As You Wish (Book Lover 2)

by Sam Hall

  15

  Rylen and Alden took me to the dining hall after class, Tazalith roaring his defiance over the carcass of a tau now we had finished pushing him around. Alden grabbed the arm of a passing server as we entered. “Five plates of the choicest cuts.” He turned to us. “We’ll see how she does. It’s so hard to get good help.”

  “Someone told me you brought your own porters,” Grey said. “You should have them serving over here. Might finally get a decent coffee.”

  I frowned, thinking on just how that might go over. “You may not end up with what you’re expecting.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, Jez’s just as likely to have sex with you if she found you attractive and Flea—.”

  “Just what kind of staff did you bring?” Alden asked.

  “None. They’re my friends and we were stuck in Aravisia, so it was the only way I could bring them with me.”

  “Oh,” Alden said with a blink.

  “What’s this porter friend of yours look like?” Rylen said.

  I ended the day with a class on logistics. The lecturer was a big woman, her hair clipped short to her skull and she wore some kind of uniform. “Remember, amateurs talk about tactics, professional soldiers learn about logistics,” she announced as she walked into the classroom. She surveyed the relatively small student body with a dismissive sniff. “Bailey,” she said, jerking her thumb towards her chest, “and you?” Her sharp brown eyes stared into mine.

  “Ah, Tess,” I replied.

  “Tess, tell me, are you going to be yet another one of these entitled idiots who assume someone else will make sure their soldiers have bedding, provisions and first aid supplies in a battlefield?”

  “No?”

  “Damn straight, you won’t. Now put those bloody books away, I’ve told you they are no use here. First rule of the battlefield; if you think things are going to follow some kind of mental model you laboured over developing here, I’ve got news for you. You must be organised, flexible and able to find a solution in any situation.” Bailey’s finger stabbed at the cover of the closest textbook, the student it belonged to flinching backwards. “Books can’t teach you that. There’s no substitution for real battle experience, which brings me to your assessment for this course.”

  There had been an air of long-suffering tolerance in the classroom, but this quickly changed. Spines grew straighter, eyes trained on the tutor and her slow-spreading smile indicated she noticed it. “War games will be held on campus between two of the prime wings in three weeks. Your assessment will be to organise the logistics for the event. You will be split into two groups, each will be responsible for one wing.”

  I looked at her blankly as we were assigned groups. I was pretty sure my team looked at me with as much enthusiasm as I did them. Group work on a final assessment I had to pass, with unknown team members, for a subject I’d never studied. I was beginning to feel like being shoved down the stairs was infinitely preferably. I raised my hand and Bailey nodded for me to speak. “Can I use my porters or my dragon?”

  “Whatever resources you can find, you can use. Now, before you get it in your brains to use the staff as some kind of slave labour, who can tell me three possible reasons why using menials as part of a supply chain can be risky?”

  I settled back into my seat as a sea of hands shot up, wondering how the hell I was going to pull this off.

  After class, the feeling of helplessness intensified. I watched dully as the riders flipped through their well-thumbed textbooks, identifying the pages covered in my English translated one. If this was Dragonwarts, I needed a time-turner and a remember-all stat to try and compress what was effectively many years of learning into a scant three months, while also keeping pace with the new content. “So the workload is going to be steep, but you’ll get there,” Alden said. His teeth were bright and perfect as he smiled hopefully, but even the poster boy for Aravisia couldn’t maintain it in the face of my shell-shocked stare. “Think of your dragon,” he said, resting his hand on my shoulder and letting go of the false cheer.

  “Thanks, really,” I said, forcing myself to smile. “This is more than I expected. Unfortunately, so is the reading. Anyway, I’ve got to get up to the Celestial Record and grab some basic texts to help me to read these ones.”

  “The Introduction to Dragonology one is pretty basic,” Vella said.

  “Nope, it’s not, not for someone who didn’t go through the education system here. All University texts assume a level of prior knowledge and I need to fill that gap before I can make sense of these.”

