I was trapped.
Chapter Four
“Hello, freshie.” Broward gave me an ugly smile as he stepped forward. He curled one beefy hand into a fist, his knuckles popping menacingly.
“Leave me alone.” I took a step back. “How did you even find me?”
One of the other cadets, who had bulging green eyes and red hair answered. “We couldn’t get your room address from ole’ Kinky Hinky but we did manage to find out your dorm building.”
“And what do you know?” Broward grinned. “We’re neighbors, freshie. My room in on the floor right below yours. Isn’t that sweet?”
“I didn’t do anything to you,” I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling. “I wasn’t watching you and the headmaster on purpose—I swear it. I just happened to be in his office and I heard your voices so I went to take a look. That’s all.”
“What happened with the headmaster?” The red-haired cadet frowned and looked at Broward. “What’s he talking about, Broward?”
“Shut up, Nodes,” Broward growled, his face turning a dull scarlet. “Freshie here doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“You said he just lectured you,” the other boy, who seemed to have some kind of chronic skin condition, said. “You said—”
“Never mind what I said, Dawson. Just shut up.”
I suddenly understood that his friends didn’t know about the paddling—I had just made things about a million times worse for myself. And now Broward was coming for me.
How I wished in that moment that Kristopher’s physical education tutor had allowed me to take the hand-to-hand combat courses along with my brother. But though he had agreed to the fencing lessons, he had drawn the line at what he called “letting a lady grapple on the floor like a dog fighting for a bone.” Now I wished he had let me grapple a little, lady or not. If he had, maybe I would be in a better position to defend myself at the moment. Then again, maybe not—there were three of them and only one of me. Not to mention that they all outweighed me by a hundred pounds at least.
I was going to die. Either that or I would be so seriously injured that I would be taken to the campus medical facility and my secret would be discovered. I had to do something, but what?
“Stop!” I held up a hand and made my voice as deep and imperious as I could. To my surprise, Broward actually did stop and stood there staring down at me with a frown on his face.
“What? You have something to say before I rearrange your face?” he demanded.
“Let’s settle this like men.” I drew myself up to my full height and lifted my chin, looking him in the eyes.
“Oh?” He cocked one thick brown eyebrow at me. “And how do men settle things, freshie?”
“Give me a sword,” I said.
“A sword?” The redheaded Nodes let out a burst of trollish laughter and Dawson joined him.
“Listen to that, Broward—he asked for a sword.”
“Hear me out,” I said sternly, ignoring the hilarity my words had caused. “I’m sure you study fencing here, right?”
“Some cadets do. So?” Broward shrugged his thick shoulders.
“So we should fence for our honor,” I said desperately. “After all, you’re so much bigger than me, this isn’t a fair fight. But put a foil in my hand and I’ll prove who is the better man.”
Broward actually seemed to be considering this for a moment, his low brow furrowed in thought. Then he shook his head. “Nope. I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” I gave him a challenging stare. “Are you afraid? Too cowardly to take me on in a fair fight?”
“No.” He gave me a slow, ugly grin that made me feel like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cubes into the pit of my stomach. “Just too lazy. Besides, I don’t like a fair fight. It’s so much more fun my way.”
“Wait.” I stepped back farther into the narrow hallway that led to the shower area as he began advancing again. But this time Broward didn’t stop.
“Not waiting anymore, freshie,” he told me, still grinning. “Nodes, Dawson,” he saidto his two hulking henchmen. “Hold him. I’m gonna mess him up.”
It was a tight fit in the narrow corridor but the two of them surged forward and grabbed my arms before I could jump away. They dragged me back out into the main fresher area by force though I was kicking and shouting all the way.
“Help! Help.” I thought my throat would give way from screaming but no one came.
“Shut up now, freshie.” Broward slapped one meaty palm over my mouth. “Doesn’t do any good to shout. Even if somebody hears you they won’t mess with us.”
“That’s right.” Dawson guffawed in my ear. “Even the headmaster doesn’t mess with Broward.”
I knew better but unfortunately that knowledge was about to get me killed. However, I wasn’t going down without a fight. Opening my mouth under Broward’s hand, I bit down hard, aiming to take a chunk out of his beefy palm if I possibly could.
“Ow! You little bastard!” The bully yanked his hand away and my mouth filled with the thick, coppery taste of blood. “You bit me. You actually bit me.” He looked at me as though he couldn’t believe I would do such a thing.
“Ah, yes.” I spat out a mouthful of blood and laughed, sounding slightly hysterical to my own ears. “How inconsiderate of me. Why would I do such an impolite thing as bite you when you were simply trying to ‘rearrange my face'?”
