Dee Shull
Jayin heard the words she’d been dreading ever since the most recent storm had blown itself out, the grounds surrounding the Collegium now passable without risking the loss of shoes, and birdsong gone from tentative trills to sweet and enthusiastic warbling.
“I’m bored.”
Flipping her thick, braided red hair off her right shoulder, Kari stared at the pile of papers and books assigned by several of the Healers who’d missed (apparently) that their charges were well and truly done with staying inside, especially on a glorious spring day. The wind through Haven was just cool enough to temper the warmth from the paved city, and the only people truly complaining were the ones with allergies to the grasses in the fields.
Kari continued, “Even the grass is having more fun than we are cooped up in here.”
The class murmured and grumbled in solidarity, but one of the Healers poked his head in at just that moment, grimacing at the sight of students clearly not working.
Before he could say anything, Jayin spoke, “Healer Rendel, we’ve been at this for most of the morning. Transcribing old reports onto fresh paper for the archives certainly does give us some perspective on the things Healers have had to treat over the generations, but surely we could stand a break?”
The man had puffed up like a bladder full of hot air but had deflated as Jayin talked. The students often let her do the talking; hardly any of them had her experience with managing people, and even the ones who did were more skittish than she was.
“Fine. One mark only, and be back here promptly. Some of these ‘old reports’ need to be copied before the ink fades completely, and that means as much daylight as possible to see them.” He ran a hand through stringy brown hair and sighed. “I know it’s a fine spring day out there. Please don’t forget all this?”
“We won’t, I promise.” We might not be back in just one mark, Jayin thought, but I’ll herd these cats as best I can.
At the Healer’s nod, the seven students chosen for this particular task packed everything up carefully before filing out the door into the brilliant spring day. Last out the door, Jayin caught a wistful smile on Healer Rendel’s face and heard him murmur, “Ah, for the energy of youth.”
• • •
Unfortunately, outside was just as boring to Kari as inside. She stalked around the grove of oaks nearest their workroom like a hunting cat, grumping about this and that, how all the Healers were stodgy oldsters with no sense of real adventure or fun, and how even the Heralds were off doing more interesting things than recopying old reports on bunions and gout.
“Y’mean like studying history? Or beating each other with padded sticks?” Erran replied, distaste clear on his face. He was Healer Brone’s protégé and, as far as Jayin was concerned, a right prat. His family were all merchants, specializing in spices and more obscure goods, and they paid for all of Erran’s needs or wants because their favored son happened to be born with the Healing Gift. Brone, who’d almost become dean of the Collegium, and whom Serril had warned her to steer well clear of, had likely picked him because money and Gift together meant more funding for the Healers’ Collegium once Erran finally graduated. He’ll probably get a placement in the city and more than enough sponsors to keep him in the manner he’s already accustomed to.
Jayin sighed. “Kari. You’re a born troublemaker, but what do you consider fun? Climbing trees older than my great-grandfather? I’m sure your five—”
“Six!”
“—six sisters had more than enough ideas to entertain you all, but we’re in Trainee robes, there’s a Healer waiting for us, and if we try and do anything obvious, we will get caught.”
Jord tugged on a blond forelock and shrugged. “Tellin’ stories might be fun.” He was one of Jayin’s closest friends next to Kari, and he had come to her rescue more than once since last autumn when she’d been admitted into the Collegium. She’d learned her letters and math since she was four, but some of the things Healers were supposed to know still made her head spin.
Timms chuckled. “Unless they’re something we’ve never heard before from you, Kari’ll likely go back to whining about how bored she is in less than half the time we have left.” Jayin knew Timms was also favored by Brone, but for the life of her she wasn’t sure why. Plain and unassuming, from a family far out to the west with barely any name or money to speak of, Timms didn’t seem the sort to catch Brone’s attention. The fact that he was more Gifted than Erran probably had something to do with it, but Jayin silently admitted she was cynical about Brone and his motivations.
Kari spun on Jayin. “You’ve barely told us anything about your family, you know. We haven’t even seen you juggle or anything clever like that.”
