THE SHERIFF OF HNUT / CH. 20: LESSONS LEARNED

LANTHI'S SCHOOL, BROTHERDAY, 8TH WINTER

“Lanthi? Is that you?” Aneth, one of her friends asked as she sat down at her desk at school.

“It is,” Lanthi said.

“Wow. Urm... I remember you used to be red, but...”

“I had a really good wash and look what came out from under the dye.”

“Urm... when we teased you about being a red, we didn't... You're a real descendent of nobility, aren't you? I thought there weren't any real nobles left.”

“Not all of us killed one another, not everyone's grandparents married themselves out of the nobility, either.”

“You're not saying you're pure-blooded, are you?”

“Maybe I should have washed out the dye earlier.”

“You really do look positively regal.”

“Mum'll be happy to hear you say that,” Lanthi said.

“I'm confused, her name's Keldi, isn't it? Wasn't there some rule about top nobles' names all starting with the same letters or something?”

“Lanthi!” The teacher said, doing a double-take as he entered the room “What have you done with your feathers?”

“Washed the dye off, sir.”

“You should know that the school has a policy prohibiting the use of natural coloured dyes.”

“I have removed the dye from my feathers, sir,” Lanthi said, “This is my natural colour.”

“That's an interesting claim. You wish us to believe that underneath the mild-mannered Lanthi, there's been a deep red all these years? Come off it!”

“This is my true colour, my mother's true colour, and her mother's true colour and so on for a long long time. If you have problems getting used to the idea, I will not be very surprised, but please keep your doubts to yourself while you do, sir, they're a bit insulting. If I can please beg the whole class, please try to ignore the colour that God, genetics and a lot of history have given me. It will be much harder to ignore teasing about plucking people now I'm almost an adult than it was six years ago. And plucking people is not the real problem. The real problem is the self-sharpening talons and hundreds of generations of breeding that makes me want to skip messing around with feathers and rip out throats. I have not washed off the dye for school, but because I'm due to be meeting an old noblewoman, Lady Yanepoli of the noble Yant family in a few days, I want to make a good impression and my mother told me that the last time lady Yanepoli was in the city the only girls with purple feathers were in Drana.”

“I believe you'll find that the use of noble titles has been outlawed by act of parliament,” the teacher said, deciding to pick fault with that, too.

“I understand that is the common understanding of the law, sir. But there is no requirement in law that a someone without official role should not accord the title in an honorary manner as a mark of respect if they wish to.”

“But you do not feel capable of keeping quiet in response to a well-earned rebuke.”

Standing up she said “Sir! I beg you to give me leave to be excused. I have no desire to cause a scene, but your attitude since you arrived has been to consistently to level subtle or unsubtle insults at me. I am of the most noble blood, and I do constantly struggle against the innate bellicosity it brings with it. If you find that your reaction to noble blood is to try to cause a fight, then I had better leave, because no thanapoli has backed away from a challenge to her honour in four centuries.”

“Sit down, admit you've been lying and we'll give you an acting award later, you stupid fool. Who are you trying to impress?”

Lanthi stood still, in shock, and desperately prayed for a miracle of self-control as she felt her talons extend and her feathers fold themselves back, ready for her to fight, to slash, to rend, to destroy, to wade in this worthless teacher's blood. He wasn't worthless, part of her cried, just ignorant.

“Sir, you are behaving as an idiot.” Tang, one of the boys in the class said standing up. “I urge you apologise to my distant cousin Lanthithanapoli daughter of Keldithanapoli, heir of the empty throne. Because she has been correct, honest and polite in everything she has said, and you in response have been taunting her and besmirching her honour. You may have claws, but she also has talons, and quite frankly I admire her self control that they're not at your throat already. If you don't apologise or act in any way as if she is the cause of what you've done, then I'll testify that you deserve every wound you receive.”

“Come on Lanthi,” Aneth said, quickly putting away her books. “Let's make a formal complaint to the head that our idiot of a teacher is trying to provoke you to a killing rage.”