“Very funny, freshie.” Broward curled his bleeding hand into a fist, wincing as he did so. “Oh yes, very funny. You’ll be laughing all the way to the Infirmary.” He drew back his arm and hit me as hard as he could.
I realized later that I was lucky I had bitten him in his dominant hand. Because of where the bite was placed, he wasn’t able to make a very good fist. My head was rocked back on my neck and my cheekbone felt like it was broken, but at least my teeth and nose remained intact. I didn’t feel very lucky at the time, however. I just felt sick and dizzy.
Stars danced in my vision and my cheek throbbed. I’d never been punched in the face before—small wonder since most of the ladies in my social circle preferred needlepoint to street fighting. But my beating was just beginning. I saw Broward’s bloodied fist draw back again and tried to brace for the next punch because there was nothing else I could do. Absently I wondered what I had done to deserve this. Who would have thought that my very first day at the Academy would go so very, very wrong?
The bloody fist came plowing toward me and I closed my eyes, not wanting to see it land. I waited breathlessly for the blow to fall…and waited, and waited. But for some reason, it didn’t come.
“Three against one, Broward? That’s low even for you.”
Opening my eyes I saw my new roommate holding the bully’s arm, the bloody fist just inches from my nose. My roommate didn’t seem to be exerting much effort but Broward was red in the face as he tried to free himself and go after me again.
“Let go, North,” he snarled at the taller cadet. “This doesn’t concern you.”
My roommate’s piercing blue eyes narrowed. “Unfortunately, I do get concerned when I see a murder in progress.” He held Broward’s gaze with his own. “Let him go now or you’re going to be sorry.”
Broward sneered. “In case you didn’t notice, there’s three of us and only one of you, North.”
“Good odds, considering none of you knows how to do anything but terrorize runts like this one.” He nodded at me. “Let him go and come at me if you think I’m wrong.”
Dawson and Nodes were watching eagerly, obviously wondering what Broward was going to do. I was wondering myself—as much as I could with my head ringing like a bell, that was.
“Forget it.” Broward stepped back. “I don’t have time for this, anyway.”
“You’re going to have to make time in a minute,” my roommate said, finally dropping his arm. “I saw the dorm monitor coming up the stairs just now to see what all the screaming was about. You get away with a hell of a lot around here, Br
oward, but I don’t think you can literally get away with murder.”
Broward still looked angry enough to beat me to a pulp but the other two cadets were obviously nervous.
“C’mon, Broward, let’s get out of here.” Dawson was suddenly pale beneath his pimples.
“Yeah, not all of us have fathers on the Board.” Nodes dropped my arm and Dawson followed suit. “Come on.” He tugged at Broward’s shoulder and turned for the arching fresher doorway.
“Fine, if you two are so piss-in-your-pants scared, we’ll go.” Broward started backing away but his eyes were still fixed on me. “This isn’t over, freshie. Watch your back.”
My roommate, whose surname was apparently North, gave me a speculative look. “Well, shorty, you certainly have a way with people. What did you do to piss Broward off?”
I opened my mouth to answer and then the world started spinning. Before I knew it I was falling, the hard blue and white tile floor coming up to meet my face at an amazing speed.
Chapter Five
I never hit the floor. Someone caught me and the next thing I knew I was being slung over a broad shoulder and carried like a sack of grain out of the fresher and down the hallway.
“Hey, put me down!” I beat weakly on North’s broad back even though the motion made me feel like I was going to be sick.
“Take it easy, pipsqueak. We’re almost to the room.” His deep voice rumbled through me as he talked.
I wanted to protest some more but the world started spinning again at that point. I closed my eyes and went limp on his shoulder. There didn’t seem to be anything else I could do.
When we got back to the room he put me down on my bed with surprising gentleness and left. I was just wondering where he had gone when he came back and put something cold and wet on my stinging cheek. I moaned and tried to push it off but he brushed my hand away.
“Hold still, you’re a mess.” He pushed a straw to my lips. “Here, drink this.”
I didn’t want anything to drink but I took a small sip to appease him. Something cold and sweet and fizzy ran down my throat, making me cough and gasp. The straw was abruptly withdrawn.
“It’s just a carbo drink. Can’t you manage anything?” My new roommate sounded impatient.
I coughed again. “I…I’ve only had it once before. I wasn’t expecting the…the bubbles.” My voice sounded hoarse and uncertain, even in my own ears.
“Take another sip now that you know what it is. You need a little sugar in your system.” He pressed the straw to my lips again and this time I was able to drink without coughing.
To my surprise, he was right—the sugary sweetness of the fizzing drink did make me start to feel better almost at once. My cheek was still aching but at least the world wasn’t spinning anymore.
“Thank you,” I said, after finishing the drink.
