The final formality—I was glad to reach it, for it was hot in the crowded room by now and the youngest cadets were beginning to fidget—was a formal roll call of first-year cadets. Only Regis and Father’s young protégé Danilo were personally known to me, but some were the younger brothers or sons of men I knew in the Guards. The last name I called was Regis-Rafael, cadet Hastur.
There was a confused silence, just too long. Then down the line of cadets there was a small scuffle and an audible whispered “That’s you, blockhead!” as Danilo poked Regis in the ribs. Regis’ confused voice said “Oh—” Another pause. “Here.”
Damn Regis anyhow. I had begun to hope that this year we would get through call-over without having to play this particular humiliating charade. Some cadet, not always a first-year man, invariably forgot to answer properly to his name at call-over. There was a procedure for such occasions which probably went back three dozen generations. From the way in which the other Guardsmen, from veterans to older cadets, were waiting, expectant snickers breaking out, they’d all been waiting—yes, damn them all, and hoping—for this ritual hazing.
Left to myself, I’d have said harshly, “Next time, answer to your name, cadet,” and had a word with him later in private. But if I tried to cheat them all of their fun, they’d probably take it out on Regis anyway. He’d already made himself conspicuous by coming in late and dressed like a prince. I might as well get on with it. Regis would have to get used to worse things than this in the next few weeks.
“Cadet Hastur,” I said with a sigh, “suppose you step forward where we can get a good look at you. Then if you forget your name again, we can all be ready to remind you.”
Regis stepped forward, staring blankly. “You know my name.”
There was a chorus of snickers. Zandru’s hells, was he confused enough to make it worse? I kept my voice cold and even. “It’s my business to know it, cadet, and yours to answer any question put to you by an officer. What is your name, cadet?”
He said, rapid and furious, “Regis-Rafael Felix Alar Hastur-Elhalyn!”
“Well, Regis-Rafael This-that-and-the-other, your name in the Guard hall is cadet Hastur, and I suggest you memorize your name and the proper response to your name, unless you prefer to be addressed as That’s you, blockhead” Danilo giggled; I glared at him and he subsided. “Cadet Hastur, nobody’s going to call you Lord Regis down here. How old are you, cadet Hastur?”
“Fifteen,” Regis said. Mentally, I swore again. If he had made the proper response this time—but how could he? No one had warned him—I could have dismissed him. Now I had to play out this farce to the very end. The look of hilarious expectancy on the faces around us infuriated me. But two hundred years of Guardsman tradition were behind it “Fifteen what, cadet?”
“Fifteen years,” said Regis, biting on the old bait for the unwary. I sighed. Well, the other cadets had a right to their fun. Generations had conditioned them to demand it, and I gave it to them. I said wearily, “Suppose, men, you all tell cadet Hastur how old he is?”
“Fifteen, sir,” they chorused all together, at the top of their voices. The expected uproar of laughter finally broke loose. I signaled Regis to go back to his place. The murderous glance he sent me could have killed. I didn’t blame him. For days, in fact, until somebody else did something outstandingly stupid, he’d be the butt of the barracks. I knew. I remembered a day several years ago when the name of the unlucky cadet had been Lewis-Kennard, cadet Montray, and I had, perhaps, a better excuse—never having heard my name in that form before. I haven’t heard it since either, because my father had demanded I be allowed to bear his name, Montray-Alton. As usual, he got what he wanted. That was while they were still arguing about my legitimacy. But he used the argument that it was unseemly for a cadet to bear a Terran name in the Guard, even though a bastard legally uses his mother’s name.