Read Online Children of the Fountain by Richard Murphy - Free Book Online

They continued up several floors and then came to a wooden door. As they opened it Matthias was blasted by bright sunlight and blown almost off his feet by a strong wind. They were stood on the battlements of the castle.
    Harry leaned over the high stone wall and looked down. Matthias did the same and started when he saw the ground far below. Harry put his arm out to help him back.
    “I’ve never been this high before,” snapped Matthias. He crept cautiously to the edge and again looked over. The sight was truly impressive. Below him was the great courtyard of the castle where children scurried around on their way to classes. Two coaches were arriving and further out, stretching all the way to the horizon were fields, farms and forest for as far as he could see.
    The bright sun beat down but a harsh wind was also pounding them. Harry had to shout to be heard as he spoke. “This is just a small part of the duke’s lands. Look around you!”
    Again his eyes turned to the landscape. The fields swished violently as the wind hit them. Even the forest flickered and changed colour as gales sent the trees first one way and then the other.
    Harry stepped close to Matthias and looked him in the eye. “Armies only fight other armies. Our war has no armies,” he shouted.
    “Then what are we doing here?” bellowed Matthias, the wind howling at his ears.
    “All this is just basic training. Combat, fitness, biology, even etiquette classes for some. All training to separate the chaff from the wheat.”
    “So what happens to the wheat?”
    Harry stood close next to Matthias and held his shoulders. “You’ll be an assassin,” he said, and offered a strange smirk.
    “I don’t know what this word means.”
    Harry looked confused and his eyes flickered as if something was finally registering. He nodded to himself.
    “You’ll be taught to kill and then be sent to kill. In secret, abroad or at home. In the houses of kings or the cottages of farmers. You’ll usually not know them and you’ll rarely know why. But you’ll do it; without question, without hesitation.”
    Matthias’s head rocked back. He knew a little about what an army was, how they worked and what they did. He had even imagined himself in battle but this was something different. The wind had died down now and the skies were darkening. Matthias was still getting buffeted though and he struggled to stay on his feet but he wasn’t sure whether it was the wind causing this anymore.
    “Do you understand now?” Harry said.
    Matthias nodded weakly. Harry shouted, “Isn’t it exciting?”
    And then he started to laugh. Loud and heartily and long and hard. Matthias couldn’t join in and just stood there as this boy laughed and laughed like some crazed clown. After a while they made their way back down the stairs in silence. At the bottom Harry informed Matthias that his next class was to be physiology and he gave him directions. As they turned and parted company, Matthias stopped and asked him one last thing. “Who do we kill?”
    Harry looked at the floor for a moment and appeared to turn this question over in his head. “You never know until you’re given the order. It could be a footman; it could be a lord or a lady. You just do it.”
    Matthias nodded slowly and looked down the long dark corridor ahead of him to the classroom. As he started to walk he heard Harry whisper, “After a while, I hear you start to enjoy it.”

Chapter 7
    The afternoon physiology lesson was with Mr Butler – a tall lean fellow who wore glasses and spoke in a quiet, raspy voice. He constantly asked the children to stop murmuring and pay attention but his soft whispers often got lost in the big echoing stone room they sat in.
    Around them were skeletons hanging in display cases; on great shelves sat jars of specimens and vials of liquid. At the front Mr Butler was going through all the bones in the human hand using a chalkboard. Once again, Matthias was grouped with the younger