“Who?” the Master of Powders demanded, but Hayden was too tired to answer. He closed his eyes for a moment to shield himself from the sunlight, thinking that he’d answer the Master’s question in just a minute, when he had more energy.
21
The Last Trial
When Hayden opened his eyes he found himself lying on a stretcher in the triage tent with Master Willow checking his pulse. He blinked hard several times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming and said, “Is my homework late, sir?”
The Master of Wands turned to look at him and said, “No, Hayden, your homework is not late. You’ve just come out of the Forest of Illusions; do you remember?”
“Oh,” he answered gravely, struggling to sit up on his stretcher. Looking around, he saw that the tent was full of Masters from the five eastern schools. The Prism Master of Isenfall was tending to Davis and their wand-user, three Masters from Valhalla were there, all five from Branx, one from Creston, and Asher, Willow, and Kilgore from Mizzenwald.
“What are you all doing here?” Hayden asked in surprise. He’d never seen this many Masters of the major arcana in one place before.
“Asher vanished in the middle of a staff meeting and didn’t return. It’s not the first time he’s run away from the threat of expense reports, but he eventually sent a summons for aid. Elias and I came here to assist with the healing. The others are helping with crowd control and contacting the Council of Mages, as well as the injured student’s families.”
“Oh,” Hayden frowned, knowing that he had no family to contact. Shaking the thought, he said, “Is everyone going to be alright?”
“Some of them may need Focus-correction in the future due to the effects of the Resonance Crystal, but I believe they’ll all recover, with the exception of the Wand of Creston, who I understand perished in the Forest?”
Hayden nodded wordlessly, relieved when Master Asher knelt down beside him and said, “Good, you’re awake. You were out for quite some time.”
“Is the crystal gone for good?” Hayden asked him.
“Oh yes, I managed to dispose of it…” he held up his palms, which were covered in black dust and bandaged. “I maybe should have stood back a few more feet, but who lives may learn, I suppose.”
Master Willow narrowed his eyebrows at his colleague and said, “Do I even want to know how you were aware of the problem before anyone else, and how you knew exactly where to find Hayden in the Forest of Illusions?”
The Prism Master put on his most dashing smile and said, “Probably not.”
Willow rubbed his forehead and said, “I believe you’re right about that. What have you been telling the others?”
“That Hayden’s magically-abnormal and we’ll never know why he was able to resist the Resonance Crystal,” Asher replied smoothly. “As to how I found him, I told the others that I snuck down to the Forest to see how the competition panned out, rooting for Hayden and all of that. When it became obvious something was wrong, I was on the spot and managed to find my young protégé and his friends. The others were so grateful for the assistance that they haven’t even filed a complaint yet with the Council for my interference in their trial, though I suspect they’ll get to it eventually.”
Master Willow’s gaze flickered between Hayden’s defensive charm and Asher’s Mastery Charm as though a light had suddenly turned on in his head. For a long moment no one spoke, until finally he said, “Thank goodness that you happened to be well-positioned when things went wrong.”
“Can I go back to Mizzenwald?” Hayden interrupted, looking around. “I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to.”
Both men gave him sympathetic looks that he didn’t think he deserved and agreed to his request. Master Willow helped him to his feet, and Hayden wobbled a little and stumbled into the Master of Wands before steadying his balance. Something large bumped against his leg, and Hayden narrowed his eyes and tried to remember whether he’d put anything in the pocket halfway down his left leg.
I never use those pockets for anything…
Confused, he unfastened the button on the outside of his pants pocket and reached in, wrapping his hand around the solid object and lifting it up. It was a full-sized prism that looked like it had been wrought from gold, with the year etched into the surface of it on the flat end.
“Wha—how did I get the prism trophy?” Hayden asked the Masters, eyes widening in shock.
“You don’t remember finding it during the trial?” Master Willow raised an eyebrow at him skeptically.
“No, I never found it. I saw the wand trophy but that’s it. I don’t know how it would have gotten into my pocket without me knowing…”
“Perhaps you were so overwhelmed and harried at the time that you did it instinctively, without realizing what you were doing.”
“No, that’s not it. I never use those lower pockets on my pants; Zane and Conner explained once that only jerks like Lorn use them to store extra powders and stuff to make themselves look cool.” He felt like he was doing a bad job explaining himself, but he couldn’t think of anything smarter to say.
Master Asher frowned thoughtfully and said, “The Forest is a strange place, Hayden. It can show you things that aren’t there and conceal things that are. For whatever reason, it clearly wanted you to have that trophy, and so you do.”
Master Willow still didn’t look entirely convinced by Hayden’s assurances that he didn’t take the trophy for himself, but he ceased arguing over it and gripped Hayden’s arm firmly, translocating them back to Mizzenwald.
The first gust of warm breeze hit him like home, and Hayden thought he could spend the rest of his life surrounded by the cherry and pear-blossoms and be content. Master Willow led him towards the school, past gawking classmates and whispering groups of older students. Hayden didn’t care about any of them right now. Bonk flew out of the castle like a miniature projectile and crashed into him hard enough to knock him back a step.
