Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (10 page)

We laughed and settled into a comfortable silence as I digested this information, until Charlie yawned loudly.

“Hey, maybe after all this excitement we should get some rest. I’ll show you round the Quarter tomorrow, it’ll be an adventure!”

Then I was yawning too. Thoughts of more adventure seemed entirely too exhausting. I drained the last of the wine from my glass and stood, Charlie following suit. He patted me on the shoulder as he headed for his door.

“Good to finally be here, eh?”

“It sure is. ‘Night Charlie, hope you sleep well.”

“You too, kiddo. You too.”

hen I woke I was utterly disorientated. I hadn’t managed to close my curtains properly before falling into bed, and sunlight was streaming in the windows. I rolled over with a groan and tried to block out the light and go back to sleep but the enormity of the previous day’s events and the realisation that we were finally here roused me from drowsiness. I pulled the curtains and gasped a little as the full splendour of Lille was lit by broad daylight. Our Hall was right on the south edge of the Nea’thi Quarter. Laid out in front of me was a jumble of Human-style buildings and beyond them glittered the lake. I opened a window and fresh air flooded in, along with the sounds of the city – people shouting and laughing, dogs barking, and the faint sound of waves washing on the lake shore. When I stuck my head out the window and craned to the left I could just see the castle, huge and majestic perched atop its island. Out my right window I could see the edge of the Quarter and the expanse of the city, trailing down to the docks in the west. Even from this distance I could see the activity, fishing boats that looked like toys were being swarmed over by tiny figures bringing in the
catch. It would seem that not everyone in the city had the luxury of a weekend.

The sun was high up in the sky and I realised I must have slept through most of the morning. As if on cue my belly rumbled and I began to get ready to go find some breakfast. I pulled on my cleanest clothes, though they were still a bit travel-stained and grubby. Clearly I would have to find the laundry. I wondered if I had enough coin to buy some new clothes, perhaps something a bit more fashionable for my new city life. An image of Sallagh’s perfect face flashed into my mind. Yes, well, looking good certainly would be a help with the ladies, she hadn’t seemed that impressed with my appearance last night.

Out in our living room I found Charlie surrounded by half-empty boxes, humming happily to himself.

“Jas! You’re up! Hell kid, I thought you were going to sleep forever!”

“You could have woken me,” I replied grumpily, picking my way through the chaos to the bathroom to relieve myself. When I came back in Charlie was standing proudly in front of the fireplace, already swept and set again, ready for the evening.

“Here, I got you some breakfast, how about I go and grab us some coffee?”

Without waiting for a reply he bounded out of the room and I could hear his footsteps thumping faintly on the stairs as he made his way up to the kitchen. There was a plate of pastries on the side table which I greedily devoured, belatedly hoping Charlie hadn’t wanted any. He returned, holding a big pitcher of coffee and two mugs which he poured for us both, handing me one before sitting, cradling his steaming drink.

“Look, all my stuff has arrived! I had it sent straight from Fortesta when I knew I was coming here, but I didn’t expect it to arrive so soon!”

“Yeah, cool,” I muttered, still half asleep.

Charlie laughed and drained his mug freakishly quickly, the coffee was still boiling hot.

“Ooh, I have to show you these.” He bounced up and retrieved two small, flat items from one of the boxes. “My most
treasured possessions,” he said proudly, removing their brown paper wrapping and offering them for my inspection. They were two watercolour paintings, framed in gilt. One was a delicate landscape, of Lille I realised, looking over the lake towards the city from the direction we had entered yesterday. It was minutely detailed, the washes of colour giving it a dreamlike, yet familiar feeling, reflected patches of sun on the lake seeming almost to glimmer. I gasped when I noticed the signature.

“Ashlu? Seriously? This must be worth a fortune!” Charlie grinned and nodded, and I handed it back to him to scrutinise the other painting. It was a portrait of an attractive Nea’thi woman. Unused to Nea’thi measures of beauty, I could still tell that she was remarkably handsome. Her grey skin was slightly green in hue and her eyes, huge even by Nea’thi standards, were so red as to be almost violet. Her long white hair was coiled gracefully and her generous lips were slightly curved, as if she had been caught enjoying some private joke. The tiny signature in the bottom right-hand corner was the same – Ashlu 583.

“Gosh Charlie, she’s pretty. Who is she?” I looked up to see Charlie blushing slightly.

“She was… a good friend of mine. She was very kind to me when I was first here as a Journeyman.”

“Oh yeah?” I was disbelieving. Charlie would hardly have had Ashlu paint a portrait of a mere ‘friend’.

“Oh, yes, well. Consider it a young man’s crush on a beautiful older woman.” He sighed wistfully and I raised my eyebrows at him. “Oh, nothing happened! Nothing like that!”

“Hmph, yeah, sure. How on earth did you manage to get hold of these?” Ashlu was the most famous artist of our time, renowned throughout the country. For the past twenty-odd years he had held the contract for painting the portraits of the Candidates at election time, but a private commission would cost a ridiculously huge amount of money.

Charlie chuckled. “They were payment for some help I gave him.”

“Really? That must have been some help!”

“Ha, yeah, you do end up doing some very odd jobs when you’re a Journeyman for sure. I helped him with some… difficult customers.”

“You magicked them?”

“Oh Jas, always so suspicious. I hardly had to use my Hầұeӣ at all! I’m very good with Humans you know, that’s why I became a Mentor!”

“Oh!” I had never considered why Charlie had chosen this particular career. “So what’s he like then, this famous artist?”

