Read Gloria Oliver for Free Online Page B

her head.
    So Kel willingly went through this agony day after day? She shook her head, not able to understand it.
    “Come on, we’ve got more to show you!” Mandee waved them on.
    Briskly, they followed the road from the dragon landing area and went around the right side of the school to the back. Talia spotted the small, bubbling lake the girls mentioned to her earlier and the tiny river winding away from it, which turned into a waterfall at the end of the mesa. A short distance away was a large pit filled partway with the same dark excrement Clarence left for her parents. Two men were there, scooping some of it out onto wheelbarrows. Later, she saw the two men head off back toward the fields.
    She wondered if it made good fertilizer. She remembered how Clarence told her parents it was worth a lot of money to alchemists. Could excrement have so many uses? She did notice, just as Mandee mentioned, that there didn’t seem to be much of a smell, unlike when he used her father’s field.
    Several poles lined the far edge of the area with globes similar to those in her room. At the moment, however, they weren’t lit.
    They walked on past the dragon’s domicile to the hilly area beyond the garden. Though they didn’t get too close, mostly at Yllin’s insistence, Mandee pointed out to Talia where the store master’s cave was.
    They didn’t linger there long and soon made their way back into the school building.
    Inside, they walked around the first floor, and her new friends showed Talia the offices they knew as well as where they went to class. The last thing they went to visit was the immense library on the opposite side of the building from where the dining hall was—and it was almost as big. She stared as they walked past row upon row of books. “Will we have to read them all?” A tone of both wonder and trepidation filled her voice.
    Mandee laughed. “Thankfully, no, we won’t. Though I’m sure we will need to read some of them. And not all of them are for study anyway.” She pointed off to the far back. “The section over there is all legends and stories.”
    From what she could see of them, Talia noticed those books looked more worn than the rest of the ones in the library. Even now, it seemed to be the area with the most students gathered about.
    When they were done there, Yllin and Mandee both asked to see her room. Once they stepped inside, Yllin slipped the bar across the door. If the danger from these “peepers”, as she called them, really existed, would it really matter right now since they were fully clothed? Talia decided not to comment on it.
    Mandee deftly climbed up onto the higher bunk bed and bounced on the thick mattress. “Aren’t all these rooms great?”
    “Definitely bigger than what I had at home,” Talia replied. She stared at the wide room around her, still not quite able to believe all this space was hers alone.
    “It does have some drawbacks…” Yllin walked over to the tub. “Every week we have to empty the water and fill it up again.” She glanced over at Talia. “Not that it ever gets dirty or really gets low.” She pointed to the buckets by the water basin. “It’s what those are for.”
    “Yeah, it wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have to drag them all the way from the lake.” Mandee sighed.
    “At least we get to just throw the old water out the balcony.” She jumped off the bed.
    “But how does the water stay hot?” Talia asked. She noticed wisps of steam still rising from the surface.
    Mandee shrugged. “It’s magic. They use it a lot around here. So a lot of stuff doesn’t work like we’re used to.”
    “I’m pretty sure the whole water thing is just to keep us busy, too,” Yllin said glumly, “Because if their magic can keep the water clean and warm, it could keep itself full.”
    “Oh.” Magic—it would explain the lights in her room as well. As with dragons, it was something Talia knew existed, but she’d not been exposed to any of it