The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) (20 page)

Ashamed of his behavior the night before, he made a point of apologizing to each of the Masters (except for Sark) at the beginning of class. None of them seemed to hold it against him, though Kilgore snorted and said that the next time Hayden told him where to shove the arena challenges he was going to force-feed him a pound of soap to wash out his mouth.

Asher, as expected, was completely cheerful during class, only commenting on the duel the night before to explain what he could have done better to improve his performance. Oliver shook his head like he thought the Prism Master had lost his mind.

The only bright note during the entire day was when Tess caught up to him after
Healing class and thanked him for trying to carry her to safety the night before.

“You don’t have to thank me,” Hayden felt hot around the ears. “Besides, it didn’t even matter because you still died.”

Tess shook her head and said, “It mattered to me.” Then she gave him an awkward smile, blushed, and ran off before Hayden could think of how to respond.

“Women,” he muttered under his breath, continuing on to Wands.

***

Thankfully things calmed down for a while after that. Hayden made it through the next six weeks without getting into a single fight or serving any more detentions, and he was keeping up with his classwork as well as possible, given that he was terrible at Elixirs, which was a shame because he liked working with Master Kilgore.

Family day came and went at the first of the month, and Hayden spent most of his time with two of Zane’s sisters, Florette and Sera, who had come to visit their brother for the day. Bonk was conspicuously absent throughout the duration of their visit, possibly remembering the last time they got their hands on him and wouldn’t release him for weeks.

The upshot of it all was that when Hayden encountered Tess’s father aga
in (their first meeting last year hadn’t gone well at all), the man’s eye twitched spasmodically, but he managed to choke out a civil greeting and suggest that there was a vague possibility that Hayden deserved better than to be eaten by a pack of rabid hyenas, which was about the best Hayden could hope for at this point.

His nerves began to mount again when he saw the Resonance Crystal arrive at Mizzenwald, a team of mastery-level students carting it off to stand in the dining hall until the second trial was complete. Every time he looked at it his stomach lurched unpleasantly, because he was going to have to face Davis once again, this time in front of everyone he knew.

On the morning of the second trial Hayden was awoken by Cinder, who had somehow found a way into the room. Cinder grabbed a sleeping Bonk by the neck and threw him off of the bed so that he hit the floor with a loud thunk. Everyone in the room snapped awake at the noise and Bonk squawked indignantly and glared at his counterpart, who was now perched in front of Hayden with a note clamped in his teeth.

“Who’s writing to you at this hour?” Zane yawned sleepily and rubbed his eyes.

“It says ‘get down here and try to look respectable or I’ll send Sark to wake you.’” Hayden grimaced at Master Asher’s signature and then glanced at his chrono. “I’m late!” He leapt out of bed and began fumbling around for decent clothing to wear under his robes, which had been remade since his last set was ruined by orbs of pigment.

“Good luck!”
Conner called out as Hayden grabbed Bonk around the middle and sprinted for the door. “We’ll be rooting for you!”

He
took the stairs in threes, nearly tripping on the second landing. Bonk flapped his wings a few times to wake up and then settled on top of Hayden’s head, clutching tiny fistfuls of hair between his claws.

By the time he got to the dining hall he was out of breath and realized he was only wearing one sock. Panting with exertion, Hayden opened the double-doors and stepped into the room.

For a moment he thought he was in the wrong place, because the dining hall was transformed. Instead of the usual spread of tables and benches, there were rows and rows of plush, velvet-padded chairs; the floor sloped gradually upwards towards the back so that everyone would be able to see. The room also seemed much larger than usual, with the red and green banners of Mizzenwald draped across the ceiling and a cluster of couches that were shaped like ‘C’s up a short set of stairs on a raised dais. Since there were five of these, Hayden assumed that this was where the teams from each school were supposed to sit, and jogged up the stairs towards them.

The Masters of the major and minor arcana were moving about in their best robes, and Hayden could tell that they’d made some effort to look as professional and imposing as possible, since Asher had clearly brushed his hair for once and Kilgore had trimmed his beard.

“About time,” the former greeted him, giving his appearance a quick once-over and suppressing a laugh. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

“Sorry, I overslept.”

“Well hurry up and get back to the holding room with the rest of your team,” Master Reede frowned at him. “And why are you only wearing one sock?”

Hayden grimaced and ignored the question, looking around the newly-expanded room.

“What happened to the dining hall and where is the holding room?”

Master Reede rolled his eyes in dry amusement. “You didn’t think we’d have our guests sitting on wooden benches
, did you?” He didn’t wait for a response. “The holding room is through that door,” he pointed to the left at a door Hayden was positive hadn’t existed until this morning. “I suggest you attempt to smarten yourself up before our guests arrive, which could be at any moment.”

Hayden hurried off to the holding room and shut the door behind him. The remaining three members of Team Mizzenwald were sitting around small circular tables, sipping iced drinks and nibbling on breakfast biscuits and cookies.

“Glad you could make it,” Oliver greeted him with a flat stare, which Hayden pointedly ignored. He took a seat and tried to coax Bonk off of his head with little success, eventually giving up and eating a few biscuits until the first visitors arrived.

The team from Creston came through a different door to the room that connected directly to the grounds, led by a mastery-level student who looked haughty and authoritative at being trusted with the task. They looked around with a mixture of interest and mild discomfort at the unfamiliar surroundings, eventually breaking up and sitting down around the circular tables
. The Wand major surprised Hayden by asking if she could join him at his table.

“Thanks, I prefer sitting in the corner where I can see everyone else,” she gave him a friendly smile. “My name is Farrah
, by the way, Wand of Creston.”

