The interior was far more interesting. Photos of Harper and her dueling opponent faced off one another, names emblazoned in fonts he could only assume had been borrowed from some professional wrestling organization.
Lee gaped at the outfit she was wearing. A black dress, low-cut enough to seem as though it had been specifically tailored to show off Harper’s wonderful cleavage, with a slit running down one leg. The trim was red and a hood hung loose from the shoulders.
Her opponent was a fairly average-looking blond fellow wearing the outfit of a stage magician. Lee glanced him over briefly before whistling as his eyes were drawn back to the most important aspect of the pamphlet. Harper’s breasts.
“Do you need a minute to take care of your manly tension, or can you get to folding?” asked Willow.
“I never took you to be Ms. Serious when it came to following the orders of the Primhaven faculty.”
“You’ve known me for all of three days.” Willow pulled out her flask and took a sip of it. She offered it to Lee and he accepted, figuring it would make the task that much less boring.
“This whole event just feels weird,” muttered Lee. “Over the top. More so than usual for Primhaven.”
He looked at the pamphlet again and caught Willow watching him. “They clearly missed an opportunity to include her bra size in the bullet points.”
She used her palms to cup her own assets through her robes, and again, Lee felt his eyes being drawn away from the work and toward a body. Willow smirked, noticing him as he sneaked a peek.
“I get the sense I could fill out the dress she’s wearing, given the chance. Funny how much of a theme that’s been in the past few years of my life.”
She folded a pamphlet and set it onto the slow-growing stack.
“I think if you rate your worth on comparisons between yourself and Harper, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment,” said Lee.
“That’s kind of blunt. You’re not wrong, but phrasing it like that makes it seem like…” She shrugged instead of finishing her point.
“I just mean she’s a bit of a freak in a lot of ways.”
Willow raised an eyebrow. “Is she, now? Why am I not surprised?”
“An outlier, I mean,” he quickly added. “It’s not fair to compare yourself to someone like that.”
“She’s my cousin. If I don’t make the comparison, someone else will do it for me.”
The conversation hung on that point for a few seconds. The sound of creasing paper wasn’t all that pleasant on Lee’s ears.
“You’re a druid. You have your own thing going on. Nature magic, and stuff.”
Willow snorted. “Oh, and stuff. Lucky me! Come on, it’s not as though anyone takes nature magic seriously.”
“So, you’re stuck in Harper’s shadow. It’s not the end of the world.”
“Oh, I think you misunderstand. I’m not complaining. Bitching a bit, maybe, but the pros of having an exceptional family member outweigh the cons. I plan on coasting in her slipstream as far as it will take me.”
“I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not.”
“I’m not just being serious, I’m being honest.” Willow slid her finger along the fold of a freshly-creased pamphlet. “Do you think someone like me would normally have ended up being chosen to be the resident druid of a college—at my age, drinking as much as I do, and as flirtatious and promiscuous as I am?”
“You’re looking at it wrong.”
“Am I?”
“You have a rare talent. It’s not fair to yourself or to Harper to expect her reputation to be what helps pull you up in life.”
Willow had her flask out again and she took a slow, thoughtful sip. “I would have thought you of all people, Lee Amaranth, would understand the feeling of being pulled up by someone else.”
There was an edge to her voice, the slightest undercurrent of knowing. Lee thought of all the times Harper and Tess had saved his mostly magic-less skin from the precipice of death and disaster. Was it all that much different?
He let the question simmer as he continued the mind-numbing, finger-cramping busywork of repeatedly folding identical pamphlets.
***
The Elemental Tower’s interior was far emptier than Lee was normally used to. He could only assume that most of the graduate mages had also been drafted into preparations for the open house.
It was convenient as it meant he didn’t have to wait for the arcane lift and was able to immediately make his way up to the level Harper’s room was on. He knocked and heard her invite him inside.
She was standing next to her bed, directly in front of a full-length mirror, dressed in the exact same dress he’d seen her wearing in the pamphlet. A hint of a frown tugged at the corner of her mouth as she turned around.
Lee gaped at her like a tongue-tied idiot. The outfit was far more flattering of her features, especially her cleavage, than any still photo could have done justice to. She took a step toward him, and he watched the slightest jiggling ripple across her upper chest.
She’d added a pair of skin-tight boy shorts under the skirt, but it took him a minute to notice that. Or to notice the fact that Harper was now glaring at him, hands set on her hips, mouth a stern line.
“Eldon. Are you finished ogling, or would you like me to strike a pose?”
“I’m not sure I could handle it if you did,” he muttered. “Wow. Do you… get to keep this outfit after the exhibition?”
“As usual, your hormones keep me from ever forgetting just how young you really are. I’m not wearing this for the benefit of your leering eyes. I’m stuck here at Primhaven while the open house preparations are underway, so I need you to act in my stead.”
“Right. I can do that.”
Harper slowly walked toward him. Each step she took forward made the body-hugging dress move in incredible ways, stretching as though it was glued on in places and letting her curves flex and sway in others. He wanted to grab her and throw her down on the bed, but the look in her eyes told him it would mean his death.
