It didn’t take long for the others to notice Nedra hadn’t attended any lectures since the first day of class. In only a few weeks, it became the biggest topic of speculation, whispers floating around her before Master Ostrum’s morning session began.
“What do you think our little gutter rat does all day?” Tomus drawled, loud enough for Nedra to hear. She kept her head down and flicked up the hood of her cloak. It was barely fall; I was surprised she was even wearing such a heavy garment.
I sat my bag down on the floor beside my desk. “Drop it,” I muttered.
“Does she even meet with Master Ostrum for her evening report?” Tomus was very aware that every student was listening to him.
“Of course,” I said, not mentioning that she often simply sat in while I gave my report, then was dismissed. Occasionally, she mentioned what she learned in a history study hall or a book she read outside of her private lessons.
“Of course.” Tomus emphasized the last word in a mocking tone. There was a tittering of laughter in the rows behind me.
The door at the front of the room swung open, and Master Ostrum stomped inside. “Pack up,” he growled at the class. Nedra was the first to move, standing and slinging her unopened bag over her shoulder. When most of the other students didn’t move, Master Ostrum glared at us. “I said, let’s go! We have a ferry to catch.”
Excitement washed over us, and we all hurried to follow his command. Master Ostrum’s class was the most advanced medicinal alchemy course at Yūgen, and his surgical laboratories were so renowned that sometimes even other professors would join the students to observe.
Master Ostrum led the way, not pausing to explain anything as he stomped down the quad and through the gate. No carriage awaited us, and Master Ostrum didn’t hesitate as he headed down the main road to Blackdocks.
Tomus fell into step beside me. “I hope there’s a carriage to carry us back up,” I said.
“A ferry means the quarantine hospital,” he answered, glowering at Master Ostrum’s back. “That place is for poor people. We should be going to the Governor’s Hospital, where there’s a chance we’ll meet the alchemists we’ll actually work for. None of us wants to dirty our hands at a slum like that.” His voice carried down the street, and I knew Master Ostrum heard him, but the old man didn’t even turn his head.
Nedra, however, had stopped so abruptly that the girl behind her almost ran into her. “You’re disgusting,” she snarled at Tomus.
Tomus laughed. The sound was not amused, but bitter, spiteful. Nedra strode away, a sense of pride in her step. I thought first of what Nedra had told me, about loyalty. But then I remembered the way Tomus had gotten his governess fired when he was seven because she’d dared to give him a subpar grade for his subpar work.
Master Ostrum had reserved a ferry just for our class. It cut across the water, a cool morning wind whipping up the girls’ hair. Nedra pushed through the crowd of students to the front of the boat, her cloak wrapped tightly around her.
She knew, I thought. Master Ostrum had told her that we would go on a ferry today; she knew to bring a cloak with her.
I thought for a moment that Nedra was watching me, but I realized her gaze was focused above my head. I turned, scanning the shoreline of the city behind us as the boat set off. A tall building stood out among the others, black curtains draped over every long window. A little down the street, another one, the same heavy black cloth. More factories closing. The news sheets didn’t call the sickness spreading in the poor district an epidemic, but it was only a matter of time. My eyes slipped back to Nedra. She knew about that, too, I thought. At the start of the semester, the sickness was a mild inconvenience in the factories, but it was spreading now.
The ferry rocked over a wave, and I stumbled.
“I don’t know how you stand it,” Tomus said. I hadn’t realized he was so close to me until he spoke. His gaze was on Nedra as well.
“She’s not so bad,” I said. “Actually, she’s really interesting. If you got to know her—”
“She’s a dumb hick who obviously can’t handle the course load. She’s not been to any of the decent lectures, and she never shows up to labs.”
“She does labs.”
Tomus raised his eyebrow.
“With Master Ostrum,” I said.
“Master Ostrum is giving her private labs?”
I shrugged, my gaze slipping to the waves. I hadn’t meant to say anything.
“I doubt they’re doing alchemy in those labs,” Tomus muttered. Behind us, I heard a girl giggle.
“Drop it,” I growled.
Tomus rolled his eyes. “She’s not smart enough to be here, Greggori, and you know it. Her scholarship must have been payment for services rendered, if you catch my drift.”
“Don’t be such a bastard,” I snapped.
I immediately regretted the words. “Bastard” was the insult Tomus’s father used when he wanted to humiliate both his wife and son, and he did it often enough in public to be a sore point for Tomus. It was a low blow, and I knew it.
“Sorry,” I said quickly, but it was too late.
Tomus moved toward the aft of the boat, and most of the students in the class followed him. I was left alone, the cold wind biting at me.
The ferry bumped against the stone steps at the base of the island. The skipper stabilized the boat, and we all disembarked, climbing up the steps toward the hospital. I turned back to look at Northface Harbor.
“Funny how a little bit of water makes the city seem so distant,” Nedra said, stepping beside me. We headed up the stairs, a little behind the others. “Thanks,” she muttered to me in a low voice. “I don’t know what Tomus said to you, but I saw the way he reacted when you replied. So thank you for whatever it was you told him.”
I bit my lip. I had tried to stand up for Nedra, but my efforts had potentially been more damaging than my silence could have been. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that, though.
“It really is like a castle,” Nedra said, staring up at the hospital’s brick façade as we reached a large plaza in front of the doors.
“Well, it was built from leftover materials from the actual castle,” I said. “Just like the administration building at Yūgen.”
“Really?”
I nudged her shoulder. “You’d know that if you attended an architecture lecture.”
“I have more important things to do than attend lectures,” Nedra said, her tone suddenly grave.
Like attend private lab sessions. I shook the thought away, disgusted at myself for lingering on Tomus’s insinuation.
“Wait until you go to the actual castle.” I grabbed Nedra’s hand, pulling her around and pointing to the governor’s residence back across the harbor, sparkling under the sunlight. The Emperor was still in residence, having extended his stay after the inauguration.
Nedra turned her back on the city. “I prefer this,” she said.
“Move it along,” Master Ostrum bellowed from the large mahogany doors that led into the hospital. We rushed to join the other students filing in.
The hospital’s foyer was just as beautiful as the outside, with marble floors, ornately trimmed windows, and an iron spiral staircase leading up into the clock tower. Against one wall hung an enormous painting of a man, his wife and son at his side. The woman’s hand was amputated at the left wrist, and the man held the residual limb reverently.
Bennum Wellebourne.
His statue at Yūgen had been destroyed, but Lunar Island could never truly escape his legacy. He had funded the building of the quarantine hospital himself, and despite his treason, the hospital still presented his family portrait proudly. People had to pay for better care at the Governor’s Hospital, and Whitesides was only available to factory workers who paid fees, so Wellebourne built this hospital and mandated that it be available to all, free of charge.
Master Ostrum led the class to Amphitheater C. Chairs with small desks attached to the armrests waited for us, all empty. Nedra and I sat in the front row, our feet on the surgery stage floor. A giant mirror hung from the ceiling over an operating table. Nedra leaned back in her chair, but she was still close to me, closer than she needed to be. I let my knee touch hers, and she didn’t pull away.
An air of excitement settled over the room as the rest of the students claimed their seats and waited for whatever operation Master Ostrum would be demonstrating for us. The clock struck the hour, the sound resonating throughout the hospital, and two aides wheeled in a gurney, positioning the patient beneath the mirror and in front of Master Ostrum.
I felt Nedra tense. Her eyes were glued to the body of the young girl on the metal gurney.
Master Ostrum picked up a scalpel, the silver gleaming under the bright lights.