City of the Falling Sky (2 page)

Seckry followed her into a classroom where
she picked up an already made mug of coffee and took a sip.

“
Have a seat, Seckraman,
have a seat. So, you’ve come from Marne, just south of here, is
that right?”

“
That’s right,” Seckry said.
“It’s about an hour’s train journey away.”

“
Yes, I visited there once,”
Mrs Furrowfog said happily. “Lovely place, Marne.”

“
Really?” Seckry said,
brightening up.

“
That gorgeous old town
clock in the centre, and the cobbled streets. Oh, and the fields
and fields of ellonberry bushes. Such a shame what’s happening to
it with this extraction site.”

“
Yeah,” Seckry said. “Yeah
it is.” The thought of Marne right now was threatening to make him
cry with homesickness, but he knew he had to hold it in and keep
his composure. Skyfall City was where he was going to be living
now, as much as he’d like to deny it, and this school, Estergate
High, was where he was going to be spending the next four
years.

Mrs Furrowfog must have realised she had
touched a sore point as she smiled apologetically and changed the
topic.

“
I’m sure you’ll come to
love Skyfall over time. So many exciting things here for someone
your age. So many possibilities and dreams. Have you tried Maldo’s
famous melted chocolate and seven syrup ice cream yet?”

“
Uh . . . no, I haven’t,”
Seckry said.

“
Best ice cream in the
world, and you can only get it here in Skyfall.”

“
I’ll have to look out for
that,” Seckry noted. “Thanks.”

Mrs Furrowfog smiled and took another sip of
coffee.

“
It takes everyone a while
to settle in to somewhere new. If you ever need to chat, that’s
what I’m here for, okay?”

“
Thank you,” Seckry said,
and he meant it.

The door opened and a small man with grey,
wispy hair, a bulbous nose, and a pair of round spectacles hobbled
in, looking slightly flustered and confused.

“
Ah, headmaster,” said Mrs
Furrowfog, setting down her mug. “This is Seckraman Sevenstars. The
pupil from Marne we’ve been expecting.”

“
Yes,” muttered the
headmaster, “Oh right . . . uh, Merrinda, have you seen my tie
around here anywhere?”

“
I’m afraid I haven’t,
headmaster,” Mrs Furrowfog said, but the headmaster didn’t seem to
be listening, he was more interested in pulling out drawers,
lifting up chairs and peering at the empty space with a suspicious
frown.

“
Right you are, right you
are.”

“
Anyway, this is the pupil
we’ve been expecting, headmaster, Mr Seckraman Seven–”

“
Coffee!” blurted the
headmaster. “I haven’t had my morning coffee. How could I have
forgotten?”

“
I’ll make you one while
you’re chatting to Seckraman, headmaster, there’s no need to worry.
Now Seckraman arrived yesterday and he–”

“
Dear Gedin and ghastly
Gainstop!” said the headmaster in exasperation. “What on earth is
that?”

He was staring at a plant on the classroom’s
desk as though it was about to leap at him and wrap its vines
around his neck.

“
It’s a Pintheus Maletonus
plant from the school greenhouse . . . um, Mr Gobbledee,” Mrs
Furrowfog said suspiciously, tilting her head to one side. “Have
you remembered to take your special medicine this
morning?”

“
Of course I have, Merrinda!
Don’t be silly now. Do you know what would happen if I didn’t take
my – wait! Come to think of it, I may have forgotten to. Yes. In
fact, I am quite certain that I did not take my special medicine
this morning.” He stuck his hands to his hips and said, “Well that
settles that!” with an air of finality.

Mrs Furrowfog turned to Seckry and gave him
an apologetic smile.

“
Excuse me for one moment.
I’ll be as quick as I can.” She left the room and closed the door
behind her.

Seckry felt incredibly uncomfortable. He was
alone in a room with his new headmaster, who seemed to be either
drunk, mentally unstable, or a combination of the two. He swallowed
heavily and tried to avoid the headmaster’s gaze.

