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understood the look, and I nodded. “We’ll do our best.”
    He looked at Shault again, then turned and walked out of the receiving hall.
    “Haensyl . . . get Kuert Secondus. Shault needs something to eat before anything, and we need to get him set up with a room.”
    The younger primes still needed their own chambers, but that section of the east quarters was arranged so that all the younger primes were quartered close together.
    Kuert arrived in moments, his gray eyes taking in the worried-looking Shault. Then the second looked to me.
    “Kuert, this is Shault. He’ll need to eat something right away. He’s imaged several things, and he’ll need a room. I’ll have one checked while he’s eating. After he eats bring him back here.” That wasn’t the strict procedure, but Shault was pale, and I doubted that he’d hear or remember much until he ate.
    “Yes, sir.”
    After they left, I checked the available quarters and, thankfully, there were two rooms left in the section for the very young primes. Once we’d settled on a room, I asked Haensyl, “Is there anyone who you’d trust to take Shault under their wing?”
    “There’s Mayra. She just made second. She’s good with the young ones, and she’s here now. I saw her just a bit ago.”
    “If you’d see if she’d help settle young Shault.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Haensyl hurried off, but it seemed like only moments before he returned with an angular and gawky girl—close to being a young woman.
    “Master Rhennthyl.” She inclined her head.
    “The Collegium needs your skills with young Shault. He’s a taudis-boy, and being here is going to be hard on him for the next few days. Could you show him around today?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “He’s eating now.”
    “I can wait, sir.”
    “Thank you. Where are you from, originally?”
    “Gheant . . . it’s a village outside Extela.”
    “Do you miss the mountains?”
    “No, sir. I broke my arm chasing goats in the rocks. . . .”
    Before all that long, Kuert and Shault returned. Shault looked far more alert, and the paleness had vanished.
    “Are you feeling better?”
    “Yes, Master Rhennthyl.”
    I looked at Kuert and Mayra. “Mayra will accompany you two and spend a little more time with Shault. He’ll be in room nine in the junior prime quarters. I’ll need a few words with him first, though.”
    They both nodded, clearly familiar with that aspect of matters, probably more so than I was, I suspected.
    “Shault . . . if you’d come with me.”
    We walked to the conference room without speaking, and he took the chair on the side of the table. He looked lost in the large chair.
    “Shault . . .” I offered quietly. “You need to understand a few rules about Imagisle.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “The first rule is that you are not to try any more imaging except when a master tells you to try. The reason for this is simple. Imaging certain things will kill you. Imaging other things in the wrong place will also kill you. Youdon’t have to give up imaging, and you won’t. You will learn how and where to image. . . .” From there I went through the preliminary advising, although I did change the way I offered certain things, based on what I’d learned about the way things were done in the taudis.
    Then I walked him back to the two seconds, who escorted him out of the receiving hall.
    Haensyl looked up from the granite desk at me. “Sir . . . do many of them from the taudis make it?”
    “Some do, but it’s harder for them. Shault’s young enough that in some ways it will be easier, but he’s going to be lonely.”
    Haensyl nodded.
    I went back to the duty study, thinking. Concentrating on the patroller procedures was even more difficult, because I kept thinking of Shault. The remainder of the day was uneventful, except for the drizzle that began just before the evening meal.
    When I got to the dining hall, I was pleased to see that Mayra had arranged for several of the younger primes to