Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (20 page)

woke up nervous. Ever since Charlie had appeared at the Manor I had been excited. Excited about going to the Capitol, pleased to be not just a Lord’s heir, and somehow relieved by the diagnosis that I was Nea’thi-Blood. Everything had moved so fast, and ever since we had been in Lille I had been kept too busy to be apprehensive about what studying at the Academy would entail. Now it was finally upon me, I was nervous. I wasn’t stupid – the tutors at home had schooled me diligently and had commented that I was an intelligent boy, but learning about
Hyaven
– magic! – was a completely different story.

After bathing and dressing in my linen robe, still fresh and clean after the weekend, we went to breakfast in the common room. There was an air of quiet anxiety among the Humans as we ate our bacon and eggs with toast and drank mugs of hot coffee. Afterwards in my room I gathered my pen and one of the blank journals and Charlie and I went to meet the others in the Hall’s reception so we could all walk to the Academy together. Telgeth and Thomas were the last to join us, Thomas almost
pushing Telgeth down the stairs as he tried to flatten his sleep-mussed hair.

Eve popped her head round the door and wished us a good morning, informing us that lunch would be ready back at the Hall in the midday break between classes. We shuffled a bit, all of us wearing our robes – except Sallagh of course – and carrying books and pens. Lolitha had lined her eyes with kohl again, and stared defiantly at Sallagh who pretended to ignore her. Jimmy broke the tension by flinging open the front door of the Hall and he led us out into the lane. We turned right at the end, away from the Quarter and down the street that led to the jetty we had used the day before, but we turned left before we got to the lake, onto a surprisingly wide, tree-lined avenue. The buildings on either side were no longer built from the dark, light-absorbing stone of the Nea’thi Quarter, but the paler grey slate that glittered with tiny crystals that was native to the Lille region. At the end of the avenue was a wide quadrangle of grass, peppered with mature plane trees, offering moments of respite from the glare of the morning sun. Three sides of the quad were flanked with imposing buildings, each with four storeys of arched windows. Stone gargoyles peeked from corners as Jimmy guided us unhesitatingly through the great wooden doors of the middle building and into the Academy, its parquet floors smoothed by the passage of six centuries’ worth of foot traffic.

Inside we were met by Myr Roderick and a smaller Nea’thi man who appeared to be in his late middle age. I did some quick calculations in my head and figured that would make him about one hundred and fifty years old. I shook my head in wonder at the thought.

“Welcome, Bloodkin and Mentors, to the Lille Academy!” Myr Roderick announced brightly when we had all shuffled inside. “This is Bίлiжςa Θấϖeӣ of the Жanờ Enclave, or Myr Billy for the Humans.” I noted the man’s colouring, the greenish tint to his grey skin and the violet-red eyes. He smiled and nodded, examining each one of us with his big eyes, then went round introducing himself, shaking our hands gravely. He was smallish for a Nea’thi, with a round, smooth face and kindly eyes, and he
smiled at each of the Mentors he had worked with before with a pleased “Welcome back.”

“I thought perhaps we would start with a tour of the Academy before you begin your classes. Come.” Myr Roderick led the way back out through the door and onto the quad. He pointed out the wing of the Academy to the left, closest to the lake and explained that this was where the Temple oversaw the training of Solasts, Psychotherapists and Psychosolasts. Behind the wing we could see the spire of a large Temple that was, like the Temple in Nallow, a remnant of the time before the Leaving, and had been converted.

A Human male, not much older than us I guessed, with longish black hair and weirdly pale eyes, dressed in the blue robes edged with white that marked him as a Solast, waved and hurried over.

“Hey Jimmy, this the new intake? Not interrupting am I, Myr Rod?” He grinned cheekily.

“Hayoum, how goes the study? Everyone, this is Hayoum, my last Bloodkin. He’s training to be a Solast,” Jimmy beamed proudly. Hayoum glanced over us Bloodkin, a flicker of recognition registering on his face when he saw Mantilly.

“Hayoum? Ah yes, just giving the new recruits a tour of the Academy before we begin. It’s their first day, you know.” Myr Roderick shook the man’s hand warmly.

