Cave of Nightmares

by V. St. Clair

  Hayden sighed. “I’m trying to be patient, it’s just frustrating because I’ve got a challenge arena this weekend and so far I can’t use anything but prisms, and I haven’t even practiced with those very much.”

  Willow gave him a strange look.

  “I believe you have Tucker Claxen in your challenge group?”

  “Yes,” Hayden confirmed.

  “He has very nearly qualified for my level-four class, due to his skill. If you’re struggling with wands, why don’t you ask him to help you?”

  Hayden felt like an idiot for not thinking of that on his own.

  “I—I don’t know. I guess I’m not used to asking people for help…or for people wanting to help me,” he amended, and Master Willow frowned mildly.

  “Your challenge group is your family for the next year. You all benefit from helping each other.” His eyes flickered across Hayden’s features. “I believe you’ll discover that Tucker is an amiable person to work with.”

  Hayden nodded and Master Willow dismissed him. He had to sprint down the stairs to make it to Conjury before class started.

  By the time he made it to Elixirs he was feeling better about the day, despite another abysmal Powders class. He was beginning to accept that he would likely never improve at Powders, and looked forward to the day he’d be able to drop the class entirely.

  He was the last one to arrive at Master Kilgore’s classroom, and Hayden groaned audibly when he discovered that the only vacant seat was beside Lorn Trout.

  He sighed and went to take his seat, telling Bonk to behave while he set up his mixing bowls and cauldron, examining the materials that had been laid out on each desk before their arrival.

  Lorn was talking to one of his friends—a rat-faced boy named Pollus—and didn’t notice Hayden immediately. Lorn’s familiar, a mink, was curled up around his neck like a furry scarf, fast asleep.

  Unfortunately, Lorn became aware of Hayden’s presence when Bonk sidled into his line of sight, and turned towards him with an unpleasant smile.

  “I thought I felt an idiot nearby. Turns out I was right,” he said by way of greeting.

  Hayden grimaced. “Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing.”

  Lorn scowled. “Keep your defective dragon away from my station or he’s toast.”

  Hayden raised his eyebrows at the threat.

  “What are you going to do, throw your pet scarf at him?” He smirked at the angry red patches flushing Lorn’s face. “Bonk’s a dragon; I suspect he’d eat you and your familiar quite cheerfully if it became necessary.”

  Lorn clenched his hands into fists and opened his mouth to say something scathing, but Master Kilgore prevented him by calling the class to order.

  “I hope you all did the assigned reading on the calming elixir, because today you’re going to attempt to make it.” He took his usual seat on the edge of his desk with a little hop, legs dangling over the side beneath his bright red robes. “On your desks you’ll find seagrass, heartsbane, and juniper. You have thirty minutes to present me with a completed sample.”

  Hayden promptly dismissed Lorn from his thoughts and turned his focus to the task at hand, opening his book and following the preparation instructions. For a few minutes the other boy ignored him as well, carefully chopping his seagrass into equal lengths. Unfortunately, by the time Hayden was heating his cauldron of water and heartsbane, Lorn was back to making snide comments about him to Pollus in a carrying whisper.

  “—heard he’s hopeless at Powders. What’s the point of being descended from one of the most powerful mages of all time if he can’t even grind a simple compound?”

  Hayden, used to Lorn’s tactics by now, did his best to ignore him, though he felt his ears turning red.

  “I mean, at least his father was good at magic. The only thing his son can do is play teacher’s pet in Wands and Prisms.”

  Hayden exhaled heavily through his nose as he added half a cup of juniper to his cauldron and began stirring the mixture, because his jaw was clenched too tightly to open his mouth.

  “Yara was saying that he only got into Mizzenwald at all because of his father. If he’d had to test in like the rest of us he’d have been sent home,” Lorn opined with savage pleasure, and Pollus laughed and muttered agreement.

  Add seagrass and let simmer for seven minutes...

  He read the words three times before they registered in his brain, and then he had nothing to occupy his attention for the next seven minutes other than the boys beside him.

