Corps of Recovery: Part 6

According to Axel, the week of the Royal Family’s arrival would be the worst week of pagehood except for possibly the Autumnal Equinox Ball and the four months of competition after their fifth year.

“And how would you know?” Vinnia said irritably as she scrubbed a particularly tough stain out of a carpet. For some reason, she had chosen to leave her hair in a ponytail instead of the usual braid-crown. Rudi didn’t understand why she would do that though, because even in a ponytail, her hair got in the way of everything.

“Because my mentor told me,” Axel said calmly. Whatever thing he was polishing began to squeak under his cloth and he replaced it on the wardrobe in front of him. “And believe me, Jens was never wrong.”

Just as Rudi was about to ask how Axel had gotten that piece of silver so shiny—his own was looking rather worse for wear—Simon pranced into the room, balancing a feather duster on his index finger. A quick close of Rudi’s eyes was enough for him to know that Simon was using magic to do it.

“And if Jens was never wrong,” Simon said, “how come you managed to get on the bad side of the probable best-page-of-her-year?”

Axel scowled, looking remarkably like Vinnia as he did it. “I’m the one who didn’t listen to my mentor, and look where it got me.” He turned to the first-years, looking very solemn. “You two had better not taunt each other, or the other pages. It never helps to have enmity with possible friends.”

“Oh please,” Simon said, twirling his feather duster, “I have loads of enemies and you never see me suffering the stress of constant defeat.”

Sitting up, Vinnia wiped her forehead and growled at the carpet stain. “That’s because no one takes you seriously, you idiot sixth-prince.”

Feigning a look of hurt pride, Simon harrumphed and walked out the door. Wherever he was going, Rudi assumed it involved shirking his work. As Rudi and Vinnia returned to their fruitless cleaning, Mari, Chem’s mentor, crept into the room. As usual she looked half-awake, her messy bed head only heightening the effect.

“Have you seen Chem around?” she asked, gripping the sides of the doorway. “I checked his dorm, and all the cleaning rooms, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.”

No matter how Rudi racked his brains, he couldn’t remember seeing Chem around. “I didn’t see him,” he said, “but maybe you should ask Bridget and Elizabeth.”

“Oh, right! He and Bridget are pretty good friends, aren’t they?” She snorted and turned around to walk back through the hallways. “Bet it’s because she can say his name right,” Rudi heard her mutter. Then she kept on trying to say the funny ‘dg’ sound that Bridget always used to start Chem’s name.

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully, without any interruption from Simon. Vinnia had to begrudgingly ask Rudi if she could borrow his magic for a moment, seeing how her stain simply would not come out with soap and water, but that was the only near-remarkable thing to happen.

At the midday meal, Simon still had not reappeared. “If he doesn’t come soon,” Vinnia mumbled, “I’ll set up a trap in front of his dorm so that he contracts some awful disease.”

“Please don’t, Vin,” Axel said, prodding his food nervously. If he thought Elizabeth would come to tease him, he was worrying too much. Hadn’t they called truce until their competition at the Equinox Ball? “Besides, he’s royalty. Maybe he’s just spending time with family today.”

“He has abandoned us!” Vinnia cried out, pretending to faint. Rudi wondered how she managed to keep all that hair out of her food.

When the afternoon floor-polishing came around and Simon still hadn’t returned, Axel pulled his and Simon’s charges towards him. “Listen. If you see Simon later today, don’t try to tease him, alright? You especially, Vinnia.” Before the girl could even ask why, though, he pushed them back to the other first-year pages so they could get their buckets and rags. Chem was not around either.

As the older pages began moving furniture out of the hallways, untaken table legs grinding across the floor, Vinnia and Rudi found themselves lined up next to the other three present first-years. And if mischievous looks could kill, both would have fallen over on the spot. Bridgit, with her rag already splayed on the floor in front of her, grinned like a madman. The twins, who both kneeled on Rudi’s right, were in the same position, eyes blazing with excitement.

“What’s going on?” Rudi squeaked. He saw Axel sighing next to another fifth year boy, who kept pointing something out to him.

“Shut up,” Vinnia whispered suddenly. Her fist closed around Rudi’s shirt and she pulled him roughly to the ground. “Do as the crow, watch and learn,” she said. Even with her eyes focused straight ahead, Rudi got the impression that she was evaluating everything about the situation, including Bridget’s stance. She crouched to the floor, hands on her wet rag, and turned to face the long hallway in front of her.

Rudi copied, feeling somewhat stupid. Nonetheless, he looked forward and tried to hold the same confident stare that his fellow first-years did.

Someone walked up behind him. “Let’s do this,” the person said. Whoever it was, it wasn’t Simon.

One of the fifth years returned from moving furniture. Standing on one side of the line, she held one hand over their heads. “Count of three!” she yelled.

“One!” the rest of the pages chanted, “Two! Three! Go!”

On all sides of him, the other first-years raced ahead, rags pushed out in front. Rudi scrambled to catch up, glad for the traction his boots had on the floor.

