The Schism (The Broken Prism Book 4) (16 page)

“I’m not sure yet,” he admitted. “I think I’d like to get a second opinion before I get myself involved in politics, especially with people who want me dead.”

Looking around the room for someone reasonable to talk to, he finally spotted Master Willow sitting with a group of first-year students. Without bothering to say goodbye to his friends, he grabbed his book bag and made his way across the dining hall to the Master of Wands, abandoning Bonk to Tess’s care for the moment.

Bonk won’t mind—half the time I think he prefers her to me anyway.

Approaching the table a little awkwardly, he said, “Excuse me, Master Willow. Could I talk to you for a moment?”

The Master of Wands had already finished eating, and he stood up without hesitation, as though he had been waiting for Hayden to come see him ever since he got the letter.

“Of course. Perhaps in the hallway, where it is a bit quieter,” he suggested, leading the way out of the dining hall. Masters Asher and Laurren were sitting together, discussing some dangerous piece of magic no doubt, and both looked up briefly as he passed their table, though they either knew what Hayden was asking Willow about or they didn’t care, because they immediately returned to their discussion.

Master Willow spared his colleagues a wary glance and muttered, “It always concerns me when those two are working on a project together.”

Hayden didn’t bother suppressing his laugh, because he often felt the same way when he saw Laurren and Asher talking. They were both intelligent enough and crazy enough to blow up the school on accident with one of their experiments, and would probably shrug it off as an innocent mistake that could happen to anyone after the fact.

There’s a narrow line between brilliance and insanity,
Hayden reflected grimly, remembering what he had been told last year by Master Laurren about how prism-users danced on that line more than mages in any other major. Heck, Laurren himself used to be a natural prism-user before he experienced the backlash of one of his new spells and became colorblind.

They entered the relative quiet of the corridor outside the dining hall, and Master Willow stepped up to one of the large, windowless cutouts in the stone wall that let in a fresh breeze from the grounds. He rested his hands on the ledge at waist-level and peered out across the front lawns.

“Is it safe to assume that this is about the invitation you received from the Council of Mages?”

“How did you know what it was?” Hayden asked, wondering if his mail was being read before it came to him.

The Master of Wands reached into a pocket of his metallic red robes and pulled out an identical letter.

“We got ours today as well; it seemed like a safe enough guess.” He looked at Hayden. “Do you know why you were invited?”

Hayden frowned thoughtfully. “Master Asher said that the Council wants to rope me into this whole schism ordeal for revenge. I thought that maybe they were hoping to get me into a meeting with a bunch of important people so they could put me on the spot and I’d have to volunteer, but I don’t know…maybe it’s just because I control a Great House now?” he tilted his inflection upwards optimistically.

“Your first guess is likely the more accurate,” Willow sighed, crushing any strands of hope he had for an innocent invitation to a meeting that might prove interesting.

“Should I go?” he asked bluntly.

Master Willow considered it for a long moment in silence. After almost a full minute he said, “I would advise against it. I don’t see anything good that can come from it.”

“In that case, let me know if I miss anything worth knowing,” Hayden snickered, not at all sorry to pass up the opportunity to pit himself against the Council of Mages once again, though it would have been nice to get a look at the legendary Crystal Tower for himself.

“Out of curiosity, why did you ask me for advice instead of Asher?” Willow called out to him as Hayden turned to walk back into the dining hall to collect Bonk.

“He’s not always interested in taking the path of least conflict,” Hayden explained carefully. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not actually
trying
to pick a fight with the Council right now, so I thought I’d talk to someone more…”

“Pragmatic?” Willow supplied helpfully, giving him an appraising look when he nodded. “Well, it’s good to know that you can appreciate your mentor’s limitations.” He sounded sincerely relieved that Hayden wasn’t prepared to just blindly do whatever the Prism Master told him.

“Do I need to send a note back to them or anything? Or is not showing up enough of a response?”

Master Willow made an airy gesture with one hand and said, “I’ll convey your deepest regrets for you when I arrive.”

Thinking that something had finally gone right for a change, Hayden thanked the Master and went back into the dining hall to retrieve Bonk.

“Shame you won’t get to see the Crystal Tower though,” Zane lamented as they got ready for bed that night. “Lorn’s always bragging like he owns the place personally—but I’ve heard it is pretty neat looking.”

“Maybe I’m important enough to ask for a tour sometime…” Hayden mused out loud. “I’ll just have to make sure that it’s sometime when the Council is far, far away. Wouldn’t want to accidentally run into anyone I’m supposed to be avoiding.”

Zane snorted in amusement and turned off the lights.

9

Delauria

Another three weeks passed without Hayden hearing anything more from the Council of Mages, and he began to entertain the hope that they might have finally gotten the message that he wanted to be left alone and had taken it to heart.

He was even improving in his combat lessons against Master Asher now, and was usually able to leave their lessons with nothing worse than a few bumps and bruises. There were even times when the Prism Master had to speed up his own casting to block Hayden’s attacks, and a few times when he got lucky enough to connect against him. He gave Asher a black eye earlier in the week, and out of respect for his achievement, the Prism Master hadn’t bothered healing it with magic so that he could gloat for a while.

