Forest of Illusions (The Broken Prism) (15 page)

The rest of his classes were uneventful, and by the time Hayden went to bed that night he began to think that maybe Master
Laurren had been too hard on the Fias in his assessment the night before, and that things would be alright until the Masters got back from the Forest of Illusions.

He was proven wrong almost immediately the following day. No sooner had he sat down to breakfast with his friends, when
Fia Eldridge addressed them from the high table at the back of the hall (the Fias didn’t want to mingle with students and had their own special table set up the night before).

“If I could have everyone’s attention, there are a few notices I would like to make before classes commence for the day,” he said in a raised voice, and gradually the room fell silent.

Tess frowned as though bracing herself for the worst, and Bonk picked listlessly at a cube of beef that Hayden had laid out for him.

“First, I would like you all to make note of a change in the way that materials are requisitioned for your classes. Each of your instructors will be given a s
tack of these Material Request Forms.” He held up a sheet of paper that none of them could read from where they were sitting. “My colleagues and I have noticed an appalling waste of magical instruments and materials as a result of students being permitted to acquire them without justification. This waste of resources is costing the school an astonishing amount of money, as we are only beginning to discover through our preliminary auditing.”

For some reason he threw Master Sark a fleeting glare of displeasure, and Hayden was tempted to smile.

Sark must be doing like Master Laurren said he would, making things harder on the accountants and lying through his teeth whenever he can.

If so, he’d never appreciated his least-favorite Master as much as in this moment.

“Magical materials are only to be requisitioned for necessary classroom assignments and demonstrations, and will not be dispensed without proper justification,” Fia Eldridge continued amidst surprised whispers from the students. “If you have need of something, you will fill out one of these MRFs and get it signed by your instructor before bringing it to the dispensaries outside of the school.”

Zane leaned over and mumbled, “We won’t be able to have our combat practice anymore if they won’t give us supplies
to practice with!”

Hayden nodded grimly in understanding.
Looks like Laurren pegged them right after all.

“Secondly, we feel that there is an excess of untapped potential amongst the student body, as only a small number of higher-level students are accepted as apprentices to each of the Masters of the ten major and minor arcana. Since research into new expressions of magi
c is the single largest revenue-generator for the school, we would like all students who are in a level-four or higher class to choose a research topic for the year.”

The grumbling from the students was slightly louder now, and Hayden glanced at his friends to gauge their reactions. Zane looked appalled, Tess was grim, and Conner didn’t even notice
Tamon’s boa constrictor wrapping around his legs.

“These changes are effective immediately. Please submit your research topics to your instructors by the end of the week.” And with that,
Fia Eldridge resumed his seat and began eating.

“Are you kidding me?!” Zane burst out angrily as soon as the normal level of chatter in the hall resumed. “What in the world am I supposed to discover in Conjury, when I’m not even approved to draw mast
ery-level configurations yet? Reede doesn’t waste his time showing a roomful of level-fives how to do research; why do you think there’s so much competition for one of his mastery-level apprentice spots?”

“Looks like you’re going to have to wing it and hope for the best,” Conner said with a frown, finally noticing
Tamon’s boa constrictor and doing his best to pry the snake from his legs before it could squeeze him too hard. “Maybe we can fake it…you know, pick something that already exists and pretend to be working on discovering it. The Fias won’t know the difference.”

“Unless they can get our mastery-level instructors on their side, then they’d report everything to them,” Tamon added pensively.

Hayden said, “I doubt the mastery students are any happier with these changes than we are. They also know what the Masters would want them to do,
so I expect that they’ll cut us as much slack as they can.”

“You’re right,” Tess added solemnly. “Besides, they don’t have to hold out all year…just until the Masters get back and kick the
Fias out.”

None of them voiced what they were thinking: that the Masters might never return to Mizzenwald.
It was still too horrible to contemplate seriously.

“They’re doing exactly what
Laurren said they would,” Hayden changed the topic, “trying to make the school as profitable as possible so they can funnel the taxes back to the High Mayor in Kargath.”

