Cave of Nightmares (3 page)

“What are those?” he pointed at the etched murals all around them.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“You really don’t know anything about magic, do you?” She didn’t sound critical when she said it, but Hayden felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment. “Those are the major arcana.”

He decided not to humiliate himself further by asking what the major arcana were, assuming he would find out at some point. Maybe there was a library here where he would be able to investigate for himself, and no one would have to know how far behind he was. He hoped his teachers wouldn’t expect him to know how to use magic already, and began worrying silently about the terrifying possibilities.

They weren’t waiting for long. A girl a few years younger than Anna came out of a door on their right to greet them.

“New student?”
She gave his appearance a quick once-over, and Hayden wished he had brought nicer clothing. “Well, registration ended earlier in the week, but I’m sure we’ll be able to get you set up soon enough.” She turned to Anna. “Someone will be along in a few minutes to escort you to the guest quarters; you can rest here tonight and depart in the morning.”

She motioned for Hayden to follow her through the door and he looked helplessly at Anna, unprepared to say goodbye to his only friend so abruptly. She gave him a reassuring smile.

“It’s alright, Hayden. You’ll be just fine here, with lots to learn and new friends to make. In no time you’ll forget all about me.” She looked a little sad at the thought of that. Hayden didn’t quite believe that he’d forget her kindness, but he was afraid that if he spoke out loud his voice might crack with emotion, so he simply nodded and turned to follow the new girl.

“My name is Ella. I’m in my fifth year here,” she explained, making casual conversation as they ascended a staircase. “What about you?”

“I’m Hayden,” he replied evenly. “If you’re in your fifth year, does that make you seventeen?”

She laughed at that.

“Gracious no, why—do I look seventeen?” She beamed at the thought. “Most first years are ten or eleven, so I’m only fifteen. How about you?”

“I’m twelve,” he admitted sheepishly, embarrassed that he would be in a class full of people two years younger than him who would probably outperform him in every test.

“Oh, wow, you’re starting a bit late then.” She cast an eye over his appearance again. “Or are you a transfer student? Some of the western schools are letting kids as young as eight start their training these days, but I think that’s way too early, don’t you? Most people can barely wrap their heads around lessons even at ten, and we get the best of the best here. Where are you from, by the way?”

Hayden wasn’t sure which question she wanted him to answer first, so he decided to pick the one he was most comfortable with. “
Merina,” he replied.

“Oh, so you’re from
Junir, good. I know we have to let in a certain number of people from the other eight lands, but they’ve all got different standards and rules about magic and it makes it hard for them to fit in here, yanno?” She led him down the second floor and motioned for him to sit on a wooden bench against the wall in the hallway.

“I’ll go tell the administrator you’re here and see how quickly we can get you a meeting with the Masters to test you. It might take a few days to get them all in one place, because they’ve got busy schedules now that the new term has started,” she chatted amiably, and Hayden did his best to nod and pay attention, examining his reflection in the polished wooden floor. “You wait right here though, and I’ll be back to tell you the schedule and show you to the dorms.”

She had already taken three steps away from him when she stopped and turned around.

“Oh right, silly me, I never got your family name. I’ll need it to add you to the official roster so the administrator can clear you for supplies.” She smiled at him, and Hayden thought carefully about what Anna told him outside.

I could lie and use my mother’s name, but someone here might find out the truth and then I’ll be in serious trouble…

Sighing, he did his best to meet her gaze when he answered.

“Frost. I’m Hayden Frost.”

For a moment the cheery smile remained on her face.

“Frost? That’s weird, the only Frost family I can think of is—” her expression changed instantly, the color leaving her face. “Oh. Oh my, um…well…I’ll just go tell the administrator you’re here then.”

She was jogging by the time she got to the end of the hall and disappeared around the corner in her haste to get away from him; he could hear her footsteps against the wooden floor for a few moments after. Hayden put his head in his hands at the expected reaction, because it was the same way everyone reacted when they heard his surname these days. He was beginning to wonder if removing the lead bracelets made him any less a prisoner than before.

It took Ella a long time to return, or maybe it just felt that way because he was trapped here, alone with his unpleasant thoughts. She looked mildly uncomfortable when she addressed him now, though she was doing her best to smile.

