The Golden Tower

by Holly Black

  “Neither do I,” said Call.

  “It’s only fair,” Jasper went on. “Consider it payback for making the right decision on the battlefield. And for all the lives you saved. Now we’re even.”

  Call raised his eyebrows. Being picked last was always annoying, but this hardly seemed like a sufficient reward for lifesaving.

  “I know,” said Jasper. “I shouldn’t have. Why am I so noble? I fight it but my better spirit always comes out ahead. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “No one does,” said Call. Aaron laughed.

  It was Jasper’s turn again, and in rapid succession he picked Gwenda, Tamara, and Kai, while Celia got two Gold Years named Malinda and Cindy.

  “Well, this is going to suck,” Gwenda said cheerfully once they were all grouped together. “Jasper, what were you thinking?”

  “He was being noble,” said Call.

  “It’s because he wants someone on his team who’s going to make him look better,” Tamara said.

  Jasper flashed her a look of vast hurt, but he didn’t contradict her.

  “Teams,” said Master Milagros, drawing all of their attention toward her. She was carrying a basket. “I’d like for each apprentice to take one of these metal rods and enchant it to be able to find another metal. The Magisterium is rich with metal deposits. You decide which metal you want to detect. The team that has found the most metal deposits in the next hour wins.”

  Looking over at Master Rufus, it seemed clear that their teacher was waiting for them to raise their hands and ask something, like, say, how to enchant the rods.

  “Good luck!” Master Milagros said, and both teams rushed toward her to get their supplies.

  Master Rufus shook his head and Call felt as though maybe he’d already failed some important test.

  The metal was cool against Call’s skin and heavier than he expected it to be. “Okay,” he said to his team. “Now, uh, what do we do?”

  Gwenda rolled her eyes and tucked a twist behind her ear. “See, Jasper.”

  Call’s gratitude toward Gwenda for being willing to sit with him was swiftly evaporating.

  “I was in jail and then kidnapped,” Call snapped. “Not lying around on a beach drinking root beer floats.”

  “I heard it was Tamara who kidnapped you,” Kai said, turning curious eyes in her direction.

  “For the good of our team,” Tamara said. “Just help us out.”

  “Fine,” said Gwenda. “We’re basically making these into dowsing rods for metal instead of water. Reach into the metal and think of the properties you want it to find. These rods have flecks of all other metals inside of them, so you can make them look for gold or copper or aluminum or whatever.”

  “Our best shot is to divide up the metals,” said Tamara, which was really smart.

  Gwenda nodded. “I’ll take tungsten,” she said. “Kai, you take copper. Tamara, you take gold, and —”

  “I am the team captain,” Jasper reminded them. “I will take gold. Tamara can have silver. The rest are fine. Call can have aluminum.”

  Call wasn’t even sure what aluminum was except for the foil that his dad used to wrap up leftovers with. Still, there was nothing for him to do but agree. “Fine,” he said, and started concentrating on the metal rod in his hand. He tried to think of it as a wand. After all, while in general being a mage hadn’t been the way that TV shows portrayed it back in the regular world, those people often waved around wands and said abracadabra. He was going to wave around this one and it was going to lead him toward the most boring metal of all. Maybe he’d be able to wrap a lichen sandwich later.

  Call concentrated, trying to find something that seemed like the foil he grew up with inside what he was holding. He concentrated on silvery, shiny light until he felt a resonance.

  You’re doing it, Aaron encouraged.

  Call felt movement in the metal rod in his hand. It rolled a little, then straightened, almost tugging him forward. He let it pull him, like Havoc dragging him on a leash. He could hear the voices of the others raised in excitement and dismay as they worked to find their own metals. Meanwhile, Call was being marched toward the lake. He wondered if the rod was going to drag him underwater. For all he knew there were aluminum deposits ten feet down. He shuddered a little and was relieved when the rod seemed to be maneuvering him around a large boulder.

