Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) Read online

  “This is a map of the Underground. These lines are the highway tunnels, the small stars are Nea’thi villages. The circles are entrances to the tunnel network, and these are the Enclaves.”

  He pointed at one, nestled in the mountain range far to the north of Vesturg. “This is Hầiờ. Any of the Mentors here from Hầiờ?” Sarah and Richard held up their hands. “Good! Now, come up the front so we can have a look at you.” Myr Billy turned to the rest of us. “See, as I was explaining, the Enclaves developed with a degree of separation, so there are slight differences in colouring between Nea’thi from the different Enclaves, mainly because of the nature of the particular strain of algae native to the area. See, Sarah and Richard here – I’ll use your Human-friendly names if you don’t mind – are excellent examples of Hầiờ colouring. Note the slight orange hue of their eyes and purple tint of their skin.”

  Richard pulled up one sleeve of his robe and flexed his arm, much to Sarah’s amusement – the two Mentors apparently unfazed at being put on display in front of the whole class.

  “Thank you, you may take your seats now.” Myr Billy turned back to the map, pointing at the large star to the east and north of Lille. “This is Жanờ, our local Enclave, if you will. Who are our Жanờ natives?” Thomas, Emma and James obediently stood. “See here the violet eyes and greenish skin? Yes, thank you.” They sat and he pointed to the last big star, far to the south of Fortesta and slightly west. “And this is Ұiờ.” Charlie and Jimmy stood without having to be prompted. “You will of course note the bluish skin and red eyes. Hmm, who’s left? Ah, Adam, is it? Yes, stand up. Now, where are you from?”

  “I grew up in the village of Hầлжớњ and was educated in Жanờ, where my mother is from, but my father was from Ұiờ. They met when they were Journeymen.”

  “Ah, how nice. Come, would you show us the location of Hầлжớњ?”

  Adam borrowed Myr Billy’s pointer and indicated one of the smaller stars on the map, not far from Жanờ, and close to the circle that marked the tunnel entrance just east of Lille, near the beginning of the Jaelshead valley.

  “Very good, yes. Now, you will see that Adam’s colouring is a mix of Жanờ and Ұiờ – slightly violet eyes and greenish-blue skin.” Adam grinned at us as Myr Billy took the pointer back and waved him to sit back down. “This of course is the main entrance to the underground system for Lille.” He tapped the circle by Adam’s village. “This is the one the Жanờ regiment used during the Leaving, and the one we used to bring out the stone during the construction of the Nea’thi Quarter.” He pulled a string on the bottom of the map and it rolled back up.

  “Well, I think you’ve done enough writing for one morning, and I am definitely feeling a bit peckish. Go and have your lunch now. This afternoon we’ll discuss Hầұeӣ some more, then maybe try a few practical exercises, what do you think?”

  I gulped, nervous again. We were actually going to try and use Hầұeӣ? I was going to set the Academy on fire!

  “Good, yes. Oh, and before you go, you’ve all got the required texts yes? Good, well your reading for tonight is the first two chapters of Introduction to Hầұeӣ – yes, write that down – and the section on the Leaving in Θaớфρeӣ’s Guide to Human/Nea’thi Relations. Right, off with you then. Give my regards to Yұieӣấ.” He swept out of the room, the first speedy movements we had seen him make all day, leaving us to trail in his wake. Out on the landing he darted upstairs to his office. Jimmy ducked ahead as we filed down the stairs.

  “I’ll run on ahead and let Yұieӣấ know we’re on our way,” and he raced off. The rest of us followed rather more sedately, out the door and across the quad to the avenue that would take us back to the Hall and our lunch.

  ducked into my bathroom on the way up to the common room to wash my hands and smooth down my hair. Charlie caught me as I was coming out.

  “So, what did you think of that?”

  “It was… not what I expected. Myr Billy seems nice.”

  Charlie chuckled. “Yes, he would be. He’s very enthusiastic about the education of Nea’thi-Bloods.”

  “Do all of you like Humans so much?”

  He grinned. “Hardly. Most of the older folk find the Outside exhausting. That’s why they go back to the Enclaves. That, and to have children, of course.” He winked at me. “Come on, lunch is up.”

