“No, I won’t,” I said adamantly, and then blushed.
I felt his eyes on my profile. “Nevertheless, I feel we shouldn’t speak of this again until you’ve finished your training and become a master wizard. Maybe even until you’ve training and become a master wizard. Maybe even until you’veBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 410
practiced on your own for a few years.” “A few years?” I said. Friar’s bones, how long did he think
I was willing to wait for him?
“It’s the sensible thing to do.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to be sensible.”
“Yes. Well, one of us has to be.” His voice sounded
strained, and looking at his face, I could see he was no more
happy about this than I was.
Then why did he have to be this way?
No. That was unfair of me. I’d always admired his morals
that made him the opposite of Papa and, in some ways, myself. I
couldn’t really fault him for those morals now.
“All right,” I said at last. “I suppose I can agree to
that.”
“You can?” Relief filled his voice. “Good.”
“But you have to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” he asked, turning his face to me so that the
setting sun highlighted his hair, leaving it glossy and almost
golden.
“You must not marry Valerie.”
He chuckled. “That I can do, Avery,” he said. “That I can
do.”
*** Three weeks later I stood on the testing dais and passed
the fifteenth trial, making myself a Scholarly Wizard.. PMW the fifteenth trial, making myself a Scholarly Wizard.. PMWBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 411
Robenhurst and a handful of Council members stood in the audience watching. I only wished that they had come to cheer me on, rather than to watch suspiciously. Ivan and Master Beaumont also stood in the audience. Ivan had come as spectator only, although he told me afterward that I take first trial soon. He looked so grown up in his new wizard robes that I almost didn’t recognize him. But best of all, he seemed happy.
In those three weeks, nothing had been heard from Orly, Rumford, Ingerman, or Belanok. I felt a squeeze in my heart every time I thought about it. I’d gone round and round with Master Wendyn about it more than once, declaring that I didn’t care what the Council said, Orly deserved to be rescued and I’d promised her that I’d find her. To which he usually would counter, “You’re just going to confirm the Council’s suspicions of you if you do that. You can either become a master wizard or rescue Orly. You can’t do both.”
I’d planned out at least nineteen different ways to rescue Orly so far, with plans to put them into motion as soon as I became a master wizard.
As we left the Conclave, the master leaned over and said, “Now that you’ve passed trial fifteen, I think this calls for a celebration.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked. Then clapping my hands in excitement, “Not Waltney cakes?”
“I was thinking of something a little larger. Maybe…a trip “I was thinking of something a little larger. Maybe…a tripBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 412
to Farcastle?” I stared at him. “Really? At last? We’re going to Farcastle at last? You’re not joking.”
“No. I most certainly would never joke about such a thing,” he said solemnly, closing the wizard door behind us as we stepped into the study. “In fact, I’ve built a wizard door there already. You pick the day.”
“I pick today,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “I suppose I should have guessed that. Of course you’d want to go today.” He shrugged. “All right then. Grab your things and we can go.”
“I have everything I need right here.”
His eyes rested on me. “Devil’s dawn. You are singleminded, aren’t you? But do you know, I feel the same way.”
We took the stairs to the room of doors and excitement built within me.
“Right this way,” he said, holding aside the tapestry of another new door and muttering the spell. He gestured for me to go first.
I stepped past him and eyed the thing he’d made for me. Then I turned the door’s handle and stepped through to Waldrin.
THE END
Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 413
Shadowed by Death Page 32