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  Alex wanted to be angry with the older boy, but the note of genuine sorrow in Aamir’s voice forced Alex’s irritation to subside. Warmth and life were returning to Aamir, and Alex could see that it was true: Aamir was becoming more like his old self with each day. Perhaps one day, he would have a more complete answer to give Alex. For now, Alex guessed that was the best he was going to get.

  “Thank you for being honest,” Alex said with a resigned nod, although another question rested on his tongue. “Aamir—have you been to Stillwater House before?”

  Aamir was about to answer when another knock sounded at the door. Without waiting for a welcome, Natalie and Ellabell burst into the room, their faces cheerful. They seemed to have changed clothes and washed too, much to Alex’s envy.

  “You’re here!” Natalie smiled. “We are just down the corridor.”

  “So the Headmistress made you an offer too?” asked Ellabell.

  “Yeah,” Alex replied, “we both received offers. Five years of study, followed by the usual gambit of the Ascension Ceremony and a fifty-fifty chance of surviving this place. What was yours?”

  “I received the same offer, though Alypia said I might join the magical elite if I want to, should I survive my Ascension Ceremony,” said Natalie quietly.

  “Would you want to?” asked Alex.

  She shrugged. “I have five years to think about it.”

  “Mine was the same as you two,” replied Ellabell quickly, seeming slightly flustered as it came to her turn. It made Alex curious, though he didn’t press her. They had all been under a lot of strain lately—perhaps it was simply that.

  “This is all just a ruse, though, right?” ventured Alex, knowing he had no intention of staying at Stillwater House a moment longer than he had to. He didn’t trust Alypia’s word, but nor did she trust his. If the agreement was a pretense for something else, as it was with his promise, the real motive behind her offer was yet to appear to him. He could sense it had something to do with his being ‘special,’ like it always seemed to. When nobody appeared to be forthcoming with a response, Alex elaborated. “We’re still getting out of here, right?”

  Silence and shifty stares followed.

  “You’re joking,” he muttered in disbelief. “Well, my goal here is to find another portal, or make one if I have to, and get the hell out of this place. I want to get home—I thought that’s what we all wanted? Did I miss something? Did she offer you something else, that she didn’t offer me? Because otherwise this is ridiculous.”

  Ellabell nodded. “Absolutely, we’re leaving. That’s the plan and we’re sticking to it. I know I’d like to see home again,” she agreed.

  Aamir and Natalie didn’t seem entirely convinced. Alex caught a look passing between them, though they made noises of agreement toward their waiting friends.

  “You shouldn’t even have to think about it, guys! Both of you have friends and family out there who are worried sick at home, thinking you’re dead or worse. I mean, Natalie—your family sent you off to a foreign country and you never came back! Aren’t you upset? Don’t you feel like you should get home to them, so they can stop worrying about the girl who just vanished off the face of the earth?” Alex struggled to keep himself from yelling. He wanted to shake them into seeing sense. “And though I barely know anything about your family, Aamir, I imagine they feel the same. I bet they’re home right now, wishing you would just walk back through the door. Is the power of magic really more important than them?”

  The tirade seemed to cow them, forcing them to sheepishly come around to the idea Alex was talking about—as if his words and the memory of their families had removed them momentarily from a slight trance. Their state of mind worried Alex; he did not like to see that they were losing sight of what was important: home.

  “Has anyone seen Jari?” asked Alex, realizing their friend was missing.

  Aamir shook his head. “Not since the cells.”

  “Yeah, not since he got taken away,” agreed Ellabell, pushing her spectacles anxiously back up the bridge of her nose.

  “I have not seen him either,” Natalie frowned.

  Concern fell over the group as Alex felt a twist of guilt in the pit of his stomach, realizing with some certainty that Jari must have been the only one among them to deny the offer Alypia made. It was the only explanation for his absence.

  “Do you think he—” began Alex, only to be interrupted by another knock at the door.

  It was Helena, whose face was pale and fearful as she peered around the door, as if she already expected the suspicion they must feel about her. Hurrying in, she closed the door behind her and jumped straight to defending herself.

