by V. St. Clair
Zane raised an eyebrow and said, “You mean those two normals you brought with you actually managed to pull their weight? Good for them!” He grinned in surprise.
“No—I mean, yes, Tanner and Harold both pulled their weight…I was actually the useless one most of the time.” He sighed. “But no, it wasn’t them who saved me in the end.”
“What are you talking about?” Zane looked confused. “You three were the only ones who went into the schism—who else would have been there to help you? Unless…you didn’t find one of the old expedition teams, did you?”
He looked around the infirmary as though expecting to see Delauria and her companions sitting in the next bed.
“No, I never saw any sign of the other groups in there.” Hayden sighed, preparing himself to get the worst part over with. “I met someone else in the other plane, someone who had been living there for years. He was the one who helped me at the end, when I was too far gone to help myself, and he carried me out of the schism on his back before I could get sealed inside while battling monsters.”
“Wow,” Zane whistled, impressed. “Where’s this random hero who saved the day and made sure you got back home? I’d like to shake the hand of anyone who can survive a schism for years on their own.”
Hayden frowned and said, “I doubt you’ll be able to. He’s probably off plotting to kill me and take over the world again.”
Now both Tess and Zane looked confused. For the first time since she entered the room, the former spoke.
“What are you talking about?”
Hayden’s heart hurt as he met her eyes.
“It’s my father, Tess. I accidentally brought my father back from the other realm.”
A terrible moment of silence followed this, during which Hayden’s two friends stared at him like they couldn’t even process the words that had just come out of his mouth.
“You—what?” Zane recovered first, looking incredulous.
“I found my father inside the other realm; he must have gotten blasted there the day my house exploded.” He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the magical explosion was bad enough to open a schism—actually, I’m more amazed that it closed itself before anyone else noticed it was there, given how bad the blast was.”
Zane was shaking his head slowly.
“Hayden, you must still be a little nuts if you think there’s any way you encountered the Dark Prism inside of a schism and brought him back into our world with you. It just…it doesn’t make sense…”
“The story of my life,” Hayden sighed. “Sadly, no, I’m not still crazy. I met my father on the other side—though I had no idea who he was and neither did he. If he had known, he probably wouldn’t have saved my life and brought me back here. The Masters think he was driven sane in there, since he was already crazy going in, and that he built a new identity for himself when he forgot who he was. Unfortunately, he got his memory back when he came through the schism with me. He nearly slit my throat in the back lawns, but he left me and escaped instead.”
“That can’t be true,” Zane insisted, no trace of humor on his face now.
“The Masters stayed around long enough to pump me for information, and then they went to do whatever it is they do to secure Mizzenwald and notify the Council of Mages that Aleric Frost is back in action.”
His friends stared at him in silence for a long moment. Compelled to break it before it spiraled horribly, Hayden blurted out, “I’m sorry,” to Tess.
She raised an eyebrow at him and said, “Whatever for?”
“Uh…” he started, “you know, for bringing my evil dad back with me on accident. I’m sure your father is going to hate me forever now, after all the Dark Prism cost the two of you the last time he was around.”
Tess scowled and said, “It wasn’t your fault, Hayden. No one knew he was inside the other realm, and if he really did save your life and bring you back here then…well, then I guess I can’t be angry about it.”
“You say that now,” Hayden grumbled. “But wait until he starts killing again…”
“As long as you’re around, there’s still hope.” She gave him a small smile that Hayden didn’t feel he deserved. “You’re the only one who’s ever beaten him before, and that was before you even knew you had magic.”
Hayden was about to open his mouth and tell her that she really shouldn’t put so much faith in him, because he still had no idea what happened on that day at his mother’s house, and after meeting his father and seeing how good the man was at virtually every task he set his mind to, he wasn’t at all sure he could take him in a fight.
Zane prevented him from voicing any of his concern by saying, “Tess is right. You did it before and you can do it again. I’ve seen you work your way out of every horrible situation you’ve been thrown into in the last four years. Your father should have killed you while he had the chance, because you’re going to end him once and for all this time around.”
Hayden had absolutely no idea what to say in the face of his friends’ absolute belief in him, so he said nothing at all.
“Get some rest,” Tess said soothingly, resting her hand on his. “We’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Thanks,” Hayden mumbled sleepily, yawning and closing his eyes, desperate to block out the world for a little while, to hide somewhere safe and recover.
Soon there won’t be anywhere that’s safe for me.
2
A Pile of Problems
True to their word, Tess and Zane were still sitting slumped in their chairs when Hayden opened his eyes. They were having a whispered conversation, but had broken off for the same reason that Hayden had snapped awake all of a sudden: the loud thump of something heavy slamming against the outside of the infirmary door.
“What was that?” Hayden mumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes and sitting upright.
Zane and Tess looked at him in surprise and the former said, “No idea, but it startled me so badly I nearly jumped out of my skin. Sounded like a giant sack of potatoes hitting the door.”
