Frost Prisms (The Broken Prism Book 5) (9 page)

“Great, something else to have nightmares about,” Hayden grimaced. “I guess it’s a good thing I have all of you Masters of the arcana on hand to teach me everything you know before that happens.”

Asher tilted his head at this, glancing at his chrono.

“I need to return to Mizzenwald. Now that the term is about over, we’ll have more time to dedicate to preparing for a fight with Aleric, so you and I will see each other soon. In the meantime, do the best you can to learn whatever our allies are trying to teach you, keep Bonk with you as much as possible, and never go anywhere unarmed, even in this house.”

“You think he’ll come
here
?” Hayden made a face. He certainly hoped that the Dark Prism wouldn’t come storming into the Trout estate in the dead of night to capture or kill him.

Great, my nightmares just got even scarier.

“We’re doing all we can to make sure that no one knows you are here, but better safe than sorry. If Aleric grabs one of our allies and tortures him or her sufficiently, they may give away your location.”

“It seems like every time we part ways, it’s over some horribly depressing news like this,” Hayden pointed out. “You never pull me aside to tell me a joke or offer me ice cream or anything.”

Asher snorted in amusement.

“You’re right, it does seem that way. My apologies. Once this is all over, I’ll be sure to end all of our conversations with a bad joke or some sort of baked dessert. For now though, I must go.”

Hayden nodded and watched the Prism Master take hold of his Mastery Charm, narrow his eyebrows in concentration, and vanish into thin air.

5

The Duel

Receiving one-on-one training from some of the greatest mages in the Nine Lands wasn’t nearly as glamorous as Hayden might have imagined, if someone had told him years ago where he would be right now. It actually involved a lot more muttered swear words and healing elixirs than he might have guessed.

“Get up, Hayden,” Master Willow said from somewhere nearby. “We only have a few more minutes together before I need to depart.”

Great, then one of my other allies will take up the job of beating me to a pulp in your stead.

Groaning, Hayden spit out the mouthful of grass he’d recently acquired after landing face-down on the far side of the arena in the Trout’s back yard.

And to think, just one year ago I was mildly envious that I’d never gotten to practice my magical weaponry out here with the Trouts.

He decided that he should really be more careful with his wishes, since they had a nasty way of coming true in ways he didn’t expect.

Squinting against the sunlight, Hayden pulled himself to his feet and tried to quickly assess whether he’d broken any bones or was otherwise critically injured. Since he didn’t see blood pouring out of his body and onto the neatly-trimmed lawn, he figured he was well enough to continue.

“You should have used your maple wand against me, not the laurel,” Master Willow explained patiently, looking mostly unruffled from their most recent bout. The only visible evidence that he and Hayden had been dueling for the last hour was his torn pant leg and a bruise on one cheekbone.

“I used up my maple wand twenty minutes ago, or I might have tried it instead,” Hayden grumbled, tired of getting whipped repeatedly by more skillful mages. It certainly didn’t do wonders for his self-esteem, necessary though it was.

“I know. You’re too liberal with the use of your combat wands—you go for the grand effect when a simpler spell will suffice,” the Master of Wands chided him gently. “You wasted the entire wand with one spell. Had this been a challenge arena, you would have received bottom marks for your extravagance.”

“I was trying to box you in with those stones, but the wand was consumed before I got the last one into place.” Hayden pointed at the structure that stood mostly-formed off to their left. He had thought it was quite inventive to pull large slabs of rock from the earth itself to construct his prison—though right now it was more of a crude shelter since it was missing the fourth wall.

“Most impressive, yes. And did it never occur to you that instead of exerting that exorbitant amount of power, you might have just as easily used your maple wand to attempt to knock my own from my hand?” The Master gave him a flat stare. “I believe maple is excellent for disarming.”

Hayden’s mouth dropped open. He immediately felt like an idiot for not thinking of something so basic—something he had learned in his very first year of schooling.

“Uh, no, it didn’t,” he admitted, embarrassed.

“You’re an excellent mage, and quite magically-powerful,” Willow relented, lowering his own wand at last and moving forwards. “But you need to work on exhausting simple solutions before going for complex ones, or you will find yourself weaponless and overtired before your opponent has even broken a sweat.”

