Chapter 7 #2
I gave him a baleful look. “That’s easy for you to say.”
He grinned at me. “I think you’re forgetting you do know someone else who can read and write.”
I stared at him blankly. “Faylee’s gone off on an expedition to the Sekali Empire and won’t be back until at least the end of the summer, remember.”
“I wasn’t talking about Faylee, silly.” He looked at me with a smug expression as if waiting for me to see the obvious. When I continued to stare at him blankly, he gestured at himself. “I do know how to read and write, you know. I could hardly have just graduated the Academy if I couldn’t.”
“You!” I blinked. “Well, obviously you know how to read, but you’re hardly going to teach me.”
“Why not?”
I stared at him, unable to think of anything to say.
“Do you really think I’d be such a terrible teacher?” he asked, pretending hurt.
“Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take?” I shook my head. “I’m not going to be reading fluently in a couple of hours.”
His face turned serious, although his eyes shone with something I couldn’t read. “Of course not. I expect it will take you all summer—and you’ll have to work at it intensively. But clearly you have a lot of experience at working intensively.”
“Why would you want to spend your entire summer teaching me to read?” I asked incredulously.
He cleared his throat. “Actually, I’m hoping for a favor in return.”
He fixed me with pleading eyes, but I narrowed my own in response. The future I had worked so hard for was finally before me, and I wasn’t risking it with any more foolish or illegal favors.
“The truth is that, unlike you, I’m a terrible student,” he said in a rush.
“I—wait, what?” Whatever I had imagined him saying, it hadn’t been that. I frowned suspiciously. “Didn’t you just graduate?”
“Yes, but the Academy is different. Half our training is in combat, and the other half is in compositions and controlling our power. I find those interesting, naturally, so that was easy.”
“Then what’s the problem?” I asked, still not understanding. “Aren’t you supposed to be joining a mage discipline now? Won’t it just be more compositions and the like?”
He sighed. “That was my plan. But my parents are utterly determined for me to go to the University.”
I raised my brows. “You’re terrible at study, but they want you to spend years at the University and—what? Become an academic or an official? That sounds like a terrible idea.”
“Exactly!” he cried. “And so I’ve told them a hundred times. But they both studied at the University themselves and are now academics. They’re convinced I need to keep my options open and that this is the best way.”
I shook my head at the foolishness of that. I had seen plenty of youth come through the advanced class who were only there because their parents pushed them to keep studying, despite their lack of inclination or ability. They never lasted.
But Zak wasn’t a dependent child, forced to follow his parents’ wishes. Unless he was still dependent on them financially. Some minor mage families were significantly poorer than a merchant family like the Robarts. They wouldn’t tutor or sell their compositions otherwise.
“If you join a discipline, don’t you receive a salary?
” I asked. “You might have to live modestly at first, but I’m sure you could make it work.
” I had no idea how much graduated mages were paid when they first entered a discipline, but surely it was enough to live on.
“If you need help finding affordable accommodation, I’m sure I could point you in the right direction. ”
He chuckled to himself, not seeming offended by my suggestion but clearly amused at something I didn’t understand. “I can just imagine my parents’ response to that.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not willing to risk their ire.
” He shrugged, not quite meeting my eyes.
“You probably think me very cowardly, but I foresee that I’m going to need all the parental goodwill I can muster at some point in the future, and I don’t want to burn that goodwill now.
I have, therefore, agreed to at least start at the University.
They’ve agreed that we’ll reassess after the first year.
If it’s a disaster, then I’ll apply to another discipline next summer. ”
I supposed one year wasn’t much of a loss, although I didn’t know if it would hurt his chances of being accepted by his chosen discipline. Then my mind caught up with the most important aspect of the situation.
“But that means we’ll be starting at the University together!” I immediately flushed and added, “Although I’ll be in the commonborn stream, of course, and you’ll be in the mage classes.”
“Exactly!” he sounded triumphant. “And unlike me, you’re not a terrible student. You’re an excellent one. So I’m willing to spend the summer teaching you how to read and write if you’ll tutor me in return.”
My mouth fell open. “You want me to tutor you?”
“Why not?” He grinned. “You are sealed now, remember?”
I looked slowly down at the pattern around my wrists, a smile growing on my face. “I suppose I am.”
“So you’ll do it?” He sounded eager, although I couldn’t imagine why he found the prospect of intense study all summer so appealing.
I knew why I found the idea appealing, though. I snuck a glance at him, sucking on the inside of my cheek.
Zak was dangerous. There was no other way of putting it. He was attractive in ways that only seemed to grow every time I saw him. If it was hard enough to put him out of my mind now, how hard would it be after spending every day with him all summer?
The thought of being stuck in a classroom with Byron and Teacher Wendell every day of the summer flashed into my mind. My hand moved of its own accord, reaching out to shake Zak’s.
“Deal,” I said with more confidence than I felt as his warm, strong fingers gripped mine.
I would just have to guard my heart very, very closely. And hope that exposure lessened the effect he seemed to have on me.