Chapter 9
The next day, we kneeled side by side, I, whispering pronunciations to Collum, while she pretended she was learning them for the first time.
I had to hand it to her, she was very good at playing the uneducated student.
And after what had to be hours of fake struggle, I could tell even Adis was getting annoyed.
“I’m sorry,” Collum said at last, unable to hide the boldness in her voice. I cut my eyes at her, silently pleading for her to at least add a little fake meekness to her voice.
It didn’t matter though, because Adis’s foot was already tapping.
“I—” she started again. “I hate to slow everything down, forcing you to listen to my learning. Perhaps Milo can coach me in the evenings and nights as well?”
It was my first time hearing that name—the one I pretended was mine—in a while, and my chest clenched at the thought of who it really belonged to. I was cursorily distracted from my thoughts, though, as Adis stepped closer, peering at my cousin over the end of his long nose.
“All books are to be read in my presence.”
His tone caused my shoulders to tense.
“I understand . . . sir. But I fear I won’t be able to learn fast enough to read by the end of the week. And I know how badly your men need magic.”
“Hm.” Adis lifted his gaze to Markus and Syrus.
“You can trust us,” Collum reiterated. “Otherwise, you can kill one of us.”
I gulped at her suggestion. There was no way my cousin had just put one of our lives on the line, when she indeed planned to disobey the trust she wanted to be gifted.
But ever obedient, I remained quiet, trying to appear as normal as possible as Collum continued to insist on putting her plan into action.
“I suppose it can’t hurt,” he mused at last, his eyes resting on the green book in my lap. “But only one book at a time. And once you can read, it ends.”
“Yes, sir,” Collum agreed, peering at me out of the corner of her eyes, a smug smile I recognized on her lips. I hoped Adis hadn’t seen that.
“Very well. Return them to their cell.” He waved us away.
To my surprise, Markus and Syrus didn’t grab my arms as roughly as normal, instead allowing me to walk next to my cousin, both of us sandwiched between them.
I didn’t want to say it, but this was already much more freedom than I had been given before.
Collum had always been good at convincing others to see her way.
As we crossed the open-air courtyard, Collum suddenly stopped.
“We need to take my cousin to see the healer again.”
My eyebrows drew together, but one pointed glance from Collum had me plastering a neutral look on my face. She hadn’t mentioned this the night before, and I had no idea where she was going with this.
“Adis gave no such instructions,” Markus grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.
Before I could even register what was happening, I felt something hit me in the side, and then I was bent over my knees, gasping for air.
I tried to glare at my cousin through my eyelashes, but the pain was too immense, and instead I found myself pushing my eyes closed and struggling to stay upright.
“See? He can’t walk,” Collum insisted.
I wanted to yell at her, to ask what she had done to make me double over. But I still couldn’t get a full breath in. Something was really wrong with my side. Collum had hit me too hard.
“Fine,” Syrus grumbled, reaching out to pull my arm.
I tried to right myself, but nearly fell over. My balance was off and my vision swam, so I shifted to the left, thinking it would result in my standing up straight.
Instead, I found my face pressed into the side of a warm body. Which warm body? I couldn’t be sure.
“What’s going on here?” The introduction of a deep voice that hadn’t been there before sent shivers down my spine, and I prayed Friar hadn’t made a false promise. “I asked what was going on here. I expect an answer.” He spoke again when no one answered his first question.
“He’s fine,” Markus spat.
My vision was still blurry, but I thought I could make out a tall frame with black hair.
“He needs to see Friar.”
I wasn’t sure what Markus and Syrus looked like at the command, but I knew if it had been me, I would have been shaking in my boots. Otho was the general for a reason.
“We were just headed there,” Syrus lied, and I swore I heard Collum snort.
“Good,” the deep voice said, but for some reason his tone didn’t match the word.
Before I could figure out anything more, I was being dragged back the way we had just come.
At least this time, heading to the healer, I was marginally more aware than I had been last time I was carried there.
And even though my vision was a bit blurry, I was able to count the doors that led up to the one that obscured Friar’s workroom.
They were anything but gentle as they forced me into the room, the four of us a tangle of limbs as we tried to cram ourselves in the small space.
“Oh!” Friar’s voice cut above the commotion. Other words were spoken, but it was difficult to understand them as I was jostled from person to person until I was once again lying on my back on the cot.
“There are too many of you in here. You all can wait outside.” Friar’s voice was commanding in a way that was vaguely familiar.
“I’m his cousin,” Collum insisted through the scuffling.
I was able to crack my eyelid enough to notice the way Friar appraised me, likely wondering if Collum knew my secret. I gave a dip of my chin—well, I tried to anyway.
It worked though, because at last, it was just Collum, Friar, and I in the workshop, the two of them standing side by side and leaning over me. I couldn’t help but notice the way the strings of plants almost formed a halo over their heads.
“What happened?” Friar whispered.
“I nudged her in the ribs so we could have an excuse to come here,” Collum confessed, not seeming ashamed in the slightest that she was the reason I currently couldn’t draw in a full breath. All my words escaped me; I didn’t know how to feel about that.
“Um, don’t do that again,” Friar chastised her, while helping me get into a sitting position so she could unwrap my ribs. “She’s got several broken ribs, and I just hope what you’ve done hasn’t punctured anything.”
“She’ll be fine,” Collum insisted. “She’s tough.”
I bit my lip. I was tough, but Collum’s words didn’t provide relief either. Friar’s eyes met mine, but I couldn’t read the emotion that was there and I didn’t feel like listening to the nudge of my empathy gift.
I looked away.
Friar provided me with the biting leather again, shifting my ribs back into place one more time.
It was easier this time, to not focus on the pain, as I allowed my gaze to follow my cousin as she poked around the various jars that rested on shelves around the room.
At one point, I was certain she slipped one into the front of the uniform coat she wore, but when I blinked, she was already moving on.
Collum wouldn’t steal . . . right?
My cousin had only been with me for two days and already I was coming to realize I didn’t really know the woman I was raised with. Not in the way that I had thought, anyway.
Friar tucked the end of my wrap into place, helping me pull my shirt back over my head.
“I think she needs extra rations in order to heal.” Collum was back over by the cot once more, peering down at me as I buttoned up the front of the uniform coat I had been given.
Friar frowned, but she didn’t argue. “I’ll ask Astrid to bring something extra late tonight.”
The name of the cook, who had been my only other ally since my arrival, allowed my shoulders to relax. There was a twinge of pain as my ribs settled, but nothing like when Collum had shoved me. Something which still bothered me more than it should.
As we made our way back to our cell, my arm over Collum’s shoulders as Markus and Syrus followed behind, I began to wonder if Collum was really the person I should be trusting.
Whether or not she was truly on my side of whatever was going on here.