by Kailin Gow
“You did this?” Wirt asked.
Ms. Lake nodded. “Robert needed an advisor, and you seemed like the obvious candidate. I thought it would be good for him, and for you too.”
Wirt looked at her, unsure what to say next. “Thank you.”
“Robert will have a lot to teach you,” Ms. Lake said. “After all, for all his little quirks, he has spent his whole life training to be one of the noble class, which means he’s spent his time using weapons. You’ll need that, Wirt.”
Again, Wirt didn’t quite know what to say. Part of him just wanted to thank Ms. Lake. She’d done so much for him. She was the one who’d persuaded the headmaster to give him a place here. She’d helped him throughout his school career. She’d played a part in letting him stay over the vacation, and now she was arranging for him to learn the skills he’d need for the Quantum Games. It was a lot for her to do, and Wirt was grateful.
Yet at the same time, he found himself wondering exactly why she wanted him to remain at the school so badly.
Chapter 5
Ms. Lake left them alone after that. Eventually, all the weapons were where Robert wanted them, leaving Wirt with the vague feeling that he was inside some kind of inverted porcupine. To get away from that feeling, and because it turned out that there was nothing like moving plate mail around to work up an appetite, the two of them headed down to the cafeteria for lunch.
By that point, plenty of other students had arrived. The youngest ones still looked far younger than Wirt could ever remember himself being, and clustered together at their own tables after going to the serving hatch to see what the wood nymphs had decided they would have to eat. There seemed to be a lot of those younger students right then.
Or maybe it was just that there were so few students left that were Wirt’s age. Now that the class had been whittled down to just the ones staying on for the elite class, plus him, Roland and Spencer, it seemed like there were far too few of them dotted around the room. Wirt collected his lunch from the hatch, tried not to guess what it was, and went over to the table where he always sat with Alana and Priscilla. Robert followed him closely.
Priscilla was there, looking as blonde and bubbly as ever, wearing the kind of too elaborate dress that she always seemed to settle on if Alana didn’t intervene. It was the kind of thing that looked like it had been created more by an architect than a dressmaker, in a deep midnight blue. It was strange to think that when he’d first gotten there, Wirt had thought that Priscilla was more beautiful than Alana. She was good looking, but now, there could be no comparison.
For once, Alana wasn’t sitting at the same table as the princess. Instead, she was a little way away with Spencer, sitting close to him with her hand entwined in his. As Wirt watched, she kissed him quickly, nuzzling close to him afterwards.
“Shouldn’t Alana be here with you?” Robert asked, sitting opposite his sister. Wirt sat down too.
Priscilla shrugged. “I would have thought the answer to that would be obvious enough. I hardly see anything of her at the moment, she’s spending so much time with Spencer. I suppose that makes sense, after Spencer defied his father for her. It’s very romantic. Do you think anyone will ever defy our father for me?”
“Only if they don’t want to be able to wear a hat again,” Robert muttered.
“Oh, Rob, always making jokes.”
Robert shot Wirt a look that said clearly he was expecting some help from his new advisor, and Wirt was only too happy to help.
“Is Alana going to be taking classes with you, the way she did before?” Wirt asked.
Priscilla looked slightly offended. That was fine. Wirt knew as well as anyone that Priscilla was never happier than when she could find an excuse to be annoyed with people. “I’ve proven myself to be perfectly capable on my own, thank you.”
“Capable of what though?” Robert asked.
“What I mean is that I don’t need my advisor around all the time.”
“No, of course you don’t. I never suggested that you did.”
Priscilla nodded. “Well, that’s all right then.”
“It’s probably just as well,” Wirt pointed out as Alana kissed Spencer again. “With the way Alana’s acting, it looks like she won’t even notice whether you’re in the same room.”
“I know,” Priscilla said, with just the faintest hint of irritation. “I had to get advice on my dress from my mirror this morning, rather than her.”
That explained a lot. The magic mirror Priscilla kept in her room had even less fashion sense than she did.
“I much prefer Spencer over Roland, though,” Priscilla said. “For Alana, I mean.”
“Of course that’s what you mean,” Robert said. “And that endless stream of charming princes coming up to the castle during the vacation had nothing to do with you.”
“Well, at least they were charming,” Priscilla said, and it occurred to Wirt that being Robert’s advisor might get him extra weapons training, but it also stuck him in the middle of the royal bickering for the foreseeable future. “But Roland… he’s just… well, look at him.”
Wirt obediently looked over to where Roland sat at one side of the cafeteria, surrounded by a group of girls, looking like he was enjoying the attention a lot.
