Lewis, Curtis, and Miriam traveled mostly in silence. It was late at night when they reached Birch Hall, but Blake, Tanya, Priya, and Dale hurried into the entry hall as soon as the three of them came inside from the rain. The rain had started earlier that day, but at least it was warm. Lewis had kept his hood up the entire way back to the hall, and he kept it up now. Miriam sighed, reaching over and lowering the hood. Lewis tensed.
“You are one of us, Lewis,” Miriam said. “You belong here just as much as the rest of us.”
Lorna and the students nodded.
Blake sighed. “You still have water magic. That makes you a mage.”
Lewis hadn’t expected that. Especially not from him.
“Martin is our most likely suspect behind all of this,” Miriam said, “but I agree with Esther that it’s unlikely he’s working alone.”
Curtis must have told all the others the truth about the letter and Stewart’s capture.
“I will contact mages we can trust,” Blake said, looking at Curtis and Miriam. “I’ll see what I can find out about Martin and his allies among the court.”
Miriam nodded. “Thank you, Blake.” She looked at Lorna and the students. “It is rather late, but I can see you’re all wide awake.” She sighed. “How about some tea in the dining hall?”
Lewis, Miriam, and Curtis went to get dried off. Lewis reluctantly put the dark green High Mage robes on. He didn’t have any other clothes to wear, and Miriam was right that they still had to uphold the lie. For now. He joined the others in the dining hall. No one said much while they drank the tea. After that, they all went to bed. Lewis slept deeper than he had in a while, relieved to be back in a familiar bed, without the threat of an impending trial hanging over him.
Blake left the next morning, right after breakfast. He was going to meet up with a former student of his in Palegrove. Lewis joined Lorna in the garden after breakfast. Enjoying the fresh air, crisp after last night’s rain. The two stood in silence in front of the fruit tree, which was taller and greener than when Lewis had last seen it. Miriam was taking care of the first lesson of the day for Dale and the twins. She had promised she and Lewis would get started on his training right after.
He wasn’t sure if he was looking forward to it. What was she going to do? If she thought Curtis had been going too easy on him, what did she consider a good lesson? She wanted him to learn fast, so it probably wasn’t what she had the students doing in the classroom. Lorna gently ran her fingers along the bark of the tree. A wilted leaf at the end of one branch slowly turned green before unfurling, vibrant and healthy again.
“Did you find what you were looking for in Palegrove?” Lewis asked. With all that had happened, he hadn’t had a chance to ask her.
“I found a rare copy of the first Apothecary of Vasta book,” Lorna said with a big smile. The smile faltered. “I found another book.” She shivered. “The shopkeeper wanted to be rid of it, suspecting it was related to magic. It has pictures of shadowy wolves pressed into the leather of the cover. After hearing about what really happened in the mine in Whisperstream, I’m worried the book has to do with Esther and the wolves she summoned. Miriam agreed it could be dangerous, so we have it locked away in a room for now. I couldn’t open the book, and I certainly didn’t try again after hearing about the wolves you encountered.”
“Was it sealed shut somehow?” Lewis asked.
“I couldn’t see anything keeping it shut, but I couldn’t open it,” Lorna said. “Miriam and I thought perhaps only an Afflicted Mage can open it, if it has to do with that being Esther calls master.” She shivered. “Whatever that book is, it could be dangerous, and we definitely shouldn’t let Esther get her hands on it.”
Silence settled between them.
“Could I take a look at the Apothecary of Vasta book sometime?” Lewis asked.
Lorna smiled. “Of course.”
“It will have to wait,” Miriam said, joining them by the tree. “Lorna has a class to teach and you have a class to attend.”
Lewis and Lorna followed Miriam back into Birch Hall. Lorna headed for the classroom. Miriam led Lewis further along the hall and around the corner, to a small square room with a stone basin of water at the center. It looked like a bird bath. The only light came through a tiny window high on the back wall. The sunlight from the window stopped just short of the stone basin, leaving the water dark.
“You’ll start by raising a drop of water from the basin,” Miriam said. “Try to make it bigger each time.”
Each time? If he could raise a drop of water, it might take all day. Lewis didn’t dare protest when he saw her stern frown. He stood before the basin, staring at the dark water. He stood far enough back that he wouldn’t see his own reflection and be distracted by it. After focusing hard for a moment, he reminded himself it wouldn’t work if he concentrated too hard. Lewis closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to relax. He opened his eyes and again stared at the water in the basin.
The water rippled, becoming small waves. He took a step closer, staring at the center of the water. He didn’t need to move all of it. The center of the water pulled upward slowly before plopping back down, sending a cascade of ripples through the surface. Lewis wiped sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. The cold tingling all over him stopped for the moment. He glanced at the window and thought it might be around midday.
“Continue,” Miriam said from somewhere behind him.
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Lewis hesitated, his stomach growling. “Could we take a break for lunch?”
Miriam sighed. “Did you get to take a break in the mine? Did you ask the wolves to let you stop for lunch?”
Lewis tensed, not looking back at her. He returned his focus to the basin. The water quivered, rippled, and sloshed around. The room was filled with the reddish light of dusk when the center of the water rose again. He just needed to separate a small amount. Just a drop. His entire body was shaking, but the cold tingling had stopped a while ago. His magic must have entirely changed him again. This thought broke his concentration, the peak of water falling back into the basin. Lewis was breathing hard. He pulled back his sleeves and put his hands in the water. The water against his salamander skin eased some of the tension in his body. His skin was parched and dry from standing there all day, and from the strain of the magic.