  He found himself squeezing along a narrow space between the boulder and the rock wall. Just when he was getting ridiculously claustrophobic, it opened out a little. He was in a space a little bigger than a telephone booth, the high cathedral ceiling visible overhead. Call glanced around. The rod had stopped twitching, but he didn’t see anything that looked like aluminum.

  Watch out, Aaron said suddenly, and Call stepped aside just as something whisked past his ear and hit the floor. He stared. It glimmered lightly — a ball of what was clearly aluminum. He eyed it for a long moment. “Did that just …”

  “Callum Hunt.”

  It was a scratchy, half-hissing voice that Call knew well. He craned his head back and saw the fire lizard clinging to the rock above his head. Warren’s jeweled scales glimmered in the light, and his red-gold eyes spun like pinwheels. “A gift for you.”

  Warren had dropped the aluminum? Call bent down and picked it up before straightening and eyeing the lizard suspiciously.

  “Why are you helping me out?” Call asked.

  Warren chuckled. “Old friends stick together, yes, old friends do.” He cocked his head to the side. “I did not expect two of you.”

  I think he can sense me, Aaron thought, sounding a little nervous.

  “Call!” Gwenda squeezed into the space beside him. Call nearly jumped out of his shoes. “What have you —” She broke off suddenly, staring up at Warren, her eyes widening. “Is that a fire elemental?”

  “That’s Warren,” Call said. “He’s just a lizard I know.”

  “Unkind,” Warren hissed. “We are friends.”

  “And he talks,” Gwenda marveled. “How’d you find him?”

  “I think you mean how did he find me,” said Call. “Warren shows up when he feels like it. What’s up, Warren? You need a favor or something?”

  “I come to warn you,” Warren replied. “There has been much chatter in the elemental world. I have heard the water elementals in the river and the air elementals in the sky. A new great one has come.”

  “A new great what?” Gwenda blinked.

  “The metal elementals speak of the cries of Automotones,” said Warren.

  “But Automotones is dead, or in chaos or whatever,” said Call. “Come on, Warren. You’re not making any sense.”

  Warren made a frustrated hissing sound. “The end is closer than you think.”

  Gwenda almost dropped her metal rod. “That sounds creepy!”

  “Nah,” said Call. “He always says that.”

  “Call!” It was Tamara, sounding worried. “Call, where are you?”

  “So many friends.” Warren’s tongue shot out and licked his own eye, which was a habit he had that Call personally felt he should practice in private.

  Tamara emerged from the crawl space, blinking at Gwenda and then at Warren. “Hey. I thought I heard you talking to someone and …” Her voice trailed off, probably because she realized how unflattering it was that Call talking to someone on his own was unusual enough to be a concern — although probably, sadly, accurate. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing much,” Call said at the same time Gwenda said, “Your creepy lizard friend was giving us a creepy lizard warning.”

  Tamara folded her arms and gave Call a stern look.

  “He did say something about Automotones crying out or something,” he admitted. “But I told him he had to be wrong, because Automotones is in chaos. Aaron sent him there when we were looking for my dad.”

  I sure did. Aaron sounded pleased.

  Call turned to gesture toward Warren, but the little elemental was gone. Call threw up his hands in f
rustration. “Oh, come on! Warren? Get back here!”

  “So this is how it happens with you guys?” Gwenda demanded. “Some weird lizard shows up and all of a sudden everything goes sideways and you’re fighting a massive elemental or some Chaos-ridden army or whatever? Well, let me tell you, I am not in for any of that.”

  “No one’s asking for your help,” Call said grumpily, picking up his ball of aluminum.

  That is kind of how it happens, though, Aaron said.

  Just then there was a ringing noise, like a distant bell, followed by Master Milagros’s voice, calling them back. They’d barely gotten to do any poking around. Call couldn’t believe the exercise was already over.

  “Did either of you find anything?” he asked.

  Tamara shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any silver in these tunnels.”

  Gwenda looked a little smug. “I found a vein of tungsten back in the other room and marked it down. I ran into you when I started looking for a second one.”

