"Really? That's allowed?" Elstrin asked, surprised.
"Sometimes," Snow said. "If a cadet excels enough at all aspects of training, there's hardly any point for him to remain in the current program. Unless he's under eighteen. There are age limits for some of the training facilities inside headquarters."
"Not to mention you can't legally fuck," Gabriel added contemplatively. "I don't think the phrase really makes sense, but hell, you soldiers like to follow rules. Did you know, kid, that women aren't allowed in HQ unless you want to make babies? And even then, you have to sign a billion official forms and shit. Otherwise there'd be this constant stream of girlfriends dropping by and all the guys will get distracted from their training."
A stretch of silence followed.
"No. I did not know that," Elstrin said.
"That's because he made it up," Snow sighed. "Stop spreading urban legends, Gabriel. You're not even in the army."
"Hey, I'm just trying to teach him lesson two. Never trust near-strangers, especially when it's a drop-dead gorgeous stranger from the slums with only one mutual link with you."
Elstrin thought instantly of Kana, except for the drop-dead gorgeous part—he couldn't really tell with all those bruises in the way. But Kana did have a sexy—nice—voice. "You're kind of narcissistic. What's our mutual link?"
"Aw, we're both Snowy's friend, aren't we?" Gabriel teased, slinging an arm around the
lieutenant's shoulders. It threatened to slip to his waist and Snow shoved him away. "C'mon, don't be so shy. We're all grown men here. Besides, it's—"
"Shut up," Snow said. "Or I won't help you with the dragon."
"Dragon?" Elstrin piped up.
"This is about me, not Keri," Gabriel said with a grin, ignoring him. "Threaten me with something else. As I was saying, it's not like—"
"I won't let you visit Rem."
Gabriel opened his mouth, closed it again. "That's fucking harsh, Snow."
"Yep."
"Fine. I wasn't going to say it anyway. I'd rather not befoul the young cadet's ears with my extensively altered dictionary. I respect your privacy."
"Thank you. I'd do the same, but you don't seem to want or need any privacy."
"Who's Rem?" Elstrin asked.
Snow gave him an unreadable smile. "That's another unnecessary question. I think I've lost count by now."
"God, you're so strict on the secrets," Gabriel scolded. "It's not like he'll blackmail you, if you build up enough trust. Do you tell him about the injections?"
"I'm not allowed to. These things aren't decided by me."
They continued to bicker good-naturedly as they travelled further away from the city, Gabriel arguing about every single rule that the cadets were bound by, but Elstrin noticed that the man never mentioned anything Elstrin wasn't already aware of. If he was doing it on purpose, he was very good at it. Still, it was amusing to listen, and it saved him from needing to talk. He didn't know if Gabriel was always this chatty, or if it was the extra company, or simply the fever's fault. The bag of medicine swung in his hand, untouched, and Snow didn't reprimand him for it.
Their conversation quietened down once they were properly out of Mernot, walking up the same empty road towards HQ, a faint beige-coloured smear on the base of the mountains. Gabriel kept craning his head back, trying to peer at the sky against the blazing afternoon sun.
"I don't see a bloody thing," he finally muttered.
"That's the point," Snow said. "Just be patient. It'll come out, providing it's forgotten about Elstrin's little mistake."
"Are you getting Keri a dragon?" Elstrin said incredulously.
"Hell no," Gabriel laughed. "What the fuck. That would be suicide. No, I'm getting her a necklace. silver, plus a dragon scale."
"A scale? How do you get it off safely?"
"That, young cadet, is something I've always wanted to know. How indeed, Snowy?"
"Just ask it," Snow said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Of course, I'll have to do it. It wouldn't listen to either of you."
"You can talk to dragons," Elstrin deadpanned.
"So can you. You scared one away."
"But that was because I mentioned Lupalia! Wasn't it?"
"Maybe."
"But—"
"It's there," Snow interrupted, pointing at an area of grass around ten metres from the road. It didn't look any different.
Gabriel squinted at it. "Are you sure this will work?"
Snow, for some reason, laughed. "The irony of your question." He unclipped the holster on his belt and handed his gun to Gabriel, and without any hesitation, strode into the tall grass. He paused near the place he'd indicated, crouched down and disappeared from sight.
"Does he do that often?" Elstrin muttered. "Say weird things and run off before you can get him to explain them?"
"You have no idea," Gabriel said. He examined the pistol idly. "You came down here for a ghost, right? What happened?"
Elstrin wasn't sure if he meant what happened that he got a spirit stuck to him, or what happened during the dismissal. He picked the latter. "Um, I just stood there. And I felt really sick for a while, and it disappeared. Apparently. I can't tell."
Gabriel ran his eyes up and down his uniform. "Yep. It's gone. Nothing there."
"You can see them? I thought they were only visible during dawn."
"Who told you that?" Gabriel said sharply, his hands stilling upon the small weapon. "And how'd you find out you were an anchor in the first place?"
"Oh, um." Not for the first time, Elstrin wondered how much of Kana's knowledge was common. "My roommate."
