They approached the desks, eager to find out if their own individual seats would be designated, and saw that each desk was intended to accommodate two pupils, there being two chairs and two cards. The cards were exactly the same as the ones that had indicated their places for breakfast. Muko found that he would be sitting next to Amartia and behind Paidia and Gelio. They all sat down at their desks and looked around them. Each desk had a tall stack of books on it, tied with a belt. It seemed that each stack contained the same set of books - thick, dusty- looking tomes with leather covers which Muko reckoned would make for a very heavy bundle.
The curtain across the mouth of the passage was thrust to one side and Pythagoras reappeared.
“Right,” he said in his rapid old man's voice. “We can now start the class proper. But first,” he held up a finger to emphasise his point, “I have some important information to impart to you. You may or may not be aware, but you are in the Queen of Science Academy. What do you have in common? Well, you all have extraordinary mathematical minds. You will never be set easy tasks for homework. You are here for a reason. You will find out why when the time is right.”