Hayden frowned.

“It just seems like my father isn’t going to be throwing out simple spells when I fight him,” he explained. “I don’t expect a duel with him to last very long, so I need to give it everything I’ve got while I still can; he’s already smarter than me, faster than me, and has magic I will probably never understand or possess. He’s going to go in with everything he’s got.”

“That just means that he will be blind to the obvious,” Willow waved an airy hand. “Difficult casts take much longer to execute, especially if he is confining himself to only using prisms, because he’ll need to trace alignments. If you are using simpler magic, not only will you conserve your resources, but it will help close the gap in speed between the two of you.”

Hayden considered that in silence, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Thanks to the climate control at the Trout estate, it didn’t feel like winter at all, though he could have used some cool air right now.

“The time may come for you to throw out everything you’ve got,” Willow continued into the silence. “All I am saying is, don’t expend all your energy before you have to.”

“Thanks, I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Hayden nodded, approaching a nearby bench and sitting heavily on it. He had one more appointment today, and almost no time to rest and prepare himself for it.

Master Laurren, who had been watching silently from the bench while he dueled Willow for the last hour, leaned over and said, “Not bad, Frost.”

“Not good, either,” Hayden countered lightly.

“Well, no, but for all that Willow looks like a little old man, he’s quite the powerhouse. It could have been much worse for you if Asher hadn’t been preparing you for the last several years.”

Hayden lifted his eyebrows in acknowledgement.

“I thought you had him for a minute there, when you brought those rocks up out of the ground to cage him in. By the way, Magdalene will be furious if her lawn isn’t put to rights before she gets home, you know that, right?”

Hayden groaned and nodded wearily.

“I’ll fix it when I’m done with my last fight of the day—assuming I’m still alive and conscious,” he amended.

“Oh, Kiresa knows better than to maim you too badly, even if he’d like to,” Master Laurren said mildly.

“People keep telling me that, but I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Laurren just shrugged and said nothing. For a minute they sat there in silence—apparently the man had nothing better to do right now than watch him practice magic—and then Hayden was forcibly reminded that this was the first time he had gotten to speak to the Master of Abnormal Magic privately since before he went into the schism.

“Master Laurren,” Hayden began softly, “do you remember the last thing you said to me before I went into the schism?”

The Master glanced sideways at him without turning his head.

“In the dining hall, yes? I was telling you about the vision I had…that you would come to a critical juncture at some point and that you needed to turn left or you would certainly die.”

Hayden nodded.

“We came to a fork in the road inside the other realm, where the ley-lines split and went off in different directions. The way to the right looked clear, and the left side took us through a horrible swamp full of things that wanted to kill us.”

“And you remembered my words and…went left anyway?” he guessed.

Hayden nodded again.

“Harold thought I was nuts, and he went haring off on the obvious path, where he immediately fell into the worst quicksand I’ve ever seen. Tanner and I went left after that, and we made it through the swamp, though Tanner was in bad shape. It was after that—”

“That you found Aleric?” Laurren guessed again, frowning thoughtfully.

“Well, yeah.”

“So you’re thinking that if you hadn’t taken my advice, you would never have run into the Dark Prism, and we would not be here right now.”

Hayden didn’t bother stating the obvious.

“I’m not blaming you,” he said quickly. “For all I know I’d be dead in that quicksand, or still stuck in the schism, or whatever. I just remember you saying that if I went left I might survive, and if I went right I would surely die. Did you know anything about my father being there when you told me that?”

Laurren shook his head.

“No, or I certainly would have advised you to leave him behind.” He exhaled heavily. “I’ve been wondering if I was right to tell you as much as I did, since you returned with him in tow. I suppose I bear as much responsibility as anyone for your father’s return.”

“You’re no more at fault than I am for bringing him back,” Hayden assured him. “Who knew that my good friend Hunter would morph into my evil father as soon as we came back through the schism?”

“You know, I was a little surprised when Asher told me that Aleric caught him off guard upon returning and managed to steal one of his prisms,” Laurren said lightly, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular.

“Oh?” Hayden ventured carefully, not sure what the man was getting at exactly, but refusing to betray Asher for saving his life. “Well, like I said, no one was really expecting the Dark Prism to pop up at Mizzenwald after everyone thought he was dead.”