“I’m okay, Bonk. Asher and Cinder came to get me.” He patted his familiar wearily on the head and transferred him over to his shoulder.
“Go clean yourself up and get to bed,” Master Willow suggested kindly. “It’s going to take time and rest for you to feel like yourself again, and you’ll soon have to recount your experience in the Forest for a whole host of people.”
Hayden wasn’t looking forward to that at all, though he appreciated the advanced warning. He thanked Master Willow for bringing him home and trudged into the school, ignoring everyone who stared at him. The exceptions were running towards him down the main staircase.
“Hayden!” Tess was moving so quickly that for a moment Hayden was afraid she would launch herself into him the way Bonk had and knock him to the ground, but she stopped short.
“What in the seventeen tiers of the afterlife happened to you?” Zane was right behind her, eyes wide as he took in the sight of Hayden there, scraped and bruised and covered in multicolored blood.
“I think I won,” Hayden answered dumbly, holding up the trophy prism and wondering when his brain would start producing intelligent thoughts again.
Zane gave him a quizzical look and said, “Uh…Congratulations?”
“We know something bad happened, Hayden; everyone knows,” Tess interrupted, face paper-white with worry. “The Masters took off so suddenly, and they looked worried. There’s no reason all five of them would have left the school unless something horrible happened.”
Hayden walked past them and said, “Help me upstairs, will you? I need to lie down for a while.”
Tess and Zane each took one of his arms and half-carried him up the stairs, pausing only when Hayden overbalanced into one of them and nearly knocked them over. After the third time he did this to Tess, he frowned and said, “Sorry about your dress…I don’t know if those bloodstains will come out with soap.”
“Oh hang my dress, Hayden,” Tess looked at him like he was stupid for even worrying about it. “It doesn’t matter if it’s ruined o
r not.”
“I’ll buy you a new one, I promise…” Hayden said muzzily, feeling lightheaded as they finally made it to the fifth-story landing and turned down the third-year hallway.
“Fine, if it’ll make you happy, but it doesn’t matter to me,” Tess insisted, brushing a stray lock of blond hair away from her face and shifting his weight.
“How come you didn’t offer to buy me a new dress too?” Zane chuckled in between panting for breath, and for a wonderful moment Hayden was tempted to smile.
“I thought it was a given,” he answered, feeling slightly less dizzy. “I was going to buy a blue one, to bring out your eyes.”
Zane snorted and said, “Good. I want lace and all the trimmings too. Don’t you dare skimp on me.”
“Nothing but the best for you, dear,” Hayden mumbled, and even Tess cracked a smile.
A group of third-years were clustered around the common area trying to get a good look at Hayden as he went by, but Lorn Trout shoved his way through the crowd, knocking people to the ground as he said, “Where’s my brother?”
He looked pale and scared and somehow much younger and less obnoxious than usual. Hayden actually felt sorry for him.
“He was alive when I left him,” Hayden answered truthfully. “Willow said they all should come through it…sorry I don’t know more,” he ignored the gasps of everyone else upon hearing how bad things were. Lorn was the color of porridge.
“Like hell you don’t know anything more! I want answers, Frost!” Lorn balled his hands into fists.
“And I want to wash up and lie down before I pass out,” Hayden replied, feeling woozy again. “It looks like neither of us are going to get what we want today.”
Lorn pushed Tess out of the way and grabbed Hayden’s other arm, dragging him towards the washrooms at the end of the hall.
“You’re going to take the fastest shower you’ve ever imagined,” he threatened hotly, “and then you’re going to sit down and tell me what happened to my brother, and if you even think about passing out before I’m done with you, I’m going to sock you in the gut.”
“Fine,” Hayden snapped, “but if you ever shove Tess like that again I’m going to have Bonk poison you for real.”
“Fine.” Lorn rolled his eyes and shoved Hayden into the washroom, slamming the door behind him.
It wasn’t the fastest shower Hayden had ever taken, and he spent most of it sitting on the floor so that if he fainted he wouldn’t have as far to fall, but eventually he did get clean and stumbled back to his bedroom in his pajamas.
Lorn was waiting for him, along with Tess and Zane, who hadn’t changed clothes and still had dirt and blood on them because of him. Hayden sat down at his desk and closed his eyes, doing his best to summarize the championship trial without including any unnecessary detail. When he was finished, Lorn stood up and trudged out of the room without saying a word, and Hayden couldn’t help but pity him.
“Get some sleep,” Tess told him softly. “It won’t be quite so bad in the morning.”
“Yes it will, Tess.” Hayden climbed into bed and pulled up the covers. “Yes, it will.”
It was late the next evening when they finally called for him. Master Asher knocked on his door and said he’d be escorting him to the dining hall to share his account of what happened.
“Why the dining hall?” Hayden asked curiously, pulling on his shoes even though he was still wearing pajamas.
“There are quite a few people here, and the easiest place to accommodate them all is the dining hall,” Asher made a face at the thought of it.
“Oh, then maybe I should get dressed…” Hayden reconsidered.
“Don’t bother. The more pitiable you look, the less anyone will try to bully you.”
Bonk remained on his shoulder as they descended the stairs, moving past the onlookers and gawkers as they turned through the pentagonal foyer and made their way towards the dining hall.
