palm up for the punishment, with his sheepish, stoical grin.
But Torm said, "He did nothing to be punished for."
Everra stood silent, taken aback. Finally he said, "He was tormenting Gavir, Torm-dí."
"That boy is dung. He should be punished, not Hoby. He spilled the ink."
"That was an accident, Torm-dí. I do not punish accidents."
"It was not. Hoby did nothing to be punished for. Punish the dung boy."
Though Torm was not going into the shaking frenzy of his old rages, he had the look of them in his face, a grimace, a blind stare. Our teacher stood silent. I saw him glance over at Yaven, who was on the other side of the room bent over the drawing table, absorbed in measuring an architectural plan. I too was hoping the older brother would notice what was going on; but he didn't, and Astano was not in class that day.
At last Everra said, "To the hall room, please, Torm-dí."
Torm took a step or two in automatic obedience. Then he stopped.
He turned to face the teacher. "I, I, I order you to punish the dung boy," he said, thickly, barely able to make the words, his face quivering and shaking as it had that day when his father reprimanded him.
Everra's face went grey. He stood still, looking thin and old. Again he looked over towards Yaven.
"This is my classroom, Torm-dí," he said at last, with dignity, but almost inaudibly.
"And you are a slave and I give you an order!" Torm cried, his voice, which had not broken, going up shrill.
Now Yaven heard and looked round, straightening up.
"Torm?" he said.
"I've had enough of this filth, this disobedience!" Torm cried in that thick, shrill voice. He sounded like a crazy old woman. Maybe that was what made four-year-old Miv laugh. His little giggle rang out. Torm turned on the child and struck him a smashing blow to the head that threw him right off the bench against the wall.
Then Yaven was there, and with a grave and hasty apology to the teacher, took his brother by the arm and led him out of the room. Torm did not resist and did not say anything. He still glared blindly, but his face had gone loose and confused.
Hoby stood staring after him with the same dull, stricken look. Never had I seen so clearly that it was almost the same face.
Sallo was cradling little Miv, who had not made a sound. He seemed dazed for a while, then he wriggled about and turned his face against Sallo's arm. If he cried it was in silence.
The teacher knelt by them and tried to make sure the child had suffered no injury except the bruise that would be swelling up soon across half his face. He told Sallo and Miv's sister Oco to take him out to the atrium fountain and bathe his face. Then he turned to Ris and Sotur, Tib and Hoby and me, the only pupils left. "We will read Trudec," he said, his voice still hoarse and faint. "The Sixtieth Morality. On Patience."
He had Sotur read first. She stumbled bravely through it.
Soturovaso was the Father's niece. Her father had been killed at the siege of Morva soon after her mother died giving birth to her, so she was an orphan within the Family, the last and least among them. She had much the same quiet modesty as her older cousin Astano, whom she trusted and imitated, but the temper underneath it was quite different. She was no rebel, but she was not resigned. She was a solitary soul.
She was extremely upset now by Torm's defiance and discourtesy towards our teacher, whom she loved. Because she was the only one of the Family in the room, she felt responsible for that injury and for the apologies that should follow. There was nothing she, a child of twelve, could do, except obey promptly and show the teacher the utmost politeness, which she did. But she read very badly. The book was shaking in her hands. Everra soon thanked her and told me to go on with the passage.
As I began to read, I heard Hoby, on the bench behind me, move restlessly and hiss something. The teacher glanced at him and he was silent, but not quite silent. I was aware of him there behind me all the time as I read.
We got through the rest of the morning lessons somehow. Just as we were finishing, Sallo came back. She reported that she had left little Miv and