Steelhands - Jaida Jones [82]
“Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about this ‘fever’ the past few days,” Adamo said a little skeptically. “Lots of kids been out with that one lately. Guess it’s really becoming an epidemic.”
“I don’t like what your tone’s implying,” I replied. Somewhere above me, on the stairs, I heard a strangled groan. That was Toverre, on the verge of collapse. “You can ask my physician—Margrave Germaine—whether or not I was in her offices yesterday. If I wanted to skip out on one of your lectures, it probably would’ve been the one you spent getting sidetracked about how pointless naval battles are these days. And I wouldn’t’ve come up to tell you about it afterward, either. I’m no liar. But if I was, I wouldn’t be a bad one.”
Adamo blinked, so that for a second I almost thought I’d gotten one in past all his defenses. I hoped not. What kind of Chief Sergeant—ex or no—would he be if I could win a round with him? He was probably just trying to decide the best way to kick me out of the ’Versity, now that I’d gone and let my mouth get the better of me again.
“Margrave Germaine, you say,” Adamo said at last, just as I was about to offer to escort myself off the premises for him. “I’m gonna remember that.”
“You can, if you like,” I said, making a concentrated effort now to keep from banging the final nail into Toverre’s coffin all by myself. “And all you’ll find out is that I’m telling you the truth.”
“You’ll have to forgive my skepticism,” Adamo replied, not sounding like he wanted my forgiveness at all.
“Oh, will I?” I asked.
“And naval battles are pointless if there’s no water between you,” Adamo added. He crossed his big arms over his chest, like he couldn’t quite let that one rest. “Even worse if you’re going after a string of islands like the Kirils, since it’s costing you all that money to go forth and back, and meanwhile they’re just sitting on their dockyards laughing at you as you waste good fuel.”
I wanted to laugh at the thought, but I felt like Toverre might’ve taken it as the last straw, so I smiled instead.
“Sounds to me like you don’t much like the water,” I pointed out.
“Ever been down to the Mollydocks?” Adamo asked, before he stopped, looking cross with himself. “No. ’Course you haven’t. And you shouldn’t go down there, either. And if you do go down there, don’t say I sent you. My point is, anyone who takes to that water’s been landed one too many blows to the head. Me, I’ll stick to the ground.”
“Well, not entirely,” I ventured. Adamo hmmphed. “I guess after having been up in the air, nothing else seems quite as good?”
“Nah,” Adamo said, scratching the back of his neck. “You can say that again.”
It felt like a moment to be quiet, so I somehow managed to button my lip for the pause, giving him a minute to remember whatever it was he was thinking about.
Da said the war did all kinds of things to people before it was over, and I’d seen some of the effects firsthand when a few of the boys came back and weren’t quite able to look anyone in the eyes. I figured that if I’d been the one riding a dragon every day for years only to wake up and be told I couldn’t do it anymore, I’d’ve been a little out of sorts, too. No wonder the man was so ornery all the time, like his britches were bunched up too tight.
The Chief Sergeant’s horrible little assistant cleared his throat, which I was probably meant to take as a sign to curtsy and get out. Either that, or he was real keen to get back to the debate I’d saved him from losing. Some people just didn’t know how to show gratitude.
“Look, if you’re really interested in hearing about Ke-Han strategies, you can come by my office sometime,” Adamo suggested, snapping to all at once. “At least, if I have one of those. They said something about me having an office. Radomir, where’s my office?”
“It’s Cathery 306,” Radomir said, looking greatly put-upon. “That’s this building,