"Kana Skax?"
"What—Snow told you?" Elstrin said, surprised.
"Nah, I guessed. He was one of the more… colourful people from the slums to apply for the army. It's too much of a coincidence that he just started training and a few days later some clueless cadet comes running down to Mernot for a dismissal."
"Do you know him?"
"Kinda. We lived in the same district." Gabriel grinned. "We fucked once."
Elstrin almost choked on his own spit. "Wh-what?" he coughed, feeling his face turn red.
"Hey, I'm a whore. It's what I do. Stop looking so shocked."
"He's my roommate. I don't need mental images."
"Why? He's pretty hot. I'm very hot. You could jack off to the thought of us together."
Elstrin pressed his palms to his eyes, willing himself to stop blushing. "Shut up."
"Aw, is the little cadet shy?" Gabriel teased, spinning the gun in one hand. "It was—"
"Gabriel."
Snow had returned, a little way off from where they were standing. He stood just on the perimeter of the wild grass. A white, scaly snout was visible beside his legs, black tongue tasting the air frequently. Snow stepped forward, his eyes strangely blank, and slowly, the dragon followed him out into the sunlight. Its head was around the size of an alligator's, but the neck was much longer, and its arched back came up to Snow's knee. A pair of thin wings was folded snugly over its shoulders. Gleaming white scales covered its entire body, running smoothly over lanky legs and a long torso, right to the tip of a swaying tail. Elstrin's jaw dropped. It was only a few months old, and it was already as large as a Rottweiler? What would an adult look like?
A wheeling shadow swept across the ground briefly. The dragon snapped its teeth slightly, retreating a little back into the grass and behind Snow. Its bright green eyes darted from Elstrin to Gabriel, tongue flicking constantly.
"Elstrin, you should calm down a bit," Snow murmured, taking another step onto the road. Again, the dragon went with him, cautious but willing. "Gabriel, come here."
Snow glanced down as Gabriel went towards them. He didn't speak out loud, but the blankness stayed on his face, and the dragon stilled as if listening to something. Suddenly, it shook itself like a dog getting rid of water. A small white chip bounced from its body and landed on the hot asphalt; immediately, the dragon moved and crouche
d over it, staring at Gabriel as he hovered close by. Snow put a hand on the man's shoulder.
"Kneel," he said quietly. Gabriel went down onto his knees, eye-to-eye with the dragon. Snow's hand slid to his head, resting gently atop brown hair. "Now submit."
Throat bobbing as he swallowed, Gabriel began to crane his head up, exposing his neck to the dragon as a wolf would to his leader. "Will it—"
"Relax," Snow said, moving away. "Stare at the sky. You've done this before."
The dragon inched closer, inspecting Gabriel's skin and clothes. It was in the perfect position to just rip out his windpipe, but it didn't. Its tail scraped dryly along the dirt. After a minute of what seemed like silent judgement, it stood up and paced to the side, allowing Gabriel to pick up the discarded scale. He pocketed it, shoulders slumping as he exhaled nervously. "Thank you," he said to the dragon. It blinked at him, then swung its gaze to Elstrin.
"Need help with that?" Snow asked Gabriel, ignoring Elstrin, who stood frozen and unsure as the dragon kept watching him. He hardly noticed that Snow's voice was back to normal. There was something mesmerising about the creature's eyes, clear lake-green, and despite the mounting apprehension in his chest, he took a small step closer.
"Nah. I'll do it at home," Gabriel said from very far away.
A thought, icelike in its clarity and sharpness, entered Elstrin's mind and lingered for a while before disappearing. Where is Lupalia?
"Time to go," Snow said. His words seemed to drag Elstrin back into reality. He was suddenly aware of the sun on his back and the small sounds of nature around him. Snow was reattaching the pistol to his belt; the dragon trotted over to him and made a strange warbling noise, more croaky than melodic, and nudged his leg. Snow patted its head lightly and it dove back into the grasses, disappearing with a loud rustle and a final wriggle of its tail. Gabriel was already walking off,
having said whatever farewells that Elstrin had missed. "Take care," Snow called after him. The man raised a hand briefly.
"It asked me where Lupalia is," Elstrin said dumbly, when they were alone. He followed automatically when the lieutenant began the long trek up to HQ again.
"That's nice," Snow said, unconcerned.
"It was like someone injected words into my head. I couldn't think about anything else."
"It's how Kichik dragons communicate. Reptilian vocal chords are obviously not suited to the task of speaking."
"But it—" Elstrin paused as he realised something. "When you looked all hypnotised—you were talking to it?"
"Yes."
"What did you say?"
"I wanted a scale. I simply requested one."
"How—"
"You can't learn it. Dragon speech is a lost art. People have too much on their minds these days, too many random thought processes firing all at once, to hold a decent conversation. It'll be like shouting to be heard in a crowded restaurant, and it's distressing and impolite to the dragon."
Irked, Elstrin mumbled, "You managed it fine."
"Yes," Snow said again, softly. He looked solemn and distant.
"Is it… a bad thing? To talk to them?" Elstrin said with a frown.
