Chapter 14

The sisters were true to their word and the following morning, after breakfast, we prepared to visit the University for the first time. In theory, I knew where the University buildings were located inside this city and I was sure that I would have been able to find my way there. However, walking through the morning streets with these odd Lykke twins was really an experience.

The twins were able to sit in silence for ages, but if they decided that it was time to talk they could be as bad as old Miss Dahl. Except that there were two of them. While walking by myself I usually kept my distance from other people and used a direct route whenever possible, but with the twins, it was totally impossible. We zigzagged from one place to another while the twins showed me the good places to go shopping and also the sellers to avoid. I did my best to remember all the names and places. Then, without any warning we came into a plaza where there were some hopeful people selling all kinds of food you could take with you - and then there was the University. The University.

I had seen houses that were higher than the University main building with its three floors and I had seen drawings and pictures of the Royal palace, but the University main building felt more impressive to me. First of all, the building width was several blocks to both sides and, because of the plaza, you could see the whole front of the building. Not only that, as we had entered the middle of the plaza - just in front of the main entrance - there came a feeling that the massive building was looking at you. Evaluating you, checking if you were a person worth entering the building. I turned away from the building and looked at the twins, who were looking at me.

“We think that it’s too imperious, but quite suitable for people who think way too much of themselves. Once you go there, young man, remember that it has been done like this on purpose, in order to keep the incomers humble.”

Then they turned to the left.

“This way, we’re sure that we can still use the side entrance and avoid some pompous commissionaires.”

True to their word, we walked almost two blocks to the left until we came to a hidden entrance and without any extra hassle we soon found ourselves inside a small room with one woman in a long dress and hair in a tight bun. From the hugs the three women exchanged it was clear that all the women were friends.

“So good to see you two. This place hasn’t been the same without you!”

That was how the sisters knew how to do this! What then followed was a discussion between the three women which gave me some idea of the reason for the sisters leaving the University. It also made me aware that the twins were some sort of important people by their origin, almost nobles - even if they probably had broken all contacts to their family because they had refused to behave as they should have behaved. Like succumbing to some old university teacher because that would have given some benefit to their birth family. The feeling I had gotten from the twins was that they had checked on me for some reason, but as a family member I would be ‘untouchable’. There was something in those two women that brought me shivers.

“This young man is now a part of our family and we heard that he’s supposed to come to the University. Luckily he spoke to us before contacting the high auditors as he had been instructed. He’s really a smart one, but unfortunately with a patrimony that he can never claim.”

‘A patrimony he can never claim’ - quite a nice way of saying that someone is a bastard. I couldn’t help smiling a bit when I heard that. The secretary turned towards me.

“So, in order to get rid of you, your father sent you here, right?”

“No, in fact it was Her Highness who did that.”

I couldn’t help smiling a bit when the lady secretary raised her eyebrows.

“There was an unlucky coincidence that I was the only one of his sons who looked like His Highness.”

Her laughter was genuine and, after a moment, she shook her head and sat down behind the desk.

“Do you happen to have any letter of recommendation?”

“Of course I do ... here you are.”

The woman took the letter and started reading it. After a moment she raised her head and looked at me.

“Can you really do the things mentioned here?”

I couldn’t really help smiling a bit.

“But of course, how could someone lie in an official document like that...”

Then I let my guise drop.

“Seriously, my mother made sure that I had some good teaching. Unfortunately part of our agreement is that in the future I cannot see her as often as I would like to. Luckily she was able to marry a decent man and is happy now.”

What followed was a moment of activity and the sisters actually helped the woman with some documents. The end result was that Stian Holth would be allowed to study any University topic, except Magic. Anything except Magic. That was much more than I could have ever hoped for!

When I made a gesture towards my inner pockets the woman behind the desk tried to stop me.

“No, young man. If you are part of the twins’ family, it would not be right...”

“Nonsense, Eira. Stian, here, was prepared to pay much more for acceptance and even with that larger sum he would not have had as wide access to the resources as he has now. Besides, this is probably the safest place there is to change those gold coins to silver ones. We think you should take at least thirty Crowns since we know that you have a family to support.”