  In the common room the Journeymen had laid out platters of cold roast meats, cheeses and sliced vegetables, along with pots of savoury jellies and loaves of bread, sliced and buttered, for us to make sandwiches. We piled up our plates and sat, pouring glasses of freshly squeezed fruit juice. Even Telgeth was quiet as he worked his way through four solid sandwiches before he got up to make two more from the leftovers. When we had finished eating Adam came out from the kitchen with coffee and Steven helped clear the plates away.

  I stood to help him but he waved me away. “Please, it’s the least I can do.”

  “Oh, uh, yeah. How are things going anyway?” I felt bad for the young guy, running around after us.

  “Ah well, it’s good! I mean, weird, but I’m getting used to it.” His voice still retained the odd trace of an accent and he lilted slightly, smiling at me shyly before hurrying back to the kitchen with an armful of plates.

  “Journeymen eh?” remarked Jimmy beside me. “I remember the days! You’ve gotta be gentle with them, they’re like…” He searched for an appropriate phrase, “Like wild horses. They just need a little breaking in.” He grinned wickedly.

  We finished our coffees on the couches by the fire, burning brightly even though it was the middle of the day, and still summer. My linen robe was cool and sort of breathed, so I was comfortable, even with the extra heating.

  When the Journeymen had taken our mugs away, Thomas, who had assumed organisation of our group by virtue of his age and experience, stood and told us it was time to be getting back to the Academy. Pleasantly full, we followed him down the stairs and out into the streets for the ten minute walk back to class.

  Lolitha was quiet, walking beside me, looking apprehensive.

  “Do you really think we’ll be doing Hầұeӣ this afternoon?” I asked her, using the proper Nea’thi pronunciation and feeling a bit silly.

  She laughed at me then frowned. “As long as we don’t have to go over that racial heritage rubbish again.”

  I glanced at her, surprised, and she shrugged. “I got a lot of shit about it in Lallisol. Well, for that and, er, everything else.”

  Jimmy overheard and bounced over, hugging her round the shoulders.

  “Oh poppet, forget those inbred bastards. You’re here now and we adore you because you’re special.”

  “Yeah yeah, I know. Look, I’m putting my happy face on.” She wriggled free and grinned at him. “See?”

  “That’s my girl!” He smiled and patted her on the head. “Now let’s go do some Hầұeӣ!”

  Up in our classroom Myr Billy was waiting for us. Small buckets of woodchips had been placed on eight of the work tables, but he bade us sit down at our writing desks again and I readied my pen and paper.

  “Now, this is a special treat because it is your first day. Normally you will spend several days learning about the theory behind the different kinds of Hầұeӣ manipulation before you try them, but seeing as this is probably something you have already encountered on your own, I will let you have a wee practice this afternoon. First though, there are some basic things you must learn.”

  He turned and wrote Fire in the blackboard, followed by the Nea’thi word Πiầ.

  “This is the Nea’thi word for when Hầұeӣ is used to begin a process of combustion. Can you pronounce that for me? Πiầ.”

  “Whiya” we chorused, with the slight grumble on the wh and the cadence from high to low on the last syllable.

  “Very good. Now, I have heard Hầұeӣ being referred to as “Nea’thi magic” before, but this is technically incorrect. There is nothing supernatural about the use of Hầұe
ӣ. It is simply the manipulation of the physical world around us, using the power of our brains. More specifically, the frontal lobe area, which for Humans only begins to fully develop in your late teenage years. Now, Πiầ occurs when the atoms of an object begin to vibrate so much that they ignite. It is one of the easiest things to do with Hầұeӣ, and why, perhaps, you may have inadvertently started fires in times of strong emotional stress.” He peered around the room as a few of us nodded. He gave a wee chuckle. “In my experience of Human teenagers this can happen with alarming frequency! So, to try and prevent any of you from burning down the city, I want you to experience how this process works when you’re actively trying to do it. That way, you can learn to control your Hầұeӣ if you happen to experience strong emotions from now on.”

  Myr Billy moved out from behind his desk, went to the closest marble bench and beckoned us over to stand and watch. He grabbed a small handful of woodchips and arranged them in a neat pile on the benchtop.

