Mirrorscape by Mike Wilks Page B

yourself lucky. It could have been worse. They could have smelt your shoes before they heard your accent.’
    Mel laughed. ‘I guess Fegie doesn’t seem so bad, after all. So those are the other apprentices. I can’t say I think much of them.’
    Ludo laughed with him. He was taller than Mel and his demeanour was lighter now that they were out of the refectory. ‘They’re OK, once you get to know them. But they’re scared of Groot. And his sidekicks, Bunt and Jurgis. They can be vicious – especially when they’re drunk.’
    â€˜Isn’t he, you know, a bit old to be an apprentice?’
    Ludo gave a dismissive laugh. ‘He should havegraduated years ago. But when the time comes each year to present the master with his apprentice piece he always comes up with some excuse or other.’
    â€˜What’s an “apprentice piece”?’
    â€˜It’s a painting that we all must produce on our own at the end of our apprenticeship, before the master passes us as journeymen.’ He looked at Mel. ‘You don’t know what a journeyman is, do you?’
    â€˜Afraid not.’
    â€˜It’s like a junior artist. The truth is Groot’s not that good. He’s lazy too, prefers to spend his time boozing and gambling. The master would like to boot him out, but he’s a Smert.’
    â€˜What’s a “smert”?’
    â€˜It’s not a thing. It’s his name. Groot Smert.’
    â€˜What’s so special about that?’
    â€˜Don’t you know anything? The Smerts are only one of the most powerful families in Vlam, that’s all. They’re related to the Brools and the Sputes.’
    â€˜Not the High-Bailiff?’
    â€˜The same. Groot’s his nephew. What’s the matter? You’ve gone as white as a sheet.’
    â€˜It’s … it’s nothing. It’s just that I’ve met Adolfus Spute.’
    Ludo and Mel mounted some stairs. ‘So the master gave you a free apprenticeship then. You must be good. May I see?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Groot said it’s rubbish.’
    â€˜You don’t get it, do you? If it was rubbish he would have ignored it.’ Ludo took some of Mel’s new clothes so he could look at a drawing. ‘Wow! This is great, Mel! Groot couldn’t draw like this until he’d been here years.’
    A broad grin cracked Mel’s face.
    Ludo pushed open a door. ‘This is the dormitory. You can sleep there, next to me.’ He indicated a vacant bed. ‘You can stash your stuff in there,’ he said, opening a cupboard and placing the clothes inside. ‘And look here.’ He knelt down and showed Mel where a board was loose at the back of the cupboard, revealing a shallow space. ‘Great for hiding things you don’t want the others to see.’ He winked at Mel. ‘You can pin your drawings up next to your bed, we all do. I’ll fetch some drawing pins while you get changed.’
    Mel quickly discarded his coarse tabby garmentsand changed into his new livery. They were the finest clothes he had ever worn. The shirt and the hose were made of white silk, the doublet of the softest deep blue velvet and the ankle-boots of supple doe-skin.
    Mel folded his old clothes and placed them inside his cupboard. As an afterthought, he secreted his bodkin and little box behind the loose board, pushing the box especially far down so that only an arm as small as his could retrieve it. He laid his drawings on the bed, placing the defaced portrait of his mother to one side. With a few strokes of his hand the malicious Groot had turned a thing of beauty into no more than a piece of stained paper. It was as if he had assaulted Mel’s mother. Mel felt a stomach-churning mixture of rage and sadness.
    â€˜Don’t you look smart? Almost like one of us,’ said Ludo as he returned. ‘But you need to add something of your own that sets you