Gloria Oliver (15 page)
Authors: Cross-Eyed Dragon Troubles
“N-no, it’s all right. This will do for now, thank you.”
Nertak shrugged, his previous expression vanishing as if it’d never been. “Okay then. That’ll be two gems, please.”
She quickly fished out the required amount, surprised it wasn’t more, but not willing to say so. To be honest, she wasn’t sure what to expect, since all she priced before were the diaries. Perhaps the reason they gave them gems was because things here were so expensive? Still, if the books were one a piece, wouldn’t what she was buying been more?
“Ah, thank you kindly,” Nertak said as she laid the gems on the counter. “And to show my appreciation for your being such a good customer, I’ll throw in some instructions on proper armor care for free.”
She flushed with gratitude, already troubled by how she was going to figure out how to use half the things he’d picked for her. “Thank you, thank you very much.”
“No problem.” The old man smiled. “Any mail today?”
“Oh!” She’d almost forgotten. She quickly retrieved the letter for her parents from her vest. “Yes, here.”
“I’ll take care if it for you,” he said. “Come back soon.”
Talia grabbed the sack, the stand, and then nodded. “Okay. Goodbye.” She made her way out, struggling with her burden as she tried not to let the stand knock into things.
By the time she got her purchases up to her room, she wanted to do nothing more than collapse. Despite her weariness though, she opened the balcony doors and slowly dragged the armor, the stand, and the cleaning supplies out into the early evening air.
The instructions Nertak gave her on the care and cleaning of armor were written simply, in a step-by-step process, and looked to be very thorough. She followed each one even as the last of the sun dipped slowly out of sight in the horizon.
Hours later, she sighed as she leaned against the balcony’s rail. Her arms and hands ached from all the scrubbing and rubbing—she didn’t realize how many pieces Seren had fitted together on her—but she was finally done. The moon was high in the sky, almost full, with stars twinkling brightly around it in a veil.
She stared at them, thinking of nothing, not yet able to gather the compunction and strength to get herself and her items back inside. After a moment, she blinked, not sure if she’d just seen a shadow cross the moon. Her gaze searched the skies and finally found the silhouette that caused it. As it crossed before the light of the moon again, she realized what it was—a dragon. A moment later she knew which dragon it was. She’d seen the dizzying pattern of flight too many times to be mistaken. It was Clarence. And as he flew nearer, she realized Kel was with him as well.
She studied them as they wove through the sky and pondered once more why they put themselves through this. They both tried so hard, but it was obvious they were getting nowhere. She then recalled Clarence’s unexpected and smartly executed rescue earlier in the day—could it mean they were making progress after all?
Talia sat and watched them until it was almost time for the lights to go out. With a small groan, she forced herself to her feet and grudgingly brought her possessions indoors. With tired pride, she smiled a little as she gazed at her armor gleaming clean and bright. As she closed the balcony doors and prepared for bed, she only hoped she wouldn’t have to clean it again any time soon.
She made it to the doors and was about to lift the curtain to take a peek when a flurry of movement rang out outside. The light from the moon was cut off momentarily as whatever was outside her doors rose upwards. She pulled the curtain aside with a yank but nothing was there. Damn.
This was a mystery she didn’t enjoy. But sooner or later she’d find out what was going on. Whatever it was didn’t try to come in before, but she’d rather dissuade it than wait until it decided to do so. Yllin’s mention of peepers drifted in her thoughts. Could it be what this was about? Just to be on the safe side, she placed one of her buckets a hand’s span from the balcony doors so if anyone opened them, she would hear it.
It took her a long time to go back to sleep.
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YAWNING SLEEPILY, TALIA made her way downstairs for breakfast. Her mind was a little muddled from lack of sleep compounded by the mental and physical exertions of the day before. She became a lot more alert, however, as she made the turn in the final hallway and saw the dining hall doors were closed.
More unusual was the fact two watchers were standing before the doors as if guarding them.
