Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (9 page)

He bounded in, and then laughed at my confusion.

“Shit Charlie, I didn’t mean to, but I pulled the chain and it… Well, it just sort of flushed…”

I was dismayed. I had only been here two minutes and already I had managed to break something.

But Charlie just laughed and patted me on the shoulder. “Never seen a flush toilet before, I take it?” Mutely I shook my head. “It’s supposed to do that! When you’ve, you know, finished your business you pull the chain and it gets flushed into the sewerage system.”

Well, that was a relief, but a sewerage system? That seemed hard to fathom.

Rightly sensing my confusion, Charlie led me out of the bathroom to one of the armchairs.

“Yep, the whole city has a Nea’thi-designed sewer system. There are pipes that run from every house and they all go underground, through a tunnel in the hill and out to fertilise the fields on the other side.” I vaguely remembered the lush crops in the fields as we had rode into Lille, was it only this afternoon? It felt like weeks ago.

My confusion abated. The idea of a whole city’s worth of pipes seemed a bit weird, but flushing toilets I could
definitely
get used to. I sat by the fire and surveyed our quarters. They certainly were cosy, and Charlie would be sleeping in the room right beside me for the next two years. I had accepted the idea of being so close out of necessity while we were on the road, but
I had had some thought that once we arrived we would have a bit more space.

“So JJ, what do you think?” asked Charlie from the doorway to his room.

“It’s nice,” I offered, “But it’s a bit… intimate, isn’t it?”

Charlie squeaked in surprise then leapt over, grabbing my head in a fierce headlock and ruffling my hair furiously with his free hand.

“Intimate?!” he choked with laughter. “Golly gosh Lordboy, you really
are
a snob! This is more than most families have!”

“Oh, sod off.” Embarrassed, I tried to push him off. I didn’t
think
I was being a snob. Charlie finally gave up and stood. He must have noticed my burning cheeks and mercifully didn’t tease me.

“It’ll be fine, kiddo! And besides, Bloodkin are always getting into trouble. This way I can keep a close eye on you.” He waggled his finger at me and grinned wolfishly. “Anyways, I’m starved; let’s go see what Myn Eve has cooked up for us!”

“So how do we lock this thing?” Out in the hall I realised Eve hadn’t given us keys or anything, but Charlie glanced at me with a puzzled look.

“Really? We’re among friends here, no one’s going to steal anything!”

I thought of the grizzled old watchman in charge of the Manor at Jaelshead and grunted.

“Remember the three esses!” Charlie raised his eyebrows. “Security, security, security!”

“I don’t get it.”

“Uh, there’s nothing much to get.”

Charlie laughed and shrugged. “I’d forgotten how weird you Humans are, you care so much about
stuff
!”

I shrugged too and we turned to go out and up the stairs to the common room when a big robed figure raced around the corner and almost bowled into us.

“Oof, terribly sorry, I’m—” he broke off. “Ϛaioћ! You made it! Awesome!”

“Jyѫaж! What are you doing here?” Sounding delighted, Charlie embraced the other Nea’thi.

“Same thing as you buddy, Mentoring! My first Bloodkin has already Graduated and he’s gone to the Temple to be a Solast. A Solast! Can you believe it? I’m so proud of him!” The other Nea’thi spoke quickly, excited, beaming at Charlie. “And you’ll never guess who I’m Mentoring now. A lesbian! It’s brilliant!”

I was taken aback by what seemed to be a rather vulgar display of objectification, but the joy on his face and the pride sparkling in his eyes was genuine, and I realised he really did think it was brilliant.

“She’s terribly sad though, poor dear thing. Had such a rough time at home, teenage sexuality and all that. Honestly, Humans can be so
cruel…
” He stopped and looked at me closely. “My apologies. I am Jyѫaжa Hấӣaћ of the Ұiờ enclave, although I understand that Nea’thi is a difficult language for Humans to pronounce, so you may call me Jimmy.” I shook his extended hand.

“I’m Jaseth. Of, er, Jaelshead.” I offered, and he grinned.

“Jaelshead! Ϛaioћ, do you remember Toѫeneж? His Bloodkin’s from Jaelshead too! His name’s Telgeth, do you know him?”

Though I figured this was who Rudi had told us about I had to shake my head. I really knew no one my own age from home.

“Oh well, it’s lucky old Toѫen has him, he’s quite a handful… Look, you guys should go up, Yұieӣấ is putting some dinner out for you. I’ll go get the others, they’ll be dying to meet you, you’re the last to arrive you know!”

