Prodigy of Thunder, page 33
The song finished and the couples broke apart. Thomas started making his way over. Anna hurriedly glanced about, blurting, “Quick, help me think of a way to get busy.”
Jordan only folded his arms.
Thanks a lot, Anna thought as Thomas stepped up to them just as Samantha and William rejoined the circle.
“Hello, everyone,” Thomas said. “The bi-annual Friendlies are tomorrow. Are you fine people going?”
“Hello, Thomas.” Samantha grabbed Anna’s shoulders and turned her around.
“Um … hi,” Anna mumbled, eyes on the floor.
“So …?”
“Huh?”
“So, are you going to tomorrow’s Friendlies?”
“Oh. I got the invite a while back but won’t have time. Have to write an essay for History class on how Wolven were thought to be mythological creatures much like us warlocks for an entire era because people did not have quality sources of information, hence the foundation of the heralds.”
“Ah.”
Jordan shook his head mournfully, muttering, “Look at those eyes glaze over.”
Anna fiddled with her fingers, thinking maybe she should say something topical lest Thomas think her a complete fool as opposed to a partial fool. She raised a finger. “But it’s important to note that founding the heralds had its consequences too, and all sorts of wars broke out over the written word.” When Thomas only nodded along, she added, “Proving that the written word can be just as dangerous as the sword …” She trailed off and glanced about for something to slither under where she could die a quiet death.
Thomas tried to stick his hands in the pockets of his doublet, only to realize they were sewn shut. “Er … want to dance?” he asked instead as the moody “Chivalry’s Shining Armor” began.
Anna gaped. Quick, think of an excuse, you fool! Say you’ve got food poisoning or something. She grabbed her stomach and feigned a groan. “I can’t because—”
“Of course she will,” Samantha interjected, shoving Anna at Thomas. “She’s dying to learn how.”
Thomas caught and stabilized her. “You … do not know how to dance?”
Anna shot Samantha a murderous look but she only flared her eyes in a Go with him already manner. When Anna stood there stupidly, Thomas grabbed her hand and gently led her to the dance floor. “Put your hands here—” He placed her clammy hands on his shoulders. “—and mine go here.” He grabbed her waist. “Now gently slide your feet to the music. And try to relax. You are as stiff as a board.”
Kill me, Anna thought.
“Just … try it.”
Anna looked down at her feet and tried to follow Thomas’s movements. He was so graceful though, while she kept kicking his feet.
“How do people do this?” she muttered. “More importantly, why do people do this? We look like trees swaying in a gale. We look like fools.”
“There are certain pleasantries in life, Anna, that I hope you will learn how to enjoy.”
Anna stiffened, for that was the sort of thing her father would have said. Suddenly she missed him so much she had to turn her face away, not that she had let Thomas see it much in the first place, fearing he could read her internal blunderings like a book.
“Just relax.” But when she only stiffened further, he blurted, “My lady, I do believe you are utterly hopeless.” She squirmed away, mortified, but he caught her hand and gently guided her back. “I apologize, Miss Stone. It was an inopportune jest. Please finish the dance with me.”
He can be surprisingly tactful. She returned to his embrace and wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Shut up, you stupid fool. Wait, you didn’t say anything. She thanked the Unnameables that thoughts weren’t verbal and there was only one telepath in the entire kingdom. Otherwise you’d be spewing diarrhea like an idiot. She glanced about to make sure Ning wasn’t listening, but mercifully the woman was not in attendance. She mused how awful it would be to hear all these cringe-worthy teenage thoughts.
“I couldn’t do it,” she muttered.
“Do what?”
“Eep.” Gods, shut your fool mouth already! What do you want to do next, tell him about Bun-Bun? “I … I …”
“You were talking through your thoughts. I do that too sometimes while studying and trying to parse a complex topic.”
Anna wilted a little. Unnameables help her, they had something in common!
“You look like you are trying to find a reason to ditch me.”
