~Chapter Nine~
We reached the top of the stairs and turned off towards the girl’s dorms. I shoved my door open, Dustin on my heels.
“Miss?”
Larni stood in the middle of the room, her arms full of laundry. Her eyes held the same glazed expression as her mother’s. My shoulders slumped as my chest heaved; I was too late.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her, fighting back tears.
“Sorry? What are you sorry for, miss?”
“Don’t call me miss,” I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see her puzzled expression. “Call me Sky, please.”
“As you wish, mi-Sky,” the confusion in her voice pained me to my very soul.
I closed the door and slumped against it out in the corridor. Dustin sat next to me and put his arm around me.
“What was that about?” he asked finally.
I quickly told him everything. By the time I reached Larni on the other side of the door (she was yet to come out), I’d rested my head on his shoulder without even realising.
“I’m as confused as you are,” Dustin said finally. “I think you should be careful from now on, though. Just watch your back.”
I nodded, my cheek grazing his shirt. Finally, as night fell, we headed down to the mess hall. Just before we went in, Dustin stopped me.
“I don’t think you should tell anyone what you told me,” he said, his golden eyes on mine. “I think it would be best to keep it as secret as you can.”
“Alright,” I agreed, because I knew he was right.
Dustin looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just brushed my cheek with his knuckles.
I didn’t mention anything to anyone about Larni’s predicament. I knew I’d be able to find out eventually who’d mind wiped her, but if my hunch was correct, I wasn’t going to be able to do anything about it.
That night I met with Jett for our secret sword training. I geared up with the swords like he’d shown me, but he was quick to pick up on my mood.
“What is it?” he asked.
I took off the swords again, and sat down on the practice mat, the full weight of the day suddenly slumping onto my shoulders. After a moment, Jett came and sat next to me. I quickly told him about my trip to Keyes and my deal with Larni’s mother. Slowly, painfully, I told him about that day. Though I had vowed not to tell anyone, Jett felt more like a friend than a teacher, and I felt like he wouldn’t tell anyone else. And if he did, hey, maybe they could figure out who had mind wiped my friend and her family.
“I told you not to take it any further, Sky,” was the first thing he said when I fell silent.
“Why?” I burst out angrily. “It’s bad enough this country, this world, condones slavery, why must I stay quiet about it when my friend has a chance at a better life?”
“You don’t think, do you?” he replied, just as angry. “Sky, haven’t you noticed how uptight Iain and Netalia are? For the past couple of years, they’ve been banishing students left and right. I don’t know why, only that they’re terrified of change. And I don’t want you to be the first of this group to fall under the knife.”
It was more than he’d ever said on this subject. While it answered a lot of questions, it still left a lot to be desired.
“Jett, who runs the country?” I asked after a moment’s contemplation, picking at a loose thread on the practice mat.
“When there isn’t a monarch, as there hasn’t been for about a thousand years, they run it.”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
“One thousand years?” I gaped at him. “How old are they?”
He shrugged.
“Older than I know,” he admitted. “They run the country to their standards, and people don’t know any better, so they take their word as law.”
“But isn’t the general populace educated?” I asked. A lot more things were suddenly falling into place. “Don’t they know they’re not the real rulers?”
“But that’s the thing, Sky,” Jett said desperately. “They’ve been in power so long, they’re so used to being in charge, that people accept them as the monarch.”
I let this digest for a moment. Suddenly I viewed Iain and Netalia in a whole new light. For years they’d kept the country running to a certain extent, and they’d kept Lotheria from international meddling.
I tugged one sword from its sheath carefully, looking at my reflection in the polished steel.
“I think they modified Larni’s memory,” I said quietly, and the moment I spoke the words aloud, I knew them to be true.
“Please let this go, Sky.”
I shook my head stubbornly. I would not, could not, give up on Larni. No matter the risk to myself, I would keep striving to obtain her the best life that I could. I told Jett as much.
“Then I’m sorry,” were his next words.
