The Academy Page 20

  “Hold out your finger,” he said.

  Hesitantly, I held out my right index finger—the one I had swabbed. “Are you going to—”

  “I’ll make it quick,” he said and jabbed the tender pad of my finger with the needle.

  I let out a startled yelp and was about to put the hurt finger in my mouth but North shook his head.

  “No, don’t. We need the blood.” Then he jabbed his own finger and put down the needle.

  “For what?”

  “For this.” I watched as a bright crimson drop welled on his fingertip and then North pressed his wounded finger to mine, mingling our blood. “Now,” he said, “Repeat after me: You are the brother of my heart, the brother of my soul. I swear here and now to be true to you, to stand ever at your side in times of peace and times of danger. I will let nothing come between us—not war, nor women, nor wine. I will live by your side and die by your side, true even unto death. So swear I this sacred pact by the blood we now share.”

  “Wow,” I whispered, taking a moment to absorb the words. It was a heavy oath—not that I minded taking it. I wanted everything North was offering me—wanted it badly. I just wished I could offer myself to him as wholeheartedly and unreservedly as he was offering himself to me. But for right now, this was the best I could do.

  “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. If you don’t feel it,” North murmured, studying me intently. “It’s not something to be taken lightly. These words will bind us together. Forever.”

  I realized I had taken too long to repeat the oath. “I know,” I assured him. “And I want that—want us to be bound together. I’m just…trying to take it in.” I looked into his eyes. “But I do want to say it to you, North. Very much.”

  “I’m glad.” In the dim light of the bedside lamp, his pale blue eyes seemed bottomless. I realized I could sit there staring at him all night—he was so perfect. So beautiful. For a moment I had a twinge of conscience. Here I was promising him absolute fidelity and he still didn’t know my deepest secret. But I couldn’t back out now.

  It’s just friendship he’s offering me, I reminded myself uneasily. A very strong and committed friendship but it’s not like he offered me his heart or his love.

  Taking a deep breath, I repeated the words of the solemn oath, looking into North’s face as I did. I only stumbled over the words once or twice and he helped me, murmuring the correct wording so I could finish taking the vow. When I finished, he nodded his head. “Good. Now for the token.”

  “What kind of token?” I asked, taking back my finger and blotting it on the sleeve of my pajamas. It didn’t take much blotting—the small wound was already almost closed.

  “I told you, it has to be something we both wear. Hmm…” North looked around his room, frowning in concentration. “When they used to do this as a more formal ceremony, they have special rings already made up. Or sometimes they do a gold chain with the symbol for brotherhood stamped on it…” He smiled at me. “I’ve got it.”

  “What?” I asked, wondering what he would come up with next.

  “This.” Reaching up, he unfastened one of the platinum and onyx studs he always wore. They were so much a part of him his right ear looked naked without the small but precious adornment.

  My heart leapt into my throat. Though it was common for males to have their ears pierced, no lady in my home province of Victoria would ever consider it. Putting a hole in your body, no matter how small, was a sign of your willingness to be penetrated elsewhere. In other words, only prossies pierced their ears.

  “Oh no, North,” I protested as he held the small black and silver stud out to me. “I couldn’t.”

  “Of course you can,” he said roughly. “I want you to.”

  “But…but they must be special to you,” I pointed out, trying to think of another reason to refuse that wouldn’t hurt his feelings. “You never, ever take them off.”

  “They were Jamie’s last gift to me,” he admitted. “That’s why I never take them off. But it’s also why I want you to have one.”

  I began to protest again but he put the stud in my palm and closed my fingers around it. “This is important,” he murmured, looking me in the eyes. “Jamie…he wouldn’t mind. He’d be glad I found someone so…so important to me. Another brother.”

  “Another brother,” I repeated softly. Those words as well as the look in his piercing blue eyes melted all the rest of my resistance. There was no way I could refuse what he was offering. “All right, North,” I whispered. “I’ll be proud to wear your token. But you’ll have to put it in for me—at least the first time.”

  He frowned. “Why?”

  “Because, my ears aren’t pierced.” I tilted my chin, showing my unmarked earlobes. “See?”

  “Right. I didn’t know that.” He frowned. “Do you really want me to do it—to pierce your ear?”

  I took a deep breath. “If it’s the only way I can wear your token then yes, I want you to.”

  “It’s going to hurt,” he warned, as he ripped open another alcohol swab.

  I thought of the caning he’d taken in my place, of the intense physical anguish he had endured for me. “I don’t care,” I said, lifting my chin. And I don’t care what anyone back home would think either, I told myself defiantly. The gesture that North was making when he offered me his token to wear was more important than any pain or censure I might bear because of it. “Just do it,” I told him, closing my eyes. “Do it and make it quick.”