  “I had nothing to do with it!” she yelped. “I didn’t tell anyone, I swear—somebody must have seen me rowing over to deliver supplies and sounded the alarm. I didn’t say a word about you. You have to believe me!” There was honesty in her plea, but Alex and the others still maintained a level of caution.

  “I thought that might be the case,” said Alex, trying to calm the girl.

  She nodded. “As soon as I knew they had taken you, I tried to get the guards to let me down to the cells, but they wouldn’t, no matter how much I begged. They’ve never said no to me before, but this time they wouldn’t do as I said, and then someone came for me too—I was taken away and punished for hiding you,” she explained woefully.

  On her pale, porcelain skin, just below the sleeves of her t-shirt, she bore the livid, deep purple bruises of whatever that punishment had entailed. It looked painful, though she didn’t show it on her face. As soon as he saw the bruises, Alex felt guilty for what she had suffered, musing grimly how guilty he felt about everything these days.

  “Do you know where Jari is?” pressed Alex.

  She nodded quickly, lowering her voice. “I know where they’re keeping Jari, but I won’t be able to get to him to set him free—not today, anyway. He is under heavy guard. I’ll need a couple of days to come up with something, but in the meantime, I need you to keep your heads down and do as you’re told. It’ll give him a better chance.”

  It was a warning as much as a suggestion, and sounded kindly meant. She seemed genuinely sad about Jari, and Alex could see she shared their concern for him.

  “For now, you should rest, clean up, and come down to the refectory for something to eat if you’re feeling hungry,” she encouraged brightly. “You won’t be put onto the schedule for a few days, while you get settled in and recover fully, but you might find you have a guard or two show up if you wander too far into the school,” she told them apologetically. “The key places are easy enough to find though—the refectory is down the stairs, through the square, into the building opposite and down the corridor. You can’t miss it. Everything you’ll need is pretty much signposted, and if you get lost, just ask somebody. I’ll meet you at the refectory in a few hours, if you’d like?”

  “Thank you, Helena.” Alex smiled kindly.

  They watched her leave.

  When she was gone, the foursome sat around Alex’s room, saying very little, though their faces spoke volumes. It was clear they were all thinking about Jari, feeling guilty about their decision to take Alypia’s offer.

  Chapter 23

  After a long bath, unable to relax much thanks to the worry he felt for their still-absent friend, Alex slept for a while, waking as the afternoon was at its peak. It seemed the others had the same idea, as he found them coming toward his room just as he was leaving it to search for them. Though they were all still anxious for Jari, they had little to do with their schedules empty and their bodies rested, and so they decided to explore the school a bit.

  As they walked the hallways and sauntered across the piazzas, trying to get to grips with the gigantic villa, Alex noticed that the beautiful students of Stillwater eyed them with a certain wary curiosity, as if they had not seen strangers in a long time. It made Alex think back to Helena’s comment about other Stillwater students not being as welcoming a
s her, but he shrugged it off as they came to a beautiful water garden at the far end of the school.

  The air was heavily scented with floral perfume, and vibrant butterflies flitted from flower to flower under the steady hum of unseen bees. A large pond glistened in the center of the garden, koi fish twisting and weaving beneath the water’s surface, darting away from streams poured by the hands of expertly sculpted statues into the pool below.

  The four of them sat for a while on stone benches, in the shade of a delicate willow, though Natalie stretched out on the slate tiles by the pond like a cat, bathing peacefully in the sunshine as she trailed her hand in the water for the fish to nibble at. Not long after, a Stillwater student came running up with a tray of cakes and drinks. Alex figured this wasn’t normal behavior, but he was hungry, and the snacks looked so tempting. They tasted as delicious as they looked. The cakes, moist and light and flavored with lemon, washed down easily with a cup of some exotic red juice that tasted somewhere between cherry and strawberry.

