The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) (13 page)

Master Asher smirked. “The second time, yes. I was eleven on my first go around.”

Hayden’s mouth dropped open d
umbly. “You were the best prism-user in the school when you were
eleven?
”

“Apparently,” he shrugged. “As you’ve seen, natural prisms are hard to come by. Anyway, that’s not important right now. Let’s see…
other relevant information…” he frowned, glancing at his chrono and yawning. “Oh yes, everyone in the competition will be using level-three prisms, in order to prevent naturals like you from equipping mastery-level prisms and wiping the floor with everyone else by default. So from that perspective, you’ll be on the same playing field as everyone else.”

That was mildly reassuring, because at least no one would be able to beat him just by virtue of having better instruments.
Hayden still had questions about how it felt to be so young in the competition, but it seemed that Master Asher had no desire to reflect on his school days, because he kept changing the subject abruptly back to Hayden.

“I see you’re wearing a defensive charm around your neck,” the Prism Master pointed to the shield Hayden had acquired just that morning. “Did you make it yourself?”

“Yeah—well, I put my own spells into it, but I didn’t make the actual emblem,” he explained.

“What’s on it?”

Hayden told him, and Master Asher lifted his eyebrows in acknowledgement.

“That’s probably the best you’ll be able to manage before the I.S.C. starts, and you’re allowed to bring one item from the minor arcana with you during the competition. I would advise wearing that charm at all times; it won’t block everything, but it will give you a constant, low level of protection against various attacks.”

“Yeah, that’s why I put so many spells on it, because I was hoping it would do me some good this year until I can make something better,” Hayden agreed.

“Good, so now that we’ve got that ironed out, I suppose I’d better start showing you some more useful arrays in your prisms. See if you can find a blank sheet of paper to take notes on and we’ll get started.”

Hayden glanced around the room doubtfully, because every scrap of paper he saw was covered in diagrams or calculations, and he didn’t want to go digging through piles of important research.

“Uh, I don’t see any…” he began, and Master Asher frowned and began rifling through a stack of papers in front of him in search for something to write on.

“Aha!” He grinned and handed Hayden a piece of paper that was covered in sketches on the front but had nothing on the back. “You can use the back of that; I don’t need those notes anymore.”

Unable to resist, Hayden asked, “How do you keep track of everything in here?”

The Prism Master looked surprised at being asked.

“I don’t, really. I lose things all the time,” he admitted with a shrug.

“Why don’t you try to be…you know…a bit neater?”

Master Asher snorted in amusement. “I’m much too smart to be organized.” He tossed Hayden a pencil that was sharpened almost down to the nub. “Alright, equip your rose prism and let’s begin…”

7

Valhalla

Hayden never knew that having such an exciting life could be so boring. The next two weeks were consumed with schoolwork, studying, extra lessons, and more studying. He barely saw his friends outside of classes and mealtimes, which Zane called attention to by reintroducing himself on the night before the Eastern Inter-School Championship was set to begin.

As soon as Hayden
was finished doing whatever task they set for him, in a place he’d never been, in front of an audience who would be judging him, he would have just enough time to hurry back to Mizzenwald and prepare for his team’s first challenge arena on the following night.

The only thought that sustained him right now was that according to Master Asher—who had been coaching him almost nightly in the use of prisms
for the last two weeks—there was a two-month break between the first and second trials for the I.S.C., so he would have time to slow down and relax if he could just make it through the next couple of days in one piece.

The first trial was set to take place at Valhalla, in the neighboring land of
Amvale. Hayden woke at dawn and dressed quietly to avoid disturbing his roommates, nudging Bonk into action and slipping out of the dormitory and into the hallway. His stomach was doing nervous little flips, and he began running through everything Master Asher had attempted to teach him in the last two weeks, hoping that it was enough to keep him from returning to Mizzenwald in disgrace this evening.

He was almost to the main stairwell when a door he
passed opened quietly, and Hayden stopped in his tracks at the sight of Tess looking bedraggled.

“Oh
good, I was hoping I didn’t miss you,” she whispered, stifling a yawn.

“What are you doing up this early?” Hayden asked her.

“I wanted to wish you luck before you left, and you said you all were leaving early in the morning, so I told Mittens to wake me at dawn.”

He nodded, stunned by her consideration.

“Thanks, I’ll need all the luck I can get,” he replied. “Look, I’d better get going…see you tonight.”

She gave him her usual shy smile. “Take care.”

