Authors: Andy Holland
"I had no idea he was retiring, sir," Kessick said in surprise.
The General smiled cruelly. "Neither does he, but he will be finding out very soon. Not sure what persuaded anyone to promote him in the first place. He will be off to do some bureaucratic job more suited to his abilities. This is no time to have substandard commanders. Don't let me down, or you will be following him. Dismissed."
Kessick and Perak exited his office, both elated. Perak turned to Kessick, who offered Perak his hand. "I guess this is it, Perak. Congratulations on your promotion. Now that your old troops are mine, any recommendations for promotions to replace you? I guess you probably don't know them enough to say. How long do you think before they'll have completely forgotten who you were?"
"I doubt they'll live long enough to forget me under your inept leadership."
"At least I'll be able to console myself with the knowledge that you'll be unlikely to outlive them. I'd be surprised if you last a year. And then you'll be completely forgotten, leaving no trace while I continue up the ranks."
"Oh, there will be more than just a trace, Perak. I think I will go and check on your prisoners. Perhaps there will be a few red heads with a striking resemblance to me within the year."
"How dare you! They are for Wing Comm
—
"
"Exactly. I am a Wing Commander, and, oh yes, your prisoners are registered to my new command. Goodbye, Perak. Hopefully forever."
Perak could do nothing but seethe silently as Kessick walked away, whistling cheerfully. One day Kessick would die on one of his badly led raids, and as far as Perak was concerned that day couldn't come soon enough.
"Good, thanks," Crystal replied cheerfully, sitting down on Jenna's desk. "It's strange though, I was looking forward to coming back. It was such a nice feeling, flying." Their second flying lesson on the last Friday had been a particularly enjoyable one.
"It was, wasn't it?" Jenna agreed. "I know we haven't been taught to do that much yet, but it was still a lot of fun. Did you practice much over the weekend?"
"Just transforming," Crystal replied with a sigh. "My mother doesn't want me to practice flying on my own yet, and said she was too busy to look after me."
"Ah, shame," Jenna replied sympathetically. "I had a few goes with Arthur, but not that many."
Crystal could tell she was lying. She had probably spent the whole weekend in the air, but Crystal appreciated the fact that Jenna was considering her feelings for a change.
"So, what do we have now?" Crystal asked. "I couldn't find my timetable this morning."
"History, I am afraid. It's the boring teacher who spoke at assembly on the first day. I know that doesn't narrow down that much, but he managed to be even more boring than the others. He was ill last week, remember?"
Crystal groaned. "Why can't it be flying again?"
"Well, that's one thing you have in common with John," Jenna observed.
"Don't mention that stupid boy," Crystal replied. "He was annoying me every day last week. He's still asking me stupid questions. But what do you mean? What do I have in common with him?"
"I don't think he'll be looking forward to this lesson either. He looked really annoyed during that assembly. Not just bored like the rest of us, but angry with what the Professor was saying."
"What was he saying? The Professor, I mean."
"I don't know; something about our national duty. I was struggling to stay awake for most of it. He's one of these ones who never refer to the principalities as principalities. He always calls them regions. Professor Silver is the same."
"So? What does that mean?" Crystal never paid a lot of attention to politics.
"It means that they're the sort of people that don't like the fact that the Kingdom has been split up. That the King isn't as powerful as he used to be. Father warned me about people like him. They'll favour people from Furnace over everyone else. It's even worse if you're from the Western or Eastern Principalities, as they've always tended to be more independent, but even coming from the South he still might discriminate against us."
"He wouldn't dare say anything to your prince though, would he?"
Jenna shrugged. "Just watch. It'll be like Professor Silver. Haven't you noticed? He doesn't even call Arthur 'Prince Arthur', just calls him Arthur. It doesn't bother him but I'd be furious."
"Hey, shush, he's coming in to the class."
Crystal ran back to her seat as the Professor entered the room. He walked to his table and sat on it, ignoring the chair. He was a thin, balding man who glared at the class before addressing them, as if challenging them to misbehave. When he did speak, his voice was clear and crisp, and his words had a slightly angry edge to them. He reminded Crystal of Professor Silver.
