AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fuck, I said that aloud.
“That too. You ready to go back home, cadet? I think that ‘friend’ of yours will be very pleased to see you. Well, more than when he saw me.”
Oh shit, Flea.
“That his name? Yes, oh shit indeed. Looked like he’d prepared quite the little spread for you.”
“God, no…” I groaned, slapping myself on the forehead.
“On the plus side, almost two-thirds of the sick students are now on the mend,” Dr Acorn said.
“I admire your zeal, doc, but debilitating one student to help others is not exactly ethical behaviour. You wanna be careful you don’t get written up over this,” Keel said.
Dr Acorn flushed red, her eyes dropping to the ground where they bore into the green tiles, “Unlikely, unfortunately. Bhechro has already congratulated me himself on my use of Tess and her current condition. He likes the idea of her weakened, that and not having to answer to angry parents.” She shook her head. “Tess, I do apologise. You felt like you had this immense store of magic, I thought I was barely skimming from the top of it. Practitioners are usually better at alerting their partners when their essential functions are being affected by the drain.”
“I don’t even know what half of those words mean,” I said, my head swimming slightly from where I lay on the hospital bed.
“No, I don’t suppose you do. Come and see me once you’ve got a little healing experience under your belt. You’d be an asset here, no matter what Bhechro says.”
“Come on, soldier,” Keel said. “Time to get you home.”
“If you wanted to spend the evening in my arms, you know there’d be easier ways of doing it,” Keel said.
We walked side by side, me leaning into Keel’s shoulder as we hobbled over to my place. My ears were ringing and my head ached, but I still had to assiduously ignore the redolent scent of amber, sandalwood and male coming off him.
“Flirting with a drained student. Whatever would the school board think?”
He snorted. “The ADC doesn’t care, just that we keep producing little dragon riders. Half the parents send their kids to Lorikham hoping to catch them a rider husband or wife. Climbing the social ladder and all that.”
“Well, if I’m keeping you from your sworn duty...”
“You helped a hell of a lot of merits today, ones who’d not hesitate to step over you if you were hurt. You earned my help.”
“Tess, is that you?” I looked up, my head swimming as I did so. When it cleared, I saw it was Flea and Jez. Her eye seemed a little better, but was still a Technicolour display of ugly colours.
“What the hell happened to you?” she asked, looking me over. “You look like shit.”
Flea’s eyes were on Keel, his biceps flexing, his hand straying to the back of his waistband.
“What did you do to her?” came his growl.
“He didn’t do anything, the uni doctor did this, accidentally.” That got their attention. They were very confused until I filled them in. “What about Miazydar? He should’ve been able to tell you where I was. He was being snotty about being a messenger, but I told him to get over that.”
“That’s just it, Tess. We haven’t seen Miazydar all afternoon,” Jez said.
“Where could he...” I said. Miazydar? I pushed the call out with my mind but received nothing back. It was not just that he wasn’t replying, it somehow felt different, like he wasn’t even there to hear me. A spike of fear shot through my chest. “He’s not answering me.”
“I’ll ask Caylin, my dragon,” he replied. Keel’s face looked distracted as he silently spoke to his beast. “He says he’s gone.”
“We know that! Does he know when, where?”
He shook his head. “No, I’ll get him to ask the others.” I called for Miazydar again, trying to keep my mental tone calm, but got no response. “They said he left sometime in the morning. Didn’t say where he was going. I’m going to have to notify Bhechro.”
“Damn straight you will! I want to talk to him as well. If he thinks he can steal my dragon away...” I said.
“You need sleep, Tess. You collapsed from magical exhaustion. The doc has given you a certificate for tomorrow. You’re not to get out of bed for at least a day,” Keel said.
“Fuck! But what about classes? My assignments?”
