Tin Thoughts (The Downfall Saga Book 2) Read online

  They climbed the steps and entered through a white door. Donovan fanned the collar of his shirt to help cool off. The air inside the building was cool and dry. It was a welcome relief as they made their way to the classroom.

  The hallway was painted all in white, and shined to a near mirror finish. The building had a strange smell. It took Donovan until they had climbed to the second floor to realize that it was the absence of any strong smells that he was noticing.

  They made it to the room a few minutes before class was set to start. There were ten tables in the room, each with two chairs behind them. All but two of the chairs were occupied.

  A woman sat alone at a table near the wall. She had curly blond hair, smoky eyes, and impeccable posture that you could barely take your eyes away from.

  A pale woman with a mousy face, thin lips and dark hair that looked like a mouse was nesting in it, sat at a table in the back corner.

  Donovan and Kort shared a look. Donovan raised his eyebrows. Kort crossed his arms. Donovan headed to the table in the back corner.

  “Donovan,” he said, sitting down and pulling out several sheets of blank paper from his pack.

  “Casidhe,” she said, giving him a quick once over with her eyes. “My friends call me Cas.”

  “So I should call you Casidhe.”

  She gave him a smile that showed off her dimples. “We’ll find out soon enough. I haven’t seen you around.”

  “I’m starting my second year.”

  “Really? You chose this class? I can assure you that there are many other classes that are more enjoyable.”

  “My friend wanted to take it.”

  She turned to watch the table where Kort had sat down. Donovan turned his head and saw that Kort and the woman at his table were laughing quietly at what must have been an incredibly funny joke. She reached out and placed her hand on his forearm and it didn’t look like she intended to move it anytime soon.

  “The big stack of beef you came in with?” asked Cas.

  “His name’s Kort. He’s one of the nicest, most honest people you’ll ever meet.”

  “She’ll just eat him up.”

  “You know her then.”

  “Satine. Everybody knows her, and they’ve learnt the hard way not to be caught alone with her.”

  Donovan finally managed to pry his eyes away from Satine and looked back at Cas.

  “She doesn’t look dangerous.”

  “She’ll lure you in with her eyes, lower your defenses with her laugh, and suck out your heart with her lips. Trust me, you want to stay away from her.”

  “So I can spend my time with you, Cas?”

  She turned away, but he thought he saw a touch of pink on her cheeks.

  The professor marched into the room with a purposeful stride, set her bag down on the desk, and wrote her name on the blackboard. She wore glasses with octagonal shaped lenses, wore a pristine white smock over her clothes and had her hair pulled back in a bun.

  “Professor Elthia,” she said as means of an introduction. “Everyone hold out your right hand in front of you.”

  Everyone held out their hands. Donovan watched as Satine reluctantly let go of Kort’s arm.

  “Now wiggle your fingers.”

  Professor Elthia demonstrated and the class followed suit.

  “Ever wonder how you do this?”

  She was met by many blank stares.

  “If you stick around for the entire year, then you may just find out. So why are we here?”

  She stood there, straight backed, hands clasped behind her back, waiting for a response.

  “This is the part where one of you is supposed to give a dumb answer which makes me question why I even bother trying to teach you anything at all. No, no one?”

  She turned around and wrote the title of the course on the board.

  “As most of you should realize, there are two parts to this course. Anatomy which studies what your body is, and physiology which studies what your body does. I hope you’re writing this down because I’m not in the habit of repeating myself.”

  The room was filled with scratching sounds as everyone hurriedly wrote down the definitions.

  “In this class you will learn the basics of why you are alive, and how to keep yourself alive. Most of you are already in the healing program.” He paused to survey the faces in the room, her gaze lingering on Donovan longer than the other students. “An understanding of the living body is crucial to understanding healing, without it you might as well close your eyes and poked around until you find the source of the problem. Now can anyone tell me another reason why knowledge of the human body is important?”

  Everyone sat there quietly. Cas elbowed Donovan in the ribs and he gave a startled jump.

  “Yes, the boy in the back,” said Elthia.

  “Donovan. My name’s Donovan.” He tried to think of a clever answer but settled for the first thing that came to mind. “So you know where the important areas are to stab.”

  He heard Cas snickering quietly behind her hand.

  “Not the answer that a Healer would give, but true nonetheless,” said Elthia. “Healing and killing follow similar principles. If you stab someone enough times you’ll inevitably kill them. If you try to heal without knowing how things function, then you’ll only heal the obvious damage, or you’ll spread out your focus and attempt to heal the entire body at once. Neither is an effective approach. If you understand the body, then you can diagnose the problem, and focus your healing on that particular area.”

  Donovan was surprised by the amount of information he learned and had several sheets of paper full of notes by the end of the class. He was packing the papers away in his bag when Cas got up to leave.

  “See you tomorrow, Cas.”

  She gave him a wink and continued walking out of the room.

  Donovan pretended to still be packing his things while he watched Kort and Satine. She gave Kort a toothy smile and reached out to absently tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear, her hand lingering on his cheek before she stood up and left.

