Guild Mage 89

Chapter 89: The Crab and Gull

Liv looked to the stands, where Thora, Wren, Arjun and Tephania were waiting for her.  Despite Professor Annora’s healing magic, her arm still throbbed painfully, and she could feel it swelling all around her elbow.  It would be very nice to sit down, and even better to be back in her room on the second floor of High Hall, so she could crawl into bed and sleep.

Instead, she walked across the practice field, to the edge of the trench Rosamund had used to defend herself.  At the bottom, deep enough that a tall man wouldn’t be able to reach out, Liv’s trapped soldiers were already melting, now that she had no need of them.  “Are you alright?” she called across the gap, to where her opponent was just getting up off the ground.

“I’m fine,” Rosamund said with a grin.  She used her trousers to wipe the dirt off her hands.  “Never seen anyone fight like that before, though, and I thought I was pretty good.  You sure you’re a first year?”

“I am,” Liv assured her.  “I’ve almost certainly already had more training than anyone else here, though.  And you did do well!” She offered a grin.  “I’ve never seen that trick with the ground just surging right at me.  If I hadn’t had a wall ready to go from my wand, I don’t know what I would have done.  Try to jump it, maybe?”

“I don’t suppose,” Master Jurian broke in, walking up to the two of them, “that you have enough mana to fill in that trench, Miss Lowry?”

Rosamund shook her head and looked down at her feet.  “I’m sorry, Professor,” she said.  “I’m well and truly tapped out.”

“I’ll have the boys fetch shovels, then,” Jurian decided.

“What if she used this?” Liv offered, flipping around her wand.  “There’s four rings of mana in the pommel-stone.  That should be enough for one spell, I would think.”

“You didn’t use it up during our duel?” Rosamund asked, wide eyed.

Liv shook her head.

“Fuck me,” the other girl exclaimed, then laughed.  “Yeah, that’ll do it, if you really don’t mind.”

Liv extended the wand out over the trench using her left hand, and Rosamund stretched her own arm out to touch the stone with her fingers.  A few muttered words later, the training ground was level as if it had never been disturbed, and Liv slid her wand back into the leather sheath on her hip.  It was a bit awkward using the wrong hand, but she managed.  “Would you like to come sit with us?” she offered.

“Sure.” Rosamund shrugged, and followed Liv over to the stands.  “Tell me the truth - did you have another spell in you, or were you going to have to pull from the wand, next?”

Liv hesitated, then decided it couldn’t do any harm to answer.  “I was running a bit low before we started, actually.  From setting up the contingent spells in my wand this morning.  Usually I’d have recovered all of that mana over breakfast and luncheon, but they aren’t giving us mana-enriched food here.  All I’ve got is a bit of jerky I brought from home, and letting it come back naturally.  Which I guess is a long way of saying I had maybe one spell left, plus what was already loaded into the wand, and the mana in the stones.”

“So you weren’t anywhere near done.”  Rosamund shook her head.  Now they were close enough to the stands, Liv could make out some of what her fellow students were saying.

“She can’t possibly be a first year - maybe it's a test from the professors.”

“It's because she’s Eldish - look at those knife ears.”

“Whoever she is, she’s a proper beast.  I can’t wait to fight her!”

The last made Liv smile, but she ignored it all to introduce Rosamund to her friends.  “This is Arjun, he’s from Lendh ka Dakruim.  Tephania lives across the hall from me in High House, I met her at breakfast.  Thora is my lady’s maid, and Wren’s my bodyguard.”  The last felt like a lie, or at least as if she was leaving a lot out, but it was technically true.

“Rosamund Lowry,” the short-haired girl said, taking a seat beside Liv and slouching back casually.  “Didn’t expect to fall in with the fancy people from High House.  A lady’s maid and a bodyguard?  Your father a duke or something?”

“Shhh,” Liv said.  “I want to watch the rest of the duels, so I know who I’ll be going up against.  Arjun, is it alright if I ice my elbow?”