“Last term, he played at being in love with Alana, got her all knotted up over him, and now it’s like he doesn’t even care,” Priscilla said. “Honestly, when a boy says he’s in love with me and I say no, I expect him to throw himself off a tower into a set of rose bushes at the very least.”
“That happened once,” Robert said, “and frankly, I’m still not sure it wasn’t an accident.”
Priscilla sniffed. “Well, either way, Roland is behaving very strangely.”
Wirt had to agree with that one. “It is strange. He was definitely interested in Alana, at least as much as Spencer was. So why would he suddenly stop?”
Of course, it might have been more complicated than that. For all he knew, Roland was just trying to make Alana jealous. Or his feelings had never been as real as he pretended. Wirt thought back to the thing in the box Roland had spoken to, about using Alana as part of some greater plan. If that was the case though, what did it mean now that he didn’t seem to be interested in her anymore?
Wirt didn’t have time to think about that though, because the headmaster chose that moment to appear in the center of the cafeteria. Ender Paine was tall and slender, with dark hair and a thin goatee. He was wearing his usual immaculate suit and the gloves that he always wore, as though not wanting to have to actually touch any of the students. He was also, quite pointedly, wearing one of the scarves given to the students of the elite class. He clearly had a message he wanted to drive home.
Conversations stopped, the eyes of every student in the room turning to him. It was one of those small pieces of magic that helped to remind Wirt that, however much he might occasionally come across as a figure of fun, the headmaster was not to be trifled with.
“I believe it is traditional to begin by hoping you all had a pleasant mid-term break,” Ender Paine said, his voice carrying effortlessly. “Though frankly, I cannot see why I should care. Now, we are into the second half of the year. For some of the younger ones of you, that won’t mean much. For the older ones, I’m sure the time will just fly by in study and work.”
He looked around, his gaze seeming to rest on everyone in Wirt’s year in turn. When he looked at Wirt, his expression was unreadable.
“Soon, so soon, your time in this school year will be over, and you will be off to the elite class, where you won’t see nearly as much of your friends, or the school.” He smiled. “A fact for which I find myself eternally grateful, when it comes to some of you. And as for friends… well, the powerful hardly need those.”
It seemed that some things never changed, and Ender Paine’s attitude to life seemed to be one of them. What would things have been like, Wirt wondered, in a school were the principal wasn’t determined to turn out a dece
nt proportion of power mad wizards every year? A few of the students booed, but shut up quickly when Ender Paine looked their way.
“Oh, I know it must be hard for some of you to part yourselves from the loving embrace of the school that has nurtured your talents so tenderly.” The headmaster smiled as he said that, perhaps because everybody in the room knew that there was very little that was tender about a school where wandering into the wrong corridor could see a student running away from monsters. “Yet there must come a time when we all must stand on our own feet, gaining real experience in the world as advisors to the powerful, or as personal students of the greatest mages.”
A few of the students cheered at that, presumably because they knew exactly where they would be going.
“Obviously,” Ender Paine continued, “you will still have a connection to the school through your new mentors, who will all be either teachers from the school or outstanding former students. We at the Alchemists Academy do not forget those who learn with us.”
Mostly, Wirt suspected, because claiming a connection to the most powerful alchemists and magic users was the best way for the school to maintain its prestige. It certainly wouldn’t be because the headmaster had fond memories of any of his charges.
“Of course,” Ender Paine went on, “three of you have yet to prove that you meet the required standard for the elite class, so while your fellows will be preparing for their future studies, you will be taking part in the Quantum Games.” Was there a note of relish there, or was that just Wirt’s imagination?
“Now, some of the teachers have attempted once more to suggest to me that this is an unnecessarily violent way of making a selection like this. To them, I can only point out that the governors themselves have insisted on renewing the tradition, and that the rules for the Quantum Games are as old as the school itself. We cannot argue with the decrees of Merlin, can we?”
There seemed to be a note almost of hatred there. Clearly, the headmaster didn’t like having to resort to the authority of his predecessor.
“A quantum ball is a quantum ball,” Ender Paine said. “It cannot be substituted. We play the game exactly as it was designed to be played. To the surrender or disintegration of the participants. Any of the students who has a problem with that is welcome to flee the school and not come back.”
Wirt raised his hand. The headmaster stared at him.
“What is it?” he demanded.
“I was just wondering when the Quantum Games would take place,” Wirt said. “When will we be told the rules? How much time is there left to prepare for it?”
