Faculty of Fire

by Alex Kosh

  “No, I didn’t either,” he said, winking at Nathalie.

  She blushed again and lowered her eyes.

  “It’s a waste of time talking to them,” Angel said in a loud voice. “They’re not from our social circle.”

  “Miserable wretches that we are,” I murmured.

  “Calm down,” said Nigel, who hadn’t said anything so far. “If you have something to settle, then settle it outside.”

  “Right now, if you like,” I agreed.

  Lens twitched, but Angel caught hold of his sleeve.

  “Drop it. It’s just that one of them’s furious because he didn’t get into the Academy, and the other’s not even blue-blooded, he’s a nobody.”

  Now it was my turn to hold Chas back.

  “Calm down,” I whispered to him. “There’s no hurry, you’ve got plenty of time, and all those years of study in the Academy ahead of you.”

  Chas relaxed and chuckled again.

  “You know, guys, if I were you, I wouldn’t go boasting about your pedigree. People like you can only disgrace it, and you give me the impression the imperial clan is rapidly degenerating.”

  Another moment, and I was sure no one would be able to hold Lens back, but then two men came over to us, and all the attention was instantly focused on them. They were a Craftsman in red livery with an incredibly long nose and Nigel, who had somehow managed to slip away from us without being noticed.

  “What’s going on here?” his companion asked.

  “We’re having a talk,” Lens murmured through his teeth, glaring hard at Chas.

  My red-haired friend took no notice of the others and carried on made eyes at Nathalie.

  The Craftsman turned to me and Chas.

  “Would you mind sitting somewhere else?”

  “Gladly,” I immediately replied. I grabbed Chas by the arm and we made a rapid withdrawal.

  As we walked across the hall to the table standing in the farthest corner, we didn’t say a word. But once we sat down at the table beside some old men who were almost asleep, Chas asked: “Did you see that?”

  “Yes,” I said with a nod. “They took us down a peg or two … or we took them down a peg or two.”

  “No, not that, did you see Nathalie? She … she …”

  “Ah, you miserable wretch,” I said, turning to him. “You’ve already got a girl.”

  “What girl’s that?” he asked in surprise.

  “Come on, you came walking up to me with her this morning.”

  “Don’t be silly,” he laughed. “I brought her for you, to cheer you up.”

  “What?”

  “Well, you were so … miserable, so I brought a girl. You mean you didn’t see the way she was flirting with you?” my redheaded friend laughed in amazement.

  “Who flirts at that time in the morning?” I protested. “I don’t even remember what she looked like. I wouldn’t recognise her now if you showed her to me.”

  “A hopeless case …” said Chas, shaking his head. Noticing the food on the table in front of him he said, “Hey, there’s a roasted goose here!”

  Now it was my time to shake my head. Once Chas got started on his food, he was in a different world and it was absolutely pointless trying to talk to him. But I was in the mood for a bite to eat myself, and I set about devouring the food every bit as eagerly as he did.

  I soon ate as much as I could and leaned back in my chair, unashamedly scrutinising the other guests. No doubt about it, the hall was crammed with an absolutely incredible number of people. Most of them were young guys and girls my own age, but there were a few more staid, respectable ladies and gentlemen from the Great Houses too. The Craftsmen were sitting apart from everyone else, and there weren’t any senior pupils in this hall – they were feasting in the next one, which was smaller. And all the different costumes that were on display … naturally, most of them were various shades of gold worn by members of the Great Houses and the red colours of the Craftsmen. But there were also the brown colours of merchants’ suits and the silver tones of the rich families like Chas’s. The hall was filled with the babble of jolly conversation and laughter and here and there people were dancing, where there was enough space.

  As I ran a leisurely glance over the faces, I unfortunately saw my aunt, who was standing with a group of worthy individuals and glaring at me balefully. Before I could pretend I hadn’t noticed her, Aunt Eliza beckoned me with her finger. That familiar icy stare certainly didn’t promise me anything good.

  I nudged Chas, nodded towards my aunt and ran a finger across my throat to show that she was all set to blow, reluctantly got up off my chair and plodded across to her.

  “Aunt,” I said, with a quick bow.

  “Allow me to introduce my nephew Zachary,” Aunt Eliza said in an icy tone to the people surrounding her.

  I nodded in greeting.

  “What are you doing here?” my aunt enquired in annoyance.

  “What do you mean? I’ve been accepted in the Academy,” I said, making an attempt to smile. “This is the enrolment party.”

  “Shame on you!” she said in a surprisingly loud, shrill voice that made me start in surprise. “Aren’t you tired of these lies?”

  I cringed under her gaze, trying to understand what it was I’d done wrong. It was the first time I’d ever seen my aunt so furious.

  “I … I’m not lying,” I said quietly. “You have no reason to say that.”