“It shouldn’t hurt,” the dark-haired boy said.  “And it will bring down the swelling.  As long as you’ve got enough control not to freeze your arm off, go ahead.”

Liv nodded, murmured an incantation under her breath, and used only the smallest trickle of mana to cover the linen bandages in a layer of frost.  In the meanwhile, Master Jurian had called up the next two opponents.

For the rest of the afternoon, Liv watched the matches from her perch in the stands.  Out of all her new friends, only she and Rosamund had fought: both Arjun and Tephania refrained from volunteering.  Even though Arjun could obviously use magic - he’d helped Professor Annora heal Liv’s arm, after all - he claimed that he had no idea how to fight with it.  Tephania, on the other hand, had yet to cast a spell, and wouldn’t be able to until she’d imprinted a word from the guild.

Perhaps a quarter of the first years fought, now that Liv was off the field.  Most of them only had enough mana for one or two spells, and few of them had any mana-stone or enchanted objects.  Nonetheless, she was excited to see the sheer variety of magic gathered in one location.

One boy brought a practice rapier with him onto the field, and with a single word invocation, blurred into motion.  Faster than Liv could keep track of by sight, he’d thumped his opponent three times and then backed off again.  A girl with strawberry-blonde hair, wearing a variety of silver bracelets, rings, and other ornaments, commanded the metal itself to change shape.  Blades of silver hovered in the air in front of her, then flung forward at her unfortunate opponent.

There was a boy who pulled spikes of stone up from the ground, and a raven-haired girl who seemed to enchant her opponent with a few words and a smile.  The poor boy wandered over to her with all the eagerness of a puppy, then proclaimed his surrender in return for the chance to kiss her hand.  When she walked off the field to applause, he shook himself and looked very confused.

Liv had instructed Thora to bring a notebook, but her elbow was too stiff and painful for her to write in it herself.  Instead, Tephania opened a small inkpot, and her quill scratched over the pages, recording every observation that Liv, Rosamund, or Wren made during the succession of matches.

“I’m not sure how to beat that girl except to strike first,” Liv admitted.  “What was her name?”

“Celestria Ward,” Rosamund said.  “She’s on my floor.  Honestly, I wouldn’t mind losing to her.”  Liv blinked, but couldn’t quite make sense of that.

“Overwhelming force,” Wren agreed.  “As soon as Jurian says the word.”

The last match of the day was won by a boy whose magic was able to make his opponent so heavy that they collapsed to the ground, pressed into the earth and unable to move so much as a hand.  Liv sighed, and shook her head.  “It would be easier to prepare if the matches were announced in advance and not random,” she complained.

“Sixteen of you stepping forward is actually quite good,” Master Jurian declared, taking possession of the empty field again and making it his stage.  “My compliments to everyone who had the courage to do so, even if you lost your first match.  Tomorrow we will continue at the ninth bell, as soon as you’ve all had a chance to eat something.  There will only be four matches in the morning, and the winners will be provided a luncheon that will restore their mana for the afternoon.  If no one wastes their time, we should have a class ranking by the end of the day tomorrow.  In the meanwhile, the other professors and older students will be sorting out your class schedules.  Anyone who is not dueling tomorrow is welcome to attend.  There’s something to be gained from watching, after all.  For now, you’re all dismissed.  Apprentice Brodbeck, remain behind.”

“Meet you in the dining hall?” Arjun asked, standing up from the bench and stretching out his back.

Liv shook her head.  “I need real food.  Wren, did you find anything in town?”

“There’s two inns with common rooms,” the huntress answered.  “The Crab and Gull, and the White Dolphin.  They’re both just a bit down the road, not even in the old part of town.  Couldn’t say which is better, though.”

“Let’s find out.” Liv stood up.  “I don’t plan to be out long; even with the healing, my arm’s not feeling good.  But if I don’t get something with some mana in it, it’ll take longer for everything to heal.  If anyone would like to wait for me, I’d love it if you came along.  We can pick whichever inn looks better.”