Puzzled, she slowed her pace as she approached. She felt both women’s gazes latch on to her as they spotted her and they didn’t look away. She felt her apprehension rise.
“Mornin’, Miss,” the younger of the two said.
Before she got a chance to return the greeting she was cut off by the other.
“The Administrator has ordered all students to wear their armor today. No one is to get in without it.”
She frowned at the news, wondering why Lareen would give such a command.
“I would suggest you get yourself upstairs and put it on.” The older woman’s stare was hard.
“We’d also appreciate it if you’d mention this to anyone you passed along the way?” The younger watcher gave her a small, apologetic smile.
“I’d, I’d be happy to, ma’am.” Talia turned away, a frown still on her face. What was this about? Even with the rumors about her involvement with the worms, why would the Administrator order this, and before breakfast at that?
She only met two other students on her way back to her room. She informed each one of what she’d been told and while the younger of the two turned back around to get his armor, the older one stared at her as if she’d gone insane and continued on his way.
Shaking her head, she entered her room and glanced at the armor in the corner. It looked clean and maintained, and suddenly she was very glad she took the time to do so last night. She wondered how many of the others decided to wait and would regret the decision before too much longer.
Putting the armor back on turned out to be a long and tedious process. How was she supposed to do this on her own? The back and front breastplates were easy enough but after those … She struggled with the rest of it, and needed to get a little inventive to get it all on. Lifting the visor of her helmet, she sighed heavily when she was finally done.
Her stomach grumbled, pointedly reminding her she’d yet to give it breakfast. With any luck, she would be satisfying it soon.
Going down the stairs felt more awkward and dangerous than it was going up them the day before. She clung to the banister on her way down, keeping her eyes solely on the steps before her.
Older students passed by wearing their armor and taking the stairs with no trouble whatsoever. She gritted her teeth at the sight and kept on.
Once she came near to the dining hall, she spotted those dressed in armor being admitted through the doors. Against one side of the wall, however, were two students who were having problems getting parts of their armor on. They looked so miserable as they struggled with them she contemplated helping them—even though she wasn’t sure how much aid she’d really be. Luckily, one of the older students decided to give them a hand before she got there.
“No, you can’t come inside.” The older watcher was glaring at a student whose armor was covered in grime and dried worm blood.
“But I have my armor on,” the girl whined.
“That’s true,” quipped in the other. “But it’s filthy, and this is breakfast. Do you think those sitting around you would enjoy their food with you smelling and looking like that?”
Now that she mentioned it, Talia did notice an undercurrent of nose-curdling odor in the air.
“But—”
“Be off with you!” The older watcher took a menacing step forward. “If you put your back to it, you should be able to get it clean in an hour or two.”
The other added with a grin, “There might be food left if you hurry.”
Talia saw the girl’s helmeted head droop in defeat. “Yes, ma’am.” She turned away and trundled back the way she’d come. Talia wondered how many others got turned away in the same way.
Once her own turn came, the two women gave her no trouble, immediately opening the door so she could go in.
Inside, all she could see was a sea of metal. She stared at the armored crowd searching for her friends, but was hard pressed to recognize anyone in their metal-encased bodies.
“Talia!”
She turned to look to her right and saw an armored arm waving for her attention. Recognizing Mandee from what she could see of her face through her open visor, she gratefully headed in her direction. She wondered how the other girl was able to recognize her from so far off.
“Is this a mess or what?” Mandee was grinning from ear to ear, obviously enjoying the strange chaos.
“It’s something bad, that’s what it is.” Yllin turned in her seat and nodded a greeting.
“Have they said what this is all about yet?” Talia sat down, trying to hide her disappointment as she noticed breakfast hadn’t been served yet.
Yllin’s expression turned sour. “Of course not.”
“Have they done something similar to this before?” She tried to get more comfortable on the wooden chair but already knew it was going to be a lost battle.