“
Is that you, Fellibrund?”
the headmaster said, peering at Seckry with one eye closed and the
other bulging out of its socket.

“
No. My name’s Seckry,”
Seckry said nervously.

“
Oh . . . right. Yes of
course. What am I thinking? Fellibrund died seven years
ago.”

There was a moment of silence before the
headmaster burst into hysterical laughter. Seckry clutched his
hands together and hoped that Mrs Furrowfog was going to return any
minute.

As the headmaster nearly fell face first onto
the classroom floor in fits of giggling, Mrs Furrowfog entered
holding a blue flask.

“
Here, here, Allon, I’ve
brought you some of your special medicine, okay? I’m going to give
you this cup and you’re going to drink it, okay?”

She poured some luminous blue liquid into the
cup and the smell of it hit Seckry within seconds. It made his eyes
water. It was like paint stripper.

“
You’re killing me,
Merrinda!” the headmaster laughed, slapping his leg and shaking his
head.

“
Come on now, Allon, how
about a sip, eh?” Mrs Furrowfog held the cup to the headmaster’s
lips and rubbed his back with her other hand.

He stopped laughing and sniffed the air.
“Something smells rotten in here,” he said, and snatched it from
her before downing the bright liquid in three huge gulps, throwing
the empty cup across the room, then seizing up like a wooden plank
and dropping to the floor.

Mrs Furrowfog sighed.

“
Seckry, is that what you’d
prefer to be called, for short?”

“
Yeah, everyone calls me
Seckry.”

“
Seckry, I’m so sorry you
had to see that.”

Seckry waved it away. “It’s fine. Uh . . . Is
he okay?”

“
Mr Gobbledee will be up and
about in a few moments and back to normal again.”

Seckry stared at the lifeless headmaster
uncomfortably.

“
What was, uh . . . what was
wrong with him?”

“
Mr Gobbledee has a very
rare medical condition. It’s not something that is widely discussed
with pupils so I can’t comment on it further, but I regret that you
had to see your headmaster in this fashion. Especially on your
first day.”

“
It’s no problem, honestly,”
Seckry said, and he could see that the headmaster’s eyes were
opening.

There was a groan and the headmaster sat up
sluggishly, looking around the classroom.

“
Oh Merrinda,” he said,
devastated. “I wasn’t . . . ?”

Mrs Furrowfog nodded quickly and helped him
into a chair.

“
Oh, dear me, I am so sorry.
And who do we have here?”

“
My name’s Seckraman,
sir.”

“
Very nice to meet you,
Seckraman,” said the headmaster, and then quietly he whispered,
“
Did the boy see everything, Merrinda?”

“
I’m afraid so,”
Mrs
Furrowfog whispered back.

The headmaster patted his chest searchingly.
“Good heavens, I haven’t even put on my tie.” He pulled a bright
red tie from his trouser pocket and fastened it around his
neck.

“
It’s very unusual for
somebody to name their son Seckraman, isn’t it?” said the
headmaster, curiously.

“
Yes it is,” Seckry replied,
hoping that the headmaster wasn’t about to crack some terrible
joke.

Seckry had been born with his left eye
slightly greener than his hazel coloured right eye, exactly like
the ancient descriptions of Seckraman, the son of Gedin the
Almighty, which was why his mum had given him the name. He had been
teased about it at school when he was younger which was why he
asked everyone to call him Seckry nowadays.

“
It’s a shame there aren’t
more Seckramans around, I say. Fantastic name, very majestic. Now,
down to business.”

Mr Gobbledee flicked through a heap of
papers, pulled his glasses to the tip of his nose, and peered at
one of the sheets.

“
Seckraman Sevenstars, here
we are. So it seems that you have, until this point, been studying
the subjects of mathematics, science, literacy, geography, art, and
history, is that correct?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
I see. Dear me, the
limitations of these poor schools . . .” He shook his head, smiling
briefly. “Well, at least you’ll have the basics. I’m sure you’ll
pick things up fairly quickly. I daresay with a surname like
Sevenstars you’ll be a dab hand at astronomy.”

