Faculty of Fire Read online

  “If it’s what you want, then so be it.”

  I couldn’t see her face, because it was hidden in shadow, but it seemed to me that it must be frozen in an expression of total despair. At least, it was despair that came through in her voice.

  “So you’re not going to scold me?” I asked timidly.

  “I ought to, but I won’t. You’re a grown man, and you chose your own path. It’s just a pity that it won’t lead to the imperial throne,” my aunt said with a grim chuckle. “So let’s go and collect your things, future Craftsman.”

  And then she calmly walked up the steps and opened the door. Or rather, the door opened itself as soon as its spell sensed the presence of the energy key. This key, by the way, was a very strange shape. For some reason, ever since ancient times, keys had to be shaped like weird little sticks. Nobody knew why this was, at least no one had ever explained it properly to me – after all, there was nothing magic about that shape.

  I sat there for a while, staring blankly into space and trying to understand what had made my aunt so kind-hearted all of a sudden. When I recalled all the preaching I had to endure after I gave up my classes in the dance school at the Imperial Court, the way she was behaving now seemed positively angelic. It was all a little bit suspicious, to say the least.

  Heaving a sigh, I got up off the bottom step and went to pack my things. What else could I do?

  “Where have you been?” asked a faceless voice

  A fat man answered in a surprised and happy voice:

  “Drinking beer.”

  I woke with a fierce headache and a ringing sound in my ears. I forced my eyes open. The terrible grating sound in my head made me realise my mistake and I forced shut them again. My head hadn’t hurt like this since the first time I got drunk. That time, of course, a bottle of good wine had relieved the pain very quickly. I could have done with a glass of that wine right now, to ease my suffering. Why did I drink so much last night?

  Just a moment, it was today not yesterday, and I didn’t drink anything but champagne! My aunt had sent me off to pack my things, while she went to prepare a farewell supper. Naturally, I declined the supper, because I’d eaten my fill at the Golden Half Moon, but I did drink a little. Over the champagne, my aunt kept complaining about how much she would miss me. She asked my forgiveness for failing to protect me against bad influences. I was just about to argue with her, and then … what happened then?

  The thoughts stumbled sluggishly through my head, clinging to each other for support. I was afraid to move, because even the slightest movement of my little finger triggered an almighty pain in my head. But I was gradually coming round.

  I wondered how long I’d slept. It was probably time for me to go, or I’d be late for the morning gathering.

  The mere thought of being late made me shudder. I didn’t want to be the first idiot who didn’t turn up after he’d already been initiated. But then, I really was very sleepy. And I could get up later, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I slept for just a little bit longer …

  Suddenly the alarm clock started screeching at the top of its voice. Or, to be precise, not the alarm clock, but the musicale, which was set to a certain position of the moons and stars. Despite the hellish pain in my temples, I was forced to open my eyes again and look at the clock.

  May a shadow take me! It was almost seven already!

  The pain in my head was sheer torment, but as soon as I looked at the clock, I was swamped by a wave of icy terror. If I’d been standing up instead of lying down, it would have knocked me off my feet. I jumped up, half out of my mind, grabbed my bag and went skittering down the stairs. Halfway down I remembered that just a second ago I was dying of a fierce headache. But there was no time for that now, and the pain receded to wait for better (or, rather, worse) times. There was no one downstairs, and if there had been, I wouldn’t have noticed anyway. I shot outside and ran for all I was worth in the direction of the Academy. My feet slipped on the sidewalk still wet after its morning wash. I almost took a tumble a couple of times, but then I adjusted to a wide, staggering run and dashed on even faster. The streets were still empty, but here and there on the roofs people were opening their “daisies” by hand to catch the mags.

  As I ran, there was only one terrible thought circling around in my head. I’m late! It was forty-minute walk from my house to the Academy. It took twenty minutes if you ran, ten minutes if you ran really fast. But I had to get here in five!

  I suddenly closed my eyes in horror at the shock of stepping knee-deep into a puddle, and then fell flat on my face. I jumped straight back up and ran on. Fortunately, I was in good shape and the pain in my knee, which felt like it was bleeding, was no hindrance to me. Although it hurt really, really bad …

  Before I’d run very far, three figures dressed in the kind of clothes they wear in the Borderland – that is, very, very shabby – strolled out onto the sidewalk in front of me.

  “Hey, lad, where are you off to in such a hurry?” one of them asked in a hoarse voice.

  “Somewhere you’ll never go,” I answered, heading straight for the three of them.

  I wouldn’t want you to think I like asking for trouble. It was just that I could tell from the look of this threesome that they weren’t going to let me go just like that. I couldn’t see any point in wasting time on conversation, especially since I was so very late.

  The trio’s sloppy appearance misled me. I assumed they were simple city lads looking for someone to vent their fury on. It was the enrolment yesterday – surely that was enough of an excuse?

