Gloria Oliver (6 page)

“We’ll see you at lunch, okay?” Mandee said, “We’ve got to go to class now.”

Talia looked at her in surprise as they reached the hallway inside. “Oh.” She stared at the two girls as they prepared to go, realizing she’d forgotten they’d be leaving her. It meant she’d have to spend the rest of her time alone before going upstairs for her appointment with the Administrator.

“You’ll do fine at your meeting,” Mandee said, as if reading her mind. “Yllin here made it through, so how bad could it be?” Mandee put Talia between her and the grim-faced girl as she spoke, her eyes filled with mirth.

“Hey!” Yllin threw the redhead a dirty look. Then she glanced at Talia. “You can’t do any worse than Mandee, and they kept her, too.” Yllin looked glum, yet a small grin was trying to tug the edge of her mouth.

Mandee laughed at her attempt to get her back. “You’ll have to tell us all about it when we see you again.” She grabbed Yllin’s arm. “Come on, sourpuss, or we’ll be late.”

Talia stepped to the side of the hall, out of the way, and watched them and the other students go past.

Once almost everyone was gone, she made her way back to her room. After pacing there for a while, she sat down on her desk and began a letter to her parents. At the moment, she was distracted enough by the coming event that she felt disassociated enough to do it. She felt extremely nervous and skittish.

Her stomach knotted inside her, making her wish she’d not eaten breakfast. Still, how bad could this interview be? They wouldn’t send her back if she failed, would they?

She set the quill down, unable to write anymore.

She’d heard of such things. It was rare, but it happened on occasion. And once rejected by a guild, it became doubly hard to get accepted by another. Some found they were unable to ever get any training at all. It was people of this sort who became beggars, bandits, and worse. She wouldn’t be one of them.

Five minutes before the hour, she left her room and made her way upstairs to the fourth floor. As if she were a condemned criminal on the way to the block, she slowly approached the golden door at the end of the passage. The door towered over her the closer she came; she felt smaller with each step.

Staring up at it, she finally came to stand before it. Talia took a deep breath, trying to calm herself even as her hand came up to knock on the door. Before she got a chance to do it, however, a soft voice whispered out to her from within.

“Come in. It’s not locked.”

Her brow furrowed as she looked around her, wondering how in the world the Administrator knew she was there. With a different kind of worry now gnawing at her stomach, she pushed on the door. It gave way to her touch easily and opened silently before her. She stepped inside.

The room beyond was deep but not wide. A large blue and gold rug covered the cold marble floor, the scent of incense wafting through the air. Three doorways led from the long room, one on the right and two on the left.

“Come on over. I’m back here.” The sweet voice came from the second door on the left.

Feeling uneasy, Talia headed in that direction.

The room the second doorway opened into was large. Columns similar to those she’d seen bordering the garden were set along the walls, a shimmering, sheer azure cloth strung between them. In the center of the room was a large oval tub, with what looked to be the remains of an unusual amount of bubbles.

Beyond it, sitting on a long settee, was the woman she’d come to find.

The Administrator looked over at her, reclining comfortably in the settee, a long thick robe covering her from neck to ankles. “Come in, come in. Take a seat. I’m a little late this morning, but it won’t interfere with what you need to do.” She waved Talia over to a chair on the other side of the room.

Tearing her eyes away from the woman, she took a seat. So this was the Administrator. As far as Talia was concerned, she was one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen. A far cry from what she’d half expected. The Administrator’s skin was light with a hint of a tan. Her face was round, with a small nose and full lips. Black, wavy hair was piled on her head to keep it above the soapy water, and accentuated her deep blue eyes. But Talia at no time expected to conduct her interview in a bathroom. Surely this wasn’t how normal people conducted meetings in the outside world? Then she remembered her encounter with Tammer, and how it didn’t go exactly as expected, either.

“My name is Lareen,” the Administrator said in the same soft voice Talia heard from the outside. “I’m this school’s administrator.” Lareen changed position, turning on her side, to get a better look at her.

