Page 24 of Bull Moon Rising
Gwenna pinches my leg, leaning over. “What’s a repeater?”
“He just said. Someone who fails out—”
“Yes, but what do they do? What tasks is he talking about?”
I think for a moment, trying to recall what I read in the pamphlets and books about the guild. “There are guards, and each house has an assigned nestmaid who takes care of the food and laundry—”
“Wait, so if I fail, I become a maid again, except this time I don’t get paid? Aspeth! What in all the mucking hells—”
At my other side, Kipp the slitherskin hisses loudly. We both turn to him and he glares sternly at us, putting a finger to his mouth to indicate silence. Then…he licks his eyeball.
Right. I put a finger to my lips and give Gwenna a meaningful look. “You’re not going to be a repeater,” I promise her. “We’re going to pass.”
She growls at me.Growls.I’m guessing she’s not going to want a hug after this. It’s a shame, because I’m so excited to be here that I want to hug everyone. Even Rooster, if he came close enough. Commoners hug, don’t they? Surely it wouldn’t be too out of line.
I continue smiling as Rooster drones on about guild history and the Mancer Wars, and how the guild was established by the king three hundred years ago. I know all this, so I focus on my teammates instead. Lark’s head bobs, her eyes closed as if she’s at prayers. She looks truly focused, and I’m so delighted to see that…until she leans too far forward and snores. At her side, Mereden the priestess nudges her, the look on her face studiously polite. She stares ahead, her gaze focused intently on Rooster at his podium.
My gaze slides past them to the next row, where a male fledgling about my age is looking over at us. Our eyes meet, and then he makes an obscene gesture at me with his tongue. Flustered, I look away. Good gods.
“As your teachers and mentors, the guild masters expect three things from each fledgling,” Rooster continues. “Curiosity. Eagerness. Honesty. Let me tell you a little bit about each one and why it matters.”
Gwenna leans toward me again. “Do you think he’s going to go on for much longer?”
I bite back a grimace, because I truly don’t know. Already he’s been up there for quite some time. The people on the benches in front of usare drooping, and I suspect more than one is nodding off, just as Lark was. “Possibly? He hasn’t touched on the guild handbook yet.”
She groans quietly. “How is it that he’s making grave robbing sound so boring?”
I shoot her a frown. “It’s not grave robbing, Gwenna!”
“Call it what you like.” Gwenna shrugs, and then lifts her chin, indicating something across the aisle. “Think we’ll have to deal with a lot of that here?”
A quick look finds yet another man, this one younger, making lewd licking motions with his tongue and aiming his attention at Mereden, who is steadfastly ignoring him.
“Goddess, I hope not,” I mutter. Here I’d thought that once we were let in as fledglings, we’d be seen as just a few more guild recruits.
Perhaps I’ve been far too optimistic.
HAWK
“Youmarriedher?”
At the back of the main guild hall, Raptor looks at me as if I’ve grown another head. I understand. It’s an absolutely insane move for me to make. I’m still not entirely sure why I did it. Probably thinking with my little head. I pretend to keep my focus on my fledglings, several rows ahead at the front of the hall. They’re sitting with nineteen other guild teams, waiting to be initiated. “We needed a full team. And I need a partner for the Conquest Moon.”
“But…her? The bossy one?” He stomps his hooves in agitation, idly watching the ceremony. “I thought you couldn’t stand her.”
“I needed students. She needs a chaperone. We’ll go our separate ways after this if we need to, get the marriage annulled. I don’t know why it’s a big deal.”
He looks over at me with that “are you insane” expression again. “You’re joking, right? No one’s going to grant you an annulment after it’s very clear that you rutted her. And if you have to marry a human, whythatone? No one takes her seriously. No one takes us seriously,either. Any reputation you had left is going to be shredded by that woman clinging to your arm. Did Magpie talk you into this?”
I scoff. “No.”
But it’s true that Magpie takes in all kinds that don’t pass. There have been women who showed up on recruitment day but didn’t last a week. Most didn’t make it through the training, either from harassment from the male fledglings or simply because the job itself is too dangerous and unpleasant. Magpie is a sucker for a female student, but the truth is that most can’t hack it like she does. Or did. The current Magpie wouldn’t get ten steps underground without sucking on a bottle of liquor.
“Bad, bad idea, my friend” is all Raptor says, arms crossed.
I know it’s a bad idea. I don’t need him weighing in on it. I ignore his headshake of disappointment, pretending interest as Master Finch brings his five chosen fledglings to the front of the room so they can be inducted into the book of names. The five names are recorded at the beginning of the year, and when the students graduate, those names are crossed out and replaced with their chosen guild names. It’s all very pompous and self-congratulatory, but that might be the Taurian side of me speaking. We hate fuss. Finch guides his students to the book of names and watches as they sign it. My students are toward the back of the hall, in one of the last rows, so I’m hoping things are cleared out before I have to go up there with them.
It should be Magpie doing that, but she hasn’t yet appeared. She swore she’d dress and show up in time for the ceremony, but we’ve been here for hours now and there’s no sign of her. Something tells me that she headed for the nearest bar instead, and I tamp down my feelings of frustration. She’ll show up. She has to.