Though the Brightest Fell

(Based on Mary Renault's The Charioteer)

Laurie stood in the wings as tempest roared and flashed over a blasted heath.  It occurred to him briefly that the stage had remarkable lighting for a mere school production.  Either the equipment was something rather unusual or Carter was surpassing himself.  However, his study mate could be quite ingenious, and Laurie thought no more of it.  As he played Macduff, he was not himself in this scene, and had the leisure to look at the production with a critical eye.  The witches were overplaying their role, he considered, though they were clearly enjoying themselves.  This was more than could be said of young Barnes, who had been conscripted to play Lady Macbeth.  For that matter, Laurie himself had not intended to take part in this year s school play; but Mr Jepson had left him little choice, appealing as he did to school spirit and the previous year s Horatio.  With his experience at fencing, the housemaster assured him, Odell could coach the others to a spectacular climax that would thrill the juniors and terrify their mothers.

Last year, it had been his own fumbling attempts with the foil that had required special coaching an attention from Lanyon that still guardedly thrilled him.  He felt rather guilty, therefore, at modestly accepting credit without more than token demur.  Mind you, he was not surprised that, amid his plaudits for Laurie s performance as Horatio, Jeepers had somehow omitted to praise the person who truly deserved it.  But then, a strange silence surrounded Lanyon s departure. The talk of the dorms at the end of the previous term, it was somehow never mentioned when the school reconvened after the hols.  Of course, in the natural way of things, Lanyon would have been gone anyway:  all his class had also left, to the family firm, or university, or Sandhurst.

For some unfathomable reason, however, the House enjoyed the dubious pleasure of Hazell s return.  Why his family had not, in the wake of scandal, sent him to sully a clean slate at a new school Laurie could not understand.  Certainly, none of the boys thought him innocent in the matter; and, if not quite sent to Coventry, Hazell certainly was left in no doubt that, from the perspective of his peers, he was persona non grata.  Perversely, Jeepers had taken him under his wing.  Perhaps he thought him salvageable.  In Laurie s opinion, it was a waste of effort though he recognized a certain irony, since he, too, cast the other student as arch villain.  He did not appreciate that the talent Hazell brought to the stage had played even better in the housemaster s study.

Lurking in the wings as the witches prophesied, Laurie patted the hilt of the foil that hung at his side.  His voice was in his sword.  They would meet in the final act.