out of her hand.
She felt ready to scream, but then she thought about Mordenkainen in the grip of that awful hand, and all her strength leaked from her body.
Her first thought was to run to Lowadar or Professor Fife, but she realized immediately that whoever had Mordenkainen obviously had spies within the school watching her every move.
It was because of exactly this threat that she had worked so hard to keep her secret. In the end it hadn’t mattered, she realized. Someone had found out and taken Mordenkainen.
She thought about using her crystal ball to contact her mother, then instantly discounted it. She knew exactly what her mother would say: “Anika never lost her familiar. Why can’t you be more like your sister?”
Tears formed in her eyes and she angrily blinked them away.
She would take care of this herself.
She didn’t need her mother—or Anika. She could take any risk, dare any danger to see to Mordenkainen’s safety. Angrily, she brushed her arm across her face, drying her tears.
She knew she was walking into a trap, but she was willing to bargain if it meant securing the falcon’s freedom.
For now the life of her familiar turned on her ability to keep a secret. Dinner was coming soon and she would have to alert the academy’s seneschal to her broken window before her roommate came in and became alarmed. She would make up a lie easily enough.
Then, after the meal, while the school slept unaware, she would slip out and make her way through the Alchemical Gardens.
Winterlike weather had effectively cut the separate areas of the gardens off from each other, making movement there less obtrusive than it might have been during spring.
The dryads and pixies would each be sticking close to the magical enclaves of temperate weather they had created for their habitats, and most of the wild animals, such as deer and other peaceful forest denizens, had already retreated for the season.
Her movements would go unobserved unless the school dragon, Old Whiskers, was roused among the crags that formed a natural barrier between the school and the Dark Forest.
It was a risk she would have to take.
If there was one small spot of good news in all of this, then it was that at least she wouldn’t be forced to see that idiot Dorian tonight.
Despite herself, Helene smirked. Professor Fife had given him enough extra spellwork to last a month.
She grabbed her haversack off the shelf in her closet and started stuffing it with supplies.
“I’m coming, Mordenkainen,” Helene promised.
Her night had just begun.
Chapter 15
D orian came awake with a jerk, heart racing.
“Are you alright?” Caleb asked from the bottom bunk.
The half-orc looked up from reading
A Practical Guide to Wizardry
. He had copies of the other practical guides strewn across his bedspread.
Embarrassed, Dorian turned back to his desk, where he’d drifted off doing his punishment studies.
“Yes,” he muttered. “I just had a nightmare.”
He was too ashamed to say anymore, to tell of the twisted snakes and dire wolves tearing his limbs.
“Fife can do that to you,” Caleb said without looking up.
“You got that right. For a moment, when she first opened the door, I was more frightened of her than I was of the wolves this morning.”
“After throwing Stench Stones at Fife, it was probably only the fact those dires attacked you that kept you frombeing expelled,” Caleb pointed out. “Bit embarrassing for the academy.” The half-orc changed his voice into a mock soothing parody of a carnival huckster selling fake potions. “Come to Aldwyns, learn magic, get eaten by monsters.” Caleb chuckled. “Not exactly the slogan Lowadar’s looking for.”
“The fact you switched out our haversacks so the professor didn’t find the rest of the banned items from Maverick’s helped a lot too,” Dorian said. “Thanks, again.”
Caleb blushed, turning his olive-tinged skin a mottled color. He pretended to study his book.
Fife’s
She felt ready to scream, but then she thought about Mordenkainen in the grip of that awful hand, and all her strength leaked from her body.
Her first thought was to run to Lowadar or Professor Fife, but she realized immediately that whoever had Mordenkainen obviously had spies within the school watching her every move.
It was because of exactly this threat that she had worked so hard to keep her secret. In the end it hadn’t mattered, she realized. Someone had found out and taken Mordenkainen.
She thought about using her crystal ball to contact her mother, then instantly discounted it. She knew exactly what her mother would say: “Anika never lost her familiar. Why can’t you be more like your sister?”
Tears formed in her eyes and she angrily blinked them away.
She would take care of this herself.
She didn’t need her mother—or Anika. She could take any risk, dare any danger to see to Mordenkainen’s safety. Angrily, she brushed her arm across her face, drying her tears.
She knew she was walking into a trap, but she was willing to bargain if it meant securing the falcon’s freedom.
For now the life of her familiar turned on her ability to keep a secret. Dinner was coming soon and she would have to alert the academy’s seneschal to her broken window before her roommate came in and became alarmed. She would make up a lie easily enough.
Then, after the meal, while the school slept unaware, she would slip out and make her way through the Alchemical Gardens.
Winterlike weather had effectively cut the separate areas of the gardens off from each other, making movement there less obtrusive than it might have been during spring.
The dryads and pixies would each be sticking close to the magical enclaves of temperate weather they had created for their habitats, and most of the wild animals, such as deer and other peaceful forest denizens, had already retreated for the season.
Her movements would go unobserved unless the school dragon, Old Whiskers, was roused among the crags that formed a natural barrier between the school and the Dark Forest.
It was a risk she would have to take.
If there was one small spot of good news in all of this, then it was that at least she wouldn’t be forced to see that idiot Dorian tonight.
Despite herself, Helene smirked. Professor Fife had given him enough extra spellwork to last a month.
She grabbed her haversack off the shelf in her closet and started stuffing it with supplies.
“I’m coming, Mordenkainen,” Helene promised.
Her night had just begun.
Chapter 15
D orian came awake with a jerk, heart racing.
“Are you alright?” Caleb asked from the bottom bunk.
The half-orc looked up from reading
A Practical Guide to Wizardry
. He had copies of the other practical guides strewn across his bedspread.
Embarrassed, Dorian turned back to his desk, where he’d drifted off doing his punishment studies.
“Yes,” he muttered. “I just had a nightmare.”
He was too ashamed to say anymore, to tell of the twisted snakes and dire wolves tearing his limbs.
“Fife can do that to you,” Caleb said without looking up.
“You got that right. For a moment, when she first opened the door, I was more frightened of her than I was of the wolves this morning.”
“After throwing Stench Stones at Fife, it was probably only the fact those dires attacked you that kept you frombeing expelled,” Caleb pointed out. “Bit embarrassing for the academy.” The half-orc changed his voice into a mock soothing parody of a carnival huckster selling fake potions. “Come to Aldwyns, learn magic, get eaten by monsters.” Caleb chuckled. “Not exactly the slogan Lowadar’s looking for.”
“The fact you switched out our haversacks so the professor didn’t find the rest of the banned items from Maverick’s helped a lot too,” Dorian said. “Thanks, again.”
Caleb blushed, turning his olive-tinged skin a mottled color. He pretended to study his book.
Fife’s
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