CURSOR'S FURY

She answered his smile with her own, wide enough to show her sharply pointed canines. “Well. That’s cleared up. Now be a dear for me, Subtribune, and light this campfire? ‘

Tavi felt his smile falter for a second. “Beg pardon?”

“The campfire,” Lady Antillus said, as though speaking to the village idiot. “I think an herbal tea would be nice for all of us to enjoy if Maximus is up and about. You’ve had your basic furycrafting. I’ve seen your record. So, Subtribune Scipio. Light the campfire.”

“Mother, I’ll get it for-” Crassus began.

She flicked her hand in a slicing gesture, and her smile grew wider. “No, darling. After all, we are Legion, are we not? I have given dear Scipio a lawful order. Now, he must follow it. Just like all the rest of us.”

“Light the fire?” Tavi asked.

“Just a little firecrafting,” she said, nodding. “Go ahead, Subtribune.”

Tavi squinted at her, then up at the sun and chewed on his lip. Til be honest with you, Your Grace. Fire isn’t my best subject. I haven’t practiced it since my tests.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself so short, Scipio,” Lady Antillus said. “It isn’t as though you’re some kind of freak with no crafting at all.”

Tavi made himself smile as naturally as he knew how. “Of course not. But it might take me a moment.”

“Oh,” she said, gathering her skirts and stepping away from the campfire, laid but not lit, before the infirmary tent. “I’ll give you a bit of room, then.”

“Thank you,” Tavi said. He went over to the fire, squatted, and drew his knife. He took one of the more slender sticks lying in an upright tent-shaped stack, and struck a small mound of shavings from it in rapid order.

Tavi glanced up to find Lady Antillus watching from ten feet away. “Don’t let me distract you,” she said.

Tavi smiled at her. Then he rubbed his hands on his thighs and stretched them out over the tinder, narrowing his eyes.

Behind him, Max emerged from the tent and walked toward them, his steps growing louder. “Oh,” he drawled, his voice still a bit weak. “Hullo, stepmother. What are you doing? ‘

“Watching your friend Scipio demonstrate his firecrafting skills, Maximus,” she said, smiling. “Don’t spoil it by helping. He’ll miss the chance to prove himself.”

Max’s steps faltered for a second, but he kept walking. “You can’t take his basic fieldcraft on faith?”

Lady Antillus sounded like she was almost laughing. “I’m sorry, darling. Sometimes I just need to have my trust in others vindicated.”

“Scipio…” Max said, lowering his voice.

“Leave off, Max,” Tavi growled. “Can’t you see I’m concentrating, here?”

There was a brief silence in which Tavi’s imagination provided him with an image of Max staring openmouthed at his back. Then he set his shoulders, let out a quiet grunt of effort, and a wisp of smoke curled up from the tinder.

Tavi leaned over and blew gently on the spark, feeding it more shavings, then small pieces, then larger ones, until the fire was going strong and set to the prepared sticks of the campfire. They took in short order, and Tavi brushed off his pants, rising.

Lady Antillus stared at him, with her smug smile frozen stiffly upon her lips.

Tavi smiled at her again and bowed. “I’ll fetch water for the tea, Your Grace.”

“No,” she said, her voice a little too clear and sharp and polite. “That’s all right. I’ve just remembered another obligation. And Crassus must return to his cohort. “

“But-” Crassus began.

“Now,” Lady Antillus said. She dismissed Max with a glance and shot Tavi a spiteful glare.

Tavi dropped the false smile he’d been wearing. Suddenly, he found the memory of Max’s pale face, the water pink with his blood, growing in his mind. In the space of a breath, it became painfully sharp and clear. A breath later, Tavi recalled with sickening clarity the cruel, vivid scars that crisscrossed his friend’s back-the marks of a many-tongued lash barbed with bits of metal or glass. To leave such vicious scars, the injuries had to have been inflicted on him before Max had come into the power of his furies, when he was twelve years old. Or younger.

And Lady Antillus-and her son-had been responsible for it.

Tavi found himself pla

The young Knight had little experience, and it was the only thing that would have let him react in time to save his life. A sharp blow to the throat, a gouge to the eyes and the young lord would be in too much pain to defend himself effectively. Tavi could take a length of wood from the newly lit fire, a rather symbolic statement, he thought, and finish Crassus off with a sharp blow to his unarmored temple.

And suddenly Tavi froze.

