Next came Derrick, followed by James, Edmund, and Conrad. After them came Luther Leicester, and then Jasper Hallworth and three of his friends from second year, and then Edmund's friends from the choir, and the two altar boys called John and Paul who were cousins, and then Edmund's brother, Peter, and two enormous boys from third year, and after that, Henry was so overwhelmed by the continuous arrival of students that he scarcely would have noticed had Sir Frederick himself come bursting through the doorway.

Gradually the room became bright, filling with lanterns and candles. They flickered merrily, some from the bottom of the stairwell, others from the tops of crates, and still more from the tarnished wall sconces. Henry surveyed the two dozen students, panic rising in his throat. He hadn't expected so many, and certainly not third years.

"Go on," Valmont muttered, clearing his throat with impatience. "We should start."

"Er, h.e.l.lo," Henry said meekly. "Thank you for coming. For those of you who don't know us, I'm, er, Henry Grim, and this is Fergus Valmont." Henry closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then looked down at his notes, only to find that he'd inadvertently memorized them.

"You're all here because you are free thinkers," Henry recited, pleased to hear that his voice no longer sounded shaky or unsure. "Because you've questioned flimsy explanations, noticed the warning signs that are so easy to miss, or read the gossip magazines without scoffing at the stories contained within their pages. You're here because the Nord lands are plotting something dreadful, and because you are no longer content to sit and wait for their inevitable attack.

"As the ancient Greeks said, *To rebel in season is not to rebel.' Gentlemen, we are here to prepare ourselves to fight. We are here so that Yurick Mors does not emerge victorious. And we are here because we are knights, and knighthood is not Latin verbs and history essays."

At this most of the first-year students clapped loudly. Henry's cheeks reddened. His half was over. Now it was Valmont's turn.

"Grim and I have weapons and training manuals. We're not experts, and Grim here isn't even an advanced fencer-"

"Right, thanks," Henry said, rolling his eyes as everyone laughed.

"But if we can do it, there's no reason you can't learn as well," Valmont continued. "However, we come here with great risk. And so, if anyone should ask, this society doesn't exist. Any bruises and sc.r.a.pes you might earn are because you tripped and fell." Valmont stared out at the sea of students, making sure they understood what he was saying.

"There's a suit of armor," Valmont continued, "posted just outside the dining hall. On its breastplate is a fleurde-lis. If the fleur-de-lis is upside down at breakfast, there will be a meeting that night. This way we don't raise suspicions with a regular meeting schedule, or whispering among ourselves to spread the word. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yeah, kid, I've got one." It was Edmund's brother, Peter. "Where'd you get all of those weapons?"

"Henry and I found them," Derrick said.

"We did," Henry confirmed. "Inside of a closed-off cla.s.sroom with some old books." Peter nodded, apparently satisfied.

"If there aren't any more questions," Valmont said, "we'll move on to demonstrating a blade-to-blade disarming technique-"

"I have a question, actually," a huge boy from second year called. "You seem a bit too certain that the Nord-lands are preparing for war. There's undoubtedly something odd happening up north, but maybe it's not what we think. Maybe it's nothing to do with us."

The room filled with whispers.

Henry and Valmont exchanged an uneasy glance. He would have to tell them, Henry realized.

"Do you remember when we all went up to the Partisan School?" Henry asked. "I got lost one night and wound up in a room full of weapons and combat ranking charts."

More whispers.

"The Nordlands have violated the Longsword Treaty," Henry continued, and a few students exchanged skeptical glances. "Headmaster Winter believes it, but without proof, we have nothing. The room disappeared. The board of trustees won't listen. Everyone knows war is coming, but no one wants to cry wolf."

"Well, what I want to know," another third year called, "is why you're in charge. You're first years."

Henry blanched. "Er," he said. "Well, if you want to vote-"

"I vote for Henry," Derrick called. "Because I can barely keep up with my lessons as it is, and he managed to put all of this together and still check my Latin homework."

"Valmont did most of it," Henry muttered, even though it wasn't true. Valmont had refused to do any of the grunt work, retorting that he'd do as he pleased and would be d.a.m.ned if he took orders from a former servant.

"If someone else wants to be in charge for the next meeting," Valmont said loudly, "he should raise his hand now."

Everyone shifted nervously but no hands raised.

"Look," Henry said, "these weapons belong to the school. If you come down here and practice on your own, that's fine. We just wanted to get everyone together, and Valmont and I had been planning to follow the training manual in order."

"What manual?" James asked.

Henry removed the copy of Pugnare from inside his blazer and handed it over.

James frowned. "But this is in Latin."

"I know," Henry said patiently. "Most things were, back then. I've been translating it in the evenings, and it's giving me a b.l.o.o.d.y headache figuring out some of the terms."

"We'll answer any further questions after the meeting," Valmont cut in, daring anyone to interrupt as he calmly fastened his glove. "I think we've talked enough, and I want to make sure everyone has time to learn the basics of disarming."

"Does anyone already know how?" Henry inquired.

Silence. Everyone looked expectantly at Henry and Valmont.

Henry picked up his blade and took his guard.

"Right," Valmont said. "Lesson one, disarming your opponent. It's extraordinarily useful and not too hard to learn. Watch as I disarm Grim, and stand back if you don't fancy catching a sabre to the face."

Everyone backed up uneasily. Valmont made a flashy cut with his blade before settling into the on guard position.

Their blades clashed, and Valmont let Henry drive him backward. The distance between them closed. Henry lunged into an attack. At the last moment Val-mont parried to the inside with a forward recovery, wrapping his blade vertically around Henry's.

With Henry's sword still in the bind, Valmont lifted upward. The pressure on Henry's thumb was too much; his blade went flying.

