Quester amongst the flowers 9

 sorry, sorry!  All at sixes and sevens, Simon managed to put a fork right through his thumb, and he's been a little queasy and light-headed, unsurprisingly. At least it was a nice clean fork, but even so...

Chapter 9

 

“Was the poor girl who was killed your friend?” asked Kiliana. “What is your name?”

“Oh, miz, Iris was me sister, and I just got her the job here!” sobbed the maid. “I’m Marilyn, after the blessed saint of Joy, as was done to death so foully by the traitor Kinny Dee,” she said.

“Oh, you poor girl!  How guilty you must feel, though of course, it’s not your fault at all,” said Kiliana.

“Oh, Miz, how kind you is!”

Marilyn led Kiliana up the stairs, and into an elevator to the top floor, and into a room with four beds. The three girls in there already stared at her. Marilyn bobbed a curtsey and left.

“Kerria Leonida Antilla,” said Kiliana.  All the others were dark haired, and taller than Kiliana.

“Lutsilla Matea Jaya,” said one. “Your other fellow inmates are Jessica Leema Vanrensula, who has to be pried out of studying to be jolly, and Lillia Landona Cartia, who is usually in trouble for doing things nobody else would think of.”

“Oh, so not the party spirit the old bat seemed to think everyone should have,” said Kiliana.

There was a shocked silence, and then Lillia sniggered.

“Well, I don’t think anyone else has ever called her that,” she said. “Hurry up, now, though, or we’ll be late.”

 

oOoOo

 

“Quester?” Zadok’s face appeared on Quester’s datapad.

“My lord?”

“I thought you should know; Arbiter won’t be seeking out any more young girl psions to accuse of heresy.”

“He admitted it, and you have him in custody?” asked Quester, cautiously.

“No; your girl stripped him of his psionic ability, and sent him into catatonic shock,” said Zadok. “He can still serve, however, as one of the Shackled.”

“I see,” said Quester. “I don’t think she has any idea of her power.”

“It saved the bother of lobotomising him,” said Zadok, who looked sick. “There was an outpouring in his private files about how he felt. He was put out that you were put on the job helping find the killer of the Patrician girls, as he was hoping to have the chance to question all their school fellows.”

“Did he target Kiliana for that reason?” asked Quester, sharply.

“No; from what I can uncover it was pure coincidence, he recorded feeling a new young psion in your vicinity and assumed it was an adolescent just coming into her power,” said Zadok. “Abe’s beard! We’re supposed to nurture and train such, not hunt them down!”

“A blight on the body of the Judiciary,” said Quester. “Perhaps the god-hero pushed him to interfere with Kiliana and used her as the instrument of His divine wrath.”

“I wouldn’t argue with that,” said Zadok. “Will she be coming to the academy?”

“Sadly, no,” said Quester. “She feels that she has not the stomach to put anyone to the question, nor order any purge. I can understand that, and I will not make her overcome her empathic response.”

“If she is an empath, they are exempt and are only sent out to aid those who have need of a Psion.”

“I will talk to her about it.  I... I have increased my own Psion ability recently.”

“Yes, I had a serious accusation forwarded from Psion Martial Eusebius of the Winged Hussars claiming that your psionic abilities were deliberately stultified by Tutor Pious. He has you logged as a power 11 Psionic with potential abilities outside telepathy and precognition. He thinks you are also an empath.”

“I... I touched the edges of the killer last night,” whispered Quester. “I felt his joy in killing; it almost affected me physically and it sickened me. Kiliana was monitoring my dreams to keep me from nightmares, which is why she was more open.”

“You should both be tested when your duty is completed,” said Zadok.

 

oOoOo

 

History and Faith was taught, Jessica whispered, by Mr. Hawlus. They clattered into the room, and Kiliana genuflected to the picture of the Blessed Abe, and made the sign of the Imperial Eagle, thumbs crossed, the outspread fingers as wings in the palms towards herself gesture.

“Oh boy, that’s all we need, a pious little keen,” she heard the sneering tones of the girl, Ambria. Kiliana bowed her head and prayed for the girl to find the love of the god-hero, and for the strength not to slap someone who apparently was class leader, according to the sycophantic titters. Jessica bobbed a hasty knee, and made the eagle sign, and drew Kiliana to a double desk.