“Kukachuk needs to have a full description of what happened within Kuh-Matton,” said Harper. “Can I trust you to ride out to the frost troll encampment and meet with him?”
She spoke slowly as if he was a child needing each syllable to be emphasized. Which was probably valid.
“Yeah, of course. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I’d like for you to leave your friends behind this time. I’m not expecting danger, but more people will simply mean more liabilities. I want you to handle this on your own.”
“Consider it handled.” Lee felt his legs moving, stepping closer to Harper of their own volition. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s already early afternoon, Eldon. You don’t have time to waste.”
“It wouldn’t be wasted.” He set a hand on her hip and drew her in.
“You certainly don’t have time for the level of mischief I detect in your eyes.”
“Mischief is letting you strut around in front of an audience in this get-up.”
The edge of Harper’s mouth quirked upward. “I do, in fact, get to keep it once the duel is finished.”
“Is that so?”
“If you want me to wear it in a particular context,” she whispered, “then you need to behave and follow your master’s orders.”
He tried to kiss her. She pulled back, patting his crotch which was bulging outward sharply enough to poke an eye out.
“Get moving.”
“You are the meanest person I know.”
Harper grinned. “If I wanted to be mean, I’d show you how much wiggling it takes to get out of this damn thing.”
Lee groaned and covered his over-stimulated eyes.
CHAPTER 29
The snow was falling in a thick curtain of flakes as Lee departed. He’d taken care of a few things before leaving the college, including dropping in to check on Tess and her kitten. Harold was still unwell, but Tess slipped out and
joined him on the back of the snowmobile, seizing the opportunity for the two of them to share some alone time outside the college.
He didn’t rush, steering the snowmobile’s skis along an easy path and enjoying the feeling of Tess’s body in his mystic stream on the seat behind him. It took him more than an hour to reach the frost troll encampment, and when he first saw it in the distance, he questioned whether he’d followed the directions properly.
The central fire which had made the camp easy to spot on his previous visit had been extinguished, most of the tents now lying collapsed and shredded. Lee’s jaw tensed as he drew closer and noticed the other important details.
There were bodies, and there was blood. Not enough snow had fallen to cover up the evidence of what must have been a fairly one-sided battle. The air smelled of burned leather and sulfur, and Lee couldn’t see a single survivor amidst the destruction.
“Oh my,” whispered Tess. “Oh no…”
“I have to get a closer look. You can stay with the snowmobile if you want.”
She clung to his arm in answer. Tess had fought alongside him before and seen her fair share of bloodshed, but never anything like this. For that matter, neither had he.
Blood stained the snow. It hadn’t pooled as it would have on concrete or tile, but it had seeped into the ground and frozen into a rough crust. The frost trolls looked wrong, too large for him to picture how they could have died even when their injuries were grievous enough to tell their own stories.
He pulled Tess closer, subtly angling her away from a troll that had somehow been bisected at the waist. He wanted nothing more to do with the scene of slaughter but needed to confirm whether Kukachuk had been one of the victims.
He found the frost troll chieftain underneath the fallen canopy of his own tent, fur badly burned across the lower two-thirds of his body. In a bizarre twist, the skin and flesh had been torn from his skull, as though scavengers had somehow managed to strip it clean and turned their noses or beaks up at the rest of the flesh.
“This is awful.” Tess was crying, and Lee felt like it was the right reaction.
“It had to have been her. The Unavowed Queen.”
He understood why the trolls had been so desperate for help with Kuh-Matton. He couldn’t help but wonder if the outcome had been instigated by his own actions. Had touching the pillar released the Unavowed Queen? Would she have eventually escaped, regardless? Maybe she’d already regained her power and only chosen to attack because of their intrusion?
“We have to get back,” he muttered. “Harper and Gen need to hear about this as soon as possible.”
He was half expecting to be attacked there and then as he hurried toward the snowmobile with Tess at his side, but the perpetrator was nowhere in sight. He sped away from the death and destruction with far more urgency than he’d had on his trip out.
He had to get back to Primhaven. At the same time, he was terrified of what he’d find when he did. An enemy who could so effortlessly massacre a tribe of frost trolls would pose just as much of a threat to the college.
***
“Slow down, Eldon. Start over from the beginning.”
Harper had changed out of her alluring black dueling dress and into sweatpants and a t-shirt. It made little difference to Lee now with his mood totally upended.
She stood in the lobby of the First Tower alongside Gen and Odarin, all of them frowning. Lee took a slow breath and began describing the scene a second time, though his words came out much the same.
“They’re dead. The entire camp. The tents were destroyed. The trolls look as though they went up against something insanely powerful. There was blood everywhere. The bodies were in pieces—or melted by fire.”
“How many bodies?” asked Harper.
“What? I… didn’t exactly take count.”
“Was there a difference between how many trolls you saw dead and how many you saw alive when we visited the camp?”
Lee frowned, considering the question. “Less, I think. Maybe some of them were buried in the snow?”
He found himself doubting it even as he made the guess.