“Yeah, so we were told. Come on Jas, we’ll see you in a bit Jyѫ.”

“You sure will!” Jimmy bounded off down the hall and we made our escape up the stairs.

“Jyѫ was a couple of years ahead of me in the Guild of Education. We spent some time here together when we were Journeymen,” Charlie explained as we climbed.

The common room was appointed rather like our private quarters but on a much larger scale. It must have taken up most of the third floor of the hall. Two big fires burned at either end of
the room, surrounded by couches and chairs. The floor and walls were covered with plush tapestries and dining tables were laid out down the middle. Along one wall stood a number of bookcases, stuffed full with texts, and the opposite wall had windows looking out over the lake. We sat at one of the tables that had been set for a meal and Eve bustled out through a swinging door from what must have been the kitchen, carrying two plates of food and a bottle of wine.

“Here you go boys.” She looked at me sternly. “Now, we don’t have wine every night, mind, but this is a special occasion – your first night in Lille!” Without waiting for a response she put the plates down in front of us and poured the wine. “Did you see Jyѫaжa on your way up?” She rolled her eyes. “He was
so
excited you were coming Ϛaioћ. Honestly, the energy of that boy!” She sighed, as if thoroughly wearied. “Well, best eat up before the horde arrives, you’ll get no peace when they do!” And she was off, back into the kitchen to leave us to our meal.

Turns out I was starving, the light lunch at the temple seemed a million years ago, and I wolfed my food, hardly tasting it. When we finished, Charlie disappeared into the kitchen with our scraped plates, and when he returned he refilled our glasses and we went and sat on a couch by one of the fires. We had hardly made ourselves comfortable when the sounds of loud conversation reached us, and suddenly people started pouring into the room, Jimmy in the lead.

“Everyone, this is Ϛaioћлeжa – Charlie – and Jaseth. Jaseth and Ϛaioћ, this is, well, everyone!”

We stood to greet the newcomers but Jimmy pushed us down and came and squished between us on the couch. “None of that! Now, proper introductions.”

I counted fourteen people in the room, seven Humans and seven Nea’thi, and they pulled up chairs around us and began to introduce themselves. Jimmy’s Bloodkin was a small, dark girl named Lolitha, her black hair bobbed neatly just below her ears, who would barely even look me in the eye and seemed distinctly uncomfortable as Jimmy bade her sit in a chair next to me. The three tall youths who grouped together were
Dunkerle, Sammoch and Donnick and their Mentors were introduced to us as Richard, James and Adam. The other two girls settled on the other couch. One was plump and pretty, her long auburn hair bound in a sophisticated knot, and she smiled at me dreamily, introducing herself as Mantilly; her Mentor Sarah was whippet-thin and grinning wickedly. The other girl shifted her fashionable skirts and looked around haughtily, her blonde hair falling in graceful curls around a perfect face. Her Mentor Emma introduced her as Sallagh and she raised her sculpted eyebrows at me and I realised I was staring. I blushed and looked down but was startled by a loud voice.

“Oi, he’s from old J-town you reckon? Give us a look then!” I looked up at a giant of a boy, lounging casually in front of the fire. His Mentor Toѫeneж – Thomas – smiled gently.

“Jaseth, this is Telgeth, from your district I believe.” He spoke quietly with a deep voice, and was the oldest of the Nea’thi present, judging by the fine lines around his eyes.

“Oh ho, I know you! You’re the Lord’s boy! Shit, how did you end up here?” Telgeth ran a hand through his shock of bright orange hair, mussing it into mad spikes.

“Telgeth dear, language! Jaseth is here for the same reason you all are,” Thomas admonished gently, but Telgeth just grinned at me. He looked a bit familiar, I suppose, but I felt completely out of my depth with all these people my own age aroundme.

“My Da’s the head of the Smith’s Guild back home. I was training to be a smith myself before old Tommo here showed up. Hell, can you imagine what I can do with this magic stuff?”

“Hầұeӣ,” corrected Thomas absently. I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say, so unfortunately I blurted out the first thing that popped into my brain.

“Head of the Guild? I think I was supposed to marry your sister!”

Telgeth shrieked with laughter, earning a disapproving look from Sallagh, who until now had appeared disinterested, talking quietly with Mantilly.

“Olletha? Shit, no way!”

“’Geth, language!”

