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"I hate this and I hate you!"
    "That has no bearing on the matter, Master Nunos. Your father
wishes me to teach you so you can attend the academy and that is what
I am going to do. You are going to pass that entrance exam if it's
the last thing I do. And do pass that exam you are going to need to
know all the subjects, which includes Magic! That will be all for
today." Kestan could barely bear another minute in the young
man's company.
    "You said you were going to read some more of that novel!"
Nunos protested. "I want to know what happened!"
    So, Nunos found something of their lessons interesting, did he?
    "Then you had better pay attention to our next reading lesson,
hadn't you? That way you will be able to read it yourself and won't
have to rely on others. How do you know I'm even reading the correct
words? I could be making the whole thing up."
    "You wouldn't dare!"
    "But how can you know for sure? Tell me, what does your father
expect you to do once you've left the academy?"
    "He wants me to become a soldier and then take over the family
business after I've finished my army service. Father is a very famous
merchant. He even sells silks to the king!"
    "Right, and that will involve dealing with letters from
suppliers and handing out wages. How can you do all of that if you
can't rely on your own reading and you need someone else to add up
the figures for you? What if you had someone unscrupulous? They could
be robbing the business blind and you wouldn't know it."
    Nunos' face reddened and he sat up straighter in his chair. "I
won't allow that to happen! No one is going to make a fool out of me!
Let me see that Mathematics book again."

    *

    For the next month, Nunos worked like a demon on improving his skills
and not once did he talk back to Kestan whenever they had lessons.
His handwriting was improving too and Kestan had no doubts that if he
kept this up, the entrance exam would go well. It still didn't negate
the fact that Nunos was a lot older than the other candidtates. Most
boys were sent to the academy when they were fourteen, with six years
there before they were sent into the field of battle. If Nunos had to
also do those six years, he would almost be too old for an officer's
commission. But as Kestan and everyone else in the land knew, money
talked and Sir Grunhall had plenty of that. His son would get to the
academy and become an officer in the King's Army, even if Grunhall
had to bribe the king himself.
    But however much Nunos was enjoying his lessons now that he could see
some practical use for them, Kestan never forgot Mistress Jessamyn's
hints that something was terribly wrong at Grunhall Abbey. From what
little he knew of Syldas, he didn't seem the type to abandon a young
lady he'd got into trouble. Kestan would almost hazard a guess that
Syldas didn't know she'd been an earl's daughter either. This house
seemed to breed secrets the way spoiled food bred flies.
    Kestan hadn’t seen the ghost during that month and he
was very worried about the boy. Why were the Grunhalls keeping him
locked up? Who was he? And how was he going to help him if he didn’t
know where he was?
    One day, Kestan was making his way to the library along the ground
floor hallway and saw a small black and white portrait almost hidden
beneath the stairwell.
    There was a young man with round-framed spectacles, his arm around a
young woman who in turn was holding a toddler by the hand. The
child's hair was wild and messy, but it was a head of hair Kestan was
almost sure he'd seen before. On the so-called ghost .
    "Master Ordgar," Kestan called, for Ordgar the Yonger had
been in the hallway watering the indoor plants. He almost dropped his
watering can.
    "S- sir?"
    "Do you know who these people are in this painting?"
    "Th- that's the Duke of Sapphire Lake, sir. Th - they used to
l-live here b- before the G- Grunhalls. It was Saphire A- A-bbey
then."
    "And the Grunhalls bought it from the duke?"
    "N- no, s -sir. Th- they died. L-Lady Nydia