“What are you doing?” Miriam asked, having come to stand beside him.
Lewis took his hands out of the water quickly.
Miriam only looked curious as she stared at him, not horrified. “So this is what the pact does to protect you from your magic. Curtis told me what the two of you know about your magic, as well as that water helps you recover from using too much magic.”
Lewis reached for his hood.
“Leave it down,” Miriam said. “It will only get in your way.”
Lewis hesitated. “I don’t think I can do more.” His voice shook.
Miriam frowned. “Curtis said you had Stewart’s determination, but I have yet to see it. Martin won’t wait long before making his next move. I don’t doubt a difficult request will come your way soon, in an effort to catch you out as being no more than a Novice. Especially if Martin is behind that letter and your father’s capture. He knows you are no High Mage, and he will want to reveal you as a fraud.”
Lewis swallowed, his throat as dry as the rest of him. He looked back at the basin without a word. Clearly he wasn’t getting out of that room anytime soon, and Miriam was right. Even an Adept couldn’t do what a High Mage could, but he hadn’t even reached the level of Apprentice. He wouldn’t until he could raise a drop of water from the basin.
He didn’t know how much longer he stood there, trying and failing. Eventually, he was so tired he couldn’t even make the water ripple. Only then did Miriam dismiss him for the night, taking him to the darkened kitchen, where she made a bowl of porridge and some steamed fish for the two of them. Lewis drank several cups of water. Back in the tower, he filled the tub and slept in there, beneath the water’s surface.
He dreamed of the shadow wolves again, but this time he wasn’t in the mine. He was running across a field of grass that stretched on in every direction. Countless shadow wolves ran after him, getting closer even as he ran as fast as he could. The wolf at the front was just about to reach him when he woke up. He had left the washroom door open a crack so that the light of sunrise would wake him. His heart was beating fast. It was just a dream…
Lewis got out of the tub. He was still fully changed by his magic, still exhausted, but he highly doubted Miriam would give him a day to rest. He reluctantly dried off, put his dark green robes on, and went down for breakfast. Lewis hesitated outside the dining hall doors, then raised the hood of his robes. Miriam frowned when Lewis joined them at the end of the table, but she said nothing, so he left his hood up.
“How hard did you push him?” Curtis asked quietly.
“As hard as I needed to,” Miriam said. “He should know by now that he doesn’t have to hide. This is only a natural part of his magic.”
“Only if he uses too much magic,” Curtis said.
Miriam looked at Lewis without expression. “He wanted to hide when there were few visible effects of his magic.”
Lewis ate quickly, but Miriam was still done first. Without a word, he followed her to the room from the day before. When she said nothing, he stood before the basin again, dreading another day of this. She was right that the hood was in the way, the edge of it distracting as he stared at the water. He lowered his hood and focused on the center of the water. The water rippled, then a peak of water rose. He pulled harder in his mind, trying not to pull too hard. The lower part of the peak dropped back into the water with a splash, leaving a single drop of water hovering in the air. Lewis’s excitement broke his concentration, the drop falling back into the basin.
“Again,” Miriam said, her voice hard.
The excitement of finally managing to do this drained away with her cold voice. Lewis focused on the basin again. Before sunset, he raised only one more tiny drop of water. When they stopped late at night, he was even more exhausted than the night before. He barely ate the porridge before going up to the tower and going to sleep underwater in the tub. The dream was waiting for him again. He ran across the field of grass under the stormy gray sky, the shadow wolves right behind him. They didn’t leap, didn’t close the small gap. It was as though they were content, for now, to continue the chase.
He awoke to sunrise again. Spending the night underwater didn’t seem to have done him any good, but how would he have felt if he hadn’t spent the night in the water? Would he even be able to get up that morning? He was still fully changed by his magic. As long as his lessons with Miriam continued, he likely wouldn’t be going anywhere near back to normal. Lewis stumbled on the tower steps on the way down, barely catching himself on the wall. He felt like he was still half asleep, but he didn’t go back to his room and try to sleep more. Miriam would come find him if he did.
That thought was enough to get him downstairs to breakfast. Only when he sat down did he realize he had forgotten to raise his hood. For a moment, he stiffened, but Lorna and the students merely looked curious. Curtis just looked worried. Miriam ate her breakfast without expression. He could have sworn she was eating faster now, just to give him less time for breakfast. Lewis ate as quickly as he could, but only finished half his porridge. He was too tired to be properly hungry.
“You have a class to teach this morning,” Miriam said. “We can continue your training after.”
Lewis went ahead to the classroom, leaning on the podium. He couldn’t think of a plant. All he could think of was water and sleep. He raised the hood of his cloak against the morning sunlight streaming in through the window. The sunlight made him even more unbearably sleepy. Maybe being like this for so long was making him nocturnal, like a salamander. He closed his eyes in the darkness of his hood, but opened them quickly when he started to doze off. Dale, Tanya, and Priya came in and sat at their desks.
A plant. He had to think of a plant. He turned to face the board, his hand shaking as he gripped the chalk. The chalk felt unpleasant against his skin, like it was drying out his fingers. He stared at the blank surface of the board.
“Lewis?” Dale asked. “Are you alright?”
Lewis cleared his throat. “I’m fine.”
His hand still shaking, he wrote on the board, but he hadn’t thought of a plant yet. What was he writing? When he reached the end of the word with the strange letters, not any language he’d seen before, the chalk slipped from his fingers. The wooden boards of the floor closed in as everything went black.