“Sorry Tommo, my bad, Oh man Jas, you got away lightly with that one, my sister is a total cow!”

Everyone laughed except me, and I felt like an idiot. Yep, I was giving off a really good first impression. I busied myself with my glass of wine.

“Hmph, we didn’t get wine with
our
dinner tonight” Sallagh complained loudly.

Emma patted her on the shoulder. “No dear, but we did on our first night here too.” Sallagh sniffed, but had the good grace to lower her head. “And your classes don’t begin until Monday, so maybe tomorrow night we’ll indulge.” The girl smiled faintly as the rest of the boys cheered Emma’s words.

I had totally lost track of the days when we had been on the road. My memory struggled, we had been travelling for what, eight? Nine days? And we’d left on a Wednesday so…

“Today’s Friday,” Charlie told me helpfully, noticing my scrunched brow, “So we’ve got the whole weekend before you get into it.”

“Yes,” said Thomas in his rumbly voice, “We have all weekend. Perhaps we’d all better get some rest, Charlie and Jaseth look exhausted.”

There was a mumble of protestation, most loudly from Telgeth, but nonetheless everyone stood and began moving towards the door. Charlie grabbed the nearly empty bottle of wine and we followed the others downstairs. On the second floor the pairs of Humans and Nea’thi peeled off into their private quarters down the corridor to a chorus of loud good nights. Lolitha and Jimmy had the room next to ours, and as we opened our door Jimmy called out “Goodnight Ϛaioћ, ‘night Jaseth. If you need anything just… bang on the wall!”

Lolitha glanced at me mournfully for a second before she disappeared inside her room and closed the door firmly behind her, and the hallway was finally silent.

Alone in our rooms I collapsed in an armchair near the fire, completely wearied but jittery with the hundreds of ques
tions I wanted to ask Charlie as he bustled about the room, unpacking the last of his things.

“Charlie?”

“Hmm?” His response was muffled by the bag he had his head in, rummaging around.

“What’s with your names? You know, your Human-friendly names?”

“Ha!” He retrieved the remaining items with a flourish. “Well, we all know that Humans can’t speak Nea’thi, you can hardly even pronounce some of the sounds in our alphabet. So when we pass the Journeyman’s test—”

“Gosh, you have to write a test?” I interrupted.

“Yes, well, a written test is part of it, but that’s all theory. The really hard part is the psychological examination.” I looked at him questioningly, and he rolled his eyes and explained. “Yeah, there’s a board of examiners who decide whether you’re mature and emotionally stable enough to handle the Outside, so you won’t get into trouble I suppose. It’s quite… uncomfortable.”

I pondered this for a second. “With magic?”

“Hầұeӣ. But yes, they poke around in your head for a bit with Hầұeӣ, not a pleasant feeling, I can tell you!”

“Huh, sounds intense. Anyway, the name thing?” I prompted.

“Oh yeah!” Charlie levered himself into the other chair. “So when we pass the test we get to choose a Human name, so we study Human texts to find one that we like and that sounds a bit like our real name.”

“But they’re all so… weird!”

Charlie cackled. “Yeah, that’s the good bit. So many of the texts we have are old, dating from the time of the Leaving or even earlier, so the names we choose are often a bit, ah, archaic.” He grinned ruefully.

“But surely there are people down there who know this! Couldn’t someone who’s been Outside tell you you’re picking ridiculous names?”

Charlie chortled and clapped his hands. “But where’s the fun in that? Journeymen head Outside thinking they are oh- so-sophisticated with their new Human names.” He leaned forward
and steepled his fingers together, intoning, “Humility is a gift, the receipt of which is often disagreeable,” and he sat back with a laugh.

“You’re serious?”

“Deadly! Hey, it’s character-building! And I’m told Humans find the practice rather charming.”

“So what’s so funny about ‘Steven’ then?”

“Steven? Oh, it’s another word for the subject of a particularly cruel prank.”

“Oh.” I guess I could see why that would be funny for the Nea’thi. Maybe.

Charlie leaned forward conspiratorially. “Do you want to know why I chose Charlie?”

“Go on then.”

“Well, it sounds a bit like Ϛaioћлeжa, of course, but I read somewhere that Charlie is another word for snow, and snow is white, right? Like my hair! I thought I was being especially clever, but when I came Outside, no one seemed to get the joke!”

I snorted. “I don’t know where you’re getting this stuff, man.”

Charlie sighed and leaned back. “Out of date texts.
Seriously
out of date!”