AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Leander took my pack to the middle of the three doors, pushed the door open, and went inside. I followed as Darius walked away with my coat, hanging it on a peg along one wall of the common room, where four other coats were hanging.
The bedroom was as simple as the rest of the house, with just a bed, a wardrobe, and a washstand with a pitcher and basin. There was a mirror beside the wardrobe and curtains around the single window above the bed, but that was about it. Well, except for the fact that it seemed to be loaded with someone’s personal belongings, probably Lucius’s.
“How long have you been traveling, Conrad Kettering?” Darius asked, coming into the room behind me and starting to gather up Lucius’s things. “Do you need a bath?” He asked the question as though he might like to give it to me personally.
I smiled broadly at him. “I think I should very much like that bath,” I said, letting the salacious intent of my words show in my tone. I snapped straighter a moment later and said, “I was told I needed to get to class immediately, though. And I’ve no idea what class or where that is. I don’t have any supplies for school or any…any uniform?”
It occurred to me then that both Leander and Darius were dressed in exactly the same simple, white tunic, waistcoat, and trousers that Lucius had been wearing, and that I’d seen several of the people I’d passed since arriving wearing.
“Right,” Leander said, clapping his hands together, then gathering up the rest of Lucius’s things. “It seems as though the Soranus boys need to take you under their wing and get you sorted and off to class.”
“We’ll start with a bit of a scrub,” Darius said, gesturing for me to come out of the room and across the common room. He dumped his armful of books and pens and spare bits of Lucius’s clothing on one of the sofas in the common room. “Fortunately, the bathhouse is also where the laundry is located. You’ll be able to find a clean uniform there.”
“And later, you can take your personal things there to be washed,” Leander said, taking his armful of things across to Lucius’s room, opening the door, and dumping them on the floor before shutting the door again. “Just make sure you label everything first.”
“Label them with what?” I asked, too spun around by the sharp change in everything around me to make a comment about being kinder with Lucius’s things. I had the feeling Lucius wouldn’t have been so kind if the situation were reversed.
“You have two options,” Leander said as he came over to loop an arm across my shoulders, escorting me toward the door. “You can embroider your initials into the collar—”
“—Like a nursemaid does for her young charges,” Darius finished the sentence as we stepped outside and started our walk to what I assumed was the bathhouse.
“Or you can purchase labels with more extensive information to sew into your things,” Leander went on as I glanced around, trying to get my bearings as I was swept with him.
“Or thirdly, you can pay the laundry staff a few extra coins to wash your things individually in a separate load,” Darius said as we entered the white marble building at the center of the cluster of dormitory houses.
I made a doubtful sound. Dushka had given me an exorbitant amount of money to spend during my time in the Old Realm, but it wouldn’t go far if I spent it on frivolous things, like private laundry. I would be fed at the college and my acceptance letter had hinted that every trainee healer was expected to work for the school to some degree—which was likely why Lucius had been at the round desk in the main building—although why someone from a high family would need to work, even if he was a trainee healer was another mystery—so there was a chance I’d be able to earn money while in Royersford.
“The uniforms are just here,” Leander said as we stepped into a long, narrow room that must have run the entire length of the bathhouse. “Since everyone wears the same thing and all laundry for our section is done in this building, they store them here.”
“Some people, like Lulu, resent wearing common clothing,” Darius picked up the explanation, “but it never bothered me.”
He glanced to Leander, who shrugged and said, “We’ve always worn each other’s clothes anyhow.”
“Among other things,” Darius said with an impish grin.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what they meant by that.
“The uniforms are arranged by size on the shelves here,” Leander said, walking to the other side of the room and what looked like shelves of towels against the wall. “Pick out a uniform you think will fit, then come in here for your bath.”
“Is there time?” I asked, rushing to find bits of uniform that might fit me. “Was Magister Flaccus serious about getting to his class promptly or being punished?”
“He probably was serious,” Darius said, helping me find things that would fit, then pulling me on into the next room. “But Flaccus walks around with a stick up his ass most of the time. The other magisters aren’t as strict.”
“They’re just grateful they have students to teach and people who want to be healers these days,” Leander said as Darius and I joined him in the next room.
I almost didn’t hear his words. The room that stretched out before me was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I expected brass tubs that needed to be filled from a pump and fireplaces to heat the water.
Instead, I was faced with one long pool that took up the entire center of the room. It was a tidy rectangle, about three feet deep, with a set of stairs that led down into it. There were benches built into the walls on the two long sides.
“Country boy,” Darius said—or perhaps it was Leander, I had a feeling the two of them had switched places while I was gaping.
I snapped my mouth shut and twisted to my new friends. “I’m from a city, actually. Yacovissi? In the frontier?”
“That’s right,” Leander—maybe—said with a slow nod. “I remember hearing that our other housemate would be from the frontier.”
“I thought all of those frontier city boys were hopeless prudes,” Darius said, grinning at me. “Conrad doesn’t strike me as a prude.”
“I’m not,” I said with a laugh, starting to strip out of the clothes I’d been wearing for what felt like an eternity.
