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The platform was ringed with rows of benches, and already about two dozen young men around my age—and a few older—were seated with books beside them and some sort of board with paper clipped to it on their laps.
I noticed Lucius sitting on his own near the front of the room, studiously ignoring everyone around him. Quite a few people waved or called out to Leander and Darius as they took me to a spot right in the middle of the benches and sat me between them. I had the impression the twins were popular, and I wondered if I would be popular at the college now too, since I was with them.
The idea of me being popular with my peers was almost laughable. There was a first time for everything.
“That’s Mara,” Leander pointed to a slender young man with close-cropped hair two rows ahead of us on the right. “Mara is our other housemate.”
Mara turned and saw us all looking. I smiled and raised a hand to wave, but that was all I could manage before Magister Flaccus marched into the room, all business.
“We left off yesterday talking about the properties of the digestive system,” Magister Flaccus said without looking at any of his students specifically. “Today we’ll connect that to the circulatory system and discuss how energy makes its way around the body. Take out your textbooks and turn to chapter four.”
I was at a loss without a book, but Leander—or maybe Darius—was more than willing to share his with me for the time being.
And with that, in the blink of an eye, against all odds and all of a sudden, the class had begun and I was officially a student healer at a college in the Old Realm.
ChapterFive
My transition from traveler to student happened so fast that it took me the first ten minutes of that first class at least to settle my nerves and for my heart to stop racing. And then it took me another half hour of the lecture to figure out what the hell was going on.
I had never been more grateful for my palace education in Yacovissi. I knew at once that I was woefully behind where the rest of the students in that anatomy and physiology class were, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I’d studied the body before, and in the brief time I’d spent with Galina after Magnus was stabbed, I’d learned a little more.
It also helped that Darius—or Leander, I really didn’t know who was who anymore—shoved his textbook into my lap and whispered to me that they would get me caught up later. I was able to simultaneously thumb through the textbook and listen to the lecture.
The only harrowing moment was when the magister, Magister Flaccus, called me out for not paying attention.
“Am I not interesting enough for you?” he demanded.
One of the students sitting near the front of the room twisted to stare at me. He narrowed his eyes and asked, “Who are you at any rate?”
“Would you care to introduce yourself to the class?” Magister Flaccus asked.
I stood, certain either Magister Flaccus or the other student were trying to humiliate me, and said, “I am Conrad Kettering, from Yacovissi, on the frontier. I only just arrived this morning. I can assure you that I am very interested in everything you have to say, Magister.” I added a respectful bow, though I worried that might have been a bit too much.
A few students laughed, Lucius among them, but Magister Flaccus seemed grudgingly impressed.
“You are forgiven this time, Master Conrad,” he said. “But from tomorrow, I demand your absolute attention.”
“Yes, Magister.” I nodded and bowed again before taking my seat.
A few more sniggers followed from the likes of Lucius, but I ignored them. Especially when maybe-Darius patted my back and said, “Well done.”
The rest of the class seemed to fly by. I paid attention as much as I could, but as we entered the second hour of the lecture, my stomach growled noisily and exhaustion began to overwhelm me.
I was happier than I had words to express when the class finally ended and we were all excused for the day.
“Supper isn’t for another hour,” Leander broke the news to me as we headed out of the lecture hall. “So let’s go get you your books and supplies.”
I was so grateful to have Leander and Darius escort me around the college, helping me find my way, that I could have dropped to my knees and sucked them off. In fact, I made a note to do just that later, and not solely as repayment for their kindness. Fucking around with them was a tempting prospect. I mean, identical twins!
After loading me up with all the books and supplies I would need for the course, we returned to the house. Lucius was there, complaining to Mara, probably about me.
“And there they are now,” Lucius said, getting up from the sofa from where he’d been addressing Mara. Lucius crossed to the fireplace where Mara had lifted the lid from a kettle that dangled over the fire by a hook, checking, I supposed, to see if the water was ready for tea or coffee.
“Did you miss us?” Leander—I was reasonably sure it was him—asked, striding across the room and grabbing the heavy school bag full of books that I’d just purchased and carrying it into my room for me.
“Lulu always misses us when we’re gone,” Darius said, walking deeper into the common room. He grabbed my hand as he went, ignoring Lucius’s peevish scowl, and escorted me over to Mara.
“The two of you have yet to meet properly,” Darius said with a smile. “Conrad, this is Mara. Mara, this is Conrad, our new, frontier housemate.”