  “Of course, my brother’s got bets going with all his friends about how Frost’s challenge group is going to rank in the third-year rosters,” Lorn continued. “So far everyone’s money is on them being last place; but maybe he doesn’t care since he got his girlfriend onto his team.”

  Hayden’s ears were ringing oddly, and he was almost glad for the interruption when Bonk hopped up onto the edge of his desk and gave him a surprisingly stern stare, as though scolding him for letting Lorn bait him.

  “…probably not going to make it past first-level classes until his third year here,” Pollus was chuckling, and Hayden’s patience snapped.

  “If you two are such geniuses, explain why you’re still in the first-level Elixirs class when this is your second year in school,” he retorted angrily, wiping the smiles off the other boys’ faces.

  “Nobody asked you to join our conversation, Frost, so stay out of it,” Lorn sneered.

  “Shut up about me and I will,” Hayden countered.

  Bonk hopped onto the side of the cauldron, balancing himself on the rim and nudging Hayden’s arm to draw his attention.

  “It’s a free land, we can talk about whatever we want. And right now we want to talk about how useless you are and how insulting it is that they let you in here,” Lorn said, not bothering to keep his voice down anymore. “Take your useless dragon and go back to the orphanage where you belong.” And with that he shoved Bonk, who flapped his wings wildly as he lost balance and toppled right into Hayden’s cauldron.

  Hayden grabbed wildly for him but was too late, and when Bonk splashed into the mixture, hot liquid sloshed up and burned Hayden’s hand as he hurried to pull him out. He laid Bonk out on the desk, panicking because the little dragon was completely limp and still; even his tongue was lolling out.

  The sound of Lorn and Pollus’s laughter made him so furious that without a second thought he stood up, drew back his fist, and punched the former in the face as hard as he could.

  His burnt hand hurt doubly after striking Lorn in the jaw, but he was beyond caring. He barely registered the shouting around him as he pounced on the other boy and punched him again just for good measure, this time in the eye. All of his rage was pouring out of him as he pummeled Lorn, and it felt viciously satisfying, until he suddenly lost feeling in his extremities and toppled over like a rag-doll, slumped awkwardly on the wooden floor.

  Horrified that he’d somehow been paralyzed, he turned his head as best he could until he saw the hem of Master Kilgore’s robes hovering nearby.

  “What in the name of the arcane are you two idiots doing back here?” he demanded sharply. Hayden wasn’t sure whether it was a rhetorical question or not, and Lorn was still whimpering too much to answer.

  “WELL?” Master Kilgore raised his voice to a near shout.

  “I can’t feel my arms and legs,” Hayden said dumbly, horrified at what he’d done now that his anger had left him.

  “That’s because I used a severing charm on you,” the Master of Elixirs answered tersely. “I’ll remove it if you agree to sit up and tell me why you two louts felt it was a good idea to start a fist-fight in a room full of dangerous compounds.”

  “He’s the one who hit me!” Lorn blubbered, and Hayden was pleased to note that he sounded muffled as his jaw swelled.

  “I don’t doubt you did something to deserve it.” Kilgore snapped his fingers and the feeling returned to Hayden’s limbs as though it had never been gone. He sat up sh
akily and looked up at Master Kilgore from the floor while the rest of the class watched in anticipation.

  “He threw Bonk into my cauldron and killed him!” Hayden insisted angrily, and Kilgore raised a bushy eyebrow and turned to examine his familiar, who was still splayed out awkwardly on the desk.

  “Is that true, Trout?”

  Lorn was still struggling to wipe tears from his eyes, one of which was blackening nicely, as he answered.

  “I didn’t mean to push him in, sir—”

  “Yes you did!” Hayden was tempted to get up and hit him again for lying.

  “Shut up, Frost, I’ll get to you in a minute,” Master Kilgore gave him a menacing glare. Lorn tried to shoot him a smug look before the Master turned his attention back to him, but was too slow.

  “Don’t think I’m not getting ready to shout at you as well,” Kilgore said flatly, folding his arms across his broad chest and staring down at the pair of them. “Why did you push his familiar into his elixir?”