In all, things were taking a definite upturn in Hayden’s life, which was probably why he should have known it wouldn’t last.

He and Kobi were manning their usual posts near the schism after lunch on Vadin, the latter pacing a wide circle around the aperture while Hayden worked on his homework on the ground nearby. They had an agreement that whenever their guard duty fell during daylight, one of them would patrol the schism while the other worked on homework for an hour and a half, and then they would switch.

While Hayden crossed out a sentence in the essay he was writing for Wands, Kobi made a strange noise all of a sudden—like a mouse being trodden on, and Hayden dropped his pencil and leapt to his feet, equipping a prism in seconds and turning to face whatever monster had finally broken through the defensive spells with a surge of adrenaline.

There was nothing to fight. Heart still hammering in his chest from the moment of panic, Hayden looked at his partner in confusion. Rather than stare at the opening, Kobi was looking at something behind Hayden with an almost awestruck expression. Turning back towards the school, Hayden vented a groan as he finally understood what had surprised his schoolmate.

A group of mages was approaching them at a walk. Four of them wore the black and gold robes of the Council of Mages, though Calahan wasn’t a part of the group, and they were accompanied by an equal number of Masters from Mizzenwald. Strangely, there was also a group of five people that Hayden didn’t recognize as anyone important; a tall, willowy girl with red hair who might be about twenty years old appeared to be the only mage in the group—the four heavily-armed men accompanying her seemed to just be regular people.

Hayden was still standing there with his circlet pulled down in front of one eye when they approached, trying to gather his wits and wondering what in the world was supposed to be happening right now.

To his surprise, it was Master Graus—the new Scriptures teacher—that spoke to him first. Hayden noted passively that the man was still wearing those flesh-colored gloves over both hands, but still didn’t have the time to really wonder why.

“Lift your eyepiece,” the Master muttered to him in a low, lightly-accented voice, “or they’ll see it as a challenge to fight.” He tilted his head ever-so-slightly towards the Council members who were approaching behind him with the rest of the group.

Hayden did as he was told and raised his eyepiece so that the prism inside it was pointed straight up at the sky, trying to place the man’s accent to mark his origins.
Osglen, maybe?

“What’s all this?” Hayden asked the man, gesturing around at the large group of people who were now examining the opening of the schism and speaking hurriedly to each other.

“Another expedition to attempt to seal off the gateway,” Graus explained easily, though he frowned minutely at the lanky red-haired girl who was explaining something to her escorts.

Surprised, Hayden blurted out, “Those five are going to go inside?”

Master Graus nodded, eyes never leaving the young girl’s face when he answered. “Yes. Delauria has some minor Focus damage on both sides, and volunteered to go inside to attempt to close the schism for good. Those four are going with her—both as protection, and though no one will say it out loud, to carry her bodily to the opening and attempt to force her to perform the Closing spell if it proves necessary.”

Hayden gulped and looked at the girl again, wondering if this was the last time he would see her alive—or sane. She seemed so young and fragile, smiling confidently as she assured her escorts that everything would be alright. Hayden couldn’t tell if she was just that brave, or if she was putting on a front for the sake of the others. Either way, he admired her for it.

Kobi was standing off to one side of the aperture, looking poleaxed at being surrounded by so many important people all at one time. Hayden approached Delauria and extended a hand to introduce himself.

“Hayden Frost, right?” she preempted him, smiling and taking his hand. “Of course I know who you are—not like there are a lot of natural prism-users at Mizzenwald right now,” she gestured to his circlet.

“How come you volunteered for this?” He couldn’t help but blurt out the question that was burning in his mind. “Did the Council pressure you into it?”

She looked stunned that he would even think such a thing, sparing the Council members behind her a brief glance.

“The Council? What, no—they’ve been so nice to me, even before I volunteered. And they’re paying me a fortune just to even attempt this, so I can’t really complain; my family could desperately use the money.” She shrugged, perplexed by Hayden’s surprise. “And I offered to go because not a lot of other people were stepping up, and I figured it would be shameful to just sit around waiting for others to fix things while I took it easy. I suppose you were the one who taught me to be brave like that, if I think back on it.”

“What?
Me?
” Hayden asked, raising his eyebrows. He hadn’t ever seen this girl in his life before now, and he was supposed to have influenced her decision in some way?

“Well sure, I mean look at what you did just last year. You defied everyone who told you to stay at school where it was safe and ran into a warzone—and won, when you were just fourteen. I’m five years older than you were then, and I couldn’t bear the thought of being so cowardly when you had been so brave at an even younger age.”

Hayden wanted to jump up and down and scream at her for being a fool. He wished people would stop trying to analyze all of his stupid actions and assigning merit or forethought to them. Now this girl who was barely an adult was going to leap into a schism where she could lose everything—including her life—because she thought he had set the example. But what could he do about it—shout out that she had gotten it all wrong and that she should turn back now? What would that accomplish other than to make him look nuts and cheapen her sacrifice?

Instead he asked, “How badly damaged are your Foci?” gesturing to her bare wrists. She had obviously removed her correctors before coming here.

She shrugged.