  At first I decided simply to scatter them. What could be simpler than that? I deliberately approached them at a slow walk, then suddenly darted forward, hoping to slip through and land a couple of quick kidney punches if I got the chance. But these lads clearly knew how to fight, and they weren’t going to let me get away that easily.

  One of them stuck out his leg to trip me. I managed to jump over it, but my attention was distracted and I ran into one the fist of another fine fellow. He was aiming for my face, but I dodged and took the blow on the shoulder. My impetus spun me round and I used the momentum for a wide sweep of my leg that felled all three of them … and I went tumbling down after them.

  “Strange,” I had time to think. “I was hoping to knock one of them down, but I got all three... lucky …”

  I rolled forward, jumped to my feet and dashed on.

  Before I turned onto the Square of the Seven Fountains, I looked back and saw a strange sight – the three strapping lads were beating each other up! And very professionally too. I was incredibly lucky to have slipped past them like that … and it was a miracle that instead of running after me, they started fighting each other. But I had no time for miracles right now …

  I flew across the Square of the Seven Fountains at a frantic speed and there was the Academy towering above me, with its gates wide open. But the yard inside was strangely deserted. All the new pupils ought to have gathered there by now, but there was no one to be seen.

  I hurtled through the gates like a meteor and ran another ten paces from sheer inertia before I stopped.

  Emptiness. Emptiness and silence – that was what greeted me in the yard of the Academy. I was too late.

  I walked over to the Academy tower and sat down wearily on the ground, leaned my back against the stone wall and put the bag with my things down beside me.

  I was too late. I’d overslept. But how had I managed that? I wasn’t very sleepy when I got back home. I wasn’t even tired, really! No, it couldn’t be that, surely? That was impossible. My aunt couldn’t have spiked the champagne. Or could she? She was no gift, of course, but to do something as mean as that … She was my aunt, after all! How could she!

  “You’re early.”

  I must have jumped a yard in the air in surprise.

  “Did you spend the night here, then?” the cheerful voice asked.

  I glanced round the square in amazement – no one. So wh
ere was the voice coming from?

  “Look up, you blockhead,” the voice advised me with a chuckle.

  I did as it said and raised my eyes to see a young guy’s freckled face in a third-story window. He looked a year or two older than me, although I couldn’t really say for certain. Maybe he was ninety.

  “Early for what?” I asked apathetically.

  “For everything,” the young guy replied laconically.

  I lost the thread of his logic at that point and just sat there for another five minutes, staring at the surface of the yard.

  “But it’s too late,” I said eventually.

  “For what?” the red-haired young guy asked in surprise.

  “For everything,” I replied, amazed by my own quick-wittedness.

  “A-a-ah …” the young guy drawled. He twirled one finger beside his head and disappeared back into the window.

  I sat there on the ground, watching the puddles disappear as the stones soaked in the moisture. After a while I heard the sound of jolly voices; a happy crowd came piling in through the gates, proceeded to the centre of the yard and stopped there without taking the slightest notice of me. I was horrified to see my own Liz, or rather, no longer my own Liz, in the crowd. She’d obviously come to see off her new beau and his friends. I wished with all my heart that she would soak into the stones with the moisture, but even if she had, that still wouldn’t have saved me. I had finally been noticed, and now they could taunt me even from that distance.

  They all turned in my direction. A girl’s clear voice said something that was obviously very nasty and they all laughed at once. Despite myself, I blushed. I’d just noticed that I’d run all the way here in the same gold costume I was wearing the evening before. It was a good suit, I had to admit my aunt had taste, but after I’d slept in it, fallen into a puddle and then had a fight … The poorest pauper in the city would have been ashamed to be seen in it at home, never mind out in public.

  I turned away, trying not to blush any more deeply than I already was – if that was physically possibly. Meanwhile, as more and more people arrived, I began to realise that something was obviously wrong. I thought I’d arrived late, but in that case, all the other new pupils were late too.

  The sun had apparently already risen. Even if I got the time wrong, the day-star obviously couldn’t make a mistake – dawn had arrived. So just what was going on?

  “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I think I’ll get up off the ground anyway,” I decided. I rose to my feet, leaned against the tower and started looking around with an inscrutable (at least, I thought it was) air. The new pupils were pouring in at a positively terrifying rate. And When Chas appeared from behind the gates, I was finally convinced that whatever was wrong was my problem and nobody else’s.

  Chas, who had clearly not had enough sleep, waved and came in my direction.

  I’d never seen him looking so drowsy in all the time we’d been friends, which was as long as I could remember .

  “You’re not looking very cheerful, my friend,” Chas tried to joke, sitting down on ground in the very spot where I’d been sitting a minute earlier.

