down the figure.

“Why should they?” he asked.

“Round here we call them heathen and leave them to their own, those who don’ keep the same god.”

“Well, that’s a rather narrow way to live,” Henry said angrily, shaking his finished tally to dry the ink. “You should get to know a person before you judge him.”

Meledor finished his own count and followed Henry to hand in the lists to the tournament head.

“Why don’t you educate women?” Henry asked daringly.

“Women learn from the world,” Meledor said. “No need to fill their heads with troubles they may never encounter.”

“Troubles like reading?” Henry asked skeptically.

“If a man wants his wife to read, he teach her and then she reads,” Meledor answered, leading Henry through a narrow stone passageway.

“And if she wants to learn but he won’t teach her?” Henry asked.

“An’ if a servant in your country wants to learn but his master don’t teach him?” Meledor accused.

“That’s different,” Henry said. “It isn’t illegal to educate the lower classes. Your government’s given privileges to half its subjects and taken them away from the other half for no good reason.”

“All men in the Nordlands are equal,” Meledor answered.

“Not having titles doesn’t make everyone equal,” Henry said. “I doubt you’d be friends with a boy who worked in the kitchens.”

“If we are both ill, a hospital treats him who arrived first. If we are both hungry but cannae afford food, the chancellor provides us the same bread.”

“But you would not be equally ill, or equally hungry,” Henry said, thinking of the thin uniforms for the school staff.

“We are all born the same, what happens after is free will,” Meledor said, pushing open a swinging door and signaling the attention of the tournament head.

After Henry was relieved of his squire duties, the choir competition had already ended in Partisan’s favor, and Henry found his friends consoling Edmund.

“It’s a cheat,” Edmund wailed over the meat puree and carrots they’d been given for their afternoon meal.

“Actually, I thought Partisan was quite good,” Adam said, causing Rohan to elbow him in the side.

“What are we watching next?” Henry asked. “Quiz or treaty?”

“Quiz,” Rohan said promptly. “I want to see Valmont and Theobold embarrass Lord Havelock.”

But Theobold, Valmont, and their teammate Luther didn’t make fools of themselves at all.

By the end of the first round, they led by three points.

“Round two, where every question is worth double,” Compatriot Quilpp, the quiz master, called. “At what age did pre–Longsword Treaty conscription laws bind boys to military service?”

Luther rang the bell first.

“Knightley?” Compatriot Quilpp called.

“Thirteen,” Luther said.

“Correct. Two points to Knightley.”

The audience applauded.

“What ancient weapon is said to be a cross between a pike and a scythe?”

Partisan rang first.

“A gisarme.”

“Correct. Two points to Partisan.”

Henry played along with the quiz in his head as he watched with his friends. It was strange rooting for Valmont. Not that he was rooting, exactly. But from his conversation with Meledor, Henry was becoming less and less a fan of Partisan School. Knightley had to win the tournament. Come on, Henry thought fiercely, win!

“What was the title of the boy who carried the banner of a knight?” the quiz master asked, and Knightley promptly rang in.

“A standard bearer,” Luther answered.

Knightley was still up by three.

“Which ancient knight was famous for his orders to massacre every occupant of castles taken by force?” the quiz master asked.

Partisan took the point on this one, and the crowd cheered, as the whole match now depended on the next—and final—question.

“Final question,” the quiz master said. “Which ancient order of knights is responsible for the idea of the ‘note of hand’?”

Henry nearly laughed aloud. Knightley had this!

Valmont hit the bell.

“Knightley?” the quiz master asked.

“The Knights Templar,” Valmont answered.

“Correct!” the quiz master said. The room erupted in cheers.

Henry grinned and clapped along with his friends, even though the results didn’t matter to the overall tournament score, even though it was just novice level and they weren’t particular friends with the boys on the team.

Valmont, at the front of the room with the rest of the quiz team, was smiling hugely, as though he were back at the Midsummer School for Boys all those months ago and his name had just been called on that fateful morning in the dining hall.

THE SECRET OF PARTISAN SCHOOL

The announcement was made just before dinner, and no one was surprised that Partisan had won the Inter-School Tournament.

“They bloody cheated,” Adam grumbled.

“At what?” Rohan asked, clapping along politely with the rest of the Knightley students.

“How should I know?” Adam whispered back.

Henry didn’t mind