Bitter Wind (Death's Handmaiden Book 2)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘I think it would be better if we took this somewhere private,’ Mitsuko said. ‘We can meet–’

  ‘I want an explanation! Now!’ Terence was really angry. He probably did not even notice the way Mitsuko’s expression flattened.

  ‘You d-did sign…’ Rexanne began; she had obviously noticed the student president’s reaction.

  ‘I did,’ Nava said. ‘I signed a document you assured me was just a standard disclaimer. That was a lie, Rexanne. I read a lot faster than most people. What I signed required me to allow you to do whatever you wanted with the video of my performance. It did not require me to allow you to video me. I used Escape Detection. Living things could see me, but machines could not and I wouldn’t record on video.’

  ‘That’s cheating!’ Terence roared.

  ‘So was getting me to sign a contract with you the way you did. If you’d just asked me, I might have been inclined to listen to your reasons. You decided to try to trick me, so I returned the favour.’

  ‘We were hoping this would finally get the Drama Club recognised as official,’ Rexanne said. ‘External critical acclaim would have–’

  ‘And the money your family’s video distribution company would have made from it was a secondary factor, I assume,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re…’ Rexanne trailed off under Mitsuko’s glare.

  ‘I’m a Greyling now,’ Nava said. ‘When I told them about your deception, they did some digging and found the publicity campaign the company was producing and the contract you signed with them. By the way, you should thank me. I said I’d deal with it and the Greylings agreed to leave it at that, assuming my idea worked. What they were going to do if you had got that video into production is anyone’s guess, but I doubt it would’ve been nice. The ASF also took an interest but decided they couldn’t do anything unless the video came out.’

  ‘And the school’s administration would also have been unhappy,’ Mitsuko said. ‘You’re not an official club, so there’s nothing much the Extracurricular Activities Committee can do about you, but the administration has strict policies regarding the way clubs make money. I wasn’t going to say anything to them, but since you’ve made this public yourselves, I no longer have a choice. The student council will present the gathered evidence to the principal and his office will be in touch regarding the future of the Drama Club.’ Rexanne looked sick now. Terence was still fuming. Mitsuko did not really care. ‘Now, if you’d please leave. Our dinner is getting cold.’

  ‘You haven’t heard the–’ Terence began.

  Nava was starting to think he was doing it for the drama at this point. ‘Please don’t finish that sentence. You would never use such a clichéd line in one of your productions. Leave before you turn this into even more of a melodrama than it already is.’

  235/12/13.

  ‘The exam results for first years are now available,’ Luca Newton said. It was just gone nine a.m. and class 12C were having a sort of late homeroom; following the exams, lessons were light and largely composed of self-tutoring with some teacher interaction where someone wanted it. The second and third years were still doing a few practical exams, just to be sure they were progressing as expected, and there were teachers out of class handling those. The only reason the whole class was present today was the expectation of their results coming out.

  ‘You can see your individual, detailed results in your personal accounts,’ Luca went on. She tapped a screen and a pair of tables came up on the screen behind her. ‘However, here we have the class and year league tables, just to add a little pressure on those who didn’t make it onto either.’ There was a rumble of embarrassed laughter from various people, even before there was much time to digest the data; some of the students knew they were not going to see their names on the screen. ‘I have a bit of analysis and some personal comments, if you’d like to hear them.’

  There were nods from around the room, some of them enthusiastic. No one got up to leave. ‘Very well. Top of the class is Nava Greyling. I’m sure you’re all surprised to hear that.’ Immediate laughter; Nava remained calm, cool, and collected, as usual. ‘Further, Nava took the top spot in the year, by a respectable but not record-breaking margin. There are two people on the combat stream with sorcery capacity scores equal to hers, and fifteen others across both streams who scored over a hundred. If those combat stream students had paid more attention to metaphysics, they might have given Nava more of a run for her money in the overall scores.’

