She didn’t fit with the people either, of course. Not all of them were as bad as Lydia, who talked with a built-in flounce, but plenty had made it clear that they didn’t like having a village girl shoved in unasked. Not just because she wasn’t rich or titled like many of them, but because she hadn’t earned the right to be there. Studying at the Arkathan was a privilege, a prize to be won or bought, while Kendall was some girl whose only qualification was that her home had been destroyed by the Grand Summoning. And when Kendall had chosen to feign ignorance of anything beyond that, she’d failed to even be a good source of gossip.
Like the Kellian girl, Kendall found it simplest to avoid the other students as much as possible. She shared a room with these five, only saw the rest at the dining hall, and concentrated on memorising ugly, crosswise sigils. With the dormitory no longer quiet, she took her book and headed to the only place she’d found to get any real privacy.
The Houses of Magic were set on a jutting section of Aliace Hill, within the circle of the palace but separate from it. Six buildings, three large and three lesser, stuck out around a thick central tower where the Grand Magister and the library were located. Each main building belonged to a different House, and the smaller ones held shared kitchens, stables and infirmary.
The infirmary was between the Arkathan and Sentene House, and outside that was a not very interesting garden which looked north-east to where the hill fell away. A stone balustrade guarded the drop, and Kendall had found that if you climbed over this there was a useful rock shelf a few feet down. It was sunny in the morning, and out of sight of annoying people. She slid down to it with a sense of relief, only to meet the startled eyes of a boy maybe a year older than herself.
"Guess I’m not the first person to notice this spot after all," the boy said.
Kendall hesitated. Thin, with very black hair and eyes, and wearing a loose set of pyjamas and a blanket, he looked worn and ill, slumping back against the rock as if he couldn’t sit up properly.
"Are you hurt? Do you want me to get someone to help you?"
"Fel, no. I’ve had enough of being peered at." He paused, glancing from her shapeless black and blue smock to her book. "Are you one of the students here?"
Something about the way he tilted his head brought recognition. "Do you – do you have an older sister?"
The boy’s face brightened, then his wary expression came back in force. "You’ve met Rennyn?"
"I don’t know what her name is, though I guess she must be the one everyone is saying is a Montjuste-Surclere, come back to fight the Black Queen. She came to Falk."
His eyes widened, then for some reason he went red. "Are you the shed girl?"
"My name’s Kendall," Kendall said, flatly. Shed girl indeed.
"Ah, um. I’m Sebastian. I guess you have met my sister, then." He shuffled his feet and glowered down at them, adding in a stifled voice: "I owe you an apology."
"You do?" Kendall couldn’t begin to guess why.
He nodded, then met her eyes. "I told Ren she shouldn’t have done it, you see. Saved you. We were supposed to keep everything we did a secret, we weren’t supposed to be noticed at all. But because Ren sent you away, the Sentene found out about us. And I’m – sorry I said that."
Kendall thought about being angry, but he looked so crumpled and unhappy that she decided it was no use yelling at someone who belonged in a sickbed. "Sounds like you should be telling her that, not me."
"I know. She must be furious with me. After saying that to her, what do I do but end up here. They knew Ren existed, yes, but–" He paused, and bit his lip. "Now it seems like everyone knows about us, and that’s my fault."
"How?" When he just chewed on his lip more, she added persuasively: "If it’s things everyone knows, it’s not going to hurt to tell me, is it?"
"Maybe not. I wish I’d had a chance to talk to her before she left, so I knew just what she’d said. What are people saying about us?"
"Well, I hadn’t heard anything about you," Kendall said. "Your sister apparently did something impressive in the middle of the Night Stalker invasion and saved the city. I’m not real clear on what. And she’s going to do what Prince Tiandel did, and stop the Grand Summoning just before it finishes. But she’s vanished, and no-one knows where she is."
"She’s supposed to come back today. Is all that really common gossip? I was hoping it at least wouldn’t go beyond the Sentene and the Hand."
"They had a debate about it in Council. Mainly about the Montjuste-Surclere right to the throne."
That won an incredulous stare. "How stupid."
"So, what was it you did? I’ve not heard you mentioned at all."
"Small mercies. I was – I followed Ren to where the incursion would be. She’s the one that has to take all the danger, you see, while I’m just supposed to keep myself safe and out of the way. I wanted to at least see what she had to face. So I went there and hid myself on a roof, made myself invisible. Then – well, you know that the incursion was huge beyond belief. The Eferum-Get went everywhere, and the Sentene were chasing them. A building near me caught on fire, and some people came out. There were no Sentene near, and they ran straight into some Irisian – they’re like poisonous scaled monkeys. I couldn’t just watch."
"But you got hurt?"
"I didn’t get the fourth one quickly enough. So now I’m stuck here, and Ren’s in more danger because it sounds like the entire Kingdom knows exactly what she’s doing."
"Wouldn’t she have helped against the monsters anyway? Even if you weren’t there?"
"Maybe. But me getting clawed by an Irisian left her with little choice about how to deal with the aftermath." He fidgeted restlessly, still slumped against the rocks. "You joined the Arkathan? Can I see what you’re studying?"
Kendall handed over her boring book, noting how much trouble he had keeping hold of it. He flipped through the pages clumsily, then shook his head. "You’ve no background, right? What have they given you except this dictionary?"
"There’s another one, but it’s just more of these squiggles."
"What exercises have they given you?"
"Exercises? I’ve got to memorise all that first. I get tested on how well I know the sigils, and then they start to tell me how to make them work."
"You’re reading a Sigillic dictionary? End to end? No exercises at all?"
"Don’t I need to know the sigils to cast?" Kendall asked warily. "Like knowing the alphabet before I can write?"
"Since sigils are words, not letters, you’d only need to know the words that you’re going to use, not the entire book. This doesn’t even explain how sigils are structured. And you don’t use words for Thought magic – that’s the entire point. It’s just raw will and power. Try moving that pebble."
"What? But–"
"Did they really just give you that book and tell you to teach yourself how to be a mage? What a stupid school this must be. Look – you can sense casting, right?"
"I can smell it."
"Do you ever feel anything when that happens?"
"My nose itches."
"So, look at that pebble. And concentrate on the smell. That’s a bit like, um, if you’re baking bread. When you’re cooking, you can smell it. But the bread, the dough, smelled like something before that, just not as strong. So try and imagine what it smelled like before."
Uncooked thunderstorm? Kendall shook her head helplessly. "That doesn’t make sense to me."