Homage and Honour (7 page)

Jen then led
her new charge to the common room that separated the girls’ and
boys’ wings; a large area full of battered tables and chairs. There
was a noticeboard on the wall.

“Your name will
be on the duty list,” Jen continued, “you can check later and grab
a mailbox and put your name on it. Look here it is, your Uncle
James must have done it for you.”

Jessica looked.
There were already messages inside.

“It’ll be chore
and cadet sections, timetables and the like,” the efficient Jen
informed her, “we knew you were coming today you see.”

“Are you in
charge of all the new girls?” asked Jessica.

“No, four is
the limit. Any more than that and we can’t look after you properly.
Now we’ll go and get something to eat then I think bed is the order
of the day. You look exhausted.”

“I feel it,”
agreed Jess, “what with the journey and all. I didn’t sleep too
well last night either, too excited.”

“I was going to
introduce you to some of the other, older cadets, those who are
back from long-leave that is, but that can wait until morning. Not
everybody is back. Term doesn’t start for another ten days.”

“I couldn’t
wait,” confessed Jess.

Jen laughed, “I
can see that. Least you’ll have time to settle in. I’ve also heard
that there’s a large group of newbies on their way in from the
Garda HQ in Argyll. They’ll hardly have a chance to settle before
they’re up to their necks in hard work. If you thought farming was
hard …” she left the rest unsaid.

Jess
laughed.

“You can speak
Lindish of course? That helps.”

Jess nodded,
“I’m fairly fluent. I’ve known Mlei for seven years now and he’s
taught me a lot. I expect I’ll get on okay.”

“Less classes
to attend,” agreed Jen, “general education?”

“Up to scratch
I hope, though maths is incomprehensible most of the time. My brain
doesn’t think that way.”

“Mine too.”

Jen laughed
again, “the trials and tribulations of getting through that
exam.”

There was the
sound of the click of paws on the hardwood flooring.

“That’ll be
your Mlei and my Trnslei. He’s been showing Mlei around. He’ll take
him to the hunting area tomorrow.”

Jess yawned,
she simply couldn’t help it and Jen watched as her charge’s mouth
got bigger and bigger, showing off two rows of very white
teeth.

“Tell you what,
as I said, you’re tired, not up to meeting a raft of people
tonight. I’ll go and coax cook into giving both of us some supper
on a tray. Make yourself comfy, I won’t be long.”

Jess managed to
stay awake long enough to eat it then Jen led her back to her
cubicle. Mlei was already asleep.

* * * * *

Jess was
sitting reading in her cubicle some days later when she heard the
commotion that heralded new arrivals. Mlei was out hunting. Ranolf,
the Junior Cadet Ryzcka had suggested that Jess get ahead in the
area of general studies education whilst she had the chance, so she
was deep in the history syllabus when Jen’s head popped through the
open door.

“Thought I’d
find you here and this,” she guided a smaller girl in to stand in
front of her so Jess could see, “is Tana. She’s just this moment
arrived and Ranolf said to put her in your charge for now. I’ve got
cookhouse duty and cook’ll be none too pleased if I bug off. Take
her to stores for her kit will you and generally show her what’s
what?”

“Course I
will,” said Jess, laying aside her book and scrambling to her feet.
She looked at the newcomer with frank and interested eyes.

“I’ve put her
and Tavei did you say?” continued Jen.

Tana nodded
shyly.

“I’ve put them
in the cubicle up from yours.”

A voice called
out Jen’s name.

“Got to dash,”
and Jen was away as if the very Larg were after her.

Jess and Tana
looked at each other. Then Tana bestowed a tentative smile on Jess.
It lit up her narrow face and Jess knew in that moment that this
was the twin sister she had never had.

“
Are
you
really fourteen?” she asked disbelievingly.

“All my family
are small,” answered Tana, “and good things come in small bundles,
at least that’s what my mother always said.”

“I think they
might struggle to find uniforms your size,” laughed Jess.

“I’ll manage,”
declared Tana, “I’m good with a needle.”

A hairy head
peered over Tana’s shoulder and into Jess’s domain.

