The Sports Captain's Tale полностью

I nodded. Prince Hastings had been first in line to his throne after his father died, only to be booted out of the line of succession and his kingdom when his younger brother raised a gunpowder army and effortlessly crushed the royal guardsmen. He’d been making the rounds of the Allied Lands since then, trying to drum up support for a bid to reclaim the throne, but he’d been given little more than sympathy and sometimes not even that. If the broadsheets were to be believed, he was so rude and unpleasant his peers preferred to deal with a known usurper to the legitimate heir. I couldn’t blame them.

That, and the fact his brother controls the kingdom and its resources and has a head start in building up a gunpowder army, I reflected. There’s nothing to gain from backing a loser when the winner could take your head too.

Sergeant Wills cleared his throat. “Kai?”

I grinned. “I took the liberty of hiring a pub down in Dragon’s Den for the party,” I said, as if it had all been my own idea. “And you’re all welcome to join us.”

“Well, I’m glad it was you who won,” Ham said. I heard what he didn’t say and smirked. Losing to me might be bad, but losing to Blair would be terrible. “I’ll see you down there.”

Darrell snorted. “I need a shower, then we can head down too,” she said. “Congratulations.”

I watched her go, wondering if there’d be a chance to rekindle our relationship. Not bloody likely … though it might be worth finding out if she’d like to be a reservist. She had the skills and I could hardly refuse the chance to ask her, even if she said no. If nothing else, she was far better than Blair. I wouldn’t want him at my back. It would be a good way to get a knife put in it.

“We won,” I said to my team, once we were alone. “Tonight, we party.”

Mildred looked down. “I don’t go to parties,” she said. “I …”

“You’re coming with us,” I said, firmly. Poor Mildred had never been invited to parties … I wondered, suddenly, if she’d ever been kissed. She certainly didn’t have any close friends … not even someone to chat with, every so often. “You’ll enjoy it.”

“Are we invited too?” Karen asked. “We might get in trouble if we went down …”

“Blame it on me,” I said. Karen and Bill were third-years, which meant they’d get in trouble for leaving school without permission … but they’d also get in trouble for ignoring a direct order from an older student who happened to be their captain. Perhaps the Grandmaster would let it pass, if he found out about it. If he didn’t, the only person he could punish was me. I could take it. “Just tell them you were following my orders and you’ll be fine.”

Bill grinned. “You poor bastard.”

“Go get showers,” I said, firmly. “And meet me in the Great Hall in twenty minutes.”

I showered and changed, then headed down to the hall. Half the senior students were already heading down to the town – any excuse for a party – while the remainder were either getting ready to go or making a show of staying in the castle. I made a mental bet with myself that Blair would come to the party, insisting he was a winner because he got to take his team into the finals, then shrugged. It was unlikely anyone would cause trouble in Dragon’s Den. The town council would report the troublemaker to the Grandmaster and the troublemaker would suffer.

“You could wear something a little nicer than that,” Karen said to Mildred, as they entered the hall. “Don’t you own a dress?”

“It got stolen back in first year,” Mildred said, practically whispering. Even I could tell she was nervous. “I never bought a replacement.”

Karen squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll go shopping tomorrow after class, if you like,” she said. “We can buy you something new.”

I shot her a sharp look. Karen might mean well, but she was also taking advantage of Mildred so she could go to town on a weekday. I’d have to have a word with her later. The last thing I needed was trouble between them … really, the last thing Karen needed was to get into bad habits. Ordering a senior student around … if she tried that on Darrell or one of her peers, Karen would be lucky if she wasn’t beaten to within an inch of her life. If Mildred had a little more confidence …