“Um, the Masters are assembling now. I’ve been instructed to bring you to the testing chamber for them immediately.”

They set off down the hallway again, Hayden’s heart racing.

“I thought you said it would take days for the Masters to make time for me.”

“Normally it would, but uh…they’ve cleared their schedules for you. Kilgore even cancelled his level-four class today.”

That didn’t sound good, and Hayden wondered if they were going to insult him, refuse to teach him, and send him home. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they did. He didn’t love the orphanage in
Merina, but at least it was familiar to him, not like this strange new place. But the Council of Mages had told him he needed to come here, and he wasn’t sure what would happen if Mizzenwald wouldn’t take him.

They could have sent me to any school in the Nine Lands, and they picked the one that my father went to.
Some of the Masters here were bound to remember the man, and it probably wouldn’t do much to endear Hayden to them.

They turned down a series of corridors and Hayden became quickly lost. At one point they walked downstairs, then back upstairs, finally ending up in front of a doorway that looked identical to every other door they’d passed so far except that it was closed. Hayden was trying to mentally estimate how much money Mizzenwald must make in order to afford so many expensive wooden floors and marble wall-panels, because stone and brick were much cheaper. Despite the obvious richness of the materials, they had obviously gone to great efforts to make the place look tastefully simple and utilitarian, which sent kind of a mixed message.

“The Masters should be in there by now. Go on, you don’t want to keep them waiting or they’ll be cross with you,” Ella instructed, nudging him forward.

Hayden took a deep breath for courage and walked inside.

2

The Major Arcana

Five men in bright metallic-red robes turned to look at Hayden the moment the door shut behind him. They were sitting behind a long table, forcibly reminding him of the hearing with the Council of Mages. Each of the Masters wore a long burnished-gold necklace with a charm on the end, and it wasn’t until Hayden focused on them that he realized they were each wearing a different sign of the major arcana he’d seen in the main entrance.

The room bore no obvious clues as to how they would be testing him. In fact, it looked like a regular classroom, with a series of one-person desks grouped in a semi-circle that faced the Masters’ table. Not knowing whether they wanted him to sit, Hayden stood awkwardly in the empty space in the semi-circle and faced the front of the room.

“You are the son of Aleric Frost?” a man with a long braid of blond hair addressed him without preamble. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and was wearing the symbol with the strange circle of glowing light on his necklace.

“Unfortunately,” Hayden answered truthfully, eliciting a low chuckle from one of the others.

“You do not favor him in looks.”

“Good.” His temper was running short for people comparing him to his father today.

“Aleric hid you well. No one was aware of your existence until after his disappearance; quite a feat given his notoriety,” one of the other Masters spoke, the one with the crossed wands on his necklace.

“I don’t think he ever knew about me,” Hayden explained for the umpteenth time. “I lived with my mom, and she told me my father died before I was born.”

The Master with the phial of pouring liquid as his charm leaned forward. He was a stout man with his grey-streaked red hair knotted behind his head and a two-day patch of beard stubble on his cheeks.

“That was very smart of her,” he conceded. “And was your mother a mage as well?”

“She was a Cohen,” Hayden explained. “I heard that her family had mages in it, but I don’t think she ever could do magic herself. I think one of my cousins goes to Isenfall though.” He was certain of it, actually, because immediately following his mother’s death he’d expected to live with his uncle in Minir, only to learn that not even his mother’s family would take in the son of Aleric Frost.

It was beginning to unsettle him, having these powerful mages in red focused on him so intently, like they expected him to do something spectacular.

“Tell me then, Hayden Frost, how far are you in your study of the arcane?” the man with the crossed wands spoke again.

Hayden felt his cheeks burning; he knew almost nothing about magic.

“I didn’t know anything about it until my mom died…and then I wasn’t allowed to study or use magic after that. I had to wear lead bracelets called Binders until the Council of Mages told me I could take them off a few days ago. Then they sent me here.” Desperate to prove he wasn’t a complete lost cause, he added, “I know that there are five major arcana, so each of you must be the Master of one of them because you’re wearing the symbols from the foyer on your necklaces.”