Ah, here it is. She answered, “You’ve never really asked anything, and assumed the rest.” She dug into a pouch for Zanner’s parting gift before they left with the family: three very well made juggling balls, every family member’s name part of the cloth stitching. It must have taken them weeks to make, even with help. “You want to see me juggle?” She started with basics, two balls back and forth in the air, drawing even Marti and Winna—twins from the east, near Hardorn, both Gifted as well—into the circle around her. To her it was simple enough, but to the rest of her classmates it was a welcome distraction. She added the third ball without missing a beat, and asked, “Is this enough for you?”
Kari, that brat, said, “I heard you used to juggle knives!”
Erran frowned and spun a finger through his fine black hair. “A good way to lose fingers, if so.” He stared suspiciously at Jayin’s hands, which she made sure were on full display.
“Threw, not juggled. Zanner had the better hands for that sort of thing, and even they nicked themself more than once.” She switched to one of her favorite tricks: two balls tossed and caught in one hand, while the other hand held the third and moved it up and down in time with the other two. Marti giggled at that, shyly nudging her twin, and said, “You make it look like nothing special.” Winna nodded, her strawberry brown hair flopping a bit.
“Years and years of practice. You learned a skill, used it for the crowd, kept people interested and amused.” Without missing a beat, Jayin switched back to three balls. “Wasn’t just me and Zanner either. Hallen, my first father, he’s the best juggler I’ve ever seen, and the three of us sometimes had seven or eight balls in the air at once.”
Timms looked at her suspiciously. “Did not.”
“What are you, twelve?” Jayin smirked. “I’d teach you, but you’d need your own balls. I’m not sharing these.” And with that, she captured the three and tucked them back into her pouch. “It’d take months, and Kari over there is about to die of boredom.”
Sure enough, the redhead had watched for a short time, then wandered off when it became clear Jayin wasn’t going to do anything exciting like juggle knives or do handstands. “It’s a beautiful spring day, and we’re going back in like nothing changed. I’m just tired of how everything’s the same, day in and day out. I wish there was something we could do to make things fun around here.”
When Serril questioned her later, Jayin couldn’t answer why she said the next thing. Maybe it was the fact that Kari was right, that the routine of classes and studying and training had become boring once she got used to it. Maybe it was a bit of a desire to show off to her classmates. Or maybe it was her own bit of mischief just sneaking out in front of people she was actually getting to like, warts and all.
“Well, there was that time the family started a prank war . . .”
• • •
The rest of the day was about as boring as Jayin had expected. Copying records until the light faded too much to be useful, then helping clerks put things into their proper places in the archives until dinner, and after food was yet more studying, this time with Jord.
“Forearm.”
Jayin thought for a moment before answering, “Two bones, anchored at the elbow and the wrist. One’s thinner than the other, both are prone to fractures, though.”
Jord nodded. “Any other parts of the body like that?”
“I think the calf in people is like that?” Jayin was pretty sure she got it right, and grinned at Jord’s response.
“Good. Two bones, one much thinner than the other. Thinnest one in the body for its length, too. How do Healers deal with breaks?”
“That’s easy. Gifted Healers, depending on their Gift, can knit the bone ends back together, or at least encourage the bone ends to grow and heal. Healers without a Gift or whose Gift doesn’t work so well on bone can set bones back into place and splint them to limit movement while the bones mend. Healers also know some plants that are good for speeding up healing.” She was about to continue when she heard giggling out in the hall.
Jord heard it too, and his eyebrows went up. “Sounds like something’s up.” He stood, stretching. “Enough studying for the night. You’ve got the bones down, I think.” He smiled slowly. “At least the bare bones.”
Jayin laughed and stood up as well. The giggling was getting louder. “I’m getting there, at least. Getting dropped into the middle of a class wasn’t something I’d planned for. Thanks, Jord. You’re making this lots easier.”
“Friends, right?” Before he could say anything else, someone knocked at the door, still giggling.
Jord opened the door to see Marti and Kari tumble through, shove the door closed, and dive for the space under Jord’s bed. In moments the two of them were hidden from view but not hearing, as they kept giggling. Kari was what her parents would have called “sturdy” but Marti was thin as a reed, which somehow made it work.
