Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (8 page)

The festival of Lughnasadh had been celebrated shortly before Charlie had turned up at Jaelshead, but the Temple’s altar was still festooned with sheathes of wheat and dolls fashioned from corn. Charlie and I sat on the front bench and he was silent for a while.

“What are we doing here?” I asked quietly, lowering my voice in the still air.

Charlie gestured at the statue. “Remembering.” He paused, thinking. “And giving thanks.”

So we sat in silence, contemplating until the Acolyte entered the temple and walked down to us.

“Would you care for some refreshments?”

Charlie glanced at me and smiled. “Yes, thank you sister, that would be most kind.”

She bowed her head and motioned for us to follow her. She led us out a side door and through the exquisitely proportioned garden of the temple, sparkling with life in the midday sun.

At the rear of the garden she sat us at a table shaded by trees and disappeared into a small adjoining hall, returning with a platter of bread, smoked fish and pickled vegetables along with a
large pitcher of juice. She surprised me by sitting with us, pouring the juice into elegant glass goblets.

“You are a Mentor?” she asked Charlie, who nodded, his mouth full of food. She turned her attention to me, “So you must be Nea’thi-Blood? Have you given any thought to what you will do when you’ve finished your training?”

I almost choked on my mouthful at the unexpected question. I hadn’t even considered what would happen after this Academy business had been completed.

“I, uh, guess I’ll be going back home. To be a Lord,” I offered lamely.

Her laugh was a merry chime. “Well, if you want to go into the healing craft, new Solasts are always welcome at the Temple.” She grinned at Charlie, “Well, it was worth a try!”

Charlie laughed. “He’s got plenty of time to figure out what he wants to do, and what he’ll be good at.” His tone became serious. “But thank you, it is always good to know there are those who appreciate our gifts.”

She nodded, equally serious. “Those in the service of Our Lady do not fear that which is alien to so many of us. Indeed, we are grateful.” She raised her goblet. “To patience, tolerance and love!” And we toasted the memory of Queen Lilbecz as the sun glittered down through the trees.

Later, back on horseback heading towards Lille I remarked to Charlie, “That was a bit weird.”

“What? The temple?”

“Yeah, didn’t pick you for the religious type.”

Charlie smiled and nodded. “The Nea’thi remember the Queen for perhaps different reasons than Humans. For us, the Leaving was not that many generations ago.”

“Oh yeah, I suppose so. We really didn’t have all that much to do with it at home.”

At this he laughed. “Yeah, I figured. Your father didn’t seem all that… enamoured with the Nea’thi.”

This was true, I guess, though it never occurred to me that my father was a racist, even though before Charlie, I had never even met any Nea’thi before.

“Don’t worry JJ, you’ll find Lille to be much more… cosmopolitan. And the Academy strongly encourages Bloodkin to go to services every week, so you should get used to that.” He caught my grimace and laughed again. “Come on, it’s not that bad! The Temples are nice, and it’s good for you, you’ll see.”

The highway ran right beside the river now, and up ahead I could see the road cutting between two low green hills and I could make out the distant sparkle as it poured into Lake Nallow.

“We’re almost there now, it’s just on the other side!” Charlie pointed towards the hills. Squinting, I could just see the towers atop the right-hand hill, the dark grey slate glinting in the afternoon sun. The near slopes were thickly carpeted with orchards of fruit trees and the flat land to the right of the highway was rich and green with intensively farmed vegetables.

I was suddenly nervous. Here was the city which I had heard so much about, the city that was to be my home for the next two years, but in reality, I knew hardly anything about it. What if it was
too
different from home? What if I hated it? We had pushed so hard on our journey and I had been so distracted by Charlie’s company that I had hardly imagined what life would be like when we finally got to our destination. My insides clenched with nerves as we passed between the hills and turned north and suddenly, there it was. The Jael spilled into Lake Nallow, which was so long I couldn’t see the far side. Blanketing the north shore of the lake and stretching up onto the hills were row upon row of buildings, the same grey slate of the towers, bathed in golden sunlight. They were punctuated by more towers, spires of the temples and narrow pillars of hearthsmoke. An island in the eastern corner was topped by a huge, ancient castle that looked rather boarded up and was joined to the city by way of a great arched bridge. Further along the shore the wharves of the docks stretched into the lake. I thought Jaelshead had been a big town, but this… This was
huge.

