by S T G Hill
She looked down at her socked feet and wiggled her toes. Her shoes sat beside the door into this odd white room with its lovely bed.
“Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski, your foster parents who scolded you about the burn you received.”
He spoke with a crisp voice with an accent she couldn’t quite place. Not American, not British. But not really not them, either.
Ellie looked more closely at the man sitting in the wingback chair in the corner. He was an old man, that was for certain. Though just how old she couldn’t be certain.
A kindly and time-lined face looked back at her impassively. He wore no hat and she was struck by his full head of neat, pure-white hair. His beard was equally pure, though short and well-clipped.
He wore no glasses, and didn’t squint. She immediately suspected that despite his age he had perfect vision. Perhaps, she thought, much better than perfect.
“Okay,” Ellie said, “One, how do you know about that? And two, who are you and where am I?”
He closed the book. The pages coughed up a bit of dust. Then he stood. He wore a dark gray robe belted in the middle that reminded Ellie of a trench coat, and a pair of black shoes or boots poked out from beneath the hem of that robe.
“That sounds like three to me,” he said.
“Three, whatever,” Ellie said.
“We’ll take them in order, shall we?” he said. He held the large book in the crook of one arm and then rested his other hand on one of the wings of the chair.
“One, I know about that memory because I could see it in your thoughts. Something I can do with particularly strong or painful memories, among other things. Oh, don’t worry, I can’t read every thought that flits across your brain. It is a fickle talent.
“Two, you already know who I am, as I signed that letter in your pocket. But as a more formal introduction, my name is Aurelius Cassiodorian, and I’m the magister of Sourcewell Academy, which is where we are right now.
“I like to introduce myself to each prospective student personally. Normally the introductions occur in a more appropriate setting, but this is the way you arrived.”
Ellie swallowed hard.
Can you tell what I’m thinking right now?
“No,” he answered paradoxically. He waited a moment and then smiled. It was a grandfatherly smile. “I don’t need to read minds to know what you just thought. It’s the same thing everyone thinks at this point.”
Ellie relaxed. A little, anyway. She reached down and touched the bulge of the letter in her pocket. “So we’re at Sourcewell? Where is that? Somewhere in New York State?”
She didn’t feel extra hungry or thirsty or anything, so she figured she couldn’t have been out very long. Not long enough to go far, anyway.
Aurelius continued to smile, “Not a question to be answered at this time. Now, please come with me. It’s quite all right, perfectly safe. I guarantee it.”
He waved his hand and the door opened.
Ellie gasped, wanted to ask how he did that. But then the light spilled in from the hallway. Fresh, crisp daylight.
She vaulted off the bed and leaned out the doorway. Huge leaded glass windows lined the broad hall outside. They looked out onto some sort of wooded courtyard, the tall maples on the other side of the glass swaying gently in the breeze.
People wandered the halls, too. Many holding books. Though, she noticed quickly, for many the books hovered in the air just behind the person, keeping pace and gliding along gently and without sound.
Some of them were teenagers. Some younger children. And adults, too. Many of them wore what she’d consider street clothes. Jeans and shirts and jackets. Still, many of them wore robes like Aurelius. Some matched his gray, and others wore bright red or deep blue ones.
“Are we in a castle?” she said. She sounded giddy even to herself.
She felt giddy.
Cassiodorian stepped out into the hall and motioned for her to follow. Many of the people walking by nodded at him or greeted him, and he acknowledged them in turn.
“It’s not a castle, but a campus,” he said, walking away.
Ellie followed, taking quick steps in between hopping to pull her shoes on, to keep up with his long stride. The windows to their right ran the entire length of this gargantuan hallway, and she realized she could hear the rustling of the leaves and branches on the other side.
They passed by one tree with a single bare branch, which caught her eye.
“Like a school?” Ellie said.
“Precisely,” he said, “And much like other schools, we administer an entrance exam. I imagine the others should be there by now.”
“Exam? What? Right now? I don’t even know what I’m supposed to study!” Ellie said. Not to mention that she already went to school, back in Brooklyn. Wherever that happened to be from here.
He chuckled lightly, “No studying is required. They’re tests of raw aptitude only. Ah, here we are.”
Ellie and Aurelius took another step and they moved instantly to the very end of the hallway.
Ellie stumbled and then caught herself. She looked back and saw that same tree with the bare branch. It had to be hundreds of feet away.
“How…?”
“Inside, please. The testing doesn’t take long, but it is important for us to place you properly with your classmates,” he said.
She went inside and found herself confronted by three people who sat along a long oak table. The table shone with perfect smoothness.
Each of the three wore robes, but each a different color.
The man on the left, dusky skinned and with a sharp face, wore deep blue.
A woman sat in the middle. She was quite pretty and her smile was almost as warm as the one offered by Aurelius. Her robe was that bright red.
Ellie couldn’t tell her age. She had that sort of ethereal, elfin aspect to her and could’ve been in her early 20s or her late 40s.