“Too late, he has,” Lanthi said, through gritted teeth, “see?” she lifted her hands to show the class. It was not unusual for people to have some control over their fingernails, but this was different; her fingers now bore long, razor sharp talons. “The talons of royalty. Thank you for your intervention, cousin. You and the grace of God have allowed me to keep a whisker of self control. Do you think, sir that I am acting still? Where can an actress learn this royal trick? Can you apologise, because I am now struggling against the royal rage known as bellicosity incarnate and I honestly expect I am incapable of maintaining self control much longer even though I pray. Please apologise; I cannot calm down otherwise, and if I take a step my talons will be in your throat, not at them. I will be almost as fast as a Zerker and not calm but frenzied, and will likely injure any who try to stop me getting to you. I do not want to maim or kill. Please apologise, quickly, the rage continues to grow, fed by the incredulity on your face.”

“I apologise. I did not believe... I'm sorry, Lanthithanapoli to have provoked this. I honour your normal temperament and self-control, and agree, I did goad you, because I couldn't believe it. You're normally so... calm.”

“Normally Sir, no one mocks her or calls her a liar.” Aneth said. “Normally she is very careful about not sharing too much about herself that would cause disbelief. Normally, she is able to walk away.”

“I understand, accept the rebuke. Today's revision class was, as you know, going to be on history. But I think I have a lot to learn. Would you be able to teach the class an overview of history, adding in what the history books have skipped over, Lanthithanapoli?”

“Sir, as my friend Sithinilakiina has truthfully said, asking a red to teach history to a class that includes greens is like asking a bird to teach a mason how to lay bricks. I'll happily tell what I know, but I don't think any greens here will appreciate hearing about the end of the noble titles before the rise of the nobility and the conquest of the south. May I ask Athrel to give the framework?”

“I don't know anything about the rise of the nobility,” Athrel said.

“Anyone else?” Lanthi asked. The teacher indicated she should continue “The first hole is at the beginning, sir. There are legends that the reds, blues and oranges have sought to suppress and to label fantasy and myth, but their truth is attested to in the royal archives, and even in the constitution. Can any tell of the green-turns-red, ancestresses of my friend Sithinilakiina daughter of Ranthilakiina, and when the South met the North?”

Athrel stood, “There was once no contact between the North and the South. To the south there was peace, and the word of God, and the greens who lived here were kindly and wisely ruled by one who was born green but whose feathers grew red, and sometimes the boys fought over who would marry a girl, and sometimes, rarely, it became a blood-feud, and so this city came to be built as the scriptures say. Then brave greens tried to take the message of God across the mountains, and they struggled to learn the language of the barbarians. But they managed, they asked

'Where is your lakiina, your red?' and they were laughed at, but they tried again, 'where is the one whose feathers have become red, the only one who can give you laws?' And they were told 'there are no reds. There are blues and oranges and we kill the yellows', and we will kill you if you say the Thanapoli is not fit to give us laws.' And some of them came home with this disturbing news, that the barbarians had a queen but she was the same as those she ruled, but the bravest took their message about God to the Thanapoli. That is the earliest story I know. The next I know is of the conquest.”

Lanthi took a deep breath. “Trying hard to keep things in order... These emissaries from the South were taken prisoner for spreading lies and sedition, and questioned. And they told about the blessings that God gave, how the crops grew better and the animals grew faster and they ascribed this to God's blessing and it was heard as them saying that the land of the south was better. And the Thanapoli tortured them to find out how to get to these rich lands, and they would not say, only that the people of the South respected 'the red' more than any other, and that no mere orange would ever be accepted as the rightful queen. And there was always some variation in colours, but who was Thanapoli had always been the the best fighter of the best fighters of the clans, the polis. And a new law was made, that distinguished between the colours. Each five years there would be a contest, for all those who were unmarried adults not too cowardly to take part. The male contest was called the melee, when the worst fighters were killed, and half survived. In the female contest, first there was fighting, when a quarter did not survive, then there was the weeding, where the reddest girls got to pick themselves husbands first, and the most orange were left to choose a mate from among the cowards. And there came to be traditions in the different families, some lines chose the males with the largest muscles, others chose husbands with other characteristics, like intelligence, and so it went on for generations and generations; the breeding program. And eventually, after perhaps a thousand years, during which trade had developed with the south, my predecessor who was called Yapoli of the powerful Yant clan said, “my mother won this competition, and her mother before her and her mother before her, and look, each competition it is harder to tell red from orange. Is it not time for conquest? Let the reddest not just choose husbands, but districts, but I'll forgo that pleasure if you agree I'm now Yathanapoli, and by my talons I'll shred any who say otherwise. And that was almost the end of the contest, and that is why the queen has no district, but is queen of all districts.