I nodded to the twins and laid two one hundred Crown gold coins on the desk. The previous evening I had asked about this, since I knew that carrying a lot of money - especially gold coins - around was neither wise nor safe. One silver coin was about the limit and even that could get you killed in the wrong place. Sometime later, there were several happy people, Eira was happy because of the extra thirty Crowns and I was happy because of almost unlimited access to study at the University and because those silver coins could actually be used here without problems.

Three days later, I wasn’t quite as sure if I had made a good deal in joining the family. The weather had been extraordinarily hot, and one of the tasks that had been waiting to be finished was the installation of new barrels for the privies. Mr. Solberg had taken care of these things until he hurt his back last spring. In a way, I should have been happy, since that was one of the reasons I had been offered the ability to live here. Okay, I could not really blame him, since he was there sweating with me even though I was the one doing almost all the heavy moving and lifting.

“Stian, please, call me Frode. I’ve never been a ‘Sir’ and ‘Mr. Solberg’ makes me feel even older than I really am. Or feel.”

I looked at the man who was sitting in shadow at the back yard of the house. Last night we had helped the city nightmen take the old privy barrels and we had installed the new ones. Normally this work would be done during the wintertime, but because of Frode’s back issues it had been postponed. I nodded at him and breathed in - which was a mistake since the smell seemed to stay here even if the barrels were already gone.

“Okay, Frode ... I hope that this was the worst task there was in queue for us.”

The older man snorted.

“Most likely it was at least the smelliest. However, there may be some very dirty tasks, but probably not this smelly.”

His answer confused me a bit, since I was quite certain that we had already cleaned most of the rubbish out of the house. I could feel Frode’s eyes on me, like he was waiting something. Then, suddenly things clicked inside my head.

“You mean that we need to clean the places inside the walls, too?”

The man broke into smile. “I told them that you’d figure it out, I told them!”

I shook my head since I had no idea what Frode was talking about. The man kept on smiling.

“The Lykke twins were certain that you’d not figure it out by yourself while I was sure that you would. Mind telling me how you did it?”

I fact I would mind, since I had been suspicious and examined my room in detail and I had found out that one part of the wall felt different than the others. Then I had counted the width of the room with my steps just like I had counted the steps at the corridor.

“The number of steps. The difference between them in the corridor and inside the room was so big that I started to wonder...”

“Do you always count your steps?”

“No, it was purely accidental that I remembered the number of steps I had taken, but after that, I made the decision to check things.”

The older man nodded.

“In a way it doesn’t matter - Or as a matter of fact, it makes things easier. I just need to have a quick talk with Mrs. Hansen.”

That was the end of the discussion for that day, and soon I was sweating again while making some plaster. There were places in the walls that needed a new layer of it, and now there was someone capable of putting that layer there. Frode was mostly silent when he was holding the stepladder for me, only sometimes he told me some casual facts about the city and the surrounding houses and neighbors.

Nothing about this house though, nothing about the people living here with me. Nothing. But he did question me about my youth, about things I had been doing and what I could do. During that time I really had to become Stian Holth instead of Stian Elder.

In a way, it wasn’t too difficult. My story was that in my childhood I had been able to visit the forest and I had even learned some tracking and hunting from an old hunter who had felt sorry for my mother. So, I could set snares for rabbits and I could make food out of them - and then I could do some fishing. Then, later, my mother had started working with another woman who was a merchant. The last few years I had been helping there - and I’d probably would have stayed there, except that the merchant woman had been killed while doing some shadier business. Since the business collapsed with her, my mother made the decision to get in touch with my father.

As Hantaliel had explained it to me - use the real events whenever possible. She had mastered it while visiting Aston and getting work here while gathering information. ‘Lies are too difficult to remember.’ It was difficult enough for her to keep her ears hidden and look old and ugly. In a way it was much easier for her, since nobody usually cared to look at that kind of women too closely.

Two days later, Frode took me around the city and his tour was totally different when compared to the short one the twins gave me. Frode seemed to know almost all the buildings, which ones were connected to each other, where it was possible to get to the roof and where was it possible to come down again.

“This city looks totally different from the rooftops at night. There’s not the same smell as here at the street level and the few lights here and there make the view almost magical. You can see the Aston river, the harbor, the sea...”