Lombarte pushed Fek again. This time he fell over, tripping over his feet and crashing on the walkway. “Trash, waste. Upstart! How dare you be here?”
Smerz stepped back from the two of them and crossed his arms over his chest like preparing to watch a show.
“Please!” Minnelil shouted from somewhere behind me. “He didn’t mean anything!”
“Shut up, elf!” Lombarte barked. “Everyone knows you and your kind. You won’t lift a finger.” He wound back for a kick, bracing his left foot on the walkway, moving his right leg back. “No one will, for a motherless scrap like him.”
I rushed past Lorn, driving my elbow into his side. He grunted and stumbled out of my way, Minnelil yelled something. Lombarte glanced behind and his eyes widened. Smerz stepped in front of me, throwing his leg out. I reached to grab at Lombarte, but stumbled on the leg, losing my balance.
Before I could recover, Smerz grabbed the cowl of my robe. The collar wrenched against my throat. I gagged and tried to spin, but he pulled me off-balance, making me stumble backward. Something slammed into my lower back, pushing the air out of my lungs.
“Stupid bitch,” Lombarte said. He had flinched back as I lunged at him, but had recovered already. He was smoothing his robe, wiping it with his hand. Whatever he was going to say next was cut short as Fek grabbed onto his leg and pulled, making him fall to the side.
I grinned as I tried to breathe. Useless, but gutsy, had to give Fek that. I elbowed the arm still holding on to the cowl. The collar of the robe wrenched at my throat, but Smerz yelped and let go. These guys really didn’t know how to take a hit, letting go at the slightest slap. Before I could do anything else, Lorn bowled into me. He crushed me between him and the wall. The back of my head cracked against the stone, making my vision spark.
Smerz pushed Lorn away and grabbed my face, thumb below my chin, fingers almost in my eyes. He yanked my face forward, then slammed my head into the wall. The crash made my ears ring.
“That’s for my arm,” he growled, somewhere behind the ringing.
Lombarte shouted, Fek shouted, Lorn shouted, everyone shouted something. I kicked blindly, aiming for his knee. I missed, blinded by the hand on my face, and the pain.
“Stop wriggling!” Smerz shouted, letting go of my face and pulling his hand back. He clenched it into a fist, winding back the punch.
He didn’t hesitate a moment, throwing the punch with all he had at my face.
Too bad for him. I jerked my head to the side.
The fist nicked my ear as it thumped into the stone. The wrist twisted with a crack. Too bad, indeed. Smerz screamed and stumbled back, cradling his hand with his other hand. Lombarte kicked Fek in the temple, both still on the ground, Fek hanging on to his other leg.
My vision swam, black spots growing larger and swallowing everything. The smash against the wall was catching up to me the moment I had time to breathe.
Minnelil shouted something. Her voice sounded off, like she was whistling while she spoke. Through the haze, I saw her walking toward me, waving her hands in wide arcs. “Everyone relax, now!”
What a weird thing to say in the situation. Still, a good idea, all things considered. Lombarte stood up slowly and Smerz let his arms fall to his side.
“We’ll call it a draw,” I gasped, leaning against the wall. Its warmth was sticky and awful against my sweaty back. The platform tilted around me. I guess I was falling.
I woke up to being shaken.
“Stop shaking her,” Minnelil said.
“But what if she’s dead?” Fek said.
“I’m n-n-not,” I said.
“Stop shaking her!” Minnelil howled.
I opened my eyes. Fek raised his palms into the air and grinned at me. Still had all his teeth, good for him.
Something climbed my throat to get out, but I held it down, leaned on the wall to push myself up. “They’re gone?” My head was groggy, my mouth tasted like bile, and my throat sore from where the collar of the robe had been pulled against it. I rubbed a hand on my neck, wincing at the raw and tender skin. Falar’s leash was still in place, feeling tighter than it ever had.
Minnelil looked back down, sighing. “We’ll take you to the infirmary. You’re really hurt.”
“Gave as good as I took,” I said, spitting to the floor to get the taste out of my mouth. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not. You already threw up while you were unconscious. Come, I’ll help you up.”
She did. My head hurt, and standing up made the world spin enough that maybe I wasn’t fine after all. I would stumble right off the walkway if I tried to move on my own. At least I hadn’t heard the fire, breathed in the smoke this time.
“Thanks, and sorry,” Fek said. “Those guys have been harassing me since I got enrolled. You wouldn’t have needed to step in.”
“Whatever,” I said. “You stepped in when they were coming after me. So we’re even. Got it?”
Fek smiled at me, eyes crinkled. “Sure!”
He obviously didn’t. Goddamn.
The longer Minnelil dragged me around the walkways and stairs, the worse I felt. I kept starting to ask her what she had been doing with her voice to stop the fight, but had to snap my mouth shut to keep from throwing up again.
