Saga of Menyoral: The Service (6 page)

“That’s a piss-poor excuse for an excuse,” Francine said, and she and Wallace laughed over it.

Dingus tried to think of something else, anything. “I have a—”
Headache,
he thought,
that’s a good excuse.

She reached out toward him, but he twisted just a little before her hand made contact. She drew it back and looked at him. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

His shoulders sagged. “Okay.” Francine and Wallace beamed. He shoved his hands in his pockets, managing a smile, and followed them across the campground to the far south edge of Knightsvalley, near the foot of the mountains. Dingus sent a longing glance back in the direction of his own campsite. He’d much rather be there, pretending to sleep, than headed toward the sulky glow of the not-quite-yet bonfire that stood out of the dusk.

Dingus hung back a little, only half listening to the two others chatting in front of him. Even before they got to the fire, there was a crowd of kids all around, drinking cider and small beer, but everyone seemed a little bit subdued, not what Dingus would’ve expected from so many kids all together. He wished he hadn’t eaten so much at supper. His stomach twisted and
churned, even worse than it had last night when he’d seen all the Knights who had come to camp in the valley. When they passed Kessa, he gave her a small wave—he hadn’t seen her since morning. When they passed Arkady, he made sure to look away.

Everyone clumped together in little knots, talking quietly, and his hopes of finding a shado
w to stand in died. He tried to keep his head low as they approached the fire and the barrels of drink. It seemed as though everyone they passed was talking about Muscoda; it took less than two minutes to get up by a circle of logs by the fire, and he must’ve heard “Muscoda” fifteen times from fifteen different mouths.

“I thought this would distract me,” Francine muttered. “Everybody’s so miserable. I can’t stand to think about it anymore. Maybe you had the right idea with the studying, Dingus.”

“Aye,” Wallace said. “Nobody’s seen us yet, mayhap we can leave.”

“Let’s,” Dingus said.

Francine sighed. “You guys go ahead. I see Gemma, I’d better go over.”

“If you stay, we’ll not go,” Wallace said, “right, Dingus?”

“Uh, right.” He didn’t feel like arguing, and besides, he didn’t want to be a jerk, since Francine was actually pretty okay.

“Thanks, you guys.” She went around the circle of logs, mostly occupied by people about their a
ge, and put her hand on a blond girl’s shoulder. The girl lifted a blotchy face and immediately scooted over for Francine to sit. Francine’s butt barely touched the log before the other girl glommed on to her.

“Lost her boyfriend, she did,” Wallace said quietly.

Suddenly, Dingus didn’t feel so itchy about being a stranger. Better that, than hurting the way they all were. “Well, most everybody must’ve lost somebody. It was a lot of people.”

“Aye,” Wallace said. “Look there, it’s my friend. Let’s sit. Tony!”

“I met him before,” Dingus said, when the boy with the shaved head from Elwin’s Ford turned around and waved. The firelight glanced off the boy’s head; Dingus could swear he’d polished it for the occasion, it was that shiny, and he was all dressed up in bottle-green breeches and jerkin, a loose, blazing yellow tunic, and crimson boots.

Tony slid over on the log when they got there. “Hey, Wallace.” The two of them clasped wrists. Wallace sat, and Tony looked over his head at Dingus. “Hey, man, you look better.”

“Heh. I hope so, that was last year.”

“Who’s that?” a girl with a mass of curly hair and about a gross of bangles asked from the next log, the tone of her voice saying she didn’t really care, and in fact would prefer it if Dingus went away.

“Dingus,” Tony said, when Dingus’s mouth dried out in horror. “He’s Vandis’s guy. Remember, Francine, from Elwin’s Ford last summer?”

“I remember
,” said Francine, and the blond girl, who’d mostly sniffled herself out, looked at him.

“I remember you, too. You were all beat up though.”

“Yeah,” Dingus admitted. He felt sick of the subject, even more so when Arkady strutted up behind her and Francine.

She gave him a watery smile. “Ready to tell the story yet?”