  “Perhaps I could have my father have a word with Blake,” Alden said. “This is a distasteful business, dangling a dragon like bait before the masses.”

  At least we agree on that, Miazydar said.

  “Graves seemed pretty definite,” I said. “From his perspective, this is a gift. He can earn the undying loyalty of some merit family by bestowing a dragon he didn’t know he had, plus it sounded like they were going to take the Damorican government to the cleaners as well. Anyway, it’s a nice thought, but I’ve got to get a wriggle on. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Not coming to dinner?” Vella said.

  “Nah, we’ve got some food at the house and I need to hit the books hard.”

  16

  An hour later, I left the Record with a massive pile of books. I teetered down the main stairs, thankful that the teaching building was largely empty as someone trying to take me out now would have no problem. I finally made it to the ground level common area, gratefully dropping the books onto the closest coffee table, shaking out my rubbery feeling arms. I had let my strength training go since coming back from Damorica and it felt like it, yet another thing I needed to get onto.

  “Just the person I was looking for.” I turned to see Keel strolling towards me, a crooked smile on his face. I felt my breath catch involuntarily in my chest as he did so. It was Pavlovian, I had salivated over a man who looked just like him for so long it was an automatic response. “I’ll walk you to the dining hall.”

  I forced myself to smile. “Not today, sorry. I’m heading home to get onto this,” I said pointing to the pile and moving to pick them up again.

  “Let me,” he said, taking more than half off the top as it began to teeter. I went to protest, but he tucked the books under one arm and walked by my side. “So, Battle Techniques.”

  I caught a whiff of menthol muscle liniment, woody cologne and the musk of a male body that had worked hard all day as he drew closer. I shook my head; I was not going down that track again. Merlin had been kind and weird and smart and I’d been crushing on him bad, while he’d been completely oblivious.

  “Surely you can see I have enough on my plate.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He looked up at the stars that were beginning to peep through the darkening sky. “You know they’re setting you up for failure, right?”

  “Yes, but it occurs to me you shouldn’t be telling me that.”

  He shrugged, his smile curiously boyish for a moment. “The university doesn’t employ me, the Dragon Corps does. Each one of us does a stint here to try and sort the wheat from the chaff, and you.” He stopped and turned to face me, eyes raking over me and my book pile. “You’re not chaff.”

  I swallowed hard. He was watching me in that way men do when they’re making a play for a woman and are pretty sure they’re going to get what they want. I admit, I was a little damn disappointed that the play was to entice me to beat him up with weapons, rather than roll around naked in bed. You are a strong, fiercely independent woman who needs no man. A pair of very fine green eyes is not enough to turn your head, I told myself.

  Whatever are you talking about?

  Nothing.

  Ye gods, you’re not doing those affirmations again, are you? I am loved, I am loved, I am loved ad nauseam was too much the first time.

  Shut up. Go away. You need to teach me how to shield.

  Yes, I do. Just a word to the wise
, your other suitor is running around trying to find you. While I would enjoy watching a dominance fight between your two males a great deal, I’m not sure you would.

  Not my males and thank you for the heads up.

  “Is this the point where I accede to your every wish, transfixed by your lambent green gaze? You’re making too big a deal of what was a lucky strike. Do the dashing officers of the Dragon Corps so seldom get put on their butts?”

  “No,” he said, suddenly serious, “but I like it.” He watched my eyes widen and then spluttered, “That didn’t quite come out the way I meant it. Look, Lorikham, it’s a great place and everything if you want a career, but soldiers like me? We went to Rotherley. History is military history, none of this other wifty wafty crap. You train hard and often and emerge a warrior. It just gets old, schooling a bunch of clueless merits. The riders usually are technically very sound but have no ability to diversify on the fly. They’re trained to fence like an old, stately dance, all precise steps and choreographed interchanges and no one ever gets hurt. It felt nice to have someone actually fight back for a change.” He shook his head, his smile sheepish. “What the hell do you have here, anyway? Surely these aren’t all textbooks? The merits should have better upper body strength if they are.”

