Common (The Lora Fletcher Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Lora found herself being dragged to dinner by Catty after classes were done. They sat away from Sylvane and Genea with Peter and a few others from their class. She could barely eat dinner for answering all the questions from her very curious classmates. She had some offers for tutoring in literature and history, which made her feel embarrassed and pleased at the same time.

  She remembered to use her fork when she finally began to eat her meat pie. Not that it mattered to the rest of her table. Everyone was ravenous and ate how they were comfortable. A few of the boys even belched aloud.

  When dinner ended, Catty dragged her back to their dormitory. “Now, we study. We’re fortunate nothing got assigned today but some practice mathematics problems. Usually Mistress Flora and Mistress Diane give essay questions. Tonight, we can catch up on Master Franklin’s diplomacy readings. Everyone’s always behind in that.”

  Lora nodded, dreading the thought of so much reading and writing. She figured she’d get more proficient at some point, but the struggle to get there was more daunting than she could have imagined. She quickly bathed and finished her mathematics, and read the first of her fairy tales. Catty told her she was jealous of that particular assignment because, “Poems are dull.” Lora started on diplomacy once she had finished her fairy tale and woke up a while later with a diplomacy text on her lap. Catty shook her shoulder to tell her lights out was in a few minutes. Lora was dismayed to realize she had so much more reading to do, but Catty reassured her that she almost always fell asleep reading diplomacy. She said there was generally someone who was able to stay awake who went around waking people up in time for them to get into their nightclothes and into bed.

  “That’s a relief,” Lora told her and she pulled her nightgown on. She did not remember getting into bed, but when morning came, she felt like she hadn’t slept at all. And she hurt everywhere.

  Lora had participated in strenuous activities before. She climbed trees and ran and swam, but her body was not used to the abuses it had taken the previous day. She hurt in places she had never been aware were a part of her body before. Even the tops of her toes hurt. She was glad of the day respite from swordsplay, but became really frightened when a girl at breakfast told her she would feel even worse the following day. It didn’t seem possible, with how much pain she was currently in, but evidently it was.

  Her morning was much the same as the day before. Mistress Flora did not call on her to read, for which she was grateful. Some other poor stuttering fool had that distinction. She recalled the names of one or two battles for Mistress Diane. Master Charles seemed pleased with her assignment, and she sat on the edge of her seat during Lord Cedric’s lecture. Master Franklin’s class was only interesting when he took a group of gossiping girls to task for disrupting the class and not having done the reading. Lora vowed to stay silent after that. She’d been whispering with Catty and realized that easily could have been them. She noticed that Sylvane also looked smug that it wasn’t her that was caught.

  Today, Catty ate lunch with Lora at the table with Dain, Regan, and Peter. “What are the wielding theory classes like, Dain?” Lora asked during a lull in the conversation.

  “Hard,” he said after a moment. “They really stretch your mind to its limit, and you’ll be more exhausted by the end than you are after swordsplay more than half the time. It’s a different kind of exhaustion. It makes it really difficult to read or do any of your other classwork unless you learn the relaxation techniques they give you. Your mind just keeps going. That can keep you awake and make you even more tired from lack of sleep.”

  Catty shook her head. “For the past two days I’ve been thankful that I only had our grueling schedule to deal with,” she said. “I’m going to say it again. I’m glad I’m not you, Lora.”

  “Me too,” Regan quietly agreed.

  Peter rolled his eyes. “Every night one of your father’s advisors comes here to teach you something or other. I’m pretty sure that your time at the palace on rest days is pretty well taken up with learning too,” he said to Regan. “Your schedule is just as bad, if not worse.”

  Regan shrugged. “I guess we all have our difficulties,” he said, his gaze on his cup of water. His voice was quiet. The group took that as their cue to change the subject, and they talked of the weather for the remainder of the meal.