  Lorn frowned.

  “I didn’t—”

  “Every time you lie to me I’m going to add another half hour onto your punishment,” Kilgore cut him off, and Lorn blanched visibly.

  “He was being mouthy with me,” he said at last.

  “You and Pollus started it,” Hayden grumbled, loudly enough for Master Kilgore to hear. “You spent the whole lesson trying to goad me.”

  Kilgore studied both of them for a minute and then said, “You will both report to the main courtyard after your last class of the day to receive your punishment.” He turned to Hayden. “Your dragon will be fine; dragons have powerful magic protecting them.”

  “Then why’s he all limp?” Hayden exhaled in relief, wondering when he had become so fond of Bonk.

  “He’s had an overdose of calming elixir. It might have killed a lesser creature, in which case your classmate would be facing expulsion.” He shot Lorn another unpleasant glare. “As it is, he’ll likely be fine by morning, though perhaps drowsy.”

  He turned away from them and walked back to the front of the room as though there had been no interruption, hopping back onto the edge of his desk and addressing the rest of the class.

  “You’ve got five minutes to submit a completed sample for grading.”

  As everyone had been watching the debacle at the back of the room until now, his words sent them scrambling to hand something in on time. Hayden’s elixir was useless by the time he returned to it: aside from having had a dragon in it, it had simmered for far too long and congealed unpleasantly along the sides of his cauldron.

  Hayden winced as he pushed himself to his feet, examining the burn on his hand and suppressing a surge of nausea at the white, blistered skin there. The pain was almost blinding, but he was determined not to cry like Lorn, so he sat there stubbornly until class ended, watching the other boy leave for the infirmary.

  When the lesson was over he was one of the last ones to pack up his things, mostly because he was attempting to do it one-handed. Since Bonk was worse-than-useless right now, Hayden had no choice but to lower him gently into his bag on top of his books and hope he didn’t get crushed during the walk to Prisms.

  Master Kilgore called out to him as he was leaving.

  “Get back here, Frost.”

  Wondering if he was about to get yelled at for real this time he turned around, trying to move his injured hand as little as possible because the air made it hurt.

  “You’re favoring your right arm. Are you injured?” Kilgore’s tone was surprisingly concerned.

  “I got burned pulling Bonk out of my cauldron. It’s nothing.”

  Master Kilgore frowned and approached him, motioning for him to hold out his hand.

  “Good lord, boy, that’s no minor burn.” His eyebrows lifted in surprise and he moved quickly behind his desk and began rummaging around in a drawer. “That must be agonizing.”

  Hayden was acutely aware of the sweat running down his forehead and his heart racing from the pain. He was beginning to feel a little lightheaded.

  “It hurts—a lot,” he admitted.

  “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Master Kilgore returned to him with a small tub of oily orange paste.

  “I didn’t want to give Lorn the satisfaction.”

  He cried out in pain as his instructor began smearing the oily paste over his hand, dropping to his knees and nearly vomiting all over the Master of Elixirs’ shoes as patches of light exploded before his eyes.

  “You’re as stubborn as they come, boy,” Kilgore didn’t sound entirely angry about it. “I know this hurts like the blazes, but there’s no helping that now.” He began bandaging his hand, and Hayden remembered screaming shrilly just before the world lurched and went black around him.

  When he opened his eyes he was lying flat on his back on the floor of the Elixirs classroom, and Master Kilgore was checking his pulse.

  “What happened?” Hayden asked thickly, struggling to sit up and wincing at the pain in his right hand, though it wasn’t as bad as he remembered.

  “You passed out, which made bandaging that hand of yours a lot easier,” Master Kilgore answered calmly. “It should start to feel better soon: that paste accelerates healing and temporarily deadens nerve-endings; it’s made especially for burns.”

  Hayden’s hand did feel a little numb now, and he had a hard time wiggling his fingers when he tried. The Master of Elixirs helped him to his feet and dusted him off.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  He nodded. “Run along to your next class. You’ll still need to report to the courtyard afterward, injured or not.”

