Lineage (Book 3 of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Ten: Headmistress of Hearts

When they reached the end of the staircase, only a single, brightly lit hall met them. The gray of the stone and the lack of windows with the soft rugs underfoot, still seemed surprisingly intimidating to Katerin.

She had climbed these steps a thousand times, and though she was fully grown now, she felt as though she was once again walking to explain to Halemeda just why she had broken the rules, and just why she should not be expelled, and just how hard she would work, to do better. And she had always done better, though she had only found quieter ways to break the rules.

The end of the hallway opened to a small office, and a gnome looked up as Katerin and her companions entered. A cup of tea sat steaming beside him.

"Gimery!" Katerin said, smiling in delight towards the graying gnome. A feat, she was sure, both that he was gray, as gnomes preferred to never be seen as elders, and too that he was still the secretary to headmistress Halemeda.

He had always been strict, and at times he could seem uncaring, but Katerin knew him to be loyal to the Tower alone.

He sighed looked up from a book with a confused expression. "My girl, I don't know why you've climbed so far, unless you're looking for punishment. Halemeda is busy right now."

"Just tell her Katerin came to visit, and would love to see her if she has the time?"

Gimery looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You're not Katerin. Girl's been gone for years. She was not so proudly postured, always up here waiting for her friends with her nose in a book, instead of actual magic."

Fykes had stiffened as she had said her name.

"And she didn't have more than two friends," the gnome continued, eyeing Fykes, Arjiah and Brazen.

Katerin sighed, and dropped her illusory appearance, knowing that unless she gave Gimery her true intentions, she would not make it in the hall. She had also considered the idea that he already knew she wore an illusion and had not bothered to mention it. Stubborn old guardian that he was. Though she could not blame him. He dealt with every mischievous young mage here and dealt with them well enough to turn more than one from their ways. "I was reading, because I had tests, and I didn't make excuses because my 'no more than two' friends, made plenty of their own."

The gnome smiled at her as the spell faded, in his eyes was a knowing look. "See, that's what Katerin looks like." He harrumphed. "The guard let you in like that?"

"They checked the log against the fake name I gave them, first." No unease found Katerin as she spoke. She knew Gimery was loyal to Halemeda, and he had always been. And she knew that even if he disapproved of her methods, he could not do much over this particular infraction.

Gimery sighed, and eyed her with distaste. "Is your visit urgent?"

"Just slightly," she said, with a smirk. "I am a wanted woman, after all."

"A criminal." He harrumphed. "What did you do to get all those posters put up?"

"I'll tell you as soon as I know."

"Tell Halemeda first. She gets more satisfaction from such curiosities." Gimery hopped down from his chair with one last longing look at his tea and slipped into the door beyond his desk.

"He's an interesting fellow," Arjiah said, as the gnome disappeared.

"Stern, and occasionally mean with his words, but his job is not tending to flowers." Katerin shrugged. "Besides, he has an incredible memory. It's like he remembers every face, and conversation. I think I might be grumpy, too, if I had to remember every nasty thing the students said."