With Gaspi settled back on his bed, the newcomer pulled up a chair for himself and sat down, his sparkling eyes peering enthusiastically at Gaspi. “So, my young fellow,” he said. “My name is Hephistole and I have the honour of being the Chancellor of this fine institution.”
“Nice to meet you, sir,” Gaspi said politely.
“No need for that, young man. The students call me Heppy behind my back. Feel free to abuse the familiarity,” he said, with a broad smile.
A slow grin spread over Gaspi’s face, and after a short pause he thrust out his hand. “Then you can call me Gaspi,” he said.
Hephistole shook his hand solemnly, then let out a spontaneous laugh. “Good lad,” he affirmed. “Well, now we have that out of the way, let’s talk about why you’re here. Jonn here has told me all about your journey. You’ve been through quite an ordeal! I think it‘s best that we start looking into your training.”
“Heppy,” Gaspi ventured courageously, “sorry to interrupt, but are you sending out someone to get my friends?” Deep concern for Emmy and Taurn overrode any remaining shyness.
“Of course, of course,” the Chancellor answered briskly. “I should have told you that straight away. I sent two Mages out over an hour ago. All being well, they should be with you by tomorrow.” Gaspi breathed a sigh of relief and let his head fall fully back onto the soft pillow.
“Thank you,” he said sincerely. He looked up, meeting Hephistole’s gaze. “You said something about my training?” asked Gaspi. “Does that mean you will be taking me on as a student?”
“Absolutely! And if it’s alright with you, we’ll begin as soon as we possibly can.”
“That would be great,” answered Gaspi.
Hephistole’s face grew more serious. “There’s something we need to sort out before you can get down to the business of learning magic, Gaspi. You have a powerful form of magic rarely seen these days. It is so powerful it almost killed you - twice, from what Jonn tells me.” Gaspi shuddered, the memory of those terrible events making him fearful. “I don’t want you to worry about that, Gaspi,” the Chancellor said reassuringly. “We won’t let that happen to you again; but the first thing you must do is gain control of the forces within you.”
“Can you help me do that?” Gaspi asked.
“Of course,” Hephistole answered, with a smile. “But your magic is so powerful we’ve had to put a block on it to stop you using it until you are ready. When we brought you in here you were still connected to the magic, and if we hadn’t blocked you there’s no way you could have recovered.”
“I don’t understand,” Gaspi said.
“It doesn’t benefit us much going into the technicalities of it right now. Experienced practitioners of magic would disagree on the exact cause of the phenomena, but suffice it to say that without control you were unable to let go of the power once you’d released it this last time, and every time you gained a little strength back the magic sucked it out of you, trying to harness your life force. So I apologise for the intrusion, but I had to enter your mind and put a block between you and the source of your power, to save your life.”
Gaspi stared into space, trying to make sense of what he was hearing. Finally, he asked “But how am I to learn to control magic if I can’t use it?”
“Good question!” Hephistole barked so loudly Gaspi jumped. Gaspi got the impression that there was little Hephistole liked more than a good question. “We will be teaching you the mechanisms of control - an interface to your mind, if you like.” Gaspi looked confused. “Sorry Gaspi. Look at me going on like an old fool, using technical jargon where a simple explanation will suffice! We are going to teach you to meditate, which is a relaxed state which enables you to examine and control your thoughts and feelings. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it!”
“Okay, Heppy,” Gaspi said, still unsure as to what it all meant.
“I’ll ask the matron to give you a restorative, and we’ll move you into your dormitory tomorrow,” Hephistole said. “You should be strong enough by then, and we don’t want your friends arriving to find you in a hospital bed, now, do we?”
Gaspi grinned. “Sounds good!”
“Okay, Gaspi, I’ll take my leave now. We don’t want to exhaust you! I’ll see you soon,” the enigmatic Chancellor concluded. Bounding out of his chair, Hephistole left with a wink and a grin, banging out through the infirmary door; which, as if energised by his touch, swung vigorously on its hinge for several seconds after he was gone.
