The sun was rising when the group continued through the forest. The next day and night passed, then the next day. They reached Palegrove at sunset, the gates still open. They didn’t go to the inn. Lewis, Miriam, Curtis, Lorna, Dale, and Priya followed Stewart.

  “We’ll stop by the house of Blake’s former student first,” Stewart said.

  The house was a small one, on a street just off the market. Stewart knocked, but the door came open under his fist. He led the way inside, but there was no one there. The furniture was in disarray, and there was a little blood spattered on the wall of the hall leading to the door.

  “There was clearly a struggle,” Dale said, his face pale and sweaty.

  “The group of mages may have taken him,” Stewart said. “That house is the best place to search for him. His letter said where to find it.” He turned to face the rest of them, looking intensely serious. “I don’t know what we’ll find there.”

  “We’re ready,” Priya said, her voice small. “As ready as we can be.”

  Stewart seemed satisfied by this.

  They left the mage’s house, following Stewart through the alleyways to the side of the city opposite the castle. The house in question wasn’t far from the entrance to the sewers. The house, and the ones on either side, looked abandoned. The stones had moss growing on them, a few windows were broken, and the wood of the doors was splintered and weathered. They looked to have been abandoned for a long time. The door to the house in the middle wasn’t locked. Stewart opened it fast, reaching for a flask of water at his belt. He had already taken the cap off.

  There wasn’t anyone waiting in the room beyond. The floorboards creaked as Lewis and the others followed Stewart inside. All the old, splintered, half broken furniture was piled up against a door on the far side of the room. Lewis glanced up the stairs as they passed, but saw no one at the top. The kitchen doorway was at the end of the stairs, but the room was dark other than dim light through the ragged curtain over the window. There was no one there either.

  Lewis heard muffled voices from the other side of the door beyond the pile of furniture.

  “Is anyone there?” Stewart called.

  The voices went silent, then they all started crying out at once. Calling for help, calling out that they were trapped. Lewis and the others quickly moved the furniture aside. Miriam opened the door. Lewis wasn’t sure what the room had been, but the only window was boarded up from the outside. Two candelabra barely lit the room, some candles having burned out. Eight mages were crowded into the small room, wearing various colors of robes and of various ages. The youngest Lewis saw could be no more than ten, a boy wearing the gray robes of a Novice. Some of the mages were wounded.

  “High Mage?” a woman wearing Adept orange asked. Her voice shook. Tears had made tracks in the dirt on her face. “Are we saved at last?”

  A girl in the corner near the door stood unsteadily, leaning on the wall. The other mages stayed sitting. It was Tanya. Priya ran to her sister, hugging her tightly.

  “I’m sorry,” Tanya said. “I’m so sorry…” She pulled away from her sister, wiping her tears away quickly. “Esther could be back at any moment.”

  Murmurs spread through the other mages. Some of them shuddered, the young boy whimpered, and the woman who had spoken first pulled her knees in closer.

  “She lied to us,” the woman said. “The older mages in our group were starting to question what she was telling us to do. The scholars who have read every history book they can find. They’ve found nothing about magic being different in the past, or something being lost.” Her voice shook again. “Then two of them discovered what Esther actually is and told the rest of us. She’s a shapeshifter, an Afflicted Mage. She summoned shadowy wolves that attacked us.” She shook her head, glancing at the young boy. “She used our youngest mage as a hostage to get us to enter this room. And then she barricaded the door.”

  “How long have you been in here?” Lorna asked.

  “We’ve lost count of the days,” the woman said, “but some of us are badly wounded. We haven’t had food or water. If Esther comes back, I don’t think we can help you fight.”

  Priya helped Tanya back to the floor.

  Howls split the air from upstairs, outside, and the direction of the kitchen. The mages fell silent. Lewis and the others looked at each other.

  “Guard them,” Stewart said to Dale and Priya.

  The two nodded, staying in the room when Lewis and the others left, closing the door behind them. Two shadow wolves came in from outside, another coming from the kitchen, while another crept down the stairs. The ones from outside ran at Lewis, Stewart, Miriam, Curtis, and Lorna. Lewis thrust his hands toward them, already feeling their magic cores. He tore them apart easily with his magic. He did the same to the other two wolves. The house was silent again for a moment, but the front door was open. Esther came inside, the hood of her cloak back. She was using the appearance with the black hair and blue eyes again.

  Esther’s eyes narrowed when she looked at Lewis. Her lips trembled. “How? You are no longer an Afflicted Mage.”

  “You can’t use him anymore,” Stewart said, “and you can’t use the mages you gathered. All of your plans have fallen apart, Esther.”

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  She glared at him. “Do you expect me to surrender?”

  Shadow wolves lunged out of the shadows in every corner of the room. Esther drew her dagger, running at Lewis and the others alongside her wolves. Lewis tore apart the wolves with his magic while Stewart and Curtis fought Esther with their water magic. Miriam threw furniture at Esther with her wind magic. Lorna stayed in front of the door to the other room, so that it would be guarded from both sides. Esther dodged a chair Miriam flung her way, lunging to the side and grabbing Lorna, putting the dagger to her throat. A piece of broken chair hit Esther in the head.

