The Rage Eater

Chapter 9: Arrival

A U T U M N

"You alive back there?" Frederik bellowed.

"Not dead yet!" Sadie yelled. She yawned and stretched out the ache in her back and the crick in her neck. She'd spent the entire journey in the wagon, sitting and sleeping on heaps of yellow onions and purple potatoes.

Frederik was loud and gruff, but for three nights and four days the caravan driver had been a pleasant companion, entertaining her with tales of greedy thieves and feral beastlies. But in between the stories, when the only sound was the creak of the cart's wheels and the steady clopping of horse hooves, Sadie had thought about the life she had left behind. About George and her mother. About the townsfolk who called her mamzer. About the thief and the fire.

But now, as they neared Barrett's Academy, Sadie dreamt of what lay ahead—the Masters, the classes, the Game of Thieves. Even the fear of Wizard Dvesha began to dissipate. (It was a rumour, after all, and more often than not rumours proved false.) Sadie smiled as she imagined pairing to her very own beastly, something quick and vicious and smart, like a fox or a wolf. Had she been from a ruling Clan, she'd know exactly what to expect. Each Clan had its own beastly—the Galerans had falcons, the Biltons bulls, the Reynards hyenas—and students always paired with the beastly of their Clan. But Sadie was a scholarship student. Her beastly would be whatever the Masters assigned her, which could be any creature in the vast Kingdom, from a snarling wolverine to a healing monkey.

Sadie lurched forward as the cart came to a sudden stop, onions and potatoes tumbling around her.

"We're here!" Frederik yelled.

Sadie leapt down from the cart and into the sunlight, rubbing her eyes as she adjusted to the brightness of day.

"Lovely, ain't it?" said Frederik. "Nothing like it in the Kingdom, if you ask me."

Standing at the road's end, Sadie stared at the magnificent campus grounds: rolling hills of fresh green grass, lined with rows of vegetable plots and flower beds. Far in the distance, she glimpsed a towering moonlight-blue castle, with spires reaching to the clouds, and a wide roof crowned with four turrets. To the castle's left was a tall, domed limestone building. To its right, another building just the same.

"Yes," Sadie said, awestruck. "Beautiful." She pulled three copper pennies from her rucksack and handed them to Frederik, before waving goodbye to him and his horse. "Thanks."

The horse set off at a gentle trot.

Sadie smiled as she hoisted her rucksack on her shoulders and began her walk to the castle, still not quite believing it was all real. Everywhere she looked, students and beastlies—giant turtles and small snakes, cold-eyed owls and grey wolves—ambled towards the large blue castle. The students wore their Clan colours and carried baggage painted with their Clan crests.

With each step forward, Sadie's excitement and nervousness grew. She passed a glass-walled greenhouse fogged with mist, and an armoury where a roaring fire blazed in the forge and a blacksmith hammered a sword, each blow sounding a shrill clank.

Ignoring the weight of the rucksack and pain in her shoulder, Sadie followed a broad-shouldered teenaged boy and his hyena—a Reynard, most likely—across a wide, heavy wooden drawbridge. As she walked, she peered over the side into the moat below, where feral-looking crocodiles glided effortlessly, their jaws open and marbled eyes searching for prey.