Feeling slightly more cheerful, he continued onto the stairwell with Bonk on his shoulder, taking the stairs two at a time to wake himself up. The castle was eerie when it was this empty and quiet, and his footsteps echoed loudly on the marble floor as he walked through the Pentagon and down the corridor to the dining hall. Team Mizzenwald was supposed to meet for an early breakfast and some last words of encouragement from the Masters before they departed.

Only one of the long wooden tables had food set ou
t on it, as there were only ten of them eating breakfast right now. The Masters were standing along one side of the table and their students on the other. The only one of Hayden’s teammates he had ever spoken to before was Oliver Trout, who won his spot on the team in Powders. Oliver looked slightly green as he finished pulling together a plate of food and followed Master Sark to a vacant table on the other side of the room so that they could talk strategy, or maybe they just didn’t want to sit near Hayden.

Master Kilgore and the Elixirs Champion, a sixth-ye
ar boy named Griff, sat at one end of the table with all the food, eating porridge and doing a last-minute inventory of the elixirs Griff was taking with him to Valhalla. Master Willow and his student, a seventh-year girl named Reya, took their food to another vacant table. Reede and his apprentice were either finished eating or else neither was hungry, because they were drawing conjury circles in chalk on the floor of the dining hall.

Master Asher was lea
ning against the wall looking distracted until he saw Hayden enter the room. He waited patiently while Hayden put a few scoops of oat paste into a bowl— he doubted he had the will to eat anything heartier right now—and then motioned for Hayden to join him outside.

Their footsteps echoed loudly on the floor until they stepped
into the balmy outdoors, and Hayden headed for one of the stone benches in the main courtyard and began forcing himself to eat oat paste while Bonk chased a squirrel.

“How are you feeling?” Master Asher asked after a moment of silence, smirking when he saw Cinder dive-bomb
an unsuspecting Bonk near the obstacle courses.

“Nervous,” Hayden admitted.

“Understandable. Just stay calm and you’ll do fine,” Asher assured him. A few moments of silence elapsed, during which Hayden forced down a spoonful or two of oat paste.

“Oh, I meant to ask you, have you finished with my defens
ive charm?” Hayden broke the silence, suddenly remembering. The Prism Master had asked to borrow his charm two days ago, saying that he wanted to make a small (perfectly legal) modification to it.

“Ah, yes, it’s right here.” Asher reached into one of the deep pockets in his robes and extracted the charm, handing it back to him. Hayden examined it, but it didn’t appear any different than before.

“What did you do to it?” he asked curiously.

“I just linked it to myself as well, so that if you use it at maximum strength it will let me know you’re in trouble,” he explained. “Which brings me to my next point: don’t use it at maximum strength unless you need help.”

Hayden raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You mean if I hold it in my hand while using it, you’re going to pop up and start attacking things for me?”

Master Asher smirked. “Something
like that, yes. It’s not ideal, but we’re not allowed to go with you to any of the other schools, and I don’t like the thought of leaving you on your own around powerful mages who are likely to be prejudiced against you because of your surname.”

The oat paste felt extremely dry in Hayden’s mouth all of a sudden, and he had a hard time swallowing.

“You think someone might try to hurt me?”

“I certainly hope not, but you can never be sure. Let us hope that I am just being overcautious.” He gave Hayden a small smile. “You shouldn’t need to use your charm at full strength during the natural co
urse of the championship anyway; it will provide you a decent level of protection against minor magic as long as you’re wearing it. Which brings me to my next bit of advice: don’t take that charm off of your neck for any reason this year, both here and in the competition.”

Hayden tilted his head to the side in surprise.

“Even at Mizzenwald? But I was hoping to upgrade to a better charm later in the year once I’ve mastered the basics in Master Dirqua’s class.”

Asher shook his head.

“Trust me on this one; I have your best interests at heart. You will not get a better protective charm this year, and you have enough offensive magic that there’s no point swapping for an offensive charm and leaving yourself vulnerable. Swear to me that you won’t remove that charm until the end of the year, not even in the shower, then we can reevaluate where things stand.”

Hayden still wasn’t sure he liked the thought of being stuck with the same
low-level defense charm all year long, but so far Master Asher’s advice had never led him astray so he said, “I promise I won’t take it off.” Besides, it would be nice to know that if he accidentally got transported to another warg-infested den instead of his challenge arena, he would be able to summon Master Asher to him in an instant for help instead of running around the pitch-black cave like an idiot.

“Good. And remember what I said about not linking it to your Foci unless you are in great danger, because I’m sure people will frown upon me popping into the middle of the I.S.C., so it’s the kind of thing you can really only pull off once.”

