The Phoenix Unchained by James Mallory Page B

WAS THE noon break from his classes, and Tiercel was heading across the Quadrangle. It was already the middle of Windrack—nearly three moonturns since Harrier’s Naming Day celebration—and the soft winds of early Summer made the day a pleasure to be out in. In a fortnight the term would be over for the year. Tiercel would graduate with his year-mates, and start the Long Vacation. University would loom in the autumn. Assuming he lived that long.
    He didn’t feel as if he were facing imminent death.
    If he had the Magegift, he was. If he didn’t, he wasn’t. He didn’t really feel like experimenting with any more magic spells to find out for sure. He kept dreaming about the Fire Woman almost every night, and despite the fact that it was essentially the same dream over and over, it was still as awful every single time. All he’d been able to find out from reading just about every bookon the High Magick that the Great Library held was that he’d done nearly everything wrong to cast his spell—and that the High Mages didn’t have dreams and visions. Or if they did, they didn’t discuss them in the books available to him.
    He was thinking of cutting his afternoon classes—of course it wasn’t really cutting when you went to your teachers and asked to be excused, and he really was working on a special project of his own—when a voice behind him stopped him.
    “Tiercel! Tyr! Wait up!”

    HARRIER hadn’t seen his friend since that day on the docks when Tyr had come to him with some wild story about suddenly having magic powers. He’d been so mad that day that he’d wanted to shake him. Tiercel was moonturns away from even having to go off to University, but Harrier had to be an adult now . His mornings were still spent in Normal School, but every afternoon was spent at the Port, where his Apprenticeship had informally begun. If he played around during work hours, there were plenty of watchers ready to report that fact to his Da, who wouldn’t be at all pleased to hear it.
    So maybe he’d been a little more abrupt than a friend ought to have been. He’d expected to see Tiercel again that night, or at least next evening, because when Tyr got a hold of an idea—or the other way around—he just didn’t give up on it. But Tyr didn’t come, and then it was Light-Day and he still hadn’t come to see Harrier, so Harrier had gone to the Rolfort townhouse when he figured the Rolforts would be back from Temple only to hear that Tiercel had stayed late to talk to his Preceptor. And since Harrier wasn’t going to hang around like a lovesick maiden, he’d left.
    He’d stopped by a couple of times after that—making time outof his workday, knowing he’d have to work extra late to make up for it—only to be told that Tiercel was down at the Great Library, studying. Harrier had known Tiercel all his life, and while Tyr found the Great Library fascinating, he didn’t find it that fascinating. He’d figured his friend was avoiding him, ashamed of having been an idiot, and figured Tiercel would come and see him when he was good and ready. But one morning Harrier had been in the middle of his schoolwork and realized it had been an entire moonturn since he’d seen Tiercel. He hadn’t gotten so much as a note of explanation. And he’d realized he had to go find out why.
    The Preparatory School was in the same district as the Normal School, so his detour wouldn’t make him too late getting home. The more Harrier turned matters over in his head, the more he decided he was worried. Tiercel was exactly like one of the little ratting-dogs they kept down at the docks to go after vermin. Once he got an idea in his head, he just didn’t let go of it. And while he might have gone off on this whole magic thing by himself—there were many interests the two boys didn’t share—the thing he wouldn’t have done was shut Harrier completely out of his life without a single word. Not even if their families were fighting. Which