Arjun nodded, and Rosamund grinned.  “Why not,” she said.  Tephania however, looked uncertain.

“Maybe I should go back to our rooms,” she said, “and let everyone else know where you are.”

“It’s your choice,” Liv said.  “But you’re welcome to come with us.”  Then, she walked out across the packed earth of the training ground, with Thora and Wren trailing her.

“Two birds with one stone, I see,” Jurian said.  “Good.  The bodyguard -”

“Wren,” the huntress said.

Jurian nodded.  “If you don’t mind getting up early, come down before breakfast.  I’ll give you a few pointers.”

“Who says I need them?” Wren asked.

“If you really think you can keep up with me,” the mage told her, a twinkle in his eye, “then we both get a nice bit of exercise out of it.  Tell you what.  The day you beat me, I’ll make you an enchanted dagger.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Wren told him.  Liv thought that when she smiled, her teeth looked just a little bit too sharp, and she hoped that no one else would notice.

“Now, Liv,” Jurian began, turning back to her.  “I’m sorry that happened.  I knew you were probably going to get a hard time from some of the other students, but I didn’t think it would go that far.”

“The deal Julianne made was supposed to prevent it,” Liv broke in, her anger at Merek Sherard coming back at full force.

“I wasn’t in the room when the duchess and the prince hashed things out,” Jurian admitted.  “Though the Archmagus filled me in on the basics.  I expect he’s ripped that boy up one side and down the other, and I also expect he’ll be wanting to speak with you tomorrow.  If it were up to me, I’d have already sent that idiot packing his things, but it isn’t, and his family has given a great deal of coin to this school.  To say nothing of the fact he’s cousin to our next king.”

“You won’t start in the same combat classes,” the professor continued.  “So I can keep him away from you here.  At least until he begins challenging his way up.  If you can keep ahead of him, that would be good.  But if you do end up in the same course at one point, I’ll take it over personally, whatever level it is, so that I can keep a close eye on him.”

“He broke my arm,” Liv pressed.  “He’d better get more than a scolding.”

“At the end of the day, that’s the Archmagus’ decision.”

“The archmagus who is, what, his great-uncle?”

“Something like that,” Jurian admitted.  “But I think you’ll see that doesn’t get the boy as far as he’s expecting.  In the meantime, making a few good friends is the best way to protect yourself, and I see you’ve already begun that.”

“I’ve dealt with bullies before,” Liv said.  “If he tries anything, I’m not going to stand for it.”

“Make sure you let him strike the first blow, then,” Jurian recommended.  “So that everyone can see you’re acting in your own defense.  Now, did I hear you all talking about getting dinner?  Are you sure you’re up to it, with your arm?”

“If I don’t get something with mana in it, my arm won’t heal as quickly,” Liv explained.  “And I won’t have the mana to fight tomorrow.”

“The struggles of having a high capacity,” Jurian observed, with a nod.  “A night’s rest in such a low-mana area isn’t enough for you.  You want the Crab and Gull.  And send one of your girls down to the wharf and find a place called Townsend’s Dry Goods.  They import mana-beast meat from all over the kingdom, as well as stocking the local seafood from the tidal rift.  They’ll make weekly deliveries to the High House kitchen, if you can pay for it.”

“I have a pension from the king, and one from Duchess Julianne,” Liv said.  “As well as my father’s accounts, if I truly need them.”

“Good.” Jurian reached into his purse, and handed her three silvers.  “Dinner is on me, for you and your friends.”

“Thank you,” Liv said.

They found everyone waiting just outside the training yard, on the shoulder of the road which led down from the bluff and into Coral Bay itself.  Liv found that she was only slightly surprised that Cade had joined them.

“Are you alright?” he asked, carefully pulling her into an embrace.  “Rumors are just starting to get around.  Some boy broke your arm?”

If she was back at Whitehill, Liv would have wanted her mother’s arms, or her father’s.  Cade wasn’t quite as comforting as her parents, but just the feeling of being held did help.  She pressed her face into his chest for a long moment, and simply listened to his heart beat.  When she spoke, her voice was half-muffled by his body.

“Merek Sherard,” Liv said.  “Broke my arm after the match was already called.”

“If the professor hadn’t stopped me, I would have slit his throat,” Wren grumbled.

“He won’t bother you again,” Cade promised, and his voice rumbled through his chest so that Liv could feel it.  “I’ll make sure of that.”

“Don’t get yourself in trouble,” Liv warned him, pulling back so that she could meet his eyes.  “Master Jurian said Archmagus Loredan will decide what to do about it, and that he’ll want to talk to me tomorrow.  Anyway, I need food that I can actually live on.  Come down to the Crab and Gull with us?”

“Of course,” Cade said, and offered her his arm.  Together, the crew of students trooped down the road, until Wren pointed out the inn that Master Jurian had recommended.  There was an entire courtyard of tables and benches on the ocean-side of the bluff, looking out on the water, and a young woman approached them as soon as they walked over.

“Seven, m’lord Talbot?” she asked, addressing Cade first.

“That’s right,” he said.  

In what felt like no time at all, Liv found herself pressed between Cade on one side and Rosamund on the other, with two steaming loaves of bread and a carafe of white wine on the table before them.  “You have mana-rich food?” she asked the serving girl.

“All mages, are you?” The girl grinned.  “And except Lord Cade, here for the first time.  You can’t go wrong with anything that comes out of the tidal rift.  Let me make this easier: is there anyone here who doesn’t want food with mana in it?”

Thora raised her hand, and Wren followed suit.

“Got it.  How about I fill your table up with one of every dish, and you can share around and figure out what you like?” the girl suggested.  

“That sounds absolutely wonderful,” Liv said, and was embarrassed to hear her own belly rumble.  Her elbow was throbbing again, so she chilled her bandages, which had thawed somewhat, while they waited for food to begin arriving.  Cade had already met Wren, Thora and Arjun, but Liv made certain to introduce him to Rosamund and Tephania, who had decided to come along in the end.

“I feel like my entire day was spent grading examinations,” he complained, slipping an arm around Liv’s shoulder so that she could lean into him comfortably.  She was surprised how easy it was to touch him, and how comfortable.  Best of all, no one at Coral Bay seemed to care.  She thought back to what Matthew and Triss had told her, and started to understand how they’d balked at the strictness in Whitehill.

“Can you tell us how we did, then?” Rosamund asked with a grin.

“This one’s trouble, isn’t she?” Cade teased.  “You’ll find out tomorrow.  Sorting classes is a nightmare, but it's mostly handled by the professors.”

“Are you teaching anything?” Arjun asked him.  “You’re a third year, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but not actually a journeyman,” Cade admitted.  “I’m my father’s only heir, so I can’t join the guild, even if I wanted to.  I help Master Blackwood out, however.”

Before he could say more, the serving girl returned, with another two young men to help her carry platters.  They began piling the table with so much food that Liv wondered how they’d possibly be able to eat it all, even with seven people.  

 There were fresh oysters from the tidal rift, battered with ale and fried in oil; a great king crab, slathered in melted butter and sprinkled with flakes of peppers from Varuna; mussels braised with caramelized onions, cream, garlic, and bacon; pepper encrusted tuna that had been seared and left raw in the center; a thick, creamy lobster bisque; and clams stuffed with spiced breading.  On top of the bread, there were roasted potatoes on the side, and fresh greens, as well as an entire roasted chicken for Thora and Wren.

Lit by hanging oil lamps and the light of the sun setting over the bay, they dug into the feast.  For a short while, the smiles on her friends’ faces, the laughter and conversation around the table, and Cade’s solid presence next to her was enough for Liv to ignore the throbbing of her arm.