  Donovan slung his pack onto his back and walked over to pat Kort on the back. The air around Kort still smelled of roses from Satine’s perfume.

  The two of them waited until they were partway down the hall before striking up a conversation.

  “Quite the class,” said Donovan.

  “Yes she is,” said Kort absently. “Wait, what did you say?”

  “Satine made a good first impression.”

  “She’s a nice girl. She’s already learned so much about healing, and even offered to give me a private anatomy lesson. Isn’t that great? With someone to tutor me, I’ll surely get a good mark in the class.”

  Donovan shook his head in amazement and wondered if he was as dense as Kort at times.

  “You can use all the help you can get. What about you and Ravyn? You won’t be in many classes together.”

  “We’ll still be seeing a lot of each other. She’s the kind of girl that you make time for.”

  “You’re afraid to make her angry because you know she can smack you around.”

  “Well, yeah, and she’s brilliant.”

  “Don’t let her see Satine hanging off your arm, okay.”

  Chapter 12

  Caddaric wiped his hands on a napkin. He and his friends had just finished lunch on the first day of classes and, other than Kort, were heading to their first swordsmanship class. He and Ravyn had spent their entire morning together in classes focusing on magic, and he was looking forward to exerting some energy that afternoon.

  One of the privileges of being a prince was that he had been trained in a variety of subjects since he was a child. He knew he was the best with a sword and was looking forward to showing off his skill to his classmates.

  He waited for Ravyn and Donovan to finish eating before the three of them headed off.

  An entire valley was used as the training area for most of the martial classes. The valley floor had been f
lattened and paved with cobblestones to provide a stable surface for their training, and various obstacles were constructed along the sides of the valley to incorporate terrain into their training.

  Their schedule said to meet in the courtyard, but didn’t tell them where to find their class.

  “What was the name of the professor?” asked Caddaric, knowing that Ravyn would have memorized all of her professors’ names.

  “Jairdan,” she said. “Professor Jairdan.”

  Caddaric observed the courtyard. Clearly there were multiples classes using it at the same time, but how would they recognize their instructor. More than a few grizzly looking men stood straight-backed around the edge of the courtyard. He spotted a lady lounging on a bench watching the courtyard. No doubt she was there to watch the men get sweaty. She wore simple, loose fitting clothes, which made him picture the tight form beneath. Her hair was in a simple braid hanging down her back and she had one of those ageless faces that looked beautiful no matter the time of day, unlike most of the ladies he met at balls who had to put on a false face every morning before they looked presentable.

  He walked up to her and gave her his most winning smile.

  “Excuse me, miss. Do you know where I could find Professor Jairdan’s class?”

  She rolled her eyes before answering.

  “They’re lining up over there.” She pointed to a spot where a cluster of students were waiting, but there was no professor in sight.

  “Thank you, kindly. My name is Caddaric, Prince Caddaric Kelvin. I’m please to make your acquaintance.” He reached out to tenderly take her hand and gently kissed her knuckles. He thought he heard stifled laughter from behind him, but he ignored it.

  “I’ll have to remember you. You better head off to your class before you’re late. I wouldn’t want you to get into any trouble.”

  “For you, there would be no troubles too great.”

  He gave her a bow, and the three of them headed off towards the other students.

  Many of the students seemed to be laughing and pointing towards them as they approached, but it was probably something Donovan was doing behind him that drew their attention.

  “Did you see her?” asked Caddaric. “She is such a lovely peach. Why can’t the ladies at court be more like her?”

  “You know nothing about her,” said Ravyn.

  “I saw everything that I need to know,” said Caddaric.

  “What if she has a boyfriend?” asked Donovan.

  “Then I will prove my love through the noble art of dueling.”

  “It doesn’t take much for someone to get your love,” said Ravyn.

  “You’re right. Love is too strong of a word. She will have to be satisfied with the mere fact that I noticed her.”

  “Is that all it takes to win a woman over,” said Donovan. “Ravyn, I noticed you the first time we met, and have noticed you most days since.”

  “Careful or you’ll make me swoon,” said Ravyn.

  “Have no fear. I’ll notice and catch you before you fall.”

  “Quiet, you two. Class should be starting,” said Caddaric.

  He watched the men around the courtyard, waiting for one of them to walk over and take control of the class, when he saw the woman from the bench approaching. A smirk rose to his face and he waited for her to come over to talk to him.

  She stopped ten feet in front of the class.

  “My name is Professor Jairdan,” she said in an authoritative tone. “You will address me as Professor, Professor Jairdan, or sir. Is that understood?”

  She received an enthusiastic, but jumbled response containing many sirs and professors mixed together.

  She let out a smile.

  “Right. I’m here to instruct you on how to use a sword. Who here has used a sword before?”

  Caddaric raised his hand and saw that there were only three other students, including Donovan, who had their hands raised.

  “Now, who has used a sword before without hurting themselves?”

  The same students kept their hands in the air.

  “You,” she said pointing at one of the students. “Grab a practice sword from the rack over there and give us a demonstration.”

