Monday, November 17, 2003

   Crowncity

The journey to Crowncity was not a hard one, and not overly long. After about a week of sleeping in inns when they were available, and under the stars when they were not, Jack and Mark arrived at their destination. When they got there, the two boys went straight to the Arena; the giant stadium where there was almost always some kind of tournament going on. The Arena was located right outside the Crowncity Knight Academy, probably to encourage the young men and boys training inside. Jack and Mark joined the ring of people around the Arena, and watched as two knights dueled on horses. The crowd consisted of many different kinds of people, as travelers came from all corners of the kingdom to see these competitions. Jack was fascinated by the competition and would have stayed longer, but Mark had seen it before. “I’m hungry,” he said. “Let’s go see what they’re selling at the booths.” “But we only just got here!” Jack said. “I came to see the knights—aren’t we going to watch them?” “We can see them in a little bit,” Mark replied. “They’ll be at it all afternoon.” Reluctantly, Jack followed Mark as he wound his way out of the tournament crowd and into the marketplace crowd. Crowncity was much larger then Midsummer, but Jack hardly noticed; he was thinking about knights. “How do you become a knight anyway?” Jack asked. “I mean, I know you’re going to a school and all, but . . .” “Well, everyone knows that you can’t become a knight until someone knights you, and no one will do that until you’ve proved that you are worthy of the honor, right?” he looked inquiringly at Jack and Jack nodded—he knew that much at least. “Right,” Mark continued, “but mostly people aren’t knighted until they’ve become a squire, and you can’t become a squire until a knight asks you to be his. You’re more likely to become a squire if you’ve already been a page, and that’s why they have knight schools—to teach people how to be pages and squires, and eventually knights. Understand?” Jack nodded again. Mark went on, “The better the school you go to, the better the training, and your chances of getting chosen as a squire are higher. There is one thing, though,” he paused, “the better schools are more expensive—anyone with money can enroll, but someone with higher qualifications and less money can’t get in. No money, no school, no knighthood.” “Hmm,” said Jack. “Look—berry pies!” Mark said suddenly and pointed, “I love those things!” He grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled him toward the stand.

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