Oh, no, Jayin thought.
Moments later, they heard a familiar if unwelcome voice yelling down the hall, “If I catch whoever stuffed my closet with balls of yarn, they’ll regret being born!”
Jord said, very quietly, “Catla’s going to knock on every single door, isn’t she?”
Jayin answered, just as quietly, “Probably.” Then, a bit more loudly, “It’s a good thing we’re the only ones in here, studying quietly.” The two under Jord’s bed got the hint and managed to quiet down while she and Jord went back to where they were sitting, Jord on his bed and Jayin in the chair across from him. They were barely seated when someone pounded at Jord’s door, yelling “Open up!”
Jayin rolled her eyes before opening the door, and saw Catla in the fanciest dressing gown she’d ever laid eyes on, black hair loosely streaming down from the remnants of braids, the teen visibly red and fuming. “You! Where have you been all night?”
Calmly Jayin replied, “Studying with Jord, who’s right over there. What’s wrong?”
Catla stormed in past Jayin, staring suspiciously around the room. Jayin had to smother a laugh because stuck to the back of Catla’s head where she couldn’t see it was a small ball of very soft, very light white chirra wool yarn.
“Someone thought it would be just the pinnacle of humor to stuff my closet with balls of yarn,” Catla sniffed, staring suspiciously at Jord.
“Well, I’ve been studying bones with Jord, so it wasn’t us.”
“Oh, right. You joined the Collegium last fall, didn’t you? I suppose a circus brat like you wouldn’t be able to do proper studying.” Catla looked around and, seeing nothing incriminating, swanned out the door without even a goodbye.
After carefully closing the door, Jayin counted to ten, and ten again, before saying, “You two. Give her half a mark to get to the other end of the dorms, then you’re out of here with nobody the wiser.”
From under Jord’s bed, she heard, “She’s a nasty bitch and she deserved it.”
“Be that as it may,” Jord drawled, “she’ll get you expelled if she figures out it was you. Better come up with an alibi.”
• • •
Nearly every day after that, Jayin heard stories of pranks being pulled against anyone and everyone. The first several days were small, mostly harmless things: coins glued to the pavement where people would try to pick them up, fresh laundry turned inside out right before being delivered, clothing stays (or bootlaces) tied together, and the like.
Then the pranks spread outside the Healers. One afternoon a Bard Trainee known to be fond of long baths ran naked and screaming from a private bathing room, followed by an impressive wall of pink bubbles that lasted just long enough for people to see him tear around a corner and nearly slam into a Herald who had come into the hall to see what the fuss was. One of the advanced history classes found their inkwells filled with honey instead of ink. (Jayin shuddered at the thought of the cost.) Buckets of water carefully balanced on open doorways were a trend for about half a day, until everyone learned to look up before pushing a door open.
The one that really stuck out to Jayin was the story of how a trio of people had managed to take a Herald’s favorite chair from her office and leave a cunning set of clues and directions to force said Herald into a scavenger hunt for her chair. It would have worked better if the pranksters had picked a different target; apparently the Herald just asked her Companion, who asked the other Companions, and she found the chair so fast the pranksters were caught red-handed.
In that first week, the pranks were still benign. Harmless fun, or so the teachers said when anyone asked why they weren’t interfering. Jayin was fairly sure some of the adults had gotten in on the pranks, given the increase in sophistication. After all, balls of yarn stuffed into a closet only really required access to a supply room. But someone or several someones had to have looked the other way when a trio of pranksters wandered through the Collegia with a very nice stuffed chair.
Six days after telling her friends about the Avelard Family Prank War, Jayin wondered when she’d be targeted. She’d been very careful to not actually prank anyone, knowing that fingers would end up pointed back at her. Catla had only been the first to accuse Jayin. But each time she had a solid alibi or couldn’t have possibly been involved.
But on the seventh day, she—along with a classroom of other students—got pranked.
