by A. L. Knorr
Basil had his back to me, putting away books on the shelf behind his desk. He turned with a pleasant look, which dissolved like butter in a hot pan. “What’s wrong?”
“May I,” I squeaked, then cleared my throat. “May I have a glass of water?”
“You don’t have to ask.” He went over to the table with the carafe on it and poured for me. Coming over with the glass held out, he gestured to the sofa. A line had appeared between his brows.
“You must feel like a psychologist at times.” I forced a laugh.
He sat in the chair across from me. “I suppose that depends on what you’re about to say next. If you’re in the midst of a lover’s spat then I might, but from the look on your face I suspect it’s more serious.”
I nodded, took a sip and put the glass down on a coaster, trying not to slosh the water over the rim. I rubbed my hands together in my lap. “I have to make a confession.”
Basil’s neck seemed to grow long, his expression expanded. “Ryan knows. You’ve told him?”
“No. I mean, yes,” I replied. “He does know, but not because I told him. He figured it out. He’s been watching me like a cat since day one and I—I slipped up.”
“How?”
I gulped and felt like I couldn’t suck in enough air. The room rocked like it was being carried on the back of a huge hobby horse. “By cheating during the skills final last semester.”
There, it was out. The admission hung in the air between us like a bad smell.
Basil didn’t react at first, then he laughed. Laughed!
“Saxony, I have the entire thing on tape. I’ve been over the footage countless times. Alfred has as well. I can assure you, you did not cheat.”
“Not at my exam.” My voice chafed in my throat.
Basil recoiled. “What are you talking about?”
“With April. I cheated. We cheated, but she didn’t mean to. It was all me. I endowed her before she faced Ryan for foreign fire. She was so upset, and Ryan had been so nasty to her, I couldn’t just let her fail. Not when I could do something about it.” I was rambling now.
Basil seemed to back up into his chair, pressing himself against it like he needed to get away from me. I swallowed down the pain that rose at seeing rejection in his body language. This hurt even more than I expected it would. I couldn’t even be angry at Ryan for it. I had cheated, after all.
“I didn’t plan it, I didn’t even think about it. It just happened. Before April could agree, I poured my fire into her, just the way you did for me the day you taught me how to reconstruct. I even gave my fire instructions to do as it was told.”
“And did that work, do you think?” Basil’s tone derailed me. He sounded curious, not condemning or upset.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, once you put your fire into her, do you think it continued to do your bidding?”
“I don’t know,” I rasped, then cleared my voice. “Maybe. But Ryan was able to recognize my fire in April—that’s how he knew I was Burned, since only a Burned mage can endow.”
The room filled with silence.
“Aren’t you going to expel me?” I asked, the quiet pressing down too heavily to bear any longer.
Basil let out a long exhale. “If there was ever any doubt of your empathy and compassion, it has been eradicated. I can’t think of any more selfless thing than what you did for April. What good would expelling you do? I’ll have to think about the case for Ms. Brown as she should have also come forward. But no, I won’t expel either of you for this.”
He took a deep breath and his eyes narrowed. “I’m more concerned about why you’ve chosen today to tell me about it.”
Shock waves rolled over me. I hadn’t processed the first part of his response enough to get to the second. “But, you hate cheats and liars. Anyone dishonest. You expel thieves on the spot. Professor Winkler told me.”
Basil’s eyes rolled but he paired it with a smile. “Yes, I do hate dishonesty, and I cannot have five-fingered discounts going on at my school. But do you think me entirely without reason or understanding? Your circumstances were extenuating. I don’t approve, don’t think that I do, but I wouldn’t dream of kicking out the youngest Burned mage I’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching.” He leaned forward. “But, why now?”
I rubbed away the moisture that had been gathering in my eyes. The sense of relief that inflated in my chest was so strong I thought it might burst me apart. “Ryan has threatened to expose me if I don’t take him through a Burning. He wants to attempt it tomorrow night. I had to tell you. It was the only way to neutralize his blackmail.”
Basil took this in with more puzzlement than fear or fury. “He thinks you can see him safely through a Burning?”
I nodded.
“What makes him think that, I wonder.” Basil put his fingers to his lips. “Perhaps some comment Chad made once long ago. That boy has been all ears since childhood.”
“I told him I didn’t know how. That he would die.” My pulse slowed, and a kind of emotional exhaustion came over me—my good fortune was almost too much of a relief to fully comprehend. Not only was I not expelled, I wasn’t alone anymore. Ryan had locked horns with me, but now I had Basil at my back. Ryan had been rendered impotent. He would be angry, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
“Strange,” Basil murmured.
“What?”
“Oh, these ideas that get into Ryan’s head.” He waved a hand. “Thank you for your forthrightness, Saxony. Leave it with me.” His gaze was no longer on me, but off in middle-distance.
“Shall I go?” I was unsure. I felt better but things were still unsettled.
He didn’t answer, just kept looking at something invisible in the corner of the room.
“Basil?”
He looked up. “Hm? What?”
“Should I go? Is that it?”
He flapped a hand. “Yes, yes. Good night. Sleep well.”
I got up and headed for the door, pausing to look at him. He had his fingers against his lips in a pensive posture.
