The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) (36 page)

Hayden was beginning to think that there was some kind of massive joke going on here. Sure, he could see the blue lights floating around the periphery of the trees like miniature stars, but that didn’t change the fact that there was barely room for the ten of them (plus five Masters) inside the playing arena, much less dangerous monsters.

“Everyone clear? Klausen, stop puking or you’ll be disqualified,” the Master added with a grimace, looking at the boy who stood near Farrah. Hayden tried to meet her eyes to share a sympathetic look, but she was fixed on the sick boy beside her, eyebrows knitted in serious contemplation.

“Does everyone understand the directive?” The Master of Powders recaptured Hayden’s attention, making eye contact with each of them until he received a nod of consensus. “Very well then, good luck and get going!”

20

The Forest of Illusions

Hayden took off running towards the copse, ignoring the sound of cheers and shouts from the crowd, focusing entirely on the relatively simple task in front of him: find the prism-trophy and get out. After all the other dangerous, difficult tasks he’d faced this year, he was almost disappointed with how straightforward this was.

As soon as he crossed into
the area circled by blue lights, something weird happened. The little copse of trees suddenly looked enormous; in fact, he couldn’t see an end to the Forest at all. He turned around to get his bearings and gasped in shock. There was nothing but trees behind him; the cheering crowds were all gone. It was as though he was standing in the heart of the Forest of Illusions without having any idea of how he got there.

He heard someone crashing through the undergrowth on his left, and Hayden got moving again, at a jog this time, trying to orient himself in his new surroundings. He could still see the blue boundary lights around him, which
was the only thing keeping him from panic right now. He climbed over a fallen tree branch the color of charcoal and almost ran into Davis, who was sweating from exertion and cast Repel at him without hesitation.

Hayden dodged the attack and took off in another direction, eager to put some distance between himself and his rival. He felt a strange tingling in his left wrist, and looked down
to see the red crystal Resonator vibrating noticeably.

Of course,
it must be reacting to being close to the Resonance Crystal that’s somewhere in here.

With that reassuring thought Hayden continued along his trajectory, startled when he came across a smooth stone platform with a gold-plated wand positioned on it. He stopped for a long moment to examine it.

I just found the trophy for the wand-users…

It was a shame that Farrah wasn’t with him right now, or else he could hand it to her and see her victorious. It was probably against the rules for him to take it and bring it to her, so with a sigh of regret he left the pedestal alone and continued into the woods.

The vibration in his bracelet was growing more intense, and Hayden knew he was closing in on the Resonance Crystal itself. For a few minutes he didn’t see anyone or anything else, but eventually he heard a scuffling noise from his right and turned to see which of the competitors had found him. He was surprised to see a reindeer the size of a moose stride into the clearing and level its gaze at him.

Hayden met the creature’s eyes, not knowing what was about to happen. To his consternation, the reindeer lifted one giant hoof and pointed in the direction perpendicular to where Hayden had been running.

“You want me to go that way?” he asked, not sure why he was bothering to question a creature that couldn’t respond. The reindeer nodded vigorously, which was more than a little creepy. “Uh…okay then…thanks…”

He turned and jogged away from the eerily-sentien
t reindeer before it could creep him out any further, trusting that the prism trophy was up ahead. He could hear more noises from this direction, though they didn’t sound entirely pleasant. In fact, it sounded like someone was throwing up…

Sure enough, he rounded a cluster of trees and found Darren on his hands and knees, retching
violently against a tree trunk.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Hayden stopped short, looking down at him. “This isn’t really a good time to get sick.”

“Frost, it’s you…” Darren struggled to his feet, looking deathly pale and sweaty. “Does your magic still work?”

Confused, Hayden replied, “I think so, why? Is yours not working?”

Darren shook his head, eyes wide with terror. “No, something’s wrong. Every time I try to cast I get horribly sick. I think I’m going to pass out soon…”

Hayden looked through his clear prism and cast Heal on his teammate, partly to see whether he had the same problem
and partly because Darren looked terrible. The spell worked fine, and he didn’t experience any illness afterwards. Darren even looked a little less wan.