“I am Tavei,”
it said. Tavei looked round, an interested expression on his broad
face. “I could do with a bath,” Tavei informed Jess. “I’ll tell
Mlei,” said Jess, “he’ll come and show you where.”

“That would be
good,” he continued, “food too?”

“That as well,”
promised Jess, “unless you want to hunt?”

“Hunt another
day,” was his decided answer.

“Did you not
stop on the way?” asked an interested Jess, “I’ve been reading
about the history of the Supply Stations.”

“We’ve been
days on the road,” Tana responded, “we camped mostly and stopped at
two stations but the Lind did not hunt.”

“Mlei enjoys a
good hunt, the hunting area is in an area south-west of here where
there’re no farmsteads.”

“I don’t know
much about the geography of Vadath,” confessed Tana.

“You’ll know
more than the girl in the cubicle on the other side of you, she
comes from the Southern Continent of all places. Quite hop out of
kin.”

“I didn’t think
anyone from the South ever paired. What’s she like?”

“She doesn’t
say much,” said Jess in a quiet voice. Sound carried in the
barracks and she didn’t want the subject of their conversation to
overhear what she was saying.

“Reticent?”
questioned Tana, in similarly muted tones.

“Shy more than
anything else I’d say.”

“Must be
difficult for her,” surmised Tana.

“The only
thing,” offered Jess, “that she knows anything about is needlework.
She can’t read hardly at all, says girls in the South aren’t
taught. She speaks funnily as well, slower than us. She’s in my
chore section and her face when she was given some redroots to pare
was a picture! Didn’t seem to know one end of a knife from the
other. She’s getting better now though, least she doesn’t cut
herself quite so much.”

Tana laughed,
“you?”

“Farm bred,
you?” she countered.

“Father owns a
tailor shop, we live in Farquharstown in Argyll; it’s a small
village about thirty miles from Settlement. I was doing my military
training term with the Garda when Tavei found me. Father is not
overly happy about it but he’ll come round in time. Your
parents?”

“Delighted and
pleased. Quite a few in our family have served with the Vada.”

“I’m the
first,” declared Tana, “and Father wouldn’t have let me attend the
Academie if he had guessed what would happen, he’d have paid the
fine first. I always wanted to join the Garda, I think he hoped if
I did a term training I’d get it out of my system.”

“Didn’t quite
turn out how he expected did it?”

Tana laughed
again, shaking her head with merriment.

“Are you
hungry?

“A bit,”
admitted Tana.

“Let’s go then.
We can pick up a bite to eat on the way to stores.”

“Sounds like a
good idea to me.”

“We could ask
our southern friend to come along,” ventured Jess, “you should meet
her, she’s in your training squad.”

‘Our southern
friend’ proved to be a slim dark girl with impeccable manners and a
head of very short curly hair and who was, Tana reflected,
inordinately clean and tidy in direct contrast to herself. To
Tana’s surprise she was also wearing a long skirt. Tana learned
later that in their off duty hours the cadets were permitted to
wear casual clothes.

Beth picked up
her skirts in a dainty manner as she followed Jess and Tana.

“I don’t feel
comfortable yet in trews,” she confided by way of explanation,
“where I come from no female is permitted to wear trousers, except
perhaps for some slave women.”

“You weren’t a
slave then?” queried Tana.

“No,” answered
Beth but she did not elaborate.

Tana did not
press her; she had caught Jess’s eye and the slight warning
frown.

Obviously,
reflected Tana, this Beth did not wish to talk about her
antecedents.

Beth was happy
to help Tana and Jess carry the kit back to the barracks and
offered to help Tana take in the way too large uniform before
classes started the day after next rest day. The quartermaster had
issued the smallest uniforms he had in stock but, as Beth said in
her shy voice, there was enough material in both tunics and trews
to fit round Tana almost twice over.

During the
hours that followed as the three sat sewing, Beth with enjoyment,
Tana with resignation and Jess with inept disgust (Beth would allow
Jess only to do the most basic tacking and pinning), the three
girls began to make friends.

By the time
Tana’s uniform fitted, she and Jess had quite decided that Beth
might be someone worth knowing as the real Beth began to show
herself, not that she said much about her early life.