  “Now, to channel your Hầұeӣ you must explore the makeup of the object you are trying to manipulate. Not with your eyes or your hands, but with your mind. You must feel the particles and gently stimulate them, moving them faster and faster until—” The pile of woodchips burst into flame. “There! Πiầ!” He blinked at the tiny fire and it was covered with a dome of solid air, only visible when it choked the flames of oxygen and smoke was caught beneath it. I had seen Charlie do this before, back in my father’s study.

  “Right, so, there we are! Now if everyone would like to move to their own benches to try. Mentors, are you ready to douse the fires? Good, now, I think I’ll just open these windows.” Myr Billy paced down the side of the room facing the quad, opening the windows to let out the smoke, and Charlie and I went to find an unoccupied bench. He gathered a handful of woodchips and made a pile on the marble for me.

  “You ready, kiddo?” he encouraged. I gulped and nodded, remembering other times when I had started fires, not at all on purpose. “You’ll be fine. I’ve seen you do this before, remember?” He ginned at me. “And I’m here to put it out, so don’t worry.”

  I pulled up a stool to sit and concentrate, and I tried to do what Myr Billy had said. I stared at the woodchips, willing them to catch alight, trying to imagine little flames bursting. The rest of the class was quiet, everyone else staring at their piles too, the Mentors hovering protectively. I stared and stared, but nothing happened. No whiff of smoke, no nothing.

  “Try closing your eyes and reaching for the woodchips with your mind,” Myr Billy told me quietly as he came up behind us.

  I did as I was told, but now I couldn’t even see the pile. I could feel frustration welling inside me, as well as fear. What if I couldn’t even do this? What if there had been some huge mistake and I wasn’t even Nea’thi-Blood at all?

  “Feel the wood Jas. You can do this,” Charlie whispered.

  Come on, I mentally kicked myself, you can do this.

  I leaned forward and rested my head on my hands and opened my eyes for a second to fix where the pile was in my mind. When I closed them again I tried to imagine the chips at a microscopic level, an atomic level. I felt something uncurling in my head, reaching down towards them. I took a deep breath and imagined this, this something flowing into the pile, then all of a sudden I could see the wood. I could see the tiny atoms moving oh so slowly. Now if I could just hurry them up, like if I could stick something in there and give them a stir…

  Almost imperceptibly at first, I could feel the movement, but I needed more agitation. Faster, I thought at the wood, move faster, dammit, it just needs a little bit more—

  “Hey! You did it!” Charlie cried, delighted, and I opened my eyes. The pile of woodchips was being licked by tiny flames, a little plume of smoke rising from the middle.

  “Sweet Lilbecz! Shit, Charlie!” I looked around wildly, the rest of the Bloodkin were staring at me.

  “Heh, don’t worry Jas, I’ll put it out now.” Charlie blinked at my little fire and within seconds the smoke was caught beneath the invisible dome, which Charlie left in place until the glowing from the woodchips died, then released it, the smoke curving towards the open window.

  “Very good, Jaseth!” Myr Billy beamed across at me. “Maybe you would like to explain, in your own words, how you achieved Πiầ, for the rest of the class.”

  I looked around at my classmates. Telgeth and Lolitha smiled at me, and Dunkerle scratched his head. I caught Sallagh’s eye and she looked, well, irritated, annoyed I had got it first.

  “Um, well, okay,” I started, trying to organise my thoughts. “So I closed my eyes and felt… something in my head…” I looked to Myr Billy for guidance and he nodded.

  “That something is your Hầұeӣ, dear boy. Good, please go on.”

  “Okay, so I sort of felt into the woodchips, and I directed my, my Hầұeӣ in there, to where the particles are and stuff. Then I gave them a bit of a stir around and… Does this make sense?” Myr Billy and the Mentors nodded, but the rest of the Bloodkin looked blank.

  “Yes, very good Jaseth. It is a difficult thing to try and explain, but the idea of stirring is rather appropriate. Keep trying now, you will find it gets easier with practice.

  Everyone turned back to their benches to keep trying. Charlie had brushed my pile of ash and unburned woodchips to the side of the bench and had readied a new pile.

  “Try it again Jas, this time with your eyes open.”

  I tried again, but it was much harder with open eyes. Things around me kept distracting my vision, but I reached for that something that was my Hầұeӣ and sent it deep into the makeup of the woodchips, jiggling the atoms around, faster and faster until poof! With a small puff of smoke they ignited. Charlie quickly sealed it off and I grinned at him.