  They squeezed through the tunnel to find Kai and Jasper excitedly marking their finds on a map. Call noticed that he was the only one who had an actual sample of the metal, though. He hoped that was a good thing, but when he showed Master Rufus, he looked over the aluminum ball in a puzzled manner.

  Both Malinda and Cindy had found impressive amounts of their metals embedded in the walls. Celia’s team had obviously won, although neither of the Masters made a big deal about it.

  “Now that you’ve found so much metal in the Magisterium, tomorrow we will go to the library and discover the properties of each,” Master Milagros announced. “What kinds of magic do each of the metals lend themselves to? And how would you fashion a weapon from what you’ve found today? We want to see your designs and ideas.”

  Celia, clearly expecting a prize instead of another assignment, gave a heavy sigh.

  Master Milagros continued. “There’s something else we are going to do today, something done very seldom, but which is not without precedent. Master Rufus and I have been discussing what would be most helpful to your learning and it’s been decided that Gwenda and Jasper will become Master Rufus’s apprentices and I will take on some of the orphaned apprentices from Masters who were lost in the recent battle. Right now, everyone is a little overloaded, and this is a way to help.”

  More Jasper? Why does the universe hate me? Call thought.

  Tamara folded her arms over her chest. Call wasn’t sure what it meant, but at least she wasn’t jumping up and down for joy.

  Celia, however, appeared to be fuming. She must be upset enough at having her boyfriend moved to another apprentice group, no less one with the Enemy of Death in it. This wasn’t going to make things better between her and Call.

  “Jasper hasn’t made it much of a secret that he wanted to be Master Rufus’s apprentice from the beginning,” Gwenda said. “But why me?”

  “Don’t you remember?” Master Milagros said. “You asked to be reassigned.”

  For a moment, Gwenda looked as though she was going to choke, and Call abruptly recalled how she had come to their rooms a long time back to complain about Jasper and Celia making out. How she’d asked if they could persuade Master Rufus to take her on as an apprentice. Apparently, they weren’t the only ones she’d discussed it with.

  “But that was Bronze Year! And I definitely didn’t want to move in with Jasper,” Gwenda said, which so perfectly summed up Call’s feelings that he couldn’t help thinking it might be fun to have her as a roommate after all.

  But no matter how much he liked them, having new apprentices in his group was going to be weird. It had always been him and Tamara and Aaron — and even if Tamara didn’t know it, it still was. Besides, he had important stuff to work out with Tamara. How was he going to win her back with Jasper around all the time? How were they going to find time to talk?

  How are you going to figure out a way to tell her about me? Aaron asked, and there was something in that thought that made Call remember how, to Aaron, this might feel like being replaced.

  “Jasper and Gwenda, you’re going to move into Tamara and Call’s room, so pack up your things and we will reenchant your wristbands,” said Master Rufus. “Tonight, I will meet with you privately to determine your strengths and weaknesses.”

  Jasper nodded, looking shocked. He’d spent his Iron Year trying to get into Master Rufus’s apprentice group. Master Rufus was the most famous of the mage teachers and had an eye for picking apprentices who would go on to do important things — for good or for ill. He’d taught Constantine Madden, but he’d also taught prominent members of the Assembly and mages at the Collegium. Now, Jasper was finally getting his chance. Call wondered if it was still something he wanted.

  “Okay,” Jasper said slowly, as though he was still trying to process what was happening. Gwenda towed him away to pack. Celia went over to Master Milagros, probably to complain. Call decided he better go back to the room and make sure Havoc was on his best behavior for the move.

  Tamara fell into step with him. “So,” she said, “what do you think of Warren’s warning?” With everything going on then, it was the last thing that Call expected her to say, but Tamara was a person who seldom let herself be distracted from what was important.

  “Could Automotones have really escaped the void?” Call asked, although he didn’t really expect an answer.

  No, said Aaron. Not possible.

  “I don’t know,” Tamara said. “But we could go to the library tonight to research. Maybe there was another elemental like Automotones.”