• • •
Jayin was nearly late to her anatomy class. Today was a demonstration day, and Healer Neena expected everyone to participate. She’d promised to pull out the training dummies: soft, poseable mannequins with a solid internal structure and numerous diagrams all across them. Even when Jayin struggled with names for the parts of the body, Neena had been very helpful, pointing out the relevant part on one or both of the dummies.
What Jayin wasn’t prepared for was the sounds of outrage, embarrassment, and hilarity coming from the classroom ahead of her. Frowning, she slowed to a walk. Oh, no. No no no. I hope whoever didn’t do what I think they did.
But as Jayin turned into the room, the pranksters had indeed done what she feared. Both of the dummies were posed on desks at the front of the classroom in a position that Jayin could only think of as “compromising.”
She wasn’t a stranger to the idea of the things people could get up to in bed, even though she hadn’t found anyone to experiment with. Ronnet and Ella had made sure she knew how all that worked, along with teaching her ways to, ahem, deflate even the most insistent individual. But she hadn’t expected to see the dummies demonstrating at least one of the ideas that made her blush.
So far, it was only students in the room. None were sitting, some were pointedly not looking at the dummies, while others were gathered in a very loose circle more than an arm’s-length from the salaciously positioned mannequins. Like if they got any closer, they’d suddenly be involved, Jayin had a chance to think before Healer Neena came into the room.
Everyone froze. Only Jayin was in a position to see the wicked gleam in Neena’s eyes before she went up to her desk and faced her students. The Healer looked out across the room with clear blue eyes, smoothed back her short blonde hair, and said, “Seats, everyone.” It was at that moment that Jayin realized in horror that one of the desks in use by the mannequins was hers.
“Ah, Healer Neena—?” Jayin started.
“Jayin, Kimmen, you may move your chairs to another desk, if anyone will share with you.” Jord scooted sideways and Jayin grabbed her chair and moved it as quickly as she could. A deep sense of foreboding settled on her as she watched Kari, face red as her hair, make room for Kimmen.
“Now, class, it seems we have an interesting opportunity here.”
Dead silence.
“I’d originally planned to wait on this lecture until a bit later in the season, but it is spring, and the thoughts of many people turn to, shall we say, more intimate activities.”
Jayin was certain nobody was breathing.
“As our mannequins are demonstrating, such activities are anatomically feasible, though here’s where I’m going to ask each and every one of you to come up here and comment on the positioning.”
Oh, no, Jayin thought.
Brightly, Neena said, “Jayin? Would you mind being first?”
“Ah, yes, Healer Neena.” She tried to put on her best Avelard face, sure as anything she was blushing redder than Kari, and looked over the mannequins. “Well, I think if the bottom one had a pillow or two, the position would probably be more comfortable.”
“And where would you position the pillow or pillows for maximum comfort? Considering the general shape of the body involved.”
“Under the head and neck at least. Under the hips too, I think, or at the curve of the spine.” This is worse than performing for that one audience that just wouldn’t laugh.
Neena beamed. “An excellent suggestion. Hard surfaces can cause discomfort in a person in a prone position, and proper support for the neck and back would alleviate much of that discomfort. In the absence of pillows, nicely folded blankets would do.” The Healer sounded as if she knew exactly what she was talking about. “Thank you, Jayin. Kari? You’re next.”
And so the class went, with each student being called up to the front and Neena treating the entire situation as just another exercise. When called, Jord walked up, looked consideringly at the mannequins, then deftly reached in and adjusted their positioning a bit before stepping back and nodding. Winna managed to mutter something about the woman mannequin being on top and how she hadn’t imagined such a thing. Kimmen couldn’t say anything, just pointed at the mannequins partly on his desk and flailed a bit.
By the end, Neena took pity on almost everyone and let them go early.
“Trainee Jayin? Would you stay back for a few moments, please?”
Jayin nodded, and watched everyone else practically run out of the room. I’m about to get expelled for something I didn’t do. I hope Serril doesn’t mind me living under his roof until the family comes back.
Neena watched carefully as she asked, “Did you do this?”
“Gods no!”
“And you didn’t put anyone up to it?”
