“Dragondale Reserve brand. A thread on the cork leads to a sealed potion of ice blast. It is self-chilling.”
“Convenient.”
The cork popped. A blue glow enveloped the bottle, a sheen of frost forming on the deep green glass a few seconds later.
She poured half a glass for each of us.
We clinked our glasses together.
“To dedication to the craft,” I said.
“To amodestlycharming instructor.”
Chapter Ten
“How are you getting home?” I asked, as the clock struck one.
We’d chatted and laughed and still had a third of the bottle left, but it struck me that it might be a good idea to plan before it got too late.
Sephimara twirled the stem of her glass between thumb and forefinger, gulped down the remainder, and set it on the workbench. “No count’s carriage waiting for me, so I thought I’d take a streetcar. Or a cab.”
“Do they run this late?” I’d only taken the streetcar a few times, and didn’t honestly know.
She pursed her lips as she gazed at me. “I suppose we had better find out.”
A quick trip to the lobby revealed that they did not. Nor were any cabs available.
“Well, isn’t that an inconvenience. I finally move in to a new place, and now I find that I cannot get there.”
“You could always stay here,” I said.
“I only recall sayingmodestlycharming, Mister Thistlewood.”
“I mean on the…” There was no sofa in my dorm room. “I could sleep on the floor.”
“It is only two kilometers. The fresh air will do me good.”
“At one-thirty in the morning?”
“Thatisthe time.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“The Blade Baroness—that is what they call me, is it not—does not need an escort.”
“Myfriend,Lady Sephimara Arazniros, will receive an escort, even though she may not need it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Very well.”
I made a brief stop by my room to drop off my notebook and tools, and leave a note for Cleggs.
“What isthat?”Sephimara gestured to the chest-high pole I carried.
“My weapon. It’s called a scythe-axe. The blade pivots and locks into several different positions. The leather cover is mostly for storage. You know, so you don’t cut yourself when it’s in the closet. But I thought it would look less strange than carrying it through the streets with the blade out.” I wasn’t sure if I could call it a ceremonial weapon with a straight face, but I wouldn’t be caught unarmed a third time.
“Less strange, though still strange.” She motioned down the street, and we set out. “The sword is a much more practical weapon.”
“I don’t disagree. With the prevalence of the timber trade in Thorncove, most people are skilled with an axe. Everyone needs some kind of weapon in the wilderness, and people started experimenting with all sorts of strange variations of an axe.”
