Read Dawn of Wonder (The Wakening Book 1) Online
Authors: Jonathan Renshaw
With that, he read the list. Peashot, or Bede as
he was officially known, was the first named. Several followed until Aedan
realised these were all boys who had gone after him.
He felt sick. His head dropped forward. How would
he explain this to Osric? What kind of fool loses his temper in an examination?
He wondered if he even had the right to go back to Osric after this. But to
face Harriet again …
Giddard folded up the page. Some boys were
ecstatic and grouped in little victors’ circles. The others began to drift
away.
“And Aedan son of Clauman.”
He glanced up at the mention of his name. Giddard
held his eye with a stern face. It was all the reprimand that was needed. Aedan
dropped his eyes, relief flooding through him, and in spite of his effort to
remain grave, smiled.
The boys were given a week to spend with their families. Aedan
went to visit his mother every day and stayed as long as Harriet would allow.
There was no news of Clauman, but mother and son constantly reminded each other
that in a city so large it might take him some time to find them. For all his
abusiveness, he was still husband and father, and they missed him.
Nessa was delighted to hear that Aedan had made it
into the academy. Harriet was not. She wanted to know what he thought he would
learn there that she could not have taught him. It was an answer so colossal
that Aedan didn’t know how to begin. Harriet interpreted the hesitation
differently. She shook her yellow curls with a look of infinite wisdom and
noble pity.
“The academy is a place for fools,” she said, “a
place where loud-mouths sit around in soft couches and talk about things
they’ve never seen.”
“Oh,” said Nessa, with sincere enthusiasm, “have
you seen it?”
Harriet pulled a sour face. “Of course not. After everything
I’ve just explained, why would I care to?”
After their break, the twenty boys gathered at the main
entrance. Some had arrived early in the afternoon, bursting with curiosity. The
sentry made it clear, however, that they would not be allowed in before the
day’s end – when a clerk would officially escort them through the gates. None
had ever been inside, and they were all eagerness and impatience as they gnawed
through the hours. Finally, the long awaited clerk arrived, took charge of them
at the outer gate and led the way past the guards, along a passage and through
a second gate. Then the Royal Academy opened up, as did every mouth.
Wide lawns lined with ancient trees were surrounded
by the most unusual and fascinating stone buildings, unlike anything else in
the city. Apart from the central meeting hall, each of four main wings was between
three and five storeys high. Pillars were fronted with statues of exquisite
beauty and separated from each other by gargoyles of startling hideousness, all
of them quite life like. There were noble arches, airy corridors, plentiful
windows and high balconies. The intricately featured walls and columns were all
faced with limestone and marble that glowed a deep imperial rose in the
lingering sunset. Even the stables beyond several acres of fenced paddocks exuded
noble condescension.
“Academics are split into four sections,” the
clerk said, indicating with a hand as he listed them. “Marshals, military
officers, legal administrators, and physicians. Beyond are the residences where
the masters and some seniors are housed. There are also a few other buildings
that not even I can identify. Best keep clear of them. The Royal Academy is
very old. There are more than a few secrets within these walls.”
“Why are there physicians here?” someone asked in
a reverent whisper.
“A level of medical knowledge is required for
marshals and officers, so it is convenient for them to be housed on the
premises. And where better for a medical school to locate itself, where better
to find open wounds on which to practice, than where military and legal men are
brought together?”
A few boys whispered to each other. Most were
still staring around in awe.
“Rules will be explained tomorrow. For now, keep
to the marshals’ wing. The lawns and stables belong to everyone, but some of
the law students can get territorial. They tend not to like marshals and will
make trouble with the hatchlings – that would be you. The two giant crindo
boards – you’ll all want to have a go at shifting stone pieces as big as yourselves,
but if hatchlings are caught there they spend the rest of the day doing chores
for whichever senior finds them. And keep well clear of the central meeting
hall and the surrounding lawn within the ring of statues. That place is almost
sacred here. You don’t want to learn the penalty for trespassing.”
The boys paid him scant attention as they gaped,
some shaking their heads. Aedan was laughing. He was awash in amazement. That
such a place could exist in the middle of a city … and right alongside the
Seeps!