“Ah well then, better leave you to it. Good luck kids, you’ll need it!” He laughed and dashed back to the Solasts’ wing after giving Jimmy a brief hug.

“Oh my, he’s from Nallow,” I heard Mantilly whispered to Sallagh. “He was two years above me at school. I heard he bit the head off a rabbit once.” Sallagh shuddered delicately.

“Yes, well the Temple wing has lecture and tutorial rooms, as well as being a working hospital, so if any of you fall ill, I expect you to go straight there.” Myr Roderick shook a finger at us sternly.

The other wing, on the north side of the quad, housed the studies of history and law, the ground floor held the main library of the Academy. Myr Roderick led us back inside the main doors, pointing out the hallways that led to the administrative offices.
Up the stairs, the second floor was for the science department, and we climbed another flight of stairs to the third floor that was to be where we studied.

Myr Roderick pointed up the last lot of stairs. “The lecturers have their offices on the top floor. Please feel free to go and ask any of them if you have questions. My own office is on the ground floor.” He smiled ruefully, “In consideration for my poor, aching joints.” The Mentors laughed, Myr Roderick seemed as sprightly as a much younger man. “Come, I’ll show you where you’ll be spending the next two years.” And he pushed through a door to the side of the landing.

Our study area was a huge, long space that must have taken up the whole floor. Fireplaces dotted one wall, while on the other we could look through the arched windows onto the quad below. Here, as elsewhere around the Academy, there were the usual Nea’thi glowbes, set in sconces along the walls and hanging from the roof.

The near half of the room had writing desks and marble-topped work benches like the ones in my room, facing a big blackboard and large teaching desk. Down the far end there were couches and bookcases, for relaxing in our breaks. There was a clear space in between, but lined up along the wall were odd little floor seats, folded up with a stack of cushions and blankets. What they were for, I could only guess.

Myr Billy was standing at the front, shuffling papers as we came in, and he gestured for us to take seats at the writing desks facing him, our Mentors perching on stools beside us.

“I will leave you now in the capable hands of Myr Billy. If you need anything, my office is downstairs.” And with that Myr Roderick was gone, shutting the door carefully behind him.

“Right people, get out your writing equipment. The first thing I want to go over are the rules.”

The rules? Up until now Lille had seemed like a place of freedom, especially compared to the regimented lifestyle I had had at home. Now there were going to be rules. Of course. I sighed and opened my journal to the first page, readying my pen.

“The most important rule for Nea’thi-Bloods at this Academy is that you must not, under any circumstances, use Hầұeӣ
without permission from your lecturer and the supervision of your Mentor.” Myr Billy stood and wrote
Hầұeӣ
on the board in chalk. The Nea’thi characters were odd, it didn’t really look like how it was pronounced at all. I copied the word into my journal and wrote beside it
Not without Charlie.

“Secondly, at the end of your two years here at the Academy you will be tested by a board of examiners. If we feel you have mastered your Hầұeӣ to our satisfaction you will be free to pursue whatever career you wish. If, however, you do not fulfil our requirements, you will be Assigned another Mentor and will be required to complete another two years of study here until we are satisfied that you are not a danger to the public.”

Shit, I didn’t know that. I hadn’t realised you could
fail
and have to stay at the Academy indefinitely. Myr Billy looked around from the blackboard and saw our startled faces.

“Oh don’t worry, we haven’t had to keep anyone back for another course for many, many years. I’m sure your Mentors will be doing everything in their power to make sure you pass. It
is
their job, you know.” He waggled his eyebrows and the Mentors smiled and nodded at him. “They will not be coming with you to class every day, but your lecturer will let you know beforehand when they are required.

“Thirdly, beginning tomorrow, every day here at the Academy will begin with half an hour of meditation. You are expected to continue this by yourselves at the weekends and during holidays. Without it, you will not be able to control your Hầұeӣ and you will fail your examinations.”

Meditation? Really? This place was getting weirder and weirder.