Before Gaspi fell asleep that night the matron brought him a small glass filled with a bright green drink. “Drink up, young man,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument. “By tomorrow you’ll be back to your normal self.” Gaspi sipped the strange looking brew, and found it to be not unpleasant. Its taste was earthy, bursting with the unfettered freshness of growing things, and Gaspi thought that it was somehow both hot and cold at the same time. As soon as the liquid had slid down his throat a slow warmth begin to tingle in his stomach and spread languidly through his body, seeping down his limbs and along his fingers until every part of him thrummed with a soothing inner vibration. Sleep approached irresistibly like a giant wave, sweeping up over him, sucking him down into its depths and crashing down, plunging him into the depths of dark, oblivious rest.
The next morning, Gaspi awoke feeling quite back to normal. He immediately got out of bed, relieved to find no remnant of the malaise that had kept him in his bed for the past day. Jonn had left some clothes for him on a chair, and Gaspi had just finished dressing when Jonn arrived along with a boy who looked to be around Gaspi’s age. The boy was taller than Gaspi, with the kind of handsome features the girls at home liked. He was broad-shouldered and blonde-haired, and wore the brown robes of a student.
He introduced himself without making eye contact, and without shaking hands. “I’m Everand,” he announced, as if that statement should mean something in itself. “I’m here to show you to your dormitory,” he said, waiting impatiently for Jonn to gather Gaspi’s things together. As soon as they were ready, he led them briskly from the room. As they walked through the complex, Gaspi sped up to walk alongside Everand.
“Are you in my year?” Gaspi asked, trying to think of something to spark up a conversation.
“Yes,” replied Everand without embellishment, chin thrust high into the air as he walked. Gaspi lapsed into silence, slipping back to walk alongside Jonn, who just shrugged when Gaspi gave him a questioning look. Everand led them to a long, single-storey building, set along one side of a large courtyard, which unlike the other enclosed areas of the college was just an open square of hard, dusty ground, not planted with trees or covered in grass. It was marked all over with white lines, forming a pattern Gaspi didn’t recognise. The square was enclosed on all four sides by low buildings. The one Everand entered was twinned by an exact replica on the opposite side of the courtyard, and the other two sides were filled with a mismatched selection of buildings, whose use was not immediately obvious.
As Gaspi followed Everand into what he assumed was to be his dormitory, the smell of wood-polish filled his nostrils; the kind of strong, resinous scent that instantly takes you back to the place it was first smelled. Everand stalked at his unyielding pace along the long, narrow room, between two rows of six beds on either side, before stopping at an empty bed at the end of the row.
“This is yours,” he said, looking briefly at Gaspi before turning to leave.
“Thank you,” Gaspi murmured, feeling put out by Everand’s cold manner.
As Everand reached the door he turned around. “They say you’re a Nature Mage,” he said, his tone edged with disbelief.
“So they say,” Gaspi answered shortly, disinclined to say anything more.
Everand said nothing for several seconds. “The Dean asked me to tell you to come with the first-year boys to class tomorrow morning,” the tall bay said reluctantly, as if it were beneath him to be passing on messages. “You will be joining us straight away.” And with that, Everand turned on his heel and was gone.
“Well, he was nice!” Gaspi said to Jonn.
Jonn smiled ruefully. “Don’t let him worry you, Gaspi. There are all kinds of people in the world. A little bit of rudeness is nothing to worry about.”
Gaspi said nothing, but didn’t agree with Jonn at all. Why should Everand have treated him like that? He had done nothing wrong at all. Years of being singled out by Jakko had imbued him with an instinct for idiots, and Everand looked like a clear candidate. He inwardly resolved to make an impression on the arrogant Everand as soon as possible.
The floors and walls of the dormitory were made of dark grainy wood, polished up to a fine sheen. The wide, heavy beds were of the same dark wood, and at the back of each were two shelves sitting directly over a half-moon shaped bedhead. At the side of each bed was a small cabinet, with a single upper drawer and a larger open space below it, and a small wooden chair. The other beds, shelves, cabinets and chairs all showed signs of habitation; books were stacked on the shelves, sheets, though tidied, had clearly been slept in, and clothes were hanging on the backs of chairs. The other students’ cloaks and robes hung from brass hooks which protruded from the wall at the side of each bed.
Jonn put a sack containing Gaspi’s few clothes and belongings on the bed, and sat down on the chair. “Get yourself sorted, Gasp, and we’ll go and see if there’s any news of Emmy and Taurn, maybe see some of the city,” he said. Glad of the distraction, Gaspi emptied his sack on the bed, quickly finding a home for all its contents; the only thing of any real personal value to him a hard Koshta seed, which went in the drawer in his bedside cabinet.