Bridget pulled ahead first, having an advantage with her age. She slid across the length of the hallway, soapy suds in her wake, as older pages whooped and hollered on the sidelines. Out of the corner of Rudi’s eyes, he saw an older student following behind Bridget, using a mop to push all the water around the floor. Then, two flashes of blonde zipped by Rudi’s face. The twins! As fast as his little legs would carry him, Rudi surged forward to try beating them.

“At’ta boy!” the person behind him yelled. Rudi could almost feel the mop swoosh past his feet.

Just as the first-years were about to turn the corner, a loud voice boomed through the hallway. “Stop this at once!” ordered Count Stephan. Dressed in all black, the count stepped into the hallway in front of the racers. Bridget’s soles squealed on the tiles as she slid to a stop, and it was all Rudi could do to keep himself from making the same noise.

Before any of the older students could interrupt, Count Stephan held up both hands to keep them silent. “I know, I know. These races are tradition. I even encourage their use. Please know that you will have a chance to redo the cleaning race after the coming business.”

One of the older pages ventured a question. “What is this coming business?”

“Prince Lukas was assassinated last week,” the Count announced. His jaw clenched, and Rudi could barely make out the gloss of unshed tears. “He was found dead under curse in his bed last week, and we have finished the tests to make sure the Selim Empire was not lying about their involvement.”

The pages behind Rudi whispered about what this meant. Would there be war with the Selim? Would the Selim here be deported? A haggard-looking Mari burst through the crowd, eyes wild with worry.

“Chem? Where’s Chem?” she wailed, “Oh, please tell me he’s not going to be killed. I mean, I know he was here as part of a cultural trade since he and Prince Lukas are the same age, but—“

With a slight sigh of relief, Count Stephan gestured for her to quiet down. “Relax,” he said, “Chem is fine. The Selim were not in any way responsible for Prince Lukas’s death.” His gaze hardened suddenly, and Rudi automatically followed the count’s stare. “It was a group of radicals from Altland, actually.”

At that moment, every pair of eyes in the room swiveled towards Vinnia. Feet shuffled uncomfortably, wondering what the one-and-only Alten page here would do.

There was a moment of silence when Vinnia said nothing at all. Sniffing, she turned her nose up and stared blankly at the ceiling. No scathing comment, no accusing “excuse me?” Vinnia gave no indication that she cared about this Alten extremist affair.

Finally realizing that Vinnia was probably too young to know about extremists, the Count clapped his hands. “Well then, if that’s over with, would Axel, Vinnia, and Rudi please come with me? Everyone else will return to their dorms. We will discuss duties for the funeral over dinner.”

Echoes thundered through the hallway as the pages hurried to put away their cleaning supplies and head to the dorms. Rudi and Vinnia, meanwhile, found their rags being snatched from them, and Axel’s steady hands gripping their shoulders as he guided them away.

“Listen,” he whispered, “I have a hunch that whatever Count Stephan wants us to do, it’s got something to do with Simon. For all we know, it might be saying goodbyes, or beating him senseless so he doesn’t rampage for the rest of the month.”

Neither Rudi nor Vinnia said anything; they didn’t understand what was going on.

As they finally emerged from the bustling pages, Axel lowered his voice further. “And Vin,” he said, “whatever happens, don’t get mad at Simon, alright? Right now, you’re on display for all of the royal family to see, and how you behave as an Alten will affect their opinions.”

Vinnia nodded slowly.

“And Rudi, I have the odd feeling the royal family will be watching you as well. You’re seven years old, right? Can you tell me and Vinnia something?” Axel stopped, watching the Count make a left further along the hallway before looking back at Rudi. “You’re the adopted son of Hero Fluss, aren’t you? Where are you from, exactly?”

Rudi dropped his gaze to the blue-green tiles on the floor, wondering if it was safe to tell Axel. Vinnia was definitely safe, but he couldn’t be sure with her mentor.

After a few moments, Axel smiled and tousled Rudi’s hair. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me, Rudi. I understand why.”

Before the older boy could move again, Rudi took a step backwards. Water brimmed under his eyelids, just about to overflow. And as Axel and Vinnia turned around, Rudi felt his throat close up. He couldn’t say it, but how he wanted to! Rudi blinked as a tear rolled down his cheek, wondering if he would ever trust someone enough to tell them, but something happened in that moment when his eyelids closed. He saw pink, pink everywhere. Pink on his fingers, in Axel’s chestnut hair, smothering the gargoyles and ornaments on the walls. The only thing without pink was Vinnia’s mostly-black silhouette, which for some reason, had a rainbow noose of magic around the neck.

Something clicked in Rudi’s brain—Vinnia’s Zauber scale test had given pink text. This omnipresent magic was hers.

Rudi’s eyes opened, and incomprehensible jargon spilled from his mouth.

“What was that?” Axel said, sounding very patient. He had one of those kind smiles that Rudi’s Pa wore whenever he read stories.

“I-I-I’m like Vinnia,” Rudi said finally, ignoring the sight he'd just seen, “I’m Alten too.”