Homage and Honour (12 page)

Rising from her
knees she looked over at Tana, still industriously beavering away
at Jim’s stone and decided to join Hannah and Beth. Hannah had
decided that she wished to embark on Holad training when she became
a senior cadet.

Beth was aghast
at the prospect of such a lot of extra work. She was becoming less
shy now and would speak her mind when the occasion warranted. She
was trying to dissuade Hannah, pointing out the disadvantages of
such a step but Hannah was adamant that this was what she wanted.
Her Kolyei, she argued, was happy with the decision and that was
all that mattered. As Jess joined them Hannah was telling Beth that
she should do the same.

“I’ve not had
the advantages you’ve had,” Beth was saying with some heat. “I’m
still trying to catch up with you three on the academic front. I’d
never learn enough in time to be accepted into Holad training, even
if I wanted it, which I don’t. Stop pressing me Hannah.”

“What will you
do?” asked Jess, sitting down on the springy bracken fronds beside
them.

“I’m not sure,”
admitted Beth, “you and Tana will join a Ryzck and Hannah will
probably end up with the Holad unless she changes her mind, but you
know how awful I am during arms-practice. I don’t like it and
that’s a fact.”

“You’ll get
better,” encouraged Jess, “we all will.”

“I will never
be good enough to join a Ryzck,” was Beth’s flat response.
“Weaponsmaster Rhian says I’ve got to attend extra sword-practices
or she says I’ll never move out of first year.”

“Never mind all
that,” said Jess, anxious to put an end to Beth’s despondency.
“This is rest day. We’re here to enjoy ourselves.”

“And to rest,”
pointed out Hannah.

“That too,”
Jess answered, “now, what about some eats? I’m hungry and
thirsty.”

“Good idea,”
said Hannah, rousing at this. “Call Tana will you?”

“I’ll try,”
said Jess with a grin, “I don’t think she’ll come though, you know
what she’s like once she gets her teeth into something.”

The three had
long past eaten and drunk their fill and were fast asleep when Tana
walked over from Jim and Larya’s memorial, excitement bubbling
within her. Much as she wanted to tell them what she had uncovered
she decided not to wake them but busied herself getting something
to eat and drink on her own account before, tired out, she too fell
asleep.

They woke
around Sixth Bell and just had time to gather together their
possessions and rush back to the Stronghold. It was only then that
Tana insisted they all invade her cubicle so that she could tell
them what she had managed to decipher.

“It was a
poem,” she declared. “It was difficult to make out but I think I’ve
managed to make sense of it. I wrote it down on this scrap of paper
and I’m going to read it to you.”

“
If danger
dire dost thrive.

And North and
South fight to survive,

Look ye to the
west,

Where at our
behest,

As Mariya was
solemnly bidden,

Gtrathlin
evermore keep hidden,

Deep inside
the ground,

Answers may be
found.”

“
TS and
K”

“What do you
make of that?”

“What does it
mean?” asked Jess.

“It’s a
riddle,” declared Hannah, “what fun! I wonder why it was put
there?”

Their Lind were
interested too. The eight talked about nothing else that
evening.

“Probably
nobody has seen it for years, decades even,” said Tana, thrilling
at the idea.

“Why do you
think that?” asked Beth.

“Stands to
reason,” answered the logical Hannah, “you’d have to be small to
get in behind that crevice and what children go up to the Mound.
Precisely none I should imagine. It would also take someone like
Tana here with her sharp eyes.”

“Do we tell the
others?” asked Beth.

Tana shook her
head, “I think it should be our secret.” She turned to Jess, “do
you think your Uncle James knew about it?”

“If he did he
didn’t tell me.”

“But before he
left Vada you said he was insistent that you visit,” pressed
Tana.

“Maybe he did,”
agreed Jess, “I’ll ask Mlei to telepath a message.”

Jess never got
the chance. Sad news awaited her and Mlei when they woke the next
day. Her Uncle James had had little time to enjoy his retirement.
He had died in his sleep not long after he and Siya had arrived
back at her domta.

