What about dative or locative? asked Kashkari.
You can use the accusative, since they are going to Athensmakes it Athens-ward, Iolanthe answered.
Shed discovered that her grasp of Greek, inferior in her own eyes, was considered quite proficient by the other boys.
Accusative, of course. Kashkari shook his head a little. I wonder now how we got by when you werent here.
I have no doubt the devastation was widespread, the suffering universal.
Indeed, it was the Dark Ages in the annals of Mrs. Dawlishs house. Ignorance was thick on the ground, and unenlightenment befogged all the windows.
Iolanthe smiled. Kashkari grinned back at her. If ever I can do something for you in return, let me know.
You can pay a little less attention to me. Im sure Ill be banging on your door as soon as I take up Sanskrit.
Eton didnt have such a course, but mages in upper academies were usually required to master a non-European classical language. Iolanthe, in her before-lightning days, had aspired to Sanskrit for its wealth of scholarship.
Ah, Sanskrit. I dare say my Sanskrit is as good as your Latinmy family put me to it when I was five, said Kashkari, rolling up his sleeve to check his elbow, which he had scraped on the ground in a fall during practice.
On his right arm, just beneath his elbow, he sported a tattoo in the shape of the letter
M for Mohandas, his given name, she supposed.
What about Latin? Your Latin is good. Did you have a tutor for it before you came to England?
He nodded. Since I was ten.
Was that when you knew youd be sent abroad for schooling?
On my tenth birthday, in fact. I remember that day because my relatives kept telling me about the night I was born, all the shooting stars.
What?
I was born in the middle of a meteor storm.
The one in November ofshe still had trouble with the way the English counted years1866?
Yes, that one. And then theyd tell me about the even greater meteor storm in 33.
There was one in 1833?
The most magnificent meteor storm ever, according to
Look, its Turban Boy and Bumboy.
Iolanthe looked across the street to see Trumper and Hogg, snickering to each other.
Somebody ought to give them a thrashing, she said, not bothering to keep her voice low.
Do you thrash for your prince every night? said Hogg, moving his hips obscenely.
Other boys on either side of the street were stopping to see what was going on.
Ignore them, Kashkari said calmly.
Go home to your idol-worshipping, sister-marrying family, said Trumper. We dont want your kind here.
That was it. Iolanthe gripped her cricket bat and crossed the street.
What a big stick you carry, sneered Hogg. Is that what the prince likes to use on you?
She smiled. No, just what I like to use on your friend.
She swung the bat. Not very hard, since she didnt want to kill Trumper, but still it connected with his nose in a very satisfying way.
Blood trickled out of Trumpers nostrils. He howled. My nose! He broke my nose!
You too? she asked Hogg. How about it?
Hogg took a step back. II have to help him. But you are going to regret this for the rest of your life.
Several boys from nearby houses had stuck their heads out of their windows. Whats going on? they asked. Whats that caterwauling?
Nothing, said Iolanthe. Some idiot walked into a lamppost.
Trumper and Hogg took off amidst a volley of laughterno one, it seemed, liked them.
When Iolanthe returned to Kashkaris side, he looked at her with something between alarm and admiration. Very unhesitating of you.
Thank you. I hope theyll think twice now before insulting my friends in my hearing. Now what were you telling me about the meteor shower in 1833?
Titus winced as he pulled himself out of the scull in which he had spent the past three hours rowing up and down the Thames. Fairfax was on the pier, waiting for him.
Is something wrong? he asked as they walked out of earshot of the other rowers. She usually did not come to the pier.
She tapped her cricket bat against the side of her calf in an agitated cadence. Thirty-three years before I was born, there was another meteor storm, wasnt there, an even more spectacular one? Were there no prophecies then concerning a great elemental mage?
There were. Seers fell over themselves predicting the birth of the greatest elemental mage of all time.
And?
And he was born in a small realm in the Arabian Sea. When he was thirteen, he caused an underwater volcano long thought dormant to erupt.
Fire was a flamboyant poweras was lightning. But the ability to move mountains and raise new land from the sea was power on a different magnitude altogether.
She emitted a low whistle, suitably impressed. What happened to him?
The realm was already under the dominion of Atlantis. The boys father and aunt had both died while taking part in a local resistance effort. When agents of Atlantis arrived to take the boy away, his family decided that they would never allow it. They killed him instead.
This time her response was a long silence.
What were the consequences to the boys family? she asked, her voice tight.