  Lora walked with Dain to her wielding theory class. She was upset to learn he wouldn’t be staying with her. “I’m in a more advanced class,” he explained. “Can’t have you newbies learning about melding your powers before you even know what your powers are.” He tousled her hair and walked down the hall.

  She took a deep breath and walked into her classroom. Lora looked around and before she could take a seat in the back, she saw Genea waving her over to her. She was relieved to know someone, even if she wasn’t sure if she could call her a friend. Lora had just slid into her seat when there was an explosion in the front of the classroom.

  “What did I use to do that?” came a voice from behind her. “Any ideas, Miss Lorana?” A short, bespectacled man with long grey hair was staring at her and awaiting her reply.

  Lora swallowed. “Fire?”

  “And?”

  “Um… Air?”

  “And?” When Lora gave him a blank look, he sighed. “I knew it was too much to hope for. None of you ever know anything on your first day.”

  Lora had a feeling that this display and his reaction were for her benefit. Why else would he draw attention to the fact that no one else knew anything either? She let go of the breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding.

  “Miss Genea? Anything else?”

  Genea nodded. “Earth. You have to give fuel to the fire.”

  “Good,” the grey haired man said with a nod. “What else?” When Genea shook her head, he sighed again. A red haired boy in the front raised his hand. “Yes, Louis?”

  “Your essence, Lord Michael,” he said without looking back.

  Lord Michael smiled. “So you see, we come back to the fact that no matter what you do, your essence is a part of it. Some of you can manipulate your essence on its own, you mindspeakers, healers, and the like. You also have to remember that no element functions on its own. You might be strong in water and weak in air, but you still need the air to shape and form the water. You swordwielders need to understand this better than the others. Otherwise, you’re nothing but an idiot throwing a flaming spear.”

  Lora’s mouth fell open. This was far more complex than she had thought. And he had mentioned swordwielders! He hadn’t even blinked when he said the word, unlike everyone else who changed between awed and revolted whenever the subject was brought up. It sent a chill down her spine. And the red haired boy in the front. Was he the Louis she kept hearing about? She could barely contain all of the thoughts and questions running through her mind.

  “Who here can explain the concept of fire? What is fire? How does it come to be? How is it extinguished?” Lord Michael continued. When no one spoke, he tsk’ed. “Has no one done the reading?”

  A plump girl a few seats to Lora’s left timidly raised her hand. Lord Michael nodded at her. She wrung her hands and said, “If you please, Lord Michael, you assigned us the chapter on water.”

  “And why would that make a difference, Miss Violet?” Lord Michael yawned.

  Violet flushed. “I…” She cleared her throat. “I don’t understand what understanding fire has to do with understanding water.”

  Lord Michael shook his head. “That is precisely my point.”

  The rest of the class was a blur, and it left Lorana more confused about everything she had ever thought or thought she’d known about wielding and wielders. She stood up when it was over and shook her head, trying to break out of her daze.

  “He’s a little intense,” Genea supplied. “He’s a great teacher though. He really gets you to think. Wielding doesn’t follow the normal pattern of the way things work, so he challenges us so that we look at it differently.” She pause
d. “At least I think he is. I hope he is. Sometimes I wonder if he goes to his rooms and laughs after our classes.”

  Lora smiled and took her fingers out of her mouth. She hadn’t even realized she’d started chewing her nails. She winced. “Will the independent study be like that?”

  “Only if you get Lord Michael for it.”

  She found that both exciting and terrifying. Lora sighed. “I have Lord Jeremy. What’s he like?”

  Genea’s eyes brightened. “He’s young. Just barely graduated from here. He’s so handsome! You’ll just love him.” She placed a hand on her chest and pretended to swoon.

  CHAPTER 7

  Lora hated him. Lord Jeremy’s voice was nasally. His dark blond hair was long and curly. Too curly for it to be natural. She was certain the mole on his cheek was fake. He wore a tunic in a shocking shade of green she had no name for. It had more lace than even the fanciest of Lady Tiana’s gowns. He paired it with hose that she swore had dogs painted on them. And he wore shiny white gloves.