Henry retrieved the blade while his cla.s.smates whispered about what they'd seen.

"What just happened?" Valmont asked.

James called out the moves as though he were referee at a fencing match.

"That's right," Valmont said. "However, in nonfencing terms, I waited for his attack, captured his blade to the inside, and levered it out of his grip using pressure against the natural bend of the thumb."

Henry and Valmont went through it step by step, with Henry fencing three more demonstrations, swapping swords to fence two of them right-handed.

"We'd like you to partner up and try it yourselves," Valmont called. "You'll have to take turns with the sabres." Half of the students took their blades and spread out. The others watched eagerly. Henry and Valmont walked around the room, watching and making corrections if needed. Most of the second and third years got it immediately, and Jasper laughed loudly as he disarmed a freckled boy called Geoffrey with far too much force, sending Geoffrey's weapon halfway across the room.

"Careful!" Henry cautioned. "You don't want to hit someone-or knock over a lantern."

Jasper made a face, but his next go was much more subdued. Satisfied, Henry moved on.

Edmund was struggling to perform the move against scrawny Percy Barnes, and Valmont impatiently corrected Edmund's forward recovery in a manner nearly as terrifying as that of Lord Havelock.

"Could you be a bit nicer about it?" Henry whispered after Valmont had moved on to the next pair.

"Why? He got it right in the end, didn't he?" Valmont snapped.

"Fine. Do what you want," Henry snarled in return.

By the time everyone was reasonably sure that they could disarm an opponent, it was so late that it was actually rather early. Henry began to gather the sabres.

"Not too shabby, Grim," Jasper said, handing Henry his blade. "I have to admit, I came mostly just to see whether or not you could pull it off."

"Really?" Henry asked with a grin. "Is that why you brought along three friends?"

"Pure entertainment value," Jasper said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Right," Henry said with a knowing smile.

"Oi, Henry, are these from the armory?" Adam called across the room. He had an armload of sabres, and Rohan stood next to him with the gloves.

"You don't have to help," Henry said, walking over.

"Well, you've done enough," Rohan put in. "It can't have been light work, organizing this."

Valmont broke away from his conversation with Luther and noticed that Henry, Adam, and Rohan were carrying most of the equipment.

"Here you are, Grim," Valmont said with a brutal smile, dumping five more blades into Henry's arms and picking up the lantern at Adam's feet. "I'll see you at chapel."

"Oi, that isn't fair!" Adam complained.

Henry sighed. He should have seen this coming.

"I don't mind," Henry said, in a tone that suggested he minded a great deal.

"You see? He doesn't mind," Valmont gloated.

"Give me that," Rohan said, s.n.a.t.c.hing the lantern. "If you insist on being rude, you could at least have offered us the lantern."

"That's not how being rude works," Adam explained patiently.

Henry stifled a laugh. "See you at chapel, Valmont," he said coolly.

With a huff Valmont felt his way up the dark staircase.

"No sense giving him any lamplight after pulling a dirty trick like that," Rohan said primly.

Once they were certain Valmont had a long head start, they set off to return the equipment to the armory.

"Do you know," Adam whispered thoughtfully, "you and the a.r.s.e-toad actually make a decent team."

"I thought it was useful," Rohan whispered. "Since disarming doesn't count in a bout, I've never been allowed to try it before."

Henry bit his lip at the unexpected praise from his friends.

After depositing the equipment in the armory, they crept back to the dormitory in silence and changed into their pajamas.

"This might really work," Henry whispered, half to himself. A few days before, he hadn't even dared to think those words, but now he was confident of their inherent truth. The battle society would make a difference, somehow. It would change things.

And, strictly speaking, Henry was not wrong. But secrets, shameful or otherwise, have a way of getting out. Like wild animals captured and caged, they cannot be kept easily, for their dearest ambition is to run free.

13.

SNEAKING AND SECRETS.

Over the next two weeks the battle society met regularly. Henry or Valmont would flip the fleur-de-lis before chapel, and when they'd arrive at breakfast, there would be an indefinable change at the first-year table-a sort of smug knowingness that put Theobold on edge and made Argus Crowley's face take on a pinched expression, as though someone had slipped a dung beetle into his tea.

"You didn't slip a dung beetle into Crowley's tea, did you?" Rohan whispered to Adam on the morning of what was to be the fourth battle society meeting.

"It wasn't me," Adam promised. "That's just how his face looks."

Henry snickered.

"You shouldn't make fun of people's faces," Rohan snapped.

"I wasn't," Henry replied. And then, because he couldn't resist, he said, "I was laughing while Adam did."

"Hey, Henry?" It was Edmund, his face pale and his eyes shadowed.

"What's wrong?" Henry asked, shifting his grip on his satchel so he could turn the fleur-de-lis back to its normal position.

"I don't think I can make it to-well, you know," Edmund admitted miserably.

"Why not?" Henry asked, falling into step with Edmund as they headed toward their fencing lesson.

"Theobold suspects something. He's being even worse than usual. I think he wiped his boots on my pillow. Well, I hope it was his boots."

"That's awful. I'm really sorry, Edmund." Henry certainly sympathized. It couldn't be easy having Theobold as a roommate, especially after Edmund's brother had gotten into a fistfight with Theobold's.

"You should go down to the laundry and ask for another pillowcase," Henry suggested.

"I will."

"Actually," Henry said, holding open the door to the armory and dropping his voice to a whisper, "when you have a moment, could you ask Peter if he'd show us how to throw punches?"

"He'd be delighted," Edmund said dryly. "He's wild about boxing. Spent one summer traveling around on a caravan playing his fiddle with the gypsies and starting alehouse brawls."