The Scar by Dyachenko Sergey & Dyachenko Marina

Author:Dyachenko, Sergey & Dyachenko, Marina [Dyachenko, Sergey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2012-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

6

Egert did not tell anyone about his visit to the Tower. Several weeks went by, but the Brotherhood of Lash did not exhibit any more signs of interest in the auditor Soll, so his nerves began to settle: it seemed that he could put off making any decision for an indefinite period of time.

More than once he donned the gray robe in his mind’s eye. Hearing the long, melancholy sound that occasionally resounded from the Tower, he recalled the bitter smell of the thick velvet, the slow dance of shadowy faces, concealed by hoods, and the face of the Magister, white as the moon. The pledge of security and, in time, power was a great temptation for Egert, but every time he thought about the hooded mantles of the acolytes, he experienced a strange spiritual unease. Something hindered him; something disturbed him and clawed at his soul. He put it down to his usual diffidence, but he soon learned to shun both thoughts of the Order of Lash and chance encounters with his acolytes on the street.

In the meanwhile, a heat wave had descended on the city, a true summer heat wave. At noon the rutted back streets were drenched in sun from wall to wall, and the flecks of sunlight dancing on the canals were painful to look at. The shore of the river just outside the city served as a meeting place for the endless stream of picnickers who came and went; the townsmen, bathed in sweat, plunged into the water using ferns as screens, and the townswomen perched in close-knit groups to bathe in the reeds, where they often fell prey to Fox, who had taken to swimming underwater with a reed in his mouth. He never let the chance slip to sneak up on some hapless female bather and pinch her on whatever part of her body was most conspicuous at the time he passed.

Egert was one of the dense group of students who oversaw Fox’s adventures and who each in their own turn had to contrive diversions appropriate to studious young men. The shore was full of splashing, shrieks, and giggles. Having found a set fishing line under the water, divers would treat their comrades to greasy fish soup. For the most part Egert sat on the shore and would go into the water only up to his waist; his timidity was noticed, but beyond a few good-hearted jests, the matter was left to rest.

Soon, however, the exams, which would elevate the students to the next level, approached: the Inquirers wished to become Reasoners, the Reasoners desired to become Aspirants, and these, in their turn, wanted to become Dedicated. The university seemed as if it were burning with fever: bloodshot eyes, red rimmed and salty from sitting behind books night and day, peered out of every corner. Egert watched as the learned youths entered the headmaster’s study one by one, some with deliberate buoyancy, some with overt terror. Many of them, it turned out, believed

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