  “No, a lot is introductory stuff, beginner level texts to help make up for the fact that I wasn’t schooled in Aravisia,” I said.

  “Bhechro said something about that. They expect you to get on top of all this and do all the same assessments?”

  “Didn’t you hear his little speech?” I said. “My failure is a foregone conclusion. I’m merely keeping the place by Miazydar’s side warm until someone more worthy comes along.”

  Keel’s expression was a curious mix of disgust and guilt. I guess he was as much a product of this system as anyone. He frowned, then stepped forward, placing a hand on mine. “Tess, I’d be happy, no, honoured to help. This is bullshit by anyone’s standard. Sundering bonds came about because some people never learn to respect and care for their dragons. It’s supposed to be for the dragon’s benefit, not as some kind of bargaining tool. I did alright in history and anatomy. I can fill you in on the basics. Be quicker than wading through these mighty tomes.”

  “You’d tutor me one on one? Don’t you have better things to do with your time?”

  His smile was bright in the low light. “No, not out here. The village pub is OK, but the rest is dodging the merits who think they can rise up the social ladder by marrying a dragon rider.”

  “Oh, poor, poor Keel, getting all that pussy thrown at you.”

  “And dick. It wasn’t until I made it clear that was never going to happen that the fellas backed off.”

  “I think I see the appeal now,” I said with a grin. “You expect me to protect you from the ravening hordes of women.”

  His eyes grew hooded and his smile lazy. “Well, if you scratch my back…” I felt an involuntary shiver up my spine. This was a look I’d never seen on Merlin. I’d seen him concerned, frustrated or amused, but I had never seen that kind of effortless, unrelenting heat in his eyes. Mine dropped down to his lips, full, slightly chapped, as if he didn’t take too much care of them, but they were relentlessly perfect all the same. I’d have stripped off all my clothes, Jez and Tess be damned if he had. I thanked all the gods I had my arms too full of books to try that now.

  “Tess!” I didn’t get a chance to reply, Flea’s voice ringing out across the darkened grassed area. We both turned to see him run up. He pulled up short, his eyes dropping down to where Keel’s hand lay on mine, then went wide when he saw who Keel resembled. “What the hell is he doing here?”

  “You’re addressing an officer in the Aravisian Dragon Corp,” Keel said with a snap. “You’ll do so with respect, or you’ll get a short, sharp lesson.”

  “It’s not Merlin Keel is, was—.”

  “Is,” he insisted.

  “One of my tutors. He was just helping me with my books.”

  “Is that right?” Flea said, sidling up close to me, taking my readings from the man with a little yank.

  “Yeah, I was just trying to convince our girl here to keep on with Battle Techniques. I think she has some real potential.”

  “That a fact. Tess, I need you to come home. Jez got hurt when she went into the servant’s sector today.”

  “Shit! Is she ok?”

  “Yeah, just a black eye, but she’s pretty shaken. I’ve been looking for you everywhere. We were expecting you at five and when you didn’t turn up, I, we, had no idea what had happened to you. Miazydar was no help.”

  He was shouting something incomprehensible from the ground like a squeaking mouse. I think I should be congratulated for not swooping down and eating him.

  Yeah, you’re all heart. You could’ve told me what was going on.

  I honestly didn’t know. Those two blather on non-stop as it is. How am I to know which is their ‘danger is near’ squeak and which is their ‘I’m going on and on about banal things for an eternity’ one?

  “You’re talking to him, aren’t you?” Flea said with a frown. “What’s his excuse?”

  “He couldn’t hear you,” I said and he just snorted.

  “If one of your porters has been assaulted, I’d be happy to take a look. I’m no medic, but I have a bit of field training. I could also bring this up with the VC,” Keel offered.

