by V. St. Clair
Of the mages on his left, Hayden only recognized a few of them on sight: Master Willow was apparently the representative from Mizzenwald, Master Mandra from Valhalla, and the Conjury Master from Isenfall looked familiar—though Hayden couldn’t remember his name right now. He wasn’t surprised to see Willow there, since the Master of Wands was probably the most diplomatic person Hayden knew, and had an aura about him that radiated calmness and fairness.
I’m just glad they didn’t pick Kiresa to be the judge from Isenfall.
No matter how many times people swore the Prism Master was on their side, Hayden still believed that given the chance, the man would knife him in the back and laugh himself stupid over it.
He also wasn’t entirely surprised when it was Magdalene Trout who said, “Day two in the trial of Hayden Frost, formally charged with high treason,” to the record-keeper who was sitting beside Calahan.
Guess she’s in charge now.
She began by questioning him yet again about his motives while inside the schism, though her tone was much milder and more businesslike than the impassioned argument she had made yesterday. Even Hayden could tell that it was all for show, and some of her colleagues looked uncomfortable now that they had time to consider the charges properly. A few of them kept shooting glances back at Calahan as though expecting him to intervene, or explode.
It looked like the Chief Mage was sucking on a lemon, but apparently there was nothing he could do to alter the proceedings at this point, because for possibly the first time during Hayden’s acquaintance with the man, he remained silent for the entire day.
“So you claim you don’t harbor any ill feeling towards this Council,” Magdalene summarized at the end of the afternoon, after making a long, circuitous point of annunciating all their past interactions at length.
“No, I don’t,” Hayden confirmed, exhausted and ready for the day to be over, even it meant returning to his horrible cell upstairs for another night. He had been holding his full bladder for the last two hours, hoping someone would call a break soon; it seemed wrong to interrupt a room full of powerful people to ask if he could run to the bathroom.
“And why should we believe you?” Laris asked for the third time that day. Master Mandra stifled a yawn.
“Because I hardly even know most of you, and certainly not well enough to hold a grudge against any of you—excepting Cal, perhaps.” Hayden shrugged, not looking at the Chief Mage as he spoke. “He’s the one who follows me around, making my life miserable for no good reason—the rest of you are just doing your jobs, as far as I can tell.”
Wonder of wonders, this actually seemed to reach a few of them.
“We’ve run over on time,” Magdalene Trout interrupted before Laris could ask his next question. “Let’s leave it here for the day, and when we convene tomorrow morning we can continue with the discussion.”
My bladder thanks you, Hayden thought gratefully.
He walked to the door as quickly as possible without actually running and alarming the guards. A whisper in the ear of the one charged with bringing him back upstairs led him to a bathroom on the second floor—or at least he thought it was the second floor—before they got back onto the accursed lift.
When he was finally alone in his nausea-inducing cell on the top floor, Hayden laid down on his back and stared up at the transparent ceiling; the sun had almost completely set, distorting his view of the sky in the crystal.
Surely they don’t have another full day of questions left, Hayden thought to himself hopefully. It even seemed like a few of the Council members might be on my side by the end of today, so maybe tomorrow they’ll get the voting out of the way and I’ll be cleared of all charges.
If so, he personally vowed to himself that he would never again set foot inside the Crystal Tower as long as Calahan was in charge of the Council of Mages. If he never saw this building again, it would be too soon for his liking.
He drifted off to sleep with the comforting thought that this could very well be his last night here, and that everything would get better in the morning.
When Hayden snapped awake, it took him a minute to figure out exactly why. He blinked groggily and stared at the cell around him, which was pitch-black from the night sky outside—even the moon wasn’t out tonight. He had no idea whether it was late at night or early in the morning, but either way, he had no desire to wake up just yet.
Yawning and feeling groggy, Hayden tried to ignore the frantic beating of his heart and relax himself.
I must’ve had a bad dream or something…
Just as he closed his eyes again he heard it, though it was so far away and faint that he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t his mind playing tricks on him.
Was that a scream?
Keeping his eyes shut, he listened more closely, straining his ears for all the good it would do him. He tilted his head to one side to try and pick up sound better, which was rendered pointless when an alarm bell activated a moment later, the horrible sound reverberating around the entire floor and startling him so badly that he shouted and scrambled upright.
For a few minutes all he could hear was the horrible klaxon-like alarm echoing around the cell and making his head hurt. He covered his ears with his hands and curled up into a ball in the darkness, resting his chin on his knees and waiting for the horrible noise to stop, all the while trying to figure out what was happening.
Surely they’re not doing some sort of drill in the dead of night…
He wouldn’t put it past Calahan to stage something like this just to annoy him, but he didn’t think the Chief Mage would want to be woken violently from his own rest just to play along with Hayden’s suffering. He didn’t even know how many people lived at the Crystal Tower on the lower floors full-time, other than the guards and the night crew. Most of the Council members had probably already gone home for the day…
The alarm stopped as abruptly as it started, and Hayden dropped his hands from his ears in relief, though he could still hear the echo rattling around inside his head for a full minute afterwards.
