Ferni murmured to me, “The more even the walls are, the fewer shadows on them, did you notice that?”
“Enough to decide where I want to sit down,” said I, leading the way to a large tree, well away from the building area. The others assembled around us, sprawling around the tree’s roots. Lying as I was, my eyes fixed on a shadow above the shelf I’d climbed earlier. “Ferni, Jaker,” I said. “What’s that up there on the rock wall?”
“It’s a bush,” said Ferni.
“Above the bush,” I said.
“A shadow,” said Jaker. “But see the way the light goes into it. It could be a cave.”
I started to stand up, so I could get a better look, when I felt a premonitory shiver in my feet. “Listen,” I murmured to the group. “When the wagon gets here, no matter what happens, just don’t say anything. No yelling or jeering.”
“But I’m hungry,” whispered Caspor.
“We all are, but we’re not going to yell about it.”
“Wagon coming,” called someone from team two.
The team nearest the road got to their feet and began cheering.
Our team six remained where we were, sprawled around the tree as the horses came into view at the top of the rise sloping down into the clearing. By now, most of the cadets were on their feet. The driver clucked to the team, the horses bent to their collars, jerking the wagon over the top, and down they came at a gallop, thundering, the stones echoing the noise. The ground shook. The walls shivered. Small stones popped out here and there; minor avalanches began. The horses kept coming. One by one the walls slumped, tottered, fell.
“Ours stood up,” whispered Caspor, sitting up. Then more loudly, “Ours stood up!”
“Shhh,” said I, loudly enough that all five of them could hear me. “Don’t you dare cheer or yell or anything.”
There was a good deal of shouting going on as blame was assigned and denied, resulting in several bloody knuckles and at least one split lip.
The wagon came to a halt. Sergeant Orson jumped from the wagon seat and moved among the collapsed heaps.
Our group got up, everyone yawning and stretching, making good theater of it, as Lady Badness used to say back home in Bright. The other five were giving me little looks, grinning.
The side of the wagon went down. Food smells drifted out.
“Well,” said the sergeant. “You bunch, team six, there by the tree. Come get your plates while I walk around and inspect the others.”
We were back under the tree with highly piled plates on our laps by the time group four, with two-thirds of their wall still standing, went to eat. Teams one, eight, and nine each had half a wall standing, and they ate next. Five, seven, and ten had some wall standing, though not much, but still, they got to eat before groups two and three, who were sullenly watching others enjoying their supper.
When all had been fed, the officer strolled over to our tree. We put our almost empty plates aside and stood up.
“Good job, cadets. Who’s the leader here?”
“It was a group task, sir,” said I. “I think we all worked equally hard.”
“Built rock wall before, have you?” the officer asked, moving his gaze across us, receiving several no sirs, including one from me.
“Hmmm,” he said, turning to look at the newly built wall behind him. “You leveled the soil?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” said three or four voices.
“I don’t see a large pile of unused stone. Selected the stones carefully before you hauled them over here, did you?”
“Oh yes, Sergeant,” said Caspor and Ferni.
The sergeant turned to Caspor. “I’d have to swear somebody knew what he was doing. What is it you’re best at?”
“Not much, Sergeant, except numbers. I do real well with them.”
“And you?” to Ferni.
“I’m good with animals, Sergeant. Like those big horses.”
Jaker, Poul, and Flek disclaimed any abilities whatsoever. Sergeant Orson frowned.
“And you,” he said to me.
“Battle games,” said I without expression. “I’m very, very good at battle games, Sergeant.”
“You mean strategy, Cadet?”
“Of course, sir. What else is there?”
One day, just for exercise, I decided to run up the track along the cliff to the clearing where we had built the walls. I had some free time, and though the shadow on the cliff side was only a tiny mystery, I never did like mysteries, especially ones that might be solvable in an hour or so of free time.
Getting up the wall was only a minor problem. There were a number of grips and good places to put one’s feet if one had the wits to see them and remember where they were when the time came to climb down. The shadow was indeed the very narrow entrance to a cave, one that would show up only when the sunlight hit it at a particular time of day. I climbed onto the lip of it with some elation. Since it was morning, there was no sunlight to fall inside the west-facing entrance, but I’d brought a torch, just in case. It lit a level floor that went straight in, past a dark recess to the left, then bent around a corner to the right. I walked it quietly, just in case there was something in residence, though it didn’t seem likely. Unless it was something with wings.
I had no sooner had the thought than the torch was knocked from my hand by a flurry of wings, headed out. Birds! Rather large birds. They circled over the clearing, complaining loudly at my intrusion. I
