Page 34 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection
Chapter 34
Draven’s words, Brom’s words, they pressed down on me as I went to the bathroom to wash up, then their weight got heavier as I lay down to sleep once I got back. Everyone’s eyes had turned to me when I re-entered the room, Ged’s lips parting to say something but I’d hurried past them and into my room. I was damnably glad Brom had given me this space, perhaps anticipating just such a moment. Of me sinking down onto his bed and wondering what the hell I was going to do.
I felt pummelled, beaten about the head and face by everything I had been through, all I’d been told. I’d become a dragon rider, the queen-in-waiting, then not, then a cadet, then the only potential wife any rider might be able to win, all in a matter of a few days. My head hit the pillow with a thud and I just lay there, trying to process it all.
But one thing swam up to the top of it all. Lance’s offer.
“There’s a tradition between cadets and riders,” he’d told me as he’d tried to school me in the art of swordplay. “Riders order cadets around and give us cruel and unusual punishments when we fuck up.” He’d reached down and corrected my stance. “And cadets? We get our own back where we can.”
“What?”
I’d stopped where I was and Lance had hissed at me.
“Don’t let Rider Soren see. You can’t let on about this. I need your word as a lady and a rider.” I stared into his eyes and then nodded. “We’re playing a prank and you’re ideally placed to help us set it up.”
I straightened up then, hastily hoisting my shield when Soren looked our way.
“What do you need?”
He grinned at that, the expression transforming his face, making clear that he would be a charismatic rider, even a wing commander, when he was older.
“We’re gonna fill Rider Soren’s gloves with treacle. Meet me tonight down in the kitchens. The serving lasses know what we’re about and always help out each intake of cadets. Bring the gloves and then set them back where they were. The leather is waterproof and will hold the treacle right up until?—”
“He puts them on.” I gasped and then performed a very sloppy sword strike as Soren passed by.
“So are you in?”
I knew what Lance was offering me: a chance to become a part of the cadets, even if I was bunked in with the riders. The opportunity to bond with my contemporaries. I’d only get this one chance and it’d be a long, lonely life if I didn’t start making connections.
And severing others.
I gave Soren a sidelong look, wondering what the hell he’d do if he found out I was part of this prank, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I nodded.
“Good lass,” Lance said. “You do this, and I’ll help you with your sword training. My father has trained the deadliest swordsmen in the city. I can help you get proficient.”
So that’s why, in the middle of the night, as every damn muscle ached, I was creeping out of my room and into the darkness of the main part of the suite where the rest of the wing slept.
Man, that was the scent I got when I stepped out and inhaled. A musky aroma filled the room, though not an unpleasant one. Rather it smelled spicy and exotic. With that came gusty sighs, punctuated by a fart. My teeth sank into my bottom lip, biting back a snicker, even as Glimmer fluttered her wings. I sent her a reproving mental message, not sure if she could understand me, but trying to make clear she needed to be silent as the grave. Then, using the thin moonlight that came streaming in through one of the small windows, I tracked across the floor, stealthy as a cat, until I found his bed.
I was supposed to find Soren’s gloves and go, sneaking out of the room and down the stairs, following Lance’s directions to the kitchen, where he and some of the lads would be waiting. I was supposed to move quickly and not get detected, yet when I got close…? A single ray of moonlight fell across the drill sergeant’s bare chest and that had me stopping still.
I knew each man was fit and strong. You only had to take one look at them to get that, but somehow understanding that was different from seeing it in the flesh. And what flesh it was. Soren’s hair hung loose in a dark wave across his pillow, one massive arm tucked up and behind his head as he slept on. But it was the rise and fall of his chest that drew my eye.
Wide enough for me to bury my head and torso in, muscles flexing and relaxing with each breath. And scars, criss-crossing his skin, somehow enhancing his physical beauty rather than detracting from it. I could imagine my fingers roaming across this broad expanse, tracing every muscle before they slid— A mumbled retort had me freezing where I was, reminding me of the mission at hand. I scoured the shelves at the head and foot of his bed and saw what I was looking for, left lying on the end of one of them. I snatched the gloves up and then went padding towards the door.