"All those who had won husbands in any contest were nobles, and the families of the winners of districts became the major noble families. And Yathanapoli found the green-turned-red and plucked her and took her throne, and the other winners of districts who did not have clan names, gave themselves a clan name from their district, and others renamed their districts after their clan, which is why some districts are to this day known by two names. And there was one more contest, when Yathanapoli's daughter came of age: the contest for the royal title. She won, killing all who did not bow before her, and the royal title thanapoli has been passed from mother to eldest daughter ever since. Following the pattern of the lakaiinas, she is given the name of a district in alphabetical order, unless the nobles of that district have in some ways greatly displeased the monarch, as has happened a few times.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“And so as the nobles of Laneth did not displease your mother, you are named after that district,” the teacher said.

“I'm not aware of any nobles left in Laneth, sir. The Lanthins I have heard of either renounced blood-feuds and their titles or died in blood-feud. But although traditionally I'm supposed to seek a noble husband from the district I'm named for, mother has forbidden me from marrying into that line. Grandma declared that we must try to breed the bellicosity out of the royal line, so the Lanthins are too risky a prospect.”

“So you are seeking a peace-loving noble?” Aneth asked.

“I have found one; he is called Yalb, grandson of lady Yanepoli. Hence I want to make a good impression. But I think that discussion isn't for class time.”

“Quite correct,” The teacher said. “Any additional or alternative history or legend from you Aneth?”

“No, sir. Except... I do not know it is truth or myth, but I heard that when Yathanapoli came with her... followers, the queen went to meet her, and said, 'I hear that you wish for power, to rule? Very well, you may take power. But I will tell you about the God of these people you wish to rule.' And she did, and Yathanapoli grew impatient, and plucked a feather from her each minute that she talked. And she saw that this queen did not fear, but nor would she fight, and she told her daughters, that when the green-turns red talks, you listen to her, for though she will not fight, she is is no coward.”

Lanthi added “I do not know how Yathanapoli came to faith in God, but she did. Today's recent news, next year's history, next generation's legend, perhaps: the heir to the southern throne tells me that she does fear violence, but I have heard clear evidence that her fears do not stop her doing what she is sure is right. Recently she met a pure-blooded noblewoman who had been starving herself to death for two weeks, and told her that she was giving in to fear of life and fear of hope, and that was cowardice. Sithini knew how dangerous it was, but by goading her back to life she saved her life, and earned herself another friend.”

“Another cousin,” Tang said, “who is enjoying her recovery at what she describes as the court of lady Yanepoli.”

“In Hoom of Yant, which became Hoo on Utt, and is now Hnut,” Lanthi agreed,

“News travels fast.”

“By wizardry, and rumour combined, indeed. But have you met the famous Yalinth?” Tang asked.

“Not yet, I expect I need to get her approval too, though.”

“Who is this Yalinth?” the teacher asked.

“Yalinth is the niece of Yalb, she is a strong-minded girl who's just turned six years old, and by some reckoning, is the future ruler of the house of Yant, assuming her grandmother does not disinherit her daughter for marrying the wrong colour.”

“What's wrong.... oh, old laws?” the teacher asked.

“I see a some yellow feathers in this room, I'm guessing that some of them are from bottles, if not most.” Lanthi said. And left the question in her mind. Was it possible that her class had a grown winterborn in it?

“That's a dangerous question, Lanthithanapoli.” one of the boys, a quiet one whose name Lanthi couldn't remember said.

“I know. I don't want anyone to get in trouble. But there is an ancient law in Hnut, from the time of the purges, that says the Zerker and foreigner can walk safely in the village, and any who betray them shall face the joint blood-feud of their neighbours. Yalinth is neither, but walks freely, and the village of Hnut has decided to invite the wizards to set up a second school there. I think construction starts next week or perhaps the week after. My parents and the other wizards are looking forwards to playing with their toys.”

The teacher looked puzzled, “I don't understand how you are connecting these thoughts in your mind.”

“Yalinth is the key, sir, to those who know, but I don't have her permission to talk about what makes her quite so special. Yalinth's ability to walk freely is almost guaranteed by the wizards' presence. In other times and places it would not be. But a threat to anyone like her would cause quite a lot of intervention, I'm sure.”

The boy, called Denas she finally remembered, caught her eye for a moment. And Lanthi, not sure if she was doing it right at all, thought her answer:

[My mother, Wizardess Keldi has been looking for thought-hearers for over twenty years, Yalinth is the first she's met. We live at the college of wizardry, and are due to fly up to Hnut after school tomorrow, but plans can be changed.]

