…or, Delving & Dragons
“We actually were talking about class work, you know,” I told the professor. She gave me a look. “We were in the neighborhood of it,” I amended. “Within striking distance.”
“To be perfectly technical about it, you were talking about homework,” Bryony said. “Class work is work to be done in class, while homework is done on your own time. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t split hairs, but it seems to me like the distinction between things you do in class and things you do on your own time has a habit of slipping away from you.”
“Uh, right,” I said. “Sorry.”
“It only takes the tiniest bit of effort to look busy,” she said. “Please try to make me feel like I’m worth it.”
“You don’t seem to care so much if Iason slacks or not,” I said. That sounded a lot more curt outside my head than it had inside. “Professor.”
“Yeah, don’t let my height confuse you,” she said. “And maybe I don’t, but that goes back to the question of who is and isn’t worth effort. Good on you to try to improve him a bit, just so long as you’re pulling him up more than he’s dragging you down. And you mind you stick to your wands about him doing his own assignment. Somehow, I’ve a feeling I wouldn’t have to strain myself too much to tell your work from his, and if you think I won’t flunk somebody because I like them, you’ve got another think coming. You like dragons?”
“What?” That was a random segue. But who didn’t like dragons? “Yeah, kind of. Why?”
“You seem like the sort who would,” she said. “The husbandry department does a monthly livestock fair, during the warmer parts of the school year.”
“And this attracts dragons?”
“Funny, but no. This month, they’re going to have a guest presentation from some traveling dragon troupe that’s been doing the rounds of the plains provinces.”
“Oh, really?” I asked. I was embarrassingly giddy to hear this. I doubted there would be two dragon performance groups in the area in such a short span of time. “Are they going to have the real dragons with them?”
“I don’t know. Lesser ones, maybe,” she said. “Not the sort you could teach to play cards.”
“There has to be a story behind that remark,” I said.
“Maybe. It’s a long one, though, and not actually all that interesting,” she said. “Anyway, I have other students, and you have lots of busy-looking to do. It’s Saturday on West Campus, if you’re interested.”
Saturday. That was Iason’s match. It was also the day I expected my tattoo to be set to go. I liked the idea of invoking it for the first time in front of the real Vera. I couldn’t be sure she’d be there, but the possibility was enough.
“During the day?”
“It starts at noon,” she said. “I haven’t seen a schedule.”
“I just don’t want to miss the skirmish match,” I said.
“Your one fighting in it?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Well, no worries,” she said. “Most of the folks who come to campus for the fair will be going to the match, too. They actually plan the fairs around the skirmish schedule in the fall.”
“Oh, cool,” I said. “I mean, good. Thanks.”
After that, I got to work. With Iason keeping his distance, I managed to do more than look busy. I caught him looking my way a couple of times during the remainder of class. He didn’t approach me until after it was over, though.
“Have you given any further thought to the other matter?” he asked as we walked back east.
“What other matter’s that?” I asked.
“Our planned delving expedition.”
“Oh. That.” I kept my voice even. When Marlot had been questioning me on it, I’d defended the idea. Now that Iason was putting me on the spot, her doubts made sense. I dug out my cigarettes to give myself something to do while I figured out what I really thought about it. “I think ‘plan’ might be a little strong a word at this point, don’t you?”
“Proposed, then,” Iason said. “Unless you have some objection to a proposal.”
“I’m going to leave that one alone,” I said. “The thing is, we don’t really have a lot of prospects for a delving party. Not unless you want to take me into the woods with a bunch of your elven friends.”
“So you are coming around to undertaking it alone with me?”
“I’m saying it might be cool but I don’t see it happening any time soon, realistically speaking,” I said.
Iason looked like somebody had taken away his favorite Khersentide present.
“Well, what is so wonderful about speaking realistically?” he asked. “I’m trying to give you something fun and exciting, Iamie.”
“You already did,” I said. “Dragon show. Remember? That was both fun and exciting. The stuff in the woods was fun in parts, but the excitement outweighed the fun in parts.”
“But excitement is fun.”
“It can be,” I said. “Are you going to be busy all day Saturday?”
“It’s starting to seem very likely,” he said. “We will have to do your piercing on Sunday.”
“Oh, I wasn’t actually thinking of that,” I said. “The professor said the animal people are going to have dragons here.”
“You have dragons on the brain,” Iason said. “If there were a dragon cave hidden in the woods, I bet you would want to see it.”
“You’d lose,” I said. A tame—or at least trained—dragon at a respectful distance was a sight to behold. A wild dragon was a sight to run away from.
“I do not think so,” Iason said.
“Bet you a cock piercing you would.”
“So, if I lose, I have to give you a cock piercing?”
“Not what I meant,” I said.
“You should be more careful about how you say it, then,” he said. “Somebody who’s as obsessed with the fae folk as you are can’t afford to be careless with his words. I swear, Iamie, I do not understand your priorities. You seek out the most dangerous creatures in the world but a few little worms or the prospect of running into some cave dwellers has you shaking like a little girl.”
“I’m not shaking,” I said. “I just don’t feature spending my freshman year dying in a cave.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be likely to occupy your whole year.”
“That’s a comfort.”
Iason had followed along talking to me all the way to the footbridge. I hoped half a second that he’d come across and have lunch on campus with me, but he stopped.
“This is where you get off, huh?” I asked.
“If you wish it,” he said. “Though it is a touch exposed for my tastes, what with the noontime traffic and all. I had no idea you were such a voyeur.”
“Ha fucking ha,” I said. “I’ll see you Friday, I guess.”
“You aren’t even going to ask if you might see me tomorrow?” Iason asked.
“If there was a chance the answer would be yes, you might have a reason to feel hurt,” I said. “But you don’t want to spend time with me half as much as you want to feel flattered that I want to spend time with you.”
“You make it sound sordid,” he said. “Everybody likes to feel needed.”
“That isn’t what this is,” I said. “You need to feel liked.”
“Maybe I do. Is that so bad?”
“It wears thin,” I said. “If you expect anybody to spend their whole life with you, at some point you’re going to have to let them relax and just be with you.”
“I do not think I understand.”
“It’s like I tried to tell you during our big date,” I said. “About not everything being a big date.”
“I don’t remember you saying anything like that.”
“If I live to be two hundred, maybe I’ll get another shock that big,” I said. I put out the stub of my cigarette in the ashtray by the end of the bridge. “Bye, Iason. I’ll see you on Friday. We’ll get together on Sunday and work on fixing your paper. As long as you actually have it done, that is.”
“Do you think we’ll actually have time for that, with—“
“It’s due on Monday,” I said. “But if you want to go into town and stick metal in me, I guess that’s up to you. Well, the part about wanting is up to you. The other part’s kind of my call.”
“You are giving me a lot to think about,” Iason said.
“Are you planning on thinking about any of it?”
“Not really,” he said. “I have things to do today.”
“Yeah, me, too,” I said. “See you.”
I turned and started across the bridge.
“Iamie, wait,” he said.
“What?”
“There is no class on Friday,” he reminded me.
“So there isn’t,” I said. I’d forgotten. Bryony had said she had to go into town for something. “I’ll see you Saturday at the match, then.”
“I would like to see you before then,” he said.
“Well,” I said, lifting up my arm with the bracelet. “You know where to find me, I guess.”
“I do at that,” he said.
That was the end of the conversation. I wasn’t going to hang around like I was begging for a good night kiss if Iason wasn’t going to say what was on his mind, or in his heart, or whatever part he was doing his thinking with at the moment. We’d see if he came around before the weekend.
Somehow, I doubted he would.