“I have no idea who would have.”
“I’m inclined to believe you,” Neena said, “but aside from Jord, your suggestions were the most thoughtful.”
“Why not ask him to stay too?”
“Because I know he did it, or at least was involved in the set up. On my request.”
Jayin felt her jaw drop. Neena grinned and winked.
“But-but-but.” Jord was a beanpole, he’d absolutely have needed help to move the mannequins into position.
“Oh, don’t mind me, I’ve wanted to pull this particular joke for years now, but any other year it would have been out of nowhere, too much of a shock. In the middle of everyone pranking each other, though? It seemed a perfect time to do something like this. Jord did say you’d both mentioned a prank war and done no pranks yourself.” She sighed. “And honestly, everyone in the class is old enough to be experimenting one way or another, so why not give them the chance to learn good habits? Or at least learn how not to do certain things.”
“I’m . . . not in trouble?” Jayin felt her mind spinning like a top. Jord set all this up. Her friend, with a wicked and understated sense of humor, who’d helped her learn anatomy, set all this up. Well, now I get to tease him about knowing anatomy so well.
“No! Not at all.” Neena smiled. “I’ll tell everyone that you’re innocent, make sure you don’t get into trouble. Some people surely will talk, but we can’t help that. As I’m sure you know.”
• • •
Of course, it wasn’t nearly as simple as that. Over the next few days, several students found opportunities to congratulate Jayin in private on her prank. She’d have liked to deny responsibility, but she knew from experience that never worked. Each time, she agreed it was a rather clever prank and dodged the questions about how she’d done it. Jord, for his part, just laughed about the whole thing the next time she managed to catch him in a quiet moment. “Shame we didn’t have more dummies. That’d have been even better.”
As if the events at the anatomy class had opened the floodgates, suddenly the Collegia was awash in practical jokes. More Trainees, including a startling large number from Bardic and the Heralds, were affecting innocent expressions as hapless individuals fell victim to a variety of pranks. Some clever person—Jayin suspected an Artificer—had discovered a way to make ink fade as it dried, and a poor Bardic instructor was forced to cancel a music writing exam within minutes. Another classroom found all their tables flipped and carefully balanced on chairs—including the instructor’s desk. Overnight, the doors along one dormitory hall sprouted painted pasteboard jester heads from a jester’s bauble. Someone took that idea and ran with it, painting eyes in locations clearly intended to surprise people coming around corners. And someone managed to switch the forks for spoons and in reverse one evening in the refectory, right before the dinner rush.
It was all enough to make Jayin sigh, especially when people started trying to involve her in their pranks. She knew things had escalated to the point where the instructors were watching the Trainees more carefully, and it was only a matter of time before someone tried something more likely to cause harm. Besides, as she wrote to the Avelards in her monthly letter, most of the pranks were, well, simple. If she was going to participate, she’d want to come up with something even more clever than disappearing ink or amusingly positioned training mannequins.
• • •
Jayin puttered around her room late one night. She knew she needed to actually go to bed and try for sleep, but the past couple of weeks had set her somewhat on edge. While nobody had actually done anything drastic to a student’s room, she figured it was only a matter of time. And her usual strategies for blocking the door didn’t seem terribly safe in case someone either set a fire or pretended to set one.
She was on the verge of piling blankets and pillow in front of her door when she heard quietly insistent knocking start. “Who is it?” she called, braced for someone to tell her that her nose was running or something similarly absurd.
“Just let me in Jayin before anyone sees me,” Kari whimpered.
She opened the door enough to let her friend in, and shut it quietly after. It looked as though Kari had just come from the baths, with a fluffy towel wrapped around her head and a linen robe for modesty. She’d clearly been crying, and at first Jayin couldn’t see any reason why. At least, until Kari pulled the towel off of her head and shockingly green hair came spilling down.
Quietly, she wailed, “I was just using the shampoo like I usually do, and everything seemed fine until all of a sudden I saw my hair!”
Jayin blinked. The shade itself wasn’t horrid; it actually went decently well with Kari’s complexion. But she was overly proud of having red hair, and the sudden change of color was likely to cause some distress until she got used to it.