“There are things I want to ask you, things I haven’t really talked to anyone about yet…” Hayden said quietly.
“Then we’ll talk after this, I promise.”
“Should I tell them…should I tell them everything?”
Master Asher paused and gave the matter some serious thought before saying, “Tell them what you think they should know.”
And with that he opened the doors and ushered Hayden inside.
The dining hall wasn’t full, but there were more people than Hayden expected to see. The ten Masters from Mizzenwald were all present, as well as the ten members of the Council of Mages. A Master from each of the other four schools was there, along with Oliver, Davis, and a trio of people Hayden had never seen before in his life. There was a woman who looked a lot like Farrah, her husband, and a girl of about nine years old.
Farrah’s family. They’re here to find out what happened to their daughter.
Hayden’s stomach clenched painfully as he met their eyes. The little girl had been crying, and her eyes were red and puffy. Everyone seemed to focus on Hayden as he entered the room in his pajamas, and Master Reede looked like he was suppressing the urge to smile at his ensemble.
“Hayden Frost, we meet again,” Calahan, the head of the Council of Mages greeted him gravely.
“I’d be fine if we saw each other a bit less often,” Hayden returned, earning a few gasps from the audience and a quiet chuckle from Master Asher.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Calahan agreed neutrally. “However, you know why you’re here today. As the sole witness to the events that transpired in the Forest of Illusions, you’re being called to give testimony for this assembly.”
“Why?” Hayden asked gently, taking an empty seat in the middle of the room that was clearly intended for him.
“Excuse me?” Calahan looked less-than-amused with him now.
“Why do you need me to tell you what happened in the Forest?”
“The Council has a right to know what transpired. It has been suggested that the Resonance Crystal may have been tampered with, causing the chain of events that led to the death of one of the participants,” he inclined his head towards Farrah’s family.
“You’ve told me why you have a right to know, but not why you want to know,” Hayden said smoothly, staring the man directly in the eye. Several of his teachers caught onto what he was doing, and Master Laurren even winked at him.
“I don’t see why it matters,” Oliver’s mother interjected. “You have been asked a question, and you will answer it.”
“It matters because you’re asking me to talk about something horrible, and I want to know why I’m being made to do it,” Hayden explained calmly. “Are you going to go back in time and fix things? Are you going to make sure this never happens again in future? When you learn to answer my questions, I’ll start answering yours.”
There was silence for a long moment, and Davis was giving him a strange look, devoid of arrogance or dislike for a change.
“Please,” Farrah’s mother spoke now, “We want to know what happened to our daughter.”
“That, I believe,” Hayden nodded seriously, relenting. He might dislike the Council, but it would be wrong to take it out on Farrah’s family. “The trial started normally enough—well, a couple of people were sick, but I thought it was nerves at the time like everyone else.” He shrugged. “I ran around the woods for a while by myself, then I passed Davis and didn’t see anyone else until a giant reindeer pointed me to Darren. He was sick and said his magic wasn’t working. We decided to stick together until we could find a way out.”
It sounded so simple when he explained it like this. It was impossible to convey the rush of terror and adrenaline coursing through him in the eerily-still, shape-changing Forest, even if he had wanted to.
“We came across Oliver, who was also sick and being chased by a boar. I got rid of the boar and we made our way towards the Resonance Crystal, thinking that the Masters of Branx would be able to find us there.” Hayden frowned. “Both of them c
ollapsed, and I heard someone else shout, so I went to check it out and the Forest changed on me. I knew I wasn’t in the boundaries of the trial anymore, but I couldn’t get back so I kept moving, hoping someone would find me.”
“The interference with the Resonance Crystal prevented anyone from being tracked as designed,” the Master from Branx explained. “The five of us figured out something was wrong fairly soon, but we had to look for people the hard way since the crystal was worthless. We couldn’t even find the stupid thing to break it.”
Hayden nodded and went on. “I eventually ran into Farrah and Davis. We were trying to decide what to do when we were attacked by two chimaeras. Davis wasn’t able to use his magic, and Farrah was struggling but still fighting. We put one to sleep and I used up all my prisms on the other, but couldn’t do more than slow it down.” Hayden frowned at the memory. “It was going to eat me when Farrah jumped on it, and it got her instead. She blew it up before she…before it could get Davis and I.”
A moment of silence and then Calahan said, “It has been suggested that a student may have tampered with the Resonance Crystal in his or her determination to win the competition. Some even suspect it was you, as you were the only one able to command your magic when the others went down.”
“Everyone knows by now that there’s something weird about my magic,” Hayden scowled and gestured to his Focus-correctors. “These things got freezing cold when I went into the Forest, so they were obviously working against the effects of the crystal. If my channels were any less damaged I probably wouldn’t have been able to use magic either.”
He carefully avoided looking at Master Asher as he explained this, though he couldn’t keep his eyes off of Davis. Davis was there when Farrah confessed to tampering with the crystal; he could kill her good name with one word.
“Frost didn’t do it,” Davis frowned without meeting his eyes. “No one did. The crystal probably just had a fault in it that got amplified inside the Forest.”
The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) Page 32