Foundling (33 page)

Those were familiar words.

“Ah—aye, Mister Witherscrawl.”

The clerk leaned across the desk and sneered. “Do not address me,
boy
, as anything other than ‘sir.’ Have you got that? You don’t need to know my name, and you certainly have
not
earned the privilege to use it!”

Rossamünd felt his neck contract like a turtle’s. “A-aye . . . sir . . .”

Finally, and with half-uttered protestations about the inconvenience, Witherscrawl led Rossamünd through a small side door and down the narrowest corridors to a small, drab cell with flaking walls. This room, furnished with only a metal stretcher (not unlike the one he had slept on for most of his time at the foundlingery), was to be his bunk for the night.

“Tomorrow,” Witherscrawl informed him, “you will be woken at five of the morning, if you are not already up by then, and must move immediately to the parade yard, for the calling of the roll. Then you’ll meet the Lamplighter Marshal, our officer commanding. Then you will receive your routine and begin your instruction. Do you understand?”

“Aye, sir.” Rossamünd was beginning to feel, all over again, the familiar doubts about the desirability of this occupation. Without a bath or even a wash to clean off the grime of travel, he was told that he was to have his bright-limn extinguished in no more than fifteen minutes.

Extracting another “Aye, sir!” from the new arrival, Witherscrawl left Rossamünd to prepare for sleep. The only thing on the foundling’s mind, though, was the letter he held in his hand: the precious letter with dearest Verline’s unmistakable writing upon it, the letter addressed to him personally. It was like a sweet song to his tired soul, an encouragement from those far off—he was still thought of, he was remembered.

He sat down on the cot, causing it to creak loudly even under his slight weight. Hands shaking a little with excitement, he pried open the seal and many securing folds to reveal the message within. The date—twenty-third day of Lirium—was scrawled at the top. It had been written five days ago, the day Rossamünd had been discovered hiding in that boxthorn by Europe. Eagerly, he read on:

While Rossamünd read the letter, he was first moved with joy, but then to increasing alarm. Had Master Fransitart, ill as he was, finally repented of letting him go and now planned to fetch him back to the oppression of the foundlingery? Was this the big secret?
It’s the first week of Pulchrys now . . .
He counted the months on his knuckles:
Pulchrys, Brumis, Pulvis, Heimio, Herse, Orio: that means he’ll be here in four, maybe five months!

As to the news about Gosling: well, Verline was right—Rossamünd was not surprised. Indeed, he was glad for Verline and the masters’ sakes, and for the littlest children too, that his old foe had run off.

There came a heavy hammering at the door of his cell. A discouragingly serious voice bellowed, “Douse lanterns!”

Rossamünd scrambled to unfold the blankets and pillow supplied, and wrestled them over the unsavory-looking mattress.

His bright-limn still glowing, the hammering soon came again. “You don’t want to start your career with us like this, son. Get your lantern out and get to bed!” That voice held promise of all manner of things terrible, unguessable.

Quickly turning the bright-limn over, so that its light would dim and gradually expire, Rossamünd completed making his bed in the faint twilight of its dying glow, undressing in pitch blackness. Finally, as he lay, restlessly shifting, with many creakings and groans of the metal frame, against all the uncomfortable lumps of the mattress, his fading thoughts swam. They dwelt for a moment on Verline, and her worries, but it was Master Fransitart, his failing health and his intended visit that troubled him most. Rossamünd did not know how to feel about his old dormitory master now. He wished the old vinegaroon would just stay in Boschenberg and leave him to his new path. With a flash of guilt it occurred to Rossamünd that Fransitart might not survive the journey; though he was already regretting the intended visit, he would hate any harm to come to his old dormitory master even more.

In the orbit of his sleepy musings, he wondered too if Europe, the duchess lahzar, would indeed return as she had said and ask him once more to be her factotum. Worry for poor Freckle stirred him for a moment, and this became concern for where Fouracres might be that night. So spun his tired thoughts.

As sleep slowly overtook him, he marveled that, through the many twists of what should have been a straightforward journey, he had managed to bumble, still intact, still healthy, to his destination. At last, for better or for worse, he was where he was originally destined, to finally become a lamplighter.

Tomorrow he would wake to the beginning of a whole new life.

 

FINIS UNILIBRIS
[END BOOK ONE]

EXPLANATION of PRONUNCIATION

ä is said as the “ah” sound in “f
a
ther” or “c
a
r”

æ is said as the “ay” sound in “h
ay
” or “
ei
ght”

ë is said as the “ee” sound in “scr
ea
m” or “b
ee
p”

é is said as the “eh” sound in “sh
e
d” or “
e
veryone”

ö is said as the “er” sound in “l
ear
n” or “b
ur
n”

ü is said as the “oo” sound in “w
oo
d” or “sh
ou
ld”

~ine at the end of pronouns is said as the “een” sound in “b
ean
” or “s
een
”; the exception to this is “Clementine,” which is said as the “eyn” sound in “f
ine
” or “m
ine.
”

Words ending in e, such as “Verline” or “Grintwoode”: the e is not sounded.

 

 

EXPLANATION of ITALICS

A word set in
italics
indicates that you will find an explanation of that word also in the explicarium; the only exceptions to this are the names of
rams
and other vessels, and the titles of books, where it is simply a convention to put these names in italics.

 

 

SOURCES

In researching this document the scholars are indebted to many sources. Of them all the following proved the most consistently sourced:

& extracts from the
Vadè Chemica

AOWM
an acronym used as the symbol of the
skolds
, taken from the symbols of the
Elements
in the
Körnchenflecter
. It represents the four-part systems of their discipline and learning. See the
Four Humours,
the
Four Spheres,
the
Körnchenflecter
and
skolds
.

apprentices
persons working in training under the tutelage of their employer. Often abbreviated to “’prentices.” A person serves and learns as an apprentice to a master for four years, after this time becoming a journeyman or companion working independently and gaining experience. When they have worked at this for no less than six years, apprentices have the right to become masters and to take on apprentices themselves.

Arius Vigilans
“the vigilant ram.” The emblem or sigil representing the state of
Hergoatenbosch
and its capital
Boschenberg
, and revered for its obstinacy and hard-headedness.

army
the states of the
Empire
are not allowed to have large standing armies, usually no more than ten thousand soldiers. These are considered enough for various guarding duties about the walls of cities and major rural centers. As a consequence there are many mercenary regiments (which are not illegal) roaming the lands; the states employ these to do their fighting for them. Sometimes certain states manage to gain dispensation from the
Emperor
to have a standing army of greater than ten thousand men if their lands are extensive—a nice little loop-hole which has allowed some to amass sizable forces. Their neighbors, of course, do not like this. They have their ministers complain in the Imperial Parliament, from which the
Emperor
may or may not order a reduction, and so the cycle of rivalry and envy goes on. Meanwhile the mercenaries get richer. The army referred to in the story would be
Boschenberg’s
standing army, though mercenaries also seek recruits from such places as
Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls
.

ashmongers
dealers in corpses and products made or gained from dead bodies; the middlemen of the
dark trade
s, taking the dead bodies that the
corsers
steal and the
smugglers
smuggle, and passing them on—for a modest fee, of course—to their grateful, benighted customers. They also trade in
monsters
, alive or dead, and their parts. Because
skolds
and
scourges
frequently use their services, they have been legitimized, but everyone knows that they are agents for those working outside the law.