He was greeted by five identical looks of shock.

“Good lord…” the Master of Wands muttered softly. “The boy knows
nothing
. He has the blood of the most powerful dark mage in the Nine Lands running through his veins, and he knows absolutely
nothing.
”

Hayden was beginning to feel lightheaded from all the blood accumulating in his face. It was giving him a headache.

“If the boy was forced into Binders and hidden from his father, it’s not surprising that he isn’t versed in the arcana,” the youngest Master spoke for the first time, giving Hayden an appraising look. His dark brown hair was messy and fell almost into his blue eyes. He wore the diamond symbol around his neck and a strange metal band around his head that was only partially visible beneath his curly hair.

“Well, I suppose there’s no point in going through the oral exam if he doesn’t even know the basics,” the Master of Wands sighed. “We might as well go directly to the practical portion and see what the son of Aleric Frost is made of.”

Hayden opened his mouth in surprise as the other Masters nodded agreement. Hadn’t he just explained to them that he knew nothing about magic? And now they were going to ask him to
perform
some?

“This should be interesting,” one of the Masters mumbled, though Hayden wasn’t paying attention to who spoke. All five of them rose from their chairs and motioned for him to follow through a door at the back of the room that he hadn’t noticed until now.

Hayden ended up walking behind the youngest Master and found himself asking, “What do I have to do in the practical test, sir?”

The man looked down at him, not unkindly, and answered, “You’ll be placed in a room with different magical tools to determine your major here,” he explained gently. “Whichever you show the most aptitude for will become your primary area of study at Mizzenwald.”

Hayden didn’t like the thought of his entire future relying on a test that he was utterly unprepared for, but it didn’t look like he had much choice in the matter. He didn’t think this would be a good time to mention that he didn’t even know what the five major arcana
were
.

“What happens if I don’t know how to use any of the stuff in there?”

The young Master gave him a sad smile as he said, “Then we’ll apologize for inconveniencing you and send you home.”

Hayden was terrified by the time he got to the end of the hall and stood before the closed door. The Masters were all lining up in front of peep-holes carved into the wood-paneled wall, probably so they could watch him while he was inside without interfering.

“Step inside and look around,” the young one told him. “If you feel a natural pull towards anything in the room, follow your intuition.”

Hayden nodded in understanding, though he didn’t, and opened the door in front of him.

The chamber was smaller than he expected, and cluttered. It looked more like a storage room than a testing area. Piles of different colored powders and grains were in the middle of the floor, and he had to walk carefully to avoid stepping in them, suppressing the urge to sneeze. There were tables littered with pieces of wood in various sizes and colors, along with some completed wands. Hayden drifted over to the table and stared down at them, but nothing about them made him feel magically-inclined, so he moved on.

There were stacks of papers all over the room, though Hayden had no idea which of the arcana they were supposed to belong to. Perhaps this really was a storage room after all….

He accidentally jostled the corner of a desk and sent a bottle of liquid crashing to the ground, where it shattered. Blue liquid seeped into the nearby stack of papers and Hayden winced and said, “Sorry,” to no one in particular as the paper began to smoke and curl at the edges.

There were dozens of other phials and flasks of liquid nearby, but they frightened him more than they intrigued him and he hurried past. Charms and talismans dangled on strings from the ceiling, but he didn’t know what they were for and avoided them entirely; one of them looked like it had a human finger-bone in it. He recognized a pack of ordinary drawing chalk on a nearby table and examined it briefly, oddly comforted by the familiar object.

Mom and I used to draw outside with chalk when it was sunny out.

A glimmer of green light caught his eye near the room’s only window.

Moving towards the light, he saw that it was coming from what looked like a large diamond sitting on a stool. Unlike everything else in the room, there was only one of these, and Hayden approached it cautiously, drawn by the multicolored bits of light it cast on the walls in the rays of the sun.

He picked it up by the edges, surprised by how lightweight it was. Upon closer examination it seemed to be made out of glass instead of diamond, but it was mesmerizing all the same, filling the palm of his hand. Hayden noticed a strange metal
band resting nearby and picked it up as well, inspecting the hinges on either side and noting that it made a circlet that was big enough to fit around his head.

