Call of the Colossus: An epic fantasy novel (The Mindstream Chronicles Book 2) (34 page)

“Of course not,” she said, though some part of her harbored an irrational annoyance that he hadn’t made an effort to protect Arc. “I have to study. Follow me to the library, if you must.”

He stood and walked to the door, opened it, and bowed. “After you. You’re my only assignment now.”

Once they reached the reading room, she sat at a table and pretended to read, flipping pages now and then to keep up appearances while she thought about Captain Kyear and who might have entered his office since she’d left him there. To keep him from waking up, she’d had Sonnis help her stuff him completely under the desk and had Po Teng statuize him there. Only someone who went around the desk and sat in his chair would have seen him. She’d extinguished all the lamps before leaving, in the hopes that people would think he’d left for the day.

Korlan sat across the table from her and dozed with his chin on his chest. The first supper bell rang, and the two adepts in the library picked up their belongings and left. Through the windows, Jora could easily see the waning sunlight through the windows and the shadows of the nearby trees growing longer. Sunset was approaching. She’d already missed lunch and would be expected at supper. In fact, she’d promised Adriel they would eat together. If Jora and Arc arrived too late at the Legion headquarters, they wouldn’t be able to get in until the following morning.

She ate a distracted supper surrounded by her friends. They were Adriel’s friends, really, men and women enamored of the notion of being friends with the Gatekeeper. At first they were enraptured, hanging on her every word, but once the novelty wore off, they talked over her and generally ignored her, even while saving a seat at their table specifically for her. She occasionally caught her friends Emelia and Lorense watching wistfully from another table, and she longed to leave the loud-mouths and join them. At least those two seemed to genuinely enjoy her company.

As she placed her dirty bowl, spoon, and tray in their respective places, Emelia hurried over with her own. “You’re welcome to join us when you get tired of that crowd,” she said. “It breaks my heart to see the way you sit there, smiling politely while they blather on and on.”

“Perhaps tomorrow morning I will,” Jora replied. “If I don’t sleep through the bell like I did today.”

Korlan fell into step with her as she headed to her room. “You didn’t wake me.”

“Sorry,” she said. They began to climb the stairs. “You looked tired. I was only coming to supper anyway, as you can see.”

“I didn’t realize I was so tired.”

“Then you should be glad I let you sleep. The third bell’s about to ring. You should go down and get in line.”

“Are you in a hurry to get rid of me?” he asked.

“I want to go visit Arc and be back before lock-up, so either you hurry and eat or I go without you.”

He reached the door in three long strides. “I’ll be back before the last ring fades.”

“Meet me by the gate,” she said. “And don’t dawdle.”

Of course, she had no intention of bringing him along to the Legion building, but he didn’t need to know that.

As promised, Korlan met her near the side gate within a few minutes of the third bell. He was still chewing his food when he got there, and even shoved a handful of food into his mouth after he swallowed.

“You didn’t need to go that far,” she said. “I waited for you, as you can see.”

“I know,” he said, his mouth still full. He chewed a few more times. “I didn’t want you to get impatient.” He slapped his hands off, then wiped them on the legs of his trousers. “Why so eager to see your new friend? Are you falling for him?”

“What? No. Where did that come from?”

He shrugged. “You did save him from a prison of sorts. It’d surprise me if he didn’t feel like he owes you. Maybe he’s falling for you a little.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Arc and I have a professional relationship.”

“What, like master–guard dog?”

“That was rude.”

He grinned, not looking apologetic in the least. “Sorry.”

He was jealous, she realized. She’d saved him, he felt like he owed her. Perhaps he was falling for her.

Arc was visibly surprised to see Korlan when they arrived at his shop that evening. He invited them in and shut the door.

“Why did you nie—not come earlier?” he asked.

Jora’s eyes widened when she realized he was referring to her last visit—the one without Korlan. She tried to shake her head surreptitiously to signal to Arc that he should drop the matter, but he was looking at Korlan. “We would have,” she said, “but I had a lot of reading to catch up on today. I spent the last several hours in the library.”

He looked at her askance. “You hast abandon’d me here to waste the time alone, wythout a soul to talk to.”