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END OF SCHOOL, BROTHERDAY, 8TH WINTER

Denas broke away from the group he was talking to as he saw Lanthi, in her resplendent feathers walk past.

“She's taken, Denas,” one of the others said.

“I told you that. Not to mention that she'd have never considered any of us.”

“How did you know that?”

“Believe it or not, I've actually spoken to her in the past decade. Not often mind you.”

“You don't speak to anyone often.”

“Lanthi?” Denas said, “Can just, you know, anyone walk up to the college of wizardry? It looks so like a fortress...”

“No boiling oil, I assure you. Public lectures on various days, admission is free.”

“And did someone say you can just do an A.S.C. and then leave?”

“Yes, entirely possible. There are limits on numbers, though, just because of the size of the lecture hall. So they try to give preference to people who want to at least see if they can go further. Up in Hnut, though, they're expecting most people will just want to do the ASC. Want to talk to the admissions tutor?”

“Just like that?”

“If he's home. I call him 'dad'.”

“You spoke of intervention.”

“I did,” Lanthi agreed.

“Wizards don't intervene.”

“They've changed policy recently, but basically it's always been 'we mind our own business, and let other people mind theirs.' Where the wizard's business consisted of things like controlling the forces of nature without killing people, passing on knowledge, and keeping in contact with aliens if they can.”

“Why can't they?”

“Option one, take a pretty-much deadly risk and go to where they are, option two, wait for them to wander past, which they do about once a lifetime, as far as I understand it, option three, just keep on praying for a thought-hearer to knock on the door saying 'Hi, I'm hearing voices from a couple of thousand light-years away and I'm not mad really....' I imagine that's a rather scary first step. And of course the college doesn't really want to put up an advertisement saying 'anyone hearing strange voices from space is very welcome'. Option four, go looking for reds married to Zerkers.”

“Mum's not a red.”

“That probably means she's a pure-blooded orange, unless mum's wrong of course.”

“Urm she might be, my mum, I mean.”

“Congratulations to her, she's probably rarer than nobility these days.”

“And Dad has never gone zerk.”

“I'm told that it's not always obvious, but since it's genetics, it's probably more accurate to say a 'blue male' anyway. I don't suppose you've got a six-to-eight year old brother do you? Just hoping for Yalinth's sake. What's it like?”

“Hard to explain. Like another set of ears, I guess.”

“So you don't need to check if someone's mouth is moving?”

“Not if I'm paying attention.”

“I'd love to know what you hear from Sithini. She thinks really quickly. Would you feel safer with your parents with you?”

“Strangely enough, I get the feeling that your talons are on my side.”

“Mum's too,” Lanthi said.

“Can you show them at will?”

“Probably. I don't think I've ever tried. Oh, yes I have.”

“Mostly I just get emotions, like that was embarrassment. Your rage was pretty loud this morning. Along with your prayer. You know you're the first person outside family I've ever talked to about this. What made you think of thinking your question?”

“No idea, except talking about Yalinth. Feel free to credit God.”

“I'm not a believer.”

“You'd better fix that before you talk to Yalinth, or she'll point out you're being rude to your creator.”

“She seems like she's going to turn into a right terror. The whole village knows, really?”

“She proclaimed to a non-believing wizard that it was going to snow the following day because she'd asked God for some snow and it was her hatchday and she liked snow. And people who didn't like snow had had their turn, and anyway, she wasn't being greedy she just wanted a little. During the following conversation she said something about his past, and mum went and talked to her, and her family. So some of the village know, I don't know if it's the whole village, or if it's just that she's just really open in front of people who do know. But the whole village knows all about her snow, because it started falling before the wizard's meeting ended and was a step deep by the time it stopped. Everyone was calling it Yalinth's snow, I'm told. Here we are.”

“For the record, I've never heard alien voices.”

“Yalinth has; Last spring the alien told her a bed-time story, apparently.”

“How does it work?”

“What? Aliens thinking to you? The unbelieving scientists on their world have decided it's a total mystery. Everyone else who's looked into it calls it a pure miracle. Mum? This is Denas, you've been looking for him for twenty years. In other news, I managed to not shred my teacher, Tang called him a total idiot for provoking me to a killing rage by total disbelief that this is my true colour, and calling me a actress, a liar and a stupid fool in front of the whole class, and then we had a nice chat about myths and legends.”

