Cave of Nightmares

by V. St. Clair

  He had never been so happy to leave a place, including the orphanage, and fell to his knees the moment they were back in the circle of lights overlooking the Gawain Sea. For a full minute he just lay there in the grass, waiting for his head to stop spinning and registering that he was no longer soaking wet. When he opened his eyes he saw that Zane no longer had the bleeding scrape across his cheek either.

  The six mastery-level students who translocated them were standing right where they left them, looking bored.

  “The Masters have asked to see you in classroom three,” one of them informed their group. “Hurry up; they don’t like to be kept waiting.”

  Hayden stood up, mostly-recovered from the effects of the arena, though his lungs still hurt and he was bone-tired. The four of them began to walk down the winding path that led back to the school in the darkness.

  “Wonder why the Masters want to see us,” Zane was the first to speak after several minutes of silence.

  “It’s not uncommon. Sometimes if they aren’t sure how to score us yet, or if they want to comment on our technique and how we could improve, they’ll call us in to talk about it,” Tucker explained.

  “Maybe they just like to talk to everyone after the first arena challenge,” Tess offered optimistically.

  “They’re probably going to grill us for taking twenty minutes to get through it all,” Zane frowned. “Though really, I think we did pretty well since it was our first go at an arena and we were being chased by jackals.”

  Tess glanced at Hayden. “What did you do back there in the lake? I’ve never seen anyone part water like that.”

  Hayden blushed in the darkness, glad that the others couldn’t see it.

  “I was drowning and I panicked. I wasn’t trying to do that to the water, I was just thinking of air, and the next thing I knew all the water had gone from around me.”

  Zane let out a low whistle, clearly impressed.

  “We didn’t even know you were in trouble until Tess and I finished with the first jackal. I just looked out in the water and only saw Tucker. I was getting ready to go after you when the lake went nuts.”

  He looked guilty for not having noticed that his roommate was being drowned by a hydra, but Hayden wasn’t upset at all.

  “Don’t feel bad. There wasn’t any time to scream, so you couldn’t have known I’d been pulled under. I clearly need to work on my swimming skills, since hydras seem to love me.”

  Zane and Tucker chuckled at that, though Tess still looked worried for him.

  “How many heads did it have?”

  “Two,” Hayden answered, acknowledging that it could have been much worse. Hydras could have up to seven heads, depending on how powerful they were.

  It felt nice to be back in the castle with the torches lit and the safety of the walls around them. Hayden had never been to classroom three before, though he had passed it many times on his way to Conjury. It was on the ground floor on the underside of the main stairwell, and Tucker pushed open the door without knocking.

  It looked a lot like the testing room they brought Hayden to for questioning when he first arrived at Mizzenwald. There was a long table at the front of the room, which the Masters were currently seated behind, all of them wearing their red robes except for Kilgore, who was dressed casually and wearing black slippers. Instead of the semi-circle of desks facing them, there was another long table, and Hayden and the others took seats behind it. He felt like they were preparing to face off against the Masters.

  Willow began the discussion.

  “So, how did you find your first challenge experience?”

  He looked at Hayden for some reason when he said this, who wasn’t feeling very generous towards the Masters right now.

  “It would have been more enjoyable without the lake monsters and jackals,” he answered truthfully. Asher smirked, Kilgore let out a low chuckle, and Master Sark frowned at him like he was a dangerous weed that needed to be pulled out by the roots.

  “It took you a very long time to think of conjuring a rope,” Master Reede said to Zane, who blushed in embarrassment. “Actually, I believe it was your prism who gave you the idea.”

  “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”

  “The team might have made it in the fifteen minutes allotted had you been more alert. Next time work harder to think through your resources when presented with a challenge,” Master Reede sighed. “You’ve lost your group two points for your short-sightedness.”

  Zane looked down at the table, clearly mortified.

  “It was our first challenge, and you set monsters on us,” Hayden interjected, angry at the Master of Conjury for embarrassing Zane in front of everyone.