  I felt Flea’s body go rigid beside mine. He didn’t say anything, didn’t change his expression, but I knew if I encouraged Keel to come with us, he would take it badly. I attempted the most subtle side-eye I could manage. Why did it matter what he thought? Whether he got hurt?

  “It’s OK,” I said. “Thanks for helping me with the books and I’ll think about what you said.”

  He nodded, his smile tight. “See you tomorrow, third lesson I believe.”

  “Hey…” Jez said, smiling weakly, sitting on the couch, holding a wet tea towel to her face. She saw me peering and then peeled it slowly away. “You should see the other girl,” she said when I flinched at the sight of the swollen, red and black coloured eyelid and surrounds.

  “Jez, what the hell happened?”

  “Some mingy bitch didn’t like how I was talking to one of the fellas and figured she’d rearrange my face. She thought better of it when I shoved hers into a wall. She got one good hit in though.”

  “Bloody hell.” I looked up at Flea who stood, arms crossed in the kitchen. “What are we going to do? You got smacked, I got pushed down the stairs, and this is just the first day.”

  “You what?” Flea said, starting forward. Then we all heard a knock. “Who the fuck could that be?” he said, pulling a gun from his waistband and prowling towards the door.

  “Jesus, Flea, put the bloody thing away!” He didn’t, holding it loosely behind his back.

  “Oh!” A man stood in the doorway, eyes wide. He wasn’t bad looking, long dirty blonde hair scraped neatly back from his face, a light beard covering his chin. He held a large spray of wildflowers in his hand. “Sorry, maybe I’ve got the wrong place. There was this new girl earlier in the day. Long dark hair and wearing a pair of specs?”

  “Come in,” I said, whacking Flea’s chest when he didn’t get out of the way. “She’s through here.”

  “Who was…?” Jez looked up and a smile spread over her face. It just got wider when she saw the bunch of flowers. “Oh!” she said.

  “Hi, um…we didn’t get to introduce ourselves beforehand, well, before Brigid had a crack at you. I’m Greig.”

  “I just bet you are,” she said, getting to her feet in a fluid movement. She moved to the kitchen, picking up a half empty bottle of Shay, her eyes never straying from his. “Those flowers are gorgeous. Are they for me?”

  “Ah, yes, I thought I better bring you a token, to convey how sorry I was for the incident. Brigid’s family and mine have known each other for years and she always likes to put on airs… Anyway, she never should’ve attacked you.”


  “Mm hmm, let me put them in some water.” She had a cup filled and the flowers dumped inside so fast my eyes could barely track her movements. “Now tell me all about you,” she said, linking her arm in his and escorting him down the hall to her room.

  If she mates with this one, I’m moving to another eyrie. I’ve heard whole flocks of dragons in season be quieter during congress, Miazydar said.

  When have you heard her have sex?

  She was pleasuring herself last night, more times than I could count. I shudder to imagine what introducing a partner to the mix will do.

  I internally winced at this thought. I would never begrudge my friend her pleasures, especially in a place like this where they may well be few and far between, but while the walls didn’t seem at all thin, lying in bed all night hearing her get it while I lay next to Flea... I looked up hesitantly, jerking my eyes back down when I saw him watching me. That was going to be beyond awkward.

  Sometimes I wish I was a dragon too, I said.

  You are, Miazydar replied.

  “So, you going to tell me what happened?” Flea said. His words were almost an accusation, though the rasp in his voice belied this. He moved closer, scanning my body for signs of injury, his hands balling into fists and then relaxing.

  “I went to breakfast, which was fine. Went to history, where Miazydar decided to contradict the teacher. That was both embarrassing and painful.” He nodded but I could see him wanting me to get to the incident. “On my way down to the ground floor, someone pushed me down the stairs.” His breath came in a hiss. “I took a tumble, it hurt, my pride as much as my body and then I toddled off to class. I spilt my guts to the tutor, thinking Merlin was here as some kind of spirit guide, only to find out he has a doppelganger in this world.”