“No.”

“Maybe someday you’ll tell me,” she said.

“I don’t think so.” He tried not to sound mean. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings or piss her off. He could tell Wallace a little, sure, but a girl? A girl he didn’t know?

“Don’t mind him, Gemma.”  Arkady leaned in, draping an arm around her shoulders. “Boys don’t like to talk about thei
r defeats.” He glanced up at Dingus, smirking.

Dingus inhaled slowly, taking in the smoke smell of the fire, the weak alcohol in the cider, the confused body smells of
everyone around. He wouldn’t rise to the bait.

“Stop being a dick,” Francine snapped, and Dingus shut his eyes, pained.
Please don’t defend me
, he thought, but she kept on. “What reason do you have to be horrible to him? You don’t even know him.”

Arkady snorted eloquently through his mustache, all the answer he needed to give. This was exactly why Dingus hadn’t wanted to come.

“So!” Wallace put on that infectious grin. “Who’s standing Trials, then?”

“I am,” Arkady said.

Gemma sniffled. “So am I.”

“I don’t know why they’re even having t
hem this year,” said Bangles. “It’s stupid! Like any of us is going to be able to concentrate. Besides, there’s barely anyone left who’s old enough.”

“Waived that, though, didn’t they?” Wallace said. “I’m standing, and I’m only seventeen last month.” For some reason, Dingus had thought Wallace was older than he was. Must have been the beard.

Arkady snorted. “They shouldn’t let anyone stand who hasn’t done six years,” he said, and Bangles nodded.

“Well, I have. I was eleven,” Wallace said.

“If you can do it, you can do it, so who cares how long you been in?” Tony waved his hand dismissively. “I’m eighteen, but so what? I’m not threatened.”

Francine rolled her eyes. “Nobody’s a threat. It doesn’t matter how anybody else does, just you.”

“Unless you got money on it,” Tony said, grinning, and everyone laughed except for Bangles. Even Gemma wiped the tears off her face.

Bangles
shook her head, earrings flashing inside the mass of hair, her mouth a pinched purse. “How can you guys be so callous? They shouldn’t even have Trials this year! There’s no way I can focus. There’s no way anyone could do as well as they should.”

“Why don’t you just ask Adeon to keep you back?” Francine asked her, sounding a little annoyed. Ding
us didn’t much care for the idea of Trials being cancelled, either. He’d worked hard for this—hadn’t everybody else? Didn’t she see how much it mattered?

She folded her arms under her breasts. “I did. He said no.”

“Yeah, well, Adeon’s a hardass. You didn’t think he’d say yes anyway,” Tony said.

“I didn’t think he’d be that callous!” she snapped. “You’d think he was Vandis the way he yelled at me! Well, I hope he’s happy when I flunk!”

“You can’t do that,” Dingus blurted. “If your Master thinks—”

“What would you know? You’re not even standing
Trials,” she said, looking him over, her eyes lingering on kid face, knobby knees.

He bristled. “Yes, I am.”

“Sure you are. Are you even growing a beard yet? Listen, why don’t you go over by the little kids? This doesn’t concern you anyway.”

“I’m standing,” he bit off. “I’m seventeen.”
Not that it’s any of your business.

“They shouldn’t let anyone stand who hasn’t done their six,” Arkady said again.

“If Vandis wanted me to wait, I’d wait! He asked me to stand. They need us to take the Oath. We need more Knights.”

“See?” Tony pointed at him; Dingus’s
face burned. “See what I mean? Doesn’t matter how long you been in, if you get it. Forty-eight people I knew have not shown up yet, but you know what? I’m getting my leaf. I’m getting it even if Adeon pulls my name for the Practical exam—even if
Vandis
pulls my name,” he finished, with a shudder the other kids echoed.

“Is Vandis tough?” Dingus asked, hoping to get an idea of how he might do.

“Hui said he was a nightmare,” said Francine. “He got Vandis his first try. He flunked. Bad.”

“I hope he pulls my name
,” Arkady said, a little loudly, to make sure everyone heard.  

