Chapter 27 #2
It won’t last for long but the straps should hold her and give me a second to speak to the headmistress. If they’re strong enough to keep me latched to the saddle on the back of a rolling dragon…
I glance up at Morgan’s glittering eyes.
Knowing her, she’ll break the chair and make a run for it. She’ll find a way to escape. The straps might work for a dragon but I can’t put anything past her.
“Stay,” I repeat.
Partly to anger her. Partly to drive home the need to do what I want.
Morgan has choice words for me, her curses echoing down the hall.
I straighten and adjust the hem of my leathers into a more comfortable position. You have to put on a show. You have to show them the best of you. It’s one of the most important parts of the performance.
If I look rattled, Harbi will see right through me, and it won’t matter what I say.
“Then I am going to make little tiny slices across your skin and drip citrus juice—” Morgan is telling me in gleefully gory detail.
I knock on the door, waiting for a beat, and after much too long I get my answer.
“Come in!”
This whole situation should not put me on edge the way it does. I’ve faced down tougher opponents than an angry girl and a headmistress who is a warrior in her own right. Intelligent and brutal.
You need those qualities to deal with the students at DragonSpear.
Inside, arched glass doors and a row of spotless windows look out on a huge balcony, the space large enough for her own dragon to land. The doors are open and propped by two brass statues of grinning cats.
A live edge wooden desk dominates the wall to the left with no chairs other than hers, to discourage long visits and meetings. Anyone brave enough to face her down will do it standing.
There isn’t much time.
Morgan will slip those ropes if given half the chance.
“Headmistress?” I close the door behind me.
Harbi is nowhere around. I bypass the desk and head for the wall of weapons and books jumbled together like a mad scientist’s den. There’s no rhyme or reason to the way they’re scattered.
My gut tells me Harbi knows exactly where everything is and despite the chaos, would be able to pluck out a book or a blade at will depending on the situation.
A slight scuffling sound adds to the harsh cadence of my breath. Harbi? Or Morgan, struggling to get free.
She put up quite a fight. Not everyone has her kind of fire and passion. It takes a certain combination of circumstances and personal grit to ignite something that fierce. Why hasn’t she been claimed by a mount yet?
Was her fire too much for the unicorns? What did they see when they looked at her?
Because I know what I’ve seen. If my mother had fought against my father the same way—
My stomach flips and my muscles tense. No, there was nothing she could have done to make it out of that situation alive. Not against the General.
“Headmistress Harbi!” I raise my voice. “I need to talk to you.”
A flurry of movement comes from the balcony before she enters the office, staff first.
“I hear you yelling, Mr. Ryson, there’s no need to repeat yourself.” Her narrow gaze takes me in. “Is this some kind of emergency?”
Her tone lets me know it isn’t okay to barge into her office without an appointment.
“This is an emergency.” I straighten, hands sliding behind my back. “I’m sure you’re already aware of the scuffle in the dining hall.”
Harbi heads to the edge of the great desk and settles on the corner, perched delicately. Her turquoise skirts drape over her legs with her staff clenched in one hand. Her expression gives her away.
“Mrs. Milkin has brought it to my attention. It seems one of her maids has never quite gotten the hang of life in the cellars and is now slated to head to the mines. By the end of the week, if memory serves. The girl is nothing but a problem, if Milkin is to be believed.”
Her memory always serves. Nothing goes on in this place that Harbi isn’t aware of and she might let situations play out to their natural conclusion but that doesn’t make her ignorant.
The mines, though… I frown. “Isn’t that a little extreme? I’m not sure the punishment fits the crime, in this case.”
“If one person is unhappy with their place, it has the potential to set off a chain reaction. She isn’t capable of doing her job and so she must be replaced.” Harbi’s even tone grates.
Morgan isn’t just another person, though. How do I make the headmistress see it?
“She’s more than a maid.” I have to play this right or she’ll read more into my interest. “She got into an altercation with Evie in the dining hall and I had the opportunity to see her skills firsthand. She’s a fighter.”
Harbi’s gaze drops to my split lip. I stand firm against the scrutiny but the glint of disappointment in her gaze is one I recognize. My father’s go to, sadly. I’ve seen it enough times in my life that it’s like being greeted by an old friend.
