Outcast_An Historical Epic Fantasy Adventure by Andrew Anzur Clement

Author:Andrew Anzur Clement [Clement, Andrew Anzur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young adult heroic fantasy trilogy, magic prophecy series, action adventure, 19th Century, South Asia, Europe
Published: 2018-02-06T22:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

“Monsieur Tarkowski.”

Stas looked up from the mathematics notebook that he had been urgently searching through. The instructor had been going through the class, asking each of the students to provide the answers to simple binomial equations, giving each only a moment to respond. Stas couldn’t remember if the lessons he had attended on other continents had covered the necessary method. He had been looking to see if he had noted it down at some point in the past few months.

“Yes, sir?” He spoke French, though he had been told upon arriving yesterday by the headmaster of St. Nicholas Catholic School in Fribourg that he possessed an oddly harsh accent.

“Monsieur Tarkowski.” The math instructor’s francophone pronunciation of Stas’s surname carried a disproportionate emphasis on the ski. “What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I was only checking to see if I could review the exercise you are asking me to perform.”

“I see. However, that is for you to do on your own time. Here, you are expected to know the material and pay attention in class.”

“Sir, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how I could have known what exactly you were teaching today. Where I’ve studied before, we were allowed to check our notes….”

The instructor cut the Egypt-born youth off in mid-sentence.

“You are in Switzerland now, Monsieur Tarkowski. Please behave.” He then went back to quizzing the other students. He had been about to come to Stas again when the bell rang, indicating that the final lesson period of the day was over.

Sighing in relief, Stas collected his things and headed for the door. The voyage to Marseille and then the journey overland had been uneventful – or as Stas thought, boring. Yet, since arriving at the train station in Fribourg less than a full day earlier, he had not had an easy time of things. First came his brief meeting with the headmaster. In addition to critiquing Stas’s accent, he proceeded to doubt the quality of the schools that the new arrival from India had attended. Clamping down on any negative reaction to the headmaster’s condescension, Stas responded only that he would do the best that he could.

Then he had been shown to his room in the school’s dormitory. Upon seeing two beds, he had been surprised to learn from one of the monks that he would be expected to share the space. However, owing to a recent snowstorm in the Alps, his roommate would not likely arrive until the following afternoon.

Leaving the main classroom building after his first day of lessons, Stas shivered briefly as he tightened his coat and attempted not to slip.

Snow. The word wafted through his mind. It was not as if he had not expected to encounter it in the Alpine country. But, he discovered that he had been unprepared for his first impressions of how cold and unpleasant it could be. Previously, nights in the Egyptian desert had been the coldest temperatures Stas had experienced. This was a good many degrees colder, hovering just below freezing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.