“It must have been someone banging on the door as they went by,” Tess scowled. “Practical jokers. I wish they hadn’t woken you up, because you need the rest.”
“No, it’s okay, I’m feeling a lot better already,” Hayden assured her, stretching his arms and legs to limber them back up. His muscles were sore, but thanks to all the elixirs and salves, that was about the worst of it right now. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Less than two hours,” Zane informed him.
“What were you all talking about while I was out?”
“Just what we think the Council of Mages is going to do now that they know about your father being back in town,” Zane explained.
“Ah, I see. The Masters couldn’t seem to decide whether I’d be arrested or praised and sent off to fight him,” Hayden said without enthusiasm. “I’m personally hoping that someone else takes care of my father while I’m in prison, at which point the Masters will think of some cagey way to get me out of there and life will be good again.”
Zane snorted in dry amusement.
“I don’t think you’ll get that lucky. Everyone is counting on you to be stronger than your old man—again. No way will they let you rot in a jail cell while he’s on the loose.”
Hayden frowned.
“I don’t have magic that he doesn’t, and I’m certainly not faster at casting than him. Asher always stomps me in duels, and my father managed to beat him the first time around like it was nothing.”
“But time has passed since then,” Tess insisted gently. “You don’t know how good of a fighter Master Asher was five years ago, just how good he is now. And your father has been out of practice for just as long, so maybe things won’t be as bad as they were the first time.”
Another loud thump hit the other side of the infirmary door, causing them all to jump in unison.
“What in the world is going on out there
?” Zane grumbled. “Some kind of party in the corridor?”
“No idea,” Hayden answered without interest. “And anyway, he may be out of practice, but he still knows spells that I will never be able to learn, courtesy of the Black Prism.”
“But everyone says you have the most Source power they’ve ever seen—maybe even more than your father,” Zane countered mildly. “If that’s true, then you at least have more raw power than him, which gives you an advantage.”
“That’s true…” Hayden admitted slowly.
Hayden opened his mouth to say something else, but for the third time they were startled by the sound of something slamming against the other side of the infirmary door.
“That tears it,” Zane stood up so rapidly that his chair was shoved backwards and toppled over behind him. “I’m going to punch whatever idiot keeps banging on the door to a sickroom.”
Zane stomped over to the door and tugged it open with righteous fury on his face, but his expression immediately changed as he said, “Oh—hi, sir…uh, what’s going on?”
“Sorry to bother you with all the noise,” Master Asher’s voice answered, sounding unusually strained—as though he was lifting something heavy while he spoke. “But since you’re here, do you mind grabbing his legs and helping me?”
Intrigued and alarmed, Hayden got out of bed and hurried to see what was going on, Tess in tow. They both stopped right behind Zane, gaping at the sight of the Prism Master attempting to drag an unconscious body away from them.
“Any day now,” Asher snapped. “I need to be ready in case more of them show up, and I don’t want their bodies littering the hallways and scaring off all the other students.”
Still looking stunned, Zane hurried to lift the unknown man’s legs and assist with carrying him towards an unused classroom.
“You mind telling me why you’re knocking out—I hope he’s only knocked out—strangers in the hallway?” Hayden asked curiously, following along with Tess at his side, both of them shielding the body from view of anyone who happened to walk by.
“He’s alive—they all are,” Asher explained curtly, still straining from the effort of hauling the slightly-overweight mage into the empty classroom, where he dropped the body unceremoniously besides two others.
Examining them more closely, Hayden noted that they were all mages—two men both slightly older than Asher, and a woman who looked a couple years younger. Judging by the equipment on their belts, the first man was a Powders major, the second a Conjury one, and the woman was carrying mostly wands.
“Uh, I usually try not to question the weird things you do,” Hayden began uncertainly, “but I have to draw the line at hauling unconscious mages around the school. What in the world is going on here?”
Asher spared him an unreadable glance as he chivvied them back out of the room and withdrew a prism to magically lock the door behind them.
“Willow sent word that the Council reacted quite predictably to the news that Aleric has returned—which is to say, they went nuts.” He sighed and motioned for them to precede him into the infirmary. “He asked me to watch out for attempts to take you from Mizzenwald against your will, which is what I’ve been doing for the past couple hours. As you can see, his concern turned out to be valid; these three showed up practically on top of each other. It’s all I can do to knock one out before the next arrives.”
Aghast, Tess blurted out, “Those mages were sent by the Council to kidnap Hayden?”
Asher shut and sealed the door to the infirmary with them inside, adding a few more protective spells of some sort to the door for good measure. In his stunned state, the only one Hayden recognized on sight was a Ward of Warning, to let them know if magic was being used on the other side of the door.
“I’m not sure whether it was a Council decision, or if Calahan—or one of the other half-cracked members with a grudge against you—made that call on their own.” He frowned at them all. “All I know is that when strangers sneak into the school and start looking for you, it’s my job to make sure they don’t reach you.”