I realised I had stopped to gaze in awe when Charlie pulled up beside me.

“Pretty cool huh?”

I could only nod, my throat feeling a bit constricted. Charlie pointed to a group of large, graceful buildings made of darker stone near the bridge to the castle.

“That’s the Academy, where you’ll be studying. And over there…” He pointed to an area further down the shore, where a large area of tall buildings made in the same dark stone clustered together. “That’s the Nea’thi Quarter, where the Hall is. That’s where we’ll be living for the next two years.”

I gulped. “Well, we’d best, uh, get a move on if we’re to make it before the sun sets.”

Charlie cackled and urged his horse to a canter. “Come on Jas, let’s go home!”

The sun had indeed set by the time we had made it into the city proper. The small cottages that lined the road had given way to grand houses, packed tightly together. And the people! I had never seen so many people in one place at the same time. They walked, or rode, or tended the beasts that pulled their carts, and traffic was busy in both directions. I lost sight of the lake as the buildings grew taller and closer together, and Charlie guided us down what seemed like a maze of streets, all cobbled with the grey slate. Daggers of late sun sliced through gaps in the buildings as it set, and I thought I caught a glimpse of the castle perched atop its rocky island. We pressed on through the main roads as the sky darkened, and it felt as if we were heading back towards the lake. Guardsmen in pairs walked the streets, lighting torches hung from the walls or high posts at the many crossroads.

Then we turned left at one of the crossroads and faced a huge arch of black marble that stood over the street.

“Here we are Jas, the Nea’thi district. Home.”

We dismounted and led our horses underneath the arch and all of a sudden it seemed like we were in a different city altogether. These were the buildings I had seen from the other side of the lake, darker than they had appeared in the afternoon. But what I hadn’t appreciated from a distance was how tall these buildings were, at least four or five storeys high, many topped with towers or spires or achingly tall chimneys. The streets here were narrow indeed, and it was dark. Hung over us on lines stretched between buildings were awnings of beautifully coloured fabric, flapping gently in the evening offshore breeze. Not much sunlight would filter through during the day I figured.
Even now, as I craned my head to take in the grandeur of the place, I could only see fragments of the sky, beginning to twinkle with stars. Down on the street the doorways were lit not by torches, but by curious glass globes set in brackets that glowed red and yellow and green. If I had found the rest of the city confusing, the Nea’thi Quarter really was a maze, pathways twisted off like tunnels, and with the high buildings leaning over the road I felt almost claustrophobic, as if we were underground. Turning a final corner we found ourselves in front of a massive door, liberally illuminated with the light globes. I ran my hand over the smooth surface of one, surprised that the glass was cool to the touch.

“Humans call them glowbes,” Charlie informed me as he handed over his reins and pulled a chain to the side of the door, and I heard the clanking of a bell somewhere inside the massive edifice.

Slowly the great door creaked open and a huge pair of red eyes blinked out at us.

“Greeting, my name is Ϛaioћлeжa Ұлeßжa of the Ұiờ Enclave. Mentor to Jaseth of Jaelshead.”

The other Nea’thi stepped out into the glow and grasped Charlie’s hands firmly. “Ϛaioћ, my dear boy, welcome!”

The surprise and delight was evident in Charlie’s face as he enveloped the other Nea’thi in a bear hug. “Yұieӣấ! How—”

“You’ve been a long time away from Lille, boyo, I’m matron of the Hall now.” As she pulled back from the embrace I got a better look at this other person, only the second Nea’thi I had ever seen. She was not as tall as Charlie, but still taller than me. She wore Nea’thi-style robes in a bright, clear blue that draped gracefully around her ample figure. She turned to regard me as she offered her hand.

“I am Yұieӣấ Endoжeлe of the Hầio enclave, although I understand that Nea’thi is a difficult language for Humans to pronounce, so you may call me Eve.”

I smiled at the now-familiar Nea’thi greeting and shook her hand as I studied her face. She had the same oversized eyes
as Charlie, but her large red irises were perhaps more orange. Her cheeks were plump and deep lines stretched out from her eyes and around her generous mouth. I was surprised to see her skin was a different colour to Charlie’s as well – a slightly purple dove-grey compared to his bluish slate colour.

