The Warring States (The Wave Trilogy) Read Free Page B

learned how to climb, but because I learned how to trust. It’s all very well to say so; you need to see it.’ Like a cheap magician he produced a small red apple from his sleeve and looked around brightly. ‘I need a volunteer. Whom can I tempt?’
    Leto subtly shook his head, but the warning was unnecessary; Torbidda had already spotted Flaccus’ ill-concealed eagerness. The boy who’d been crying in the queue yesterday put his hand up.
    The First Apprentice smiled kindly. ‘What’s your name, son?’
    The blond boy had to think for a moment. ‘… Forty-Two, First Apprentice.’
    ‘Not your
number
. Don’t you have a real name?’
    ‘Oh! Yes, First Apprentice. Calpurnius Glabrio.’
    ‘Well, Calpurnius, I am a decent shot, and I need a volunteer.’
    ‘What must I do?’
    ‘That’s the spirit. Step up to the target. Place this on your head.’ There was an intake of breath and the Apprentice said in a loud voice, ‘Go back if you’re afraid. There’s no shame in it.’
    Calpurnius solemnly took the apple and walked up to the target. ‘I trust you, First Apprentice.’
    The Apprentice took careful aim and released. The arrow took the apple with a wet
thunk-kuh-kuh
. Calpurnius joined in the applause. Quickly, the Apprentice nocked another and shot again. The force drove Calpurnius back and pinned him against the target.
    As the boy screamed, the Apprentice turned around. ‘Why have you stopped applauding, children?’
    He looked back at Calpurnius, took another arrow, drew back and released. The screaming stopped. ‘What are you thinking now, Cadets?’ he snarled. ‘That this was
unfair?
I tell you: it is
necessary
. The Guild is an army, and an army is only as strong as its weakest member. You’re here because you’re clever, so I won’t patronise you. We take you young, when it is still possible to change you – to
mould
you. You have begun to climb the mountain, and now the only way out is
up
. Your peers will not help you. They will do everything to make you stumble. Each summit is further up, and the higher you go, the purer the competition – and the further to fall. There’s no safety down here, either. Believe me, the laggard will quickly find himself without allies.’ This time his smile was sour and weary. ‘As you climb higher, you’ll appreciate that we Apprentices are not to be envied. Having reached that final peak, we can only watchas our competition surrounds us. But that’ – he looked around with hostility – ‘is as it should be.’
    He turned once more to Torbidda. ‘You, boy: what is your name?’
    ‘Sixty
, sir.’
    He smiled kindly. ‘I mean your
real
name.’
    ‘Sixty, sir.’
    The smile disappeared. ‘Fetch me that apple, Sixty.’
    ‘No, sir.’
    ‘That’s the correct answer.’ The Apprentice turned and walked over to the target. ‘You will hear talk of factions: engineers against nobles, Empiricists against Naturalists. Ignore these chimeras. All alliances are temporary. Your competition is all around you. Make alliances, by all means, but know this:
all friends must eventually become rivals.’
He pulled out the arrow and removed the apple. ‘Calpurnius wanted to be loved. You must rise above that temptation.’
    ‘This’ – he threw the apple to Torbidda – ‘is for saying no to me.’
    As Torbidda caught the apple, the First Apprentice’s fist moved.
    After a moment’s numbness, sharp pain spread throughout Torbidda’s chest. He sat up and coughed blood. He was several braccia from where he had been standing. Every Cadet was staring open-mouthed. The man in red looked down at him. ‘And
that
is for not shooting me when you had me in your sights. I wait for you, all of you. Come and cut my throat someday.’
    Torbidda watched the First Apprentice walk slowly back to the Guild Halls, wondering how, if that day ever came, he would find the courage to do it.

    First Apprentice Argenti’s demonstration had left Grand Selector Flaccus almost