Another minute or so of silence followed, and just when Hayden was beginning to calm down, he heard loud, banging sounds coming from somewhere below, accompanied by shouting. He had no idea how far away the noises were, or what was happening, but he became painfully aware of the fact that he was all alone in a cell, unarmed and unable to do magic, in the dead of night. Even if he had a prism in his hand, he couldn’t see well enough to use it, and likely wouldn’t be able to combat the effects of this horrible cell anyway.
Calm down, Hayden…this is the Crystal Tower, home-base of some of the most powerful magic-users in the Nine Lands. There are probably enough wards and protections on this place that nothing really bad could be happening…
He told himself this, over and over, even as the sounds of shouting, screaming, and fighting got progressively louder. He had no idea how many people were in the Tower right now, but he was surprised by the level of noise he could hear from the top floor.
The alarm probably brought people back to investigate…
His chest seemed to grow tighter and tighter as the sounds of chaos drew closer, until all at once there was complete silence, which was somehow even scarier than all the banging and screaming.
Silence is a good thing, it means that whatever happened, it’s over now…
His feeble assurances did nothing to soothe his fears though, and he thought his heart was going to explode out of his chest when he heard the smooth sound of the lift settling into place on the top floor.
A single pair of footsteps was audible on the other side of the door, heavy and slow and deliberate. He heard a door open to one of the other cells on this floor, then another.
They’re all empty except mine…the Council knows what room I’m in, so why would they be searching the others?
Before he could fully consider the implications of this, the door to his room was opened from the outside, illuminating a single figure in the bl
inding light of a prism, which was resting in the eyepiece on top of his head, pointed skywards.
Aleric Frost stood before him.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, Hayden thought in panic as his eyes widened. I was supposed to face my father with a belt full of weapons, with my friends and allies at my side, not defenseless and alone in the Crystal Tower.
Before he could even think of what to say or do, the Dark Prism opened his mouth and asked, “What are you doing here?” in a flat tone.
Since this had been the very question Hayden was about to ask of his father, he was completely derailed. Being caught off guard, he ended up telling the truth by default.
“I’ve been on trial for bringing you out of the schism with me,” he admitted haltingly, swallowing hard. “They’ve kept me locked up until—”
“Yes, but why are you here?” His father gestured vaguely at the room around them, looking mildly annoyed with Hayden’s slow uptake.
As he turned his head to take in the room, Hayden noticed with a pang of emotion that Cinder was perched on his father’s shoulder, standing perfectly still and looking as regal as usual. He also noticed that his father was standing in the threshold of the room, not actually entering. Perhaps he could feel the effects of the room as well, and he wouldn’t be able to use his magic if he came inside.
“In the Box, you mean?” Hayden asked, unsure of the question. His father nodded impatiently and he added, “Calahan hates me and wanted to see me suffer for a few weeks before the trial started.”
The Dark Prism looked almost bored by the answer, but all he said was, “Calahan is dead, and you’re wearing my House robes.”
It took Hayden a long moment to process the first part of that sentence, forcibly reminded of all the shouting and fighting sounds from below. As much as he disliked the Chief Mage, he didn’t think the man deserved to be violently murdered.
“Why did you kill him?” he asked softly, still trying to engage his brain and figure out if there was any chance at all of getting the upper hand against his father before the man could kill him where he sat.
“He got in my way,” the Dark Prism answered simply, looking supremely unconcerned. Hayden glanced down at the floor and noticed a trail of dark red footprints in the foyer behind his father, where he had trailed blood behind him.
“How many others are dead?” he asked, wondering how long he could keep his father talking and whether it would ultimately do any good to delay the inevitable.
Aleric shrugged his broad shoulders and said, “I didn’t count. Enough to convey the message that I am not to be trifled with.”
The Black Prism continued to cast light around the room, perched on top of his father’s head. He, Hayden, was completely unarmed, his powers dampened in this room, and nowhere near strong enough to take on his father in a physical fight. If everyone in the Crystal Tower was dead except the two of them, no one was going to come rescue him so he could fight another day. This was the end for him.
“Why did you come here tonight?” Hayden got to the point, seeing no reason for further delay. He wondered if it would hurt to die, or if it would be like falling unconscious—awake one minute, gone the next.
“I’ve come for you. Get up and follow me.” He made an irritated gesture at Hayden as though he actually expected to be obeyed and was annoyed that it was taking so long.
“What do you want with me?” Hayden asked in alarm, getting to his feet but making no effort to approach his father. In fact, he backed up as far as he could go, until his back was pressed against the transparent wall behind him.
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to. You can either walk out of here by my side like an adult, or you can resist like an insolent child and I can make you wish you hadn’t.”