“Help me cut it off, it’ll grow back the right color right?”
Or she’ll think of the most extreme solution possible, Jayin sighed to herself. “Look, if you think having green hair will make you stand out, having no hair at all is going to be loads worse. How long did it take you to get your hair this long?”
“Years!”
“So you’d be stuck growing it out again for years, instead of waiting a few weeks for the dye to fade.”
Kari sniffled. “You really think it’s only going to be weeks?”
Jayin nodded. “We used hair dyes in the family for shows often enough. Even the extreme colors fade after several washings. You just need to make sure you’re using shampoo you trust. Mine’s probably safe for you, but I know someone in Haven who makes really good soaps. Bren’s a friend of a friend, and I know I’ve got enough money saved to where we can visit the shop and get you set.”
Kari plonked down on Jayin’s bed, crying.
“Stay here tonight, we’ll work out a story, make it easier on you tomorrow. And tomorrow evening, between classes and dinner, we’ll take a trip, okay?”
Kari nodded, sniffling. “I’ve some coin I’d been saving for a treat for myself, too.”
“And Bren will help you figure things out.” Thank Havens Zanner introduced me to Bren. “Though you may end up leaving with more than you intended!”
And in fact, the next day Bren was very helpful, both in identifying what had likely been added to the shampoo as well as selling Kari a product that would gently but completely remove the green. The Trainees ended up missing dinner at the refectory thanks to Kari’s sudden need for more soap and perfume, and Jayin and Bren exchanged Zanner stories while Kari shopped. The three of them ended up sharing a meal together at a nearby inn; by this point Kari had grown used to her newly green hair, and even talked a little bit about possibly trying for green hair again at some point. Bren joked that Kari might want to be careful about not spending all of her coin at Scents and Wonders. Kari teased in return that maybe she should get a commission for how many people she’d be sending to Bren’s shop.
By the time Jayin and Kari headed back to the dorms, the girl was decidedly in better spirits. On the other hand, Jayin found herself fretting more than a bit, because the pranks were getting more personal. It was likely random chance that Kari was affected by that particular prank, but she couldn’t be sure. As far as she was concerned, pranks that did nobody any harm were fine. But if Kari hadn’t gone to Jayin, the girl might have cut off her hair.
By the time Jayin had settled in for the night, she resolved to keep her eyes and ears open for someone plotting a worse prank.
• • •
Of course, when the final prank happened, Jayin was nowhere nearby. Serril had offered her the opportunity to go with him and Herald Kerina while they ran errands and then had a picnic. She’d agreed with alacrity, wanting nothing more than to be away from the Collegia for most of a day. Plus, it seemed as though they intended her to play the part of chaperone, making sure the two adults behaved themselves. Well, she certainly made sure they had plenty of opportunities to “behave” themselves; by the end of the outing the two were giggling quite a bit and holding hands. Jayin excused herself with a grin, waving the two off while she headed toward the dorms.
Her grin faded as she saw clusters of students and instructors clearly searching the grounds, calling out to each other that no, they still hadn’t found number three, and yes, they were still looking. Jayin found herself even more grateful that she’d been gone all day in the company of reputable adults. She paused, unsure of what she should do next. Luckily for her, Serril and Kerina came trotting back toward her with serious expressions on their faces.
Serril started, “We’ve been drafted and we’re bringing you along. Someone set four goats loose inside the main classroom building, they’ve caught three and are looking for the fourth.”
Jayin said the first thing that popped into her head. “How do you know there were four goats?”
Kerina paused, looked first at Serril and then at Jayin. “That’s an excellent question. The very harried Bard organizing the outside search said there were four. So I’m thinking we should probably check the source, yes?”
Jayin nodded. “This wasn’t me, and I don’t know who it might be. But there’s got to be a reason they think there are four goats, right?”
Serril smiled lopsidedly. “And without you we’d likely have made the same assumption. Come on. I’m sure Ostel’s in the midst of this somewhere. We’ll ask him and get to the bottom of this wild goat chase.”
