Owen didn’t believe him for a second, and he made sure Gareth could see it.
Gareth sighed. "All right. In our first year, the two of us got completely lost. We were trying to find our way to a part of the grounds we’d never been to, and William was absolutely certain he knew the way." He pointed at Owen. "He didn’t. He walked us straight in the wrong direction, and we ended up wandering around for ages."
"And you just followed him."
"He was very confident."
"So you didn’t know the way either."
"That isn’t the point."
"I think it’s exactly the point."
"It was William’s fault," Gareth said firmly. "That’s the end of it."
Owen laughed at him. Gareth folded his arms and looked out of the window with great dignity, and that only made Owen laugh harder.
They kept talking for a long while after that, about the people Gareth knew and nothing in particular.
"Do you actually enjoy it?" Owen asked eventually. "Being there?"
"I do," Gareth said, without having to think about it.
He was quiet for a moment.
"It isn’t always pleasant," he said. "Some of it is a lot harder than the rest. But I’ve made friends there. I’ve met some very capable people. I’ve done things I never would have done if I’d stayed home." He shrugged. "I wouldn’t trade it."
Owen could hear that he meant it.
Gareth complained every year about having to go back. But the way he had been talking for the last hour, the way his face changed when he remembered something, told Owen far more than the complaints ever had.
It made Owen want to see the place even more.
"Is it hard to get in?" he asked.
"Yes," Gareth said.
"How hard?"
"Every year there are candidates who turn up very sure of themselves," Gareth said. "Some of them have high cultivation. Some have very strong armaments. Some come from important families and think that’s enough." He shook his head. "None of that guarantees anything. If you can’t pass the examinations, they’ll turn you away. It doesn’t matter how strong you are or whose son you are."
"Even someone from a Great Family?"
"Even then. Your surname won’t pass the examination for you."
Owen thought about that.
He knew his abilities were unusual. No one else could do what he did with his armament, switching between properties the way he could. But he had no idea what the examination would actually test, and he couldn’t just assume that what he had would be enough.
"That sounds fair," he said.
"It is," Gareth said. "And getting in is only the start. Once you’re in, you still have to keep up. If you can’t meet their standards, or you cause serious trouble, you can lose your place." He looked at Owen. "Passing one examination doesn’t buy you a future there. You have to keep earning it."
"Have you seen it happen? Someone being sent away?"
Gareth was quiet for a moment.
"Not everyone who starts there finishes," he said.
He didn’t say anything else, and Owen didn’t ask him to.
The Academy could give him a great deal. But it wasn’t going to hand it over. He would have to earn it, and then keep on earning it.
After a little while, Owen came back to the question he had been waiting two weeks to ask.
"So what does the entrance examination actually involve?"
Gareth looked at him for a moment. Then he smiled.
Owen knew that smile. He had seen it every time he had asked about the Academy in the last two weeks.
"I can’t tell you that," Gareth said.
"Gareth."
"It’s better if you experience it for yourself."
"You’ve just spent the last hour telling me how hard it is to get in," Owen said. "How people with high cultivation and powerful families get turned away. And you won’t tell me what I actually have to do to pass?"
Gareth grinned. "That about sums it up."
"Can you at least tell me what kind of examination it is?"
"You’ll find out everything you need to know when it starts."
"That isn’t an answer."
"It’s the one you’re getting."
Owen stared at him. Gareth stared back, entirely unbothered.
"You know," Owen said, "for someone who’s been at the Academy for three years, you’ve been remarkably useless about the only thing I actually wanted to know."
"I’ll take that," Gareth said cheerfully.
Owen gave up.
* * *
The carriage carried on along the road. After a few more hours, it pulled off at a roadside stop.
It was nothing remarkable. A patch of trampled ground beside the road, a trough for the horses, a low wooden building where travellers could buy food. The horses snorted and stamped as the escorts saw to them, their harnesses jingling as they shifted, and one of the riders walked slowly around the carriage checking the wheels.
Owen and Gareth climbed down to stretch their legs and eat.
Owen watched the escorts while he ate. They worked quickly and without fuss, as though they had done this a hundred times. Nobody seemed worried about the road, and the driver didn’t even glance at a map. He clearly knew exactly where they were going.
When they set off again, Gareth was more relaxed than ever. He talked about home for a while, and about Mother, and about Agnes and Hugh.
"I’m sure the Ashcombe sisters are home safely by now," he said. "You must be missing them terribly."
"Don’t start."
"Both cheeks, Owen. I still can’t get over it."
"You’re going to be like this the whole way, aren’t you?"
"Only some of it."
Owen ignored him, and after a while, they moved on to other things.
Every so often, Owen looked out of the window.
At some point, he realised that he no longer recognised anything outside.
The road wound on through countryside he had never seen. They passed a village, and then another, but none of them told him anything about where they were or which way they were going.
He thought about leaning out and asking the driver.
Then he remembered what Gareth had told him. If even the Emperor didn’t know where the Academy was, Owen doubted the driver was going to tell him just because he asked.
He turned back to his brother instead.
* * *
Some time later, the carriage began to slow.
Owen noticed it because the rhythm of the wheels changed. The rattle softened, and the horses’ hooves began to ring against something firmer than the road had been. The carriage’s movement gradually settled.
He looked outside.
He didn’t recognise anything. There was no town in sight and nothing he could put a name to.
Outside, the driver called something to one of the escorts, and the escort answered. The walls of the carriage muffled both of them, and Owen couldn’t make out the words.
Another stop, maybe.
Gareth had glanced toward the window as well. He didn’t seem surprised that they were slowing down.
"Are we almost—" Owen began.
He yawned.
It caught him completely off guard. He hadn’t felt tired a moment ago. It must be the journey catching up with him, he thought. Hours of sitting in a carriage would do that to anyone.
He shifted in his seat and rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up properly.
But it was getting worse.
His eyelids felt heavy. He blinked, and then blinked again, and each time it was harder to open them.
Owen frowned.
He had slept well the night before they left. And the journey had been long, but all he had done was sit in a carriage and talk. There was nothing that should have made him this tired, this suddenly.
He straightened his back and tried to concentrate.
Across from him, Gareth yawned.
Owen saw him raise a hand to cover his mouth. Then Gareth blinked several times, slowly, the way Owen had just been doing.
That made Owen sit up.
Gareth was an Ascendant. A moment ago, he had looked perfectly comfortable and wide awake. And now he was fighting off the same tiredness, at exactly the same time.
This wasn’t natural.
"Gareth," Owen said. His voice came out thick. "Why am I so sleepy all of a sudden?"
Gareth turned his head toward him.
And Owen saw something in his face. Gareth didn’t look frightened. He didn’t look confused. He looked like someone who recognised exactly what was happening.
He opened his mouth to answer.
Before he could say anything, another wave of tiredness rolled over Owen, heavier than the last.
His head drooped. The edges of the carriage began to blur.
He tried to stay upright, but his body wasn’t listening to him anymore. Everything was slow, as if he were moving underwater.
Across from him, Gareth was slumping sideways against his seat.
Owen tried to keep his eyes on his brother.
The last thing he saw was Gareth’s eyes falling shut.
Then everything went black.