a quick scan of how they worked showed up worse things than not getting leave from the Academy.
‘Cadet Khemri reporting, sir!’ I snapped out.
‘Better,’ said Huzand. ‘I see that you have a particularly capable Master of Assassins . . . have you already been offered sponsorship by a House?’
The mutual cooperation societies commonly were called Houses, the only kind of family that a Prince could have. But I didn’t know how these Houses worked, how you joined them, or how many there were, or anything useful like that. I could have queried the Imperial Mind on the spot, but trying to sort through a mass of data while also talking to someone is difficult, and I had not yet learned how to manage it effectively.
Later on, I did ask the Mind, and I discovered that there were more than a thousand Houses. Some were no more than mutual assistance pacts between only a dozen or so Princes, but the most important ones had tens of thousands of members and often quite rigidly defined hierarchies, customs, and duties. House Jerrazis was somewhere in the middle, with fifteen thousand members and a four-tier membership hierarchy. Huzand was effectively the second-in-command, after Prince Jerrazis himself, who was a rear admiral and commander of the Nazhiz Quadrant Fleet.
‘No, sir.’
‘Curious,’ said Huzand. ‘You have no special sponsor at the Imperial Core? Some senior Prince who has taken you under their wing? I see it is several days since your ascension, but you have only just connected to the Mind.’
‘No, sir.’
‘Very well. Despite your slovenliness and initial foolishness, I am prepared to assist you in your career, and accordingly, you are invited to join—as a probationary member, of course— House Jerrazis. Just confirm your acceptance for the Imperial Mind to record.’
‘I decline, sir,’ I answered, rather too readily. If I had managed to get even a bit smarter, I would have taken my time.
‘You decline?’ asked Huzand. The red tide was rising up the cabbage head. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Uh, I don’t want to join a House immediately,’ I said, exercising some belated damage control. ‘I want to think about it. Sir.’
‘Almost all the cadets here at the Kwanantil Domain Naval Academy are proud members of House Jerrazis,’ said Huzand. ‘As are many of the officers of the academic staff.’
Great. So by refusing the invitation, I’d made myself an outsider. But even so, the arch-priest was a lot scarier than Commandant Huzand, and she’d told me not to accept his invitation.
‘I still need to think about it, sir.’
‘As you wish. The invitation will almost certainly not be repeated.’
He looked away from me for a moment, and I caught the edge of some mental communication. Asking about me, obviously, since he looked back and said, ‘I am informed that you travelled to the Kwanantil system aboard a ship belonging to the Kwanantil system governor, Prince Achmir. Is that correct?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I replied. We had indeed been on a ship belonging to Prince Achmir, but I very much doubted that he knew we were on board.
I also took a microsecond to query the Imperial Mind about Prince Achmir’s House allegiance.
:Prince Achmir <>. Ordinary member House Vethethezk <>:
So Achmir wasn’t all cosied up with Huzand and House Jerrazis, which probably meant something. I inquired further. House Vethethezk had more members than House Jerrazis and was older, headed up by Prince Vethethezk XXII, who was Governor of a whole Reach and more than four hundred years old. From my brief glimpse at the data on it, nearly all its members were Imperial Governors, so it seemed unlikely that they would be enemies of a House that was concentrated in the Navy. But I didn’t know enough to be sure about this. It was bound to be more complicated.
‘Transported here by Achmir and assigned the legendary Master Haddad,’ muttered Huzand.
I kept my face wooden. The legendary
‘Cadet Khemri reporting, sir!’ I snapped out.
‘Better,’ said Huzand. ‘I see that you have a particularly capable Master of Assassins . . . have you already been offered sponsorship by a House?’
The mutual cooperation societies commonly were called Houses, the only kind of family that a Prince could have. But I didn’t know how these Houses worked, how you joined them, or how many there were, or anything useful like that. I could have queried the Imperial Mind on the spot, but trying to sort through a mass of data while also talking to someone is difficult, and I had not yet learned how to manage it effectively.
Later on, I did ask the Mind, and I discovered that there were more than a thousand Houses. Some were no more than mutual assistance pacts between only a dozen or so Princes, but the most important ones had tens of thousands of members and often quite rigidly defined hierarchies, customs, and duties. House Jerrazis was somewhere in the middle, with fifteen thousand members and a four-tier membership hierarchy. Huzand was effectively the second-in-command, after Prince Jerrazis himself, who was a rear admiral and commander of the Nazhiz Quadrant Fleet.
‘No, sir.’
‘Curious,’ said Huzand. ‘You have no special sponsor at the Imperial Core? Some senior Prince who has taken you under their wing? I see it is several days since your ascension, but you have only just connected to the Mind.’
‘No, sir.’
‘Very well. Despite your slovenliness and initial foolishness, I am prepared to assist you in your career, and accordingly, you are invited to join—as a probationary member, of course— House Jerrazis. Just confirm your acceptance for the Imperial Mind to record.’
‘I decline, sir,’ I answered, rather too readily. If I had managed to get even a bit smarter, I would have taken my time.
‘You decline?’ asked Huzand. The red tide was rising up the cabbage head. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Uh, I don’t want to join a House immediately,’ I said, exercising some belated damage control. ‘I want to think about it. Sir.’
‘Almost all the cadets here at the Kwanantil Domain Naval Academy are proud members of House Jerrazis,’ said Huzand. ‘As are many of the officers of the academic staff.’
Great. So by refusing the invitation, I’d made myself an outsider. But even so, the arch-priest was a lot scarier than Commandant Huzand, and she’d told me not to accept his invitation.
‘I still need to think about it, sir.’
‘As you wish. The invitation will almost certainly not be repeated.’
He looked away from me for a moment, and I caught the edge of some mental communication. Asking about me, obviously, since he looked back and said, ‘I am informed that you travelled to the Kwanantil system aboard a ship belonging to the Kwanantil system governor, Prince Achmir. Is that correct?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I replied. We had indeed been on a ship belonging to Prince Achmir, but I very much doubted that he knew we were on board.
I also took a microsecond to query the Imperial Mind about Prince Achmir’s House allegiance.
:Prince Achmir <
So Achmir wasn’t all cosied up with Huzand and House Jerrazis, which probably meant something. I inquired further. House Vethethezk had more members than House Jerrazis and was older, headed up by Prince Vethethezk XXII, who was Governor of a whole Reach and more than four hundred years old. From my brief glimpse at the data on it, nearly all its members were Imperial Governors, so it seemed unlikely that they would be enemies of a House that was concentrated in the Navy. But I didn’t know enough to be sure about this. It was bound to be more complicated.
‘Transported here by Achmir and assigned the legendary Master Haddad,’ muttered Huzand.
I kept my face wooden. The legendary
Similar Books