  Luca paused, maybe thinking that Nava would say something. The pause was not long, however, since Luca was reasonably well aware of her student’s taciturn nature by now. ‘The median capacity score for the year is eighty-seven. The median for this class is eighty-six. Not bad and you can judge your personal scores against those. Before you ask, we use the median score rather than the mean because it reduces the effect of outliers like Nava who, we believe, will surpass both the second- and third-year medians and come in just below this year’s fourth-year median.’ Luca looked out at her star pupil. This time, she got a response.

  ‘Capacity is not everything,’ Nava said. ‘While I may have a fourth year’s theoretical capability to cast spells, I am far from being as well educated in actually doing so.’

  ‘Just imagine what you’ll be able to do by the time you are a fourth year, though,’ Lydia Bonfils said. Her name was actually up on the screen; she had made it into the top ten in the class.

  Nava gave a small shrug. ‘Well, one can only work hard and hope.’

  ~~~

  ‘I got top of class,’ Mitsuko said. She did not sound especially proud of the achievement. It was more like she was resigned to it, though there was a hint of pride there; just a little. ‘Not by a huge margin, but the others will need to work hard to beat me next year.’

  ‘Befitting of the student council’s president,’ Hoshi said. ‘You’re someone to aspire to equal.’

  ‘Now if we could just get Nava to be a role model, we could all have someone to look up to.’

  ‘If I actually let people see what they’re aspiring to,’ Nava replied, ‘they would be too discouraged to try.’

  ‘And,’ Melissa said, ‘Nava once told me that I should never be jealous of her. With great power comes a really sucky backstory.’

  ‘Never a truer word spoken.’

  ‘I would have liked to have got higher in the class,’ Rochester said.

  ‘Your practical figures let you down,’ Hoshi said. ‘I was the same. All the way through, actually. I mean, my capacity is only a hundred and thirty. The median score for my graduating year was a hundred and sixty-six. However, my academic scores were plenty high enough to get me a position doing postgraduate research. If you look at your academic results, specifically metaphysics, you’re top ranking in your class and in the top ten percent of the year.’

  ‘I believe,’ Nava said, ‘that your tactics paper fell nicely into the year average. I’m quite sure you weren’t expecting that when you started here.’

  ‘True,’ Rochester agreed.

  ‘Same here,’ Melissa said. ‘Being on your team and getting some actual combat experience probably had more impact than the teaching…’

  ‘I did better than I expected on the tactics paper too,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I wonder how Kyle’s results will come out. The sixth years get theirs tomorrow, don’t they, Hoshi?’

  Hoshi nodded. ‘If there’s been a delay, no one’s mentioned it to me. The rumours coming out of the administration suggest no big upsets and a generally good trend.’

  ‘Not that that’s going to help with Courtney’s problem,’ Melissa said.

  ‘No,’ Mitsuko agreed. ‘She’s still going to be looking at a year without her boyfriend.’

  235/12/16.

  ‘Cheer up,’ Mitsuko said. ‘You look like you’re going to an execution.’

  ‘Next year,’ Courtney said, ‘your girlfriend is moving into your apartment. Next year, I’ll be lucky if I see my
boyfriend at all. It’s the last day of–’

  Mitsuko lifted a hand to count things off on her fingers. ‘One, you’re at a dance. That expression is enough to bring the room down for everyone. Two, Kyle won’t be going straight into a deployment. You should have a month before he goes anywhere, and he’ll probably be training on Shinden for a month or two before he’s deployed. Almost certainly longer since his results should get him straight into officer training. Three, do you really want him to see you looking like this on his last night at school?’

  ‘No…’ Courtney straightened her back and did her best to smile. It was a work in progress. ‘You’re certainly right about that last one. I plan to get several dances out of him tonight and he might refuse if I look like a depressed puppy.’

  ‘He may refuse to keep your cover story going.’

  Courtney shook her head. ‘Tonight, that is not going to be allowed to be an excuse.’

  ~~~

  The Art Club had had limited time to work on the set for the ball, mostly because Terence had been keeping them busy with minor alterations to the sets for the play right up until the night of the performance. They had, however, done a fairly good job anyway, even if things were a little less animated than the set for the summer dance.