  “We’ll get to you in a minute, Frost,” Sark leveled his gaze coolly at him.

  “Despite your shortcomings in the forest,” Master Reede continued on as though there was no interruption, “you performed admirably against jackal-number-one, so you have earned your team one point for that.”

  Zane brightened fractionally.

  “Also, has anyone told you that you’re an excellent swimmer?” Asher gave him a wry smile. “Kilgore could hardly keep up with you, and he was an eel.”

  Zane looked stunned by the unexpected compliment, but Hayden twisted his features in confusion, trying to figure out what he meant by saying that Kilgore was an eel. Asher must have caught the look on his face because he smirked and added, “I was the owl.”

  Now he understood. He remembered seeing the owl perched at the edge of the forest, looking amused and watching him closely. The Masters must be able to use their charms to become animals so they could watch what was happening inside the arena without interfering.

  “Theresa,” Kilgore spoke next, and it took Hayden a moment to realize he was talking to Tess. “Your use of tinctures and elixirs against the wolf and the first jackal were commendable. You didn’t waste materials or use excessive displays of magic. We award your team two points.”

  By Hayden’s mental count, assuming they were starting from ten and working their way down, they were currently at eleven points right now, which should be impossible since the maximum score was ten. His enthusiasm was short-lived when Master Sark opened his mouth.

  “However, you didn’t heed your surroundings and allowed yourself to be caught in a trap in the forest, which cost your team considerable time and materials to get you out of. For that, we take three points.”

  Three points for falling in a hole?!

  That seemed horribly unfair—it could have happened to anyone— but Tess simply nodded and avoided everyone else’s eyes, staring down at the hardwood floor, which was shiny enough to see her reflection in.

  It’s okay…we’re still at eight points…that’s not bad at all…

  “Tucker Claxen,” Master Willow spoke now. “Overall your wand use was effective, and you moved the most assuredly in the surroundings, which is to be expected, as you are the only one with experience in the arenas before tonight.” He looked neutral. “However, I believe you are aware of the mistake you made?”

  “Yes sir,” Tucker frowned. “I used the cherry wand to slice the rock when I should have used pine.”

  Master Willow nodded. “It would have consumed the pine entirely, but you would have had the cherry on hand for combat.”

  “We were running out of time and I wasn’t thinking properly,” he admitted.

  “I’m aware of that. You have lost your team two points for your haste.”

  We’re down to six…this isn’t looking good.

  Hayden personally felt that he had done the worst out of his entire team, and had been counting on the others to raise the overall score to compensate for it. It looked like the Trouts were going to win their bets when his team hit the bottom of the rankings after their very first challenge. He imagined the large, highly-visible rosters that were posted in the pentagonal foyer, where everyone would be able to see his name at the bottom of the third-year listing every time they went outdoors…<
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  “And finally, Hayden,” Master Willow turned to him now. “You attempted to use your birch wand at one point. What was your intent?”

  Hayden, who had been expecting Master Asher to address him, was surprised by the question.

  “I was hoping to…well, I was going to try and shrink the hydra so I could fight it off,” he admitted, embarrassed. Master Reede snorted in amusement.

  “That spell would not have worked against a creature of that size and power. In fact, it often does not work against animals at all unless you are using a level-five or higher wand.”

  Well how was I supposed to know that?

  “It had its jaws around my leg and it was going to drown me,” he pointed out, because they obviously didn’t understand how hard it was to think clearly when being chewed on by a hydra.

  Master Willow waved a hand to concede the point and deferred to Master Kilgore.

  “I suppose it didn’t occur to you to fortify yourself with an elixir of intellect?”

  “I’m sorry, sir, I was too busy suffocating to think of it,” Hayden answered, nettled by the criticism.

  Master Asher chuckled, but Sark frowned at him.

  “Don’t sass us, boy. It was a simple hydra, well-within a second-year’s capabilities.”