“If I had known we’d have to fill out those stupid Material Request Forms, I wouldn’t have wasted chalk on my homework last night,” Zane grumbled. “I’ve only got half a stick left and it’s all I’m going to get unless I can prove I need it to cure seasickness or something.”

Conner snorted in dark amusement, and Hayden tried to cajole Bonk into eating a few more bites of meat.

“What’s wrong, Bonk? Upset stomach or something?” He didn’t like that his familiar wasn’t eating properly, and didn’t know how to console him.

“Do you think he’s sick?” Tess asked gently.

A wave of molten fear washed over Hayden at the thought. “I hope not; the last thing I need right now is for my familiar to be ill. Do dragons even
get
sick?” He’d never known Bonk or any of the others to be ill before.

The others shrugged their uncertainty, and Hayden resolved to see Torin about him if he didn’t improve in the next day or two.
They were mostly silent as they finished breakfast, and Hayden walked to Elixirs after eating only half of his normal breakfast.

Things didn’t improve as the week wore on. Nearly everyone was complaining about the Material Request Forms, which spawned a lot of creative and mean-spirited alternate names for the MRF acronym amongst the student body. Hayden had only partial prisms remaining to him, and was very careful not to use them at all—in case he actually needed them someday to defend himself. In fact, these days he didn’t even leave one equipped in his circlet, he merely kept them all stored on his belt alongside his wands and elixirs.

Every time he saw the
Fias outside of classes they were running through ledgers, quizzing Master Sark about every line item and growing progressively more annoyed with his unhelpful responses. Hayden walked past them one day in the Pentagon and slowed his pace to hear a snatch of conversation.

“…don’
t see what the big fuss is regarding one missing bunch of Alemnis,” Sark said in an offhanded tone.

“On its own it is insignificant,” one of the
Fias snapped, “but taken in whole with the fact that small amounts of materials have disappeared from the ledgers over the last five years, it is extremely concerning. If you added up the sum total of these lost materials, you’d have enough to supply a small army.”

Master Sark raised his eyebrows in mild skepticism and said, “Well, you’re the accountants, not I. Let me know when you’ve figured out how to balance the books.” He passed Hayden without even glancing at him, though Hayden was tempted to smile, knowing that Master Sark held a key identical to the one he kept in his pocket at all times that led to a hoard of magical weaponry.

True to his word, Hayden hadn’t told anyone else about the key, but he always kept it on him, even when sleeping, determined not to lose it. The other thing he kept on him at all times was the scrap of cloth he’d found at his father’s house, marked with the sigla of one of the sorcerer clans. At first he only kept this on him because it gave him something to wrap the key in to keep it from poking him, but after he’d heard rumors about the Fias searching students’ rooms while they were in class, he was determined not to give them anything interesting to find in case the rumors were true.

Bonk had resumed eating when Hayden threatened to take him to Torin for inspection, but only grudgingly, and he still seemed terribly depressed. He spent longer and longer periods of time flying around the grounds by himself, reminiscent of Cinder, and didn’t even bother trying to embarrass Hayden in public—a favorite pastime of his.

The only one who showed the strain worse than Bonk was Oliver Trout. His usual swagger vanished overnight, and now he rarely spoke to anyone except for his mentor, Master Sark. With Slasher perched silently on his shoulder at all times like a miniature gargoyle, it made him look like the harbinger of doom whenever he walked the hallways. Even Lorn didn’t
talk to his older brother much anymore, instead insisting that their combat group continue to meet on the weekends to review new spells even if they couldn’t practice them.

Really, the only remotely positive thing about being at Mizzenwald right now was that Hayden was getting better at math. If Master Asher survived the war, he would be pleased with his progress. He spent most of his time in Prisms class working on his research project, which was to try and map the new array he found completely and see if it did anything exciting. Given the thought of what happened to Master
Laurren when he tried an experimental alignment, Hayden wasn’t particularly looking forward to that part, and as a result he worked as slowly as possible to drag out the days while Fia Valay looked on.

