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"How do they fit thely

"All?" Trist said snidely "Listen up, Gord Rory told us about culling at the beginning of the year What do you think it’s about? It’s about having o on as officers than new nobles’ sons Come the end of the year, a lot of us won’t be here anye I’ve heard that Colonel Stiet would be just as happy to find ways to clear all of us out"

"But that’s not fair! He can’t exclude us or kick us out of the Academy just because we aren’t frory

Trist stood up, tall and lean, and stretched casually "You keep saying that, Spink-lad But the fact is, fair or not, hecan do it So you’d best find ways to make it less likely it will happen to you That’s what ht friends Show the right attitude And don’t make trouble Or be seen with trouble ‘That’s not fair’ isn’t going to endear you to Colonel Stiet" He rolled his shoulders and I heard his spine crackle

"I’m off to bed, children," he informed us archly I liked Trist, but his superior rated on me "I have to be up early, you know"

"So do we all," Rory observed cheerlessly

We dispersed from our hearth into the chill of the bunkrooot into my bed but could not fall asleep Spink seemed to share my insomnia for he whispered into the quiet, "What happens to us if we get sent home from the Academy?"

I was surprised he didn’t know "You’re a soldier son You enlist as a common soldier and do the best you can from there"

"Or, if you’re lucky, soo off as an officer anyway," Nate added into Spink’s despairing silence

"I don’t have any rich relatives At least, I don’t have any who like me"

"Me, neither," Kort observed "So perhaps we’d better sleep tonight and study hard to for the rest of ht, but I think I lay awake longer than the rest of them Spink’s family had no money to buy him a commission if he was culled from the Academy My father did, perhaps But would he? He had never intended that I should overhear his doubts of my ability to be a leader and hence an officer But once I knew that he had theolden future shine a little less brilliantly In the back offrouaranteed I would be at least a lieutenant, and both eant Duril had said that even the most idiotic lieutenant could usually make captain, by attrition if by no other e ood coiments were very dear, and even in the less desirable ones, they were not cheap Would he think I orthy of that expense, or would he consider it good money thrown after bad, and leave me to enlist as a coh to realize I was a second son and ht ht I grasped it in olden future could be lost, and not even through my fault, but purely by the politics of the day Prior to the Acadeht encounter as the second son of a new noble DuringI could easily overcoood intentions

I hovered at the edge of sleep I think I dozed Then I felt a sudden sting of outrage I sat up in the dark As if from a distance, I heard myself speak "A true warrior would not put up with continued humiliations A true warrior would find a way to strike back"

Spink shifted in his bed "Nevare’s talking in his sleep again," he complained to the quiet room

"Shut up, Nevare," Kort and Natred said in weary chorus I lay back in my bunk and let sleep take me

The feeeks of initiation that reher One night ere all rousted out of bed in our nightshirts and forced outside in a cold, driving rain and told to stand at attention Sergeant Rufet had been lured fro one of his regular rounds of the building, and angrily ordered us back to bed I could no longer, as Rory did, shrug off such huhen me I no them as a small place where the old nobles’ sons could unveil how they truly felt about us When they taunted me or forced me to behave foolishly or wasted my time with unnecessary tasks, it now burned in er in ood-natured fellow, able to take a joke, able to forgive even the crudest of practical jokes Those six weeks taught es