“Welcome.” He was sitting on the edge of my bed, staring down at me critically, the way someone might study a half-crushed bug. “I think you’re okay. You’ve got blood on your face but you don’t seem to be bleeding.”
I wiped at my mouth. “It’s Broward’s. I bit him.”
“Bit him, huh?” He gave me a look of grudging respect. “You’re a scrappy little guy—I’ll give you that.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said sourly. “That means a lot coming from a big lug like you.” My small stature was really turning out to be a handicap.
“You’re welcome,” he said again, taking the empty drink container and putting it down on the bedside table.
“Why?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Why what?”
“Why did you help me?” I tried to sit up but he pushed me back down.
“Better wait a minute before you get up. I came to see what all the commotion was about. You scream like a girl, you know that, shrimp?”
“I was frightened,” I said stiffly. “And don’t call me that. My name is—”
“I know, Kristopher Jameson.” He sighed. “Hinks told me when I went to ask about the rooming situation.”
“What did he say about that?” I asked.
North ran a hand through his dark blond hair, looking frustrated. “He said I would just have to deal with it. Look—” He pointed at me. “I was serious when I said I had to study. I don’t want any loud music or partying in here, I mean it.”
“I don’t want that either,” I told him, frowning. “I’m just here to learn so I can get my piloting license. I’m not interested in any of the social activities I saw in the halls on my way up here.”
“Social activities?” He raised an eyebrow at me and burst out laughing. “You have a really strange way of talking, Jameson. What moon are you from, anyway?”
“Dianna,” I said stiffly. “From the province of Victoria.”
North frowned. “I’m from Apollo. I’ve heard about Victoria but I’ve never been there. Isn’t that the province where everyone is so stiff and formal you can’t even sneeze without apologizing about a thousand times?”
“It’s civilized,” I corrected him. “Which is more than I can say for the way people act around here.”
He shook his head. “You must not have been away to school before. The Academy is pretty standard.”
“If being threatened and beaten twice in the same day is standard I don’t know how anyone graduates,” I snapped. “I haven’t even been here two hours and I’ve already been assaulted.”
“Assaulted? Come on.” He slapped my shoulder. “You took one punch, don’t be such a girl about it.”
I opened my mouth to give an angry reply and then closed it again. Apparently being a man involved stoicism in the face of pain and right now I was doing a fairly poor job of it. “It hurt,” I pointed out at last.
“Getting punched in the face usually does. Let’s see how it looks.” Leaning forward, he lifted the cold wet cloth he’d placed on my wounded cheek and frowned thoughtfully. “Well, you’re going to have a hell of a bruise but I don’t think anything is broken. We can go down to the Infirmary for an X-ray if you want, though.”
“No, thank you,” I said, trying to sit up again. This time he helped me.
“Better?”
“Yes.” I was finally able to look around without feeling like I was on a tilt-a-whirl at the fair, which was a vast improvement.
“So what did you do to earn that, anyway?” North motioned to my hurt cheek. “Or was Broward just being his usual charming self?”
“I saw something…in the Administration building.” I frowned down at my hands. “I’m not sure I should tell you.”
“If it’s something to do with Hinks, everybody already knows. Although I didn’t think Broward went that way.”
“What do you mean? Went what way?” I asked.
“You know.” North made a side to side motion with one large, well-shaped hand. “Gay.”
I had only heard the word once or twice before but I had a general idea of what it meant. “You think I saw Broward and Hinks…doing something immoral together?” My voice rose slightly. “But they’re both males. Is that standard at the Academy too?”
North shrugged. “Not really but you do hear about it from time to time. You know how it is—too many horny guys and no girls allowed.”
I had a sudden disturbing thought. “Are you…that way?”
“Gay? Me?” He gave a surprised laugh, as though the very idea was preposterous. “No, absolutely not. There are too many pretty girls in the solar system to waste my time on another guy. But Kinky Hinks definitely is. Don’t tell me he didn’t try the old ‘let’s see how your uniform fits’ routine on you.”
I could feel my cheeks getting hot. “Yes, he did,” I admitted. “I, uh, managed to get away though. Would he really have tried to…to…” I couldn’t finish.
North laughed incredulously. “I can’t believe it, you’re actually blushing.”
“He…I…” I put my hands to my hot cheeks and winced when I touched the injured one. How could I tell him that
we didn’t speak of sexual matters of any kind in Victoria? And why did talking about this with him make my heart pound so hard?
“Never mind.” He shook his head, a trace of a smile still lingering on his lips. “Hinks is pretty harmless, actually—he just likes to look. He gets away with it because he has some kind of in with the powers that be around here. So what happened with him and Broward?”
“Nothing like that,” I assured him. “Actually, nothing that had to do with Hinks at all. It was the headmaster.”