“Welcome to Dragon’s Peak.” She gave Talia a large, warm smile. “I love my job. It has many benefits.

For example, no early morning wake-up calls. Unfortunately, though, sometimes I have a tendency to oversleep.” Her smile turned sly.

Talia felt embarrassed for her. Though from the look of her the Administrator seemed less than bothered by it. Not exactly what she expected from someone in such a high position. Surely she took her job seriously?

“Welcome to my school, Talia. How have you liked it so far?” Lareen’s intense blue stare seemed to bore into her.

“Fine, ma’am. It’s very nice.” She tried her best not to fidget.

“Don’t worry,” Lareen waved her hand lightly, “you’ll get used to everything. Your homesickness will pass before you know it.”

Talia stared, wondering how she knew about this. She’d never mentioned it to anyone.

The Administrator moved to sit back as she’d been before. “Our guild is very large. This school is one of many. But it’s also one of the best.” Her tone turned serious. “You’ll be here with us for four years and then you can either decide to stay for more general training or go to a more specialized school. Unlike most guilds, you have choices on what you decide to become. Almost anything is possible here.” Her intense stare locked with Talia’s own. “Do you have any thoughts on what it is you would prefer to be?”

Talia looked away, caught off guard by the question. She possessed no idea what she wanted to do before her parents took the decision from her and knew no better now. The stories she’d heard didn’t really speak of what jobs this guild offered. She assumed the only one they had was to be a Dragon Knight. Wasn’t that all they trained for here? “A knight?”

Lareen smiled again. “You have no restrictions here. You can be anything. We have need of more than just knights. Since our guild is self-sufficient and a government unto ourselves, we need people with skills in all walks of life—farmers, weavers, cooks, even administrators.” Her eyes were bright. “We don’t have enough dragons for everyone and there exist more challenging roles for some than being a knight.”

Talia stared at the floor, more surprised by this than she wanted to admit. So she would still have to make a choice sometime after all. She wasn’t sure whether she was relieved by this revelation or not.

“Don’t worry, though. If a Dragon Knight is what you want to be, you’ll get your chance. Everyone can play the lottery. And until the time comes, you’ll learn all manner of things and perhaps see what else is out there which might interest you.”

Talia nodded, trying to absorb all she was being told, even as dozens of questions sprang to her mind.

She could be anything? How truly big was this guild? What was a lottery?

“If you wouldn’t mind, would you be a dear and go into the room to the right of this one and bring in the cart that’s there?”

“Yes, ma’am.” She rose immediately and went in search of the cart. She quickly found it, but upon seeing its contents a whole new slew of questions intruded on her mind.

The cart she pushed back held three tiers. Each of them was full, and their contents were not anything she’d have expected to find in them.

“Ah, yes, that’s the one.” Lareen waved her closer. “If you would, please go through what’s on the top and pick out the best five you can find.”

Talia’s mouth opened, but it still took her a second to be able to respond. “Y—yes, ma’am.” She turned to look at the contents of the cart’s first tier and swallowed hard as she again stared with disbelief at the sparkling gems that filled the shelf to the brim. Never in her life did she think she’d see so many, let alone be asked to pick five of them. Worse, she didn’t know anything about precious stones. She hadn’t even seen any of any real worth until Kel bestowed some to her parents.

“Take as long as you need to pick them,” Lareen said. “There’s no hurry.”

Talia couldn’t quite bring herself to even touch them.

“Maybe you should dump them out on the floor,” the Administrator suggested. “It might make it easier to look through them. You can use the corner over there.” She pointed off to the right.

Talia nodded, swallowing hard, and then touched the gems. They felt strange to the touch, slick and cool. She handled them gingerly as she set them out on the floor, a little horrified she was being allowed to treat them this way. The gems before her were of every size and color. She didn’t even know what half of them were. She was only too aware she didn’t have a basis on which to make her choices. The Administrator wanted her to pick the best five, but she didn’t know how to make that determination.

