Cave of Nightmares (41 page)

Another long moment of silence passed before Master Kilgore rose and said, “Well, I have things to do.”

This seemed to be the cue for everyone else to stand up and take their leave as well. Hayden’s legs felt a bit wobbly as he followed Tess out of the room and back towards the main stairwell.

“Well, that could’ve been worse,”
Zane said once they were out of earshot of the Masters. “If I’m doing my math right, we may have actually come out on top of the third-year arena rosters.”

Tucker snorted. “Not how I would have chosen to get there though.”

“I can’t believe they gave me a ten,” Tess said in her usual soft voice.

Hayden grinned. “That should shut up all the idiots like Lorn who are mean to you. You’ll be in high-demand next year.”

Tess frowned thoughtfully. “Hmm, maybe.”

Since they were all finished with their exams—with the exception of Tucker who had two this afternoon—there was nothing left for them to do until the school term was officially over. Tess went back to her room
to check on her familiar, and Zane and Hayden went to visit Torin with their familiars.

I did it,
Hayden thought dizzily as they climbed the stairs to get Bonk and Felix from their dormitory.
I survived an entire year at Mizzenwald without getting arrested, expelled, or killed.

Well, there was always next year.

Their exam scores were released on the last day of term, and Hayden awoke to find the cream-colored envelope with his name on it waiting on his desk. His roommates had similar envelopes on theirs, and Conner sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes as he caught sight of his.

“Damn, I always wonder how they manage to sneak letters into our rooms without waking us up. I meant to stay up late to catch them at it but I must’ve dozed off.” He frowned and hopped out of bed, picking up his envelope and tearing it open. Zane stirred from the noise and blinked himself awake as Conner read.

“Hmm…
Reede’s making me repeat level-two Conjury; maybe I’ll just drop it and have done with it.” His expression brightened. “Oh good, Willow’s bumping me up to his level-three class, and Sark did too.”

Zane
ripped open his own envelope and began scanning it excitedly. “Ha! Fourth-year Conjury for me, I’ll have you know.” He suddenly grimaced. “Ugh, good thing I’m dropping Elixirs, because Kilgore put a note on here saying I did so badly he was going to demote me to level-one if I stayed with it. Everything else looks alright though,” he exhaled in relief.

Hayden took his envelope but did
not open it. If he read it here his friends would want to know how he did, and what if he failed everything? He suddenly remembered his nightmare last night about being dropped from Prisms. Master Asher informed him that he’d made a mistake about his major and would have to choose something easier like Drawing Butterflies.

Despite the fact that Hayden seriously doubted Mizzenwald taught a class called Drawing Butterflies, he still swallowed a lump of dread at the thought.

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Zane interrupted his worried musings, “open it!”

“I will later,
” Hayden shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “I want to get some breakfast first.”

His roommates looked disappointed but didn’t argue with him, though Conner and
Zane exchanged a glance that told Hayden he might not have pulled off his air of indifference as well as he’d hoped.

He woke Bonk up and let the dragon ride on his shoulder down to the dining hall, where he picked up a few pieces of toast before making his way out onto the grounds to enjoy the warm weather for the last time until the new term started.
He knew as soon as he left the boundaries of the school that winter would be in full swing.

Once he was fed and Bonk was occupied with the task of hunting squirrels, Hayden finally removed the envelope from his pocket and carefully opened it. There was a single sheet of paper inside, folded into thirds. He smoothed it out gently and read over the results:

Final Exam Results – Frost, Hayden

E- Excellent, G- Good, M-Mediocre, U- Unsatisfactory, D-Disgraceful

Next term qualifications in ( )

Wands: E (L-3)

Conjury: G (L-2)

Powders: ---

Healing: G (L-3)

Elixirs: M (L-2)

Prisms: E (L-3)

Hayden exhaled in shaky relief. He had done better than he thought; in fact, he hadn’t failed out of anything except for Powders, and that had happened m
uch earlier in the year. Even better, he’d managed to qualify for level-three Wands, Prisms, and Healing! He wasn’t terribly surprised by his Elixirs score, and was simply thankful that he’d scraped a passing grade and wouldn’t have to repeat level-one all over again.

Maybe Lorn failed again and I won’t have class with him next year
.

That
thought cheered him up even more, and he lay down on the grass beneath the shade of a pear-blossom tree and enjoyed the peaceful morning.

He had no idea how long he lay like that before he heard the footsteps approaching
, hours perhaps, since his thoughts drifted off into dreams at some point. Hayden sat up and blinked into focus just as Master Asher reached him. The Master sat down on the grass beside him, his bright red robes billowing out in all directions as he dropped.

“
You’ve been lying out here for quite a long time. I thought I’d make sure you weren’t dead.”

“I was just enjoying the weather while Bonk flew around and I must have dozed off.”

“I see you’ve got your exam scores.” Asher pointed to the folded sheet of paper sticking out of Hayden’s pocket. “How’d you do?”

Hayden passed the paper over and Asher scanned it quickly, smiling when he handed it back. “Not bad at all,” he conceded. “Of course, it means your holiday isn’t going to be nearly as restful as you might like.”

“What do you mean?” Hayden raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Well, if Willow is l
etting you skip over level-two Wands, you’re still going to have to get the book for it and read up as much as you can before you hit his level-three class, or you’re bound to fall behind right from the beginning.” The Prism Master looked as though this shouldn’t be even remotely surprising news. “You didn’t think the second-level was all fluff, did you?”