“I’m Hayden, Prism of Mizzenwald,” he introduced himself for good measure, and she nodded. Sh
e was tall for a girl, almost six feet, with rumpled brown hair that she halfway tamed into a high-ponytail, and carved features that made her look like a Valkyrie. She had a wand of ash tucked behind one ear, the rest of them lined up along the many slots in her belt.

“Looking forward to the next trial?” she asked casually.

“I’m mostly looking forward to the part where it’s over and hopefully I’m still in the competition,” he admitted, and to his surprise she laughed at the joke, drawing Oliver’s attention. He looked jealous.

“I
know the feeling,” she answered. “If I have to hear one more pep talk from the Master of Wands at Creston about doing my duty and not shaming the school I think I’m going to rip my hair out.”

Hayden was suddenly thankful that Asher hadn’t been berating him with such speeches, or he would be even more nervous than he already was.

“What’s Creston like?” he asked, since he had the rare opportunity to talk to someone from another school who actually wanted to speak to him too.

“Probably a lot like this, only in
Hazenvale,” she shrugged. “We have a different spire for each major and minor instead of a castle like this, so we’re pretty segregated once we declare a major. Of course, right now we’ve got the Forest of Illusions nearby, which has been awesome, as a Wand major.”

“What do you mean you’ve got the
Forest of Illusions
right now
?” Hayden interrupted, confused.

Farrah gave him a funny look and said, “Well it moves, doesn’t it?” When he didn’t respond she continued, “Every five or ten years it just up pops up in a new place, didn’t you know? There’s so much magic in there it’s supposed to be a bit unstable, which is probably why it can’t settle
on a home for very long. Right now it’s on the border of Wynir and Hazenvale, right at the northern coast, so we’ve got prime access to it.”

Hayden must have still had a dumb look on his face because she added, “It was in
Junir about fifteen years ago, not too far from here I think. Anyway,” she changed the subject, “can I ask you a personal question?”

Surprised, Hayden said, “Sure…” without knowing where this was headed.

“Why is there a dragon sitting on your head?”

Hayden was so caught off-guard by the question that he laughed, and Farrah smiled and began laughing as well.

“This is Bonk, my familiar, and he perches on my head whenever there are people I need to impress because he knows it makes me look like an idiot. For some reason he enjoys annoying me in front of other people.”

Farrah let out a girlish giggle and held out her hand.

“Can I pat him?”

Hayden was about to tell her ‘yes’ when Bonk hissed loudly and snapped his teeth
, and Farrah pulled her hand back in surprise.

“Whoa, sorry…I forgot
that dragons are pretty anti-social,” she apologized, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Hayden, who was about to point out that Bonk was the most sociable dragon on the continent,
changed tracks immediately and said, “Yeah, sorry about that…”

The door to the grounds opened once more and this time it was the team from
Isenfall, led by Davis, Hayden’s new nemesis. His opponent somehow looked even older and stronger since he’d last seen him, and his eyes immediately locked on Hayden as he flashed a challenging smile in his direction. Hayden sneered in response, and Bonk hopped down onto his shoulder and bared his little teeth at Davis.

Apparently Bonk hates foreigners…

Fortunately Davis didn’t try to sit at his table, instead joining Oliver and one of the other Creston team members. The two seemed to get along eerily well, which wasn’t at all surprising since they both hated him.

Within the half hour the other two teams arrived as well, and Hayden could hear the noise from the (former) dining hall that meant the school was probably assembled in the velvet-padded seats near the entrance. About five more minutes elapsed before an older student was sent to retrieve th
em, and this time Mizzenwald led the procession into the dining hall.

Hayden instructed Bon
k to go see Torin and then followed Oliver, his eyes searching the crowd for friends. He caught sight of Zane, Tamon, Tess, and Conner, just as he took his seat on one of the C-shaped couches on the dais and waved at them.

There were (mercifully) no speeches thi
s time from the Masters, and as there were only twenty of them to introduce this time instead of twenty-five the introductions went a bit faster. It also helped that people didn’t scream or gasp when Hayden announced who he was.

“
The Wand trials will take place first, followed by Powders, Prisms, Elixirs, and then Conjury,” Master Willow explained to the room at large. “Anyone who is interested in watching the trials may join us in the main courtyard.”

He motioned for the four W
and majors to stand up and follow him out the main doors of the dining hall and down the corridor that led to the Pentagon and the front lawns. The rest of the school got up and began to file out behind them while the other Masters came around to introduce themselves to the remaining competitors.

When Asher called the prism-
users together Hayden found himself stuck standing next to Davis, who was giving the Prism Master his undivided attention as they went through personal introductions. When Asher got to him, Davis said, “No need to tell me who
you
are; I’ve heard
all
about you,” in a voice laden with hidden meaning.

The Prism Master didn’t even blink, maintaining his easy-going smile as he said, “Likewise,” in a scarily-neutral tone.

“Now, Prisms, I’ll be checking all of your weapons to make sure that no mistakes were made,” he held out a hand and one by one they offered him their prisms to inspect. “How’s everyone feeling? Excited? Nervous? Ready to wet your pants?”

“I’m not feeling well, sir,” the boy from Valhalla interjected. He did look like he was about to be sick.

Asher stopped examining one of Davis’s prisms long enough to look up and say, “Got a cold?”

“I don’t think so, sir,” the boy replied miserably. “I felt fine until we got here, and now I feel like I’m going to vomit.”

“Well, be sure and puke before the Prism trials if you can manage it, and you should be good to go.”