  Outside, the architecture could be truly appreciated. All along the archways and levels of the villa, Alex saw tiny details that could only be noticed if you were really looking, like the ornate carvings above the windows, and the clusters of stone grapes, complete with vines, twisting around the eaves of the domes and spiraling towers. Everything at Stillwater House was exquisitely crafted, taking from contemporary and Renaissance influences. Alex knew the villa had to be ancient, yet it didn’t look dated—it was fresh and bright, gleaming in the dazzling, hypnotic sunlight.

  As the heat became too intense, making the perfume of the flowers seem almost suffocating, the quartet moved back inside to explore the interior some more. They passed several classrooms and saw glimpses of the lessons going on within, led by teachers of beauty equal to that of the stunning students, and who seemed to encourage the talent of their pupils. It was curious to watch the teachers shout out the sections of each spell, assisting students with a firm but friendly hand, so that nobody got left behind. They seemed to genuinely want their students to do well, which surprised Alex. He guessed it must have been because their jobs weren’t on the line, as they were at Spellshadow; the teachers in that grim place lived in constant fear of being usurped and having their essence torn away from them. Here, he supposed, if they Ascended and chose to become teachers, their survival and position were surely guaranteed.

  Moving down some stairs into a section of subterranean corridors, Alex was pleased to see a mechanics’ lab, with a lesson on clockwork taking place within. It meant the students here had a much more varied education than the one at Spellshadow, if clockwork was an actual fixture on the class schedule, as it appeared to be. The sight of it made Alex smile with the bittersweet memory of Professor Lintz, tinkering away at the delicate husk of a clockwork owl, though that thought led his mind back to the students of Spellshadow, and how they were faring. The boatful of guards hadn’t returned, as far as Alex knew, but he wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or a bad one; it simply meant the matter hadn’t been resolved, one way or the other. He only hoped they were okay, whichever way things were going.

  On their second day as actual residents of Stillwater House, a message came for Alex, instructing him to attend an introductory lesson in the Queen’s Courtyard at ten a.m. As he washed and dressed and stepped out into the corridor, he saw that the others had received the same message. They walked toward him with anxious looks on their faces.

  “Introductory lesson?” he asked.

  They nodded.

  “Breakfast first?” he suggested.

  Another nod, and they all went down to the refectory together, filled with first-day-at-school nerves. Helena appeared at the bottom of the stairs, waving excitedly to them as she led them the rest of the way to the refectory. Having been spoiled the day before with tray service, they had not met with Helena, as they had promised to do, but had gone back to their rooms instead, with stomachs full of cake and chocolates and delicate finger sandwiches. It seemed she didn’t hold a grudge, as she dragged them over to introduce them to a group of her friends, who did not seem nearly as impressed as she was.

  They ate a simple, clean breakfast of fruit salad and yogurt, sitting in awkward silence as Helena tried, and failed, to stir up conversation between the two different groups. Once they were finished, they all walked together toward the Queen’s Courtyard, Helena leading the way, still chirruping enthusiastically as the rest of them followed sullenly, not sharing her delight.

  Stepping out into the same courtyard where Alex and Jari had first seen Helena, the quartet were a little intimidated as they saw the rest of the students gathered around them. Some of them, particularly the ones clustered toward the far side of the courtyard, looked much younger than Alex and his friends. All eyes were on them as they waited anxiously for instruction. It came sooner than anticipated, and they were split into pairs with the younger group of the gathered Stillwater students, and set to the task of dueling. The older class, including Helena, paired off on the other side of the courtyard, apparently serving to inspire the younger students.

  Alex already knew it would be a wreck for him. He stared hopelessly toward the place where his partner had moved off to. It puzzled him, that he should have been asked to come to this lesson with the others, making him wonder if Alypia knew as much about him as much as she had pretended to.

  “Do not worry—I will make you look good,” whispered Natalie with a wide smile, as she walked behind him toward her partner.

  Alex hoped she could as he stood face to face with his opponent—a tall, waif-like creature a few years younger than him, with long hazelnut hair and striking violet eyes. On her beautiful, perfect face, she wore a grimace of displeasure that made Alex feel about two feet tall.