  “Cheerful?” I responded skittishly. “The whole world has just gone crazy right in front of my very eyes, and you say cheerful … But then, you’re not looking so great yourself. To tell the truth, I’ve never seen you look this bad before. Have you ever heard of something called ‘kao’? You drink it, and it instantly makes you feel human again.”

  “He’s trying to be funny,” Chas groaned like a martyr. “Have you forgotten that it takes more mags to make one portion of ‘kao’ than you and your fancy musical instruments use in an entire week?”

  “Oh come on, not in a week ..,” I croaked, counting up the mags in my mind.

  “Yes, yes in a week … Actually I drink kao every morning,” Chas admitted, “but … don’t pretend to be an idiot.”

  “I don’t get you,” I said in voice that was suddenly sharp and clear.

  “From the first day of training to the last, Craftsmen aren’t allowed to drink any alcoholic or stimulating beverages.”

  I nodded without saying anything, trying to remember how much I’d drunk at the banquet.

  Strangely enough, I hadn’t seen any alcoholic drinks, let alone drunk any. But in that case, why did I feel so awful … it felt very much like a hangover … Ah yes, there was the champagne at home … but I didn’t know! No one had told me about any prohibitions.

  “Aha … So we can confirm that this is the first time in your life you’ve really gone short of sleep?”

  Chas gestured wearily with his hand and closed his red, sleepless eyes.

  I decided there was one other question worth tormenting my friend with.

  “Can you tell me what time it is now?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

  “Eh …” said Chas, starting to blink. “Sorry, I think I must have dropped off. Did you ask me something?”

  “What time is it?” I asked impatiently.

  “Why are you yelling like that?” said Chas, heaving himself up onto his feet. “Can’t you see for yourself? It’s dawn. The sun has gilded the streets of our great city with its golden light … And why am I waxing so lyrical when I’m only half-awake?”

  I started thinking for a moment … about ten minutes, in fact. Well, I certainly had something to think about. I was standing in the yard of the Academy just as day was breaking, but I’d been seeing the sun shining over the roofs of the city for a long time. And the daisies were only just opening as well. That was strange, I thought the automatic daisies worked perfectly and always opened with the first rays of the sun, but they had only just opened. And the sun had risen at least twenty minutes ago. Although for some reason it had only risen for me. For everyone else it was still rising now.

  I shared my misgivings with my still drowsy friend. He was the only one from whom I could expect sympathetic understanding …

  “Are you a complete idiot? Go and see a brain-doctor, ask him to add a few more convolutions, that might help.”

  “I’m serious!”

  “Well, all right,” said Chas, looking me up and down suspiciously. “Hmm … looks like you really did take a tumble into a puddle …”

  “Never mind the puddle. I had a fight on the way here too.”

  “A fight too?” Chas was astounded. “You really know how to have a good time ...”

  “Ah, it’s nothing,” I said breezily. “Every now and then people like me get attacked by certain … excessively envious individuals. It’s nothing unusual. Why don’t you just tell me how to fix this glitch in my head?”

  Chas scratched his own head, which was an indication of profound mental activity taking place under his shaggy red mop.

  “It’s one of two things: either you gave your head a hard bang, and it needs another good bang to knock the nonsense out … Hey, hey, come on now!”

  Chas jumped back sharply when he saw the threatening expression on my face.

  “… Or someone’s used magic on you. Hypnosis, in scientific terms,” he concluded.

  “Aha,” I exclaimed emphatically.

  We looked at each other for a moment.

  “Just remind me what hypnosis is, will you, I’ve forgotten,” I said eventually.

  “Hypnosis is the influencing of the human brain in order to distort its perception of the surrounding world. This influence is most often exerted through the consumption of various preparations or the direct effect of one mental field on another.”

  “Huh?”

  “Something you didn’t understand?” Chas enquired smugly.

  “Now more slowly, one syllable at a time,” I told him. “Although I’m by no means certain that will do anything to assist my comprehension of the drivel you just spouted. A moment ago you were asleep on your feet. Don’t be such a pain.”

  “If you don’t like the answer, you shouldn’t asked,” said Chas, offended.

  “Okay, let’s stick to the ques
tion of what can be the cause of such a weird condition.”

  Chas scratched the back of his head: “Most likely someone spiked something you drank.”

  “Now you’re talking like a normal human being,” I exclaimed with sincere enthusiasm.

  Meanwhile, the sun had risen completely over the horizon. Everyone who was seeing off friends was asked to leave the yard, and the gates of the Academy slowly closed behind the last pupil to arrive.

  “Adepts!” the mechanical voice rumbled. “I might even say, students,” it continued with an odd chuckle, “you will now proceed to your floors, where you will be allocated rooms, given a new set of clothes and acquainted with the schedule of classes. Each faculty has its own classrooms and they are located on different floors to avoid any misunderstandings during your studies.”