“Good, you can still cast,” his teammate said seriously. “Let’s stick together, and you can make sure I don’t get eaten until we get out of here and I figure out what’s wrong with me.”

Stunned, Hayden asked, “I’m looking for the prism trophy though, not the conjury one. You’re willing to give up the championship to tag along with me?”

“Hayden,” Darren said gravely, “something is very wrong with my magic right now. I can’t defend myself if something attacks me, and I can’t find any of the Masters to get me out of here.
I’ve tried calling for help, but no one is coming.”

The way he said it sent a chill up Hayden’s spine, like they were doomed to wander the Forest of Illusions alone forever.

“Okay, well…come on then; we’ll find a way to get you to safety, and then I’ll come back in for the prism trophy if Davis hasn’t gotten it first.” Hayden motioned for Darren to follow, slowing to a walk to accommodate his teammate. His heart was racing as Master Asher’s warning from breakfast went through his mind.

Darren’s just sick, that’s all…maybe he’s reacting badly to the magic in the Forest…

Another part of him answered.
You know that’s not true. You’re all in horrible danger. Something’s gone wrong. The Masters should be coming but they aren’t.

Trying to block out his dark
thoughts, Hayden led him onward until Darren collapsed into some kind of seizure on the ground.

“Darren!” Hayden cried out, desperately trying to think of what to do to help. Why weren’t the Masters coming to them? Did they think Darren was faking, or did they just want to see how Hayden would handle it? Either way, Hayden hated them for their inaction.

Even after Darren stopped seizing, he seemed incapable of standing or articulating a coherent thought. Hayden began to weigh his options.

I can’t carry him;
I’m not strong enough. But I can’t leave him….Even if I go for help, I’ll never be able to find him again.

A loud crash and a shout broke his train of thought, and Hayden turned just in time to see Oliver come running towards him. His teammate was scratc
hed and bleeding from a cut lip. He was also being chased by a boar with three-foot tusks that seemed intent on goring him.

“Frost!”
Oliver called out to him, and Hayden jumped to his feet, spinning the clear prism around in his eyepiece until he found the array he wanted and cast Slow at the boar.

It worked
as intended, and Oliver spun around and drew a powder from his belt, throwing it at the boar and casting silently. Nothing seemed to happen to the boar, but Oliver fell to the ground, screaming in pain, his eyes rolling back into his head as he cried out.

“Not you too!”
Hayden shouted in genuine panic, swapping out his prisms and casting Sleep at the boar with his blue-tinted one. With that threat neutralized, he turned back to his teammates. Darren was unconscious, but Oliver was trying to sit up.

“My head is killing me,” he mo
aned as the color drained from his face. “There’s something wrong with this place…I can’t use my magic here.”

“It’s the same with Darren. Come on, we’ve got to stick together and find a way out of here.” Hayden turned to Darren, equipped his rose-tinted prism, and cast Suspend on his teammate. Darren’s limp body floated into the air and Hayden grabbed his sweaty arm, pulling him along like a strange balloon as he and Oliver moved on.

“Why aren’t you messed up too?” Hayden had the impression that Oliver was only making conversation to take his mind off of the pain, which wasn’t at all reassuring.

“I don’t know, maybe because I’m always messed up magically?” he speculated, forcing his way through a cluster of bushes. The defensive charm around his neck was growing hot, which was weird because his Focus-correctors were getting cold.

They stumbled into a clearing and came face-to-face with the Resonance Crystal that Hayden had first seen at Valhalla on the day of their first trial.

“Well, if we’ve found this place, then the Masters should be able to find us here,” Hayden turned to assure Oliver, but the older boy was on his knees retching violently into the mud. Hayden’s Focus-correctors were so cold he was afraid he might get frostbite.

“What in the name of the arcane is going on?” he mumbled to himself, rubbing his freezing wrists. He contemplated removing his correctors to keep his hands from turning black, but thought that would be dangerous in the present climate. Another shout went up from nearby, and Hayden took off running towards the noise, yelling at Oliver to stay near the crystal with Darren.

