The August 5 by Jenna Helland Page A

state, Tommy ground the paper with his boot until it was a pulpy mess.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Bern asked impatiently.
    â€œMaking father proud,” Tommy muttered, but Bern didn’t hear him over the roar of rover engines. A convoy of army vehicles bumped past them on their way to the Zunft Compound at the edge of the city, and everyone had to wait until they were gone to cross Linden Boulevard. Their street corner was getting crowded with commuters and Tommy studied the men waiting with them. Zunftmen in bowler hats with the Chronicle folded under their arms, heading home to the residential districts in North Sevenna. On the other side of the street, it was probably cottagers about to return home to South Sevenna.
    The boys were headed to a dinner party at their father’s town house a mile northwest of Seminary. Colston had sent a soldier to hand each boy a personal invitation, or a be-there-or-else summons, as Tommy preferred to think of it. They’d been at school nearly a month, and this would be their first visit with Colston. It would also be the farthest that Tommy had ventured into the city since classes began. Mostly, he stayed inside the Seminary walls. The library had the books he needed. The dining hall provided the meals, and anything else he could buy at the grocer’s on the corner of Dawson Street. There was a large newsstand at the north end of Seminary Square near the front gates. Sometimes he went there to buy the Zunft Chronicle . He’d strolled through the shops along Dawson Street and up to the pocket park called Sebastian’s Circle, but mostly he was too busy with classes to explore.
    â€œWhat’s your best class?” Tommy asked his brother.
    â€œNot the History of the Zunft,” Bern said. “The Sleepwalker makes me want to jump off a cliff. You’re so lucky you got Rannigan.”
    Tommy thought about telling Bern how Rannigan had treated Charlotte, but the last rover bumped by and the boys set off for their father’s again. Linden Boulevard was one of the main thoroughfares of the city, and it ran all the way down to the Lyone River across Fourth Stone Bridge and into the cottager district. This was the only section that was paved with cobblestones, but the rovers had tracked mud from the south along the road and by the time they reached the other side, Tommy’s trousers were speckled with mud.
    Once the boys crossed Linden, they had officially left the city center and entered the North District, which was the wealthiest quarter of the city. Most Zunft politicians and high-ranking officers kept their town houses in the North District. It was the only part of the city where the streets were well-maintained. The noise of the city faded as they strolled up the tree-lined avenues. The immaculate town houses and ornamental gardens formed a perimeter that blocked any view of the poor southern districts. From here, it was easy to pretend they didn’t exist.
    â€œHas Father ever hosted a party before?” Bern asked. “This is going to be hilarious.”
    Hilarious was not the word Tommy would have chosen when describing a formal evening with high-ranking Zunftmen and their bored families.
    â€œI hate this sort of thing,” Tommy mumbled. His collar was too tight around his neck. He felt like he was choking every time he tried to turn his head.
    â€œWhy?” Bern could never understand Tommy’s aversion to social events.
    â€œI’ve got things I need to do,” Tommy said. “Don’t you have loads of homework?”
    â€œOh, that reminds me—quit refusing the invitations from the lads,” Bern said. “It makes me look bad.”
    â€œHow does it make you look bad?” Tommy asked. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
    â€œYou’re the son of the chief administrator,” Bern chided him. “You have to do certain things. Act certain ways. And if you don’t,