The man to her right seemed somehow the youngest, though Ellie couldn’t say why she thought so. His robe was gray like the one Aurelius wore.
“I present for your consideration Eleonora Ashwood,” Aurelius said.
“So considered she shall be,” the three seated adults spoke in unison.
Ellie wanted to ask what they meant, but couldn’t bring herself to. They were all so imposing, mixed in perhaps with a touch of silliness. Who wore robes anymore? And Ellie didn’t count housecoats.
“Your test is ready,” the man in blue said. He spoke with a light Arabian accent, and when he finished he steepled his fingers together in front of his face and nodded at her.
Ellie didn’t understand. Aside from that long oak table the room was a blank rectangle of polished hardwood floors and plaster walls. Not even a window.
Although she did feel some sense of bubbling excitement in her stomach.
Finally something she might actually excel at! She remembered the way that the guy had looked at her when she’d broken that hold on the door and escaped out into the alley.
And the way both Caspian and he had reacted when she’d save the two of them with that weird storm of power that had left Caspian a smoking heap.
She smiled. Just a little. Oh yeah, she was going to blow this test right out of the water.
Then Aurelius disappeared. Like he simply left existence. He’d been standing to the side of the table until the blue-robed man began the test. Then he just wasn’t there anymore.
Ellie had seen so much lately that this didn’t shock her as much as if it had been 24 hours ago.
But it was still jarring.
She liked Aurelius. He’d been nice, even if he could apparently see into her head sometimes.
What’s with that? she wondered.
“Miss Ashwood?”
It was the woman in the middle. When she caught Ellie’s attention, she gave her a small smile. The two men on either side of her looked on impassively.
“Um, yeah, sorry. Still new to all… this,” Ellie said, indicating the entir
ety of the magical world with a sweep of her hand.
“Of course,” the woman said, “If you’ll turn around, we can begin the test.”
“Sure,” Ellie said, frowning a little. When she’d come into the room moments earlier, there had been nothing facing the long oak table but an off-white plaster wall.
She fought through a little resistance when she spun slowly. She’d learned over the course of many events in her life that turning your back on someone was usually a mistake.
But all that dropped away.
Actually, the entire wall dropped away. A brilliant field of stars replaced it. Ellie looked back over her shoulder to ask what this was, but the rest of the room had disappeared as well.
She stood on an invisible platform in an endless panorama of space. The stars twinkled at her. Little swirls of nebulae and distant galaxies held perfectly still, as though paused in mid pinwheel.
Ellie had never quite felt anything like she did at that moment. A sort of living and reverential silence suffused her. It was both calming and terrifying all at once.
“Tell us when you feel it coming,” said a disembodied male voice.
She thought it was the man in the gray robes, who hadn’t yet spoken.
“When what’s coming?” Ellie said.
She turned a slow circle on her invisible platform, suddenly wary. Her shoulders hunched and her jaw tightened.
Was this some sort of trick?
Light surged behind her. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She got the impending sense of something rushing towards her.
She spun. Then she threw her arms up in front of her face. A glowing comet hurtled towards her, already impossibly close. So close she thought she could feel a wave of cold pushed in front of it.
“I see it!” she said, hoping that this was what they meant. Because a moment later she lowered her arms and saw that the ball had stopped not far from her.
Or so she thought. Out in this vastness, it was almost impossible to judge size or scale.
And now that it had stopped, she could look at it more closely. It pulsed with a pale blue hue. It reminded her of a heartbeat.
And it wasn’t cold. No, it was warm. She thought if she touched it, it might scorch her to cinders.
That brought back the memory of Caspian grabbing her by her shoulder. That incredible burning agony that followed.
She stumbled back a step.
“Call it to you.” This was the lilting voice of the blue-robed man.
“What? How? I don’t understand,” Ellie said, looking about with increasing panic.
“Bring it towards you,” the voice replied, “Some find it helpful to reach out towards it.”
“Sure…” Ellie replied. Just what sort of test was this?
She faced the pulsing ball of blue light.
Uh, come over here I guess? Please?
Nothing happened. She suppressed the urge to bend over and pat at her thighs like she was calling a dog.
Then she tried concentrating. Her forehead wrinkled with it. She willed the ball closer.
Nothing happened. Again.
Wait!
Had the pulsing changed? Gotten a little faster, just for an instant? Ellie couldn’t be certain, but she thought so.
Then she reached out towards it. First with one hand, then both, in a gesture that looked like she was imploring it to approach.
Then she willed it to come nearer. Something happened. Not to the ball, but to her. Something inside of her. That strange sense of movement she’d felt in the alley, like the shifting of electric winds.
They raced from the center of her chest down her arms.
Her mouth dropped open. She laughed.
“Is this really happening?”
It was incredible. It made her feel so good she wanted to dance around to get rid of some of that elated energy.
Then her laughter stopped. Because that pulsing blue ball got closer. And closer still. She’d thought maybe it was the size of a large beach ball. Then the size of a minivan.