“Oh sure,” Laurren agreed lightly. “But still, to rob Asher of one of his prisms, Aleric would have had to get very close to him, overpower him, and then translocate himself away from Mizzenwald. Asher has some of the fastest reflexes I’ve ever seen, so it’s hard to imagine him being so paralyzed in the face of danger.”

Uncomfortable, Hayden shrugged and said, “Well, that’s what happened. I was there, so I would know.”

Laurren finally turned those purple-blue eyes to him and said, very seriously, “Good. Make sure you never waver from that story for a minute, or things would go badly for your mentor.”

He knows.

Hayden suppressed the urge to gulp guiltily and simply nodded in understanding. He supposed he shouldn’t be so surprised that Laurren had figured it out; the man was eerily gifted in his own way, and was close friends with the Prism Master. It made Hayden wonder how many of the other Masters had figured out there was more to the story than they were hearing, and were simply keeping their silence out of respect for their colleague.

Before they could say anything else on the subject, Hayden’s final combat instructor of the day arrived. The sight of Master Kiresa stalking towards him did nothing to brighten Hayden’s mood, especially as the man was wearing his combat circlet.

Master Laurren got to his feet and prepared to depart.

“
Now
you leave?” Hayden asked incredulously. “The one person who might actually do me serious harm, and you’re leaving me alone with him?”

Laurren spared him a glance and said, “Sink or swim, Hayden. Don’t provoke the man into a rage if you aren’t prepared for the consequences. Kiresa was right about that much, at least. Asher won’t be there to intervene on your behalf forever.”

And with that he walked off, pausing long enough to exchange greetings with the Prism Master of Isenfall before stepping carefully around the portion of the lawn Hayden had wrecked with his magic and leaving.

Kiresa and Hayden stared at each other for a long moment, the former looking almost contemplative.

“Frost,” he said at last.

“Master Kiresa,” Hayden returned, deciding that there was no point in opening hostilities any sooner than necessary.

“You look like hell.”

Hayden shrugged and said, “I’ve been battling people all morning. You’re my last match for the day.”

“Don’t expect me to go easy on you just because you’re tired.”

“I don’t, sir.” Hayden struggled to keep his tone respectful.

“Well, get into the marked combat area, and let’s see what you can actually do, now that you don’t have anyone to hide behind.”

Hayden seethed internally but said nothing, clenching and unclenching his fists a few times to relieve his frustration. They would both find out soon enough whether Hayden was any good against another prism-user or not.

It seemed distinctly unfair of the Prism Master to wear a combat circlet when he knew that Hayden didn’t have one, because it would lend him a speed advantage to not have to fumble around with the different prisms in his belt. Judging by the look on Kiresa’s face, the man knew exactly what Hayden was thinking and was waiting to see if he would complain about it. Hayden refused to give him the satisfaction, simply equipping a fresh mastery-level clear prism and holding a violet one in his free hand.

“On the count of three,” Kiresa informed him, tensing in preparation for the fight. “One…two…”

The Prism Master attacked on ‘two’, but Hayden had been prepared for trickery and activated one of the charms around his neck to shield him as he readied his own spell.

Pierce!
Hayden found the alignment rapidly, aiming at the man’s head in the hopes of ending the fight early; a migraine would do nicely to prevent Kiresa from casting effectively.

Unfortunately the Prism Master deflected the spell and twisted the prism in his eyepiece to a new alignment. A wave of heat washed over Hayden, and he managed to cast Water to drench himself just as his clothing caught fire.

Stun!
Hayden tried next, casting while moving out of the line-of-fire. His aim was off, so he only hit the Master’s right arm, but was pleased when it fell limply to his side. He followed with Break, aiming at Kiresa’s prisms and hoping to disarm him, but his opponent recovered in time to block the attack, using a charm of his own to free his stunned arm simultaneously.

Kiresa compounded a clear and blue prism, and Hayden was suddenly caught in the middle of a vortex, the wind buffeting him into the air and slinging him around in dizzying circles, caught in the cyclone. Dirt flew into his eyes as he squinted into his own compounded prisms and stopped the wind entirely.