  Thematically, they had stolen from The Ice Queen with a few tweaks. Nava somehow doubted that Yuki’s castle had a ballroom, but if it had, this was what it might have looked like. Illusory stone walls hid the real ones, and the illusory stone wore a shell of ice. Fake candlelight gleamed off the icy surfaces to provide some sparkle. The stage, where the Music Club had got together a small orchestra to play for the dances, had five centimetres of snow on it. The snow formed drifts against an ice wall at the back of the stage, and there were also drifts of snow against some of the other walls. Snow flurries appeared to be swirling across the dance floor, though there was no sensation of cold or contact when they hit your legs.

  Nava had not known about the set when she had selected her outfit for the evening. If she had, she might have gone a different way, though wearing her actual Ice Queen costume might have looked egocentric. Anyway, she was more concerned about Melissa when she found her and Mitsuko, both of them watching the buffet.

  ‘Mel, have you been replaced by an imperfect clone?’ Nava asked.

  ‘No,’ Melissa said.

  ‘But that’s exactly what a clone would say,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘I think I’d have noticed if– Oh! I wouldn’t, would I? Uh, why do you ask?’

  ‘Because that outfit is a little on the risqué side for the real Melissa Connelly,’ Nava replied.

  Melissa was in a full-length, long-sleeved gown with a high collar. The skirt had a wide vent at the front, to over the knee, which let Melissa move; the back of the skirt trailed on the floor, and dancing in such a gown would have been interesting if it had been the same front and back. So far, not too un-Melissa. But then there was the hole in the front, a point-down, rounded triangle which dipped well below Melissa’s navel and showed off a substantial amount of breast. The fabric was also a metallic dark green with an opaque frond-like pattern backed by a largely transparent body material. She was wearing a thong under the dress, but there was a lot more of Melissa on display than usual.

  ‘You do know there’s a fair bit of areola peeking–’ Nava continued.

  Melissa’s bright smile became a little fixed. ‘I do not need to be reminded of that. I am keeping myself as unaware as possible of that detail, thank you very much.’

  ‘She has a plan,’ Mitsuko said by way of explanation. It was not much of an explanation, but there was a hint of revelation there.

  ‘A plan?’ Nava asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Melissa said, brightness returning. ‘I’m going to snag myself a one-night stand. I’m aiming for a sixth-year combat student. A big one. Lots of muscles and stamina.’

  ‘Uh, why?’

  ‘There’s a high probability that I’ll never see him again and will therefore be spared the horror of reliving the reality rather than revelling in whatever fantasy version of tonight I come up with in the morning.’ The bright grin was turning a tiny bit manic.

  ‘Good luck then.’

  ‘Thank you. Is that a copy of your costume from The Ice Queen?’

  Nava nodded. ‘In black, obviously. If I’d known they were almost recreating the set here tonight, I might have used the white version. However, while I acknowledge that the contrast between white fabric and dark skin is interesting, I prefer black.’

  ‘You’re wearing one of those stick-on panty things under that, right?’ Mitsuko asked. Nava just looked at her. ‘It’s just that the black tends to show more than the white a-and I’m not seeing…’

  Nava’s gaze remained steady. ‘I like your dress, and I just bet you’re not wearing anything under it.’ Mitsuko’s gown consisted of two panels, front and back, connected together by various belts at the sides. There was really no way normal panties would not have shown. The material was a translucent plastic, but there was nothing really showing aside from shadows and some side boob. On Melissa, it would have been far more risqué, but on Mitsuko it seemed elegant.

  ‘Thank you, but don’t change the subject. Do you select your outfits just to frustrate me for several hours?’