  She appeared to be alone in her lack of admiration for the man. The other three girls in the class gave him dreamy looks all during his lecture. The three young men looked bored.

  “So Miss Lorana,” he said after he introduced himself to her. “Before we do anything, we need to figure out where your strengths lie. I’ve heard fire. Set a few buildings in your village on fire, I’m told. As well as some curtains.”

  “Yes, Lord Jeremy,” Lora replied as her face flushed red and her hands covered what they could of her face. She was so embarrassed to have the things she was ashamed of brought out in front of strangers. Strangers she would have to work with for the duration of her time at the Academy.

  “I also read that you knocked over an antique vase with a gust of air?”

  Lora hated the way he pronounced vase like vahz. She wondered if he knew how much of an ass he sounded like. “Yes.”

  “Nothing else?”

  “No.”

  A look of dissatisfaction crossed Lord Jeremy’s face. He walked over to Lora and placed his hand on her forehead. She felt a cold sensation and then a jolt of something so strong that she cried out and tried to rip his hand from her. He held firm and closed his eyes. By the time he was finished doing whatever it was that he doing, she was in tears again.

  “Very interesting,” Lord Jeremy mused. “Very interesting indeed.” He steepled his fingers and tapped them together. “All five. All strong. I’m not sure what direction the essence will go. You don’t seem the healer type. I think you’re more of a mindspeech type or a distance talker. But I’ve been wrong about essence before.” He walked back to the front of the room and began giving everyone their assignments for the day.

  At dinner, Lora picked at her food. She had been excited to learn about wielding, but Lord Jeremy made it feel dirty and disgusting. She sighed for about the tenth time and set her fork down. She took a big drink of her water and sighed again.

  “Alright,” Dain told her. “Enough with the sighing, Lora. What gives?”

  She met his eyes and said, “Lord Jeremy is my independent study teacher.”

  “So?”

  “I don’t like him.”

  Dain chuckled. “You must be the only girl at the Academy who doesn’t.”

  “He dresses fancier than the princess.”

  Regan threw his head back and laughed so hard tears came to his eyes. “You can’t deny she hit the nail right on the head there, Dain.” He wiped his eyes and coughed to get his countenance back. “That can’t be all though.”

  Lora spooned a huge bite of stew into her mouth and chewed noisily on a potato. She ignored Catty’s wince at her manners. “He put his hand on my head. It was gross.”

  “That happens to everyone,” Dain told her.

  “Yeah, but do they make a big deal out of what they see in everyone?”

  Dain shrugged. “It depends on what they see.”

  Lora was silent. Thoughtful.

  “So tell us what he saw already!” Catty said. Her exasperation was palpable.

  “All five elements. All strong,” Lora said. Her voice was soft and she stared at her hands, kicking herself for the state of her nails.

  The table was silent. After a moment, Dain cleared his throat. “I don’t know of any but Lord Michael who can control all five. Well, maybe one or two others, but he’s the only one who’s strong in all of them.”

  “Oh,” was all Lora could say.

  A bell rang and everyone groaned. “Come on,” Catty told Lora. “Everyone’s favorite! Etiquette.”

  Lora had thought she’d been way behind in literature and history, hopeless in swordsplay, and confused in theory of wielding. She couldn’t have been. She had never been more inept, hopeless, or confused about anything as she was about etiquette and protocol.

  First came the bowing and curtsying. There was a bow and a curtsy for all ranks and occasions, and all were different. With her real status, it was easy. Curtsy so low she was nearly sitting on the floor for everyone but Regan and Sylvane. Fall on her face and grovel before them. With her new elevated status as a minor noble and swordwielder, it was more complicated.

  The style and mechanics of her curtsy were off, Mistress Diane told her. One curtsied deeper to an ambassador at an official function than to a duke, but in an informal setting, the curtsy to both was only as deep as one you’d give your peers. You gave your peers a curtsy with the knees bent at a thirty degree angle and held it for one breath. Arm flourishes were out of fashion. No one gave a head nod except the royal family.