* * * * *

Sanrhed (Fourth Month of Summer) –
AL156

Nemesis (3)

The smell of
dry decay filled the still air. The door of the van Buren Mausoleum
stood open in the sunlight, a dark maw waiting to receive the dead
of the van Buren bloodline.

Duke Raoul van
Buren was a broken man. Shoulders slumped; he stood and gazed with
swollen eyes at the coffins in front of him. He listened with only
half an ear as the priest intoned the funeral service in a turgid
voice.

Immediately
behind the Duke the others stood silent; he was not aware of the
restless shifting of feet from the younger and more active members
of the standing congregation as the traditional funeral rite drew
to its sombre close. Beside the Duke stood William Duchesne,
representing Conclave and grieving for his sister, Duchess
Eloise.

She lay in the
middle coffin. On either side sat the dalina-strewn coffins holding
her son Raoul and daughter Eloise – one day looking forward to
their respective marriages, the next, dead.

Celine
Brentwood and her family had escaped contagion and she would now
marry Duke Raoul’s nephew Wolfram whose father was now
Brother-Heir.

As the family
priest bowed, indicating that the service was at an end, all the
Duke could think of was a life devoid of joy without the woman he
loved at his side.

Over the last
days, his brother Wolfram hadn’t been able to get even a spark of
interest out of him regarding the imminent succession crisis that
was so worrying Conclave.

At a nod from
the priest the retainers moved forward to carry the coffins into
the Mausoleum.

Duke Raoul van
Buren watched stony-faced as his wife and children entered the
world of the dead.

* * * * *

Rakrhed (Fifth Month of Summer) –
AL156

Quartet (2)

A First Aid
Lesson

“This morning,”
announced the young Holad nurse in charge of the class, “we are
going to continue with the subject we began during our last lesson
together. Now, can anyone remember what I was talking about? Don’t
look at your notes,” this command in response to the rustling of
paper towards the back of the room. “I want to listen to what you
remember
.”

Jessali might
be young and not long out of training but there was nothing wrong
with her discipline. The rustling stopped. The cadets at the back
who had been surreptitiously peeking at their notes tried to
pretend that they hadn’t been doing any such thing whilst those
innocent looked self-righteous.

Jessali smiled.
She knew all about it. Not that many years ago she had tried the
same ploy if she hadn’t had time to revise and the old Holad medic
who had had the teaching of her had stopped her and her fellow
transgressors using the same words although not in such a gentle
voice.

Tana raised her
hand.

“You were
talking about blood and bleeding,” said Tana.

“Correct. Can
you be more specific?”

“We were
learning about the circulatory system, about what makes up blood
and about what happens when there is a wound; at least we’d started
that bit.”

“Can you tell
the class how the circulatory system works?”

“Well,” Tana
thought for a moment, wishing Jessali would move on to someone else
to answer and also that she had made more time to read over her
notes the previous evening, “blood flows throughout the body
through the veins.” She stumbled to a halt.

“Good as far as
you go. Can you remember anything else?”

But Tana had
shot her bolt and bestowed a pleading look on Jessali.

Jessali
surveyed the class, noting that the majority of them were trying to
avoid catching her eye.

Only two raised
their hands, Hannah and an otherwise colourless member of the year
group, Iain by name who, in the short time he had been a cadet, had
gained the reputation of being a bit of a slogger at lesson-work.
As Hannah had said, he didn’t have a lot of imagination but he
learnt what was put in front of him.

Jessali
selected Hannah, “Hannah, perhaps you could explain?”

Iain dropped
his hand, disappointed.

Hannah stood
up, “oxygenated blood is pumped out of the heart around the body
through the arteries and the veins. Blood that has given up its
oxygen to the body tissues flows back to the heart to start
again.”

“Well done,”
Jessali congratulated her. “It’s good to see that someone was
paying attention.”

Iain looked
hurt and Hannah sat down, well pleased.

“Iain,” said
Jessali, “what is the main attribute of an artery?”