I started to ask what for, but then there was a sharp crack of light and I reeled back from it.
“What’s going on?” I asked Jett, who was sitting solemnly by my side.
“You fell,” he said, standing up to help me up. “Here, let’s get started on a few routines.”
“Alright,” my head swam hazily. I had the feeling we’d been discussing something important.
Whatever it was, I forgot all about it as we went through the dances he taught me. I was proud of myself; whenever I’d tried to learn dance routines before – I’d done a short stint of ballet when I was five – I just couldn’t remember them. But now the steps came to me as though eager to present themselves. The swords had quickly settled themselves in my hands as though extensions of my arms, and I rejoiced in the feeling of excelling at something, which was a nice change after my failed object creation.
“Wonderful,” Jett said as I finished my final dance, out of breath but very pleased with myself. “Let’s leave it there tonight.”
I hung my swords up reluctantly. More than anything I wanted to take them back to my dorm room with me so that I could practice at leisure, display them proudly as Dustin did his scythe, Dena her broadsword. I traced the engraving on their hilts one last time, and then left the weapons room.
As I walked, I tried desperately to remember what Jett and I had been speaking about. I remembered exactly what he’d said about the Masters of the school, but I couldn’t help but feel there was more to the conversation.
Try as I might, I just couldn’t recall it, and gave it up as unimportant.
For the next two weeks, the Academy felt more like a prison than a school. I made sure to discuss only school matters with Dena and the others; conversation with Larni was strained, and I felt something had happened between us. Such was my feeling of imprisonment; I couldn’t have been more relieved when Watt told everyone that we’d be going to Moon Bay and the Paw Islands for term break.
Rain perked up at the news, and began speaking at a million miles an hour about all the places she was going to take us and all the things she had to show us. There was an air of excitement about the Academy in the final few days of term; I could hardly sit still as I waited for Jett to finish teaching us in History on the last day.
“Oh, alright!” he said irritably, observing his excited students. “Go and pack, then, off with you. You’re not going to learn anything.”
We all shot off into our dorms. Dena, Theresa, Yasmin, Rain and I all gathered in Dena’s room, dragging with us our rucksacks and about half our wardrobe.
“Definitely swimmers,” Dena said, shoving her tank top and shorts into the rucksack. “Cloak, blouse, shirt, breeches.”
We all copied her, making sure to check off essentials on the list Rain had drawn up. By the time the Academy bell struck ten, we were packed and ready to go. Instead of going to our own rooms to sleep, we set up camp on Dena’s floor and had a very girly sleepover.
“So, boys,
” Rain began, handing out sticks of the hard toffee we could buy in the village. “Go.”
I opened my mouth but she cut me off.
“We already know you’re going to say Dustin, Sky,” she said, moving my hand to my mouth so I was eating the toffee and couldn’t talk. “Next!”
“Well, who do you think is cute?” Theresa prompted Rain, as she had seemed so intent on this discussion.
“Petre,” she said immediately, and Yasmin started choking on the toffee.
“E’s pompous,” I managed to get around the toffee.
“Shush,” Rain told me. “I think he is.”
“Pompous?” I repeated, and everyone giggled.
“No, cute,” she fixed me with a mock glare. “And he’s smart and neat...”
“Are these,” I swallowed the toffee with difficulty. “Are these traits difficult to come by or something?”
She pouted prettily at me.
“Oh alright,” I conceded. “He’s cute.”
The others began their discussion about the boys in our group. Yasmin had been crushing on one of the other guys in our class.
“Not Red Hair?” I asked.
“No, not Red Hair,” she threw one of the spearmint buttons we were eating at me. “His name is Trevis, from here. I think somewhere near Riverdoor.”
We teased some more information out of her, but as the night ticked on, our eyelids grew heavier and heavier as the candy gummed our teeth together. Someone muttered something about heading to the bathrooms to brush our teeth, but before anyone could answer, we’d all fallen asleep.