“Sorry, Arc,” she said, patting his arm. “I offered to statuize you to help the time pass more quickly, but you declined, remember?”

“Have you e’er been a statue?” he asked Korlan.

Korlan shook his head in reply.

“You should still him,” Arc said.

Jora shrugged, trying to look casual. “If he wants, sure.” She opened the Mindstream and summoned Po Teng.

Korlan shuffled back a step, watching Po Teng with a wary eye. “Why would I want to be a statue?”

“Statuize Korlan,” she whispered to her ally.

“Remember what he ask’d,” Arc said. “If you answer the question whenas you release him, he shall suspect nothing.”

Jora nodded as she shrugged out of her red robe and put on the hat. “Ready to go?”

As they walked through the streets, people stared, not at her but at the giant looming above everyone, with his long, brown hair trailing behind him. She watched him walk, each shoulder dipping with every long stride, and realized he didn’t feel as out of place as he looked. Maybe he was used to towering over everyone, but people didn’t grow so tall in Serocia anymore. It was hard to believe that people his size were once commonplace.

“Did many people reach your height in your time?” she asked.

“No, only Colossus.”

“Are you big because you’re Colossus, or are you Colossus because you’re big?”

He smiled down at her. “The former. Children are tested in their youth for reflex, attention to detail, and perseverance. The chosen ones drink Blood of Hibsar e’ry day.”

“What is Blood of Hibsar?”

“You hast godfruit to give you two deaths. We have Blood of Hibsar to grow giants o’normal citizens. My natural siblings and parents are nie ful tall.”

“Oh. So that statue Ludo—he isn’t your natural brother?”

“Nay, he and I were o’the same age, chosen at the same time, raised together, trained together. He is my bro’er in the ways that matter.”

Ahead, the black face of the Legion building reflected the orange glow of the sun setting behind them. Jora and Arc circled a nearby chandler’s shop and waited, angled so they could see the front door. It opened again, and two men exited and headed around the building toward the stable.

A stable hand came around the corner of the building leading a pair of saddled horses. Three more uniformed men exited the building and bid each other a good evening. One left on foot, and the other two mounted the horses and went their separate ways. The stable hand disappeared around the corner.

“His horse,” Jora said. “I forgot about his horse. The stable master will know something’s amiss if Kyear doesn’t retrieve it.”

Arc raised his brows and gave her an
I-told-you-so
expression.

“Don’t start.”

“I did nie seye anything.”

Jora used the Mindstream to Observe Louris the desk clerk.

He stood stiffly, groaning, and shuffled down the corridor, peeking into rooms and putting out lamps. “Anyone still here?” he asked now and then. When he reached the end of the hallway, he came back and checked the rooms on the other side. The hallway darkened with every lamp and candle he extinguished. “Locking up for the night. Anyone here?”

With a heavy sigh, he climbed the stairs. After reaching the top, he paused a minute to catch his breath, then continued checking rooms and blowing out lights. At Captain Kyear’s office, he rapped on the closed door and waited for a reply. Hearing none, he opened the door. “Captain? Huh,” he muttered. He left the office and continued down the hallway.

At last, with the upper floor in darkness, he started down the steps. Only the lamps at his desk and in the lobby still glowed.

“All right,” Jora said. “I think we can go in now. He’s about to leave. I’ll wave you in when it’s clear. Po Teng,” she called. “Get ready to statuize the man in the building when I say.”

The ally faded into view, nodding, as if he’d heard her before he was fully visible.

She stepped into the ’twixt.

Arc reached out and groped back and forth across her face and head as if he didn’t feel her. She didn’t feel his hand on her either, but from the Mindstream, she saw him knock her hat off.

“Oops,” he said, bending to pick it up. “Sorry. I thought thou wert gone.”

She smiled, making a note to explain it to him more thoroughly later. She hurried to the Legion building and waited by the door. Talking while in the ’twixt was just as unnerving as walking was, since she couldn’t feel the words in her mouth. It was like her entire body was numb.

The door opened. She ducked into the now dark lobby, slipping past the desk clerk, and left the ’twixt, and Po Teng came with her. “Now.”