* * * * *

Hannah and
Kolyei arrived two evenings later and were allocated the cubicle
immediately opposite Jess, it was natural that the three girls
already there should help them settle in, especially as classes
were due to start the following morning.

The quartet was
complete.

The three,
Jess, Tana and Beth, had been putting the finishing touches to
Tana’s uniform when the cubicle door swung open to reveal Jen’s
face.

“I know it’s
late but I’ve got another one for you Jess,” she announced. “We’ve
already been to stores to get her uniform. Could you please see to
her?” Jen sounded rushed, “she’s in the cubicle opposite. I’d do it
myself but I’ve got to deliver a babe-pair to the nursery domta.”
Babe–pair was the irreverent term for those duos where one (or
both) were under fourteen and not yet eligible to become
fully-fledged cadets.

“Lessons begin
tomorrow,” Tana protested.

“It won’t take
long,” said Jen, “just make sure that she’s ready will you? There’s
a lamb.”

“Does her
uniform fit?” asked a suspicious Tana, but Jen had disappeared.
They could hear her feet running away.

The three
stared at the plump girl who stood before them, half in and half
out of Jess’s cubicle. Her face, Tana noted, was plain and freckled
and her hair, as Jess said later, had been yanked back from her
face into a ponytail that emphasised her round visage. Her slow
smile though, was an easy-going and pleasant one.

“Sorry about
this,” she said, “But Jen is taking the boy who paired same time as
me somewhere else. She said he was too young to become a cadet
right now. He was only thirteen a few tendays ago.”

“She’ll be
taking him to the nursery domta,” said Jess, scrambling to her
feet. “Welcome to our midst by the way. I’m Jess and my Lind is
called Mlei.”

“Name’s
Hannah,” the newcomer replied, still retaining that easy smile. She
turned a frankly interested gaze in the direction of Beth and
Tana.

“This is Beth,”
grinned the latter, “the dark-faced, long-legged creature over
there is her Lind Xei. Tana’s my name and Tavei is my life-mate’s
handle. Yours?”

“Kolyei.”

“Really?”

“Surprised me
too.”

“Is he a
descendant of the original Kolyei and Tara?”

“He might be,”
Hannah shrugged, “but if he is he hasn’t said.”

“Where d’ya
hail from?” asked Tana who thought she recognised the accent.

“North of
Stewarton,” answered Hannah, confirming Tana’s guess. “My family
are farmers.”

“Same as Jess
here then. Her family are farmers too but time’s a wasting. Jen
said she had taken you to get your uniform?”

“Er, yes,”
Hannah said, “but there’s a bit of a problem there I fear.”

“Don’t they
fit?” asked Beth in her slow drawl, thus entering the conversation
for the first time, “from what I’ve seen they’re either made for
very tall and thin people or very short and fat people.”

“And I am
neither,” laughed a rueful Hannah.

Jess and Tana
forbore to comment. Their new acquaintance and fellow cadet had
what could only be described as an ample frame. She was as tall as
Jess, true, but nobody could say she had a similarly lithesome
figure.

“We’ll just
have to start sewing again,” said a resigned Tana, “stars, we’ll be
up all night.”

“T’won’t be as
bad as all that,” said Beth, “we’ll get one uniform ready and do
the rest tomorrow.”

By the time Jen
returned after delivering Robain and Balindifya, the four were hard
at it. Tana and Beth were busy pinning one of Hannah’s new uniform
tunics. Jess was grooming Kolyei and generally making herself
useful putting all four of the quartet’s cubicles to rights.

With a rueful
laugh Jen settled in to help. She proved to be a more than
competent seamstress and before eleventh bell struck Hannah had one
uniform ready to wear and another almost there.

They tidied
away the pins, threads and needles and Jen advised that they all
settle down to sleep.

“You’ll have a
busy day tomorrow,” she informed them, “first day always is. I’ll
not be able to help. I’ve got early cookhouse duty, which means
crack of dawn. At sixth bell get up, wash, get into uniform and get
your breakfasts. Remember to make sure that your cubicles are ready
for inspection too. They might not inspect, it being first day and
all that but it’s best to get into the way of it from the first.
What’s your first class?”

“Riding
practice,” answered Jess.

“Fair enough.
You know where?”