The rage he felt fled, and instead he felt, sickened, as if the cold di

Tavi frowned down at his hands. They had started shaking a little, and he wrestled with the bloodthirsty thoughts that had risen up in him, pushing them away. He had actually done violence to other people, classmates at the Academy who had been bullying him at the worst possible time. Tavi had hurt them, and badly, because he’d had little choice in the matter. He had felt sick afterward. Though he had seen the ugly aftermath of that kind of violence, he was nonetheless capable of pla

More frightening still, he was all but certain he could actually do it.

But whether or not Max’s injuries were their doing, regardless how burning hot the rage Tavi felt in his belly, murdering Lady Antillus and her son would not wipe Max’s wounds away-to say nothing of the consequences that would fall on Tavi, and upon the First Lord, by reflection.

She was not the kind of foe one could simply assault and do away with. She would have to be overcome by other means-and if what Magnus said was true, Lady Antillus was a dangerous opponent.

Tavi smiled faintly to himself. He could be dangerous as well. There were more weapons in the world than furies and blades, and no foe was invincible. After all, he had just turned her trap back upon her rather neatly. And if he had outwitted her once, he could do it again.

Lady Antillus watched his face as the thoughts flowed through his head, and seemed hardly to know how to react to Tavi’s changing expression. A flash of unease went through her eyes. Perhaps, in his anger, he had let too much of his emotions slip free of his control. It was possible she had sensed his desire to do her harm.

She took her son’s arm and turned without a further word, walking away with regal poise. She didn’t look over her shoulder.

Max rubbed a hand through his short hair, then said, “All right. What the crows was that all about?”

Tavi frowned at the retreating High Lady, then at Max. “Oh. She thought I was someone you knew at the Academy.”

Max grunted. Then he flicked his hand, and Tavi felt a tightness against his ears. “There,” Max rumbled. “She can’t possibly overhear us.”

Tavi nodded.

“You lied to her,” Max said. “Right to her face. How the hell did you manage that?”

“Practice,” Tavi said. “My aunt Isana is a strong watercrafter, so I was motivated to figure it out as a child.”

“There aren’t many who can do something like that, Calderon.” Max gestured at the fire. “How the crows did you do that? You been holding out on me?”

Tavi smiled. Then he reached down to his trousers and drew out a rounded lens of glass from his pants pocket and turned his palm enough to show it to Max. “Nice, su

Max looked down at the glass and made a small choking sound. Then he shook his head. “Crows.” Max’s face turned pink, and his shoulders shook with restrained mirth. “She was listening for your fury. And she never heard it. But you got the fire anyway. She’ll never think of…” This time he did burst out into the rolling laughter Tavi was familiar with.

“Come on, Scipio,” Max said. “Let’s find something to eat before I fall down.”

Tavi put the glass away and grunted. “Last meal for me. Gracchus is going to have me knee deep in latrines as soon as he finds out I’m not sitting up with you anymore.”

“That’s the glamorous officer life for you,” Max said. He turned to swagger toward the mess, but his balance swayed.

Tavi was beside his friend in an instant, providing support without actually reaching out for him. “Whoah. Easy there, Max. You had a close call.”

“I’ll be all right.” Max panted. Then he shook his head, regained his balance, and resumed walking. “I’ll be fine.”

“You will be,” Tavi said, nodding. After a moment, he added more quietly, “She isn’t smarter than everyone, Max. She can be beaten.”

Max glanced aside at Tavi, head tilted, studying him.

“Well, crows,” he said at last. “If you can do it, how hard can it be?”

“I’ve got to stop encouraging you.” Tavi sighed. “But I’ll watch your back. We’ll figure something out.”

They walked a few more paces before Max said, quietly, “Or maybe she’ll just kill both of us. ‘

Tavi snorted. “I’ll handle her by myself if you aren’t up to it.”

Max’s eyebrows shot up. Then he shook his head, and his fists slammed gently down on the pauldrons of Tavi’s armor, making the steel ring out a gentle tone. “You’d never let me live that down,” he said.

“Bloody right I wouldn’t,” Tavi said. “Come on. Let’s eat.” He walked steadily beside his friend, ready if Max’s balance should waver again.

Tavi shivered, and in the corner of his eye caught Lady Antillus watching them cross the camp, never quite openly staring at them. It was the steady, calm, cautious stare of a hungry cat-but he could feel that this time, rather than tracking Maximus, her dark, calculating eyes were all for him.