Which was another reason Quicksilver hadn’t been overly pleased with me when I cast that hydra in class the other day.
Bones must have felt some of that on me, because he grunted.
“Right,” he said.
He finished wrapping my left hand, and released me after using the same, one-word spell to stick the end of the wrap to my bound wrist.
He twisted my hand a few ways to make sure he had it how he wanted it.
“The joining cast isfibule,”he said, stepping back. “All right. Come on out here, then.” He walked, barefoot, to the padded part of the room’s floor, and I felt myself already beginning to tense, even before I forced my legs and feet to follow him.
I told myself I was being stupid. How many times had I done this with Alaric? And what was the difference, really? It’s not like Alaric hadn’t gotten a kick out of knocking me on my arse. Why shouldn’t this be the same?
Once out in the center of the padded space, Bones turned, facing me.
“Okay,” he said, once I joined him in the arena space. “I want you to attack me.”
I blinked a third time.
“Attackyou?”
“Yes,” he said. “Oh, and forget everything Quicksilver taught you, at least for now,” he added, his voice still disconcertinglyflat. “I just want to conduct a baseline assessment for today. I’m not interested in seeing your standard forms just for the sake of it, anyway.”
When I flinched, he added, “I’m not cracking on Quicksilver… hehasto do that. That’s his job, to get students ready for professional assessment, and to get their fighting skills ranked. But I don’t give much of a fuck how highly you qualify, much less if you’re eligible for tournaments. I’m purely interested in whether you can do enough damage to flee an opponent and actually get away.”
I stared at him. “Flee? You want me tofleeopponents?”
For the first time, irritation touched his gold eyes.
“You’re damned right I do,” he growled. “Since everyone seems intent on poisoning you, I also intend to train you on how to counteract substances meant to lower your motor controls and your reflexes, at least well enough to perform defensive magic. We’ll graduate to deadly poisons if you can master themerelydisabling ones… again, with the intent to counteract their worst effects well enough for you to flee and actually get away. But I can’t doanyof that until I have some idea of how you’d handle yourself in a real fight situation right now.”
I was staring at him, though.
I lowered my hands, more puzzled than irritated, or even offended.
“Can you actually counteractpoisons?”I asked. “Well enough to fight?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice a touch cold. “I’ve been trained in methods for circumventing poisons and disabling spells since I was ten years old.”
“Andlethalpoisons?” I asked, incredulous.
“And lethal spells, yes,” he said.
“Who exactly arranged this?” I asked, now that I had him talking. “You teaching me? I know it wasn’t ProfessorQuicksilver. He made it clear he doesn’t approve of his star pupil being used to train his biggest pain in the arse among the second-years.”
“It wasn’t Quicksilver,” Bones said.
“Right. So whodidarrange it?” I asked. “It wasn’t the Headmaster, was it?”
Bones’s expression grew impatient, even annoyed.
It was an expression I was much more used to seeing on him, especially aimed at me. The problem was, any number of things could have caused it, including sheer irritation at me having the gall to interrupt his planned lesson, not once but twice, and after he’d already shown himself to be patient with answering the bare minimum of what I’d asked.
“It was Forsooth,” he said, after what appeared to be an internal battle of some kind. “He called me into his office yesterday evening and asked if I’d be willing to train you, given the problems you’ve been experiencing.”
“Forsoothasked you?” I asked, bewildered. “And you said yes?”
It was Bones who scoffed at me that time.