“No, I don’t think so,” Mandee answered. “At least not while we’ve been here. Which since it’s been less than a year…” She shrugged, leaving the rest unsaid.
“Just as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with worms.”
Talia shivered at Yllin’s words. She hoped so, too. “Would you mind if I asked a stupid question?”
Mandee grinned. “Can’t be any worse than some I’ve heard.” She threw a look at Yllin. Her friend scowled.
“Money here doesn’t seem to work the same as it did back at home. Yesterday, the Administrator gave each of us what would amount to a small fortune, and the prices don’t seem to make sense at the store.
Do you know why?”
“We asked our teacher once,” Mandee told her. “I’ll tell you what he told us, though it’s a little strange.
He said things are done this way to get us used to it. They want us to use gems or large coins and give us enough so we don’t worry about it. What they’re hoping for is to get us to be this way once we are out in other countries. That way … Yllin, how did he put it?”
“We’d make people happy arbitrarily and help the country’s economic something or other, too.” Yllin snorted. “It’s weird, but makes sense in a strange way. Though if the guild ever runs into money problems, no one will know how to deal with it.”
“Oh.” Talia would have to think on this a while.
After another fifteen minutes or more, the flow of those entering the dining hall trickled to only a few.
Breakfast was then served, and even the watchers wore armor. Still, no information was forthcoming on the reason for the strange change.
Eating with her armor on proved to be awkward and cumbersome. Some of her friends appeared to wear more food than they were able to eat. She did notice for the newer students, the type and shape of armors were pretty much the same. But for those who’d been there longer, she saw this wasn’t the case at all.
Some of the ones she spotted were bulkier, ganglier than her own. Others were made of even more pieces than hers and fit their owners almost like a second skin. Colors went from gold and bronze to a shiny metallic black. Many were engraved and sported patterns which ranged from simple to extremely complex.
One thing which seemed to prevail amongst them though was the fact they all showed at least three gems somewhere on the armor. She wondered if it was some kind of fetish with the school.
A couple of students dragged themselves into the dining hall even as the outer doors were opened for their after breakfast walk. Nothing had yet been said on why they were going through all this.
At the end of the path, Talia bid goodbye to Yllin and Mandee and headed with Daltan and Sonsan to their class. As her classmates arrived, she noticed none of them looked happy. She knew exactly how they felt.
They’d been in class, waiting for about ten minutes when Helyn finally appeared. Like them, she wore her armor, but it wasn’t the same one they’d seen on her the day before. The new armor fitted more closely to her figure than the first and looked to be of better quality. Three roses stood engraved in the shiny metal, one at each shoulder and a third at the waist. All three held a different colored jewel set in the middle.
“Good morning, everyone.” Helyn said brightly.
“Good morning.” None of them, including Talia, sounded as if they really thought so.
Their teacher stood before her desk and studied each of them and then sighed softly. It was only then Talia realized Helyn’s previous cheeriness was only for their benefit. “The Administrator has ordered everyone to stay in armor for the rest of the day.”
Several groans followed this pronouncement.
“I realize this won’t make for the most comfortable of days for you, but we must try to make the best of it.” Helyn waited until they’d all quieted down. “Also, she has stipulated no one is to go anywhere alone, not even to relieve themselves.”
“That makes no sense! What is all this about?” Sonsan was half out of her chair with indignation.
“I realize all this is awkward, but those are still the Administrator’s orders and they’re to be followed.”
Her tone softened. “Lareen wouldn’t give orders, no matter how strange, unless she has a good reason.
Regardless of how it looks.” Her gaze scanned the room again. “So let’s get started. We’ve already lost enough time these last two days.”
The longer the class went, the more uncomfortable Talia felt. The Administrator’s orders spun round and round in her head as she tried to make some sense out of them, and it made it very difficult to concentrate on the lessons. Even worse, parts of her body itched and she couldn’t scratch them, and the more she tried not to think about them the worse they got. Add to it trying to take notes with gauntlets on and…