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The other residents of our floor sat at the tables or sprawled before the empty hearth, books and papers scattered on the study tables or on the rug The quiet buzz of desultory conversation filled the room All our previous inclination to horseplay had been worn away by the long day of classes and drill we had endured

Rory, who seemed to have an endless supply of bawdy tales and ribald jokes, was lounging at the table and in the lass eye Caleb was in his corner with his latest penny dreadful, reading aloud to Nate and Oron about an axand disapproving voice loudly exclai here tonight Where is your proctor?"

Rory stopped in the ape, and we all turned our attention to the lad who stood in the doorway looking in at us If it had not been for the tenor of his voice, I ht have mistaken his utterance for the disapproval of a senior officer, so confident did he sound of his right to rebuke us There was a lances If anyone else had been there to witness it, they ht it co men fall to a hush at a rebuke froh everyone’s mind: is he here on his own, or at his father’s behest?

Nate found his tongue first "Our proctor isn’t here at the uarded response, and I knew i himself on the line for our study proctor Was it possible that he was not supposed to have left us that evening? I ade and loyalty even as I doubted his wisdom

Caulder advanced into the room like a rat that has discovered the cat is away "Oh, aye, I’ve a et the dick-scald if he doesn’t stay away froreat "hah!" of laughter at this unexpected pronouncement and the rest of us joined in Garter Anne’s was a cheap brothel at the edge of town closest to the Academy We had all been sternly warned away from it and like establishments in the first Sixday service we had attended, and heard tales of Anne’s wild girls frorinning, a bit pink on the cheeks, well pleased with the effect he had wrought Later I would come to know that this was a pattern with the lad He would first fling about his father’s authority, to see as i him welcome, he’d next sink down to some crude jest to see whose interest that would win Had I been older, I would have recognized it as a boy’s floundering attempt to win approval and acceptance with any coin he couldwith the rest of them, even as I was appalled at Caulder’s words In e, they would have earnedearned his entry into our company, Caulder advanced into the room

"Well, I can see you’re all hard at work here!" he said, his tone conveying exactly the opposite Eyes bright, he wandered through the rooht to be there Most of the cadets watched him advance curiously Kort put a blank sheet of paper over the letter he had been co Caleb opened a book to conceal his pamphlet Across froh another set of exercises As if drawn to him by this very lack of attention, Caulder stopped at Spink’s elbow and rudely peered over his shoulder at his work

"Eight tiht, not forty-six! Even I know that!" He stabbed at Spink’s error Spink’s lifted ar up from his work, Spink asked, "And do you know that this is the study room for Carneston House first-years, not a playroo smile melted frorily "I’m eleven years old and the first son of the commander of this institution You don’t seem to realize that aze froe before him and looked at the boy flatly "My father was Lord Kellon Spinrek Kester Before that, however, he was Captain Kellon Spinrek Kester I am his soldier son As your father was a soldier son, and not a lord, all his sons are soldier sons That would h to be a cadet here And if, as the son of a soldier and not the son of a noble, you were guaranteed entry to the Academy"

"I…I ao to the Academy: when my father took over this post, he asked that of the Lords Council and they granted it My father has proood commission! And you…you are just…just a second son of a second son, an upstart battle lord’s son, jumped up to the status of a noble’s son! That’s all you are!" Caulder had lost not only all his char unmasked him as the child he was, even as his rash reply revealed what he truly thought of all of us The words were scarcely out of his mouth before he realized what he had done He looked around at all of us and see tous all in our places He drew breath to speak