Page 102 of Iron Unicorn

“You look like you put your finger in an electric socket!”

“That was the unexpected result,” Brenda admitted, and she laughed. “Terry is a hybrid, and he has a lightningweaving talent that got buried. Once I started using the suppressors, we had some entertaining sessions. I have a job for you, Your Highness.”

Olivia came to my side, tentatively touched my hair, and when she didn’t get zapped, she did her best to restore me to a presentable condition with little success. “What do you need?”

“Raid the kitchen and inform them that I need Terry to be fed as soon as they can whip something up for him. High calories. If it’s cake loaded with icing, I don’t care as long as it is high in calories. Hot chocolate loaded with whipped cream might work. I want at least three thousand calories in him by dinner, and I want him eating right up until bedtime. Get him bathed and warmed up. Terry, I’m going to put in a few orders for specialized suppressors for you now that I have a better idea of what’s going on. Your next generic suppressor will have two leaks, and I want you to wear that one unless told otherwise. I’ll contact New York’s physicians and have your monitoring schedule established. During emergencies, remove your suppressor.” Brenda took off the suppressor I wore, sighed, and held it out. “I’m going to loan this one to you. I want you to wear this one for the next week. It has a generalized empathy leak, it’s open for concentrated bonds, and it’s open for horse empathy. Please inform Princess Melody that you’re wearing it. That might buy me a few extra minutes of life.”

“Ah. She wanted the empathy leaks to be lesser?” I guessed.

“She wanted me to have just enough of a leak to keep your talent from shutting down. In light of the evaluation, I’ll get into a fight with her about it. Your Highness, please let everyone know that things need to be kept quiet for Terry; I need to monitor his exertion and see what is exerted, as I’m not convinced it’s his empathy that’s actually exerted right now. But I should have a better result tomorrow after he’s rested with that suppressor on.”

Olivia saluted the evaluator. “Yes, ma’am!”

“Just so you’re aware, you’re not escaping your evaluation, Your Highness. I’m just making better use of that energy of yours for the moment. I am absolutely willing to do harsher evaluations on Terry tomorrow if my other choice of victim is not ready.”

The brief flash of dismay I sensed from the princess amused me. “I’ll be ready.”

“Excellent. Please come here after breakfast, and I’ll make sure we do the worst parts of the evaluation first. I will even request that Terry fashion you a figurine so I can do an evaluation of his metalweaving. We only did identification tests today.”

Olivia eyed me. “You’ll make me a new figurine?”

“Perhaps I’ll even make you two small ones,” I replied. Making smaller ones would work better for the evaluation, as they upped the difficulty substantially.

“Fine. I’ll submit to torture after breakfast tomorrow.”

“It won’t be that bad,” Brenda replied with a smile. “But up your calorie count tonight and tomorrow morning. That way, we might finish your session tomorrow. Then we’ll rope Eddie and see if we can get him to sit still for more than five minutes.”

I raised a brow. “Are we literally roping him?”

“That’s usually what it takes to get him to deal with an evaluation,” the evaluator admitted. “Don’t stress over it, Terry. We’d be more worried if we didn’t have to chase that brat all around the ranch on evaluation days.”

TWENTY-FOUR

I did not look forward to the empathy evaluation in the slightest.

When I textedPrincess Melody about the suppressor, she called me, read me the riot act, promised she’d get an order in for two I could keep, one with minimal empathy leaks and one identical to the one I wore. The one I wore would be easy; the manufacturer had their specs ready to go and while expensive, she could have one within a week.

The specialty suppressor would need to be tuned to my empathy, which meant the sort of tests they kept medical staff on hand in case of a misjudgment in tiering the empathy suppressors. As Brenda could handle the tests, I’d be subjected to the testing after Olivia finished her evaluation.

Olivia would be on hand for the test, monitored for reactions, and likely be Brenda’s first warning of trouble on the horizon. As the goal was to ease back from the dangerous point, the first sign of trouble would be the stopping point, and my new suppressors would be set with that level of leak—assuming I could tolerate wearing the set for more than an hour.

I did not look forward to the empathy evaluation in the slightest.

Olivia took her duties as my keeper seriously, and she hovered, counted my calories, and otherwise behaved like she feared I might expire. Her concern would drive me crazy, especially as the suppressor I wore did a poor job of buffering. As I needed to be able to sense her emotions, I resisted the urge to block. Instead, I reminded myself that the situation was what I wanted and had signed up for without reservation.

With a little luck, I wouldn’t be the only one accepting the reality of our bond, which would let me use all the rings burning holes in my pocket along with the ones I would only forge when she could watch me bring every detail to life.

That evening, I gorged on chocolate, cheese, more tacos than sensible, and enough lobster bisque to convince me I held the advantage over my crustacean foes for a rare change. By the time we went to bed, Olivia had relaxed enough we could both sleep.

In the morning, the truth of the situation made itself known.

The evaluation terrified Olivia, and I didn’t understand why. Aware of her fear, I stayed close, promised her that Brenda was kind and gentle even when doing questionable tests involving water and electricity, and made certain we both ate enough to withstand the evaluator’s experiments.

My efforts helped, but only a little.

Aware of why she ran, I made a point of holding Olivia’s hand and escorting her to the arena. “What is scaring you?”

“What if my rank has dropped?”

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