“Pip…”
I was caught. I was bloody done for, before I’d even made it out of the door, and my heart thundered in response, unsure of what the penalty would be. But as I waited for the axe to fall, it failed to come. There was a rustle, then a long sigh before the breaths evened out again. Was he… dreaming of me? I shook my head. Mawkish wonderings could be indulged in once I was back in bed. I pressed down on the well-greased latch. Lance had said someone would make sure it didn’t squeak tonight. Then I stepped out into the corridor and quietly shut the door behind me.
I didn’t bother with stealth now, forcing my legs to move in a swift walk, wincing at every step, the pain in my muscles only getting worse as I ran down the stairs, but I pushed on. I slowed my steps when we came across the occasional maid. Each one smiled knowingly as I passed, and nodded, right up until we reached our goal
“And here she is,” Nancy said when I appeared in the capacious kitchen. A low fire still burned in the massive grate and there were huge tables and clean pots and pans everywhere. “I told you if Pippin said she’d come, she’d come.”
“Did you get them?” Jenkins pushed forward, looking me up and down, even as Lance elbowed him in the ribs.
I produced the gloves with a flourish to the sound of the boys’ cheers, Glimmer chirruping at the noise from her position on my shoulder. There were about five other boys apart from Lance and Jenkins but their eyes all gleamed as they eyed off the gloves.
“Here’s the treacle,” Nancy said.
“You knew what we had planned?” I asked her and she just shrugged.
“Happens every year. Treacle in the gloves or the boots.”
“Boots?” one boy said. “We should’ve gone with that! Imagine the old bastard pushing his feet into a boot full of treacle!”
Old? If I had to guess, Soren was in his thirties. But, looking at the boy, he appeared to be about twelve, and thirty had certainly seemed old to me when I was a child.
“Next time,” another boy said, rubbing his hands together. “Now that we’ve got Pippin on our side, she can get us access to the drill sergeant’s boots, gloves, helmet?—”
“And risk exposing that we have a spy planted in their midst?” Lance looked at me and shook his head. “We can’t let this get traced back to Pippin. Cadets get one over the riders, not other cadets. She’s one of us and we won’t be sending her to do all of our dirty work.”
“A commendable attitude, cadet.” At the sound of Ged’s voice we all froze, then each boy stiffened, performing a salute. Ged strolled into the kitchen with a sly smile, one that widened when I performed the same gesture of respect. “If you went along with Ford’s plan, I’d have been forced to step in.”
“We’re done for…” Jenkins whispered furiously.
“No, we’re not.” Lance stared at the rider, an awareness we didn’t share in his eyes. “Ged’s been assigned proctor.”
“Always is,” Nancy said with a smile. “Half boy himself still, so he knows what you’ll get up to before you do and will make sure none of you take it too far. He won’t be snitching on any of you, unless you do something dangerous. Now, I’m off to bed.”
“Sleep well, lass,” Ged told her before turning to us. “So treacle in the gloves, huh? An oldie but a goodie. You sent Pippin to retrieve the gloves?”
“I volunteered,” I said, not wanting the blame to fall on Lance, before tossing the pair onto the table.
Ged picked them up, running his thumb across the silver studs that had been set across the knuckles of the gloves.
“And these are the ones you want to fill with treacle?”
The younger boys nodded and explained what they were hoping to achieve with the prank, describing Soren’s face, salivating over each humiliating detail. But Lance was not so moved.
“They’re the right ones, aren’t they?” he asked.
“Certainly are.” Ged’s smile was smug, making me think he didn’t mind us embarrassing the gruff Soren at all. “Now, in the past, we often added something to the treacle mix. Something gritty, like sugar, but it needs to not dissolve overnight.”
The boys all clustered around the table now, patently excited by the idea, suggesting more and more outlandish substances to add until I piped up.
“What about coffee grounds?” I asked. “They won’t dissolve and they’ve got a strong smell as well. It’ll stick to his fingers despite scrubbing all day.”
“Ohh yeah! He’ll reek like day-old brew!” Jenkins said with a wild grin, striding over to a jar marked coffee. “We’ll brew it first, to make it extra smelly.”