Hayden grimaced at the thought of trying to learn an entire year’s worth of material in two months on his own.

“Uhh…” he said lamely.

Master Asher grinned. “You’ll be fine, just do the best you can. Besides, you
should have some spare time to read during your stay at Kargath.”

“Wait,
what?” Hayden blinked, certain he was missing something. “Why would I be going back to Kargath?” He certainly didn’t have fond memories of the place, though the Council of Mages had ultimately relieved him of his lead Binders there.

“Oh, right, I was supposed to tell you that the Council wants to have a follow-up meeting with you to check on your progress.” Master Asher looked proud of himself for remembering. “You’re to go there immediately upon leaving Mizzenwald.”

Hayden blanched.

“But why do they want to see me? Am I in trouble? Are they going to make me wear Binders again?”

Asher frowned at the last. “As far as I know, it’s just to check in and make sure you’re adjusting well to your new life here. Just keep calm and try to look normal and well-adjusted; you should do fine.”

Hayden frowned thoughtfully.

Well, at least I’ll have something to read while I’m there.
Maybe focusing his nervous energy on studying Wands wouldn’t be so bad after all, at least until the Council of Mages was finished with him.

“Anyway, there was another reason I came out to talk to you today.” The easy-going smile slipped from Master Asher’s face as he spoke, as thou
gh a dark cloud had passed over him.

“Oh, what’s that?” Hayden didn’t like the ominous look on the Prism Master’s features.

“This is Jasper Dout’s last day at Mizzenwald,” his mouth twisted as he said the words, as though tasting something unpleasant.

“Why?” Hayden blurted out before it dawned
on him. “Oh…you mean…it was him?”

Asher nodded grimly. “Yes, he was the one who swapped out your prism. You were quite correct that he had no idea you would
be sent somewhere so dangerous and would be in desperate need of a prism when he did it.”

Hayden frowned.

“Why would he do that though, with such a risk of getting caught?”

Master Asher looked troubled when he said, “His hope was that you would not notice the difference and would use it anyway. Depending on how much it affected you, not only would you be forced into lead Binders for the rest of your life, but no one would believe your testimony that you didn’t procure and use it intentionally. It would have been the end of your magical career at the very least.”

“And he…just confessed to all of this?”

“I’m told I can be quite persuasive when the occasion calls for it,” Asher stared moodily at the grass in front of him. “He eventually
came clean about all of it.”

A heavy moment of silence hung between them before Hayden asked, “What will happen to him now?”

“The Douts are a very well-known, affluent family, which is why Jasper wasn’t carried out in Binders the moment I had the truth out of him,” the Prism Master sighed. “The public story is that after finishing his sixth year here he had no desire to pursue further schooling and went to travel the world.”

“And where is he
really going?” Hayden wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“A very quiet
, comfortable prison cell,” Master Asher tapped his index finger rapidly on his knee while he spoke, as though burning off excess energy. “For several years, at least. After which he will be strongly encouraged not to use magic.”

Hayden’s eyebrows lifted in horror.

“He’s going to get in that much trouble just for giving me a bad prism?”

Master Asher met his gaze at last, looking young and troubled. “If it had been anyone else he’d sabotaged he might have gotten a lighter sentence, but the Council is very twitchy about the extent of your power and what you might do with it
after dabbling with imperfect prisms.”

Hayden felt surprisingly morose over the fate of Jasper, who he had spent the entire last year disliking
but pitying in a strange way.

“I feel like it’s my fault.”

Asher shook his head. “He made his own choices, and you aren’t accountable for them.”

“But he was only retaliating because I goaded him when
Zane and Conner went with me to his dorm room to draw on his face.” It was the first time Hayden had admitted doing that out loud.

The Prism Master frowned. “Perhaps, but he and Oliver have been picking on you since the moment you got here.” He sighed. “It’s impossible to unravel every moment and every decision that led to him swapping out your prism; there’s a circular logic about it, and it’s too late to change it anyway.”

“He only hated me so much because my father is the reason his family is dead,” Hayden said very quietly. “Even though I don’t like him, I know how it feels to be orphaned, and I can’t blame him for hating me…”

Asher looked strangely sympathetic.

“As I said, it’s impossible to unravel the entire causal chain that led to that night in the Cave of Nightmares,” Asher sighed. “You could argue that it goes back farther than you and Jasper, back to your parents, or even further…” he frowned. “When exactly did this all start? When Jasper’s parents were killed? When Aleric became the Dark Prism? When Aleric started researching prisms during his school days here? When Aleric was a child and his family encouraged him to be the best at everything he did?

“As I said, it’s impossible to trace the string of causality all the way to its source.” Master Asher looked suddenly older, and tired.

Hayden nodded understanding.

“Did Oliver have anything to do with it?”

Asher looked faintly relieved when he said, “No, thankfully he did not.”

The Prism Master stood up and straightened his robes. “Come on, it should be
nearly time for lunch by now.” He motioned for Hayden to get up and retrieve Bonk, who came when called.

The two of them walked back to
wards the school together while thoughts of studying, Kargath, and Jasper whirled around Hayden’s mind. It wasn’t until they reached the dining hall and prepared to part ways that Hayden spoke again.

“I guess I’ll see you at the start of next
term,” he felt a little awkward trying to say goodbye to his mentor. “Thanks for…”
everything
, “teaching me this year.”

Master Asher smirked. “Have a good holiday. Try to get some rest, because I have a feeling next year is going to be much busier than this one.”