I watched him go. He seemed to give an actual crap about me. But then again, so had Rhyzkahl. I sighed and ate a couple of pieces of fruit, then snuggled down under the covers. Mzatal needed me and wished to use me; he was quite clear on that point. It was his ultimate motives that I wasn’t too sure about.
I tried to push my doubts away, but even as tired as I was, it was a long time before I could sleep.
Chapter 29
I dreamed of coffee. A steaming cup of my favorite Café du Monde coffee with chicory, plenty of cream and sugar. There may have been donuts in the dream as well, but it was the rich scent of coffee that invaded my sleep and teased me with the promise of alertness and calories.
The dream evaporated as a mental touch from Mzatal nudged me from sleep. I groaned and pulled the pillow over my head, desperately trying to recapture the scent, the flavor of coffee—even if it was only dream coffee.
A heartbeat later I lifted my head. I still smelled the coffee. How the hell could I still be smelling coffee? I turned over and saw Mzatal sitting in his chair perusing a stack of papers. I held the sheet around me and sat up, blinking in disbelief at the steaming mug, cream and sugar on the side table. “Is that…coffee?”
Mzatal smiled. “Yes, real coffee.”
I stared at him. “You got me coffee?”
“Yes,” he said as he set his papers aside. “You have been craving it since the morning after I first summoned you.”
“Thanks! Wow.” I shifted so I could reach it and quickly loaded it up with cream and sugar. I held it close, took a sip, and damn near let out a moan of ecstasy. Okay, maybe I did make a bit of an O-face. “Holy shit, that’s good,” I breathed.
Mzatal’s smile widened, watching me. “Excellent.”
I settled back against the pillows, making sure the sheet was securely tucked around me. I cradled the coffee like the precious thing it was and sipped. “No, really. Holy shit, I’ve missed this.”
“Yes, I know,” he said, eyes crinkling in amusement. “It is why I acquired it.”
In that moment, my heart melted just a teensy bit. I also realized with relief that I was only a little sore from yesterday’s exertions. “Keep this up and I may start to like you.”
Mzatal shook his head. “Perhaps suspend your opinion until after today’s training.”
I actually chuckled. “More stairs? Or do you have something worse in mind?”
He regarded me for a moment. “We will be summoning Katashi this evening.”
Well, that would no doubt be interesting, especially considering the whole question of whether Jesral had been in contact with Katashi. “‘We.’ Does that mean you want me there with you?”
Mzatal raised an eyebrow. “Absolutely. And you will assist Idris in preparation, which will introduce you to the nuances of summonings from here.”
I nodded and sipped delicious coffee. “Speaking of Idris. Um, has he ever had a girlfriend?”
Mzatal’s brows drew together, and he pursed his lips in thought. “There has not been opportunity since he has been here. On Earth, I do not know.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Doubtful on Earth either, if he was with Katashi.” I gave Mzatal a penetrating glare. “Idris needs a girlfriend or at least needs to get laid. And neither one of them needs to be me.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “I’m in total agreement that it should not be you,” he replied firmly. “He has been distracted by you to the point of having atypical errors in his work.” He tapped the pile of papers on the table. “As in this from last night. Such distraction can be devastating to a summoner, particularly here in the realm.”
“He’s a nice guy. But.” I sighed and shook my head. “Not only is he way too young for me, it…” I trailed off and shrugged. “I don’t feel anything beyond friendship.”
Mzatal gave a decisive nod. “I will manage this. It cannot continue to interfere with his work. Too much is at stake.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you intend to manage it?”
“I will tell him the truth and outline the consequences.”
I was surprised Mzatal didn’t shrivel away from the look I gave him. “Dude. Seriously? You expect him to stop crushing on me because you forbid it?”
Mzatal frowned, contemplative. “Perhaps not ideal given the entanglement of human emotions, though there is no time for it to drag on,” he said, as if he actually knew what he was talking about. “If he knows you have no interest and sees how his distractions have affected his work, he will subside enough for now.”
My withering look became glacial. “Boss, you’re completely awesome in many ways, but you are so off-base with this it’s not even funny.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ve already ramped ‘No Interest’ up to eleven on the dial and, at this point, he doesn’t care if his work suffers.” I took a big gulp of coffee, then ran my fingers through my tangled hair. “Let me deal with it. Normally I’m not into direct confrontation with this sort of shit, but there’s isn’t enough time for it to fizzle out on its own.”
Mzatal regarded me with that damned unreadable mask which he’d slipped on as I was talking. Great. Lords weren’t much on being told they were wrong, but it had to be said.
After a long moment he gave a nod. “You are correct. It will serve better—for all of us—if you are the one to do this.”
“Damn,” I said, taken aback. I gave him a wry smile. “I was hoping you’d tell me I was wrong, and that I should simply slap him or something.” I chuckled, then sighed and shook my head. “Does he have some sort of favorite food or escape or activity?”
Mzatal appeared to consider for a moment. “His focal activities in the last months have been physical challenges: the cliff stairs, free climbing, running, swimming. He loses himself and finds himself there. He does have a particular liking for fruit ices.” He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Helpful?”
I nodded and drained the coffee mug. “Have some of those fruit ice things ready,” I told him. I threw the covers off and headed to the bath chamber, only realizing when I was neck deep in the water that I’d been nude. Oh well. Making Mzatal see my flabby butt was more than sufficient payback for having to confront Idris.
After the awesome bath, I headed to the workroom with my notes. I totally was not looking forward to seeing Idris, but it needed to be done, and especially before Mzatal attempted to do it his way. I snorted in amusement at Mzatal’s surprising naiveté. Forbid the crush. Right. Had the dude never read Romeo and Juliet?
The workroom was empty, and so I got busy. Mzatal had taught me each of the sigils for the foundation ring of the beacon, and even if I couldn’t align the thing yet, I could practice setting it up. It was new and pretty damn exciting. Except for the last part. Every time I tried to progress from the tenth to the eleventh, the whole series destabilized and collapsed. Every single time, and I had no idea why.
On the fifth try, I thought I had it. The tenth ring held stable. I paused, took a deep breath, and began to trace the eleventh, and before I could even blink the whole thing unwound and dissipated. “Fucking shitholes!”
Someone cleared their throat behind me. I cast a glowering glance back to see Idris. “I can’t get the stupid thing to set,” I said and brusquely started tracing anew.
“You’re starting out wrong, and by the time you get to the end, it’s propagated the error ten times,” he told me. “But you’re only missing one connection,” he said, as he moved in closer. “I’ll, um, show you if you want.”
“Sure, I’d appreciate that.” No denying he knew what the hell he was doing. And then we’d have The Talk. Yeah, that was going to be fun. Sigh.