  The people around my aunt quietly melted away, realising that I was about to get a dressing-down, and the family quarrels of the Great Houses were definitely not something they wanted to be involved in.

  So that was why my aunt reacted so calmly when I told her I’d got into the Academy, I suddenly realised. She simply didn’t believe me.

  “What’s going on here?” a calm, steady voice asked behind me.

  I swung round, already knowing who I would see.

  “Romius, I haven’t seen you for a long time,” my aunt declared petulantly. “Why have you suddenly decided to join us?”

  I was surprised. Their conversation was rather strange. When I was talking to Romius, he hadn’t mentioned that he was on bad terms with his sister. In fact, he’d said quite a lot of good things about her …

  “I just heard you scolding the boy for no good reason and decided to intervene.”

  I was so surprised that I even swallowed that “boy” without a peep.

  “You know perfectly well that his future has nothing to do with the Academy. He can’t …”

  “He can,” Romius interrupted. “And you shouldn’t talk to him about it.”

  My aunt gaped in amazement as he took me by the shoulder and led me away.

  “Take no notice, I’ll have a word with Eliza, you go and enjoy yourself.”

  “But why does she …” I began.

  “Later, we’ll deal with everything later,” Romius replied and went back to my aunt. I stood there for a while, trying to gather my wits, and went back to Chas. Before I reached the table, I was surprised to see that our places had been taken by someone else. Chas must have gone off somewhere. There was nothing for it but to take a free place by the wall. Once I’d taken it, I realised why it was free. The view was completely blocked by a large green aspidistra. I sighed, leaned back wearily against the wall and closed my eyes, trying to gather my thoughts. The only thing stopping me was the constant drone of voices, but unfortunately there was nothing I could do about that.

  Suddenly the drone fell silent. At first I thought my hearing was playing tricks on me, but a fact is a fact: the hall really was deathly quiet.

  I peeped out warily from behind the aspidistra and looked around. I couldn’t see all that much from my little refuge, but I didn’t miss the appearance of the slim shapely girl in a white dress. Judging from the way everyone’s eyes were glued to her, this charming creature was the cause of the sudden silence. Of course, I had no idea what was going on, and who this girl was. It didn’t seem appropriate to
ask– my question would have thundered like a cannon shot.

  The girl in white walked majestically across the hall and, surprisingly, came in my direction. As the girl in white walked across the hall, movement and whispering sprang up behind her back as people began recovering their wits and whispering to each other. The closer the girl came to me, the more distinctly I could make out her charming and seductive figure under the dress, and the louder the whispering became. When she was halfway across the hall, I realised that her figure was simply perfect. The beautiful girl’s face was concealed behind a veil that was light but opaque.

  The drone of voices in the hall gradually got louder and louder.

  Eventually the girl reached a table only a couple of yards away from me and sat down gracefully on a chair as if it were a genuine throne – every movement she made was so full of grace. The crowd livened up again and conversations were resumed. Sideways glances were cast at the girl. I froze on the spot, trying to make out the stranger’s face through the veil. But I didn’t have to struggle for long, because soon the girl lifted the veil herself, and I saw an incredibly beautiful face. The most beautiful face I had ever seen in my life. The face of the vampire girl who was in my room earlier that day.

  Scene 5

  I could have admired the vampiress forever, but nothing good in my life ever lasts for more than a few seconds. It was the same this time, the brief moment of happiness was interrupted by the appearance of my red-haired friend. As usual, Chas hadn’t wasted any time, and he was striding along arm-in-arm with Nathalie.

  “Why so gloomy?” he asked, positively beaming with delight.

  “I’m not sure, really,” I answered. “I came here with a friend, but he’s gone. You haven’t seen him, have you? Brazen face, red hair, a flaky kind of guy …”

  Nathalie laughed and looked curiously at Chas. What would he say to that?

  But Chas didn’t come up with any caustic reply, he just stood there gaping, open-mouthed. And the reason was that a man wearing the grey livery of a Higher Craftsman had come up to us – my uncle Romius.

  “Zachary, I need to have a word with you,” he said in a slightly strained voice, then he nodded to Chas and Nathalie and added: “I’m sorry, young people, but in private.”

  Chas was so astounded by the sight of his grey robes that at first he didn’t even realise the Higher Craftsman was talking to him.

  “Ah … well, yes,” he muttered, casting another glance of amazement at me as he disappeared into the crowd with Nathalie.

  Romius watched the couple walk off and turned to me.

  “I have to discuss something with you, it concerns my sister and myself, and now you as well. You probably noticed your aunt isn’t exactly delighted that you got into the Academy. But in fact, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m going to tell you a little story, but it must remain strictly between the two of us, and if anyone asks, you never heard it.”

  I didn’t really understand what an iceberg had to do with me. But my uncle had intrigued me. The question was, how could we possibly discuss some strictly personal matter surrounded by such a massive crowd?