He took three steps and then felt the world stretch and bend around him. In the time it took him to blink, he was no longer standing near the Resonance Crystal, and even worse, he couldn’t see a blue light anywhere.

I’m not in the arena anymore…somehow I’ve gotten into the Forest itself…

He turned and took three steps back in the direction he came from, hoping to cross back over some invisible line, but nothing happened. Panicking,
he called out to his teammates—to anyone—but no one answered.

I’m all alone. I’m all alone in the middle of the Forest of Illusions…

An orange chipmunk jumped up and down on its hind legs, pointing him back the way he came, so he continued walking in that direction, wondering what Zane would say about the advisability to accepting advice from strange woodland creatures. He stopped and frowned when he came upon a stream of water that he didn’t recognize. He assumed it was water, though it was bright pink, which was a little off-putting. Just as he wondered whether it was safe to drink (he was quite thirsty), a neon-green piranha jumped out of it, turned into a pigeon, and flew away.

“Definitely not drinking that,” Hayden blinked hard several times and backed away from the water. He turned around and found himself facing a cluster of purple trees with silver leaves. He narrowed his eyebrows when he realized that one of them had a wooden swing attached to its branches, just like the one at his mother’s house. Just as the thought occurred to him, his mother strode out from behind the tree and frowned at him.

“I didn’t want you to be like him,” she told him sternly.

“M—
Mom?
” Hayden choked on a sob, unable to believe his eyes. There was no way his mother could be here, now. She had died, hadn’t she? He took a staggering step closer and said, “Mom, is it really you?”

“You look just like him,” she insisted, still frowning at him. She had the same brown hair and warm eyes as him. “Are you going to follow in his footsteps? Will you make him proud?”

“What? Mom, no! I’m not my father, and I’m not going to be bad like him. Listen, we’re stuck in the Forest of Illusions…we’ve got to get out of here.” He reached out and grabbed her hand, and she turned into a cobra and wrapped around his outstretched arm, rearing back to strike.

Hayden
screamed and cast Heat without even thinking about it, and the snake burst into flames and fell limp from his arm. He had to tamp out the flames on his robes before they could burn him, and tossed them onto the ground to step on them repeatedly. He was surprised to feel tears cooling on his cheeks, and his teeth chattering.

She wasn’t real…none of this is real. It’s called the Forest of Illusions…it can’t hurt you…

He wasn’t sure how true that was. Even if he was seeing things in here that weren’t real, some of this invariably was. Hayden took a deep breath to calm himself and continued forward, calling out for anyone who could hear him.

“Hayd
en?” a familiar voice answered from up ahead. “Hayden, is that you?”

“Farrah!” he shouted. “Hold still, I’m coming!” He sprinted forward, desperate to find some company in this horrible place before he went mad. He rounded an oak tree twenty feet in diameter and saw Farrah and Davis gripping each other’s wrists.

“Oh great, it’s Frost.” Davis rolled his eyes in annoyance, though he lacked his usual arrogance. Both of them looked a little worse for wear, their robes ripped and their hair messed up. Davis had a bruise forming over his right eye, and Farrah’s hands were covered in blood.

“Hurry, come here and hold hands with us so we don’t lose each other,” the latter beckoned him forward, and he moved to her other side and clasped hands with her, as he had no desire to hold hands with Davis right now.

“What in the world are the Masters here playing at?” Davis growled, blinking hard and rubbing his eyes with his free hand as though they were bothering him. “Why would they do something this sick to us?”

“You think the Masters are behind it?” Hayden asked in shock. That thought had never occurred to him before now.

“Who else?” Davis snapped. “Who else would be in a position to tamper with the Resonance Crystal? Who else would be motivated to see most of us fail?”

“Wait, what?” Hayden stopped walking, staring at him in horror. “You think something’s wrong with the Resonance Crystal?”

“You are an absolute idiot if you haven’t noticed it already,” Davis sneered. “You can’t feel the bracelet on your wrist throwing your channels all out of alignment? You don’t want to vomit every time you use magic because it’s being ricocheted around inside your skull like a hundred knives?”