Maybe that’s what it’s meant for.

Without really knowing why he was doing it, Hayden rested the circlet around his forehead and locked the hinges into place. It fit snuggly. There was a strange piece of metal that hung down over his right eye, forming a smaller circle that he was now looking through, like half a pair of glasses but without a lens.

Why would anyone wear a metal headband like this?

There didn’t seem to be anything magical about it, but Hayden suddenly became aware of the glass diamond in his hand. He held it up in front of his face, noting that one side was circular but flat, while the other tapered to a point. Without really thinking about it, he brought the diamond to his face and twisted it into the circular frame over his right eye, pointy-side facing out.

The effect made him gasp in amazement. All he could see through his right eye was an array of colors, every color in the rainbow, scattered in front of him in the light of the sun. His left eye allowed him to see the room normally and kept him from getting queasy, and Hayden turned slightly to allow more of the sun’s light to strike his face through the strange diamond.

The colors were mesmerizing, but there was something unsatisfying about them. Touching the frame of the eyepiece, he found that he could spin the entire thing around. The monocle made a satisfying clicking noise as he rotated the glass diamond slowly, watching the pattern of colors shift and change in front of his right eye. He stopped when he found an array that was pleasing to him, shivering from the coolness of the room, which was surprising given how warm it was outside.

Just as he wished it was warmer in here, something sparked in front of him and he was suddenly facing a wall of fire that hadn’t been there a moment before, blocking the window as the room rapidly filled with smoke and he began to cough.

He shouted as a stack of papers burned up to his left. The door banged open behind him and the Masters flooded in. The Master of Wands grabbed one of the wands from the table and pointed it at the flames, sending jets of water at the base of the fire. The young Master who spoke to him earlier was wearing the same metal headpiece that he was, and had a diamond of his own in the eyepiece that he must have pulled forward since he last saw him. He gave it a quick twist and the fire seemed to draw inwards like a cinched belt until it vanished entirely.

Hayden coughed from the residual smoke and moved away from the window, pulling off the strange headpiece as he went and stumbling over a pile of pink sand.

“Well, that was more exciting than usual,” the Master removed the diamond from his eyepiece and tucked it into a slotted belt around his waist, where Hayden saw half a dozen more of them lined up. It was then that Hayden realized his own glass diamond had vanished from the eyepiece entirely, though he had no idea where it went.

“What in the blazes were you trying to do, boy?” the red-haired Master demanded indignantly, and one of the others smirked at his choice of words.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” Hayden haltingly explained. “I just thought the lights looked nice so I put it on, and then I felt cold and the fire just came from nowhere.”

The Master of Wands gave him a strange look.

“You were trying to summon heat and you made a wall of fire that large?” He frowned thoughtfully. “Your Focus must need adjustment.”

Hayden had no idea what a Focus was or why it would need to be adjusted, so he remained silent.

“Good thing we only keep weak prisms in here; he consumed that one entirely in one go,” the young Master looked more intrigued than upset about it.

“Does that mean that my major is that—prism thing?” He looked around hopefully, relieved that he had shown any sign of magical prowess at all. Until now he had thought they made a horrible mistake in bringing him here.

“Oh yes, you’re definitely a prism-user,” he nodded. “It looks like you’ll be seeing a lot more of me this year, so I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I’m Asher, the Master of Prisms at Mizzenwald.”

“Let’s not be hasty now,” the Master of the piles of colored-sand frowned. “Maybe it would be best to try him on some of the other arcana first.”

Master Asher scowled.

“Did you have your eyes closed just now? The boy is a natural prism. Without even knowing what it was he picked it up and assembled the head piece, turned it to the right setting for creating heat, and started an inferno. Burned up half the stacks of scriptures without even trying—I suppose we’ll need to replace those.”

“And you’re not worried about the obvious repercussions of empowering him with prisms?”

Asher gave his colleague a flat stare.

“Are you suggesting that I’m incapable of teaching the boy proper technique?” A long moment of tense silence followed, and Asher eventually ignored the other Master and turned back to Hayden. “Find me tomorrow and we’ll get you fitted for a headpiece of your own. Better get your Foci tested while we’re at it.”