  Lora felt as if her heart was going to pound out of her chest. Her hands shook, which she could not hide when she spread her skirts for her curtsies. She blinked back tears. Nothing made her stick out, nothing betrayed her origins more than this class.

  Peter was her current partner. He frowned and took her hands in his. “Lora, what’s wrong?”

  She took a deep breath. And another. “I’ve never done this,” she confessed. “My family… We never socialized with L—Cousin Allistair or his guests.” She got as close to the truth as she dared. “Our home was not formal. We had no occasion to cross paths with anyone important. Not until I set the thatching of my neighbor’s home on fire and Cousin Allistair became involved. I never had any real schooling. I’ve only ever read the school primer.” Lora hung her head and shook his hands away from hers. Her voice was no louder than a whisper.

  “It’s alright,” he told her awkwardly. “Everyone’s backgrounds are different. Not everyone can be in the main branch of their family. Not everyone here is landed. I’d say half live no better than the wealthy commoners in their villages.”

  “Yes, but at least they know how to curtsy!” she said as she wiped her nose with her hand. “Sorry,” she told him as she wiped her hand on her dress.

  Peter shrugged. “As you say, you’d no occasion to do it at home.” He smiled at her. “Cheer up. We’ll help you.”

  Lora shook her head. “That’s all anyone’s been doing since I got here. Helping me catch up.” She took a couple of deep breaths and counted to ten. “How can I learn what I need to if I’m struggling to catch up? How can you learn anything if you’re all trying to help me?” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I should go back home.”

  “And burn down your village?” Peter asked. He was sorry there was no way to ask that gently.

  “I know I have to stay,” she admitted. “I knew it would be hard. I just didn’t know how hard.”

  “It will get better.”

  “It’d better.” She managed a wan smile.

  Peter chuckled and bowed. Lora shook her head. “I’m lower ranked. I curtsy first.” She paused. “Right?”

  “You learned something after all,” he teased.

  Lora looked thoughtful. “I suppose I did.”

  CHAPTER 8

  The next day was similar to the first. Her morning was dedicated to book learning, while the afternoon was dedicated to swordsplay. Lora had assumed th
at swordsplay was, well, fighting with a sword. It made her head spin to think of all of the different ways of fighting and to think that she would have to be proficient in all of them, as well as be able to integrate her wielding abilities with all of them. Her new friends were the only thing that got her through.

  Lora had been picked by Mistress Diane to debate the cause of the war with Korlisse with a girl she didn’t know. The material had not been in the reading, which Lora had been too tired to complete anyway. It was something that was hotly debated in noble circles, knowledge that was apparently taken for granted.

  “Money,” Lora said the first thing that came to her mind.

  The other girl rolled her eyes. “That’s my angle. We already established that.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest in a huff.

  “But you said natural resources,” Lora replied. Her voice was barely above a whisper. She wanted nothing more than to run and hide somewhere.

  “Natural resources can be bought and sold. They’re as good as money.” The girl muttered under her breath about the stupidity of country dwellers.

  Lora bit her nail down to the quick, and the tang of blood filled her mouth. She had nothing further to say. She’d barely been able to study the map in her text. She had never seen a map before and had spent much of her time looking at Ydris. Korlisse was nothing more to her than a word on paper. She had lost two uncles in that war, but she did not know why the war had taken place. She certainly didn’t know how it started or about any debate over why it started.

  Mistress Diane frowned. “You may sit, Lorana. You will be charged with reading extra chapters about our wars with Korlisse. Catherine, you will debate this subject with Susan.”

  She was relieved to sit down and embarrassed about her relief. Lora took her finger out of her mouth. The bleeding had stopped. She looked at her other fingers and all of them were in similar shape. Frowning, Lora started counting, as Tiana said she should.