any idea how he came out unharmed when the two of them landed at her home. “Why would they make him ride such a dangerous dragon?”

“They don’t.”

She stared at Mandee in surprise.

For once, the red headed-girl looked serious. “From what I understand, he wants to do it. He wants to pass the test so he can become a full knight, and he wants to do it with Clarence. He practices on him constantly. You can see them flying around all day and half the night when he’s not off running errands.”

“I bet he’s crazy,” Yllin added. “Half the older students say so. Clarence probably landed on him one too many times and snapped something loose in here.” She tapped the side of her head.

So Kel willingly went through this agony day after day? She shook her head, not able to understand it.

“Come on, we’ve got more to show you!” Mandee waved them on.

Briskly, they followed the road from the dragon landing area and went around the right side of the school to the back. Talia spotted the small, bubbling lake the girls mentioned to her earlier and the tiny river winding away from it, which turned into a waterfall at the end of the mesa. A short distance away was a large pit filled partway with the same dark excrement Clarence left for her parents. Two men were there, scooping some of it out onto wheelbarrows. Later, she saw the two men head off back toward the fields.

She wondered if it made good fertilizer. She remembered how Clarence told her parents it was worth a lot of money to alchemists. Could excrement have so many uses? She did notice, just as Mandee mentioned, that there didn’t seem to be much of a smell, unlike when he used her father’s field.

Several poles lined the far edge of the area with globes similar to those in her room. At the moment, however, they weren’t lit.

They walked on past the dragon’s domicile to the hilly area beyond the garden. Though they didn’t get too close, mostly at Yllin’s insistence, Mandee pointed out to Talia where the store master’s cave was.

They didn’t linger there long and soon made their way back into the school building.

Inside, they walked around the first floor, and her new friends showed Talia the offices they knew as well as where they went to class. The last thing they went to visit was the immense library on the opposite side of the building from where the dining hall was—and it was almost as big. She stared as they walked past row upon row of books. “Will we have to read them all?” A tone of both wonder and trepidation filled her voice.

Mandee laughed. “Thankfully, no, we won’t. Though I’m sure we will need to read some of them. And not all of them are for study anyway.” She pointed off to the far back. “The section over there is all legends and stories.”

From what she could see of them, Talia noticed those books looked more worn than the rest of the ones in the library. Even now, it seemed to be the area with the most students gathered about.

When they were done there, Yllin and Mandee both asked to see her room. Once they stepped inside, Yllin slipped the bar across the door. If the danger from these “peepers”, as she called them, really existed, would it really matter right now since they were fully clothed? Talia decided not to comment on it.

Mandee deftly climbed up onto the higher bunk bed and bounced on the thick mattress. “Aren’t all these rooms great?”

“Definitely bigger than what I had at home,” Talia replied. She stared at the wide room around her, still not quite able to believe all this space was hers alone.

“It does have some drawbacks…” Yllin walked over to the tub. “Every week we have to empty the water and fill it up again.” She glanced over at Talia. “Not that it ever gets dirty or really gets low.” She pointed to the buckets by the water basin. “It’s what those are for.”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have to drag them all the way from the lake.” Mandee sighed.

“At least we get to just throw the old water out the balcony.” She jumped off the bed.

“But how does the water stay hot?” Talia asked. She noticed wisps of steam still rising from the surface.

Mandee shrugged. “It’s magic. They use it a lot around here. So a lot of stuff doesn’t work like we’re used to.”

“I’m pretty sure the whole water thing is just to keep us busy, too,” Yllin said glumly, “Because if their magic can keep the water clean and warm, it could keep itself full.”

“Oh.” Magic—it would explain the lights in her room as well. As with dragons, it was something Talia knew existed, but she’d not been exposed to any of it before. Magic was something for the rich and powerful. Was the guild so well off they could use it on such trivial things?

“We’d better be going,” Mandee said. “I’ve a feeling Yllin and I have filled you with way too much to think about already.” She smiled. “See you at breakfast tomorrow?”

Talia nodded quickly. “Yes, that’d be great. Thanks for showing me around.” She walked them to the door. Yllin took off the bar.

“No problem. Good night.” Mandee and Yllin stepped outside and waved as they moved on down the hall.

“Good night.” Talia watched them as they walked away and then slowly closed her door.

The room suddenly seemed incredibly quiet except for the barely audible trickling of water from the clock. Though she’d seen earlier the rooms to either side of her were occupied, she could hear nothing through the thick stonewalls. At home, though she had her own room, she could normally hear anyone moving about downstairs or hear the wood of the house creak during a strong wind. It seemed much too quiet here.

Sighing, she walked to the balcony doors and opened them wide. She stepped out, sighed again, then let herself be embraced by the calm darkness there. The moon was shining brightly above. Looking to either side she noticed others were also out on their balconies. It eased her heart a little to see them there.

Unexpectedly, something caught at her attention from the corner of her eye. Talia looked up just in time to see a large shadow cross over the moon. She followed it with her gaze and noticed how it wove up and down in no constant pattern.

Not sure what it was, she leaned over the rail as the object came closer. Trying to look up past the balconies above her as it flew overhead, she jerked back with a gasp as it suddenly dropped past hers toward the ground.

