Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Twenty-Four

Theon fumbled with the picks and dropped one of them. Furious, he batted the lock off his desk and then cursed and threw a book across his study. It bounced off a wall and landed somewhere on the other side of Graydon.

Graydon, lazing in an armchair with his head about halfway down the chair's back, hips all but hanging off the seat as his heels sat on a pile of books, looked over his text to Theon. He glanced after the book, raised himself up a bit and looked at Theon's desk, then lowered himself once more.

Theon knew Graydon was looking for the cookies that Naena had brought them to share. He had never tasted an oatmeal raisin that wasn't dry and falling apart, but somehow she managed it.

"I didn't throw the cookies," Theon snapped.

"Good," Graydon said as he returned to reading his book.

"Lockpicking is supposed to be simple!" Theon roared.

"No, no one said lockpicking is simple," Graydon said. "I only gave her the lock to keep her busy for a few weeks until she can rejoin us in the physical activities. How was I supposed to know she could already pick locks?"

"She's a street rat. What's your excuse?"

Naena had taken seconds with a lock. Graydon had taken longer, frighteningly so, but had still managed to pick a lock that still confounded Theon.

Graydon grunted and turned the page of his text. For some time, the young man said nothing. Then he gave a little heave of his chest and glanced at Theon.

On the one hand, it was good that Graydon was letting his guard down, feeling relaxed.

On the other, Theon wanted to burn him alive and listen to him squeal.

"I expect an answer," Theon said.

Graydon sighed and dropped his feet off the book pile. Each foot thumped onto the floor as Graydon groaned his way into a sitting position.

"I said I'd sit with you, not answer angry war mage questions," Graydon said. "If she needs time off to relax and do her thing, then so do we. I'm reading up on crossborn mages to see if there are any problems with them conceiving so that if she ever decides she's ready, I have answers available."

"One carried a child," Theon said. "He killed himself and the child shortly after it was born."

"A murder-suicide doesn't help me," Graydon said. "Really don't want to have that conversation with her."

"Do you really think you'll find anything?"

"Someone had to be the first to have that part of themselves removed," Graydon said. "Before removal, pregnancy is possible, and we are all animals in many ways. Wrong body or not, you'd explore or seek, or there may have been a crossborn who liked men."

"Disturbing."

"Stuff happens. She's not exactly the type to stop asking questions because men can't get pregnant. Which is why I'm starting now, not later."

"That's not relaxing," Theon said.

"It'll help me relax, trust me," Graydon said. "Why are you getting so worked up over lockpicking? Of all the mages at the university right now, there are probably only two who can. Maeno and Naena, and if we ask, we'll probably find that Maeno taught Naena. So, you can't do something that other mages also cannot do."

"If I could have picked locks when I was eighteen, it would have saved me so much trouble," Theon said. "Or when they dragged me back here in chains."

"Ah," Graydon said as he sighed.