Finally, behind one of the identical doors, was a white room. It practically shone. I squinted at the glare, bright after the black stone and the swirling, dark blue snow. Minnelil pushed me down onto a bed, even when I tried to say I was fine. I didn’t even know why I said it.
Reflex. Habit.
I was so damn nauseous.
“Concussion,” someone said, lifting my eyelid and peering into my brain. Why did he have to be that close?
“We’ll treat her in a moment. I’ll make her sleep for now,” he said, wiggling his fingers in my face.
The smoke was in my lungs.
It billowed everywhere, thick and black. I kept my head low, crawled below it. People screamed and shouted outside. Explosions made the walls of my home shake. A fireball blew the house on the opposite side of the street up into the air. The splinters rained on the roof for a long time.
Timber hit the roof of the house, making dust fall down from the ceiling. My mother rushed at me, crouching low.
She grabbed my shoulders, then stopped. The fire froze behind her, swirls of smoke hanging in the air, drawing a sculpture into the air.
Flesh fell off her, fast, like it was in a hurry, leaving behind porcelain bone and empty eye sockets. Relief flooded me. It was a nightmare after all, not the memory.
The thing whispered to me, and I could almost make out what it was saying. The words pressed on my brain, the same way the Conspice had done. It forced its skull closer, but something kept pushing it away. The thing strained, its bony fingers gripping my shoulders harder, before slipping away. It had gripped me before, but this time the force kept its claws away, keeping my arm from getting sliced.
A collar around my neck blazed with heat. “Wait,” I said, reaching a hand out toward the thing. For once, I could move, do something else.
Smoke started billowing again. My mom was back, looking like she always had. She rushed at me, crouching low.
“Lina, love! Stay low, don’t breathe the smoke!”
I screamed and screamed and screamed, even if I couldn’t make a sound.
I woke, drenched in sweat. The fire was gone, replaced by the white of the infirmary. Something had woken me in the middle of the dream, cutting it off before I saw my dad get killed. I had been propped into a half-sitting position, arms on top of the duvet. The collar pulsed around my neck, hot and angry, but it couldn’t hold back the feeling of pressure hanging in the room. It was unbearable, crushing me under the white linens.
The room was dark and silent. It held five other beds, but only the one opposite mine had someone sleeping in it. Fek breathed slowly and peacefully, a bandage around his head where Lombarte had kicked him. He had tossed the duvet half off himself, and it hung down from the bed. An empty bottle of ambrosia was standing on the small table next to his bed, the slightest hint of blue glow left at the bottom.
The door creaked. I froze.
Something in a black robe stood at the doorway. It had been still, standing with its back toward me. In the dark room, I hadn’t seen it. I made myself still, cracking one eye open.
The black robe the person was wearing looked wrong. They turned around and I understood what it was: no feet. The robe slid along the floor, making the faintest whisper of a sound. The cowl was pulled up, hiding the person’s face. It moved to Fek’s bed.
A skeletal hand lifted from behind the robe, grabbing the duvet. The robe’s sleeve lifted with it, even though the hand didn’t connect to anything. It was just the bones of five separate fingers hanging in the air, with some of the small complicated bits of the palm. The robe tilted down, leaning over Fek. The cowl slipped to the side, revealing the bright white skull underneath.
I wanted to shout, but my body didn’t react. Pressure rolled off the thing, forcing my back against the bed, making it feel like my lungs might collapse soon.
Its grinning face leaned closer and closer to Fek’s head. The teeth stopped above his brow, almost touching it.
“Mwah,” the skull said, softly.
It pulled the duvet up to Fek’s chin, tucking him in. Fek sighed, as it ran its bony fingers through his hair, smoothing it.
I stared at it with my eyes wide as it turned, my gaze meeting its empty eye sockets. I closed my eyes quickly, much too late.
“Oh, you’re awake?” it said. Its voice was a smooth whisper, silk on silk. “How are you feeling?”
I opened one eye carefully, only to look straight up at the thing, hovering over me.
The robe was open in front and empty inside. The skull had half of a spine hanging down from it, but nothing else. The robe hung on non-existing shoulders. The bony hand rose and touched my brow. I stared directly into the dark, empty sleeve. “No fever, good.”
Its touch was cold, but how could it be anything else? The pressure made it hard to breathe, but I made my mouth open, formed the words. “Who are you?”
“Oh, forgive me,” it said. I could swear it smiled at me, something about the empty eye sockets seeming kind and apologetic. “I’m Coratorus. I wanted to check up on our latest students.” It lowered its hand and brushed my neck with a finger. “The ward holds, for now. Young Falar will go far.”
“W… what?”
“I should leave you to rest and recover. I’m sorry if I startled you. Want me to kiss you good night too?”
I shook my head, leaning back hard against the pillow.
It stood up, nodding at me. That gesture at least was unambiguous, even with just a skull. “Good night, Lina,” it said.