A coldness that had nothing to do with magic flashed through my body. My stomach dropped. The other man had warned him, and for an obvious reason. He was just another slimy bastard. Always the same. I rolled around again, so I could spit at him. ”I’d rather die,” I wheezed.
He looked down at me like I was a piece of cheap meat. ”Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. But maybe reconsider?” He wrinkled his nose, gazing away from me. ”You have promise, and I don’t say that lightly.”
”Wait… what are you talking about?”
”About paying me back for stealing from me, making me run around this ridiculous city for half a night,” he said, peering at me and spreading his hands, measuring me like a fish. ”I’m in need of a new skeleton, about your size.”
Jextor opened the door, bringing in a tray with something steaming on it. ”What’s disgusting? What are you shouting about?”
”The people in this town make me sick,” Falar said, looking affronted. ”Everyone here is so crass. Put down the tray. She can try eating once she’s strong enough to stand.”
The smell was greasy, thick with fat and meat. It had been days since I’d eaten properly. My stomach rumbled, but that’s what stomachs did. I shouldn’t show them how desperate I was.
Jextor put down the tray and walked to peer down at me. He looked a bit like a dwarf, if only a dwarf could also be as tall as an orc. His beard was like rope, brown and thick. ”Crass? Have you been scandalizing my lecturer, young girl?”
I craned back my neck, leaning away from the massive face filling my vision. ”It’s his own fault for phrasing things like a weirdo,” I muttered.
”Ha!” he barked at my face. His breath smelled of beer and dirt, like he had been eating from a grave. ”Heard that, weirdo Falar?”
Falar sighed, moving back to lean against his wall. ”Sit down, chancellor. We were about to discuss her bright future, if she chooses to embrace it.”
What a joke. Bright future was something the people at the orphanage said, before sending kids to work on the farms or hawking them off to the wizards or the Guild. I took in the situation, figuring out my options.
There weren’t many. The room had only the bed I was lying on, the wooden table with the candle and the tray, and a single chair. A window sat next to me, thick curtains pulled tight over it.
Jextor sat down on the unfortunate chair, making it creak and bend. He gestured for Falar to continue.
”Girl, that you managed to activate the Conspice shows that you have the talent to excel in our field. Would you like to become powerful?” Falar said.
Jextor spread his arms wide. ”That’s your offer? The waif is terrified and hungry, has been for a long time. Did you see how skinny she was? Our kitchen is one of the best on the continent!”
”How is that even remotely relevant? We’re talking about learning to control death itself!”
”Control is fine, but the learning is the more relevant part. Never forget!” Jextor said, lifting one finger into the air and thumping the table with his other hand. The tray clattered, and the candle fell over.
Falar groaned, drawing a hand down his face as Jextor grabbed the candle and stood it back up. ”Fine. It is equally important to push the boundaries of life and death, and of science,” he said, then seemed to remember I was in the room and turned back to me. ”The point is, we’re doing both at the Academy. And soon, so shall you.”
They went silent, waiting for me to say something.
What the hell was I supposed to say? I had never heard of an academy, but I knew better than to trust anyone trying to recruit me into anything. It was another scam, another trap, like the gangs or the orphanages. Promising safety, delivering a chain around the neck, a knife in the back. There was a school to study magic in the city, but that was for rich kids, corralled into the floating towers, into the warded buildings sizzling with magic. That world had nothing to do with me.
My thoughts zig-zagged around, trying to find a way out of the situation.
”Maybe she fell asleep?” Jextor said under his breath.
Falar closed his eyes and breathed slowly through his nose, mouth curving down.
”What do you want from me?” I asked, to say at least something. I pulled myself into a half sitting position, clinging to the quilt.
”Maybe you’re not suitable after all, if you can’t keep up even this much,” Falar said, opening his eyes. ”I’m inviting you to the Academy to study magic. You’ll be one of my students.”
”Yours?” Jextor said, glancing at Falar. ”Who said you could have her?”
”I said it first,” he said. ”Besides, she stole from me.”
”It was the Academy’s artifact! You were just holding on to it.”
”Shut up!” I shrieked. I swallowed as they both turned to look at me. ”I know your kind of people. You’re not giving me a choice, are you?”
”Of course, we are,” Jextor said.
”Of course, we’re not,” Falar said. ”We saw your home, the way you live. You’re a discarded piece of human trash, a worthless nobody, dead before the winter is done. Letting you slip and fall off from some roof like that other sack of meat, starve to death on some side street, would be a senseless waste.”
”Falar…” Jextor said, frowning at him.
My breath caught in my throat. It felt like the carpet had been pulled out from under my anger. He was right, except about it being a waste.
”Not to mention, it would be even worse if the local nitwits at the college got their hands on you,” he added. ”No. You will come north with us and study, earn a name for yourself, rat.”
”You’re sure this is really the best way to talk to a kid?” Jextor said quietly, leaning toward him.
”Shut up, Jextor. She’s not a kid. She’s a student.”
Jextor closed his mouth.
