The Blinding Knife(78)

“Hazard of being handsome and brilliant.”

She sniffed. “So is getting punched in the nose.”

He raised his hands and stepped back. “I didn’t say I was brave, too.” He offered her his arm, and she took it, not able to stop a grin from sneaking through her defenses. “Mm. Oh, just thought of something. Who was the Color Prince? Before he got burned?”

“Koios White Oak. Why?”

“Just curious.” Karris’s brother?

“No secret. What you were is less important to us than what you are, and what you will become. Now, you get to work on drafting. You have a lot to unlearn, and more to learn.”

“I’m still not going to bed with you,” she said.

“We’ll work on that,” he said with a wink and a big grin.

And with that, Liv’s education began.





Chapter 39




When Kip shuffled out of the library at midnight, Ironfist was waiting for him at the lift. The huge commander said nothing, but gestured to him.

Kip was instantly alert. Hungry, but alert. He was surprised to see that Adrasteia was with the commander. They stepped into the lift together, and Commander Ironfist pushed a key into a lock, and took them to a lower level in the Chromeria than Kip had ever been to. He looked at Teia. She looked back, shrugged.

The commander poked his head into a dark hallway. He walked through the darkness. Kip opened his eyes wide, wider, to the sub-red spectrum. Ironfist radiated enough heat, his whole body gray, armpits and groin lighter, and his bare, uncovered head the brightest of all. He went down the hall.

“Kip,” Teia said. Her voice was tight. He couldn’t quite read her expression: sub-red light was inexact and Kip wasn’t practiced with it, but he could tell she was nervous. Surely not scared of the dark. Not Teia.

But of course she was. Almost all drafters were afraid of the dark—even lots of sub-reds were. Light was Orholam’s gift; darkness was akin to evil; blindness was powerlessness. Her hands were out, and Kip took one. He led her down the hall. Ironfist didn’t slow.

Then Kip realized he was holding hands with Teia, and abruptly felt awkward. He sort of spasmed. She couldn’t miss it.

“Uhm,” he said. “Uh.” He put her hand on his arm instead.

Oh, like a lord leading his lady to a dinner party. Much better. Moron!

Kip cleared his throat, but then thought that anything he said would be equally stupid. He scowled and shot a look at her.

She was smirking.

Though of course it was dark so she didn’t know he could see her smirking, he still wanted to die.

She said, “I’m… I’m better now.” Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips, an odd, hot point in the cool, dark hall. “I… have some trouble relaxing my eyes sometimes.”

Oh, that was right. She could see sub-red. Her color was down farther on the spectrum that way. She would have gotten it on her own. She took her arm back, awkwardly.

Kip squared his shoulders, put his head down, and followed Ironfist down the halls. It was only a couple of turns before Ironfist took them into a room. He manipulated some mechanism Kip probably wouldn’t have understood even if he’d been able to see it in visible light, and the ceiling began glowing, a warm radiant soft white.

It was a training room, but not like any Kip had ever seen.

Ironfist began rummaging in a corner while Kip and Teia looked around. There were beams for practicing balance, bars for doing pull-ups, punching dummies coated with luxin that would light up in various zones to train quickness, punching bags of sawdust and leather, wooden blocking trees, a pile of cushioned body armor for sparring, terry cloths, targets, and padded weapons of every sort.

“This is the Prism’s training room. He allows us to share it,” Ironfist said. He had long strips of cloth in each hand. “Give me your hands, Kip. Straight as you can, and firm.”

Kip gave him his hands, and Ironfist began wrapping a strip of cloth around his wrist.

“It’s time for you two to learn something,” Ironfist said.

“What’s that, sir?” Adrasteia asked.

“There are three scrubs I absolutely can’t let fail.”

“Who?” she asked.

“Kip, because his father asked me not to.”

Teia looked over at him, obviously not happy with the injustice of that. Kip blushed, then scowled.

Ironfist continued: “Cruxer, because he’s got the potential to be the best Blackguard in a generation.”

“How would he fail out? He’s the best of us by far,” Teia said.

“Only through bad luck. But it could happen. Could, but I won’t let it. And the third is you, Teia.”

“Me?” she asked. She sounded genuinely shocked.