  “Shall we begin?” asked the waif in a clipped, upper-class kind of voice.

  “I suppose we should get this over with,” he joked, though he wasn’t sure her unamused face was capable of laughter.

  As they set about fighting, Natalie was more than true to her word, making Alex an almost even match for his violet-eyed opponent, much to the girl’s apparent annoyance. Feeling somewhat smug, he watched as golden vines and shimmering streams surged from his palms, whizzing toward his rival with a speed and vehemence that almost took the girl by surprise. For his own part, he managed to avoid taking any shots to the body, ducking and weaving skillfully to avoid the girl’s expert strikes, except for one surprise bolt that hit him straight in the chest. He covered the area quickly with his hand, rushing to stem the flurry of erupting snow. Nobody seemed to see it, though it left a peculiar wet patch that he hoped he could pass off as sweat.

  Along the line of paired duelers, Alex noticed that Aamir seemed to be doing well with his young partner, though he was still prone to tiring quickly, and Ellabell was out-and-out excelling against hers. It made Alex smile, to see the determination on the bespectacled girl’s face as she sent wave after wave of twisting, coiling magic toward her opponent, peering behind a strong force-field that was proving a tough object for the young man she was pitted against to get through. Natalie was winning her battle too, even with her attentions diverted by Alex’s need for help. The extra practice they’d had in the lighthouse and whatever tricks Natalie had learned from Helena during their stay there seemed to be paying off, as Alex watched the French girl send her opponent crashing to the floor in an ungainly mess. Even though their adversaries were younger, there was still a sense of pride at winning; these were not ordinary twelve- and thirteen-year-olds, after all.

  Pretty soon, the stern, disapproving looks of the other Stillwater students had turned to smiles and whoops of encouragement, as a good-natured vibe settled across the courtyard. In a way, they had proven themselves worthy to be around the Stillwater elite, and it felt nice to be welcomed into the fold, even if Alex knew his own ‘skills’ were thanks to Natalie.

  Even the teacher, Master Montego, seemed pleased. He was a six-foot-six god of a
man with a friendly voice, and his face seemed to be hewn from rock rather than flesh, with a shock of long blond hair and piercing gray eyes that apparently made Natalie go weak at the knees, much to Alex’s amusement. Whenever Master Montego passed her, he would remark upon her skill and talent, leaving her tongue-tied and glittery-eyed.

  Alex wondered what compliments Natalie would get if the teacher knew she was doing the work of two people and still winning.

  It was funny to watch her awkwardness around the beautiful young teacher as he distracted her, causing her to fire a bolt directly into a statue’s head, blowing it off entirely. She blushed furiously as Master Montego turned to see what the crashing sound was. Alex nudged her lightly in the arm as the teacher walked off again, leaving Natalie to her embarrassment.

  “You’re almost worse than Jari,” he whispered.

  Natalie snorted. “At least he never executed an innocent statue.”

  “That he did not—you’re still a long way from kittens, though.” He smiled, watching as Natalie returned her focus to the task at hand, a foolish grin on her face.

  Alex thought it was strange how easy it was to talk of Jari without the thought continuing to bother him, but there was something intoxicating about the atmosphere of the courtyard; there was a buzz that would not allow sad thoughts, so Alex didn’t allow himself to think any.

  As the lesson came to a close, the initial hostilities between the students had become fledgling friendships. The class headed to the refectory together for lunch, the quartet of friends included in the group. The food at Stillwater House was another improvement on Spellshadow, with everything smelling and tasting delicious. Picking up a plate of delicious pasta with fresh tomatoes and artichokes, Alex followed the others and sat down at the table they had chosen, which looked out onto the lake. The sight of it turned Alex’s stomach, making his food seem less appealing as he pushed it around his plate. All around him, laughter and a feeling of general contentment warmed the room, though Alex’s happiness was peppered with feelings of guilt surrounding Jari. He knew they shouldn’t be having a good time while their friend was locked up under heavy guard, but something about the villa seemed to sap away any negativity, replacing it with an inescapable feeling of enthusiasm and positive energy.