  The student’s face went red, and he meekly walked over to the rack to get a sword. He poked around, lifting each sword individually from the rack to test its weight.

  “Any day now!” said Jairdan.

  He grabbed a wooden sword and hurried back to the class. He stood a safe distance from the group, and after a nod from their professor, began to swing the sword in clumsy arcs which threatened to pull him off balance.

  “Very good,” said Jairdan, when he was done. “Next.”

  The other student, Caddaric couldn’t remember his name from the previous year, walked over to take the sword. He gave a similarly embarrassing routine, demonstrating his ineptitude.

  When he finished, Caddaric walked over, without being prompted by Professor Jairdan, to show them how it was done. He held the sword in a two handed grip and spent the next minute demonstrating both his speed and power through a wide variety of moves.

  Several students clapped when he was done.

  “Your turn,” he said, tossing the sword to Donovan.

  Donovan casually caught it in his right hand, and handed it to Ravyn to hold while he took off his cloak. He gave Ravyn a look before taking the sword back. He gently tossed it into the air a couple of times and caught it to test its weight. He held out one finger and laid the sword across it. It took him several tries to find the balance point along the blade. He finally gave a nod to Jairdan.

  He fell into a loose stance. He began a dawdling slow slash, tendons clearly visible in his neck. He stretched out several moves which could have been done in several seconds, to take over a minute. Even Caddaric had to admit that he had perfect control of his body at all times, as he pivoted, thrust and slashed his way through his routine.

  He handed the sword to Jairdan when he finished and returned to his place beside Ravyn.

  “Very good,” said Jairdan. “Most years we have no one who I’d trust to swing a real sword without hurting themselves. This year we have two. One who has learned the fundamentals, and one who has mastered them.” She pointed the sword towards Donovan.

  “Donovan,” said Donovan.

  “Donovan, I may call upon you to help the other students.”

  Clearly she was upset from how Caddaric had introduced himself to her, but he’d win her over eventually.

  “No problem,” said Donovan.

  “Everybody grab a sword and pair up,” said Jairdan.

  Caddaric walked over to the rack to collect his sword. He turned to ask Ravyn to be his partner, but she and Donovan were already returning to the courtyard, walking side-by-side.

  He turned towards Alicia who he recognized from last year.

  “Hey, Alicia. Want to hook up?”

  A look of disgust appeared on her face before she realized what he meant.

  “Yeah, I’ll be your partner.”

  Professor Jairdan waited until the entire class had returned and partnered up.

  “Spend several minutes getting a feel for your weapon,” she said. “Watch each other and don’t be afraid to offer them your advice.”

  Caddaric positioned himself so he could watch Ravyn and Donovan over Alicia’s shoulder.

  “Is this right?” asked Alicia.

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Is this how I hold the sword?”

  He glanced over at Alicia. “Not bad. Bend your knees more.”

  Donovan stood beside Ravyn. He was talking into her ear as he readjusted her grip. He slid his hand up to her wrist and had her gently rotate it. He did the same thing with her elbow, then shoulder.

  Alicia stumbled forward and nearly hit him with her sword.

  “Hey, be careful.”

  “It wasn’t on purpose.”

  “Spread your legs further apart.”

  “Thanks.�
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  Donovan had knelt down beside Ravyn. His hand gripped the back of her thigh as he moved her leg slightly forward, his face mere inches from her butt.

  “Hey, Donovan. Ladies don’t like to be pawed.”

  “I’m perfectly fine with his help,” said Ravyn.

  “I wouldn’t mind a little help,” said Alicia.

  “I’ll be there in a minute if Caddaric can’t help you,” said Donovan.

  “He had his arms wrapped around Ravyn now, his front pressed up against her back, guiding her through several basic motions.”

  He glared over at Donovan, before starting a rigorous routine to release his frustrations.

  ***

  Caddaric was in a foul mood all afternoon. His last class for the day had just finished, and he was planning to head back to his room before getting supper, when Ravyn tapped him on the shoulder.

  “I heard that most of the clubs have tables setup in the Nexus tonight,” she said. “I was going to stop by to see what extracurricular activities I want to do. My Mom would kill me if I didn’t join at least one club. Do you have anything else planned?”

  “Well, no.”

  “Good. You can come with me.”

  The two of them headed to the Nexus together.

  Tables lined both sides of the paths. Large, brightly colored signs hung down in front of the tables. Overly cheerful students sat behind them, calling out to the people walking by.

  Three students in flashy clothes and large hats yelled out lines in exaggerated accents. “Join us and you can experience the world.”

  They walked past people who wrote and told stories, produced plays, and built puppets.

  “What are you interested in?” asked Caddaric, nudging Ravyn gently with his shoulder. “Maybe a sport. Something to toughen you up?”

  “That’s rich coming from you.” She reached for his hand and gently held it, palm facing upwards. She absently traced a circle on his palm with her thumb. “You’re as soft as a lily.”

  He snatched his hand away from hers.

  “How about we study the stars together?” He motioned towards a table with two pale faced students, imagining him and Ravyn snuggling together under a blanket, looking up at the stars.