A light scent of oil rushed by with the wind. She recognized the smell as the shadow rose again, zooming past. Light shone on dark green scales and a figure made of metal. It was Clarence and Kel. Were they both mad? What if Clarence careened into one of the balconies? It was dangerous enough flying a cross-eyed dragon during the day. It was lunacy to do it at night.

As if to accentuate her point, all the lights in the students’ rooms went out at the same time. Faint, voiced protests reached her ears as bedtime arrived. Talia forced herself to take deep breaths, her heart still at a gallop in her chest. From what Mandee and Yllin said, Kel’s and Clarence’s practice was a normal occurrence, and from the disappointed sounds of the students so was the dousing of the lights.

Giving the dragon and the squire one last glance, she went back inside and closed the balcony doors behind her. She changed clothes with what moonlight filtered in from the outside and then crawled into the strange bed.

Sleep was a long time coming.

[Back to Table of Contents]

TALIA WOKE TO the call of birds again. The lilting chirps were high and strong, nothing like the familiar whistles of the red speckled Talerns or even the noisy cacophony of the rooster in the hen house.

The call came again and this time was answered by one closer still. She slowly sat up in her bed, glanced out toward the balcony doors, and spotted a bright blue and green bird eyeing her from the rail. It dipped its head as if bidding her good morning and then left with a flurry of wings.

She smiled at the greeting but soon sobered. The sun was out, and she had an appointment. In a half panic, she scrambled out of bed and glanced at the clock in its niche in the wall. She felt suddenly foolish, as she saw it was only ten minutes to six. By this time, her mother would already be up, busy preparing breakfast, while her father would be out looking over the fields making his plans for the day.

She wiped at her face as she felt a warm tear trickle down her cheek. She was being silly and she knew it. She’d never thought of herself as the sentimental type before. Just as all the other children in Queegam, she’d known her whole life that sooner or later she would be apprenticed. She just never thought it would be so hard … Or that she’d miss home so much…

Shaking herself out of her growing sadness, she made the bed then quickly took a bath. Once she’d gotten dressed it was twelve after six. She wanted to go down to breakfast early, but this was too early.

She eyed the blank papers and quills at her desk and thought of starting a letter to her parents then put the idea aside, not wanting to run the risk of calling up more tears, especially since she was supposed to attend a meeting with the Administrator this morning.

At six thirty, the globes in her room turned on. Already slightly startled by the unexpected event, she started when someone knocked hard on her door. “Time to rise!”

Talia rushed to her door, but when she opened it no one was there. She looked down the hall and spotted a watcher knocking on a door three down from hers and calling out it was time to rise. The watcher then moved on to the next one.

Since the whole school was being awakened, she decided it would be all right for her to go downstairs.

Stepping out into the hall and closing the door to her room, she headed for the nearest set of stairs. She got a couple of surprised looks from some of the watchers she passed along the way, but they said nothing so she went on.

The dining hall was empty when she arrived, but the sounds of voices and the rattle of pots and pans echoed softly through the room from an open kitchen door. The smell of baking bread teased her nostrils.

She glanced around and then drifted closer to the Administrator’s table. She decided on the one closest to it, hoping this time she might be able to catch a glimpse of the woman before she met her later this morning. The strange way in which Mandee spoke of her had made her a bit more nervous about the coming meeting than she might have been otherwise.

As Talia waited for Mandee and the others to appear, a lone person came into the room from the door leading out into the garden. As she wondered what they’d been doing out there so early in the morning, she realized she knew this person—it was Kel. The squire spotted her at about the same time and waved a greeting to her as he walked toward the open kitchen door. She tentatively waved back.

People were pouring into the dining hall in earnest by the time she saw him come back out of the kitchen.

He held a large basket of fruit in one hand and a filled plate in the other. She was a little surprised as she saw him walk over to the Administrator’s table and take a seat at the far end. Kel set his things down and started eating, seemingly paying attention to nothing or anyone. She frowned.

“What are you looking at?”

She almost jumped out of her seat at Mandee’s soft question. She’d been paying so much attention to Kel she didn’t hear her come up. “Ah, nothing.” She looked away at the slight lie. “Good morning.”

“Morning.” Mandee sat down next to her. “You sure got here early. I way overslept on my first day.”

She grinned.

“I—I guess I’m just used to it. We got up early at home everyday.”

“Not me. At least, not when I could get away with it.” Her grin grew into a mischievous smile.

Yllin and a few of the others Talia met the day before joined them. Greetings were passed all around.

As the watchers started serving breakfast, she noticed Kel finishing his. Though some teachers now populated the table, he didn’t speak to them other than to trade pleasantries. As soon as he was done, he got up, picked up his basket of fruit and left the dining hall the same way he’d come in.

“There goes the useless one.”

Talia snapped to look behind her. The table next to theirs was filled with mostly older-looking students.

A couple of them were chuckling as they stared in Kel’s direction, but she couldn’t tell who’d voiced the comment. Was this how people really felt about him? Just how long had he been trying to pass his test?

The Administrator’s table was soon full but her chair remained empty. Talia wondered if this was a good thing or not.

As before, the watchers maintained an unobtrusive vigil over the students as they ate. Talia found it hard to put away all she’d been served, though everything was delicious. She felt stuffed as time ran out and they all stood to go for their walk through the garden. She admitted she did feel better by the time they were through.