For the first time since coming to Mizzenwald at the age of twelve, Hayden was looking forward to the summer holiday as a chance to escape the oppressive environment in the castle
, which was saying something, as there was a war going on outside of it.

10

Premonition

By the middle of the next week, Bonk had his first nightmare. The
dragonling started flailing about and screeching in the dead of night, waking Hayden and his three roommates and causing a bit of a panic.

“What’s going on?” Conner called out from his bed, lurching upright and rummaging for a sock. “Are we being attacked?”

“Ouch! Felix, get back here!” Zane called from the bunk beneath Hayden, cursing when his fox took off running in circles around the room; Hayden could see its shadow jumping onto desks and knocking papers over as it darted around.

“Sorry, it’s Bonk—” Hayden blinked sleep from his eyes and picked up the flailing dragon from his pillow. “I think he’s having a bad dream, and I can’t get him to wake up,” he said over the screeches coming from his familiar, shaking him gently and calling his name.

“Well bonk him over the head or something, before he wakes half the castle up!” Tamon growled in annoyance, rolling over and covering his head with his pillows to try and block out the noise. Felix jumped on him during one of his circuits around the room and he gave loose to a vent of ranting that was barely recognizable as human speech.

“Bonk, come on boy…wake up!” Hayden prodded his familiar more urgently, finally managing to get Bonk to open his eyes. “It’s me, boy,
it’s okay…you’re alright, it was just a nightmare.”

Bonk stopped screeching and flailing immediately, though he was panting from exertion and looked absolutely exhausted, flopping back onto his pillow like a rag doll.

Zane eventually got control of Felix and climbed up to check on Bonk while their roommates tried to go back to sleep.

“Is he alright?” Zane whispered, giving the dragon a concerned look. “He doesn’t look so good.”

“I think he’s just worn himself out from the nightmare. I don’t know why I couldn’t get him to wake up for so long…I’ve never even known him to have a bad dream before.” Hayden frowned, rubbing Bonk’s warm belly affectionately, which seemed to soothe his familiar.

“Yeah, that’s weird, dragons aren’t usually bothered by things like that…but Bonk’s always been a little odd for a dragon, so maybe that’s it.”

Hayden nodded, watching his familiar close his eyes and fall back asleep. “I had no idea he’d take Cinder leaving so badly. I know they were friends and all, but he seems really bummed out.”

“Maybe he’s reflecting some of your feelings,” Zane offered gently. “You know, familiars do have a good grasp of their master’s feelings about things, and sometimes they parody that. So if he thinks you’re horribly upset and worried…”

Hayden frowned and said, “But I’ve panicked worse than this before and he was fine. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m worried about Asher and the others, but I’m not having horrible nightmares or unable to focus on classes…”

Zane shrugged. “I have no idea then. He seems alright now though, so I’m going back to bed.” He climbed back down to his bed and settled in once more.

Hayden rolled over and watched Bonk for a few minutes, but when the dragon continued to rest peacefully, he eventually let sleep overtake him once more.

Hayden and his roommates were exhausted during lessons the next day, and when he explained what happened to Tess, she scooped up Bonk like a stuffed doll and let him sit in her lap for the entirety of breakfast and lunch, which seemed to please the little dragon.

He was barely able to stay awake through Abnormal Magic and Charms
, and he actually did doze off during lunch, waking only when his face slammed into his plate of vegetable-and-cheese casserole. This was almost worth the ridicule of his friends, because it seemed to brighten Bonk’s mood considerably, and the little dragon picked bits of broccoli from his face and hair while Hayden tried to clean himself up properly.

He
was several minutes late to Prisms, as he had to detour to the restroom to make sure he didn’t still have any cheese in his nose, and when he hurried into the room to explain he found Fia Valay studying him with ominous interest.