“Just how angry did you get dear?” her father said, putting a comforting, or maybe restraining arm around Keldi.

“I didn't dare move because I was certain that wading in his blood would follow, and although that felt like a really good idea I knew it would dishonour God, so I was praying that he wouldn't say anything else. My talons were out of their own accord and I think my feathers were entirely flat.”

“And her thoughts were a mixture of all she's said and a rage at least ten times greater than yours is right now, your majesty, and flitting thoughts she was trying to snuff out of how nice chewing up his crest and spitting it on his corpse would be, and how the teacher's last purpose in life could be to give the class an anatomy lesson as she dissected him to get at his liver. I didn't hear what you wanted to do with his liver though.”

“Feed it to anyone who thought I was overreacting so they could taste how vilely he'd offended me.”

“Bellicosity incarnate, but you could resist, Praise God!” Keldi said.

“Only just. I'm quite sure if Tang hadn't called him a prize idiot and complimented me on my restraint, I'd have had my talons in his throat.”

“Good lad, Tang.” her father said, “He deserves a prize as peacemaker.”

“Athrel too,” Lanthi added. “She said 'lets leave before he provokes you to a killing rage', which gave me an opportunity to show off my talons without actually using them on anyone, and beg him to apologise. One he realised how close he was to death, he apologised quite well really. Said my normally placid nature had convinced him I couldn't be noble. Athrel pointed out that normally I could walk away long before anyone insulted me that badly, and I had just asked to leave the room if he couldn't stop insulting me.”

“He kept saying to himself, 'she sounds just like a noble, I didn't think she was that good an actress.' It was only when Tang called you by your full name that he realised you might not be fooling around. Why didn't you use it?”

“Why didn't you say 'Yalinth's a thought-hearer too?' Because before he called me a lying idiot I was getting cross but wasn't really that far gone, and once I was that far gone, rational thought was mainly split between not dishonouring God and working out if I could shred him sufficiently to make my point but keep enough of his skin intact to make a decent coat or at least a bag.”

“Stick to growler-skin for that, Lanthi,” Keldi said with an indulgent smile “tanning person-skin properly never was easy, and has really gone out of fashion since the conquest, and you'd have to spend ages convincing a master-tanner to do it for you.”

“You count that as rational thought?” Denas asked.

“Absolutely.” Keldi said. “Problem solving is definitely rational. Maybe not entirely sane, but rational.”

“Anyway,” Lanthi said, “Denas says his mother is an orange, he hasn't answered about having a younger brother, and he's not a believer.”

“But I'm convinced that Lanthi's faith is what kept the teacher alive.”

“No question about that from me,” Lanthi confirmed, “But I'd go further and give God the glory. For the most critical seconds I couldn't have moved if I'd wanted to.”

“The shock of him calling you a liar?” Denas checked.

“No, his look of utter disbelief when Tang said I had talons. I mean, I'd mentioned them already, and they came out as soon as he'd called me a liar, all it would have taken was a glance and he'd have seen the mess they were making of my desk.”

“Ah. Yes, OK I heard that.”

“Do you have siblings?” Keldi asked.

“There are three of us, all boys, I'm the eldest.”

“And your youngest brother?” Lanthi asked.

“Is ten.”

“And a thought-hearer too?” she prompted.

“Yes. All three of us are thought hearers. Mother dyes her feathers, and dyed our fluff too, when we had it.”

“Even as fluffballs?” Keldi asked, shocked.

“No. I suppose I should say that my parents ran away to the city to marry.”

“So they knew, or expected trouble.” Keldi said.

“Yes. I heard Lanthi thinking of a hool?”

“An active hool was found just outside Qnut on Restday. There will be more arrests, no doubt, but most of the gang have been found.”

“Mother's a journalist,” Denas admitted.

“It would do no harm, I think, for there to be a piece on what happened at your school.”

“Some people think that all the pure-blooded nobles went the way of the Lanthins,” Lanthi said.

“I know, Lenepoli told me she did. And she grew up with the Yants as neighbours. I blame the gaps in the school books, and it's not a subject that gets discussed. I'll just go and ask Dirak something, if I may.”

“Asking if mother can publish about the hool? There have been some rumours that the changes in the law happened because of a police investigation.”

“Rumours are not the same as an interview with the investigating officer, or speaking to some of the affected parents, are they?” Keldi pointed out.

“No, not at all.”