Falar leaned away from the wall. “Enough of this. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon. I assume you have nothing to pack, no goodbyes to say? Come, chancellor. I still owe you a beer for the idea of using the corpse as a hound.”
“True!” Jextor shouted, slapping his hands together. The breeze blew out the candle.
“I’ll never go anywhere with you again,” Falar’s voice said from the darkness.
Bright blue lines appeared in the dark, tingling in the familiar way magic did. In their glow, I saw Falar draw with a pointed finger, scraping a long continuous squiggle into the air. It flared bright, and I felt the flare in my brain as much as I saw it.
A small blue orb of light rose from his hand, hovering up to the ceiling. It rolled around for a while, settling to press against a corner of the room.
“There,” he said, face looking like a skull in the bluish light. “It’ll last you a couple of hours. Don’t get out from under the cover.”
”Eat the stew while it’s still hot,” Jextor said from the door. ”Try to get some sleep.”
I watched from under my quilt as they left. I hadn’t said anything to them, hadn’t replied to the invitation to… enroll in their academy? Not that I seemed to have much choice. I wasn’t sure how serious he had been about needing a skeleton. It sounded like a bad joke, but on the other hand, he didn’t seem like a guy who made jokes. Not even bad ones.
I scoffed. Like hell I would do what they told me.
I moved to throw away the quilt, but stopped mid-motion. Lines threaded over the wool, shimmering faintly. They pulsed with warmth… or from holding back the cold? I wrapped it tighter around myself, pulling it up to my nose.
I lowered my feet onto the floor, standing up slowly. At least my legs carried me again. I could think about getting out once I had eaten. They wouldn’t poison me right after grabbing me, would they? The stew smelled delicious. I had to wipe my chin as I started to drool.
I was famished, ravenous. I grabbed the spoon from next to the extinguished candle and put a large chunk of meat, tender and salty, into my mouth. The meat started to pull apart just by pushing it with my tongue. I wanted to cry.
I clenched the spoon in my hand. The tenderness of the meat didn’t matter. Eat, get out. Perhaps drink first, though. The big guy had brought a small mug of mulled beer. It steamed, smelling like herbs and honey. I swallowed. I brought the mug to my lips, breathing in the aroma.
It wasn’t fair. Whatever game they were playing, this was taking it too far.
I threw the mug into the corner of the room, howling in frustration. It cracked against the wall, leaving a large wet splat there, before landing upside down on the floor. I wouldn’t be bribed. I needed the food, so I would eat it, but I’d draw the line there.
It was actually one of the best meals I had eaten in as long as I remembered, wanted to remember.
Fine.
The lines of power criss-crossing all over the quilt had turned the wool dark where they ran. The vibration was fainter, so I pulled it off me, laying it on the back of the chair. I was cold, like heat was fleeing my skin, but it wasn’t as bad as before. Maybe the enchantment had done what it was supposed to, maybe the stew had helped.
I wrapped the quilt back over my shoulders. No reason not to. My throat felt like someone’s hand was still hanging around it. I swallowed, stretching my neck, but I was strong enough to continue. Pulling the curtain to the side revealed that I was somewhere near the centre of the city. The street was deserted, just the lamp posts shining blue, standing alone against the dark.
I grinned at myself. I’d have time to consider if lamp posts looked lonely once I’d gotten away from the idiots. I touched the window to test if I could get it open. It buzzed, the glass vibrating against my fingers. I flinched away, cursing. There was some kind of magic on it. To keep it closed, to alert the couple if I tried to open it, who knew.
I rattled the door knob. The door was locked from the outside, obviously. No magic needed there. I went through my pockets to find something to pick the lock with, but had nothing. Whatever crap I had carried with me had been emptied out. I sighed in relief as I realized the rectangle was also gone. I had assumed that to be the case, but I hadn’t dared to check.
Before I could think what I was doing, I took the quilt and wrapped it around my right hand. I ran at the window, slamming my fist into it. The impact made a deep thrumming sound, throwing me back a step. My whole arm tingled. The symbols on the window glowed for a moment, before fading back out. I could try smashing it with the chair, but that probably wouldn’t do much good either.
I did it anyway. The chair broke two legs before I stopped, panting.
Someone thumped on the wall. “People are trying to sleep here!” a man shouted.
“Shut up!” I shouted back.
I slumped down onto the bed, resting my elbows on my knees. The food sat heavily in my stomach. I pulled the quilt back over my shoulders. I could feel its magic fading, but it still kept the cold at bay. The spilt beer made the room smell of herbs and malt. My fist throbbed where I had smashed it into the glass, but the magic protecting the window had cushioned the blow. A yawn forced itself out, my jaw locking open for a moment, snapping as it closed.
I glanced at the bed, the lush feather pillow.
Yeah, no.
I could feel the memories, trying to close in on me. Only my mother waited for me, maybe even Jordan with his smashed face, or the monster with the porcelain white skull.
I dragged the table to the window, pushed my forehead on the glass to watch the empty street. The glass vibrated against my skin, making the corners of my eyes twitch. I’d rest for just a bit and…