  Hayden hoisted his bag back onto his shoulder, remembered that Bonk was inside, and tried to hurry to Prisms without jostling him too much. He had no idea how late he was, but when he hurried into the room Master Asher was already in the middle of explaining a drawing of alignments in an amber-tinted prism.

  The Prism Master took in his entire appearance at a glance, narrowed his eyebrows fractionally at his bandaged hand, and continued lecturing without acknowledging his tardiness.

  Grateful for the reprieve, Hayden hurried to the vacant seat beside Tucker and tried to unpack his things as quietly as possible, though he was horrified to realize that he couldn’t take notes with his right hand incapacitated.

  Well, if there’s one class I can manage in without taking notes for a day, this would be it.

  Tucker gave him a questioning look and mouthed the words, What happened? when he caught his eye. Hayden mouthed back, Later, and turned his attention to Master Asher, hanging onto his every word since he couldn’t write anything down.

  Tucker tried to corner him after class, but Master Asher beat him to it by telling him to get out so that he could talk to Hayden privately.

  “I’m sorry sir, but I’ve got to go to the main courtyard for my punishment with Master Kilgore,” he frowned, ashamed with himself for letting Lorn goad him in Elixirs.

  Asher raised his eyebrows and said, “I’ll walk with you,” catching sight of Hayden’s half-packed bag with Bonk inside of it. “What the devil happened to him?”

  “Lorn shoved him into my cauldron during class and he overdosed on calming elixir. Master Kilgore says he’ll be alright by morning, but only because he’s a dragon.”

  Asher frowned pensively. “Leave him here; I might be able to revive him a bit faster.”

  Relieved, Hayden pulled Bonk carefully out his bag and set him on the desktop, hating to leave him behind but not knowing what else to do. Master Asher led the way into the hall.

  “May I ask why you are being punished if Trout the younger tried to kill your familiar?”

  Hayden avoided Asher’s eyes when he said, “Because I punched him in the face until Master Kilgore paralyzed me.”

  To his surprise, the Prism Master looked more interested than disapproving at hearing that he’d hit a fellow student.

  “Is that why your hand is bandaged?”

  “No, it’s
because I got burned pulling Bonk out of my elixir.” Hayden attempted to wiggle his fingers again with no success.

  “Then I certainly hope you got in a few good punches before Kilgore stopped you.”

  Hayden gasped at Asher’s comment, and couldn’t entirely suppress a smile when he said, “He went to the infirmary with a black eye and a swollen jaw.”

  The Prism Master looked as though he found that a fair compromise.

  “Knowing Kilgore, he’s going to have you both doing something extremely unpleasant for punishment tonight. He doesn’t like people fighting in his classes.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have let Lorn get to me like that.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have,” Asher agreed, before giving him a sly look. “If you could go back in time and do it again, would you still hit him?”

  Hayden knew what he was supposed to say, but he felt comfortable being honest with the Prism Master for some reason.

  “Probably,” he admitted.

  Asher laughed loudly as they approached the main courtyard.

  Hayden didn’t have long to savor the humor, because Kilgore and Lorn were already waiting for him when he got there, and neither of them looked very cheerful, though the former greeted Asher politely enough.

  “So, what’s it to be for them?” the Prism Master asked pleasantly. “A hike up Mount Arawas for freshly-fallen snow? The Forest of Illusions for berries? Or the ever popular fields of Hynar?”

  Hayden had no idea what or where any of those places were, but none of them sounded fun right now.

  Master Kilgore gave him and Hayden a cursory glance before saying, “The bogs. I could stand some more siltgrass for my third-year class.”

  Asher made an unpleasant face at the suggestion, which made Hayden dread the upcoming punishment even more.

  “Ouch. Well, happy hunting you two,” the Master turned to him and Lorn. “Try not to let the hydras eat you.”

  And with that he walked off.

  Hayden sincerely hoped that Asher was joking about the hydras, but he didn’t want to look stupid for asking. The sickly green hue that blanketed Lorn’s bruised face wasn’t encouraging.