idea...” He smiled indulgently at her. “No harm done, eh? We have not been able to spend as much time together as we would have liked, these last few months, and now that she is here and with me all the time, I daresay things will happen very quickly.”
I smiled and nodded, but I wasn’t so sure. The three proofs of his virility were dubious, and what would become of Deyria if she failed to provide the hoped-for child?
~~~~~
I was approaching the end of my second year at the scribery, and the limit of the training my meagre finances allowed. By the summer, I would be a transaction scribe, and although that would be a profitable enough career, it wasn’t enough for me. I was determined to complete the full five years and become a law scribe, but to go any further, I needed a patron.
Of my original cohort, only fifteen remained, and ten of those were content to leave or were rich enough to pay their own way into the third year. Each successive year cost substantially more than the year before, so only the wealthiest could afford the full fees. However, the scribery allowed each Master to choose a promising pupil for further training without payment. Only two had a vacancy, but I was confident that my talents would be acceptable.
On the sun of choosing, the two Masters with vacancies came to our study room. The five of us needing a patron were brought to the front of the room. Mani’s family were to pay for his third year, but Hestanora was one of the five. She eyed me rather smugly, and I wondered why she was so confident when she was far less accomplished than I was.
“Well now, Scribes,” one of the Masters said, “here’s your chance to impress us. Tell us everything about yourselves that you think would make you an attractive pupil to one of us.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that I would have to make a speech. What, after all, was there to say that they could not read from the records of the past two years? We knew both of them well, so what was the purpose of it?
The first boy to speak described himself in such glowing terms that I would have been impressed myself if I hadn’t known him. And he offered personal services to whichever Master chose him – cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, whatever was needed. The second boy offered in addition to pay one fifth of any earnings for life to the Master who became his patron. For life! It was ludicrous, but I saw one of the Masters nodding to that. Hestanora began a long recital of her noble family – all the Kellons and Durshalons she was distantly related to. She even claimed to be some kind of cousin to the Drashon.
My heart raced. How could I hope to compete with this? I had no noble lineage. I didn’t like the idea of giving away a sizable part of my income for ever. But it dawned on me that these Masters were not, after all, taking on poor pupils out of mere kindness. When Hestanora began to simper and blush and mention the very personal services she could provide in gratitude to her Master, I began to see what this was about. Why had I never realised this before? At the more advanced levels, tuition was much more personal, and the Master spent a great deal of time and effort with each trainee. Obviously they expected some recompense for that, and if it was not paid in money, then it had to be some other form. My dreams were vanishing before my eyes. Panic crept up on me and I shook with fear.
I had barely begun scrabbling in my mind for something I could offer when the door flew open, crashing against the wall, and a man strode in, his long coat flapping around his ankles. Not just a man, I realised. He was a mage, although the tattoo on his forehead was not one I recognised. I rarely had contact with any of the mages, and I had never seen this one before. He was skinny, with stringy blond hair falling to his shoulders, and he marched in as if he was lord of all the moons. In a way he was, for the mages were the nobility of the scribery.
He grinned
I smiled and nodded, but I wasn’t so sure. The three proofs of his virility were dubious, and what would become of Deyria if she failed to provide the hoped-for child?
~~~~~
I was approaching the end of my second year at the scribery, and the limit of the training my meagre finances allowed. By the summer, I would be a transaction scribe, and although that would be a profitable enough career, it wasn’t enough for me. I was determined to complete the full five years and become a law scribe, but to go any further, I needed a patron.
Of my original cohort, only fifteen remained, and ten of those were content to leave or were rich enough to pay their own way into the third year. Each successive year cost substantially more than the year before, so only the wealthiest could afford the full fees. However, the scribery allowed each Master to choose a promising pupil for further training without payment. Only two had a vacancy, but I was confident that my talents would be acceptable.
On the sun of choosing, the two Masters with vacancies came to our study room. The five of us needing a patron were brought to the front of the room. Mani’s family were to pay for his third year, but Hestanora was one of the five. She eyed me rather smugly, and I wondered why she was so confident when she was far less accomplished than I was.
“Well now, Scribes,” one of the Masters said, “here’s your chance to impress us. Tell us everything about yourselves that you think would make you an attractive pupil to one of us.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that I would have to make a speech. What, after all, was there to say that they could not read from the records of the past two years? We knew both of them well, so what was the purpose of it?
The first boy to speak described himself in such glowing terms that I would have been impressed myself if I hadn’t known him. And he offered personal services to whichever Master chose him – cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, whatever was needed. The second boy offered in addition to pay one fifth of any earnings for life to the Master who became his patron. For life! It was ludicrous, but I saw one of the Masters nodding to that. Hestanora began a long recital of her noble family – all the Kellons and Durshalons she was distantly related to. She even claimed to be some kind of cousin to the Drashon.
My heart raced. How could I hope to compete with this? I had no noble lineage. I didn’t like the idea of giving away a sizable part of my income for ever. But it dawned on me that these Masters were not, after all, taking on poor pupils out of mere kindness. When Hestanora began to simper and blush and mention the very personal services she could provide in gratitude to her Master, I began to see what this was about. Why had I never realised this before? At the more advanced levels, tuition was much more personal, and the Master spent a great deal of time and effort with each trainee. Obviously they expected some recompense for that, and if it was not paid in money, then it had to be some other form. My dreams were vanishing before my eyes. Panic crept up on me and I shook with fear.
I had barely begun scrabbling in my mind for something I could offer when the door flew open, crashing against the wall, and a man strode in, his long coat flapping around his ankles. Not just a man, I realised. He was a mage, although the tattoo on his forehead was not one I recognised. I rarely had contact with any of the mages, and I had never seen this one before. He was skinny, with stringy blond hair falling to his shoulders, and he marched in as if he was lord of all the moons. In a way he was, for the mages were the nobility of the scribery.
He grinned
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