She stared at the treasure before her and quickly tried to think of everything she’d ever heard about precious stones or other precious things and how they were normally valued. Talia knew a little about cloths, how the finer the weave the more expensive it was, but couldn’t quite figure out how she could apply the knowledge here.

Her father, as a hobby, worked with wood. He’d made a lot of the furniture in their home himself and occasionally made a piece or two to sell in town. She’d always thought he was good at it. And every time, before he ever started a project, he carefully checked the wood for rotting, consistency, and cracks. Maybe those criteria would work here as well.

She shrugged her shoulders, not able to think of anything else, and got to work.

Picking up each gem and looking at it carefully, she set aside any which were cracked, chipped, or weren’t consistent in color. Of the forty gems before her, she was able to get rid of ten.

After he gathered the wood, her father would normally take painstaking care to measure out the lengths he’d need and make sure all the parts would be even when he got done. Keeping this in mind, she looked through the remaining gems and took out any which were cut unevenly or which weren’t symmetrical.

That got rid of twelve more.

Softly biting her lip, she stared at the gems left before her, trying to find some other way to narrow her choices further.

When her father worked on his projects, she recalled that the ones he took the longest to make or that were made up of the most components usually looked better than those he just quickly threw together. If she remembered right, he normally got paid more for those, too. Not sure if the same could be said of precious stones, she still set out to separate them with the same idea in mind. She separated the eighteen remaining gems by the number and shape of their cuts.

Of the eight most intricate of the lot, she picked out five whose colors she liked best.

“Are you done?”

Talia looked up surprised, long ago having forgotten about the Administrator. She quickly nodded.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Let me see.” Lareen sounded suddenly eager.

Gathering up her choices, she brought them over to her. Lareen critically studied the gems in her hands.

“Very well done,” she finally remarked. “They’re yours to keep.”

Talia felt her eyes grow wide. Lareen couldn’t be serious. This was a small fortune.

“You’ll find some small bags lining the bottom of the top shelf of the cart. Pick one to keep them in.”

She hesitated. She just couldn’t believe the woman was serious.

The Administrator insisted, waving her on. “Go on.”

“Y—yes, ma’am.” Talia retreated with her prizes. She was still utterly confused. How could they let her keep these? Everyone knew apprentices were not usually given money of their own. And even if they were, this was just too much.

Almost in a half daze, she studied the small bags that lined the first shelf of the cart. After looking them over, she realized they were all the same size but their colors were as varied as a field of flowers. She picked a dark blue one to call her own and quickly dropped her prizes inside. After tying the bag shut and latching it on to her belt, she picked up the other gems off the floor and put them back in the cart.

“Let’s move over to my bedroom so I can get dressed while you start in on the next shelf.” The Administrator stood up from the settee and released her bound hair, combing it as she left the room barefoot. Talia grabbed hold of the cart and set out to follow her. Lareen led her out into the entry hall and to the room across the way.

The Administrator’s bedroom was twice as large as her bathroom. A wide, canopied bed dominated the far side and yet the room still didn’t look crowded. Two sets of doors led out to separate balconies. As Talia watched, Lareen sauntered over to a marble-topped vanity and sat down before the large mirror.

She set down the comb, picked up a large brush, and gently stroked it through her cascading hair.

“You’ll find a number of papers on the second shelf of the cart. I want you to read through them and then tell me which of them would be the most useful.” Lareen glanced at her in the mirror’s reflection.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable and use the chair back there?” Lareen pointed toward the corner of the room closest to the door where a bulky but well padded chair and a small table sat nestled.

Talia steered the cart in that direction and sat down. Gingerly, she pulled out the four sets of parchments and set them on the table. As she saw that the Administrator was paying her no attention whatsoever, she pushed herself farther back on the comfortable chair and opened the first parchment.

Within, she found what looked to be a list of common items—rope, hoses, eggs, chickens. It also listed their weights, quantities, and prices. The list was quite extensive, almost ten pages worth. She read through all the items, unsure whether something important might be hidden within. She didn’t find anything.