“Good night,” I said.
When he didn’t answer, I slipped out of the office and closed the door. Heavy is the head that wears whatever headmasters of supernatural schools wear.
Six
Sudden Assembly
I was about to leave my room and head down to the cafeteria for breakfast when the academy’s intercom system crackled. My hand on the doorknob, I froze, listening. The intercom was rarely used. The sound of someone taking a breath came through the static.
“Your attention, please,” came the electronically enhanced voice of Dr. Price. “Would all students and staff please report to the ballroom immediately. This is not an emergency, please remain calm. Walk in the corridors. Your first period classes have been cancelled. Breakfast will be kept hot until ten. Please proceed to the ballroom for an impromptu assembly. Thank you.”
With a final crackle, the intercom went silent.
I stepped out into the corridor as students filed into the halls, murmuring to one another. April emerged with one pigtail tied, the rest of her hair soaking into the fabric of her fireproof t-shirt. Her eyes had been traced with black liner. She looked like a startled cat. She stretched an elastic out with her hand and began to fasten the other tail as we fell in step together.
“That was a lot of ‘pleases’. What do you think happened?” She snapped the elastic into place, spraying shampoo-smelling water across my face.
“I don’t know.” I wiped my cheek as we turned the corner and joined the flow of staff and students headed to the ballroom. The smell of freshly showered bodies adorned with smokey-smelling fabrics filled the air as the soles of shoes struck the hardwood of the ballroom.
A quick scan showed Gage hadn’t arrived yet. April and I took seats near the middle and I kept one available for him. First-years gravitated to the left side of the room. Second-years sat on the right side, while third-years took up the back rows, o
ften with empty chairs between them as they felt comfortable enough in their superiority to spread out.
Gage slid into the seat beside me. “Morning.”
“Morning.” I smiled.
“Heyo.” April leaned forward from my other side. “Any idea what’s going on?”
“Not a clue. You?”
April lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t know either but Lexi said that Lora said that Patch overheard the headmaster yelling at someone over the phone early this morning.”
Gage nodded toward the front. I followed his gaze to see Basil heading for the podium.
As the remaining magi found their seats, Ryan appeared in the aisle between the chairs and slid into a seat two rows ahead of us. I wanted to stick my tongue out at the back of his head. Ryan didn’t know it yet, but he no longer had any power over me except that he could tell Gage what I’d done. I made a mental note to take Gage aside and bring him up to speed, but my palms began to sweat at the thought of it.
Basil leaned toward the microphone. “Morning.”
Gage whispered, “He looks tired.”
Now that he mentioned it, Basil had dark circles under his eyes which weren’t usually there, and his face was pale. I wondered if I’d given him a sleepless night with my confession. Lines bracketed his mouth and his usually well-coiffed hair was slightly mussed.
“Thank you for joining me on short notice,” he said, adjusting his spectacles. “It is with a heavy heart that I call us to assemble. I won’t beat about the bush. All of you know that I am a member of a small group of mages known as the Burned.”
My skin felt strangely cold as the sound of breathing vanished from the room. My heart began to scamper.
“You also know that Burned mages are not discussed at Arcturus due to the dangerous nature of the procedure required to achieve it. Arcturus forbids any mage under its roof and in its employ to entertain the idea of taking such a risk. According to the Agency’s most current research, only two percent of mages survive. Those who manage to live, do so thanks merely to chance. I must emphasize the risk. I am aware of the mythology that can spring up around mages who have this status.”
Mythology? Basil and I both knew what surviving a Burning meant. It struck me that using the word mythology was a calculated move on the headmaster’s part.
As though he could read my thoughts, he continued. “I’m not talking about the increase in ability, that is not a myth. I am talking about the often deified status that Unburned mages attribute to such fellow supernaturals. But I’m waxing long.” Basil paused and looked down, appearing to collect himself. The room was as silent as a sepulcher.
He looked up again. “The reason I am forced to address this is because there is another Burned among us.”
It was as though Basil had pushed an unmute button. Whispers and chatter erupted. There were squeaks of sneakers on the hardwood and the rustling of fabric as students turned to talk to one another. The professors in the audience did not react—Either they’d been warned or they had mastered the poker-face.
I felt like the air was a shroud pressing in on me. My fingers curled over the edge of my seat, gripping tightly. My eyes drifted shut in amazement and disbelief. I should have anticipated this. As I sat there in numb shock, the shrewdness of the move began to penetrate. In one fell swoop Basil would pull the rug out from under Ryan’s feet. I suddenly knew who Patch had overheard Basil shouting at in his office earlier. It had been Chad Wendig as Basil told him their agreement had come to an end.
“Ms. Cagney.” Basil’s voice seemed to roll over the hall like a thundercloud, gathering speed and power as it went. “Would you please join me on the dais?”
Silence descended as all sound ceased, filling the air with suffocating nothingness. Every eye in the room was fixed on me, I could feel looks like they were fingers. Gage and April turned their heads, mouths dropping open in unison. All the moisture sucked out of my mouth as I squeezed past Gage and into the aisle. As I strode forward, fighting to look calm and unruffled—like I’d known this revelation was coming--Ryan’s head rotated smoothly and slowly, like an owl’s, until his eyes were on me too. Simmering orange beams glowed from his skull and his teeth bared with a look of such unadulterated hatred that I sped up to put him behind me.