“Sorry,
si—Fia, I fell asleep during lunch and had to clean up before class.” He shook himself mentally for nearly calling the Fia ‘sir’ as he took his seat, yawning. He would kill for a nap right now.

“Up late last night?”
Valay asked with apparently casual interest.

“My fa
miliar woke us all up, and I had a hard time resting after that.” Hayden shrugged it off, not wanting to share his concerns with someone he had already mentally labeled as an enemy. “I’ll get started on my research,” Hayden continued. “I had a question about tangents, actually…”

“In a moment,” the
Fia interrupted gently. “There is something else I wanted to talk to you about first.”

Immediately wary, Hayden said, “Oh?” with as much feigned politeness as he could manage in his tired state.

Valay was silent for a long moment; it looked like he was trying to figure out how to begin. Finally he said, “You are the son of Aleric Frost, the mage who is widely known as the Dark Prism.”

Hayden smirked and answere
d, “I was wondering when we’d get around to this talk.” He sighed and set down his pencil, stroking Bonk’s wings gently when the dragon alit upon his shoulder. “Yes, I’m his son. Go ahead and ask whatever it is you’re curious about.”

The
Fia didn’t look surprised by his resigned attitude.

“I believe you started attending school here at the age of twelve?”

“Yes. I was a bit late getting started since I was in Binders until the Council of Mages could agree on what to do with me.” Hayden figured that there was no point hiding information at this point, since it was easy enough to confirm with the High Mayor anyway.

“And since that time, there have been all sorts of wild rumors throughout
Kargath and the rest of Junir regarding your progress.”

Hayden tried to look politely interested, remembering the warnings he’d gotten from Master
s Laurren and Asher about his reputation.

“Oh? I don’t really get out a lot, so I don’t know what the local gossip is.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

Fia Valay smiled patiently and explained, “Well, for instance…there’s the story of how you took down a fully-grown dragon after only a few months of schooling during your first year.”

“That was more Bonk than me,” he said with a nod to his familiar. “He did most of the actual work while my friend Zane and I ran around panicking. We tried to explain to people what happened afterwards, but they insisted on giving us credit for it in Calypso.”

Valay’s eyebrows lifted at this unexpected information. He rallied almost immediately and continued the questioning.

“Well, I suppose that makes sense. But surely there’s no denying that you managed to outperform the prism-users from four other schools last year to win the Inter-School Championship?”

Again Hayden shrugged and said, “Sure, I guess…though a lot of that was dumb luck and good coaching from Master Asher. If my Foci weren’t so badly warped, I would have been as useless in the final challenge as everyone else.”

That wasn’t true, but only Asher and he knew that for certain. It wasn’t Hayden’s warped Foci that saved him from the effects of the Resonance Crystal in the Forest of Illusions last year, but the Mastery Charm that Asher had given him without his knowledge at the beginning of the year.

“And how are you able to use your Foci with so much correction on them?” The Fia gestured towards the three-inch correctors on each of Hayden’s wrists. “I don’t know much about magic, but don’t correctors dampen your power significantly?”

Hayden shrugged and said, “Search me. I’ve been wondering that for years now, but I don’t remember what happened on the day my house blew up, so I really can’t tell you
what happened to my Foci after that.”

Valay
frowned thoughtfully and said, “It seems unlikely that you don’t remember anything from such a life-changing event.”

Hayden gave the
Fia a flat stare. “Sorry, I was kind of busy getting blown up, or I might’ve taken better notes.”

The
Fia waved a dismissive hand at his sarcasm and continued, “The High Mayor led me to believe that you were ambitious and eager to prove yourself, not unlike your father. Yet you sit here and attempt to discredit everything you’ve ever done.”

“I don’t know how the mayor got it into his head that I’m ambitious—I’ve only met him once, and all I was asking for was a tour of my family’s estate.” He turned his gaze to Bonk, stroking his scaly back with one finger. “I’m not any more powerful or talented than anyone else, and I don’t pretend to be. Why does the High Mayor care if I’m ambitious, anyway?”