Charlie hooted. “Mad as a hatter! Like all genius-types I suppose, that’s why he needed my help – not much in the way of social skills. Hold up, I’ll just hang this one here,” he moved over to the fireplace and lined up a round black blob on the back of the landscape with a similar one on the wall. He closed his eyes in concentration for a second then pulled his hands away, the painting remained fixed to the wall.

“Your, uh,
Hyaven
?”

“Indeed! Handy stuff this magic business eh?” He took the portrait from me, “But this one’s going in my room.” He grinned sheepishly and disappeared into his bedroom to hang the painting.

I finished my coffee and poured another from the pitcher, then went to examine the half-full bookshelves. Most of the books appeared to be in Nea’thi, judging by the strange gilded lettering on the bound leather spines, but there were a few in the Human language. One particularly hefty tome was a dictionary, but there were volumes of Human history, along with psychology textbooks written by Human doctors.

“Oh!” exclaimed Charlie, re-entering the room, “I’ll unpack the rest of those later. There’s some you might find interesting, there’s even some romantic novels,” he said with a wink. “Though I doubt you’ll have much time for pleasure reading, I’ve got a list here from the Academy of the texts you’ll need.” He fished in a pocket of his robe and pulled out a carefully folded piece of paper. I groaned, the list contained the titles of about twenty texts that I had to buy. The purse of coins my father had given me was generous, to be sure, but if I had to buy clothes as well…

“Don’t worry Jas, textbooks are definitely classed as essentials for the Bloodkin, so the Academy will purchase them for you. It’s a rather wealthy institution, you know.”

“Oh, ah, that’s good then. I was thinking perhaps I would need some new clothes and stuff. Most of mine are a bit wrecked from the ride.” Yes, my clothes had certainly suffered from hours on horseback, especially in the seat department, but curiously Charlie’s black robes hadn’t even a light covering of dust. I remembered I had noticed this when we first met and I commented on it now.

“Nea’thi-weave, my friend. Imbued with all sorts of Hầұeӣ to ward off dirt and the like. I’ve never been much interested in the more domestic applications of the craft, so I really have no idea how they do it.” He paused, frowning at his robes. “I mean, I can see
what
they’ve done, but
how…
” He grinned, “I guess that’s why I’m not a weaver! Of course Jas, we’ll get you some new clothes, I’m pretty sure they come under essentials too. We should get you some robes as well, which will mark you as Nea’thi-Blood. Handy in a big city.”

Gosh, robes could be cool. They looked comfortable. And warm. Winters at home were reasonably mild, and it hardly ever snowed, but Lille was considerably further north than Jaelshead and warmth would be good. Not that I could ever imagine the Hall getting chilly, what with the number of fires I had already seen burning in the place, and I assumed the Academy itself would be similar, with the Nea’thi strong dislike of cold.

Still, I reckoned I would cut rather a dashing figure in proper robes, and I bet girls would simply love a man who could do magic.

“Alright JJ, ready to go?”

I grabbed my coin-purse, just in case, and followed Charlie out of our rooms and down the hallway. It was quiet up here, everybody else must have had a head start on us. Down in the reception Eve gave us a friendly wave and confirmed it.

“All the others are out and about already, you two had a good sleep-in! Are you settling in alright Jaseth?” She fixed me with her great orangey eyes.

“Oh, yes, thank you Myn Eve, everything is most comfortable.”

She chuckled and nodded at me. “That’s excellent. Oh, and before I forget, your horses have been taken to the common ostlery, out past the docks. They will be well looked after there and get plenty of exercise, don’t you worry! If you need them, just let me know and I’ll send a Journeyman down to fetch them for you. Useful creatures, these Journeymen, hardly seems ten years since you were one yourself Ϛaioћ! Now be back by dark you two, seeing as everyone is in residence now I thought we’d have a bit of a dinner party.”

“That sounds marvellous, thank you Yұieӣấ, we will see you tonight.” Charlie grinned at her and he led me out through the massive front door and into the daylight.

The Nea’thi Quarter by day was quite different to how it had seemed last night. The lane to the Hall door was narrow and quiet. I had been right about the shading the colourful fabric canopies provided – light filtered down gently and although the late summer morning was getting hot it was balmy and comfortable on the street. The lane twisted away from the Hall and the quiet was abruptly gone. We found ourselves on a corner and the weekend crowds were out in full leisurely force. It must have been more of a main street, but it was still narrow. Nea’thi in groups and pairs wandered slowly, enjoying the day. There were also plenty of Humans here too, conspicuous in their Human-style dress. Just like mine, I thought.

Doorways everywhere were open, and ground-floor windows were unshuttered and thrown wide. I could see into the gently glowing interiors. Many were private dwellings obviously, but their occupants, seated on plump couches or around dining tables could see out onto the street, calling out greetings to passing acquaintances. We turned onto a lane that led away from the lake, and through gaps in the canopies I could see the hills ahead of us stretching away on either side, covered with grand mansions glinting in the morning sun. Down here in the Quarter, however, all the buildings were made of the curious black stone that seemed to gather up the light. On a corner slightly more
open to the sky a café of sorts was open, delicious smells were wafting out the windows and chairs and tables were set up under sun umbrellas on the generous pavement outside. Groups of Humans and Nea’thi sat sipping coffees and sharing moss-pipes. The lane we turned down had a number of shops along its length, signs outside their doors marking the trades they were plying. We passed leather-workers and weavers, a shop that sold furniture and an intriguing apothecary, whose shelves of jewel-coloured potions glowed invitingly. Further down we came to a tailor and Charlie led me inside. Racks of Nea’thi-style robes hung in rows down one end, bolts of fabric were stacked neatly at the far wall, and couches were set up under the windows that were open to the street. To my surprise a middle-aged Human woman appeared from a door behind the counter as she heard us come in. She waved us over.