“I’m not doing that at all what gave you that silly idea don’t be silly you silly boy—” She cleared her throat, face hot enough to melt iron. So this is what Hell feels like …
“Anyway, Jordan said William wants to become an Arcaner. Awful shame how the nobility is aiming to end the order. I think the order’s roots should be watered and its membership allowed to grow.” He smacked his lips in distaste. “Instead, they’re on the cusp of extinction …”
Anna wanted to add how the Arcaners had long been a thorn in their side by combating corruption, but she kept mute, fearing she would make a fool of herself again by tripping over her words like she kept tripping over his feet.
“People are staring at us,” Thomas said. “I think it’s because of your pretty dress.”
“You … you really think it’s pretty?” Anna croaked.
“I think you look like a princess.”
Anna’s mouth was too dry to speak so she kept it shut. Thomas continued trying to start a conversation but was lucky to even get a mumbled reply, for by then Anna had devolved to simply trying to survive the song without tripping them both to the ground.
“Thanks that was neat all right bye,” Anna blurted as the song wound down and she hurried back to her safe circle of friends.
“That looked like it went well,” Samantha noted.
“Only about as well as dancing in the fires of Hell, thank you very much.”
“Ooh, that rhymed,” Jordan said. “You should join me in Drama.”
“With Shaw? I’d rather get arcastrated. God, I’m sweating like a pig,” Anna added in a mutter only Samantha could hear.
The night steadily moved along and the friends bantered about this and that. Anna loosened up a little more, even smartly opining that the academy itself needed to loosen up its rules, particularly the ones about pushing dangerous training methods she thought unnecessary to learn the craft. She also said the Disciplinary Committee needed to ease up on administering harsh penalties for minor infractions, which earned her a “Hear, hear!” from the gang. She received many compliments on her dress and delivered just as many in turn, for people had dressed their best. She danced with Jordan and William and even Samantha for a lark. She also danced with one other boy who she’d caught gaping at her now and then, but promptly rebuffed him when he asked her if she had a boyfriend yet.
“Not interested, sorry,” she had blurted and cut the dance short midway, retreating to her circle.
Near the tail end of the dance, a slightly older boy with a pointed chin and golden doublet approached her, followed by a pair of rat-like attendants, indicating he was royalty. Anna recalled seeing him milling with her sister’s awful coterie. He glanced her friends up and down as if they were slaves to be bought at market.
“I’m Larval Haught the fifth, the son of Larval Haught the fourth, from the house of Haught, heir to the Haught fortune,” he declared, pruned eyebrows rising like imperial banners. “You are very pretty, and I am in search of a wife.”
While her friends gaped in astonishment, Anna merely folded her arms. “I’m Anna, from an unknown family and a shack in the middle of nowhere, and I’m looking for a stable hand to tend to the mules.”
Her friends burst with laughter so loud it drew the attention of everyone nearby. Haught’s face went puce and he stormed off, his attendants struggling to keep up—but exchanging looks that said they were trying not to laugh.
An older teenage girl glanced at her own friends with a slack jaw before pressing a hand over her mouth and telling Anna, “You just rebuffed a Haught! She just rebuffed a Haught!” she repeated to her friends, and the lot moved away from Anna’s group.
“I might’ve just turned us into pariahs,” Anna muttered. “So, uh, sorry about that.”
“They’re known as the Haughty Haughts for a reason,” Samantha noted. “They think they can buy whatever they want.”
“And they’re often right,” Thomas added, rejoining their group, and Anna stiffened. “You must be careful tangling with the nobility. They have resources.”
“Wait, aren’t you nobility?” William asked.
“I am going to fetch some drinks. Be right back,” Thomas said and gave a slight bow to Anna, who gaped at him in confusion. Why hadn’t Thomas answered William? Part of her wanted to press him on the subject, but another didn’t want to know the answer.
“Did he just pretend he didn’t hear?” William asked.