Wait… she thought, her mind cluing her into an impossibility.
But it kept getting bigger. And brighter.
The closer it came, the harder the task got. Little beads of sweat ran down from her temples, and her knees trembled.
She could barely hold up her arms. But it didn’t seem close enough yet.
It grew to such size that she could no longer see around it. It was so bright she was surprised she didn’t want to shield her eyes against it. But no matter how bright it became she hardly even blinked.
Because it wasn’t a beach ball. Not even a minivan sized beach ball.
It was a star. A bright blue thing, pulsing with its own inner energy and heat. Swirls and tendrils seemed to run over its surface.
It got so close she knew now that she could reach out and place her hand on its roiling surface.
She didn’t know if it was what they wanted, but she lowered her arms and that sense of flowing power within her shut off.
Her whole body trembled. Her heart slammed into overdrive.
That odd combination of serenity and terror flowed through her like a living thing. She didn’t know whether she should cry or smile.
Maybe both?
“Now touch it. Touch it and send it back, Eleonora,” the lovely woman said. Or her disembodied voice, at least.
She looked again at the star. This close, its light was so bright it felt like a physical thing washing over her.
She shook her head, “I don’t understand.” Then she stepped back.
“Try,” the woman said, not unkindly.
All Ellie really wanted to do was curl up into a ball and tuck her head into her arms and wait until this weird dream ended.
The urge for that almost overpowered everything else.
“Try,” the woman said again.
“Okay, okay,” Ellie said.
She swallowed hard against what felt like a star-sized lump lodged partway down her throat.
Then she took back that step she’d taken earlier.
She reached out with one hand. One slow and trembling hand. What if it burned her away when she touched it?
But then she did. The surface was smooth and warm, and it seemed to vibrate beneath her palm.
Not vibrating, she realized. It was humming. Humming with power.
Then she put her other hand against it. She tried pushing at first, then realized how ridiculous that was.
Although that struck her as odd, seeing as the entire situation was preposterous.
Then she did the same thing as when she’d called it over. She closed her eyes. Frowned in concentration. Willed the star away.
When she opened her eyes her hands glowed. They glowed just like Caspian’s had.
That thought made her jerk her hands back. Caspian had tried to hurt her. Tried to take her. She didn’t want to be like him.
But you need to finish the test, she realized.
So she put her hands back on that strange, humming surface and willed it away.
At first nothing happened. She pushed harder. Willed harder. Willed until more little rivulets of sweat ran down from her temples and her entire body trembled as though she was trying to hold back the weight of the world.
Slowly, oh so painfully slowly, she felt it move beneath her palms. The movement picked up speed. And then she couldn’t touch it anymore. It had drifted beyond her reach.
She watched it drift away, faster and faster, until it blended back into the background of stars around it.
“You’re finished,” the blue-robed man said.
“How do I get back?” she started.
Then the stars vanished. They faded away and that room faded back into reality.
Everything seemed to much smaller to her now. She felt heavy inside, as though she’d just lost something beautiful.
Her knees trembled again, wanting her to sink down to the floor. But then she saw them watching her and she forced some s
trength back into them.
A little bead of sweat ran down into the corner of her eye and stung, and she wiped it away.
They glanced at each other. They didn’t look pleased. Her heart, only then beginning to slow, dropped into her stomach.
“So?” Ellie said.
Chapter 4
Ellie had no idea what to expect. Excitement and frustration worked cold fingers up and down her spine and stomach.
And some part of her was still convinced that all this wasn’t real.
That any second now the sound of Chauncy pawing at the window by her little bed would wake her up and she’d leave the apartment just to keep away from Mr. Fichtner.
But were dreams supposed to get boring?
Because it felt like she stood there in front of that table forever. And that wasn’t the worst part.
No, it was that they were talking and she couldn’t hear any of it. Not whispering to each other, actually talking.
She watched the blue-robed man say something to the woman in red, who shook her head and said something back.
There simply wasn’t any noise.
She could hear her own breathing, and her own heartbeat. But she may as well have been watching a silent movie.
The soles of her feet ached from standing, and she shifted her weight from side to side for a while.
And is there a bathroom somewhere around here?
Or did magic people not have to do any of that anymore?
It gave her some time to think. She thought about how weird this all was. How she didn’t even really know where she was, or what day it was. Had it been more than a day?
If so, had Mr. Fichtner called the police to start looking for her? Maybe Mrs. Jessup back at school had noted her absence and started inquiring around.
Ellie realized then that even though she didn’t like her life very much, it was the only one that she knew.
And that she kind of wanted to go back to it. Maybe.
Then the gray-robed man lifted his arm and snapped his fingers. Noises returned. One of them shifted their chair, the legs squeaking a little against the hardwood.
The man in blue cleared his throat, and the red woman leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table.
“So, how’d I do?” Ellie said, uncomfortable beneath all those stares. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention.