Noble Fae Academy: Year One Page 5

  Then again, maybe not if I flew. I remembered that I’d seen one of the guards talking to a particularly nasty-looking red bird that was twice the size of the unicorns. In fact, the bird had looked like he wanted lunch.

  If we were supposed to be the red bird’s lunch, I had to assume that if I ventured out on my own I would certainly be eaten. It didn’t seem like a pleasant way to go.

  As I stood up and walked out of the office, I felt the man’s eyes on me the whole way. My legs were a bit shaky, but damned if I was going to show it.

  I was expecting one of the officials from before to be waiting for me, but Goya had disappeared without even saying goodbye. Instead, the other woman who had walked with us was still standing there. She had short gray hair and a no-nonsense expression, and she looked like she was made of solid muscle. I could tell by the way she moved under her tunic.

  “This way,” she said. “You’ll go to the freshman dormitory. For girls, of course. I’ll explain everything on the way. I want no lip from you, do you understand? You are here to learn the ancient texts and philosophies. You’re not here to waste my time.”

  I nodded my head, even though she had given up looking at me. You had to respect anybody who could talk up to someone. I was at least a head taller than she was. Probably more.

  As I followed her silently down the hall, I had the distinct impression that she was surprised by my silence.

  But why? This was the first time I had seen sunlight in months. I wasn’t about to screw anything up, not until I was utterly sure I could get away. And that time obviously hadn’t come. I had to get my bearings. I had to learn the routines. Only then could I make my escape.

  “Are you listening?” the woman asked. “My name’s Lisa. I’m special assistant to the principal of the academy. I’m going to get you settled in. Then we shouldn’t be seeing too much of each other. Now, I assume you have some questions. I don’t really care. I’m going to tell you what you need to know and then I’m going to leave you at the dorm.”

  When I still didn’t say anything, she glanced back at me with a look as sharp as a knife.

  “I like fast learners,” she said. “Okay, so here goes. We expect there to be no fighting whatsoever. You are here to learn the ancient teachings, not to be fighting with each other. If you have any issues, talk to the dorm mistress. She doesn’t usually want to hear about issues, but you certainly shouldn’t bring them to anyone else.

  “We expect you to keep your possessions clean and tidy. No mess. First thing you do every morning is make your bed. If your bed isn’t made when you leave the dorm room in the morning, you’ll be punished. Am I being clear so far?” she asked.

  She had her back to me again, and I continued to not speak.

  “Say something,” she commanded.

  “I understand,” I murmured.

  We walked down the echoing hallway. One of my favorite activities as a thief was to examine where I was, exits, items to steal, just in case. Where we were walking now there were windows to escape through, plus three doors on this floor that led to the outside. But I had already decided that the difficulty of escaping from the castle and these annoyingly chatty guardians would make gaining my freedom difficult.

  The painting on the wall in front of me was worth several diamonds at one of the markets, but it was too big to transport. The painting down the hall was smaller, so it would be easier to fit into my bags, and it would still fetch a good price. The wealth that surrounded me was staggering.

  My guide nodded once, as if to say, “Very good.” Then she went on. “We expect you to work hard in your studies. We also expect you to join clubs and organizations. The more individuals who join things, the harder it is for anyone to be an isolated target. It might surprise you that I speak so openly, but it’s time. It has been a year of terror here. Nobody knows whom to trust or where to turn. The new blood should help. We can all trust the new ones. We even got a new teacher to come, but we still have only a handful of instructors. We’ve had a very difficult time finding anyone who wants to teach here.”

  She paused for a long time, as if considering what to say next. But it didn’t turn out to be anything notable. “Now, as far as studying goes, you can study in the library at night until curfew. We also expect that if you study in the library you won’t be alone. We would prefer that you have the company of at least two other individuals, since we think that groups of at least three will make it much harder for anyone to be killed. Do you understand?”

  My head was spinning. Basically, go from criminal to perfectionist in a day. Right.

  No wonder these guardians couldn’t catch a master criminal. They didn’t have the sense that had been afforded half the street dwellers I’d grown up with. And these were the individuals training the nobles to run the country.

  No bloody wonder we’re in the state we’re in, I thought.

  “Why study in the library?” I asked sweetly. I’d heard of libraries before, but I had never set foot in one.

  My guide paused, then glanced over her shoulder at me. “You’ll have work to do outside of class. Since we don’t have enough professors to allow for small classes, your classes will be crowded, so you’ll have more work to do on your own than if we had more instructors available,” she said.

  “Sounds like fun,” I muttered.

  “It’s a good life here. It’s also necessary,” she explained. I was surprised that she had responded to my snark. I had really just expected a slap across the head.

  “You will be provided with two uniforms. At the end of the week you’ll be expected to wash them yourself. You will also be assigned a job around campus. Everybody has one. It levels the playing field. It doesn’t matter how rich you are when you show up. You still have to work,” she explained.

  “Yeah, but some jobs are easier than others,” I muttered.

  “I didn’t say you could speak,” she said. She waited a beat before adding, “That’s true, though.”

  Yeah, and I was going to get one of the crappy jobs. I already knew that to be true. But that was fine with me. Being able to use my muscles to work on something would be exciting no matter what the work was. I hadn’t had the opportunity to move around in months, and I wasn’t about to screw it up.

  At last we reached a set of double doors, nowhere near as fancy as the doors to the principal’s office, but sturdy nonetheless.

  “Since it’s midday, all the girls are in class right now, so they’re not here to greet you,” said the woman. “You’ll be in class with them tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s see which bunk is yours.”

  She examined her sheet, and as she was doing so another woman arrived. This one was about twice the size of Lisa, bigger and even less pleasant, if I was any judge.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded.

  “Wayllin. We have a new student for this year,” said Lisa, as if she weren’t about to get scalded by words. She didn’t look the least bit fazed by the way Wayllin was speaking to her.

  Good for her, I thought. I felt like hiding behind her shoulder.

  “I didn’t want any more students,” Wayllin said.

  “You can’t always get what you want,” said Lisa. “Several students were murdered last year, as you well know, so there are definitely bunks available.”

  “That class moved on to the next year,” Wayllin shot back.

  Wayllin sighed, clearly mulling over the merits of resisting this argument. I sympathized with her. That was how I had spent a lot of my time over the past couple of too: trying to decide what to say in the midst of an difficult conversation.

  “It doesn’t look like I have a choice,” she said at last. “I suppose some fresh blood can’t hurt.” Then she turned on her heel and stormed away. When I didn’t immediately follow, she turned around to glare at me. “Come along,” she said.

  A door closed quietly behind me. Lisa had left me alone with this madwoman.

  I followed her as
she moved down the rows of bunks. Each bed was perfectly made, leaving no individual personality to any of them. At the base of each bunk was a small chest, presumably where personal items were stored. Anything that distinguished one fae from another was hidden away.

  Since I had no personal items to my name, it made no difference to me. Wayllin didn’t bother asking me about that, but I was sure she wouldn’t have been surprised. She knew where I came from.

  Prison.

  I had gone into prison with nothing, so why would I come out with anything?

  When we reached the end of the long row of beds, I found myself not caring which bunk was mine. How could it matter? They were all the same.

  But then we turned into a small antechamber that led to a storeroom, and Wayllin pulled some things off the shelves and handed them to me. Crisp linen. Red tunics and black tunics. Black pants and red skirts.

  “That’s what you’ll wear. You’ll have some choices. Your garments get more elaborate as the years go on. Of course, when you’re sparring you’ll have extra garments to protect you. Usually chainmail, but it can be something else,” she said.

  She turned back to the stores and got a few other things off the shelf, paper and books, mostly, and piled them in my arms.

  “Put your things away. You might be able to make it to the second class of the day. You’re a day late,” she said, as though it was somehow my fault.

  “Prison kept me so busy,” I said.

  She hissed, reminding me of the mud-dwelling snakes that boiled up out of the glop during feeding time. Beautiful creatures they were, and mercifully only deadly if they were hungry. I’d managed to elude McGryth once by darting through a mud field where even he hadn’t dared to follow. The jade-headed snakes had left me alone. No doubt about it, I wore my luck closely that day.

  “Quiet,” Wayllin hissed. She held her hand out as if she might smack me for good measure. When I didn’t flinch, her eyes narrowed.

  This was going to be a very interesting academy.

  At last Wayllin stopped and pointed to a top bunk. “That will be yours. The bottom is already taken. That’s good for you, though, because the top is harder to attack. Somebody told you no fighting?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “You can get changed in the bathroom. Then meet me back here,” she said.

  Once I had changed, she showed me how to store my items. That took all of a few minutes. When we were finished, she checked her watch. “We should probably head for the atrium,” she said. “You won’t be going to the second class of the day after all. Maybe by the time afternoon classes start I’ll have found somebody you can follow.”

  Lisa had said I’d start classes tomorrow, but this woman was determined to educate me as soon as possible.

  She led me through a dizzying array of corridors, all with small windows and no good exits.

  We passed no one on our way. No witnesses. That made me think that the place was efficient. If fae had been running around, I might have concluded that they didn’t have a good handle on their time. But since they weren’t, everybody who worked at the academy must know exactly what they were doing.

  This place was a regimented fortress. And yet they couldn’t catch a killer.

  Finally Wayllin led me into the atrium I had see as we approached our landing. It was filled with students, and the noise was deafening. Worse, it was all too easy to see in and out. More cover was needed, surely someone in the place could see that. But apparently not.

  I found myself struggling in the tunic Wayllin had handed me. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had worn a skirt.

  The riches and opulence surrounding me were staggering. I had broken into banks with less money in the vault than what the décor around this place could fetch. The students were beautifully manicured and presented. The richness of their clothing alone would pay for an army of street kids to eat for a year.

  The faes here were bigger and faster than many of the ones I had known. I had always been bigger and faster than most of the female fae I crossed paths with, but not here. They were my equals here, and they wore much more expensive jewelry.

  The marble tables were covered with silver platters, mugs, and plates. My fingers itched to lift one and see if it was real, but I didn’t bother because I already knew the answer.

  Wayllin pointed out the food and let me fill a plate, then led me toward a group of girls dressed just like me (boringly) and sitting at a table in a corner.

  “Esmeralda?” she asked a mousy girl with hair down over her shoulders. She looked like the prim and proper type. In other words, not like me.

  “Yes, mistress?” she asked. Her eyes never strayed to me, a level of control that I thought was impressive.

  “Would you be so good as to show our new recruit around?” asked Wayllin. “Her name is Eddi.”

  “Yes, mistress,” said Esmeralda with one head bob.

  “Very good. I want no trouble with her,” said Wayllin.

  And with that she left me to this girl and the seven pairs of eyes that were now staring up at me. Esmeralda didn’t move for a heartbeat. Then she scooted over a bit.

  My heart hammered. This was something I didn’t do. No one had said anything about socializing. With girls, no less. This was a cruel world, I thought.

  “Take a seat,” said Esmeralda. “We can answer your questions now, before afternoon classes.” I carefully sat on the end of a row, with a girl across from me who had black hair and black eyes and looked about twice my size. She was mostly muscle, but she looked weak on her left flank. Maybe an old knee injury.

  “You look like you’re about to bolt. Why don’t you actually sit in the seat instead of just grazing it?” said the big girl, taking a great big bite of food.

  My stomach rumbled; I was absolutely starving. I carefully took my utensils and started to eat.

  “So where did they find you?” asked a girl with blond hair and a ruffled shirt. I had never seen such a thing before and I thought she looked kind of ridiculous. Apparently ugly ruffles were allowed as long as you wore the uniform otherwise.

  “Who wants to know?” I asked.

  “How dare you!” she hissed. “You just got here.”

  “Might as well just tell her. No reason to be difficult about it,” said Esmeralda out of the side of her mouth.

  I took a large bite of my lunch, then chewed it slowly. All seven girls shifted to look at me. “Just tell her,” said another girl who was sitting close to the girl across from me.

  “You first,” I said.

  “You want to know my story?” asked the big girl. “Okay. I’m Vayvin. I come from the south, where it’s warm. Where we throw fae off an ice cliff for talking the way you’re talking.”

  “That’s a long way down,” I said. I looked back at the blond girl with the ruffles.

  “You’re one of the prisoners, aren’t you?” sniffed the blonde. “They’ve been coming in, telling tall tales about secret noble backgrounds. What no one mentions is where they came from.”

  “I came from prison. They found me there. They realized I was somehow of noble birth and so they invited me here,” I explained.

  “Yeah, that happens a lot,” said Esmeralda.

  “You know you’re here as a sacrifice, don’t you?” Vayvin asked.

  I nearly choked. I had thought that was supposed to be a secret. Apparently not.

  “Yeah, I had gathered as much. Unless they find out my parent was super-impressive or something,” I said.

  Vayvin shook her head. “Trust me. They won’t.” Her statement appeared to have more meaning behind it than she was saying explicitly, but this was no time to ask about that.

  I took another large bite of my food and my stomach rumbled gratefully. The blonde girl was still glaring at me.

  “You can’t possibly be a lord’s daughter. You don’t have the right build or the right bone structure. Whoever told you you’re a noble daughter was lying. What about your wings
?” she demanded.

  I had decided that I had explained enough for one day, so I just kept eating. Besides, I didn’t really understand what my captors had meant when they said my magic wings were locked by the cuffs.

  Apparently someone had wanted my power well and truly unusable. The fact that the job of locking it away had been done much more carefully and effectively than usual made me wonder if I wasn’t a lord’s daughter, or even far worse. Otherwise, why would anyone care so much?

  But if I wasn’t that, then what was I?

  We were just finishing up, and I was secretly admiring the scenery outside the glass enclosure, when the air changed. At first I ignored it, mostly because the view was so engrossing. Mountains on three sides, two with cliffs. The river connected to the waterfall looked difficult to cross.

  The view of the jagged mountaintops reminded me of where I’d grown up. Throughout the meal, my eyes had kept sliding off to look at the mountains and past whoever was speaking at the table. I didn’t really care what they had to say anyway.

  But now something had shifted, and yet when I glanced around it seemed that nobody else was reacting to the change, so I tried to focus again on the conversation at hand.

  They were talking in hushed tones about the killings. Esmeralda was the only one who was silent throughout.

  “Five last year, and the murderer never caught. Do you think whoever it was, was a senior student who is gone now?” speculated a girl called Esmeralda.

  “No way. We couldn’t possibly get that lucky. It has to be somebody on the faculty or staff,” said Vayvin.

  “That’s ridiculous,” put in the blond girl, whose name turned out to be Nerys.

  She was glaring at all of them now. I wondered if she had only one facial expression for everyone in all situations. “Everyone here is so focused on studies, it can’t possibly be a student,” she said.

  Vayvin looked like she was going to throttle Nerys. I for one would have gladly gotten out of her way if she decided to go for it.

  “Sure it can be a student,” insisted Vayvin.

  Then she turned to me and changed the subject. “Hey, I’m a member of the Noble Fae Academy Band. If you’re looking for something to join, do that. I’ve been practicing a lot.” She grinned widely at me.