 Kiliana sat herself next to the girl, just before the door opened again, and their teacher walked in. Having grown up amongst soldiers, Kiliana mentally filed him as one of those men who were permanently on a charge for being slovenly, not because he was unclean, but because he was one of those men on whom even uniform failed to make him neat. Long-waisted, but wearing ready-mades for his business suit, it looked as if the double-breasted military-style jacket was too small, and trying to stop under the arms. There was a visible band of his shirt between its pointed centre front and his pants. The skirts of the jacket on the male version of the business-like costume did not reach his knees, and as his legs were long and rather spindly, his pants legs only barely reached his ankle-high boots. One leg was caught inside the boot, the other was escaping; and his wrists poked out of the severe jacket sleeves.

Kiliana realised that, if he had bought clothes to fit the length of his arms and legs, they would be baggy. He was a similar shape to Quester, whose immaculate tailoring made up for being a non-standard body; and Kiliana was, moreover, quite capable of making over any excess width.

Well, the fellow plainly did not have a wife; and that was his problem.

The girls rose for their teacher, and sat again as he waved them to be seated, dropping several of the books he carried as he did so.

“Oh, yes, we have a new girl,” he said. “How well versed are you in history and faith?”

“My historical knowledge is poor, but I have recently had the instruction of a Justiciar in religious matters.”

“I noticed you show the Blessed Abe proper respect as I approached the classroom,” he said, with lugubrious satisfaction. “I understand your name is Kerria Leonida Antilla?”

“Yes, sir,” said Kiliana. She could sense no excitement from the man over her name or long red hair, held back only by a ribbon.

 “We’ve been studying the traitor, Kinny Dee. What can you tell me about him?” asked Hawlus.  Kiliana stood, with her hands behind her back.

“Kinny Dee was elected leader of the free world and used the speciously profound mantra, ‘we choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard,’ partly out of his own heretical desires to send mankind beyond the boundaries of the atmosphere, but also in an egotistical race with the Commutants, who had sent men and animals into space, and boasted of their heresy. He dabbled in forbidden researches, too, leading to a nuclear fission accident, though nobody died, which was a miracle. To preserve his family name, he also caused the murder of the blessed Saint Marilyn,” added Kiliana, glad of the reminder through the maid, Marilyn. “He was assassinated by the patriot, Levyaswald. However, during his tenure, Kinny Dee did institute regulation of pesticides which threatened the health of the seven sacred insects.”

“And can you cite the seven sacred insects?”

“Bees, for their honey, wax, and pollination, who teach the homely lessons of obedience to the hive and co-operation; and self-sacrifice. The spider, whose silk is stronger than steel, the silk worm, whose silk may be combined with spider silk; stag beetle, for their chitin; ladybugs who kill harmful insects; wasps control pests and make the raw materials for paper; and dung beetles who control waste and help dispose of it.”

“As you have answered so well viva voce the questions put to the rest of the class to turn in as an essay, I am going to mark you as an ‘A’ on that work,” said Hawlus.

“Thank you, sir,” murmured Kiliana, sitting down.

Her back was jerked by a kick from behind, and a muttered, “Swot!” from Ambria.

Kiliana calmly rose, picked up her large, illustrated book of the writings of the Blessed Abe, and turned to bring it down hard on Ambria’s head.

“Miz Antilla! What is the meaning of this?” demanded Hawlus.

“The Blessed Abe said, ‘No man is good enough to govern another without his consent,’ and I do not consent to be kicked in the back and told what I may study and when and how much by the stupidest girl in the Empire, who has no idea how the Blessed Abe taught those of His children with white skins that we are no different to those of His children with brown skins, that we may give thanks not to be the heathens we were before His teachings,” said Kiliana.

“Sneak,” said Ambria.

“I’m not going to sit and let you kick me without retaliation,” said Kiliana. “And I’m the one who is going to be punished, because I did it louder.”

“You are both going to turn in one hundred lines of the Blessed Abe’s dictat, ‘We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.’ You are young ladies, not animals to kick or fight!”

Kiliana bowed her head in acquiescence and sat down again.

Ambria kicked her again.

Mr. Hawlus noticed her jerk.

