Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Durom
Itilted my head, looking at my lanky mate. He looked nervous as he rolled back his sleeve to show a spell that was marked into his arm with ink. I looked at the complexity of its overlapping runes as he held it out to me, feeling a little embarrassed.
"I can't read Order Magic," I told him. "I never was interested in that subject."
"Minotaurs study?" Kyle asked, his eyebrows raising. Then he blushed, his pale skin flooding with red. "I'm sorry, I just don't know anything about your people. I didn't even know you could talk."
I laughed.
Mundanes were hilarious. They knew nothing at all, coming in from a world that was a magical desert.
I didn't bother explaining that, as a rule, Dungeon Dwellers never spoke to the students unless we thought they would be an asset.
Not all the students were our enemies, but the ones who would graduate and go into the Order Army were.
It was always beneficial for your enemy to believe you were stupid. It was better to be underestimated.
"What do you wish to know?" I asked. "I will tell you."
"You're not curious about the spell?" Kyle rolled his sleeve down.
"It doesn't matter," I said as I rose up from my crouch.
"It changes my scent," Kyle said. "It matters. What if I don't have the mate scent?"
My mate was afraid that my desire for him would fade.
But that wasn't the only fear. He was uncomfortable to the point that he was resisting his attraction to me.
I had miscalculated in thinking that a male mundane would appreciate my direct approach, take one look at what I had to pleasure him with, and immediately agree to be bent over and rutted.
I had to go about this a different way. It wasn't a challenge I was expecting, but I was not one to back down from a challenge.
Real minotaurs met challenges head-on.
"Cancel the spell if you wish, leave it if you don’t wish," I said. First, I needed to eliminate any feelings of pressure or confinement. "My offer to take you to safety is not dependent on the mate scent and will be made easier without it. It is difficult to walk away from a scented mate."
I knew what I needed to do next to make my mate more comfortable, so I went over to the far side of the room where my ax leaned against the wall and picked it up.
I hefted it up to my shoulder and walked over to where the vines hung down to block the exit.
I stayed well back out of their range, and with a quick swing, lopped off just the tip of one of them and flicked it further into the room.
Several of them punched the air in my direction, sending little whiffs of breeze towards me, and I waited as they puffed in the air over and over until finally settling down.
I crouched down to where the tip of the vine had landed.
I took the pouch out of my belt and very carefully opened it, keeping my fingers away from the edges as I scooped the tip up and contained it in the bag.
I gave it a little shake, then went over to where my travel backpack lay, half full with the rest of the supplies that I would be taking to my new home base.
The Dungeon provided, but it could get annoyed if it was bothered too much, and it didn't bring back those who annoyed it.
So it was better to carry supplies it had already provided than to expect it to generate new ones for you.
I pulled out a small empty pouch, made from the same material as the first, that would allow it to contain the vines safely, and again, making sure my fingers didn't get close to the edges where the still living vines could shatter them, I used the fabric to separate the two vines inside.
Once they were separated into the two pouches, I tied them up, making sure the knots were secure and wouldn't come loose easily.
"What are you doing?" Kyle asked.
"I have made you feel unsafe," I said. "I am fixing that now."
I walked over to the vines that blocked the doors and held out one of the pouches to them so that they parted, wriggling in their effort to get away from it.
I looked over to make sure my mate was watching, then I withdrew the pouch and held out the other one, demonstrating that both of them could be used to part the vines to exit the room.
I strode back over to where my mate was sitting and held out one of the pouches.
"Don't open it," I said. "It is dangerous."
"How does it work?" Kyle asked, taking the pouch from me.
"It's a disease that affects the vines and spreads through contact," I said. "The vines can sense it and will cut off and withdraw away from infected vines. I have given you this so that you know you can leave at any time. At a walk. You can walk away at any time. Don't run."
I couldn't emphasize that one enough.
My mate triggering the rut by running while he had any hesitations would be a disaster.
"I've never heard of this before," Kyle said as he turned the pouch over in his hands. "Also, thank you."
"You thought my kind couldn't speak," I said.
"There are many things you can learn if you remain in the Dungeon.
It is a good and generous place to live.
I know that must seem strange coming from the school and being taught that we are monsters down here, but you should know by now that it isn't the place that makes the monster, it is the actions. "
The Order Academy, the school on the surface, raised and taught the students how to be the worst kind of monsters.
My mate took a deep breath.
"I haven't ever done this before," he said. "But I'm going to try to cancel the spell."
I returned to my seat, letting the heat fill the space between us with warmth. I put my hands on my knees and waited.
Kyle put his hand over his arm and closed his eyes. He took slow, deep breaths.
I could smell the scent of Order magic drifting up from his arm, like a freshly struck flint.
Then Kyle's smell changed, and I understood.