“The Unavowed Queen once enslaved the entirety of the northern frost trolls,” said Harper. “Assuming she’s returned, and assuming she is responsible, I wouldn’t be surprised if her goal was to kill some and subjugate the rest.”
“Is this because of us? Because of whatever it was we did when we were inside Kuh-Matton?”
“I wouldn’t assume too much,” said Gen. “Kukachuk feared this would happen. It’s why he reached out to us for our help to begin with. It’s very possible no action taken on your part could have prevented it.”
He’d already repeated the scene in his head a dozen times over. Eliza, reaching out for the pillar. The demoness, perhaps the Unavowed Queen herself, appearing behind her. He felt a sudden sinking feeling as he began to wonder where Eliza was at that particular moment.
“We need to take this as seriously as we would a direct attack,” said Odarin. “Primhaven has been through enough this year already.”
“The open house should proceed as planned,” said Gen. “As unfortunate as this mess is, we can’t allow it to disrupt our normal agenda. Especially given how much tension recent events have placed on the Order of Chaldea.”
Harper and Odarin both spoke at once. Gen held up a hand, but the argument intensified as she tried to explain her reasoning over their objections.
“Eldon,” said Harper. “Leave us to discuss this in private for the time being. I’ll stop by your dorm later tonight to follow up.”
“Right.”
He left the First Tower alongside Tess, trying to keep the despair at bay as he headed across campus. Night had fallen, and the harvest moon was out overhead, the hue of orange lending the night an ominous edge.
He headed straight for Eliza’s dorm, even though he was terrified of what, or who, he was going to find within.
“It might not be what you’re thinking,” whispered Tess.
“What am I thinking?”
“That she’s somehow been possessed.”
Lee scowled at the stone path, annoyed at nothing and everything.
“You’re a mystic,” added Tess. “Of course, that would be your first assumption.”
“Just because it’s an assumption doesn’t make it wrong.”
“No, but it also doesn’t mean you have all the facts. There’s no need to use your imagination to torture yourself yet.”
“No.” He sighed. “Not yet.”
He didn’t knock when he reached Eliza’s door. It wasn’t locked, and he slipped in as silently as he could. She was in bed, asleep as far as he could tell, but that wasn’t enough on its own to put him at ease. He crouched down next to her winter boots.
They were dry, lacking the traces of melted snow, dirt, and possibly blood that he’d half-expected to find. He finally exhaled, unable or at least unwilling to keep his suspicion primed in the face of the lacking evidence. He took a seat next to her bed and set a hand on her shoulder.
Eliza’s eyes flickered open. “Mmm. Leave it to my boyfriend to look so worried while checking up on me.”
“I look worried?”
“You do. Did something happen?”
He hesitated, not wanting to tell her and not sure why. “No. It’s nothing. You should get some sleep.”
“I really should. My family stresses me out sometimes. They’ll be here early tomorrow.”
“I’ll come find you when I wake up, then.”
She smiled at him and slowly closed her eyes. Lee waited until her breathing grew rhythmic before slipping out and heading back to his own dorm.
Harper was waiting for him outside. She led him into one of Primhaven’s orchards, finding a spot where an old log had been fashioned into a bench and gesturing for him to sit.
“How is Eliza doing?” she asked.
“Fine. Tired, but that’s no surprise given what she’s been through.”
&nb
sp; Harper turned her head to the side to look at him halfway. “You were in class with her this morning, were you not?”
He nodded slowly, already sensing where her line of thinking was leading her. The same place his had already reached. “I was. She took a nap afterward.”
“Did you see her fall asleep?”
“No, but she was in her bed when I visited her just now, and it really didn’t seem as though she’d gone anywhere.”
“I know it sounds as though I’m suspicious, but it’s more concern at this point. Can you keep an eye on her tomorrow?”
“I was already planning on it.” Lee smiled and flexed his eyebrows up. “She’s asked me to be her boyfriend for a day to impress her family.”
There was a slight pause before Harper’s response. “She did? Well, I suppose that’s a convenient excuse to stay near her. Treat her nicely.”
Harper stood up and took a step away from the bench. Lee grabbed her hand and pulled her back. He was still sitting and he wrapped his arms around her lower half, his face nuzzling against the side of her hip.
“I’ll still be watching your duel,” he said.
“My exhibition. It will be ninety percent theatrics and ten percent actual fighting.”
“I’d pretend to be your boyfriend too if you ever asked me to.”
Harper turned around to face him and pressed a firm hand on his chest, pushing him flat across the bench. She straddled him and leaned forward, her braid tickling Lee’s neck as it fell loose.
“You assume I’d want a horny nineteen-year-old for a boyfriend.”
He leaned upward, letting his lips find hers in the shadows of the orchard’s trees.
“I don’t just assume,” he whispered. “I know.”
“Horny and cocky.”
“I take that as a compliment.” He let his hand settle on her cheek. “Seriously, though. I’m looking forward to watching you tomorrow. I’ll be cheering you on.”
“…Thanks.”
She kissed him, and the moment stretched out to the very brink before she pulled herself back and disappeared into the trees.
Arcane Dropout 5 Page 15
