“Pleased to meet you,” I said bowing to Mara and wondering whose side he was—
I noticed as Mara turned fully away from the fireplace and stood to face me, looking as though I might lash out at any second. Because Mara was not a “he”. In spite of the close-cropped hair and a slightly blocky body, Mara was definitely a “she”.
That was made even more obvious when she reached out to take the hand I’d just offered to shake it. Her hands were smooth with long, tapered fingers.
“Welcome to Royersford, Conrad,” she said, giving away her femininity even more with her voice. She spoke quietly, and again, I had the feeling she was worried I would take offense at her.
Instead, I smiled. “I’m glad to be here,” I said, shaking her hand as though she were just another one of the boys. Instinct told me that was what she would want. Well, instinct and two years of knowing Ox.
Although Mara wasn’t actually a thing like Ox, in spite of being a woman. Every time I’d been around Ox, I had the feeling she’d forgotten entirely that she was female. Mara was definitely a woman. I couldn’t explain the different feel she gave me, but she was. Even with her hair and the fact that she was dressed exactly the same as the rest of us.
Magister Titus’s words flew back to me then. Women weren’t allowed into the healer’s courseper se. Mara must have been the per se. It also dawned on me with what Wat had said during out travels that the Old Realm might just have been so desperate for healers now that they were allowing women into the course.
Per se.
“You’re from Yacovissi,” Mara said as she went back to checking the kettle.
My brow inched up. “You’ve heard of it?”
She shrugged. “You said in class earlier, when you introduced yourself.”
I winced and flushed, no idea why Mara flustered me so much. “Have you ever been to the frontier?”
Mara shook her head. “No. Why would anyone want to go there?” There was something…off about the way she spoke.
“Why indeed?” Leander asked, coming back into the room from my bedroom. He swept an arm around my waist and whisked me over to the couch, then sat, dragging me down to wedge me between him and Darius.
“The frontier has much to offer,” Lucius said from the seat he’d taken at the table, where several books were spread out, like he’d been studying.
For half a second, I thought he was complimenting the frontier. Then I realized he was just taking the opposite of whatever stance Leander took.
That became evident when Leander said, “That’s what I mean.” He grinned as if he’d caught Lucius out on purpose and said, “I was asking for all the reasons people might want to travel to the frontier. So, whywouldpeople want to go to the frontier?” he asked me, resting his arm around my shoulder.
I gaped, glancing between Leander and Darius, a little stunned that they seemed to actually want to know.
“Um, well, I guess….” I squirmed a bit, scrambling for something to say.
Even Lucius and Mara were watching me now, as Mara walked over to the table with a cup of tea that she placed in front of Lucius, though not with excessive fondness.
Like I’d decided with Leander and Darius earlier, I told the truth the way I saw it. I was going to be living in close quarters with these people for a year, after all.
“The frontier is actually a very exciting place to live right now,” I said. I chose my words carefully as I continued with, “The influence from here, from King Julius, has diminished to almost nothing. The frontier considers itself independent now.”
“I told you,” Darius said to Leander with a sly look, like he’d won a bet.
“I never denied that the frontier was done with the kingdom,” Leander said.
Darius laughed. “You’ve been talking about ‘the errant frontier’ since we showed up here last week and found out we’d have a housemate from the other side of the mountains.”
My brow flew up. They’d all known I was coming and where I was coming from?
But of course they would have. And of course they would have talked about it. Lucius had probably known who I was from the moment I opened my mouth at the desk that morning. He’d been a pill to me on purpose, without even knowing me.
That didn’t improve my first feelings about him at all.
“What do people here in the Old Realm—that is, the kingdom—think about the frontier?” I asked, figuring it couldn’t hurt to get a little information before I started spouting things about my home that I shouldn’t have.
Darius and Leander seemed to know why I’d asked.