“I’ve got quarter-inch correctors on each arm normally,” she explained with a slight flush of the cheeks. “Sorry, I’m used to being embarrassed by how much correction I need…it’s so strange having it be an asset for once.” Then she looked at his wrists and blushed even deeper, probably thinking that she’d insulted him. All Hayden could think about was that quarter-inch correction wasn’t going to be enough to keep her sane for days inside the schism.

She’s going to lose her mind at some point inside there…

He only hoped that the effects were temporary and could be righted when her team pulled her back out before the opening was sealed for good.

“Well, uh—good luck.” He shook her hand again, feeling unaccountably sad for this girl he hardly knew. “Happy hunting, and all of that.”

“Thanks,” she grinned, looking much more at ease than he would have right now if their roles were reversed.

After a few more words with the Masters and the Council members, Delauria took a deep breath and stepped inside of the schism, disappearing from view in an instant, her four escorts right behind her. The area felt strangely empty without them, and now the others began to walk away, though not before Master Willow set a wand in a makeshift wooden stand, pointed towards the opening.

“Close,” he said casually, leaving the wand there once he saw that the spell was working.

“You’re just going to keep a constant Closing spell cast at the opening the whole time that she’s in there?” Hayden asked in in surprise. It seemed like a horrible waste of materials for someone to keep coming out and replacing them as they were steadily consumed.

“That’s about the only thing we can do,” he informed Hayden, glancing back at the opening of the schism with a slightly resigned look on his face. One of the Council members Hayden didn’t know very well joined them silently and listened to their conversation, but Willow didn’t acknowledge him so neither did Hayden.

“There’s no way for us to know when she’s made it to the opening on the other side, or when she’ll start casting, so for a few days we’ll simply keep a constant spell going from this end so that when she’s ready there will be no delay from our side,” Master Willow continued heavily.

“And if she hasn’t made it in a few days?” Hayden asked around a knot of tension in his throat.

“Then we’ll assume she was lost,” he answered softly. “No one could withstand the distortion effects for long in there, and if she hasn’t made it by then…”

There was no real need for him to finish his thought. If she hadn’t managed the Closing spell by then there was no hope of her ever being seen again.

“Her Foci aren’t warped enough for her to even last a few days in there, are they?” Hayden asked the Master as quietly as possible. Willow considered him for a moment and then shook his head.

“No, they probably are not. I’d be surprised if she has hours.”

“Then why did we just let her go in?” his voice was strained from having his worst fears confirmed.

“It was her choice,” the Master sighed.

Finally, the Council member who was walking silently with them spoke to Hayden.

“I wonder how many people you’re going to let sacrifice themselves before you man up and do the right thing.” For someone that Hayden didn’t even know the name of, the man harbored a surprisingly strong disdain of him.

Hayden glanced at the Councilman and frowned.

“I don’t see
you
hurrying forward to fling yourself into the schism,” he snapped back, agitated that the Council was trying to make him feel like a coward, and even angrier that it was working.

“I don’t need Focus-correction,” the man held up his bare wrists for Hayden to see. “It would be a pointless suicide mission for me to go inside, but
you
would last longer than anyone in the Nine Lands, and yet you sit here at school like a child.”

“He
is
a child,” Master Willow suggested delicately, though there was a note of steel in his voice.

“He wasn’t playing the child when he sued us, was he?” the Councilman continued. “Came strutting into the room like a little lord, wearing his daddy’s robes and his fancy Medal of Heroism, because he wanted to be treated like an adult. Well he won that battle, and now he wants to go back to being a scared little boy who lets other greater men and women shield him behind their skirts.”

The look he cast Master Willow made it plain that he was included in the jab, though Hayden was too busy trying to calm himself to notice whether the Master of Wands seemed upset by it. He was so angry he thought he could feel his blood boiling between his ears, torn between feeling cowardly and justified in his refusal to go into the schism. He didn’t trust himself to speak for fear of saying something that would get him arrested, so he simply picked up his pace and walked away from the others as quickly as he could without actually running.

The Councilman called out after him, “I hope you don’t lose any sleep tonight over the fact that you shook that girl’s hand and sent her off to her death when you could have prevented it!”

Hayden walked even faster, fists clenched and heart racing as he approached the back door of the school.

Just get inside…just get away before you say something stupid…

“I’ll be sure to tell her little sister how her death was necessary, so that little Hayden Frost could keep playing at school!”

Hayden couldn’t take it anymore and broke into a run, sprinting past the smooth black stone where Conjury was taught and into the castle, slamming into students on their way to their next class and shoving through them without apology, desperate to get to his room until he calmed down.

It wasn’t until he reached the safety of his dormitory that Hayden realized he had walked out in the middle of his shift with Kobi without even asking if they were allowed to leave. That just made him angrier on top of everything else, and he aimed a kick at the side of his desk to vent his frustrations, which accomplished nothing other than making his foot hurt.

“Told you he looked ready to kill,” Zane’s voice said from the doorway. In Hayden’s furious pacing, he hadn’t even heard it open.

He turned and saw his roommate standing in the threshold with Tess, who had a very concerned look on her face as she watched him, cheeks flushed as though she had chased after him.