“I haven’t had, don’t have, and will not have slatterns in my rooms! Go, and do not return,” the Matron said, white-lipped with anger.
Quith looked as though she would explode in a burst of gory scandal. Santeel hurried to her bed, too upset to enjoy the drama and talk that immediately broke out among the novices in their nightdress. Galia, looking a little drawn and unfocused—how many drafts of gripe was she concealing?—seemed to be fighting some kind of internal struggle. Ileth wondered what had been going on in the loft above her with Yael Duskirk. She had suspiciously puffy lips.
“I’m not sure much of anything happened,” Galia said thickly. “It was but a moment between her leaving the pile-in and Santeel’s shout.”
“A moment is ample with a boy that age,” the Matron replied. “Remember your place, Galia. You’re still just an apprentice yourself, flight experience or no.”
In the end, Galia took her out. Hurried her out, even. Which was just as well, as they were still in the yard of the Manor when Galia burped loudly.
“I knew I shouldn’t have had gripe after that pepper stew,” she muttered, wiping her mouth. “But I think it’ll stay down. Fates, why does Evire put in so much peated water?”
“I don’t . . . don’t see that I did anything all that wr-wrong. He kissed me is all.”
“Don’t play so innocent; I got a good look at his trousers. Ileth, what are we going to do with you? You should have either run away or tried to accommodate him in another fashion. I suppose you don’t know any of those tricks, though.”
She was too tired and cold to blush. “My wits fled as soon as he kissed me. Happened so fast.”
“He does have a reputation as a bit of a rabbit. His is a name worth pursuing. You might have yelled ‘Rape!’ when Dun Troot charged in. He might have offered betrothal right there and that Dun Troot pinch would’ve dropped dead of shock. Triple laurels for you, if you add in Gorgantern.”
“Are you mad? I don’t see how I’m any worse than-than-than you, beyond getting caught. What were you doing when you heard Santeel scream?”
Galia took her hand and gave her a friendly but intimidatingly strong squeeze. “I’m not a liar either. So I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that question so I don’t have to answer it.”
Rapoto was already in the Masters’ Hall. Caseen, bare-legged in a coat and night scarf that concealed what looked like bedclothes, shook his head wearily as she approached.
It was the first time Ileth had seen the Master of Novices without his mask. His face was a furrowed horror of scar and twitching muscle and tendon. It reminded Ileth of a body she’d seen once, brought down from the hills after being frozen in a mountain shelter for goat-shepherds. Scavengers had been nibbling at the frozen skin.
“Ileth, do you have some love of my rooms that you cannot bear to be away from them for a few hours?” Caseen asked. “I can’t seem to get rid of you.”
“I’m for bed,” Galia said, turning away. She quietly burped once her back was to Caseen.
“Just a moment, apprentice,” Caseen said. “Rapoto here—quiet now, boy—has given me an explanation of the night’s doings. You could help me by telling what you observed.”
Ileth tightened her jaw to keep from speaking. She was in enough trouble.
Galia turned and took a deep breath. “I didn’t see anything. Ileth was at the pile-in with Rapoto. There was a pot of gripe, but I didn’t see her have any. They left, and I’d only just started conversing again when I heard Santeel Dun Troot’s shout. I hopped up and came as fast as I could. Both of them were fully dressed and upright in an empty stable stall. No mystery. Ileth said they’d been kissing and I not only believe her, I can’t see how it could have been anything but a kiss.”
“There were . . . intimacies, sir,” Rapoto said. “As I said. I am entirely responsible for them. But it did not go so far as Santeel or that woman at the Manor believes.” Galia glared at him as if angry with him that he didn’t simply deny anything but a kiss in the dark.
“Thank you, Galia. You may go to bed. Careful with the gripe, you reek of it.” Galia bobbed, much in the same manner Ileth had been taught, and departed. Caseen collapsed into an armchair among the bookshelves with a groan.
“This often happens with a new batch of novices,” Caseen said, looking from one to the other. Ileth feared that when his gaze finally alighted on one of them, it would be her. “Behavior of this sort—it makes for problems. We make an example of the first offense.”
“Will we be—expelled?” Rapoto asked.
“Expelled? People are discharged from the dragoneers, not expelled.” Caseen chuckled. He let that hang there for a moment, then added, “Novices are released from their oath and dismissed, since they’re not subject to the apprentice law or any of the military regulations. However, I’m not Master of Apprentices. I don’t think Master Selgernon is about to discharge a Vor Claymass for a dalliance with a jade.”
Ileth startled at that. “Sir, I’m no jade.”
“Then don’t buck about like one, young woman,” Caseen said. He turned back to Rapoto. “Exhibit the manners worthy of your name, or we’ll send you home, great name or no. I’m afraid I’m behind on my Assembly gossip. I was under the impression there were hopes between the families with our own Santeel Dun Troot.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of it, sir,” Rapoto said, face as shocked as if the Master of Novices had kicked his shin. “I don’t follow politics. I’m here to get away from that.”
“That’s admirable. If your skills matched your attitude you would have been apprenticed quicker. Don’t you have lamps to fill?”
Rapoto glanced uncertainly at Caseen, then Ileth, and started for the door.
“Now, as to your punishment, young woman,” Caseen began.
The boy stopped and turned neatly on the ball of his boot. “Wait, sir, you’re going to punish Ileth?”
“That’s none of your concern,” Caseen said. “It is, on the other hand, my office and commission here.”
“I persuaded her to go off with me. I gave her drink. I lifted her dress. She didn’t seek seduction. If anyone should be walking out of this room with just a stern warning, it’s her.”
“As I said, that’s not your concern. I dismissed you,” Caseen said. “I’d rather someone more appropriate acquainted you with the facts of life, young man. But you must realize that a woman risks much more with this sort of debasement.”
“Debasement? Sir, well—I’ll marry her before sundown tomorrow, if that’s what her reputation here requires.”
Ileth felt his words, a shocking yet warm stab to her gut.
“Rapoto,” Caseen said, “I think you’ve had your quota of impulsive decisions for one day.”
She looked at Rapoto. In her surprise she hardly stuttered. “From my—from my soul itself, th-thank you. I think you’re already regretting making me such an offer. But I can’t accept. Your family wouldn’t accept. I’m not even sixteen yet. We’d have to wait.”
“Hear me out,” Rapoto said. There was such an air of command to his voice that Ileth fell silent; Caseen merely listened with new interest. “A marriage offer from my Name, if accepted, would rearrange the pieces on the table. I would be no longer a scoundrel, just a foolish boy in love. She’s not a slut; she’s my intended. Instead of being vindictive, my family will spend a few frantic weeks making increasingly tempting offers to Ileth that she release me from a bad match. Eventually my family will use its influence to do the Serpentine some great favor at the Assembly in exchange for you pressuring Ileth, and then we will break it off. All concerned breathe a sigh of relief and are happy.”