The Complete Soldier Son Trilogy: Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade’s Magic. Robin Hobb
the edges of my consciousness, like a fog that would recapture me if it could. I felt drawn to it, but I also felt embarrassed to be out wandering about in my nightshirt, and even more so that the sergeant had had to rescue me.
‘Now don’t be troubled, Cadet,’ he said as if he could read my thoughts. ‘This isn’t a disciplinary matter. It remains between you and me. And I doubt you’ll keep it up. It’s the pressure of the first few months that brings it out in some cadets. Likely when initiation is over, you’ll go back to sleeping all night in your own bed, and no harm done.’
By then, we were walking back up the steps of Carneston House. My feet were bruised from the gravel and I was wet to the knees from the tall grass I’d waded through. I climbed the stairs and got back into my bed, grateful for its warmth, but also with a strange sense of regret for the dream that had been interrupted. I could not recall a moment of it, but a sense of wonder and pleasure from it still echoed in my sleepy mind.
We all knew that initiation ‘officially’ ended after the first six weeks of classes, when the ‘survivors’ were judged to have been introduced properly into Academy life. I looked forward fervently to our lives becoming simpler. Some of us hated the bullying to the point of depression and even weeping, such as Oron. Rory, Nate, and Kort seemed to take the clashes as a personal challenge, and they endeavoured to gallop through it as if it bothered them not at all. Told he must eat six hard-boiled eggs, Rory swallowed down a dozen. I resented how the inane tasks given me devoured my time for study and sleep. Nonetheless, I tried to keep a game attitude about it, for I did not wish to be seen as a bad sport.
Then a single incident changed my view of the initiation. I was walking alone back to Carneston House after marching off my demerits. The light was fading rapidly from the sky and the fall day was getting chilly. I was looking forward to getting in out of the cold and settling down to my studies for the night. When I saw two third-years coming toward me, I groaned inwardly. As protocol demanded of me, I stepped off the path, came to attention and, as they passed, snapped them a salute. I prayed they would just keep walking, but they halted and looked me up and down, smiling. I kept my eyes straight ahead and my face expressionless.
‘Nice uniform,’ said one. ‘Was it tailored especially for you, Cadet?’
‘Yes, sir, it was,’ I replied promptly.
‘Good boots, too,’ the other observed. ‘About face, Cadet. Yes, all seems in order from the back, too. All in all, a well-turned-out cadet. My compliments, Cadet.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
The first spoke again, and I suddenly perceived that this was a well-rehearsed routine for them. ‘But we cannot be sure that he is truly well-turned-out. A book may have a fine cover, but soiled pages within. Cadet, are you wearing regulation undergarments?’
‘Sir, I do not understand.’ But I did, and my heart was sinking.
‘Off with your coat and trousers and boots, Cadet. We cannot have you out of uniform even when you are out of uniform.’
I had no choice but to obey. There, on the path, I took off my jacket, untied my boots and set them aside, and then stepped out of my trousers as well. I folded them neatly and set them to one side and came back to attention.
‘Oh, and your shirt, too, Cadet. Didn’t I mention his shirt, too, Miles?’
‘I thought certainly you had. An extra demerit for you, Cadet, for not obeying promptly. Shirt off, sir.’
I hoped an instructor might venture by and put an end to their pleasure in tormenting me, but I had no luck there. By a series of commands, they reduced me to my underwear. I stood barefoot on the cold gravel, trying to maintain a pose of attention without shivering, and blessed my good fortune that my smallclothes were new and free from holes. Rory would not have been so fortunate. They had added three more demerits to my original one, and now charitably suggested that I could immediately work them off by marching round them in a circle, singing my House song at the top of my lungs. Again, there was no help for it. Within, I seethed, but outwardly I kept a good-natured air of tolerance for this silliness as I began my circuit. The cold gravel bit into my bare feet, every inch of my skin was up in gooseflesh and I had two tests that I desperately needed to study for. Instead, I marched around them, singing the Carneston House loyalty song at the top of my lungs as they exhorted me to ‘Get your knees up,’ ‘March faster,’ and ‘Sing louder, Cadet. Are you ashamed of your good house?’
They were standing in the centre of my orbit, enjoying my discomfort and embarrassment when another cadet came hurrying along the pathway. The stripes on his sleeve proclaimed he was a fourth-year, and I braced myself for him to heap some new ignominy upon me. Instead, as he approached, I saw the faces of the two cadets who had been afflicting me darken into antipathy. He came abreast of us, and I was forced to halt my silly circuit, come to attention and salute the newcomer. But his attention was not fixed on me but on my tormentors.
‘I’ll trouble you for a salute, gentlemen,’ he said coldly to them, and I heard the frontier in the way he stretched his words and softened the ends.
They came grudgingly to attention and saluted him. He left them standing that way and turned to me. There were not many fourth-year cadets at the Academy. Those who stayed on for that extra year did so by invitation only, due to academic excellence and potential that could not be fully developed in a field situation. Technically, he had already graduated from the Academy and achieved a lieutenant’s rank, though he would wear the uniform of a cadet until the end of his schooling. I noticed the gear emblem on his collar, the sign of the Engineers Regiment. That was where he would be bound upon his completion of this extra year, and he’d probably wear a captain’s insignia soon after he got there. He looked me up and down and demanded my name.
‘Cadet Nevare Burvelle, sir.’
He nodded to himself. ‘Of course. I’ve heard of your da. Put on your uniform, Cadet, and be about your business.’
Honesty demanded that I tell him, ‘I’ve three more demerits to march off yet, sir.’
‘No, you don’t, Cadet. I’ve cancelled them, and any other silly waste of time these two were imposing on you. Stupidity.’
‘It was just a bit of fun, sir.’ The words were marginally respectful. The tone was not. The engineer glared at the third-year who had spoken.
‘And you only wring your “bit of fun” out of New Nobles’ sons, I’ve noticed. Why don’t you go pick on your own, Cadet Ordo?’
‘We’re third-years, sir. We have authority over all first-year cadets.’
‘No one spoke to you, Cadet Jaris. Keep silent.’ He turned away from them and looked at me. I was tying my bootlaces as fast as I could. The tormentors were eyeing me with cold hatred that I had witnessed their humiliation. I wanted to be away from them as swiftly as I could. ‘Cadet Burvelle, are you dressed yet?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Then I order you to go directly to your dormitory and commence your studies.’ He glanced at the two still standing at attention. ‘If you are stopped again by either of these two cadets, you are to respectfully inform them that you are already on an errand for Cadet Lieutenant Tiber. That’s me. Then you are to continue about your business. Is that clear, Cadet? Your command from me is that you are not to waste your time by participating in this foolish “initiation”.’
‘Yes, sir.’
He turned back to his captives. ‘And you two, are you clear that you are not to haze Cadet Burvelle?’
‘We are permitted, until the sixth week, to initiate the first-years.’ A moment passed, then, ‘Sir.’
‘Are you? Well, I am permitted, for this entire year, to issue commands as I see fit to third-years. And my command is that you are no longer to participate in the “initiation” of any New Nobles’ sons. Are you clear on that, Cadets?’
‘Yes, sir,’ was the sulky response.
‘Cadet