Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,25

beds along one wall and three on the other, with a desk in the corner.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked, sitting down on the opposite side of the bed. Of course the next thing she did was stick a thermometer into Spirit’s mouth so she couldn’t answer the question. That was strangely reassuring—at least some things were normal here! She took Spirit’s wrist in her hand, counting her pulse, and then took her blood pressure before removing the thermometer. “Well, everything seems to be in order,” she said cheerfully. “I’m Ms. Bradford, the school nurse. You’re in the Infirmary. Apparently you fainted during Testing.”

Spirit could hear the capital letter in Ms. Bradford’s voice when she said “Testing.” Ms. Smith had said it wasn’t possible to flunk. Apparently she had.

“I want you to stay here and rest for another half hour, then you can dress and get up. You’ve missed lunch, but I can call the kitchen and get a sandwich sent over,” Ms. Bradford said.

“I’m not hungry,” Spirit said hastily. How long had she been passed out for? There wasn’t a clock anywhere she could see.

“Skipping meals never did anybody any good,” Ms. Bradford said darkly. She got to her feet. “Just yell if you need something. I’ll let your friends come in now. Is that all right?”

“Yeah. Sure.” She looked at Loch, frowning a little.

“It’s after three,” he said, glancing at his watch. “When I didn’t see you at lunch, I started asking around, and found out you were here. But they wouldn’t let me come and see you until after I was finished with Orientation.”

“I guess you—” Spirit began.

“I thought you promised no emo suicide attempts!” Muirin said, bouncing in through the open doorway. Addie and Burke followed. Both of them looked worried about her.

“I didn’t—” Spirit protested, struggling to sit up.

“Ignore the cat; she’s just trying to make trouble,” Burke said.

Loch got to his feet politely, and Muirin promptly sat down in the chair he’d vacated. Addie tsked and went to get her own chair. Loch came around the bed and sat down on the other side.

“Everybody knows you didn’t do anything stupid,” Burke went on. “You just ran into some problems during Testing.”

“She fell on her face,” Muirin said flatly. “I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone before—and before anyone says anything, no, I have not been here since Oakhurst was founded in 1973. But people talk. Trust me. Nobody’s ever fainted during Testing.”

“That makes me feel great,” Spirit muttered, sitting back against the headboard. She felt better than she thought she should: everyone kept saying she’d fainted, but she didn’t know of any “faints” that lasted four or five hours. She glanced at Loch. “I guess yours went okay?”

Loch shrugged. “Pretty much. I’ve got minor Gifts from two Schools—you got that far, right?” he asked, and, when Spirit nodded, “—Kenning and Shadewalking—that’s School of Air—and Pathfinding—that’s School of Earth. It’s supposed to be kind of rare to get Earth and Air gifts together, even when you do get Gifts from two Schools. Ms. Smith says they really all kind of go together, though.” He shrugged. “I guess I’ll find out more about them later.”

“Well, Pathfinding’s a good one to have,” Burke said, smiling at Loch. “A Pathfinder always knows exactly where they are and can find their way from place to place without a map, whether they’ve been to where they want to go before or not. When you get really good with it, you’ll even be able to describe the place you want to go before you’ve seen it.”

“Cool,” Loch said, looking impressed.

“Shadewalking’s better,” Muirin said. “I wish I’d gotten that. You can make yourself just about invisible—and move silently, too.” She frowned. “I’m not sure what Kenning is, though. Nobody I know has it, even if it is an Air Gift.”

“Well, in Old English, ‘to ken’ something was to know it,” Addie said. “Maybe it has something to do with that.”

“Maybe,” Loch said, looking excited. “It was so strange—I was nervous about the whole thing, and at first I couldn’t decide which of the things on the table to pick. But I kept going back to the feathers, and I picked them, but it didn’t seem as if I was done, and Doctor Ambrosius said I should see if one of the other elements resonated with me, too, and, so, well, there was a cachepot of begonias on the table, and I sort of liked that.” He shrugged, looking a little