The Dean was in his office, coordinating the hunt, and looking like a man who wished he was anywhere else. “Serril, Herald Kerina, Trainee Jayin. Why are you not out looking for the last goat?”
Serril said, “My Trainee asked a rather useful question. How do you know there are four goats?”
Ostel paused, then sat down heavily in his chair. “We caught three of them, and each had a numbered cloth around its neck. The kind you usually see in goat herds, the better to track them and make sure you’ve gathered them all. The cloths said one, two, and four.” He put his face into his hands for a moment, then looked up. “We’ve been fooled, haven’t we?”
Kerina looked to Jayin. “You were with us all day, and you told us you weren’t involved in this. Why did you ask about the number of goats?”
Jayin shrugged, uncomfortable in a room with the Dean of the Healer’s Collegium watching her rather intently. “I heard stories, while I was traveling with my family. Practical jokes involving pigs or goats, mostly. Animals you’d have trouble catching, so it’d be easy to assume you missed one.”
Ostel raised an eyebrow, a feat Jayin desperately wished she could copy. “From everything I’ve heard, you’ve not been involved in any of the pranks here. I trust Serril as I trust few others, and I’ll admit I wondered if he’d made a mistake with you when all this started. I’m very glad to be proven wrong, and I owe you both an apology.” He sighed as he stood up. “I’ll go and start rounding up the students and faculty. We know who the culprit is, but we hadn’t gotten around to questioning him. Herald Kerina, may I prevail upon you to use Truth Spell on our guilty party?”
At her nod, Ostel started toward the door, only to turn around and say, “Serril, Trainee Jayin? Please stay here. You’re not in trouble, but no sense in adding to the turmoil, especially because one of your classmates, Trainee Erran, is our culprit. Brone’s been in an apoplectic fury ever since that came out.”
As soon as the others left, Serril whistled. “Now I’m doubly glad you were with us today.” He paused, and added, “Even though you did nearly everything in your power to throw the two of us together without your supervision.” He winked at Jayin, who sighed in fond exasperation at her mentor.
• • •
The day after the goat hunt, all the students and staff were called into the refectory, as it was the only place big enough for everyone in the Collegia. The deans announced that there would be no more pranks, and that anyone found responsible would suffer the gravest of consequences. Ostel stepped forward at that point, and explained that Trainee Erran would be made to care for the three goats for a full year as penalty both for letting them loose in the halls and for the damage they’d done. Unspoken was the part where nearly everyone in the Collegia had wasted marks searching for a nonexistent goat. Jayin quickly looked around, but Brone was nowhere to be seen—a surprise, given Erran’s actions, but she guessed the Healer had dropped his Trainee like a hot coal.
And then Herald-Captain Kerowyn stepped forward and suggested with a steely glare that all of the Trainees might want to find themselves something to do for the rest of the day, so as to keep out of trouble.
So Jayin found herself outside in that very same oak grove where everything had started, with Jord, Kari (who’d decided to keep her green hair “for a while”), Timms, Marti, and Winna. Jayin juggled, reflecting that not even three weeks had passed in a haze of pranks, chaos, and vigilance. The others watched for a time, then spent some of it recounting the pranks they’d pulled or seen pulled, some of which surprised Jayin. Timms had conspired with the refectory workers on switching the forks and spoons, while Winna shyly admitted she’d been responsible for the jester heads, with the rest of their group expressing appreciation at their antics.
They then moved on to speculating what made Erran pull that final prank, since none of them had been able to talk with him since he’d been caught. The goats had been bought from a herder just outside Haven, who had confirmed there were only three, and who had let the coin overwhelm his common sense. Timms speculated Erran couldn’t have known how destructive goats could be, given his upbringing. Jord simply shrugged and blamed it on a need to outdo everyone else.
But soon silence fell, and the only sounds in the grove were the wind through the treetops and the steady pat-pat-pat of the balls falling into and leaving Jayin’s hands. Jayin looked at her friends and smiled. They’d been through some very interesting times these past few weeks, and she was glad of their company.
Which lasted until Kari said, “I’m bored.”