  “It was four meters tall and had two heads,” Hayden pointed out.

  “So you turned to your trusty prisms,” Master Asher addressed him at last, with a slight smile. “Doubtless overkill, but nevertheless effective. Out of curiosity, what did you do down there? I would have switched animals if I thought you were going to put on such a show.”

  Hayden saw that the other Masters were watching him carefully, obviously eager to hear the answer for themselves.

  This is why they called us here tonight…because of what I did in the lake.

  “I was looking for anything that might help me, but the only thing that would work was the array for light. But then once I had the light, I thought about my amber prism, and since I was going to die down there I wanted to at least look at it once before I drowned…”

  “Ah, now I see,” Master Asher brightened suddenly, though the look he gave Hayden was pensive.

  “I don’t,” Kilgore grumbled from beside him.

  “When I put the prisms together there were so many different patterns that I’d never seen before, more than I could even imagine…” Hayden trailed off.

  “It’s called compounding and it is not taught until the fifth-level,” Asher explained, still watching him. “Looking through multiple prisms amplifies your power considerably, and also reveals some extremely complex arrays which most mages aren’t capable of even seeing, let alone understanding.”

  Hayden’s mouth opened in surprise. He hadn’t been intending to do powerful, dangerous magic when he looked into the prisms.

  “Again, out of curiosity, which array did you use? Repel?”

  “No,” Hayden admitted, trying not to look at Master Sark, who seemed furious with him for some reason. “I used Air, because, like I said, I was about to drown.”

  “Ah, well that makes sense,” Asher continued thoughtfully. “Since the only air was above you, it repelled the water until you could get to it.” He nodded.

  “He should earn his team a zero for using such dangerous, advanced magic without instruction or permission,” Sark intervened coldly, and Hayden’s heart plummeted at the thought.

  “I didn’t even know about compounding, or that I wasn’t supposed to do it!” he explained desperately, unpleasantly aware of everyone’s eyes on him. “I was dying down there and no one was coming to save me!”

  “You can’t possibly believe that we would allow you to die in an arena,” Master Reede interjected in disbelief. “None of the injuries you receive there are lasting, and if you die you are simply brought back to the translocation circle to await your teammates.”

  “Well no one told me that until just now,” Hayden insisted, and Tucker winced at this obvious oversight on his part. “Everyone would be thrilled if I died in an accident, because I’m the son of Aleric Frost! I know no one would be upset about it, so how was I supposed to know that I would be alright down there?!”

  He hadn’t meant to shout, or stand up, but at some point he had jumped to his feet and leaned across the table without conscious effort. He sat back down and prepared for another reaming.

  “Hey! We’d care if you died!” Zane punched him in the shoulder, leaning around Tucker to manage it. “So would Bonk; he’d have to find someone else’s homework to eat if you were gone.”

  Hayden almost laughed, grateful for the show of support.

  “And I would be most aggrieved to lose you,” Master Asher surprised him by speaking up, sounding perfectly cheerful. “Without you, I have no one but dolts like Tucker to teach prisms to.”

  Tucker’s ears reddened in embarrassment.

  “I’m not that bad at prisms!” he insisted, and Master Asher arched an eyebrow.

  “I asked you to name the three primary arcs of Heal and you gave me four. Nor were you the only one in your class to do so.” Tucker looked mortified by the mistake and Asher turned to Hayden again. “You’re the only one in my class that can reliably count to three, so I’d prefer to keep you around for now.”

  “This isn’t a joke!” Master Sark snapped, slamming his hand against the wooden table in front of him so hard that even Master Willow startled from the noise. “The boy has proven himself dangerous and foolhardy. Not even Aleric started compounding until his fourth year of schooling.”

  Hayden’s mood darkened once more.

  “You heard the boy, it was an accident, and I’ll see that it isn’t repeated,” Asher glared at the other Master.

