Paper and Fire (The Great Library, #2) - Rachel Caine Page 0,35

break bones. “I saw it. He went down when you shot him.”

“He was aiming at a Scholar. You know, the one we’re sworn to protect at all costs? Are you actually telling me you wouldn’t have done the same?”

“You’re lying,” Wu said. He wasn’t a bad guy, and Jess normally got along with him, but seeing that stiff, angry expression, he knew getting along wasn’t in the cards today. “Tariq would never betray us. And he’d never shoot a Scholar. That’s sick!”

They’d never accept the truth, and Jess didn’t blame them. Tariq had been a friendly sort, likable. Jess had taken pains not to be part of the group. He’d wanted to stay apart, after the pain of losing his friends from his Postulant class.

And this distrust was what caution and distance had earned him.

“I’m telling the truth, and Botha backs me up about how Tariq died. Whether I shot him or not makes no real difference. I didn’t kill him. A sniper from the rooftops did.”

“And you think you did your duty,” Wu said. The boy’s fists were clenched hard at his sides, his stare very dark and fixed. Jess knew the look. He’d faced it before. He kept his attention split, because Bransom would be the one to make the first move, if one was coming. “You’d do it again, wouldn’t you? To any one of us.”

“Yes, I’d do it again, to save a Scholar’s life. And so would you!” He was getting angry now, could feel it like a sunburn blooming under his skin. “Tariq was working with them. Maybe he wasn’t the only one.”

Wu’s face went a dangerously dark shade. “You saying we’re Burners?”

There was, Jess knew, no insult he could have given that would be greater, but there was no taking it back, and it didn’t matter. Neither of the two facing him was listening anyway; they had their minds well made up about what they thought. He was wasting breath.

The area had quietly cleared of other soldiers. Disputes between people of equal rank weren’t prohibited, unless officers were present. Bransom was about to kick it off, he thought, and he prepared to shatter her left kneecap, but just then a calm voice from the doorway said, “Is this a private two-on-one fight, or can anyone join?”

Glain Wathen stood there, looking dangerously still, despite the mild tone. A superior officer.

It broke the tension like a hammer on glass, and Wu and Bransom stepped back. “Squad Leader,” Wu said, but the look he gave Glain was chilly. “Just working something out.”

“Then do it where I can’t see you,” she said. “If any of you start something here in the Serapeum, you’re all on report, and I promise you, you do not want to see my temper just now. Are we understood?”

Her fingers tapped the seam of her trousers, and Jess knew that particular tic of hers; it meant she really was spoiling for a fight. The others must have known it, too, or at least they were aware of the dangerous light in her eyes. Bransom nodded and stepped away from Jess, and after a slight hesitation, Wu followed. “No problem, Sergeant,” Bransom said. “We’ll . . . catch up later.” When Wathen’s not around was strongly implied, but Jess didn’t much care. At least they gave fair warning.

Jess watched the other two walk out, and when they were out of earshot, he said, “Do I really look so feeble I need help, Squad Leader?” As he said it—snarled it, really—he realized that he’d been ready to fight. Eager, even.

So was she, because in three long strides Glain was across the room, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him upright from the chair. He knocked the Blank off the table, and the thump of impact froze them both for a moment as they looked down.

Then she shook him. Hard. “Go on, Brightwell, test me today. See how far you get!” He looked into her eyes, and his own restless anger and frustration faded because he saw it mirrored in hers. He slowly held up his hands, and she let go and stalked a few steps away. Paced. After a moment, she bent and picked up his book to pass it back to him.

“Should I even ask what’s put you in this mood?” he said. She cut him a look so sharp it had edges on it.

“Captain Feng. He made it abundantly clear that I have some choices to make,” Glain said. “Hard ones.”

“Your career or

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