“Miz Stayvuhsunta, bring  your chair to my desk, and your books; you will study at my desk for the rest of the semester,” he said, coldly.

“But...” Ambria tried whining.

“I’m not impressed by your family wealth, Miz Srovestna, but that you learn to represent them with some semblance of breeding. Now, we have wasted enough time, and I want to move through the time of initial heresies before we cover the Great Heretical Surge and the heretics Rix Burnsin, Jef Peacock, and Alone Musx.”

“Please, sir, why does this ancient stuff matter?” asked Lutsilla. “They’re all dead.” She gave an irritating laugh.

“It matters as an illustration why we must not attempt to undertake the Forbidden sciences just because we can,” said Hawlus. “From the first heresies of the Commutant Anton Sillyski to the terrible accidents in the stratosphere by those who polluted the planet with evil miasmas in ground cars, before there were pods, or buggies as some call them, when they used toxic chemicals to make them work, pretending that they were better than those cars which burned hydrocarbons.” He glared at her. “If we do not learn history, we might repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Kiliana found the rest of the lesson quite interesting, and kept copious notes. Released by the bell, she went to relieve herself. Next on the list was deportment and dancing. As far as Kiliana was aware, it did not require special clothes. She came out of the toilet, and was jumped, two of Ambria’s friends grabbing her arms, and twisting them up behind her back. Ambria slapped her face, hard.

Kiliana used the arms that were holding her, throwing herself backwards to kick Ambria hard in the midriff. Quester had taught her how to fight, and Kiliana was used enough to being caused pain by Cybele, before Quester had rescued her, not to heed pain. She was falling backwards where her unusual move had made her captors let go, and she let the kick carry her over, to land rather gracelessly in the doorway of the toilet stall on her feet. She leaped for the bar which went above the door of all the stalls, holding with her hands to let fly with her feet, kicking the three girls and the two others who had come to have a giggle. She swept Ambria’s feet out from beneath her, so the girl landed hard on her backside. One of the girls ran off, and Kiliana dropped down, and jumped nimbly back into the stall, which she locked.

Consequently, when Miz Rubia came in, Ambria and friends were banging on the door, trying to force it open. One of them was trying to wriggle under the door to reach Kiliana’s legs.

“Girls! What is going on here?” demanded Miss Rubia.

“It’s that rotten girl, Antilla,” half sobbed Ambria. “She attacked us without provocation!”

“Ambria,” said Miss Rubia, “Am I to suppose you are trying to break down a toilet stall, like some vandal, because one girl attacked five of you?”

“Yes!” said Ambria, conveniently forgetting that she had caused her minions to seize Kiliana first. “Go to my study, all of you,” said Miss Rubia.

The girls filed out; they recognised the tones of authority.

Miz Rubia knocked on the door. “Miz Antilla!  Kerria, dear!  You can come out now!”

“I am not coming out,” said Kiliana. “I have my feet on the seat so there’s no good anyone wriggling under the door to pull on my legs. I’m staying here.”

“Ambria and her friends have gone. It’s just you and me,” said Miz Rubia.

“You’ll punish me, because I kicked back when her rotten friends held my arms and she started hitting me,” said Kiliana. “I know all about it, the pretty ones can do what they like and the red-heads have to be beaten up.”

“My dear girl! That’s not true!” said Miz Rubia. “Miz Stayvuhsuntais a little spoilt, but I have every faith that time at school will cure that. Now, come out, and we can talk about it.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” said Kiliana.

“Nevertheless, my dear, come out,” said Miz Rubia.

Kiliana thought her act of being put-upon had gone far enough, and she opened the door of the stall. Miz Rubia exclaimed in horror at the bruise on her cheek from Ambria’s blow.

“You had better go to the school nurse for something to put on that,” said Miz Rubia.

“No need, but now I will be in trouble for being late to class,” said Kiliana.

“No, you will not; I will take you to class myself,” said Miz Rubia. “Wash your face, dear, you have been crying.”

It had taken a bit of work to be tearstained, but Kiliana had thought sad thoughts, mourning for Marilyn’s little sister; and had then rubbed her tears across her face. She duly washed her face, and permitted Miz Rubia to introduce her to another male member of the faculty, Mr. Willem Gordion Warnus.