“I am not calling Ms. Cagney up here to give credit to her status.” Basil seemed unaffected by the shock reverberating through the room. “I am calling her up here because I know you’ll all stare at her otherwise. As I explain how and why this situation came to be, I’d like your attention on me.”
I reached the dais and stepped up to join Basil at the podium. He gestured to one of the empty chairs behind him; I slid over and sank into it. My mind was a tornado as I looked out over the crowd, uncertain where to settle my gaze. Amazed and bewildered expressions were on every face except Ryan’s. Students leaned sideways to get a better view of me, as though they’d never seen me walk the halls or study in the library or eat in the cafeteria.
Basil gave me a reassuring smile then turned to the students. “Ms. Cagney was the victim of a crime, the horrors of which are not the subject of this assembly. Her status was not of her doing, it was done to her and it nearly killed her. She survived thanks to pure luck. Fourth- and fifth-degree mages are rare and do not train here, as many of you know. They train at the Agency. The reason we kept Saxony’s story a secret was three-fold.” Basil held up a thumb. “First, because she is only seventeen and came into her fire via another rare occurrence called plenary endowment, meaning Saxony was not born with her fire, like you were. She has not had a lifetime to become accustomed to her mage-hood. To put her into the agency with other fourth- and fifth-degree mages would be a disservice to her.”
He held up his first finger. “Next, we kept it quiet because having a first-year mage of Burned status in the school was sure to be a curiosity for the rest of you. Her objective this year is to complete her high school education, which all of you had a chance to do without distraction from mage activities. We wanted to afford Ms. Cagney the right to do so in relative peace.”
He added a third finger. “And finally, while we met her needs we wanted to keep the rest of you focused on your own work and studies. Having a Burned among you is sure to be a distraction, cause a lack of focus and, potentially, jealousy.”
As I scanned the crowd, some of the shock had worn off the faces and they’d grown pensive. Some level of understanding spread across the room as Basil gave them the logic. A glance at Gage showed him leaning forward with an elbow on his knee, propping his chin on his hand. A slash of concern pinched his brows and wrinkled his forehead in a way I’d never seen before. He was not ignorant of Ryan’s desires. Odds were good that he might ferret out the real reason: keeping Ryan in the dark.
Basil let a long sigh out through his nose as he put his hand down and gripped the side of the podium. “You’ll be wondering why I’ve chosen today to share this secret with you. The truth is, that as well-meaning as my plan for Saxony has been from the beginning, isolating her and forcing her to travel the path of her education alone, without the support of peers who care for her and know her true nature has not been without consequence. While she is Burned, Saxony is also just a seventeen-year-old girl with normal needs and desires.”
I groaned inwardly and lowered my gaze to the floor as my face flushed with blood. Basil meant well, but this was embarrassing enough without mention of my normal needs and desires. How could I steer Basil away from this line of talk before the equivalent of my lacy underpants and bras were hanging out on a line? Slowly, I lifted my hands up to cover my face in a parody of shame and embarrassment.
Laughter exploded through the hall at my caricature of mortification. Peeking through my fingers, I saw Basil turn to see what was so funny. He cracked the first smile of the day and turned back to the microphone.
“I have unwittingly humiliated Ms. Cagney.” He sounded a little less serious.
Taking my hands away
from my face, I was relieved to see how well my miming had done the trick. As though someone had pricked the balloon of the room’s mood, the normal sounds of an assembly picked up again. Clothing rubbed, feet squeaked, people coughed and the occasional whisper reached my ears. Gone were the awestruck looks, the stares at someone freakish. Even the cloud of worry that had overshadowed Gage’s beautiful features had moved away almost completely. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“This is new territory for Arcturus,” Basil continued, sounding lighter. “And now that you’re all in the know, I have just a few more items to touch upon before I dismiss you for the day. Please, do not harass Ms. Cagney for the story of her Burning. If she wishes, she will share it. Second, Saxony has generously agreed to give some of her spare time to students who find themselves in need of tutoring. Some of you will know that Saxony tutored April Brown, and will have seen the results of those private sessions in the first-year skills exam last year.”
“She was awesome,” yelled April, her voice bursting with pride. “I highly recommend her!”
Laughter again filled the room, even Basil chuckled.
“Now you know why. If you do find yourself in need of help, please see Secretary Goshawk about booking it as she will be the gatekeeper of Saxony’s time. I must stress that this is for students who genuinely need it, please do not schedule time with Ms. Cagney simply because you’re curious or want to have her to yourself. Secretary Goshawk updates your progress into our system so she’ll know if you’re flapping an authentic broken wing or not.”
The crowd tittered and rustled. Students now anticipated being dismissed.
Basil looked back at me. “Anything to add?”
I shook my head, shrinking visibly in my chair like a turtle retreating into its shell. People laughed at that too. My initial dubiousness of Basil’s decision to out me went up in smoke as a feeling of warm acceptance oozed from the crowd, reaching out like a hug.