“Haughty Haught,” Jordan muttered, tapping his nose before raising that finger. “I like this game. How about … Larval the Larva.”
“Ewwwww!” the girls chorused.
The bantering continued until Thomas brought back a pair of tankards. “Thought you’d like to try a spiced tomato and celery concoction,” he said, offering Anna a tankard.
Anna reached for it, only to catch a glimpse of her sister twirling with Larval Haught—right into the back of Thomas, who spilled both drinks all over Anna’s pristine dress.
Anna gasped.
“Oops, sorry,” Deya and Larval chorused together, obviously having planned the maneuver. Deya then pretended to see the frightful results of tomato all over Anna’s beautiful dress. “Holy Unnameables, who’d you kill?” she shouted. “Look at the sight of her, everyone!” and she pointed and people gasped and laughed and no doubt painted mental pictures they would never forget.
Anna bolted like a deer.
“Anna, wait!” Thomas called, but she was already racing through the halls, crying all the way back to her dorm as the horrified faces floated around her mind. She tried to clean what she could in one of the bathing rooms, only to end up roaring in frustration when it blotched the stain in further. And so she flopped into a wooden bathtub completely clothed, wondering what the heralds would say about her fellow students finding her body floating there later that night.
But as much as she wanted to drown her humiliation, she finally burst from the water, gasping and coughing and loathing herself for not being more amiable with people.
“Anna?” came Samantha’s soft voice. “You in here?”
Anna slid back underwater. Please go away. Don’t see me like this. She soon saw Samantha’s blurry outline, silhouetted against the arcane candlelight of the old stone room. She was saying something, but Anna held on a little longer before rising like a swamp creature.
“Oh, Anna …”
Anna sat dripping in the tub, feeling hollow and beaten and stupid and graceless and arrogant and—
“It wasn’t your fault, Anna. They are cruel people who enjoy cruel torments.”
“It was my fault. Had I not shoved my sister into her own birthday cake, had I not humiliated that lordling in front of everyone …” She smacked the side of her head. “All these smarts and I can’t get things right. I don’t—” She tapped her temple. “I don’t know how to act properly. I can fight and I can learn and I can study, but … what’s the use of all that if I’m a pariah? Huh, Samantha? What’s the use if I’m a pariah?” She was grateful that the water hid her tears.
“That’s because you grew up sheltered. And don’t worry about what happened back there. People will forget, just like they mostly forgot that you beat a 6th degree.”
Anna scoffed. “That’s because my sister made sure the story didn’t get more than one mention in the herald.” She shook her head. “Nobody will forget this. Nobody. And why? Because my evil sister will make sure of that. You mark my words.”
“Oh, Anna, come here,” and she helped drag a limp Anna out. “Let’s get you out of this dress and clean you up.”
And so Samantha helped as only a loving and protective friend could, and soon Anna was sitting in her night garments by a large hearth in the bathing room, the dress hanging near the flames, its dripping echoing against the stone block walls, her face finally cleaned of the makeup, for it turned out warm water got it off rather easily. Anna stared at the flames with unfocused eyes.
“I just realized,” Samantha began, sitting beside Anna and holding her knees in the same manner, “that we can probably clean the dress with the brush when it’s dry.”
“I can never wear that dress again,” Anna murmured.
“All right, it is a bit of a memorable dress, but wouldn’t it be something to see you raise your chin and wear it anyway?”
Anna snorted. “When that dress is dry, I might just nail it to my sister’s door,” and the pair laughed and rolled on the polished floor, their voices echoing in the empty chamber. When the laughter petered out, Samantha dumped her head on Anna’s stomach and sighed. Anna’s first reaction was to stiffen and move to shove her off, but having never had such a close friend before, she relented.
“Did you enjoy dancing with Thomas?”
“I think I would have rather drowned.”
Now it was Samantha who snorted.