Hayden nodded again.

“
Also, keep Bonk near you when the competition comes to Mizzenwald; he’s a bit dim, but he’s also proven handy in an emergency.”

Too true.
Bonk had saved his life at least twice last year, but had also been outsmarted by a squirrel. More than once.

“
Shame you’re not allowed to bring him to the other schools,” Master Asher sighed. “Well, anyway, it looks like you’ve had about all the oat paste you can stomach…shall we go back in and get you set up to leave?”

Hayden nodded, his heart beating faster as the moment of departure drew near.
Leaving Bonk to play with Cinder on the front lawns, he followed the Prism Master back to the dining hall, depositing his half-full breakfast bowl on the nearest wooden table and joining his four teammates, who were lined up against one wall.

Master Willow was sorting through a pile of bright red robes with green hoods and trim, the same color as the Masters of the major and minor arcana
wore except that they lacked the metallic sheen. He began passing the robes out to all five of them, giving Hayden the one with the outline of a prism stenciled in black on the back, which was overlarge on him as it had been cut for an adult. His teammates all filled their robes out much better, and Hayden felt like a child playing dress-up.

“Be sure to wear your school robes when you’re at Valhalla to avoid any unpleasant accusations,” Master Willow explained to them, motioning for each of them to hold out one arm.

“What kind of accusations?” Hayden asked in alarm.

“The Great Nine
are very competitive and secretive about their techniques,” it was Master Kilgore who responded. “If you’re in plainclothes they may assume you are trying to blend in for the purpose of sneaking around and attempting to discover their secrets, as spies for us.” He didn’t sound at all offended by the idea that the Masters of other schools would accuse him of sending spies to their castles. “While you’re wearing your robes no one will mistake that you’re from Mizzenwald, so you won’t be able to sneak around, and I would not encourage trying to.”

It was just now dawning on Hayden that there was a whole realm of magical politics that he had never considered before today. If he made some stupid mistake out of ignorance it could start a fight between the two schools—or worse, the two lands of
Amvale and Junir.

Master Willow was attaching a thin band of bright red crystal around each of their left wrists, using his wand to fuse the ends together so that they couldn’t be removed. Hayden had to slide his Focus-corrector a little higher up his arm to make room for it.

“These are Resonators,” he explained at Hayden’s confused expression. “They are magically linked to the Resonance Crystal that they came from, which vibrates at such a high frequency that the movement cannot even be seen by mankind.”

“What does it do?”

“In this case, it allows you to be tracked as long as you are within a few miles of the Resonance Crystal,” Master Willow said. “The crystal is currently being housed at Valhalla, and will be moved to Mizzenwald for the second trial, and so forth,” he continued. “You will all be facing some potentially dangerous challenges, so we use the Resonators to ensure that you can be located at all times during each trial, in case something goes wrong.”

Hayden didn’t want to think about what kind of thing they were expecting to go wrong, but was glad that they’d at least be able to find him in an emergency.

“How do we take them off between trials?” Hayden ventured curiously.

“You don’t,” Master Reede informed him. “You’ll wear these for the duration of the championship, because there is no way to remove them without destroying them. Don’t worry,” he added, seeing the look on Hayden’s face, “you’ll only be track-able when
you’re within range of the Resonance Crystal.”

They did one last inventory of all their instruments before leaving. Each competitor was only allowed to bring their weapon of focus with them to the trials, so every slot on Hayden’s belt was empty except for his four prisms. In addition, they were allowed one it
em from the minor arcana. Hayden and Oliver were both wearing charms, Darren and Reya each had a scripture, and Griff had a mastery-level healing tincture.

“Alright, looks like you’re all good to go,” Master Reede gave the group of them a last appraising look. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

The ten of them walked back outside to the main courtyard. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon, and they passed a few students who had gotten up early for whatever reason, who were now gawking at the five members of Team Mizzenwald.

Master Reede drew a large conjury circle in the middle of the paved courtyard with purple chalk, adding a triple pairi
ng of crosshatches to two sides and a double-braid along the exterior of the circle. He drew a smaller replica in the exact center of the larger circle, making them perfectly concentric and connecting them with two swirling lines, ending with a flourish. Hayden knew that he could study conjury for the next two-hundred years and he would never be able to draw anything that complex and make it look easy.

“All aboard for Valhalla,”
Reede dusted his hands off on his robes, motioning Hayden and his teammates into the circle. The moment they were all inside its boundaries, he clasped his Mastery Charm for a power-boost and touched his conjuring hand to the circle.