  “Like his cousin?” Call asked. “And you think that maybe Warren’s friends mistook them because Automotones is the famous one?”

  Tamara gave him an annoyed look. “Sure,” she said. “Automotones is in all the elemental celebrity magazines.”

  Aaron chortled. That was pretty good.

  Oh, shut up, Call thought, homing in on something he realized had almost passed him by. “We’re going to the library tonight?” Is this like a date? A study date?

  Tamara nodded. “I think we better check this out, just to be sure. Warren’s annoying, but he’s been right before.” She put her hand to her chin. “We’re going to need help, going through all those books. Jasper might do it. He’s our new roommate now, after all.”

  So, not a date, then, Call realized. Aaron sang “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” in his head all the way through the corridors of the cave, just to cheer him up.

  THE MOVE DIDN’T take too long, Gwenda did like dogs, and to both Tamara and Call’s surprise, Jasper and Gwenda agreed to accompany them to the library that night before they went to meet with Master Rufus. Gwenda seemed curious, and Jasper — well, Call wasn’t sure why Jasper did anything. Jasper watched Celia stride off to the Gallery with half the other Gold Year students with a forlorn look on his face, then squared his shoulders and followed Call and Tamara to the library.

  The library was one of Call’s favorite places in the Magisterium, not because he was particularly bookish but because he’d spent a lot of good times there with Tamara and Aaron. Now he, Tamara, Gwenda, and Jasper trooped in under the inscription that read KNOWLEDGE IS FREE AND SUBJECT TO NO RULE, and sat down at one of the long wooden tables in the center of the room.

  “Okay,” Tamara said, taking charge. “Here’s what we’re looking for. Stuff about Automotones — are there other elementals like him? And chaos — has anything ever come back from chaos? Do we know anything about the chaos realm?”

  “Don’t you?” Gwenda said, eyeing Call. “I mean, you’re the chaos mage.”

  He shook his head. “No. No idea. I can send things through to chaos, but I don’t have any idea what’s on the other side.”

  They all split up and took different sections of the library; Call ended up in the chaos magic section, where there were a lot of books he guiltily realized he should probably have read already — books on the history of chaos mages, the meaning of counterweights, and the discovery
of chaos magic. He was reaching for a book called Soul and Void: Preliminary Theory when Aaron spoke.

  I need a body, he said. I can’t stay in your head forever.

  Call slumped against the bookshelves. He’d known this was coming, and it would be a relief to be alone in his own head, but it still felt a little rejecting. Plus, he had no idea how to accomplish it. “It’s not that easy to just get a body,” he murmured.

  Maybe someone dead?

  “We can’t use a corpse — that’s what happened to you last time. You got weird in there because the brain had been dead. And that was pushing your soul back into you. Imagine how it would be with some random other dead body.” He paused. “And not a baby. That’s what happened with me. You’d lose all your memories. You’d be a different person. A really little, helpless person.”

  I don’t want to be a baby. Aaron sounded appalled. And I definitely don’t want to push out the soul of a baby.

  “We could go to the hospital,” Call said, realizing how morbid the whole conversation was. “Find someone who’s about to die?”

  Wouldn’t I just jump into their body and then die?

  “We could fix them with magic?” Call suggested, though he knew this was unrealistic. Neither of them knew that much about healing magic.

  Then we should probably patch them up and let them live, Aaron said with the annoying nobility that told Call that this Aaron was okay. He was alive now and not a scary undead monster and there was a big part of Call that wanted to quit while they were ahead, even if it meant Aaron lived in his skull forever.

  “If you keep shooting down all my suggestions, you’re going to be stuck here,” Call reminded him.

  From behind a nearby bookcase, he heard someone giggling. He peered around, worrying that someone had heard him talking to himself. Instead, he saw Tamara sitting on the table, swinging her legs, with Jasper beside her, apparently saying something amusing. Call narrowed his eyes.

  We’ll think of something. Aaron sounded desperate.