He already knew the answer, but wondered how much Fia Valay would reveal to him.

“Well, with your reputation and your elevated amount of power, he was wondering if you were interested in helping defend
Junir—the entire continent, really. Your Masters assured him that you are ill-qualified and would much rather focus on the trappings of teenage life, but we couldn’t help but wonder if they were mistaken.”

Hayden took a moment to compose his thoughts before speaking again, because he very much wished he was fighting with the Masters right now, ill-qualified or not. Anything would be better than sitting around at school, waiting for news while other people did the real work.

“It sounds selfish when you say it like that,” he began. “But I’m fourteen, and I’ve been trying to live down my father’s legacy for the last four years. So what if I want a little peace and quiet…a little normalcy for a change?”

Fia
Valay stared at him for a long moment, as though Hayden was a math problem that wasn’t adding up correctly but he wasn’t sure exactly where the error was. Finally he said, “It’s also been suggested that perhaps you don’t want to fight because you have aspirations of joining the sorcerers in their conquest, should they succeed; like father, like son, some would say.”

Hayden felt the blood rush to his face, but before he could even open his mouth to say something scathing in response, Bonk flapped his wings furiously and spit fire at the
Fia, causing him to lurch back in his chair and check his eyebrows to make sure they were intact. Hayden’s familiar gave Valay an unquestionably disdainful look, turned around on Hayden’s shoulder, and flashed his butt at the Fia.

Hayden’s teeth were clenched so tightly it felt like he had lockjaw, but he took a breath and forced himself to say, “Should I ask that question about tangents now?” in a voice of credible politeness.

Scooting his chair back to keep clear of Bonk, the Fia nodded, and the subject returned to prisms and math.

Tamon spent most of that night lamenting the inconsistency of the punishment system of the Fias to anyone who would listen. Bonk had spit fire at Valay, and Hayden hadn’t been punished at all (though Hayden still heartily believed that doing trigonometry for an hour was the worst punishment a person could receive), whereas Tamon had to spend an hour scrubbing floors after dinner because his boa constrictor had apparently snuck up on Eldridge and tried to eat him after lunch. Zane and Conner agreed that the worst part of the entire ordeal was that the snake failed in his mission to rid Mizzenwald of a Fia that day.

“I had to fill out one of those
Massively Ridiculous Forms today for conjury chalk so I could try a new configuration,” Zane groaned mutinously. “Fia Gravus spent ten minutes asking me why I couldn’t use normal drawing chalk instead and just pretend it was a real summoning circle.”

“For as bad as I am at conjury, I might as well have been using normal drawing chalk during Master
Reede’s classes,” Hayden opined mournfully, which got a laugh from his friends.

Zane rolled his eyes and flopped onto his back in bed, nearly squashing Felix in the process.

“I’ve heard that the material vendors are all mad about the request forms too,” Tamon added in a conspiratorial whisper, “because it’s bad for their business if they aren’t selling any materials. That’s the only reason they relocated their shops to Mizzenwald in the first place, to make money.”

Hayden could understand that, and hoped that they wouldn’t get so unprofitable that the vendors all packed up shop and left, because then there would be no hope of getting materials even if they needed them.

“Things will have to change soon,” he ventured hopefully, eyeing Bonk speculatively as he settled into bed. “It can’t go on like this forever…maybe things are just starting out rough but they’ll relax a bit as time goes on.”

“I hope you’re right,” Conner mumbled. “Something tells me that things are only going to get worse from here on out until the war is over.”

There was nothing any of them could add to this ominous prediction, so they all turned to their homework or went to bed. Hayden decided to turn in early tonight because Bonk had been restless for days and kept him from sleeping properly at night.

Unfortunately it was another bad night for the
dragonling, who woke them all up with another screeching nightmare in the early hours of the morning. This prompted Tamon to wonder aloud whether Bonk might be more useful as dragon-soup than as a familiar. Hayden was pretty sure his friend was joking, but warned Bonk to stay away from the kitchens, just in case.