  “Fun isn’t it?” He grinned back as he swept the pile away. “Keep practising.”

  To the side, Jimmy let out a triumphant hoot as Lolitha sparked her pile. “Oh!” she squeaked, surprised, as he stifled her fire. She looked at me in disbelief, her eyes shining.

  “Oh Jas, I see. There’s a…” she waved her hand around. “There’s a thing!”

  “Wonderful, wonderful. Good work, Lolitha,” called Myr Billy, who was hovering over Sammoch and James.

  We kept practising, and I found I got quicker and quicker at zooming in on the wood and grabbing my Hầұeӣ and forcing it in there. Dunkerle let out a startled laugh when Richard grabbed his shoulder and he opened his eyes to see his pile on fire. One by one the others managed to set their woodchips alight.

  “Gosh!” exclaimed Sallagh as Emma congratulated her. “That wasn’t hard.”

  Finally Telgeth was the only one who hadn’t managed the Πiầ.

  “Argh, this is bullshit! The damned things won’t burn. I can’t bloody— Whoa!” his little pile erupted into flames.

  “Ahh, very good Telgeth. Now this time, try and do it without all the swearing, hmm?” Myr Billy admonished him, but Telgeth grinned.

  “Apologies Myr B, but I think I’ve got it now. Look!” He grabbed another handful and grimaced in concentration, then laughed happily as it began to burn.

  “Very good boy, very good! Now, keep going for a bit, and then we’ll take a break, then try something a bit harder. Off you go!”

  We all practised for another half an hour until our buckets of woodchips were empty and the piles of ash had grown.

  I tried to start my fires as quickly as I could, until it only took a few seconds of staring before flames took hold. Then I tried using more of my Hầұeӣ to ignite the whole pile at once, rather than have little flames spreading from the inside. I felt for the something in my head that was my Hầұeӣ, trying to grab as much of it as possible, before thrusting it into the wood. The whole pile exploded and sparks flew over the edge of the bench and onto the floor.

  “Oh no, hell, sorry!” I yelled as I raced around the bench to stamp them out.

  “Well, we try and keep our experiments on the benches,
Jaseth, but you’re doing very well.” Myr Billy came around to inspect the floor, popping tiny shields around the remaining sparks. “You’ve got to get a feel for how much Hầұeӣ to use – that may have been a tad too much for one small pile of woodchips!” I ducked my head, embarrassed that the others would think I had been showing off, but he patted me on the shoulder. “I think we’ve done enough for a break now, please, sweep your ash into the buckets and I’ll do the coffee.”

  By the time our benches were clean, Myr Billy was pouring coffee into mugs for us at the back of the room. We sipped our drinks and gave each other little pleased smiles. We had done it! We had all used Hầұeӣ on purpose, all felt the uncurling of that something that set us apart from all the other Humans in the world. And by the looks on the others’ faces, they were filled with the same sense of excitement and possibility, and yes, relief, that I was.

  Myr Billy opened another cupboard, and as we finished our drinks and put our mugs on the table for the Journeymen to clear, he handed each of us a candlestick and a fresh candle.

  “Now for the remainder of the afternoon I want you to practise on something a little more difficult. The principle is the same with candles, but the area you are trying to ignite – the wick – is much smaller and requires greater accuracy with your Hầұeӣ. So try not to explode them, eh Jaseth?” Sallagh tittered. Was Myr Billy teasing me?

  “Although you won’t be using candles much in the Hall, they are useful things to be able to light at will, without having to bother with matches or sparklights.” He paused and looked around, suddenly serious. “Now I’m sure you will have gathered this already from your Mentors, but Hầұeӣ is not something to be used frivolously. You Nea’thi-Bloods have a gift, but it is nothing more than a quirk of your DNA. The ability to use Hầұeӣ is something that is certainly admired by Human society, for it is useful and can be used to great effect to enrich the lives of others. However, Humans are envious creatures by nature, and blatant flaunting of your powers is unwise, and sometimes even dangerous. We – the staff here at the Academy and your Mentors – will endeavour to the best of our abilities to keep you safe, and the Nea’thi Quarter is a forgiving place, but please do your best not to arouse jealousy amongst Humans who are not as fortunate as you.” Myr Billy frowned as he finished his speech. “Understood? Good, right, take your candles and off you go.”