  Lorna pulled free of Esther when the woman stumbled, quickly moving behind the High Mage, Elder Mages, and Lewis. Lewis had gotten rid of all the shadow wolves. Esther let out a wild cry, gripping the hilt of her dagger only harder. Was she going to summon more wolves? Shadows seeped out of her skin, a wispy darkness wrapping around her. Her eyes were a pale blue light, just like that of the wolves and those of the old god. Esther grinned, the dagger falling from her hand. She moved so fast she was hardly a blur, rushing at Lewis, striking with claws of darkness.

  A ball of water went straight through her. She gave no sign of feeling it. If she was like the wolves, magic and weapons wouldn’t work against her. Lewis dodged her claws. She struck at him with both hands and he grabbed her wrists. She yanked free of him, causing him to stumble back. Esther ran at the others.

  Only his magic could stop her now. Lewis grabbed Esther from behind. She was more solid than the wolves, or his changed magic made it so he could grab hold of her. She let out another wild cry, almost breaking free of him. Stewart, the Elder Mages, and Lorna gathered in front of the door to the other room. Esther struggled harder against Lewis, glaring at the gathered mages. He could feel a core of magic inside of her, just like the wolves. He didn’t want it to end like this, but he saw no other way. If she broke free of him, she would hurt the others.

  He focused his magic on her core. The darkness of it resisted his efforts, but he pushed harder, his hands and arms covered in salamander skin. The darkness pushed against him harder, but he didn’t let up. Esther stopped struggling suddenly and screamed. The screamed was cut short as she broke apart into misty darkness that faded away into nothing.

  For a long moment, Lewis couldn’t look away from where Esther had been. He didn’t look away until his father put a hand on his shoulder, worry in his eyes. Lorna opened the door to the other room and told the mages it was over, that Esther was gone.

  “There was no other way,” Stewart said.

  Lewis nodded. Even if she had become a shadowy creature, Esther had been a person, not something summoned from magic. He had killed her. He pulled the hood of robes up before the mages came out of the other room, not wanting to alarm them with his appearance. His magic had changed him again. He also just didn’t want to add to their questions. Curtis and Miriam came downstairs, supporting a mage wearing dark orange robes. He was Blake’s former student, wounded and barely conscious.

  They took the injured mages to the healer’s. After Stewart spoke to all the mages, he, Lorna, Lewis, and Curtis went to the inn. Miriam, Dale, and Priya were staying at the healer’s for now. Tanya would have to stay there for a day or two before she would be up for the journey back to Palegrove.

  “The mages agreed not to tell anyone about Esther,” Stewart said on the way to the inn. “It would only make the world fear us even more.” He sighed. “Eventually, there may be another Afflicted Mage who wants to free the old god, but Afflicted Mages are very rare. It could be a long time, and it would have to be one willing to free him.”

  “There could be other old gods out there,” Curtis said.

  Stewart nodded. “At least now we have time to find out more if we can.”

  At the inn, they had dinner and went up to their rooms. They had gotten two rooms, as Miriam, Dale, and Priya would join them later in the night. It was already late at night, so there had been no one other than the innkeeper in the common room. She had seemed wary of them, likely because they were mages and they showed up so late at night. In the morning, parts of Lewis were going back to normal. The worry had crossed his mind that he wouldn’t appear human again, but that worry was clearly unfounded. Tanya insisted she was ready to leave that morning, so their group set out for Birch Hall.

  “I’m sorry,” Tanya said suddenly. She had seemed down since they left Palegrove. She avoided looking at any of them. “I fell for Esther’s lies.”

  “I’m sure she was convincing,” Lorna said. “She would have to be to have gathered so many mages.”

  “She told us it was all a lie,” Tanya said. “She told us magic is the same as it has always been, that only Afflicted Mages are different, courtesy of her master.”

  “The other mages told me you tried to fight the wolves,” Priya said. “They said you used some impressive wind magic.”

  Tanya smiled briefly. “They said that?”

  Priya nodded. “They did.”

  Tanya sighed. “I know I can make my magic stronger on my own, without help from someone like Esther. She never really could have helped me. What I needed was a real goal, beyond just getting stronger for the sake of it. Something to protect.” She looked at her sister uncertainly.

  Priya squeezed Tanya’s hand and smiled. “Please, tell me next time something’s wrong.”

  “I will,” Tanya said.

  The journey back to Birch Hall was a peaceful one. Lewis slowly returned to normal on the way there. The day after they reached the hall, lessons resumed. Lewis still didn’t stay in the room for magic lessons, but now he went to the training room and practiced his magic. Either Curtis or Stewart were always there with him.

  Many days later, Lewis and Stewart set out from the hall after breakfast. They were going to a bookshop in Conlis. The shopkeeper had sent word to Stewart that they had gotten many obscure books about history. The two hoped to find something about the old gods, and maybe they would if they continued the search. Lewis glanced back at Birch Hall, almost out of sight through the pale trees. It was reassuring to have a place to go back to, but he was looking forward to traveling with his father.