  “As quick as I can,” he promised. I gasped when I felt something cold touch my ear and North laughed. “That’s just the alcohol, shorty.”

  “Don’t call me that,” I protested. “You know I don’t li—”

  But my words were cut off when North grasped my right earlobe firmly between his thumb and finger and pierced my flesh with the long, silver needle.

  I gasped again and jerked but by that time it was already over.

  “Easy now, it’s okay,” North murmured. Swiftly he removed the needle and replaced it with the silver and onyx stud which he had cleaned thoroughly with the third and last alcohol swab. “There.” He sat back and studied me critically, admiring his own handiwork. “All done. And not too bad a job considering the way you jumped.”

  “I didn’t mean to.” I put up my hand and touched my throbbing earlobe gingerly, tracing the foreign shape of the stud now fixed in my flesh. I held my hand in front of my eyes and studied my fingertips suspiciously but there was no telltale crimson mark to show that I had been pierced. “I’m not even bleeding,” I said, surprised.

  “These swabs contain a coagulate,” North said, gathering up the used swabs and cleaning the needle before putting it back in the mending kit. “That’s why I coated the post with it before I put it in your ear. You’ll be fine.” He clapped me on the back and smiled. “You feel okay, right?”

  “Yes…” I whispered a little uncertainly. It felt strange to have something foreign piercing my body. Strange and a bit unsettling. And there was also the fact that anyone from Victoria would think I was peddling myself if they saw me with the small, simple adornment in my ear. But I tried my best not to think about that.

  “Hey…” North put a hand on my shoulder and ducked his head, looking into my eyes. “Are you sorry? Do you want to give it back?” His voice was tight but he held his face under control well. Only his eyes, blazing in the dim light gave away his emotions.

  “Never,” I assured him, wanting to ease the uncertainty I saw in his eyes. “I want this, North. I want to be this—to be a…a brother to you. And I’m touched that you want to be a brother to me.”

  “A brother. Right.” He looked at me for such a long time I began to feel uneasy again.

  “That is what you said, right?” I asked. “You said we’d be sworn brothers.”

  “Of course.” North sighed. “Come on, squirt, let’s get to bed. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

  I snuggled down beside him in bed, close enough this time to
feel the heat from his big body radiating across the narrow strip of sheet that separated us. I thought at first that the dull throbbing in my newly pierced ear and the strangeness of the situation would keep me awake. But it had been a long day in every sense of the word. The exercise I’d gotten during my first swimming lesson and the heightened emotions I’d experienced combined to make me feel suddenly exhausted.

  “Good night, North,” I murmured, as sleep began to overtake me.

  “Good night, Kris,” he replied and his deep voice in the darkness was very soothing. I thought he said something else but I was too tired to catch it. With a contented sigh, I let myself drift off to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “Rise and shine. Time for your second swim lesson!”

  I groaned and tried to cover my head with the pillow but North snatched it away. “We’re on break,” I complained. “Why can’t we sleep in?”

  “Because later in the day the waves will be too high. Come on.” He stripped away my blankets, leaving me shivering.

  “I never asked to learn how to swim,” I grumbled, getting up at last.

  “Just consider it a bonus.” North ruffled my short hair, then held me by the shoulders.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, both uncomfortable and excited when he leaned close to me, his breath warm against the side of my neck.

  “Examining your piercing.” He touched my ear lightly, tracing its curve with his fingertips. The tender caress sent shivers down my spine.

  “How…how does it look?” I asked, my heart pounding.

  He shrugged and smiled. “Looks good. Not bad for a middle of the night job.” Then, to my surprise, he kissed me swiftly on the cheek before straightening up.

  “North?” I looked up at him, confused. My fingers crept up to touch the tingling spot where his lips had brushed my skin.

  “You greet your sworn brother with a kiss,” he explained gruffly, turning a little red. “It’s tradition.”

  “It is? Can I…I mean, am I supposed to kiss you too?” I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.

  He shrugged, apparently unconcerned, but his eyes blazed. “If you want.”

  “I do,” I whispered. Hesitantly, I took a step forward and reached up to put my hands on his shoulders. He was so tall I had to stand on my tiptoes but I managed just the same.

  North stood absolutely still, his pale blue eyes filled with some emotion I couldn’t read, as we drew closer. I had the terrible and very unladylike urge to kiss him on the mouth instead of the cheek. His spicy, masculine scent filled my senses and his lips looked so warm and deliciously inviting that I nearly succumbed. At the last moment, though, common sense intervened and I pressed a soft, chaste kiss to his cheek, near the corner of his mouth instead.

  Pulling back, I looked up into his eyes. “Good morning, North,” I said quietly, though my pulse was racing.

  He brushed my hot cheek with the back of his hand and his touch sent a shower of sparks rushing through my veins. “Morning, Kris,” he murmured.

