by Guy Antibes
Saganet’s face looked like he had bitten into something sour. “Two of our associates were beaten until they died yesterday. Karian thinks someone is finally cracked the code and is acting on the information on the book wrapping you lost months ago. I don’t believe it, but who knows? Perhaps they found out a few names from another source.”
“Do you know everyone on the list?”
Saganet shook his head. “I was given the book wrapping already coded. Karian knew some of the people on the list.”
Ricky stood aghast that his inattention might have taken a life.
“It isn’t your fault. That isn’t the only list, nor is it the only way someone can find out who is involved in Karian’s project. It’s about time we took another walk into Tossa. You are completely recovered and are even better at defending yourself.”
“Unless Victor is one of the thugs.”
Saganet nodded. “He is the most vicious student I have ever known. He intended to kill, make no mistake about that. I hear he is being tutored at home with two of his friends who have left the academy on their own. Your old classmate Frank isn’t included, it seems.”
Ricky managed a smile. “How do you know all that?”
“It’s part of my job to know what goes on at the academy, Ricky. I talk to my students and am able to sift out nuggets all the time. Most of those are the typical, stupid things students do, but enough students know others that I pick up a lot of information because I am careful not to be the one who enforces academy rules unless the violation happens in one of my classes.”
“Of course,” Ricky said. “They tell you what’s happening. You and Karian do the same outside the academy, don’t you?”
Saganet ruffled Ricky’s hair and laughed. “You are too observant for your own good.” His face sobered. “And that is why you are learning how to defend yourself. I’ve decided to bring in another tutor to help you this summer. Her name is Effie Asucco. She just retired as the bodyguard to Princess Pira.”
“Princess Pira, the King’s daughter?”
Saganet nodded. “Effie is about Professor Calasay’s age, but she became too old for the Princess, so Pira said.”
“Retired means let go?”
“Yes, an involuntary separation. Miss Asucco is very, very good with weapons, nearly as good as I am in some. But she came from the streets, as hard a life as you had, and knows how to fight dirty.”
“Victor could give her some tips,” Ricky said.
Saganet nodded. “Viciousness is sometimes something one has to cultivate. I think we will work on viciousness this summer. She arrives just after school ends in a couple of weeks. She will help with our summer school students.”
“Not another woman in my life!” Ricky said.
His guardian grinned. “If she does a good job, Merry might bring her on full-time to teach alongside me. Mina only knows very basic defensive techniques. We can get more girls interested in learning how to protect themselves if there is a dedicated female instructor rather than a crusty old soldier and his daughter.”
“You’re not crusty. Old, maybe,” Ricky said, smiling.
“You really know how to make an old guy feel great.” He messed with Ricky’s hair again. “It’s time to spend more time conditioning,” Saganet said. “You are beginning a growth spurt, it looks like, and that means we can make sure your increase in size is coupled with an increase in strength and endurance. Ten laps around the practice field, starting now.”
“Maybe an old guy like you needs to build his endurance. Why don’t you join me?” Ricky said, feeling good about growing and learning more things about martial arts.
“I’ll do two laps with you.”
~
Betti Singilia sat in the corner of the conference room, reading a book when Loria walked in.
“I’m sorry. My class dismissed late,” Loria said.
Ricky looked up from examining a sheet of paper with grids and notations. His eyes followed Loria as she walked to the other side of the table and folded her arms. Loria stared at Ricky. He didn’t know what she hoped to accomplish. Was she trying to will him away?
“Hey, you two! Follow the plan,” Betti pointed to the document that Professor Calasay had left behind. “Look, we are in this together,” she said. “Stop staring at each other and get to work.”
“Why does the power link work better with me than anyone else?” Loria asked.
“Affinity,” Ricky said. “Even though you’ve grown to dislike me, there is still an emotional link.”
“Big words from a criminal. You’ve even managed to steal my father’s secrets. I never imagined you would do such a thing when we first met.”
“In case you missed it, the Baron likes me. Did you hear him call me a thief? The basic idea of using sorcerous communications originally came from Duteria. Do you consider him a thief?”
She snorted. “You don’t know what I think of my father.”
“He wants you to participate in the project with me teaching you how to do this.”
Loria turned her head, but Ricky could see the tension in her shoulders relax. “Okay.” She looked back at him, still glaring, but with less anger.
“Very well.” Loria took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
“The first section deals with how quickly it takes to link. You time how long it takes me with Betti, and she will time how long the link takes to establish with you. We also need to experiment creating the joining without touching.”
They spent the next hour going through the specific points Professor Calasay wanted measured. Most of the work consisted of documenting how far the link could be created. Ricky could now create a link within a pace of Betti, but it took lots of power the farther he tried, and he needed time to recover.
Ricky could establish a link with Loria as long as they were within eye contact. They had to go outside to discover the range to be about fifty paces.
“I can’t go on anymore,” Ricky said. “I can generate the power, but my mind is so weary that I can’t sustain the will. We completed the first page anyway.”
“Then I’ll be on my way,” Loria said, quickly leaving the conference room.