  “You’d better, or I’ll see him expelled and blacklisted from every prism shop in the Nine Lands,” Sark growled. “And I want him to lose at least four points for his folly.”

  Oh lord…only two points out of ten for our first team challenge. Hayden had scored better on Powders homework.

  “Fine then,” Master Asher shrugged. “Hayden, you lose four points for being brilliant and—understandably—in fear for your life.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm. “On the bright side, you pulled it off admirably and I award you three points for it. And let’s not forget the fact that you were unwilling to abandon a teammate in the woods and save yourself, which is all the more respectable given that you thought we were actually going to let jackals eat you, so take another two for that.”

  His heart leapt as he did the mental math. Seven wasn’t a bad number at all, especially out of their first challenge. They wouldn’t be at the bottom of the ranking at least.

  Master Sark started to argue but Asher pretended to have lost the ability to speak Junirian, and eventually Master Willow snapped at them both to shut up and said that the points would stand as assigned.

  They were finally permitted to go, and Hayden nearly sprinted from the room before the Masters could change their minds, meeting up with the others out in the hallway as they walked towards the main staircase.

  “Does it always go like that?” Zane asked Tucker, clearly not relishing another meeting like that in the future.

  “It’s usually not that heated, but otherwise yes.” He shrugged. “Sark and Asher have always hated each other, and it looks like you’ve been dragged into it now as well,” he said to Hayden.

  “Because I’m my father’s son or because I’m terrible at Powders?”

  “Both, I imagine.”

  Tess changed the subject. “But seven is a pretty good score right? Especially for the first time.”

  Tucker brightened. “Yeah, it’s not bad at all. I expect we’ll be near the top of the rankings for now. They almost never award perfect tens, and you’ve got to be really outstanding even to get a nine.” He stopped at the third-year landing. “Well, good job everyone; I’ll see you all at practice on Lenthin.”

  The rest of them continued up the stairs to the second-year floo
r, saying goodnight to Tess as she turned in at one of the first doors and they continued on to their own room.

  “Well, I know Sark wants to see you kicked out and all, but awesome prism-work back there,” Zane grinned at him. “I’m sure it’ll be all over school by tomorrow.”

  Hayden raised an eyebrow.

  “How? No one was there but us and the Masters.”

  “Oh, things like this always have a way of getting around, just you wait. Oliver’s going to explode when he finds out you can already compound prisms.” He laughed at the thought, and Hayden couldn’t help but smile as he followed him into the dormitory, where he found Bonk chewing on his bed sheets.

  He pulled off his circlet and his Focus-correctors and set them on his desk, climbing into bed fully-clothed and scooting Bonk over. He didn’t remember anything after lying down and closing his eyes.

  10

  Family Day

  Zane’s prediction turned out to be accurate. By lunchtime on Gerin the entire school seemed to know about his sojourn in the lake, though Hayden still had no idea how word got out.

  He had been hugely relieved to see their team’s position on the ranking board when it was updated that night. They were currently tied for fifth place for their age group, along with three other teams of third-years. Tucker assured them that the scores would spread out as they completed more challenges, but for now Hayden was just happy to wipe the smug look off of Lorn Trout’s face for a few weeks.

  He still felt a bit awkward around the Masters after his emotional outburst during scoring, especially Sark, who seemed determined to hate him no matter what he did. True, Hayden had made absolutely no improvement in Powders class at all, much to the delight of the classmates who thought he was a power-hungry maniac like his father, but it wasn’t from lack of effort. He just seemed destined to fail at the subject, no matter how hard he tried.

  Over the next several weeks he continued to make steady progress in his other subjects, despite his shortcomings in Powders. He even enjoyed some of them, Wands especially, and had learned how to cast both Repair and Break. He also finally managed to summon a paperclip successfully in Conjury without it turning to mush or rusting, and passed an exam in Elixirs where he had to match a list of twenty different plants to their primary function in mixtures.