“Why is Calahan—or whoever—trying to abduct me?” Hayden asked as calmly as possible, sitting on the edge of his bed.
“I expect they’re trying to take advantage of the chaos to get control of you quickly. If they have you in their custody, they control what happens from then on. Once they get you into the Crystal Tower it will be nearly impossible to get you back out again,” Asher answered grimly. “As long as we can keep you here, we have some leverage against them.”
“You make it sound like a war,” Tess offered quietly. “Like Mizzenwald is going to be against the Council of Mages soon, fighting for control of Hayden.”
“That’s more or less where this thing is headed,” Asher confirmed heavily. “On the bright side, they won’t try to blow up the school with him still inside of it—not unless they go completely insane, and not even Calahan is that nuts yet. And this place is designed to be a fortress, so short of blowing the place up, it will be nearly impossible to penetrate Mizzenwald’s defenses.”
Hayden frowned at this unexpected turn.
“What happens if they get their hands on me?”
“Nothing good for you, that’s for sure.” He began ticking options off of his fingers. “They’ll either put you on trial or they won’t. If they do, they can convict you of willfully bringing Aleric back—which comes with a death sentence, or unintentionally bringing him back—which comes with its own realm of unpleasant options: a simple prison sentence, having your Foci destroyed, lead Binders, being sent to fight him to the death before you’re remotely prepared to take him on…just to name a few. If they don’t even bother trying you then they can simply vanish you from the face of the earth and register you as missing.”
Hayden and Zane both grimaced in unison.
“I can’t stay here forever though,” the former said slowly. “The school year is almost over and we’ve got the Dark Prism on the loose thanks to me, whether I intended it or not. I can’t just spend the rest of my life hiding out, taking classes while other people fight battles over me, and my father runs around killing people on a whim and experimenting with dark magic.”
“I know that, and we’ll think of something,” Asher assured him. “But we need a little time to get our thoughts together and work out a plan with the others. We can’t do that if the Council snatches you away from us and locks you in a cell right at the outset.”
Hayden tilted his head to concede the point, little though he liked it.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go stand guard some more.” Asher stopped his pacing of the room and went back to the door. “Stay in here until one of us Masters come to get you. If someone you don’t recognize manages to get past me and the protections on this room, fight like your life depends on it—because it probably does.”
On that extremely ominous note, he left the three of them alone once more, locking the door of the infirmary behind him when he left.
“Well, this is a disaster,” Hayden stated simply.
“Tell me about it,” Zane grimaced. “The Dark Prism is on the loose and the Council of Mages is going to waste their time battling over you instead of fighting him.”
“Maybe someone will be able to talk some sense into them soon and focus their attention on the real problem,” Tess volunteered, though she didn’t sound terribly optimistic about their chances.
“Sure, the Council members have been nothing but sensible, in my experience with them,” Hayden smirked, eliciting a dark laugh from his friends.
It took another hour before Master Willow came to get them from the infirmary, disabling the wards carefully from the outside. He didn’t look terribly surprised to find the three of them with their weapons of choice pointed at him when he opened the door, simply raising an eyebrow and saying, “Hello. It’s good to see that you three appreciate the gravity of the situation.”
They lowered their weapons and got to their feet.
“Is it safe to come out now?” Hayden asked tentatively. “That classroom isn’t stuffed full of unconscious mages, is it?”
Master Willow raised an eyebrow and said, “Unconscious mages?” like this was the first he was hearing about it.
“Uh, yeah,” Zane confirmed. “I had to help carry a guy’s feet for Master Asher. We were taking bets on how many bodies would be heaped up in the room by now, at the rate they were coming in earlier.”
The Master of Wands lifted both eyebrows in unison, the only display of how alarmed he was at the news of his students carrying unconscious strangers around the school.
Does nothing surprise that man? Hayden wondered idly.
“Well, I suppose we should begin with that,” Willow said calmly. “Lead the way, please.”
They set off down the hallway, Hayden feeling silly in his borrowed robe. He made a mental note to get some fresh clothing as soon as he was permitted to leave the infirmary for good.
They stopped outside of the magically-sealed door and Zane said, “I think Master Asher put up wards to keep people out, so I would be careful about touching that door if I were you…”
“Thank you, Laraby,” The Master of Wands spared him a look and then drew a laurel wand, casting silently at the door after a moment of thought.
The others were so entranced with watching him work that they didn’t hear Master Asher approach until he was directly behind them.
“Want help?” he asked his colleague, startling Hayden and his friends so badly that they jumped, though Willow barely twitched.
“That would be nice,” the Master of Wands replied smoothly, stepping aside as his colleague lowered a violet prism into place and began working.
In less than a minute, Asher had the door open. For a long moment Willow stood there in silence, staring at the three prone figures on the classroom floor. Then he turned to Master Asher, calm as can be and said, “I thought I told you to slow them down, not incapacitate them.”