Mouche had been quite willing. He had learned not to see them, not to believe in them. Until now.
20—The Dutter Boys
At House Genevois, there were always departures and new arrivals. A notable arrival occurred about half a year after Mouche began watching the dancers. His friend Fentrys had been downstairs in the sewing room, having his new doublet fitted, when two new boys had been escorted past on their way to the welcome rooms. Fentrys, glancing at them, could see they were unlike the usual new boys, and when he left the sewing room, he’d let his curiosity pull him into a closet near the parlor where he could overhear what went on.
“Big,” he said to Mouche minutes later, eyes wide. “By the Hagions, Mouche, one of them is as big as Wander!” Wander was the largest of the present Consorts-in-Training; he stood a head taller than any other student and several hands breadths wider, though he was not yet of an age to be sold. “The other one is not as large, but they are both evil as snakes in their words. Madame had one of them stripped and striped!”
This was astonishing, for the boys were seldom beaten. Madame didn’t believe in such punishment, except as a last resort. That it should have been imposed at first opportunity did not bode well for the peace of the House.
“What did he do?” asked Mouche.
“The one called Dyre said that Madame was a withered hag who had outlived her usefulness and should be retired to the stitchery. The fencing master and two of the cleaners had to hold the other one, Bane, while Dyre was beaten, and since they had him down, they beat him too, for interfering.”
“She didn’t throw them out?” Students were expelled, from time to time, their bodies and faces dyed blue, to show the world they were worthless and incorrigible. Other Houses did the same, as did the Army school and the apprentice programs. Blue-bodies usually didn’t last long in the outside world, and it was said of recalcitrants that they were “independent as a blue-body.”
Fentrys said, “I heard Madame talking to Simon. She sent word to someone, some large personage or other. She awaits that personage now, in the parlor.”
“Let’s listen,” suggested Tyle. “Can we?”
It wasn’t consortly behavior, certainly, since it reflected an unhealthy interest in other people’s business, but neither was it disobedient, strictly speaking, since they had never been forbidden to hide in closets and eavesdrop. They found room in the same closet Fentrys had hidden in before, one that backed on the parlor, though once hidden in it they had a stuffy time before Madame’s summoned guest arrived. They could not see him. They could only hear his words, uttered in a deep, flat voice with no resonance at all, though, Mouche thought to himself, that might be because they heard him from a closet.
“Madame Genevois.”
Madame’s voice came not only flat but curiously muffled, as though through a handkerchief. “Sir. I have today received the two boys you paid me some time ago to take and train. They are a good deal older than my usual students, and they seem to be of the opinion that they need no training and that they are in charge of House Genevois. If this is your intent, you have misjudged me. I have not spent my life acquiring a reputation so meaningless that I would cast it away for so little. I can and will refund your money, sponsors be hanged.”
A long silence. Then, “I’ll see to the boys.”
“Indeed,” said Madame with a gasp.
There was the sound of the parlor door opening and closing, and Madame’s footsteps going away toward the welcome suite, breathing deeply. There were then other doors opening and shutting, mutters in the hallway, an uncouth clattering and chatter, then the parlor door opened and closed once more.
“Oh,” said a young voice. “It’s you.”
“I thought you’d got it in your head about this,” replied the deep voice. “And here you go, startin’ off just like usual.”
“That old bitch … “ said another voice, deeper, almost adult. Mouche shivered inside. He knew that voice.