“
Astronomy?” Seckry said
uncertainly.

“
Astronomy indeed. Just one
of the new subjects you’ll be undertaking here at Estergate
Institute. You’re in Skyfall now, my boy. We’re governed under the
Skyfall Board of Education, and that means we’re on the XL-Ent
curriculum, where excellence excels.”

Seckry suddenly felt a surge of panic. He
didn’t have a clue about astronomy. How would he ever be able to
catch up to the other pupils?

“
What other new subjects
will I be studying, sir?” he asked nervously.

“
Well, let’s see now,
there’s genetics, psychoanalysis, ethnology, osmology, animal care,
oh and immunology, hydrology, geoarchaeology amongst
others.”

“
Excuse me?” Seckry said
meekly. He had never even heard of most of those words.

“
Oh, and I’m sure you’ll
love botany,” the headmaster said brightly. “My personal favourite
of the bunch.”

“
Botany? Is that the study
of flowers? Sir, I know literally nothing about flowers, how will
I–”

“
Seckry, there’s no need to
worry. I firmly believe that you will be able to pick these
subjects up and, in time, become great at at least one of them. I
know it may come as a shock to you to have all this new information
to learn, but you are not the first to have moved to Skyfall
halfway through their education, and you will not be the last.
There have been many others before you and almost all of them have
succeeded in adapting to our educational system. It really is the
best in the world. Yes, Rudaby Simmsworth was the last to have
joined us half way through. Very successful nanophysicist
now.”

Seckry wasn’t sure about this. A
nanophysicist? Where would you start?

“
Many years ago the schools
in Skyfall operated just like your old school back in Marne,” the
headmaster continued. “There was no system to speak of, just your
basic, plain old subjects. But over time we set up the board of
education to make sure our pupils here in Skyfall were the most
intelligent, most skilled, most adept young prospects in the
world.”

Mr Gobbledee looked at his watch with a
raised eyebrow.

“
Now, I’ve talked for quite
long enough. Let’s have a look at your timetable.” He traced his
finger over the paper. “Monday . . . nine thirty . . . electronics
with Mrs Cutson . . . Oh dear.”

“
Oh dear?”

“
I mean . . .” Gobbledee
stammered. The blood seemed to be draining out of his face. “Yes,
electronics with Mrs Cutson, how wonderful! I . . . uh . . . have
to rush off, I’m afraid, but if you return to reception, the
secretary will be sure to point you in the direction of Mrs
Cutson’s class.”

Seckry was ushered out through the doorway
and Mr Gobbledee gave him a firm handshake before glancing around
wildly, wiping his forehead with a tissue, and disappearing down
the corridor.

“
Don’t tell me you got Cut
Throat Cutson for your first class,” said the secretary, a young
woman with tied back hair and a fluffy pen in her hand.

“
That’s what it says on my
timetable,” Seckry said nervously.

“
Unlucky, man. Well she’s
down in the electro-quarter, you know where that is?”

“
Nope.”

“
Okay, you gotta take the
first right past the sliding doors, head down towards the training
facility, then you take the pneumatic pods and follow the signs for
the electronics unit. Got that?”

“
Uh, yeah. Think so.
Thanks.” Seckry headed off and heard the secretary shout, “Whatever
you do, don’t be late for Cut Throat!”

Seckry looked at his watch. It was almost
half past nine. Why had the headmaster looked so ill at the mention
of Mrs Cutson? And even more worryingly, why was she referred to as
Cut Throat?

As he passed the training facility, Seckry
made a note to himself. He just had to take the pneumatic pods now,
whatever they were.

In front of him was a circular set of metal
doors.

A gangly boy with long, spiky, black hair
rushed past Seckry and slammed his open palms onto the shiny
surface.

“
Open up!” he said
desperately, and started banging the blue circle next to them
repeatedly with his fist.

It was only then that Seckry realised it was
the same boy that he had seen on the monorail that morning.

“
Are these the pneumatic
pods?” Seckry asked him.

“
Yep,” said the boy. “Come
on, come on, come on, come on, come on!”