“Do anything that will get him in trouble?” I asked, suddenly annoyed. “He’s too proud of his blessing from Dotharr to do anything that will jeopardize his future as a warrior. Go back to your breakfast. I’m not in danger here.”
The guards exchanged a look. One of them shoved Viggo against the wall beside me and pointed a sword at his face. “You best mind your manners or we will report you to the director.”
Viggo scowled but remained silent.
Once the guards were gone, I heaved a big sigh and addressed Viggo. “I know as much as you do, I expect.”
He shook his head and practically spat the word, “Liar!”
A flare of anger made me lower my voice. “Do I look like an accomplice? We both knew he was unhappy here. We both knew he wanted to leave. His last words to me—” I cursed the tears that overwhelmed me.
Viggo’s scowl became slightly less severe at the sight of me rubbing my eyes.
I forced myself to continue. “His last words to me were a lie. He said it would take him several more weeks to escape.”
“That’s what he told me.” Viggo cleared his throat at my look of surprise and reverted to scowling. “He refused to tell me the details of his plans, but promised he wouldn’t leave without notice.”
I sighed and shoved a hand into my pocket. I’d taken the note out from under my mattress that morning, as if carrying Bryn’s last words would keep him near. “In return for tending to my back after the whipping post, he asked me to give you this.” I held out the envelope.
Viggo snatched it so fast my fingers tingled. He tore the envelope apart, unfolded the paper, and read. I should have left him alone with his friend’s message but I couldn’t make myself go. I watched his face as he drank in the words. He chewed on the inside of his cheek when he neared the end.
“What does it say?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“He wants us to meet him at his mother’s old herbal store after graduation,” Viggo said. “He says this isn’t goodbye forever, only goodbye for now. He’s convinced the three of us will be able to live and work together again someday. But until then, he… he wants us to look out for each other.” Viggo stared at the words, his grip on the page tightening. Then he took a deep, shuddering breath and refolded the letter. Shoved it back into its envelope. He lowered his gaze, frowning.
It was a good thing I didn’t expect a thank you because he didn’t give me one. He walked away from me with his head bowed, shoving the envelope into the front of his jerkin.
“Asta?”
I lowered the cold slab of meat from my eye and looked up from my lunch to see a group of young men standing at my table. Rainer, Frode, and Brandt were among them. The other three I recognized from my Battle Strategy and Weaponry classes. They cast nervous glances around the Feasting Hall.
Rainer flashed me a smile. “Can we join you?”
I could feel Viggo glaring at the back of my head. I looked over my shoulder at his table. Asger and the other two were trying to engage Viggo in conversation and were failing. He hadn’t spoken to me since that morning. I assumed he still blamed me for Bryn’s departure.
I tore my eyes away from his fiery gaze and smiled at Rainer. “Of course.”
My guards refused to give up their positions on either side of me so the men sat across from me and dug into their fish.
“How did that happen?” Frode asked, nodding at my swollen eye. He had a concerned crease on his brow that caught me off guard.
I pressed the meat against my face, embarrassed. “It was an accident.”
Brandt smirked. “And here I was prepared for a heroic story.”
The others whose names I didn’t know chuckled and nodded as if they had expected the same.
“I’m afraid the tales our peers have spread about me are incorrect.”
“Only slightly,” Rainer said around a mouthful of rice. “I told my friends of our victory in Battle Strategy last night and heard the retelling of it at breakfast. It wasn’t very far from the truth.”
I rolled my eyes. “Good to know.”
“Come now,” Brandt said. “Tell us how you marred your face. It was perfectly fine when we grappled this morning.”
Just yesterday Brandt was determined to be a mute. I wondered what had changed as I explained what had happened during Breaking and Entering class. “Our instructor set up wooden walls of different heights around the room in sort of a maze pattern. All the lights were turned off except for four search lights. We were instructed to sneak from wall to wall and reach the other side of the maze without being caught by the lights. Bags of paint would be catapulted to us if we were.”
The young men snickered and shared knowing glances, as if they too had been forced to do this exercise in the past.
“I hunched down behind a wall when a search light swung my way, not realizing that another man was already crouched there. There was only room for one person behind that wall so we grappled for it. I received an elbow to the face. He received a mouthful of paint.”
The young men laughed.
“Don’t lock horns with Asta unless you want to lose,” one said good-naturedly. As if he had known me all his life.
“I’m sorry to hear about your friend,” Frode said. “I didn’t know Brynjar but, if he was brave enough to befriend you before the rest of us, he must have been a good man.”
The others nodded, suddenly solemn.
I blinked in surprise. “Thank you. That’s kind of you to say.”
“Do you know how he escaped?” asked a man with brown hair and a dimpled chin. “There are rumors that he poisoned the security guards.”
I shook my head. “Bryn would never harm anyone.”
“They say he broke into the safe and destroyed his file,” a man with a shaved head said. “How could he have done that?”
“I…”
They waited for my response, leaning forward eagerly, as if hungry for the facts. Ready to spread the word. Understanding made the food in my mouth taste sour. These men weren’t here to socialize with the female protégé. They just wanted a new story to gossip about.
I swallowed my rice and addressed my plate. “I don’t want to talk about Bryn anymore.”
“But no one in the history of this academy has been able to escape,” the young man with the dimpled chin said. “If you know the details—”
I glared at him. “I know as much as you do.”
A warning glance from Rainer persuaded the dimpled chin man to drop the matter. He averted his glum gaze and lowered his voice. “I’m sorry if I upset you. I was only curious.”
I rose from my seat, taking my plate with me. “Excuse me. I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.” I walked away, despite their protests and apologies.
I was rubbing Bryn’s pungent muscle relaxant into my legs later that evening when I heard Viggo stomping down the hall toward my room. I knew it was Viggo because men greeted him as he passed and he grunted in reply. He stopped before my door and waited. I watched the shadows his feet made through the gap under the door, wondering why he was here and what he wanted. My guard asked him the same thing.
“What does it look like?” Viggo snapped, silencing any further questions. Then he stood there and waited.
I finished rubbing the ointment into my feet, and had pulled on my lounging trousers before he finally sighed. “Are you all right, Asta?”
“I’m fine. Why do you ask?” I muttered, knowing he could hear me.
“Because you didn’t come to dinner and Bryn would be concerned.”
“So?” I demanded, scowling at the door.
He spoke as if through gritted teeth. “So I’m honoring my friend’s wishes by taking an interest in your well-being.”