“Right then!” Myr Billy clapped his hands together, sprinkling chalk dust down his robe that slid off instantly and settled on the floor. “Seeing as this is your first day, I think we should start with something easy. Now, you are not required to learn the Nea’thi language. Oh ho, no,” he chortled. “But it is fitting that you have a rudimentary grasp of pronunciation and the alphabet. We will start with a word that is central to your study here – one that you have no doubt heard a number of times, but may not have seen written down before.” He tapped the blackboard
where he had written Hầұeӣ. “Now, Nea’thi is a musical language. The cadence of the syllables can affect the meaning. See here.” He wrote out the first two letters again,
Hầ.
“The accent, as you would call it, on top of the ‘a’ indicates that the vowel should be rounded with a ‘y’ sound before it. The direction of the accent indicates the cadence. ‘Ấ’ is a ‘ya’ sound sung from low to high, ‘ầ’ is high to low. Try them both now.”

I had been scribbling in my journal and Charlie pointed at the
ấ
which I tried to pronounce, then the
ầ
.

He smiled and nodded. “Close enough.”

Myr Billy listened and when he was satisfied he wrote a
ұ
beside the
Hầ
. “This is, of course, pronounced ‘vv’. Next is the ‘e’, close enough to the Human that you need not bother with it too much. If there is no accent on a vowel, you pronounce it flat.” He inscribed the last letter. “The ‘ӣ’ is a long ‘n’ sound, obviously, but the sound is formed with the tongue lifted slightly from the roof of the mouth. Right, now, there is the whole word. Please, practise that now.”

I turned to Charlie who grinned encouragingly. Although I had heard it spoken many times, saying it out loud yourself was quite different.

“Havven?”

“Not bad! But remember the ‘y’ sound after the ‘h’, and the cadence is high to low.”

I tried again. “Hyavven.”

“Better! Hold onto the ‘n’ for longer at the end, and make the rise of the ‘ầ’ more pronounced.”

“Hyavvenn?”

“Heh, very good old chap! Say it a few more times for practice.”

At the other desks, everyone else was struggling to say the word. Most had got it by the third or fourth try and were muttering it to practise, rolling the unfamiliar sounds around their mouths.” Myr Billy waited until we turned back to the front and wrote three words on the board.

Жanờ

Hầiờ

Ұiờ

“Can anyone guess what these are?” I had an inkling, but Dunkerle stuck up his hand. “Yes? Ah, Dunkerle, is it?”

“Yes sir. Are they the names of the Enclaves?”

“Very good, boy. Yes, these are the written names of the three Nea’thi Enclaves. Now, we have a number of small villages which you will learn about in your classes on Nea’thi lifestyle and culture, but these are the three main cities, if you will. You may have noticed these words spoken when you met your Mentors and any other Nea’thi you have come across. There are slight physiological differences in the Nea’thi from the different Enclaves that you may have noticed, mostly in our skin and eye colour. Write these down now and your Mentors will help you with the pronunciation.”

I wrote the three Enclaves down in my book and looked at Charlie expectantly.

“Well, can you guess how any of them sound?” he asked.

I was pretty sure Ұiờ was Charlie’s home Enclave, and I had heard him say the word a number of times. The first letter looked like the capital version of the character for the
vv
sound in Hầұeӣ, so I gave it a go.

“Vvio?” I tried.

“Pretty good! But see the accent on the ‘ờ’? That means there’s a ‘y’ sound before it, and it’s sung high to low.”

“Vviyo?” I said, intoning the cadence of the last syllable, and Charlie grinned as I got it. We worked through the other Enclaves. Hầiờ was easy enough. It sounded like
Hyaiyo
, with the first and last syllables sung from high to low. Жanờ was pro- nounced
Chanyo
, but I struggled a bit with the first consonant.

“See, the character ‘ж’ is pronounced a bit like ‘ch’, but with a bit of a cz sound as well. A bit more guttural, even, like the ‘ch’ at the end of Sammoch, see? The proper Nea’thi pronunciation of Lilbecz ends with a ‘ж’,” Charlie explained.