  Raising a hand and her head, Nava placed a finger against her lips and affected a musing sort of pose. ‘Yes,’ she said after a couple of seconds.

  ~~~

  ‘So, this plan of Mel’s,’ Mitsuko said.

  ‘Doomed to failure,’ Nava said. They were taking a walk around the dancers because the student president needed to keep an eye on things and Nava had gone along with her girlfriend.

  ‘You think? She’s come out of her shell a lot in the last year.’

  ‘As evidenced by her willingness to wear that dress. However, I don’t think she’s quite ready for banging a random male just for the Hell of it.’

  ‘She might…’

  ‘Five Solars says she ends up in bed with us tonight.’

  ‘Wow, big bet.’

  ‘It’s symbolic,’ Nava replied.

  ‘Okay, you’re on. She did take on the twins at your welcome party.’

  ‘Uh-huh, but they chased her.’ Nava was silent briefly. ‘With that dress, she might get someone chasing her tonight, I suppose.’

  Mitsuko grinned. ‘Possibly several someones. Oh good, Courtney’s cheered up.’

  Nava followed Mitsuko’s gaze onto the dance floor, where Courtney and Kyle were visibly going through the motions of a waltz. They were both fairly competent and they looked very much like a couple. Like all the men, Kyle was dressed in a – probably rented – tuxedo. He looked like he was enjoying himself, possibly because he was attached to Courtney. Her gown was full-length, long-sleeved, and high-necked. It was tightly fitted around her upper body, but the skirt was wide and it twirled around her legs as they moved through the dance steps. The fabric was red, what there was of it; there was a nanomesh base with an opaque pattern of interlinked circles appliquéd over it. It covered more or less all of Courtney’s body while hiding nothing much. Courtney looked happy too.

  ‘She’s not hiding her relationship tonight,’ Nava commented.

  ‘No.’ There was a hint of worry in Mitsuko’s voice. ‘Hopefully, that won’t cause problems for her. I’m glad she’s cheered up. She’s not really too happy about Kyle graduating. I mean, she’s happy his results were good and that he’s graduating, but she’s not so happy that he’ll be leaving the school.’

  ‘He’s going to be doing training on Shinden for months.’

  ‘That’s what I said. She’s not going to be able to see him whenever she wants though. I can understand her problem.’

  ‘Yes. So can I. However, if they can’t keep their relationship going through this, it probably wasn’t going to work anyway.’

  ‘Don’t tell her that.’

  ‘I have absolutely no intention of doing so.’

  ~~~
/>
  ‘Come on,’ Melissa said. ‘Stop hugging the wall and dance with me.’

  Rochester looked at her in a similar manner to a deer suddenly discovering that a tiger is watching it. ‘I’m f-fine,’ he said.

  ‘Part of my job as student council secretary is to get wallflowers out on the dance floor. You are close to growing roots. Come on, shake a leg. You even went to the classes. You’ll be wasting all that effort if you don’t dance at least once.’

  ‘I, um, I’m not sure I c-can do it with you in that gown.’

  Melissa rolled her eyes and grabbed Rochester’s wrist. ‘Don’t look down.’ She pulled and he followed. He could have resisted. He had over ten kilos on her and it was mostly muscle. Still, he let himself be dragged.

  On the other hand, as they shifted through the steps of another waltz, his eyes never once left her face. It was really romantic, if you did not know him.

  ~~~

  As promised, Nava danced with Mitsuko. More than once. The symbolism was gone, of course; back when Nava had said that she would take a dance with Mitsuko at the ball, it had meant something. Now, everyone knew about them anyway, so the revelatory nature was missing, but it still felt like an event of sorts since it was the first time they had really acted like a couple in public.

  Nava felt a little silly. The top of her head barely came up to Mitsuko’s nose and Mitsuko was definitely the superior dancer. Nava was working on a few hours of instruction and her innate grace. Nava knew the steps. Mitsuko knew the dance.

  Apparently, the waltz had been considered rather indecent when it was first introduced. The dancers pressed their bodies together throughout, and that had been considered very risqué. It seemed odd for a rather sedate dance, but Nava was starting to understand. There was definitely something arousing about the flow of one body against the other. Or maybe that was just because it was Mitsuko she was dancing with. From the way Mitsuko was looking, the dance was working for her too. It was probably a really good thing there were no lessons in the morning…

  235/12/17.

  Sunlight filtered in through the lounge window. No one had closed the blinds and they had yet to move to the bedroom.