The desk clerk turned at the sound of her voice and froze in place, his hand holding the door open.

Arc strolled toward the door, looking around casually. She waved him in. “Let’s move him.”

With his arms around the statue’s waist, he shuffled the statue another foot or two farther in. He set it down and looked it over. “He looketh alarmed.”

“It’ll be all right,” she said. “He won’t notice anything unusual.” She let the door swing shut, plunging them into darkness. In reflex, she opened the Mindstream to Observe herself.

“Have you any flint?”

“No, but I can lead us in the dark. Take my hand.”

He groped for her hand, found it, and clasped it snugly. “You have the delicate hands of a girl.”

“Did you expect otherwise?”

He chuckled. “Nay, ’tis pleasant for me.”

“This way.” She led him past the front desk to the stairs and stopped. “Stairs here. One more step forward, then up.”

They climbed the steps without incident and started down the hall. Captain Kyear’s office door was still open, as the desk clerk had left it. Inside, the sleeping Kyear statue was exactly where she’d left it. She didn’t know why she feared it would be gone, but she did. “How about if I scout around for a place to hide it so you don’t have to stumble around in the dark?”

“All right.”

She led him to one of the chairs in front of the captain’s desk. “There’s a chair here. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Most of the doors opened to other offices, but two closets at the end of the hall were promising. One was larger than the other–about the size of an office being used for storage–and was filled with furniture and crates stacked to the ceiling. There was a spot in the corner where the Kyear statue could fit if she could push an unused desk out of the way. It was big and heavy and standing on one end. Because the top of the desk had an overhang, it tilted to one side. She set her buttocks against it and pushed, straining against its weight. It shifted an inch or two when she realized she had a large, powerful man not far away who would make short work of this. A candle would be helpful.

She returned to Kyear’s office. “I found a place to hide him, but I need you to move a desk aside first to make room for him. Once he’s in place, we could throw a dust drape over him.”

He reached for her, and she took his hand. “Take me thither.”

“There. Take you there.”

“Take me there.”

She chuckled as she led him down the hall. “I’ll have you speaking like a modern man in no time.”

When they reached the closet, Jora took Arc by the upper arms, then steered him from behind through the room like he was a plow. “Here. Right in front of you is a desk. Could you move it a few inches to the right?”

He explored it with his hands, then tipped it up onto its edge, and walked it to the right a few inches. “Is this enow?”

“I think so. Now let’s bring Kyear.”

They returned to the dark office. Arc wanted to test the statue’s weight against his strength, but in the end, he went along with Jora’s plan of putting him to sleep and carrying him over one shoulder.

She led him by the hand out of the office and down the hallway, then once again guided him in from behind. Arc carefully laid Captain Kyear onto the floor, and Jora stretched his legs out straight. Once Po Teng statuized him, Arc pulled him upright, and then wrestled him into the corner with Jora navigating.

“There,” Jora said. “That wasn’t so hard.” She pulled a dust drape from a shelf and shook it open.

“What is that?” Arc asked.

“It’s a dust cover,” she said. “More to hide him than to keep him from getting–”

“Shhh!”

Jora froze, the drape in her outstretched hands ready to pull over Kyear’s head. Footsteps. The dim glow of candlelight floated toward them in the hallway.
Challenger
’
s bollocks!
Someone was coming. “What do we do?”

“Allow me this,” Arc whispered. He slipped to the wall beside the door, ready to attack if the interloper entered.

No
, she thought.
That would only make it worse.
She pulled the drape over her head and whispered to Po Teng, “Stop Arc.” She hunkered down, trying to make herself as small and unworthy of notice as possible.

A woman holding a candle stopped in the doorway. She gasped at the sight of the huge statue, its fist raised as if to pummel her. “Gracious,” she muttered. She raised the candle overhead and slipped past the Arc statue into the store room. Her gaze paused on Po Teng. Jora cursed silently to herself, sure the woman would run screaming from the building. To his credit, Po Teng stood perfectly still, his eyes closed, as if he were a dead tree. The woman continued to look around.