Hayden didn’t really like either of those options, and stood there for a minute, weighing the decision. Apparently he took too long for his father’s liking, because the Dark Prism sighed and then stepped across the threshold and into the room. The light from the Black Prism went out, plunging them into complete darkness, and before Hayden could say another word, his father grabbed him roughly by the hair and slammed his head into the crystalline wall with all of his considerable strength.
The first time Hayden’s head hit the wall he cried out as stars exploded in front of his eyes, and the second time he thought he heard his skull crack. The third time everything went black.
11
A Changing of the Guard
Zane knew something was wrong long before Mrs. Trout returned home at the break of dawn; he’d been woken during the night by some kind of uproar in the house. He dashed into the hallway in his pajamas, conjury chalk equipped, stumbling into the foyer just in time to catch the end of Mrs. Trout’s argument with her eldest son.
“—don’t have time for this. As long as I draw breath, you will follow my orders, whether you like them or not,” Magdalene was instructing Oliver in her no-nonsense voice, pulling a jacket on with the air of one who was doing things without conscious thought. “Stay here until you receive further instructions.”
“Mother—” Oliver interrupted, but she had already vanished.
“What in the world is going on?” Zane asked the older boy, who startled at the sound of his voice and whirled around to face him, hand itching dangerously close to his belt full of powders.
“Go back to bed, Laraby. This doesn’t concern you,” Oliver vented his frustration on him, scowling and stalking back down the hallway.
“I beg to differ,” Zane argued, matching his pace. “I’m as much a member of this team as you are, and if something is going on, I should know about it, so get off your high-horse and talk to me.”
A few years ago, he would never have dreamed of talking to Oliver Trout like that—the older boy had terrified him during his earliest years of school. He was still a little terrified, because he’d seen Oliver in a fight, but that fear no longer ruled him.
To his surprise, as they rounded the corner into the library Oliver said, “Fine.” He stopped walking quite abruptly, and Zane stopped a step ahead of him and turned around, trying to conceal his surprise at being taken seriously.
Probably because there are no other adults here who he can talk to instead.
“I woke up because I heard a ringing noise down the hall, coming from my mother’s room. When I got there, she was already dressed and on her way out, saying that the alarms had been activated at the Crystal Tower.”
Zane’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“What does that mean?”
Oliver gave a noncommittal shrug and said, “Nothing good. I’ve never actually heard them go off before, except during drills—the sound is apparently tied in to all the Council members’ homes so that they know if there’s a problem at the Tower.”
“So she went in to see what’s going on?”
“No,” Oliver shook his head, frowning. “She said she had a bad feeling about it and didn’t want to charge in alone and unprepared, so she went to round up reinforcements first. She wants us to stay here and wait for news.”
Zane frowned and fidgeted with the conjury chalk that was still in his hand. It left a remnant of pink powder on his skin where he touched it, and he rubbed two fingers together absentmindedly, taking comfort from the familiar sensation.
“What kind of thing is she expecting to find there that would require reinforcements?” he asked no one in particular, his mind flipping through several likely scenarios before settling on the most chilling. “You don’t think…it can’t be the Dark Prism, can it?”
Oliver’s mouth tensed slightly as he said, “I don’t know. It could be, though why he’d attack the Crystal Tower at night when most everyone has gone home is beyond me…”
“Unless he’s after Hayden and finally figured out where he’s being kept!” Zane clapped a hand to his forehead in horror, trying to convince himself it wasn’t true the moment the thought struck him.
“It h
asn’t exactly been a secret where Hayden’s been the last couple weeks. If the Dark Prism was so interested in finding him for…whatever he wants him for, why wait until now?” Oliver asked curiously.
“I don’t pretend to know what Hayden’s dad is thinking, but you’re right; we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves trying to figure out what’s going on. Your mom will come back in a few minutes and tell us that everything is fine…maybe it was a false alarm, or a simple break-in, or something like that.”
He didn’t believe the words even as he said them, and by the look on his face, neither did Oliver, but all the older boy said was, “Maybe. We’ll just have to hang around here until we find out. We should probably get back to bed.”
“I think I’ll wait up a bit, just in case news comes quickly.”
Oliver shrugged and said, “Suit yourself,” before walking off in the direction of his own bedroom.
Zane had initially been optimistic that they would learn something within the hour, but as time went on and no one came for them, he became increasingly worried. He didn’t want to go back to bed in case no one came to get him when someone arrived with information, so he ended up slouched over in an armchair in the library, which was sort of centrally located in the house and seemed as good a place to crash as any. Felix the fox was curled up in his lap, fast asleep, evidently not plagued by the worries that kept Zane awake. Stroking Felix’s fur softly, he was forcibly reminded of Bonk, who hadn’t been seen since Hayden was taken to the Crystal Tower—as far as Zane knew. Zane liked to think that the little dragon had found a way to infiltrate the place and was keeping Hayden company, despite Asher and Willow saying they hadn’t seen him there.