He beamed at
her as he scrambled to his feet.

“Arteries have
strong, muscular elastic walls,” he said, “which lets them expand
with each blood surge from each heartbeat and allows the blood to
move into the tissues.”

Jessali nodded,
“you are correct. At least two of you have done your homework. Let
me warn you all that next time I will be asking questions about
both lessons and woe betide any of you who do not have the answers.
Remember, training here is not just about fighting. First Aid is
very important so pay attention. Now, let us continue with today’s
topic. It is about bleeding.”

She then
proceeded to give the class a thorough grounding on the subject.
Towards the end of the lesson, she summarised, “so there are three
types of bleeding, arterial, venous and capillary. Revise these
three for next tenday and also revise the circulatory system. Next
time we will be studying the various types of wounds.”

Hannah’s arm
shot up, “I’d like to study wound types
before
the next
class if I can, Vadeln Jessali,” she said. The majority of the rest
of the class goggled at her. They felt that they had quite enough
to fit in each day without studying lessons before they had to.
Only Iain nodded his head. Tana, Jess and Beth shook theirs.

“Come find me
later,” offered Jessali to Hannah, “and I’ll lend you a book that
might interest you. It goes into more detail than the general
textbook.”

“Thank you,”
said Hannah.

“Thinking about
Holad training in a couple of years are you?” asked Jessali.

“Yes, yes I
am,” answered Hannah with a Beth-like smile.

Later that day
the Quartet were squeezed inside Hannah and Kolyei’s cubicle; the
latter had left them to it and had gone for a walk with Xei.

“Did you know
that there are five main types of wound?” asked Hannah to no-one in
particular, having hunted out Jessali and been lent the book. “It’s
terribly interesting. Incised, laceration, abrasion, contusion and
puncture.”

Jess looked up
from where she was saddle-soaping Mlei’s harness and remarked to
the others, “perhaps she’d better do Holad training, especially if
she actually understands the meaning of the words she’s just
uttered.”

Tana peeked
into the book and screwed up her pretty face, “better her than me.
The illustrations are
gruesome
.”

“I don’t want
to look,” announced Beth.

“But it’s
fascinating,” protested Hannah, still concentrating on her book.
Hannah had decided to aim high. She didn’t want to be a medic or a
nurse. She wanted to be a doctor like her brother.

A Weapons
Practice

Exuberant
excitement was prevalent among certain members of the year group.
Some, the more able, were to begin learning how to fight mounted.
Amongst those selected were Tana and Jess. Beth, naturally enough,
was nowhere near ready. Although Rhian had seen a slight
improvement regarding her sword-handiness over the last few days
she was still inconsistent, her wooden practice blade still apt to
perform unscheduled and unpredictable movements. For Xei’s sake,
the Lind bruised as easily as their humans, Rhian would require to
observe more evidence of Beth’s proficiency before she would allow
the girl to practice from his back. Coupled with this was her
ability in the riding classes that were run by Ranolf, the Junior
Cadet Ryzcka. Like other tyros to riding, Beth often spent more
time on the ground than she did on Xei.

Hannah, too,
was to be excluded for the time being although she was better than
Beth in both departments; the trainers having come to the
conclusion that a few more tendays in the basic classes would be
beneficial.

Hannah accepted
Rhian’s diktat in her usual happy-go-lucky fashion. Beth saw it as
yet more evidence of her lack of progress and became despondent
when the amended class attendance lists were posted on the
noticeboard.

“Never mind,”
Hannah said, “I don’t.”

“But I
have
been trying,” Beth whispered, biting her lip which was
wobbling with the desire to cry.

“Weaponsmaster
Rhian knows you are,” comforted Hannah as the pair of them watched
the excited Tana and Jess dancing a jig around the common room,
“and me and Kolyei haven’t made it either. You don’t see me crying
about it, do you? Fact is, I’m quite pleased, I don’t want to make
a fool of myself and I would, believe me, if Rhian had included us.
We’ll both get there in the end.”

“Do you really
think so?” asked the doubtful Beth.