  Romius followed my gaze and waved his hand dismissively.

  “No one else will overhear our conversation. They won’t hear anything but the usual courtly pleasantries and flattery.” He chuckled. “I am a Craftsman, after all.”

  “All right, uncle, but what if someone can lip read?”

  That put him off his stride a bit.

  “I didn’t think about that. We’ll have to hope that no one but you has that idea. Well then …” Romius frowned slightly, gathering his thoughts. “You are aware, of course, that your family is pretty near the top of the list when it comes to inheriting the throne. To be precise, it is in third place. Of course, our Emperor has no plans to depart from this earthly life for the next hundred years or so, but there are troubled times just ahead …”

  “Troubled times?” I exclaimed, confused.

  And I thought that the golden age of civilisation had just arrived. There hadn’t been any wars for three hundred years and not much had been heard for a long time from the only real enemy of the Empire of the Elirs, the Tabernacle Caliphate, either. All our other enemies were so far away that they simply couldn’t reach us. There were still the vampires … but they hadn’t caused any trouble since the collapse of the Kingdom of Miir.

  Of course our city, like the rest of the Empire, wasn’t an ideally peaceful place, but the idea that anything could threaten the Emperor was simply absurd. Maybe my uncle was a bit touched?

  “There’s no way you could know about it,” Romius went on, “but don’t forget that the Craftsmen include some pretty good foretellers. Of course, it would be foolish to put your complete faith in them, but they can’t be dismissed out of hand. Well anyway, for months now we’ve been hearing the same thing from all our foretellers: there going to be a war soon, not just an external war, but an internal one too. That’s what they’ve been saying – ‘internal’. But you don’t need to bother your head about that right now, just understand one thing – the chances are quite good that there will be a new Emperor soon. And if it happens during the next few years, the first person in line for the throne will be you.”

  I was stunned. “Me, the Emperor? But that’s crazy! Our family is only third on the list, what have they done with the first two?”

  “The explanation’s pretty simple,” Romius chuckled. “If you had devoted even a little time to the study of heraldry, you would know that the Emperor has to be an adult male who is not bound by any ties of marriage. And it’s not you who come third on the list, but your family. It just happens that at the moment the first two families don’t have anyone who matches these requirements, and our family only has two – you and I. But, I am delighted to say, there is also another requirement: the ruler cannot be a Craftsman. First of all because that would give him too much power … and for many other reasons, including moral ones. You won’t be able to understand those until you become a Craftsman yourself.”

  It suddenly hit me that by enrolling in the Academy, I had renounced all claims to the throne. That immediately made me feel better. Me on the throne? The entire country could go to the dogs before I would sign my first decree. What a shame that Liz wasn’t as knowledgeable about politics as my uncle, she would have been kicking herself for the rest of her life. Fancy swapping the Emperor for an ordinary Craftsman!

  “Now you ought to understand why your aunt Eliza is, let us say, slightly displeased at your joining the Academy,” Romius went on. “She’s a good woman, but too ambitious and determined to demonstrate her superiority. It’s the result of her education, I’m afraid … That’s why she and I haven’t been getting along recently, although I respect and love her …”

  But it had seemed to me that my aunt wasn’t simply annoyed because I’d got into the Academy. She didn’t believe me …

  “And now I’ve ruined all my aunt’s plans,” I murmured. “I’m sorry, but I would never have made a decent Emperor anyway – no matter how much my aunt, or even I, might have wanted it.”

  “You’re wrong to think so. In fact, you have been taught everything an Emperor needs to know since you were a child. Economics, politics, history, even your study of the Art – it was all an educational program subtly planned by your aunt. Don’t be so surprised, she foresaw just about everything.”

  “Apart from me getting into the Academy,” I chuckled.

  “You got into the Academy entirely by accident. Your abilities are too weak. If not for that strange incident, and my patronage, you could never have got in at all. No offence intended, of course, but facts are facts.”

  “Why should I take offence? I knew all that already,” I said with a rather strained smile. “So it turns out my aunt has been using me all my life? Trying to mould me into the ideal monarch?”

  Romius was slightly embarrassed.

  “Not entirely … She thinks she’s doing all this for y
ou. It’s just that everyone has his own idea of what happiness is …”

  “And what about the idea that you can’t force a man to be happy? Neither by physical coercion nor by moral constraint?” I fumed.

  “There’s nothing I can do to help you there. That’s a matter for you aunt’s conscience. But I can say one thing for certain – she loves you and she does all this only for your sake. Even her desire to be superior is no more than a means to make you happy.”

  I calmed down a bit. Of course, my aunt was far from perfect, but she did love me.

  “All right, I’ve got all that sorted out, but that isn’t all you wanted to say to me, is it?”

  A hint of approval glimmered momentarily in his eyes.