"Over the next five lessons, I will be teaching you what we know about our neighbours," Professor Newt began.
"Surely one lesson would be more than enough," John muttered. Daisy sniggered.
"What was that, boy?" Professor Newt eye's bore into John, regarding him with contempt.
"Nothing, sir," John replied.
"Make sure it is nothing," Professor Newt retorted. "I won't tolerate interruptions. I will be starting by giving you a general overview of the dragon races. As you know, there were seven dragon races, Red, Blue, Green, Rhino, Brown, Sea and Worm Dragons, two of which
—
the Worm and Brown Dragons
—
are now wiped out by the Blue Dragons in their never-ending quest for territory."
John burst out laughing, to the surprise of the rest of the class.
"Something funny, boy?" Professor Newt snapped.
John stared at him incredulously. "Was any of that serious, sir?"
"Of course it was serious. You have never seen a Blue Dragon, but they are merciless, and wiped out two races, and would do the same to us given the chance."
John ignored his comment about never having seen Blue Dragons and just shook his head. "About there being just seven races. What about the Wasp Dragons, sir? Grass Dragons?"
"What are you talking about? No such thing."
"True, sir; as far as our school history books teach us, there are no Wasp Dragons, or Grass Dragons. However, there
were
, until King Simon I wiped out the Wasp Dragons about fifteen hundred years ago, and King Jerle I wiped out the Grass Dragons, just a little over a hundred years ago."
"Nonsense," Professor Newt replied dismissively. "Grass Dragons were just another name for Green Dragons. Everyone knows that. Wasp Dragons, again, were just a separate group of Brown Dragons that went to war in black and yellow paint."
"That's funny, sir, and there I was thinking that Grass Dragons were small, non-flying dragons, and Wasp Dragons were half the size of any Brown Dragon, which, again, I thought were divided into two quite different races. And we haven't even begun to discuss the other surviving races."
"That's enough! I won't be questioned by you. I don't know where you get these ridiculous ideas from, but I won't have you disrupting my class. You can either stay silent, or get out."
John visibly fumed, but stayed still.
"Good. Where was I? Yes, the Blue Dragons, who are the most aggressive…."
After the lesson, John marched out quickly, still furious with the professor. Daisy ran after him and caught him by his arm, keen to talk to him. "Hey, John, what were you talking about back there? Are there really more than five surviving races?"
John spun around. "I can't believe that anyone even needs to ask that question. And I can't believe he's allowed to teach that nonsense."
"Hey, calm down," Daisy said soothingly, trying to calm him. "We'll listen to you. Please tell me."
"Why would you want to listen to him?" Jenna asked as she and Arthur caught up. "He'll just get you into trouble with Professor Newt. You'll repeat what he tells you and get shouted at, and then you'll cry."
"Leave her alone," Arthur said angrily.
"She's right, Arthur," Crystal said, glaring at John. "Why would anyone believe him over a history professor anyway?"
"He's not a real history professor," John replied, glaring back at her. "He's a retired general who has been teaching for a couple of years. Five minutes in our military library could show you he's making it all up. Almost nothing he said in there was true."
"Well, how many races are there?" Arthur asked curiously. "How many are still surviving?"
"There are nine
—
"
"Nine!" Jenna burst out. "That's twice as many as he told us. Do you really expect us to believe that?"
"Nine groups of races," John replied firmly. "I doubt any group had less than five races originally."
"Forty-five races!" Crystal laughed. "Do we look like fools?"
"More like ninety in total," John snapped back at her. "And yes, you do look like a fool. Because it's what you are." John turned and marched away before anyone could stop him.
"John!" Daisy shouted after him. "Wait!"
"Leave him," Arthur told her. "You don't want to hang around with him."
"Whatever John says," Seth said slowly, "I'm sure that our history books don't back that up."
"Exactly," Jenna retorted. "He's making it up."
"Hmm, no I don't think so," Seth replied. "John doesn't do that. I doubt he could even tell a convincing lie."
"So what are you saying?" Crystal asked.
"I'm not sure, but I can't believe that John knows everything that he knows from just one summer reading in the library."
