“I don’t know,” I said, provoking them, “Monqilcolnen is quite lovely.”
“No one is prettier than Talvax,” Urgg growled, placing a huge foot on the table. “Monqilcolnen is ugly compared to her.”
I stood, hands gripping the table. “Monqilcolnen is far prettier.”
“Take that back.”
I snarled, “Never.”
Seth commented in a dry voice, “And, Teddy, this is where we start drinking more.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” he replied.
I giggled and told the others in a whisper, “We’re not supposed to be doing this.”
Urgg waved a hand, colliding into the wall and sending a cloud of petals to the moss floor. “Bah, we’ll be fine. We have two princes with us.”
Seth replied, laughing, “We’re not prices. No, I mean princes. Or are we?”
“Close enough,” Bartholomew replied, in a properly quiet voice. “So we sneak in and then what?”
“Wyn here,” Urgg said, slapping my chest with the back of their hand and sending shocks of pain through me, “will embedthe code. So when anyone enters their officer number, they will receive a message telling them that Talvax is the prettiest.”
Tears built behind my eyes and spilled only a moment later. “I can’t believe I lost. I failed to defend how pretty Monqilcolnen is.”
Seth yanked me into a hug. “You were so close.” He started sobbing, and I wasn’t far behind him, clinging to his wide form.
“Shut up,” Bartholomew ordered, his voice steady, though he swayed and his face was bright red. “You’ll bring everyone here.”
Urgg broke into loud sobs. “You don’t have to write that Monqilcolnen is ugly, even though he is.”
“Thank you,” I wept, drawing them into the hug with Seth and me. “I knew you’d understand.”
Urgg swept Bartholomew into the group embrace, and he grunted, pushing on Urgg’s arm, “Come on, let’s do this.”
I opened the door to the NAID server and went to the appropriate terminal, giggling. I’d lost the drinking game, so I had to do this. It would be fine. People would see Talvax was pretty every time they logged in, and not how lovelymyMonqilcolnen was. It was a travesty, but at least I didn’t have to say he was ugly, because he most certainly was not. I’d never seen someone more attractive than him.
Seth was laughing and asking Bartholomew if he wanted to go running. Bartholomew didn’t. Urgg said they would, and when they won, I would have to put in that Kalvoxrencol was ugly. I nodded. He could be ugly, but never my Monqilcolnen.
My fingers trembled and my thoughts kept straying as I tried to place the correct sequence in with the message. It wasn’t working right. Ugh. Again and again I tried, but my brain was seemingly fighting me. Why was this stupid thing not working?
“Are you done yet?” Urgg whined.
“I’m bored,” Seth said.
Bartholomew grunted.
Glancing at my friends, I bit my lip. I didn’t want to bother them, and we needed to leave before someone noticed us on the server. I logged into my own account to use some of my own replicating software. I’d made similar things; I just had to put in the right message. Once I got the message typed out and the program inserted, I laughed, crashing into Seth and Bartholomew, arms around their shoulders.
“We need to drink more,” I said, “to celebrate.”
“Yes,” Urgg called out. “Finally, you’re becoming a proper barbarus! Let’s go.”
Urgg led the way, singing a song I didn’t recognize. Not to be outdone, I started my own. Soon Seth and Bartholomew were singing as well, though they sang the same song.
Together we weaved and bobbed down the corridor toward the canteen to drink more. Of course, the officers there were more than happy to join us.
Chapter 44
