Page 3 of Grave Situation

I snort as I go in search of my sister. Of course they did—I know because they told me so. Usually at the top of their lungs and using very creative language. I was not popular with my teachers, and after five years of being stuck with first-year students, I sympathize. I marvel that none of them pushed me over a cliff or accidentally smothered me when they had the chance. I even wondered, once, if the reason some students die before graduation isn’t because they lose control of their magic,but rather that their professors lost control of their homicidal urges.

I dismissed that idea quickly. As teachers, we’re all judged on how well our students do. Death is pretty much the biggest failure of them all. I’ve started this year with forty-one students, and damned if I won’t have forty-one at the end.

Crossing the great lawn toward the dragon riders’ barracks, I tip my head back and enjoy the warm sunlight on my face. The elevation of the City of Knowledge means it’s cool here, if not downright cold, for most of the year, but we do get some lovely days in summer and early autumn. And it’s a wonderful incentive for the students to learn basic magic to keep themselves warm.

Even if it does lead to many fires. Many, many fires. At least the city’s stone and doesn’t burn down that easily.

“Talon!”

I hear the shout even as I feel the tug in my mind, and lower my head to squint at the person approaching. I’d recognize her anywhere, even without the help of my magic. We’ve been bonded from the womb.

I stop walking and wait for my twin to reach me. I’m a lazy bastard, and she’s required to keep fit for her job. Why take the extra steps when I don’t have to?

“It’s such a nice day,” she says as she gets closer, and I see she’s carrying a bag. “Let’s have lunch out here.” Without waiting for me to agree, she drops to sit cross-legged on the grass.

“Here?” Outside? “But there’s a perfectly good mess in the riders’ barracks.” With tables and chairs and a better head cook than the one at the academy. Technically, since I’m not a student and have quarters of my own, I don’thaveto eat in the academy cafeteria. But the alternative is cooking for myself—which thehealers have banned me from doing—or going into the city to eat. And I’m not made of money.

Tavia—Tia—gives me a knowing look. “I brought the food from the mess. When I told Chelica I was meeting you for lunch, she put your favorite dessert in. Which, by the way, is not on the menu today. Are you sure you’re not bribing her?”

Chelica is the wonderful, talented head cook at the riders’ mess. “Of course I’m not bribing her.” Much. “I just won her over with my irresistible charm.” And a charmed cup that doesn’t allow her tea to get cold, no matter how many times she’s called away from it. It took me ages to get that spell right.

Reluctantly, I join Tia on the grass. Sure, the food will be good, but we’re still eating outside. Like savages.

Tia laughs as she hands over the food bag for me to unpack and lies back in the grass. “Your irresistible charm. Sure. Irresistible like the plague.”

My sister loves me so much. We have a special twin bond.

I dig out a fat roll stuffed with roast boar and all the trimmings—Tia can get her own when she’s ready—and take a huge bite as I reach out through our bond for just a tiny, harmless bit of revenge.

Tia’s hand comes up to scratch the side of her nose. Then switches to scratch the other side. To give her credit, even as she’s moving to scratch the first side again, her head turns toward me. “I’m not afraid to tell Leicht to burn you to ashes,” she threatens.

Sighing, I let the itch lapse. Even after all these years, even knowing he’d never hurt me due to my bond with Tia, her dragon still intimidates me. To be fair, it’s not like he’s gone out of his way to be nice to me or anything. There have been a few times he’s puffed smoke in my direction that had some embers in it. And he’s very fond of baring his teeth at me.

Some of it miiiiiiiight be my fault. There was one time, way back right after Tia bonded him, when I’d had a little too much to drink and suggested that there’s nothing a dragon can do that a mage can’t. I didn’t know then that Leicht can hear and see everything Tia does, through their bond, unless she’s actively shielding him out. Our bond doesn’t work that way at all—it truly only exists because I’m a mage with telepathic abilities, and when we were babies, I kind of linked us.

That’s a secret, of course. It’s not supposed to be possible, and gives both of us advantages that regular mages and riders don’t have. But it’s also how we both knew when we were still children what we were going to grow up to be. I could rummage around in my twin’s head—though she came up with some pretty creative ways to kick me out, even before I taught her how to shield against it—and while I was doing that, I found the dark place there. The part of her brain that I couldn’t—can’t—touch. The part that’s Tia, but not Tia. That’s where the ability to bond with a dragon lies.

Dragon riders aren’t mages. They can’t do magic. Their strength is wholly in the way they can link with their dragons to become the ultimate war machine. Dragons are the reason we have peace on our continent. They got tired of our petty human wars, and so they… ended them. Now, anytime one of the kings or queens or councils or whatever starts to get covetous of their neighbors, the dragons show up to remind them of the consequences. By treaty, they’ll work in tandem with the City of Knowledge and the three councils—mages, healers, and riders—since we’re neutral territory, but they answer only to their own councils.

It's pretty badass, when you think of it. Even if they still scare the gods-blessed turds out of me.

Tia sits up and reaches for the bag of food as I take another bite, and I look at her face. It’s a prettier, feminine version ofmine—long, with a straight nose, blue eyes, and dark brown hair. Hers is shorter than mine—because otherwise it gets loose and ends up in her face while flying. I’m too lazy to see a barber regularly, so mine’s a shaggy mop.

The other major difference is the silver scar running down the right side. It’s close enough to her hairline and ear that you can only see it at certain angles, but it’s a reminder that she’s often in dangerous situations.

“It’s so peaceful out here,” she says, and I have to concede that’s true. You’d think that other people who enjoy eating like savages would also take advantage of the sunny day and wide expanse of grass, but the truth is, most of us who live at the academy are indoorsy. The few that aren’t know that dragons occasionally like to frolic here, and nobody wants to have to abandon their picnic because a forty-foot-long scaled, fire-breathing beast wants to sun itself.

The dragon riders, who, being the opposite of mages,loveto spend time outside, have several gardens and lawns on the other side of the barracks, where they can watch their dragons doing dragonish stuff in the hanging valley where they live. I’m not allowed over there, so Tia comes to me when she wants a picnic.

A fly lands on my hand and inches toward my sandwich. I shoo it off. “Peaceful. Yeah.”

My sister is lucky I love her so much.

A lot of mages,when they find out that I’m apprenticed to Master Samoine, are envious. “You’re so lucky,” they say. “He’s never taken an apprentice before. He’s so powerful and wise. Your master is on the Council of Mages!”

All of that is true, which is why it’s easy to smile and nod and burble about how grateful I am. I hardly ever tell them that he’s a tyrant taskmaster who often wakes me in the middle of the night to do some obscure bit of research, frequently tells me I can do better with my own magic practice, and laughed outright when I asked him to get me out of teaching duties.

I also love him like a father—more than I love my own, to be honest—and know he’d lay down his life for me if it came to that. He pushes me hard, and he’s a grumpy ass when he’s not being the oh-so-wise councilor, but having him take me as his apprentice was the highest of honors, and he expects me to live up to that.Iexpect me to live up to that. He’s training me to be the greatest master I can be, and that’s what I want.

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