Robin Hobb - The Complete Soldier Son Trilogy - Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade’s Magic

‘The good god put King Troven over all of us, to rule us justly and well. All of holy writ tells us that the lords should serve their king as a good son serves his father; in obedience, respect and gratitude for his guidance.’ Oron said this so solemnly that I nearly bowed my head and signed the air with the good god’s sign. He sounded more like a bessom at that moment than Gord ever had.

Gord snorted. ‘Yes. So we have all been brought up to believe, every soldier son of us, every son of a New Noble father. But what do you think the Old Nobles have told their first sons and their soldier sons? Do you think they have been taught their first duty is to the King, or to their own noble fathers?’

‘Treason and heresy!’ Caleb said angrily. He pointed a finger at Gord accusingly and said, ‘Why do you say such things?’

‘ I don’t! I serve the King as willingly as any man here. I only say that perhaps we have been brought up not to question and, as a result, you do not understand those who do question. You do not see how our loyalty might offend those who are not so blindly loyal themselves.’

‘Blindly loyal!’ Rory was incensed. ‘What’s blind about knowing that we owe the King our loyalty? What is blind about knowing our duty?’

Gord sat back in his chair. Something hardened in his face. He had changed in the last couple of weeks, in a way I could not clearly define. He was still as fat; he still sweated through drill and panted with the effort of heaving his bulk up the stairs, but there seemed to be something of steel in him now. When he had first joined us he had laughed along with his mockers when people made jokes about his weight, and sometimes even made fun of himself. Now he kept silent and merely stared at those who baited him. It seemed to make some of the fellows angry, as if he had no right to stand on his dignity and refuse to accept their mockery as his due. Now he looked round the table at those of us gathered there, and I suddenly perceived that it was not just maths that he was good at. There was more intellect behind those piggy little eyes than I had credited him with. He licked his plump lips, as if deciding whether to speak or not. Then the words seemed to break forth from him, not in a torrent, but in a deliberate cascade of derision.

‘I said blindly, not stupidly, Rory. I don’t think it’s stupid for us and for our fathers to give loyalty to a man who benefited us greatly. But we should not be blind to what he gains by it, nor to what it does to others. Did none of your fathers ever discuss politics with you? When we take our history lessons, do any of you listen? We are to be officers and gentlemen when our schooling is done. Loyalty is fine, but it is even better when it is backed up with intellect. My dog is loyal to me, and if I sicced him on a bear, he would go with no questioning of whether I knew what was best for him. But we are not dogs, and though I believe a soldier must go where he is ordered and do as he is told, I do not think he must march forth in ignorance of what propels his commander’s decisions.’

Caleb had never been especially quick-witted, and that day he decided that Gord’s words had insulted him. He came to his feet and loomed over the table. His long, skinny frame made it difficult for him to look threatening but he knotted his fist and said, ‘Are you saying my father is ignorant just because he didn’t talk politics at me? Take it back!’

Gord did not stand up but he didn’t back down. He leaned back in his chair as if to disarm Caleb’s aggression, but spoke firmly. ‘I can’t take it back, Caleb, for that isn’t what I said! I was speaking in generalities. We all came here, I hope, knowing that our first year is a winnowing process. We expected to be hazed and to have strict teachers and boring food and a burden of assignments and marching and tasks that no sane man would ever make his daily regimen. Yet we undertake it, knowing full well, I trust, that they deliberately make it more difficult and stressful than it needs to be. They are hoping that the weak and even the not-very-determined will be dissuaded by the process and turn away. Better to cull them out now than to have a battle whittle them away, with other men losing their lives in the process! So, we do obey, but we do not obey blindly. That is what I am saying. That we endure what we endure here because we know the reason for it. And when I am a cavalla officer in the field, I expect that I will do the same there. I will obey my commander’s orders, but I hope I will remain intelligent enough to discern the reasons behind my orders.’

He looked round at us all. Despite ourselves, we were hanging on his words. He nodded, as if in appreciation of that, and went on, almost as if he were lecturing us, ‘And thus we come back to Oron’s question: what makes the old nobility first-years dislike us so much if we are all cadets here? And the answer is, they are taught to. Just as we are subtly schooled to resent them. It probably began as a way to wring the best out of us, just as they encourage each house and troop to compete against their fellows. But the politics of our fathers have infected it now, and made it something uglier.’

‘But why? Why does someone want us to hate each other?’ Oron clasped his cheeks and practically wailed the words.

Gord gritted his teeth for a moment and then sighed. ‘I didn’t say that anyone had deliberately set us against each other in a serious way. I am saying that what the Academy began as healthy competition between us has changed to something more ominous because of the political situation in the streets. That it may even be getting out of control within our walls, becoming something far more vicious than our superiors ever intended. It is in the King’s best interest to have his cavalla officers enjoy solid camaraderie. It is certainly in the cavalla’s best interest, and hence the Academy’s. But there will still be some, Old Nobles and New, who think we should despise each other because our fathers vote against each other in the Council of Lords. And if someone deliberately wanted to damage the power of the New Nobles, if someone wanted to find a way to weaken our fathers’ alliance, they’d find a way to turn us against each other. That hasn’t happened yet, but it will be very interesting to see what pressures are applied to us. That is all I’m saying.’

‘Oh, that was so enlightening,’ Trist said. He had been silent up until then, though I had twice seen him roll his eyes during Gord’s discourse. ‘Do you honestly think there’s a man in this room who hasn’t already seen what is going on and given thought to it?’

Instantly, it seemed that every cadet at the table was nodding, though I seriously doubted that any of us had pondered it through as Gord had.

‘Not all of us must take a beating before we understand what the currents are in the Academy,’ Trist added, somehow making it seem Gord’s own fault that he had been attacked.

I took a deep breath to say my piece on that, but closed my lips as I heard a too-familiar voice say, ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t blame a beating on politics. Some of your fellow cadets think having a pig in their midst is bad for the Academy.’

I wondered how long Caulder had been standing out of sight beside the door before he chose to enter.

‘What do you want here?’ Spink asked him waspishly.

Caulder smiled nastily. ‘You, actually. Not that I want you; quite the contrary! But for some reason, my father wishes to see you. Immediately. You are to report to him at his office in the Administration Building.’ His gaze slid from Spink to Trist. I thought I saw a shadow of pain in his eyes, and he sounded almost like a scorned lover as he said, ‘Still laughing over your fine jest on me, Trist? How stupid of me to trust someone like you and think you might want my friendship.’