“I stepped in before the maid beat Evie to a pulp but—”
“Miss Fortescue is in the infirmary, I gather?” Harbi interrupts.
The corners of my lips curl up for a second. “I’m assuming. I brought the maid to you rather than oversee it myself. Her name is Morgan.”
For a moment, the idea of using Morgan for my resistance makes me dizzy. Like I need a fresh reminder of the indomitable wall of skill I’m up against. I push the nerves and uncertainty away before they grow.
“I think she needs to be trained,” I finish. “She has too much untapped potential to be wasted in the mines.”
“Trained?” Harbi adjusts one leg over the other. “She is a liability. You’ve always struggled with letting your heart get in the way of your logic, Kieran.”
At least I have a heart.
I blink away Harbi’s unwelcome observation. “She has the skills to succeed. She was given an invitation to attend DragonSpear anyway, and might have made an undeniable asset to the student body if we hadn’t torched her village.”
Harbi pushes off the desk silently. “Yet circumstances are not different. Are they? She is the loser in this battle and now she is off to the mines. She’s brought it on herself.”
It feels like the blade is back against my throat and seconds away from sinking in deep. I have to win at this. Even if I’m up against those impossible odds, there is only victory.
Roman had made sure those lessons were carved into my bones. Never yield and never back down.
My mother paid with her life when I disobeyed.
“DragonSpear is made up of students who are taught to have an open mind. We applaud students who forge their own path, who shirk the way things are done.” My lips thin. “Why is she any different from anyone else?”
“It seems to me you’re settling in for an argument.” Harbi wraps both hands around the neck of her staff. Her eyes search my face. “Are you trying to wear me down? Change my mind?”
“If that’s what it takes to make sure the girl is trained.” My fingers clench together.
I plead her case, watching Harbi’s nose wrinkle, aching for water. My eyes burn through the discussion and I’m as even keeled as I know how to be. The bleeding on my lip slowly dries and I wince at a bruise in my chest that twinges whenever I shift.
She must be considering my case, if she’s silent. If Harbi had already made up her mind, I’d be kicked out of the office in an instant.
She holds up a hand to stop me midstream. “Before you speak further on her latent abilities, let me stop you.”
I hold my breath.
“Let’s say you’re correct and she’s gifted. Let’s say I’m inclined to agree with you.” My heart soars. “I’ll let her stay and train but only if you put your honor on the line for her. It’s a fair trade.”
I swallow hard, my mouth sour and ashy and my throat tight. “Meaning?”
“If she fails, you fail,” Harbi says simply. “If Morgan is kicked out, then you will be as well. Her grades, her scores, are yours. If she is damned to the pit… you will be as well.”
And I already couldn’t let my own studies fall. The twisting beast in my chest thrashes and I pace to work through the frenetic energy in my veins.
“So I give you this choice, Kieran. What are you going to do about it?”
There’s no time to consider it. Morgan is outside with no one to watch her. If she slips those ropes then any deal I broker today is entirely moot. She’ll doom herself further than she’s already done.
“Are you doing this to test me?” I ask. “Or to get me out of your school because of my father?”
The questions air and I immediately regret them. I regret the pacing I’ve fought against this entire meeting, when I gave the facts and my opinions without emotion.
Harbi’s smile is cold and doesn’t reach her eyes. She also doesn’t bother giving me an answer.
I know well the kind of beef she has with Roman because everyone who knows him beyond his cultivated public persona has a problem with him. Harbi got to see Roman in his adolescence when they were no older than me, or Morgan.
I try to imagine those two at our age and fall short.
“Take your time considering this, Mr. Ryson,” Harbi pushes. “The choice is entirely on your shoulders.”
I know it. It comes down to this: I let the girl go to the mines, or worse, if Evie has her way, and I know she will. Or I put everything I’ve been working for at risk for a girl I do not know.
She has raw potential. I see it in her.
Do I risk everything for a virtual stranger or sacrifice her life for a chance at my cause? Sweat plasters my leathers to my skin.
I open my mouth and give Harbi my answer, hoping I don’t regret it.