Free Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) by Cathy Ashford

will!”
    Eve gestured for us to follow her inside. “Now I’ll show you up to your rooms and get you something to eat, you poor starved boys. Then you can meet the others.” Her eyes twinkled.
    If the narrow streets outside had made me feel claustrophobic, the reception room of the Hall certainly made me feel better. The roof was gloriously high, strung with chandeliers of tiny glowbes, more large ones set into the wall. They gave off a light quite different from the candles I was used to. It wasn’t dark or gloomy inside, but the ambience was gentle, easy on my eyes and perfectly suited to the light-sensitive Nea’thi. The floor was beautiful black and white marble tiles set out in a checkerboard pattern andpolished to a high sheen, while in the centre of the room lay a glorious soft rug, woven in intricate patterns of red and blue. A huge fire burned in a hearth opposite a large wooden desk, presumably where Myn Eve did her work and monitored the comings and goings of the students. She led us up a grand marble staircase in the far corner and down a long corridor. More of the beautiful rugs covered the floors and glowbes were recessed into the walls between the doors.
    At the end of the hallway Eve stopped. “You two are the last to arrive of this year’s intake so you get the end room, I’m afraid.” She smiled apologetically. “But you do get an excellent view and I’m sure you’ll find it comfortable enough.” She pushed open the door and bustled through, Charlie and I trailing in her wake.
    We found ourselves in a small sitting room, cosily proportioned. A couch and a couple of armchairs were laid around a fireplace which looked to be freshly lit. Desks and bookcases and a marble-topped workbench lined one wall and our bags had been piled beside two other doors down the far end.
    “Now, your bedrooms are through there, and your bathroom facilities are in here.” Eve pointed to another door I hadn’t noticed in the corner where we had entered from. “I’ll leave you two to get settled, come up to the common room when you’re ready, the stairs are just out in the hall here. Please, make yourselves at home.” And with that she was gone, pulling the door closed behind her, leaving Charlie and me to survey our surroundings.
    The two bedrooms were identical, with just enough room for a large bed and a chest of drawers. The one on the left was closer to the fire, but the one on the right appeared to be in the very corner of the big building and had windows in two of the walls through which I could see the twinkling lights of the low city and further along to where the wharves jutted out into the inky darkness of the lake.
    “You can have this one,” said Charlie, coming in behind me, noticing how I stared out the windows. I started to protest but he cut me off. “The other one will be warmer and I’m Nea’thi, I get cold!”
    Gratefully I demurred and left Charlie to unpack most of his things in his room and went to inspect our bathroom. There was a particularly long and deep bath, Nea’thi-sized I supposed, with peculiar taps protruding from the wall. At the far end was an even more peculiar device. It was the privy, I guessed, with a generously sized wooden seat and a copper-handled chain that hung from the ceiling. Curious, I pulled the chain to see what would happen, and with a loud gush of water the privy filled then emptied again with a gurgle of water through pipes.
    “Bloody hell Charlie!” I yelled, “There’s something wrong with the privy!”
    He bounded in, and then laughed at my confusion.
    “Shit Charlie, I didn’t mean to, but I pulled the chain and it… Well, it just sort of flushed…”
    I was dismayed. I had only been here two minutes and already I had managed to break something.
    But Charlie just laughed and patted me on the shoulder. “Never seen a flush toilet before, I take it?” Mutely I shook my head. “It’s supposed to do that! When you’ve, you know, finished