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“He obviously cared about you a lot. They all did.”
She lets out a coy little chuckle.I wasn’t going to trust them to have my back while we took on a conspiracy of scourge sorcerers otherwise.
The way she phrases it, as if their caring was part of her strategy rather than a natural development, niggles at me. But it’s really none of my business how she handled her affairs.
I shift the dresses over to one end of the sofa and sit down. To my annoyance, I can’t deny that the velvet cushions are about ten times as comfortable as my “bed” back in the cloth factory.
I won’t exactly be hard done by even sleeping like an afterthought in the royal college.
I get up again, planning to make a thorough survey of the room while I’m alone. But my solitude only lasts long enough for me to confirm that, yes, most of the etched bottles in the liquor cabinet would have cost more than the people of the fringes make in an average month.
I’m just ambling back to the desk and its surrounding bookcases when Stavros strides into his quarters.
He takes in me and the dresses draped on the sofa in a quick glance. I leap to explain. “Casimir came by. He knew I’d need to blend in outside of the job too.”
“Hmm,” Stavros says, as if he isn’t quite convinced that I didn’t manage to steal three dresses in the short while he was gone. He drops his own bundle—this of linen, leather, and a clink that tells me there’s chainmail in the mix—onto the cushions next to the gowns. “You’re all set then.”
I decide to let Casimir broach the topic of undergarments as promised. The former general has spent enough time thinking about my intimate apparel today.
He fishes in his pocket and draws out a bracelet a lot like Julita’s, only plain gold without any gemstones. “This will give you your own access to the front gate and these chambers. I thought it’d be best if you weren’t going around flashing Julita’s.”
“Good point.” I take off Julita’s bracelet to replace it with the new one and then pause, not sure where to put it.
Stavros eyes it for a moment. “What does she want done with it?”
I raise a questioning eyebrow, but Julita’s presence is already stirring.It’s just a little scrap of gold. I suppose we should hold on to it in case we need it as evidence of some kind. Stavros should be able to keep it secure.
I hold the delicate chain out to him. “She’d like you to put it someplace safe in case we need it later.”
“Always thinking ahead,” he says with a note of wry affection.
As he takes the bracelet from me, he motions to the two inner doors. “Keep out of my bedroom. We can share the latrine. If you want a bath, there’s a public room and a few private ones down the hall to your right.”
Of course. The elite of the central ward all have running water right into their homes, while the folk of the fringes make do with wells, chamber pots, and outhouses.
It’s hard to complain about that while I’m benefitting from the luxury, though.
I prop myself on the arm of the sofa. “So, what’s next? How do I get started on this grand quest I’ve stumbled into?”
Stavros aims a mild glower at me. “I’ve still got my staff meeting to attend. You can join me for my afternoon lessons and then spend some time getting to know the school. I’m sure a woman of your many talents can figure out the rest?”
I shrug. “Talk, listen, determine who the scourge sorcerers are. Fairly straight-forward.”
He guffaws. “Don’t we wish it were so. The wretches have proven awfully good at covering their tracks.”
I pause before picking up the thread he’s unknowingly offered me. “I guess this is your thing, isn’t it? Tackling evil sorcerers. I saw you before, a couple of years ago, at the execution of the riven sorcerer you apprehended.”
Stavros’s voice turns even drier. “Yes, it seems my true calling is to triumph against degenerate magic.”
I let my gaze wander across the room as if his response to my next remark doesn’t matter all that much to me. “Scourge sorcerers have got to be worse. At least the riven don’t pursue their power; it just happens.”
Even from the corner of my eye, I catch the stiffening of Stavros’s muscular frame. “It just happens, and then they drag the world into their madness with it. None of them are worth the dirt on their hides.”
At his vehemence, my gaze jerks back to him. “You take their existence pretty personally, it sounds like.”
He gives me a tight smile, anger smoldering in his eyes. I have the impression he isn’t seeing me at all in that moment. “A riven sorcerer butchered my best friend. I’ll be satisfied when all of them as well as anyone who’d dabble in scourge magic are wiped right off the face of the continent.”
Without another word, he heads out the door, with a thud of it shutting hard in his wake.