Gaspi and Jonn made their way to the main entrance of the college to ask about the arrival of the gypsy caravan, but there wasn’t any news, so Jonn took Gaspi into the city. While Gaspi had slept, Jonn had learned his way around the main streets of the town, and visited the barracks several times. Today, he took Gaspi to a café with a view of the main gate. Jonn ordered a plate of cured, spicy meat, and they sat at the side of the street watching people go by. Each table had the same centrepiece; a kind of covered clay bowl, with several long, flexible pipes snaking from it. Other customers were sucking on those pipes, drawing smoke out of the clay bowl as it gurgled noisily.
Gaspi was intrigued when Jonn asked for theirs to be lit. He watched as Jonn drew in a deep lungful of smoke and let it stream out of his nostrils with a contented sigh. When Jonn invited him to take a pipe for himself, Gaspi quickly snatched the nearest one and sucked. Jonn couldn’t contain his laughter as Gaspi gave an explosive cough and spluttered uncontrollably, the inhaled smoke violently expelled from his mouth as soon as it touched the back of his throat.
Gaspi was put out by Jonn laughing at him, and pulled a face. “Come on Gasp, lighten up!” Jonn said with a smile. Gaspi couldn’t help smiling in return. This trip seemed to be doing his guardian the world of good. Gaspi couldn’t remember Jonn looking this relaxed in Aemon’s Reach, and was happy with the change.
“I’ve got something to tell you,” Jonn said. Gaspi looked at him expectantly.“I’m signing up as a guard. I’ll need something to keep me occupied as you study.”
The source of Jonn’s good mood became clearer to Gaspi. He had been wasting away in Aemon’s Reach, with nothing to do but odd jobs, and everything he saw reminding him of what he had lost. But here he was free from all that, and the prospect of soldiering was clearly doing something for him.
“That’s great, Jonn,” Gaspi said, genuinely pleased for his guardian. “Now I won’t have to worry about you being bored,” he said with a grin.
“Cheeky young pup,” Jonn muttered good-naturedly, taking a playful swipe at Gaspi’s head. “Now, come on, and try this Tabac again.” A couple of hours later they were still sitting in the same spot, replete with the local, spicy sausage they had indulged in, and after several embarrassing attempts Gaspi had given up on the Tabac. It had a subtle cherry flavour as well as the harsh tang of Tabac, but Gaspi couldn’t work out how Jonn could call it smooth, whatever he had said about passing the smoke through water to filter it. Jonn had explained to Gaspi that smoking Tabac was only an occasional pleasure, and that some people became so addicted to it they’d smoke it all day every day until their lungs filled with giant growths that led to a painful death. Gaspi, whose throat felt like he’d been swallowing sandpaper, didn’t feel he needed the warning.
They were still waiting for their friends to come into the city, and as they had watched everyone coming through the gates they knew they had not missed them; there was no reason to go elsewhere. Jonn was sitting back in his chair, feet extended and resting on a small stool. They talked on and off, comfortable in each other’s company, and as they talked, Gaspi let his eyes explore his surroundings. The thick red outer walls of the city were smooth and rounded at the top, just like the houses and shops of the outer city. Gaspi thought the whole place looked like nothing more than a giant anthill.
His eyes fell on the guards at the city gates, who were each dressed in shining light chain-mail over a burnished leather cuirass - a piece of hard leather armour covering the chest and back. The chain mail hung to just above the knees, and beneath them the guards wore leather-trimmed trews to protect their legs. The only weapons they carried were short swords, sitting tightly in scabbards attached to thick leather belts. It didn’t seem to Gaspi that they were very well armed, but then he noticed the rows of spears, heavier swords and bows fitted to brackets set into the walls of the gatehouses on either side of the gate, within easy reach of the soldiers if the need to use them arose.
The gatehouses rose up to the top of the wall, a series of steps cut into the side of them to provide easy access to the top of the wall, where a path wide enough for two to pass abreast had been cut deep into the top of the wall. Gaspi could see the head and shoulders of sentries pacing along the path around the city wall, until they completed an entire circuit of the city and started again.