"No." The man turned his eyes to the sharp peaks of the mountains ahead. For a moment he seemed to want to say more, but he didn't. Elstrin waited, and when nothing was forthcoming, he shrugged and kept walking. He wouldn't pretend to understand Snow and the sense of detachment that was noticeable around him. Whatever was weighing on his mind was no concern of Elstrin's— and that was how it should stay, anyway. However casual their little visit to the city had turned out, it didn't at all mean that they'd become friends or something: their relationship was still strictly a teacher-student one. Kana had been correct—this was business, right from the start. Learning experiences.
Elstrin's thoughts wandered to his roommate. And what Gabriel had said. Just the mere idea was enough to make a flush creep up his cheeks, but he couldn't not think about it. Maybe it wasn't even true. Maybe Kana was kind of well-known or special in the slums and Gabriel was just trying to mess his image up. Why he'd even do that was another question. But if it wastrue, then… then things might get awkward. The best thing to do, he decided, was to pretend he'd never known and no such conversation had ever taken place: in fact, Elstrin hadn't met Gabriel at all. An excellent plan—with the minor drawback of needing to lie to his friends whenever they asked why his trip had taken so long.
By the time they got back, lunch break was just ending, and Snow's mood had shifted from sombre to pensive. It was with guilty relief that Elstrin hurried into the cafeteria and grabbed a sandwich while everyone else was filing out—he got plenty of curious stares and a few attempted questions, but the lieutenants outside kept anybody from interrogating him. Snow gave him five extra minutes to eat, then led him around a different jogging track to warm up for the afternoon training.
"Why all this secrecy?" Elstrin asked, eyeing the rest of the cadets, who ran on the main track with their instructors. "I won't say anything about the ghost if you don't want people to know."
"I'd appreciate that," Snow said, also glancing at the others. He hesitated. "But I imagine it'd be a little embarrassing for you if you fainted in the middle of jogging your second lap."
"What? Why the hell would I faint?"
"Strenuous physical tasks after a messy dismissal might screw up your body. It's—"
"Messy?" He squinted at Snow. "You said I'd feel sick, and I did. It's gone now. What d'you mean? Didn't it go well?"
"No." Snow spoke almost carefully. "Not at all."
"Huh? But—but I felt it leave. And Gabriel said there's nothing on me anymore."
"The spirit is gone, yes. But the process was… messy. It shouldn't have taken so long, for starters, and I shouldn't have needed to use the gunshot as a trigger. You certainly shouldn't have thrown up."
"Why didn't you tell me all this?" Elstrin demanded, scowling.
"I was thinking," Snow said musingly. "Possibilities and theories. Can you remember what you saw?"
"Saw? No, I—it was too confusing. Half the shit in my head wasn't mine." Elstrin slowed down— his legs were suddenly tired. "It was like a really vivid flashback, but it didn't make sense. I can't really explain it."
"What did I look like, then? Did you recognise me?"
"I don't know!" he protested, boots crunching as he stopped running abruptly. His head swam. "I couldn't tell—I was scared, or the ghost was scared. One moment it was night and another moment I've got this awful feeling like I know someone's going to shoot me in the head—hell, maybe it was so messy 'cause I was so paranoid, right?" He laughed nervously. "There were even two guys—like, the bad guys. That definitely wasn't there on the night it happened—"
"Two?" Snow said sharply.
"Yeah. Two." Elstrin tried to grin. "Probably just a hallucination. Don't get all worried—"
"Where was the second person? What did they look like?"
"Oh, um." He took a large breath, wishing the building pressure in his skull would vanish. Little black spots began to dance in front of his vision. "I don't think you could see him where you stood, 'cause I barely did, and… he was hiding? Kinda. Up on a fire escape. It—he was gone real quick. I told you. Nothing to worry about, heh, I just…" He swayed a little. "I feel sleepy. When can we start sparring? Maybe you could do that—that sword thing again, might wake me up…"
His babbling trailed off, gave way to a weak slur as his knees folded awkwardly and his eyes closed of their own accord. He thought he fell. The last thing he saw was Snow, who looked very worried indeed.
Chapter 11
"…No, sir."
It was Kana's voice. He sounded close by, and tired. Elstrin wondered if it was possible to rid the infirmary of that nasty chemical smell. It got on his nerves, made him instantly aware of where he was instead of allowing him to float gradually to the surface as every confused patient should. His body ached, not from duelling all day but from… he didn't k
now. It just hurt. He didn't open his eyes, enjoying the darkness.
"Nothing at all?" another person asked. Stag's voice now. Did he know that his kids missed him? Probably. "Not even something very small? An inconsistency or a glitch or something?"
"No, sir," Kana repeated. "The situation was… weird, unusual. But I would've sensed anything wrong with it. And if it was tampered with, it would've been really hard to hide the evidence. Since the spirit was quite new, and very weak."
"All right." Stag cleared his throat; a mug clinked against a table. He laughed shortly. "Watch it, kid. Don't make it sound like you know more than I do."
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