“I’m simply planning ahead for the inevitable time when we have a hundred students rather than a handful.”
Even though I was the one who’d tricked a rank-ten wizard into blowing his own hand off and scammed my way into having an official academy, bringing together unwanted mages and sharing our homebrewed spells had been Azarin’s idea. Her talking about it in the Collegium’s pubs was how we’d gotten our first students. It’d worked out far better than expected, and most of us had increased in ability over the last few months, so she’d certainly earned her own space away from Morton’s snoring and Sifuso’s reptile smells. All the student council got our own rooms, except for Trax, who didn’t really understand the concept ofhousing, and slept submerged in the nearby canal anyway.
“We’ll get that many students eventually. You’re a good recruiter.”
“Nobody from Stormwolk would’ve expected me to make it this far. If only I could see the looks of disappointment on their faces every month the gate opens and I’m not there, tear-stained and begging to be taken back.” She gave me a playful smile. “I heard you had an eventful night.”
“Between the gladiatorial victories and attempted robbery, you could say that. I need to hit the market and buy more element. Then it’s off to see if I can’t bribe the same tester I bribed before.”
“In the meantime, what am I supposed to do with the Latrocinium’s spying bitch?”
“You can begin by not calling me a bitch, air-realm hag.”
“Fuck!” Azarin jumped, as she’d not heard Dathka appear in the shadows directly behind her. “Where’d she come from?”
“She does that. Hence her being theShadow Walker.”
“The family name’s Walker.” Dathka’s tone was cold and aloof. “The goblins tacked on the shadow part for the added gravitas. Before you ask the obvious, the nature and source of the item that allows me to do that spell is none of your concern. And no, I will not share any of my own spells with your gaggle of rejects.”
“Sharing a spell is our one prerequisite for membership in this academy.” Azarin might have been startled by Dathka’s sudden appearance, but she was far too willful to be intimidated by anyone. “Pay up or get out.”
“Azarin, is it?”
She nodded.
“There’s been a bit of a misunderstanding as to the nature of our relationship, Azarin. I’ve got a home already.” Dathka put two fingers to the black and yellow band she was now wearing proudly around her bicep “I’m here to make sure you don’t rip off the boss of my existing gang, not join a pathetic new one.”
“For the tenth time?—”
Azarin cut me off before I could say we weren’t a gang. “No spell, no tuition, no bed. You need to accompany us on our adventure, fine. We don’t owe you free room and board in the meantime. Perhaps you can check and see if Trax has a watery spot of pond you can share. Maybe a mud puddle would be more to your liking?”
Dathka’s lip curled back in disgust. “Are you foolish enough to insult the Latrocinium?”
“Of course not. I’m only insultingyou.”
Oh boy.I kept watching Dathka, waiting for her to tense up, as I was prepared to stick my body between Azarin’s mouth and the assassin’s hands, because that seemed to be the proper thing for a boyfriend to do.
“Carcalla will hear of this disrespect.”
“Are you going to tattle on me? He’s my landlord, not my clan chief. I had one of those once, and I didn’t particularly care to put up with his nonsense either.”
It was time to head this off before it turned stupid. If Dathka tried to kill Azarin, I’d have to kill Dathka, and then Cutter Joran would kill us all. “Ladies, ladies. You’ve just gotten off on the wrong foot.”
Azarin looked toward Dathka’s feet, which were hidden by her cloak. “I bet she’s got a big gangly club foot too.”
“You skag!”
“And it’s all hairy on top, like a halfling’s.”
“Alrighty then.” Now I inserted my body between them. It was either that or a wall of fire. I gently steered Azarin away. “How about you run those errands I was going to do, while I give our guest a tour of our academy? I’ll be right back, Ms. Walker.”
“Nice to meet you, Azarin,” Dathka called after us. “I look forward to continuing our conversation later.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Azarin said over her shoulder.
“Would you please quit antagonizing the professional killer for a second?” I got Azarin down the hall a ways and shoved the bag of Obols we’d won last night into her hands. “You can go get us some element. Take somebody with you to watch your back while crossing the Slumps and get out of the Tube for a while.”
Azarin sniffed at that. “That’s not a bad idea. The merchants like me better than you anyway. When they weigh their element, their scales are a bit more generous when the customer has a nice smile.”