Ricky looked at the door she had closed behind her. “She wasn’t prickly like that before,” he said.
Betti laughed. “Get used to it. Some women can never learn to forgive, unlike you men.”
“Why do you say that?”
Bettie pursed her lips and looked away with eyebrows raised. “I can’t give away too many feminine secrets, but I will say this, you are still on her mind.”
“Of course,” Ricky said. “We have an exceptional affinity. That means we still have a regard for each other. The power linking shows it.”
“You say that without emotion.”
“There is emotion enough behind it. It takes two to link, doesn’t it, Betti? The ease of linking also shows her my feelings.”
Betti narrowed her eyes. “Don’t get too smug, young man. She feels very confused, and that confusion will resolve itself one way or another.”
“Or it may never do so,” Ricky said.
“How are you so confident in knowing what’s in a woman’s heart? You speak like a man with a large amount of experience.”
Ricky laughed. “No experience, just a little common sense. But it didn’t protect me from alienating Loria, did it? It puts you off, too. Right?”
“Right,” Betti said, narrowing her eyes. “I’ll be leaving then. I have to research old stories for my production. I’m going to combine a play with a sorcerer’s performance. Actually, it’s Merry’s idea.” She tucked the completed document for Professor Calasay into a leather portfolio and left.
Ricky sat alone in the conference room. He closed his eyes and reviewed their session to see if Loria’s actions contradicted what he had just claimed, but didn’t find a clear flaw in his thinking.
He walked to the cottage to rest a bit before joining Saganet on the practice
field. He didn’t need to keep the gymnasium clean daily, but he did have to drag a timber across the field every day to fill in the ruts and uneven ground on the dirt field.
Talking about Loria with Betti made him uncomfortable, even though he meant what he had said. In working so much with Loria, he feared she might be able to sense more of what he thought than he intended. Ricky didn’t have anything to hide, except he was unsure of his feelings and how Loria might react to them.
~
Not fully rested, he trudged to the practice field and began dragging the timber. The grounds evened out as he walked.
He had just about finished when Saganet approached him with a short woman walking with a fierce expression. She had to be Effie Asucco, Saganet’s new teaching partner. She looked a bit vicious. Saganet smiled and laughed as they approached, but her expression remained guarded.
“This is Hendrico Valian, but we call him Ricky.” He looked at Ricky. “Ricky, meet Effie Asucco.
“Effilia,” the woman said correcting Saganet’s more informal use of the woman’s name.
“Yes.” Saganet cleared his throat.
Effie gave him a dissatisfied look.
“Effilia will be helping me with my classes and will experiment with a girls’ class during the summer term. If it works out, she will join the academy as my assistant.”
“A women’s class, Professor Crabacci. I don’t teach girls self-defense, only young women.”
Ricky blinked. The word ‘rigid’ came to Ricky’s mind. It looked to him that Saganet had never met Effie before. He refused to think of the woman as Effilia, and, unfortunately, her attitude put him off. No wonder Princess Pira eventually fired her.
“Ricky needs a different approach to his training, as we corresponded. I am his guardian and can’t push him quite like you can,” Saganet said.
Saganet’s words surprised him. He had felt pushed enough by his guardian. What more could Effie do? He shrugged, mentally, and would find out soon enough.
“How was your session with Loria today?” Saganet said.
“Interesting. Betti recorded it.”
“Session?” Effie said.
“Advanced Sorcery. Ricky and another student are taking an advanced course. An outside instructor, Betti Singlia, is helping.”
“The performance sorcerer?”
Saganet’s eyebrows went up. “Yes, you know her?”
“Princess Pira had a few audiences with her when she was younger. The Princess is an ardent fan of performance sorcery. Mistress Singlia became too out-of-shape to perform.” Effie made her statement devoid of emotion.
She looked at Ricky with more interest in her eyes. “Are you training for the stage?”
Ricky shook his head. “I just started at the academy, so I’m not training for anything, I’m just on a mission to learn.”
“And part of that mission is to better defend himself. As I mentioned, Ricky has already been assaulted three times since he arrived at Doubli Academy,” Saganet said.
She leaned over slightly and peered into Ricky’s eyes. “I’ll make you into a proper warrior. Do you only know the sword?”
Ricky shook his head. “I also have trained in staff, archery, knife fighting, and throwing. I haven’t done much with heavier weapons. Saganet says I need to grow a bit more.”
“Indeed you do, but I suppose you have an adequate start. Conditioning?” She looked at Saganet.
“He has kept up with my own program.”
“Fourteen, fifteen?” she said. “He can handle more work, I suppose?”
“There is always more that can be done,” Saganet said.
“I agree.” She turned to Ricky. “Finish the field and then sprinkle water on it and do it again.”
“Sprinkle water?”
“It will dry harder. When you just plane it with the timber, the divots students make are still soft.”
Ricky was still tired from his sorcery session. He looked at Saganet.
“Do what she says, Ricky. Consider it your conditioning for the day. You’ll start with Effilia tomorrow.”
