Children Of The Sky (The Scripts Of Neptune, Book 2)

Chapter 10

Chad loved the city.

There were buildings everywhere; monolithic towers, houses great and small, and squat little shops wedged together and spaced apart to make room for the streets, the veins and arteries of the city itself. The people were the lifeblood. Walking, riding, going about their business. Street vendors crowded the sidewalks with their roofed carts, the managers dressed in bright robes, waving people over to look at their exotic wares. Everything was alive in the morning sunlight. Aglow. Moving. It was exhausting and wonderful all in one moment.

The chill of dawn was still burning off as Chad walked the quieter alleys to avoid the morning rush, satchel strap slung across his chest. He didn't have to be out so early, but Craventi had warned him to get there ahead of time for registration. He knew where he was going; after that first day when Craventi had given him a tour of the academy, it hadn't been hard to memorize his route. He was thankful for it, too. His application had been accepted, which meant today marked the first day of...whatever he was going to learn.

The academy entrance was flanked by great statues, owls standing tall and proud in black stone streaked with grey, beaks worn yet sharp, posture commanding. They towered a good three times Chad's height as he passed them and pushed the thick wooden doors open.

The inside of the lobby was so packed with young men and women that Chad nearly recoiled. The deafening chatter of hundreds of voices echoed off the paneled walls and filled the domed arch of the ceiling, and countless faces flashed through the crowd, bright brushstrokes of color on the girls and more muted tones on the boys. And gods, it was hot. So many bodies turned the place into an oven with a smell that was caught somewhere between perfume and sweat.

Hugging the wall, Chad ducked around the crowd, aiming for the pillars he knew stood beside the clerk's desk. She was there when he finally made it, forehead resting on one hand, pen busy in the other. She looked up sharply when he knocked on the wood and smiled, catching her glasses when they nearly slid off her pointed nose.

"I'm here to check in," he said, raising his voice above the hum of conversation.

"You and every other second child in the city," she muttered, dipping her pen in the inkwell and taking a parchment off the stack. Chad furrowed his brow as he watched her bow her graying head and write something at the top of the page. "Name, race, and magic type?"

Chad fidgeted for a moment, looking over his shoulder at the crowd. The clerk glanced up expectantly, and he cleared his throat. "Chadly Benson, human, and soul."

She bent over again, repeating them to herself, then stopped, looking at him over her spectacles with a strange expression. "Soul magic?"

He nodded hesitantly.

Taking her glasses off, she regarded him with sharp eyes. "Is this your idea of a joke? I've had a good two-hundred careless adolescents in here telling me off about their achievements today, so you'd best be careful with your answer if you fancy coming to this school at all."

"It's...not a joke," Chad said, stumbling over his words. "Why would you ask that?"

"Look," she said, rubbing her eyes and softening her voice. "I understand if you lost a bet or something of the like, but I need you to be honest with me so I can check you in. Race and magic. Now."

Chad stared at her helplessly. "I'm human. And I have soul magic."

"You're absolutely certain?"

"Yes!" he said, exasperated.

Watching him critically for a long moment, the clerk finally took up her pen and bent over the parchment once again, muttering something about letting a professor take care of this. Without another word, she took a small knife, cut the parchment in two, and handed it to him. "Take this. You'll need to show it to the teachers to let them know you haven't just walked in without registration. And don't cause any trouble. The headmaster will be here in an hour to show you all around."