The clerk snapped his fingers and led the way into
the marshals’ wing. Their footsteps clattered down long stone corridors as they
took one turn after another, eventually stopping outside a set of dormitories.
Each room was split into five partial divisions, each section having a bed, a
desk and a set of shelves. A range of equipment was piled on each bed – hooded cloaks,
shirts, trousers and sturdy boots, a small hunting knife, a leather satchel, and
an oil lantern Aedan recognised as a kind of dark lantern. It had panels that
could be flapped closed, directing or shutting off the light – perfect for
studying after the others had turned in. Also perfect for secret explorations
after dark.
The furnishings were rough, like what might be
expected in a logger’s cabin, imparting a rugged charm that was almost homely.
Names had been assigned and Aedan found himself nearest to the door again,
sharing a room with Peashot, Vayle, Lorrimer and one other he had not met.
“You may explore if you wish,” the clerk said,
“but I would recommend a very good night’s sleep before tomorrow. If you don’t
take my advice you will be sorrier than you can imagine.”
Once he left them, the unanimous decision was to
be sorrier than they could imagine.
In Aedan’s dorm, the air was charged with
excitement. “You think the rumours are true?” asked Lorrimer. Everyone looked
at the tall boy with the big hands, big feet, enormous ears, and little but
sinew linking everything, as if he had been clamped at those points and
stretched. His quivering voice underscored a general impression of frailty. Aedan
wondered how he had made it through the obstacles of the first elimination.
“The ones about the building going down underground, I mean,” Lorrimer added,
his big ears blushing at the attention he had drawn to himself.
“I’m for finding out,” said Aedan, with a
tentative glance at the others. “How about we start with that?”
“I doubt they would want us to discover such
secrets. That would be looking for trouble.” It was Vayle, slouched lazily on
his bed with a detached look in his eyes, a look that only faintly betrayed constant,
calculating thought. Aedan was glad, but not in the least surprised to see he
had made it through.
The mention of trouble sat Lorrimer down on his
bed as firmly as if he had been pushed. Peashot, however, popped off his.
“Fine by me,” he said, slipping a tube up his
sleeve.
“Um … Hadley?” Aedan ventured.
The large boy at the far end was going through his
equipment. He had the look of a supreme athlete, and no fool either. He raised
his head. “So you’re in charge?”
Aedan’s mouth dropped open and he was about to say
that he had no such ideas, but Peashot’s tongue was quicker.
“Yeah, he’s in charge. You want to start trouble?”
“Maybe,” Hadley said, standing up and advancing on
them with an easy smile. He was big. He looked older than the rest of them by
at least a year.
Peashot stepped forward too, and for the first
time Aedan guessed why the little boy’s nose had such an odd, flattened shape,
like he’d spent the past dozen years using it to hammer nails or ram billy
goats. He raised his fists.
Aedan groaned. This was the worst way to begin.
The distance closed with Hadley’s long strides. “But
unlike you,” he said, pushing past and dropping a big hand on Peashot’s head, “I
need a decent reason to fight. Maybe we’ll find one later. Come along lads.
There’s nothing I hate like dawdling.” He stood at the door and motioned them
through.
Nobody argued with him, nobody resisted, though
Lorrimer slipped past very quickly and Peashot’s dark glare retained all its
menace. Aedan had been desperately hoping that he would make real friends in
his dorm. This Hadley worried him, made him nervous. The boy’s confidence was
almost unnatural.
It was an uneasy group that filed out into the
corridor.
As they passed the other dorms, another boy flew
out from one of them and barged into their midst, glancing repeatedly behind
him.
“Hey!” he said, his voice shaking strangely. “You
going axporing?”
“What?” said Hadley.
“Think he means exploring,” Vayle suggested.
“Yes, sorry,” said the boy. “Thirnish are not my
main language. Saying things through the river.”
“You’re Orunean, aren’t you?” Aedan asked. He had
heard that there was a kind of military exchange between the sister nations of
Orunea and Thirna.
“Yes, how you know?”
“Only Orunean foreigners would be allowed to be
soldiers or marshals here. Also, through the river – in Orunean it means mixed
up. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that in Thirnish. But, yes, we are going
exploring. Want to come along?”