Tony made a gesture as if giving something to Arkady. “You ca
n have him!” Then he called to a group of younger Squires. “Hey, let’s have some drinks over here. It’s tradition, you know.” A few of them, Kessa included, went to the barrels and started pulling mugs.

Arkady forged on. “I’ll bet
if he draws me, I catch him. He used to be shit-hot, but he’s getting old. He must be fifty.”

“So what if he is?” Vandis actually was fifty—he
’d turned two weeks ago—but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been able to give Dingus the slip for days on end this spring, while they practiced tracking. “Best believe he’s still got it.” They must’ve gone back and forth ten times, him and Vandis, and the only time he’d caught up was a day right after it rained.

“Yeah? What would you know?”

“He’s my Master. I know enough,” Dingus said, his hands pulling into fists.

“Not worth i
t,” Wallace said, quietly, singsong, while the mugs went around.

Dingus breathe
d in the smoke and sweat and cider again. Kessa somehow managed to be the one to hand him his drink. “Don’t worry,” she said, close to his ear. “Vandis told me one time he’s never seen anyone as good as you.”

“Thanks,” he said, grinning. Kess was the best sometimes, and the r
est of the time she was cool, too. She flashed him the high sign and turned away.

“What’s your name
?” Arkady called.

“Kessa,” she said, looking flirtatiously over her shoulder. “What’s yours?”

“Arkady.” He made to follow her, and without even thinking, Dingus stood up from his end of log and put out his arm to block.

“Nuh-uh.”

“She’s your girl?”

Arkady said that in a disbelieving (and extremely unflattering) tone, but Dingus ignored it, shaking his head. “My little sister.”

“Not much of a family resemblance.”

“Just don’t.”

They stared at each other. Arkady was shorter, but not by much, and his arms were thicker than Dingus’s twigs—but that wouldn’t matter, no, not with the party noise fading behind the pulse in his ears and the heat tickling down his spine.

“Who’s going to stop me? You?”

Dingus squeezed his eyes shut. Not now. Not here. He opened them and said, “Yeah.”

Arkady gave another one of those eloquent snorts and pushed past, banging his shoulder into Dingus’s—hard. Dingus reached out, faster than he could think about it, and grabbed Ar
kady’s arm, yanking him around. Dingus’s fist met up with his face, and he sprawled flat on his back.

The party noise wasn’t background anymore; it was just gone, and when he looked up at the people around the fire, when he looked around the rest of the party, all he saw were strangers’ faces w
ith wide-open eyes and mouths. When he saw Wallace and Francine staring just the same, he felt a little poke of regret. “About fucking time,” said Tony, and Wallace nodded slowly.

“Hey!” som
eone yelled, and pushed through the crowd. “You can’t do that!”

Dingus didn’t wait for him. He cracked his stinging knuckles, stepped over Arkady’s groaning for
m, and walked toward Kessa. “Let’s go.”

“Aw, but—”

“Come on.”

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” said a thick-faced boy at his elbow
. “You can’t—”

Dingus wheeled on him.
“I just did.”

He went for it, of course he did. They always did. Dingus knocked his fist out of the way and put a knee in his gut. He gasped and folded.

It’s easy
, Dingus thought, watching him slip to the ground. Surprised him how easy, but these guys weren’t real serious; they weren’t out to kill, and he—well, he wasn’t out to kill them neither, but he
had
killed and he guessed it changed a guy.
I’m sick of getting fucked with,
he thought, exhausted.
It’s easy, hitting back. How come I never did it before?
“Anybody else?” he asked, breathing, calm. “Let’s get it over with.”

No takers.

Just as well. Dingus wheeled again and stalked away. “Kessa!” he snapped over his shoulder.

“Sorry, guys,” she said to her friends.
She tagged after him when he headed toward the campsite, jogging to catch up. “What is your problem?” she hissed.

In a low voice—they were still close enough to be overheard—he said, “Better not let me catch you hanging around with that guy.”