  Our eyes locked and held and I felt something between us—was it really only brotherly affection? I knew I had never felt this way for my own brother, but North had said that the bonds of sworn brotherhood exceeded and surpassed any other relationship.

  I’m not sure what might have happened if North’s mother hadn’t chosen that moment to rap on the door. “Boys!” she trilled. “Breakfast in five, all right?”

  North jumped and looked at the door guiltily, as though wondering if his mother could see through the wooden panel. “Be right there, Mom,” he called.

  The strange moment between us was broken and I wasn’t sure if I was sorry about it or not. On one hand, being so close to North was dangerous—the closer we got, the more likely he was to discover my secret. On the other hand, his very closeness was like a drug to me—one I couldn’t get enough of. Just being near him made my heart race and my mouth go dry. And when he’d kissed me and let me kiss him…the sensations were unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I wanted more of that sweet euphoria, even though I knew it was dangerous.

  Breakfast was a crispy bread-like thing North’s mother called a 'waffle', another treat from Earth-that-was. North covered his in sweet, sticky syrup but I preferred to spread dark purple hunna berry jam on mine. It was a delicious change from the dismal cafeteria food we got at the Academy and I told his mother so enthusiastically.

  “I’m so glad you like it, dear.” She smiled at me and I saw her eyes catch and hold briefly on the silver and onyx stud in my newly-pierced right ear. Her smile faltered a little but she said nothing and went back to making more waffles in the strange two sided device she called an 'iron'.

  I put my hand to my ear automatically and looked at North but he was concentrating on his breakfast. I couldn’t tell if he had seen his mother’s worried look or not. Troubled, I went back to my own breakfast, though the hunna berry jam now seemed cloying and too sweet on my tongue.

  How would his mother feel if she knew what had been going on between North and myself? And for that matter, what had been going on between us? Was there more to the pact of sworn brotherhood than I knew about? A deeper, more intimate bond that I had yet to explore? The idea made me shiver in fearful anticipation. What would the rest of my stay with North and his family hold?

  I forgot all about my worries the moment we stepped into the ocean and the cool, restless waves tickled my legs. Prometheus rising over the silvery-blue sea was a dazzling sight and the huge shadow of Zeus far in the sky above us only added to its glory.

  “C’mon, shorty,” North said, tugging at my elbow. “You can admire the view later. Right now we need to work on your swimming.”

  “All right.” Reluctantly, I let him lead me deeper into the waves until the water was almost up to my chin. I shivered until I finally got used to the cooler temperature and then I was all right—well, as all right as I could be clinging to North’s arm so that the waves didn’t carry me away.

  We worked on floating to start with and then North coaxed me into putting my head underwater. Just a little at first but when he explained how to blow bubbles through my nose, I began to get the hang of it. As long as I felt his strong hands on my body, I knew I was safe and I began to get braver and braver. By the end of an hour, I was actually swimming a few strokes—with North still holding me lightly by the waist, that was. I was excited and exhilarated at the progress I’d made and North obviously felt the same.

  “You’re doing great,” he said approvingly, when I popped up above the waves and shook my head to get the water out of my ears. “Keep it up and you’ll be trying out for the swim team when we get back for spring semester.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so, North,” I said, thinking of the tiny, skimpy outfits the swim team wore. “There’s no way I could ever get that advanced. But it’s nice of you to say.”

  “Just keep working on it,” he said. “We’ll swim every day, morning and evening—you’ll be surprised at how much progress you make.” He squinted up at the sky. “Looks like it’s time to get out for now, though. The big swells will be coming in soon.”

  “Big swells?” I asked as he grabbed my wrist and led me toward the shore.

  “Really big waves—the tides here are extreme because of the pull Zeus exerts on Apollo. Even experienced swimmers avoid going out during the swells and you’re still a beginner.”

  “All right,” I said, acceding to his superior knowledge. I was tired from the long lesson anyway and glad for a chance to rest.

  “I’ll take you back to town,” North said as we dried off and wrapped our towels around our waists. “There’re a lot of touristy things to do—shops and monuments and the aquarium…” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Is that okay?”

  “It sounds wonderful.” I smiled at him. Honestly, I would have been happy to do anything with him. If he’d suggested that we sit side by side and watch paint dry I would have eagerly consented.

 
; “Great.” North smiled back. “Let’s go change clothes and get a hover-cab.” Casually, he reached for my hand, entwining our fingers.

  My heart nearly stopped in my chest. He’d never held my hand before and this wasn’t the way you held hands with your friend or your brother, either. It was the way lovers held hands—at least in Victoria. “North?” I said uncertainly, staring down at our entwined fingers.

  “It’s okay,” he said casually. “We’re brothers now—remember?”

  “Uh, sure.” I nodded and North frowned.

  “Unless it bothers you. Does it?”