“Jaseth dear, welcome to Lille, I trust your studies here will prove fruitful.” She noticed our horses behind us. “You must be bone weary, and hungry too, no doubt! I’ll get one of the boys to tend to your things while I sort you out some dinner.” She stuck her head back inside the door and shouted something in Nea’thi, the volume coming from the motherly woman startling both me and the horses, who stepped nervously behind me. It didn’t take long before I could hear the sound of running feet and a Nea’thi youth appeared beside her.

“This is Ћtaұoж Hấseлe of Hầio.” The youth dipped his head nervously as Eve introduced him. “Ћtaұoж dear, this is Ϛaioћлeжa and Jaseth. Please take their horses around to the stable and bring their belongings to their room.”

The youth nodded and took the reins from me, leading the horses around a corner and out of sight. Eve shrugged and sighed.

“Fresh out of the Enclave, that one, and still quite terrified of Humans.” She shook her head. “You won’t believe the name he chose. Steven!”

“Steven?” Charlie caught Eve’s eye and they both burst into hoots of laughter.

“Oh yes, dear boy. He’ll learn.”

“He sure will!”

Eve gestured for us to follow her inside. “Now I’ll show you up to your rooms and get you something to eat, you poor starved boys. Then you can meet the others.” Her eyes twinkled.

If the narrow streets outside had made me feel claustrophobic, the reception room of the Hall certainly made me feel better. The roof was gloriously high, strung with chandeliers of tiny glowbes, more large ones set into the wall. They gave off a light quite different from the candles I was used to. It wasn’t dark or gloomy inside, but the ambience was gentle, easy on my eyes and perfectly suited to the light-sensitive Nea’thi. The floor was beautiful black and white marble tiles set out in a checkerboard pattern and
polished to a high sheen, while in the centre of the room lay a glorious soft rug, woven in intricate patterns of red and blue. A huge fire burned in a hearth opposite a large wooden desk, presumably where Myn Eve did her work and monitored the comings and goings of the students. She led us up a grand marble staircase in the far corner and down a long corridor. More of the beautiful rugs covered the floors and glowbes were recessed into the walls between the doors.

At the end of the hallway Eve stopped. “You two are the last to arrive of this year’s intake so you get the end room, I’m afraid.” She smiled apologetically. “But you do get an excellent view and I’m sure you’ll find it comfortable enough.” She pushed open the door and bustled through, Charlie and I trailing in her wake.

We found ourselves in a small sitting room, cosily proportioned. A couch and a couple of armchairs were laid around a fireplace which looked to be freshly lit. Desks and bookcases and a marble-topped workbench lined one wall and our bags had been piled beside two other doors down the far end.

“Now, your bedrooms are through there, and your bathroom facilities are in here.” Eve pointed to another door I hadn’t noticed in the corner where we had entered from. “I’ll leave you two to get settled, come up to the common room when you’re ready, the stairs are just out in the hall here. Please, make yourselves at home.” And with that she was gone, pulling the door closed behind her, leaving Charlie and me to survey our surroundings.

The two bedrooms were identical, with just enough room for a large bed and a chest of drawers. The one on the left was closer to the fire, but the one on the right appeared to be in the very corner of the big building and had windows in two of the walls through which I could see the twinkling lights of the low city and further along to where the wharves jutted out into the inky darkness of the lake.

“You can have this one,” said Charlie, coming in behind me, noticing how I stared out the windows. I started to protest but he cut me off. “The other one will be warmer and I’m Nea’thi, I get cold!”

Gratefully I demurred and left Charlie to unpack most of his things in his room and went to inspect our bathroom. There was a particularly long and deep bath, Nea’thi-sized I supposed, with peculiar taps protruding from the wall. At the far end was an even more peculiar device. It was the privy, I guessed, with a generously sized wooden seat and a copper-handled chain that hung from the ceiling. Curious, I pulled the chain to see what would happen, and with a loud gush of water the privy filled then emptied again with a gurgle of water through pipes.

“Bloody hell Charlie!” I yelled, “There’s something wrong with the privy!”