"But when I've asked him which book to look in, he's always told me the right one, and it confirms what he said," Daisy objected. "He really knows the books very well."
"How many times have you done that?" Crystal asked.
Daisy glared. "How does that matter?"
"Alright, so I'm guessing that Daisy has asked him only one question," Seth continued, "and I think she's right, he does know the books really well, but you're missing the point. John pointed me to a reference book last week
—
not that I asked him to, although it was rather helpful
—
but I could have sworn that it contained less detail than John seemed to know."
"How could he know more than there is in the books? Surely he's just embellishing?" Crystal asked.
"I thought so at first. I thought he was just a know-it-all and trying to show off, but I'm starting to think the opposite is true, and he's actually holding back. Do you remember that test we did in geography in the first week?"
"Yes, thank you," Crystal replied coldly. Seth had marked her paper, and she had managed to get only a third of the answers right.
"When John scored ninety-five out of a hundred?" Daisy ventured brightly.
"Yes, well John didn't actually get that score," Seth replied.
"What, he cheated?" Jenna exclaimed.
"I knew that score was too good to be true," Crystal said in contempt.
"No," Seth replied scornfully. "How could he cheat? We didn't even know we were having a test. No, his actual score was higher. I heard the Professor talking about it to the Headmaster. Apparently John passed him a note at the end of last week's class, correcting his answers. The Professor actually checked a couple of them and found that John was right."
"So he got ninety-seven?" Arthur asked in disbelief.
"At least. Every subject we've had he seems to know more than the teachers."
"So what are you saying?" Arthur asked. "He's clever, at least when it comes to these subjects, but we already knew that. Getting the scholarship isn't easy."
Seth shook his head. "No, it's more than that. Something's definitely not right about him. I don't think he does lie, but I don't trust him. Not one bit."
"You just don't like him," Daisy retorted, annoyed at the slight. "You're jealous because he has the same hair as Crystal, and you think that gives them some sort of connection."
Crystal blushed angrily. "I have no connection with John!"
Seth shook his head. "I think Crystal has made it clear what she thinks of John. No, I just don't trust him. And no, I don't like him much, but then does anyone? Other than little Daisy here of course?"
Daisy started to object but was interrupted by her brother. "Look, I think you're all taking this far too seriously. He's just a bookworm with no friends. He's probably reading right now; after all he has no one else to talk to. Personally, I think he's harmless and don't intend to give this a second thought, and I suggest you all do the same. Anyway, talking of geography, that starts now. Come on, or we will be late."
During the next lesson, the Professor announced that John's score had been revised to ninety-eight, news that was greeted by polite but quiet applause. Crystal watched John intently, but he didn't react at all, showing no sign of pride or surprise, as if this was completely unimportant. He simply nodded as Professor Easthill went through the answers that John had corrected.
During this lesson, Daniel sat at the back of the class next to a boy called Joel, near to where Seth and Crystal sat. Joel was a friend of Daniel's from the West, and was a tall, skinny boy with a permanent sneer. Like Daniel, and most of those from the West, he had straight, dark red hair, although his always looked like it could do with a wash. Crystal could hear them whispering about John, complaining that he was getting above himself.
"Look at his face," Daniel muttered. "Have you ever seen such arrogance?"
Joel shook his head. "Acts as if this happens all the time. Thinks he's better than the teachers as well as us."
Daniel nodded, still watching John. "I think he needs a bit of a bringing down to earth. We need a plan. Something to really humiliate him."
Jerome, who was seated in front of Daniel and Joel and had heard what they were talking about, turned to face them. "Don't over think it. Something simple would be best. Something that looks like an accident to a teacher, especially a simpleton like this one, but something that everyone else will recognise for what it is."
Daniel and Joel looked at each other, and leaned closer to Jerome, and whispered just loud enough for Crystal to hear him. "What do you have in mind?"
"Have you noticed how John wears that same jacket and trousers every day? They're flying clothes, similar to the ones our army uses as they're easy to transform in. He practically lives in them and I doubt he has another set. Now, look where he is sat, right next to the classroom supplies. Right next to that large ink bottle. It'd be a terrible shame if he was to get some of that ink on those clothes."