“But he smelled nice. Like … fine vanilla oils.” She didn’t verbalize that he reminded her of her father. “And he was a nice dancer—oh, and he was kind, I guess.” She cracked a grin. “Terrible with jests though.”
“Well let me tell you I rather enjoyed dancing with William …” and the pair launched into a quiet conversation about boys that lasted for a while before they quietly retired to their rooms, with Anna thanking Samantha for her kind support.
That night, Anna dreamed of echoed laughter and floating faces of disgust and horror and nailing the dress to her sister’s door …
And she dreamed of dancing with Thomas.
Conniving
The morning after was a study day. Anna, having already finished breakfast with her nose buried in three books at once, munched on a green apple as she went to pick up the daily Academy Herald from Shoptown with Samantha. But her stomach twisted into knots when a gaggle of girls sharing a herald whispered behind their hands upon spotting her.
After passing them, she doubled back. “Is it worth me reading?”
The girls exchanged looks and burst with embarrassed giggles, then shook their heads, one saying, “Definitely not. I’d bounce from the kingdom and never return if I were you.”
But another, a short girl with a thoughtful expression, shrugged. “I don’t know. It comes across as petty. And some people know you have a jealous sister. Wait, do you know your sister wrote it?”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah. People know she’s an arena champion, so after seeing her aspirant sister soundly thrash her 6th degree bosom friend, it’s sort of obvious she’s worried you’re going to steal her thunder. Honestly, I’d be proud of it.”
Anna took another bite of her apple and chewed as she thought the matter over.
“I don’t think it’s worth it,” Samantha offered while the girls watched her as if afraid of what she might do.
“Thank you for your kind words,” Anna finally told the short girl. “I guess I might as well bury what’s left of my pride then.” And as the girls chastised their friend for “speaking out of turn,” whatever that meant in this context, Anna whirled about and walked on.
“You sure about this?” Samantha asked.
Anna sighed. “How could it get worse than being humiliated before the entire academy at a dance?”
“Fair point.”
The girls soon arrived at the Ye Olde Academy Sundries & Supplies shop, where Anna slapped a castle onto the counter. “Academy Herald, please.” The grizzled shop attendant absently handed over a freshly rolled scroll and Anna strode off, trying to ignore the tables full of exotic quills and golden foils and pristine parchments and rainbow-hued drying sands. Every time she visited she had to resist the temptation to purchase supplies she didn’t need—she’d already bought too many lavender-scented parchments, which came at a premium, though she couldn’t wait for Mother and Father and Panza to get that first enchanting whiff upon opening her letters, especially combined with the effect of lightning ink.
But after thinking about that moment a bit, she saw her mother rolling her eyes at Anna’s “frivolities” and her father sighing at seeing her “waste money that could be spent on the poor” and Panza merely raising an eyebrow, and the lavender and lightning joys snuffed out like a candle.
Anna unfurled the scroll and found Deya’s article on the back. She read the headline aloud to Samantha as they strolled back to their dorm rooms, intending to pick up study material. “ ‘Taking Care of Your Baby Sister is Hard, By Deya Atticus Stone, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th AAA S&S and Antioc Classic Arena Champion.’ ”
“What a stupid, pretentious thing to declare,” Samantha muttered.
Anna had a hard time not choking on the last of her apple as she read on. “ ‘My baby sister grew up the center of attention. No matter what I did, our beloved father refused to lay blame on her, for she was the princess, the one to be coddled. And coddled she was, all the way up to entering the academy. She’s a smart girl, evidenced by her attention to her studies, and a competent dueler too, but she thinks the kingdom revolves around her. She cares not for my sacrifices of taking quiet care of her, of secretly tutoring her for years and never gaining credit from our parents for it.’ ”
“You never tutored me, you sack of rancorous turdlings!” Anna roared, not caring that people stared at her as she marched through the halls, Samantha struggling to keep up. Her voice twisted with venomous sarcasm as she read on.