“Yes, thank you. There is a belly on my dorm, he
more older and also bigger, and making us to clean his things. When I don’t
have a cloth for the cleaning of shoes he tell me to lack them.”
“I think it’s a bully who wants his shoes licked,”
said Vayle.
It was obvious that the new boy was recovering
from the verge of tears. The edges of his mouth trembled, and the forced smile
looked as though it was about to collapse.
Something had been building in Aedan as he
listened, and now it erupted. Without waiting for another word, he spun around,
flung the nearby door open and marched into the dorm. A thickset, heavy-limbed
boy was standing over three of his roommates who were busy brushing and
polishing various items. Aedan’s fury grew. He would get a sure beating if he picked
a fight with someone this size, but he was too angry to care. As he stepped
forward a big hand dropped on his shoulder. He turned to see Hadley looking
down at him.
“Me first,” Hadley said, knocking Aedan off his
stride and shoving past. The scrubbers and polishers on the floor looked up at
the heavy steps. “Out!” Hadley shouted.
They jumped to their feet and scurried from the
room. Aedan heard the rest of his dorm gather in the doorway behind him.
“Busy?” Hadley asked the remaining boy.
“As if you can’t see for yourself.”
“Yes, I can see, and I’m not sorry for
interrupting. I’m Hadley. You are?”
The big-limbed boy looked like he wanted to avoid
an answer, but Hadley’s eyes bored into him. “Warton,” he said.
“Warton, is this the kind of marshal you are going
to be?”
“This is my dorm, fat-head. Who do you think you
are to come in here and lecture me?”
“Lecture? I’m here to knock your teeth out, that
is, if you’re going to carry on like this. What’s it going to be? You choose. Teeth
or no teeth?” Hadley’s knuckles clicked as his heavy fists rose in front of
him.
“You’re a coward. You threaten me two on one.”
“Three,” said Peashot, sounding annoyed at having
been overlooked.
“Four,” said Vayle, stepping beside Peashot,
narrowing his eyes and looking equally dangerous.
Lorrimer hovered at the back and said nothing,
only trembled a little.
Aedan felt a sudden respect for these grim-faced
roommates of his. He turned back to Warton. “We’re all here because we’re
angry, not scared. Anyway, do you really think Hadley needs help?”
Warton glanced back at Hadley who did not look
like he needed help. And Warton did not appear quite so threatening anymore. He
swallowed and took a step back.
“Well?” Hadley advanced two steps, closing the
distance to something uncomfortable.
“Fine,” Warton said, turning and walking away. “Now
leave me alone.”
As they left the room, Hadley punched the door – a
solid thud. It flew away from his fist and slammed with a crash. The other boys
edged away.
Aedan summoned the courage and asked, “Would you
have hit him?”
“Was planning to. He spoiled it by backing down.”
“I – I’m glad you stopped me – I was too angry to
talk. I would have just swung at him without talking. Probably would have got
caned for it later.”
Hadley glanced across and smiled. “My father
always tells me I’m as pushy as an avalanche, but it looks like you’re a bit of
an avalanche yourself when your blood hots up. I think we’ll get on.” This was
followed by a heavy back clap.
Aedan grinned and hoped it would be so.
The corridors were high and broad, lavishly decorated
with paintings and artefacts that looked as old as the walls themselves. The little
group bumbled their way through the passages and rooms of the ground floor, the
stairs being locked. They discovered several interesting nooks, a kitchen, mess
halls, the dorms of older apprentices, classes, and a large number of offices.
All in all, it turned out to be a slightly disappointing tour.
There was only one room that had aroused curiosity.
It was a large space in the centre of the building, filled with statues of past
governors, mayors and chief marshals. In the middle was an open area, like an
indoor courtyard, with a large stone feature that stood about twelve feet high
and measured as much across each of its six finely engraved faces. Aedan thought
it might be a good idea to climb on top, but there was no hold to be found on
the surfaces. When sighs and huffs of boredom began to fill the room, they
drifted back to the dorm, annoyed at having been unable to reach another level,
above or below. The boys from the other dorms had mostly retired for the
evening.