Page 123 (1/1)

Corporal Dent rounded on him "I’m a corporal By now you should have learned that you do not callwhen you are in ranks Speak when spoken to, Cadet"

For ato burn with the cold, but I told myself I could endure it But when another patrol likewise passed us to join the queue, Rory muttered, "So we’re supposed to starve in silence? And not even ask why?"

Dent rounded on him "I don’t believe this! Two de in ranks And if I must explain it, I will Those men are second-years frorier than us?" Rory deonized by punishment rather than cowed He’d keep it up now until he had an answer that satisfied him, even if it meant a dozen de I would not have to share the punishment he earned A mistake

"Twoyour insubordination! Did any of you read your bookletsAn Introduction to the Houses of King’s Cavalla Academy?"

No one answered He hadn’t expected an answer "Of course you didn’t! I shouldn’t even have bothered to ask if you had I’ that you’ve done the least you could to prepare yourselves for the year Well, let hten you Chesterton House is reserved for the sons of the oldest and most revered of cavalla nobility They are descended fro Corag The nobles were the original founders of the Council of Lords Learn this now and it will save you a lot of social disasters later The cadets of that house expect and deserve your special respect You can either give it to them or they will demand it of you"

I could feel both confusion and sier from the cadets to either side of me Not for the first time, I wondered why there was not a house solely devoted to our kind New noble first-years were housed on the upper floor of Carneston House or in the frigid attic floor of Skeltzin Hall Second– and third-year new noble sons were housed well away from us in Sharpton Hall, a converted tannery that was a joke a the cadets I had heard it was run-down past the point of discoerous, but had accepted that without pausing to think much on it Chesterton House, by contrast, was a fine new building, plumbed for water closets and heated with coal stoves Surely the third-years of the new nobility deserved such lodgings as much as any other Lowly first-years that ere, ere always being either taunted or tes that awaited us in our graduation year Slowly it was dawning on me that such comforts were neveras the lowly status endured by any first-year cadets went deeper I could expect it to last through all my time at the Academy I suddenly felt queasy as I saw all the lines that had been invisibly drawn to divide us into different levels of privilege Why had not the Acadeiven us officers fro the level of nobility? And if this was how they segregated us in the Acaderaduation assignments?

As I pondered all this, Dent held us there, letting yet another patrol go ahead of us, rave on us his authority over us We held our tongues and he finally allowed us to join the queue

After ere seated and served, ere allowed conversation at our table Casual conversation, beyond polite requests to pass food, was a new privilege for us Corporal Dent, as still required to share our table and supervise us, obviously did not enjoy it, and was inclined to stifle our talk at every opportunity Of late, we had united against hiry and cold that day to think about further defying Dent I was grateful to wrap bothof hot coffee and hold them there to thaw

Gord was the one who foolishly brought up the sore topic as he passed the bread to Spink "I thought all cadets entered the Acade, with equal opportunity to advance"

He did not address his words to any individual, but Dent seized the coave a norant lot, but I thought surely a siic would have shown you that just as your fathers are lesser nobles, their gentility only conferred on the of the aristocracy of coe to coin your uarantee you will ever rise beyond that rank, nor even that you will retain it I don’t have to mince words with the likes of you Many here at the Acade us is aard But for your fathers’ battlefield elevations, you’d be enlisting as common foot soldiers Don’t tell me that you yourselves are not aware of that! We will tolerate you at our king’s whim, but do not expect us to lower our standards of academics or manners to accommodate you"