There wasn’t anything Ricky could do but start over. However, he did take the opportunity to sing a little magic to broadcast the water more evenly by willing it to atomize into a fine mist when he threw a bucket of it onto the field. Leveling with the timber turned out to be harder. The surface did seem flatter. Ricky had to remind himself that the increased effort produced better results.
Saganet didn’t hang around with the new teacher, so Ricky walked back to the cottage. He spotted two familiar faces and stepped back before they saw him rounding a corner. He watched Loria and Benno walk past. Neither of them looked very happy. He wondered what that was all about, but then he took a deep breath. Their relationship was none of his business, but that didn’t stop him from peeking around the next corner to watch their moods erupt into an argument out of his hearing.
He waited for them to leave that quadrangle before hurrying to the cottage. Saganet read a letter on one of the cushioned side chairs in the living room.
“What do you think of Effie?” Ricky’s guardian said.
“Effilia? She is cold and severe. If she acted like that in front of Princess Pira all the time, it is a wonder that the Princess could put up with her as long as she did.”
Saganet chuckled. “I think she’ll do. I need someone to challenge me from time to time. One becomes stale doing the same thing over and over again. A little fresh thinking always helps.”
“But you are more experienced than she is,” Ricky said.
“My experiences and my perspectives are different from hers. That’s why I wanted Effie here. She has a reputation that I want to put to the test, as well.”
“Reputation?”
Saganet nodded. “She is excellent at bringing out aggression. I don’t want you to hate her, but you will be frustrated by her approach. Just understand you’ll get angry over what she has you do, and you need to channel that into your training.”
Ricky shook his head. “I’m already a bit out-of-sorts. I had a tough time with Betti and Loria—”
“I imagine any session is difficult with your ex-girlfriend.”
“She wasn’t my girlfriend…exactly. Anyway, my mind was tired, and it still is. I’m going to rest for a bit,” Ricky said.
Saganet shooed him towards his bedroom. “When you are finished, we should have a little discussion.”
Ricky lay down and thumbed through the history textbook for a bit and then fell asleep. He awakened in the dark. He walked out into the living room.
“I’m afraid your dinner has cooled. I can watch you eat while we talk.”
Ricky yawned and began to eat at the table. He didn’t care if the food had cooled. He was hungry.
“I’m sorry I mentioned your project around Effie.”
“Effilia,” Ricky said with his mouth full.
“It is Effie. She gave me permission to call her that. She will be Miss Asucco to you, I’m afraid.”
Ricky just nodded.
“She already has asked more questions about Betti. We will have to keep any talk to ourselves, as I said. Effie is part of the loosely affiliated group that Karian and I belong to, but that doesn’t mean everybody shares each others’ secrets.”
“I understand,” Ricky said after swallowing more of his meal. “I’ll be more discreet.”
“And I won’t ask you how the project is going,” Saganet said. “You’ll start working with her tomorrow.”
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Five
~
L oria left word she wouldn’t be coming to the project meeting. He hoped she was in the process of deciding to participate full-heartedly or not at all. Ricky headed to the practice field, but Loria caught him along the way and dragged him to a bench in a secluded corner of the quadrangle, pulling him down onto the seat.
“What’s this all about?” Ricky said.
“I had an argument with Benno about you.�
�
“That was about me?” Ricky said.
Loria narrowed her eyes. “What do you know about it?”
“Nothing. I saw Benno and you arguing. I didn’t hear a word.”
“Oh,” Loria said. She clutched her hands into fists. “Benno is a little possessive.”
“Does your father like Benno?”
Loria shook her head. “No.”
“Another point in your father’s favor.”
“I like Benno,” Loria said defensively.
“Do you?”
“I wouldn’t reveal that to you if I did or didn’t.”
“You were going to tell me something just now.”
Loria blushed. “Maybe I won’t.”
Ricky could tell she was thinking about playing games with him. “Just explain to me why you grabbed me as I walked and plopped me down on this bench. You must have a reason other than to tell me I was the object of an argument.”
“Sometimes you are very infuriating, Hendrico Valian.”
“Was he upset we are working on a secret project together?”
She nodded her head.
“And you told him he couldn’t join in and that made him mad?”
She nodded her head, again.
Ricky kept the questions up. “How do you feel about that?”
“He is unreasonable. Our work is important, and we are committed to making it work,” Loria said.
“Then why didn’t you show up today?”
“Because we had to talk. I don’t know what to do.”
“Tell him just what you said to me. It’s a secret, and we are chaperoned.”
“You aren’t going to help me with this, are you?” Loria said.
Ricky took a deep breath, knowing he risked Loria’s cooperation, but he had to continue. “For perspective, let me remind you of some recent history. I told you that I was on a secret project that you couldn’t participate in. What did you do?”
“That is different.”
“Explain to me how it is.”
“Well,” she paused, “Well, it just is.”
“Not. It’s not different at all. Not in the larger parts. I know you aren’t possessive and that you and Benno are different people, but you both reacted in the same way. Now you know how I felt when you broke apart our relationship.”