The headmaster nodded. “Those are valid questions. I have been persuaded to post the rules tomorrow at the latest, and to give the three of you a certain amount of time to prepare.” He didn’t sound as bothered by that as Wirt might have expected. Perhaps he wanted a fair contest after all. “It will at least mean that I get the boy in my elite class who is the best, not just the one who is caught least by surprise by the rules.”
Ah, Wirt should probably have known that would be it.
“Plus it will give me the opportunity to generate publicity,” the headmaster said with a smile that had nothing to do with kindness or friendliness. He rubbed his hands together. “I understand that many people are eager to watch the first true Quantum Games for years, and who are we to stop them if it will help with the school’s finances? The Games will take place in two weeks.”
Great. So now, not only would he be competing in a potentially lethal competition, but he would be doing it for the entertainment of an audience. Wirt looked around, seeking out the gazes of Spencer and Roland, trying to project a look of supreme confidence about the whole thing. It might have worked better had he actually felt that way, rather than quietly terrified.
He couldn’t help noticing though that both Spencer and Roland looked almost exactly the same way.
Chapter 6
Slowly, the other students started to disperse to go to their classes. The younger ones went off in large groups, or simply disappeared in the case of one table full of them. Wirt smiled as he remembered what things had been like in his first alchemy class, where the classroom had appeared out of nowhere.
The older students went off in ones and twos. Robert apparently had a tutorial on heraldry, which Wirt didn’t have to attend, while Alana sought out Priscilla and took her off to a class on using predictive magic when ruling.
“I don’t see why,” Priscilla said. “It’s mostly just a case of not going around trying to kill people who your magic mirrors say are a threat, thus making them angry with you and making them a threat, so that… well, anyway, it always gives me a headache.”
“Tough,” Alana replied. “And talking of not listening to mirrors, on the way, we’ll stop by our room and you can change into something that actually suits you.”
It seemed that for all the time Alana was spending around Spencer, some things didn’t change. And thinking of Spencer, Wirt found himself increasingly aware that as all the other students went off to their classes, he and Spencer were the only ones being left behind. It was inevitable though, wasn’t it? Everyone else had classes. The younger kids had the classes they’d taken in previous years. The ones already through to the elite class had ones designed to prepare them for that work. Only Wirt, Spencer and Roland would be without classes now, until it was decided which of them would go through to the elite class.
Until it was decided? That made it sound like they would be sitting down in front of some kind of selection panel, not battling one another to the death. Wirt stood up, intending to leave, but Spencer chose that moment to do the same thing. They stood there staring at one another for several seconds.
“Hey,” Wirt said at last, because it was the only thing he could think of.
Spencer nodded. “Hey.”
It was awkward, especially given the way Spencer had ignored him the first time they’d seen one another after they’d gotten back. Somehow though, the strange kind of limbo they were both in meant that Spencer was the only one likely to understand exactly what Wirt was going through right then.
“I don’t know why they couldn’t have just had us start when the Quantum Games were due to begin, instead of at the same time as everyone else,” Wirt said. “It’s like they want to torture us with thoughts of it.”
“If the headmaster is behind it, he probably does,” Spencer pointed out. They shared a grim smile then over the thought of the Alchemists Academy’s persistently unpleasant head. “I guess it might also be so that we could prepare. You know, get into the right kind of mindset for it, that kind of thing.”
Wirt nodded, thinking back to Ms. Burns’ test with the deer. That had been about trying to get him to understand what was involved too, hadn’t it? At least as much as it had been about the skills of hunting and controlling the quantum ball.
“Have you been preparing much?” Wirt asked.
Spencer shrugged. “As much as I can do.” He didn’t sound entirely happy about it. “Honestly though, ever since I told my father about Alana, I’ve been spending so much time with her that… well, there hasn’t been much time for anything else.”
Wirt nodded. “I noticed.”
“When I’m around her, I just don’t want to do anything else,” Spencer said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever felt that way about anyone, but it’s… it’s so intense. I mean, I’ve known Alana most of my life, and I’ve had a crush on her for years, but this break it’s like something totally different. I don’t even care about staying here too much now, except that she’s here, and I have to if I want to be able to stay with her. I can’t just let that go.”
“So you’re going through with the Quantum Games to stay here with her?” Wirt asked.
Spencer nodded. “I stood up to my father, but part of that was telling him that what I feel about Alana won’t interfere with finishing my education here. If I don’t make it through into the elite class, he’ll find a way to stop us seeing one another.”
“He could do that?” Wirt asked.
“He probably wouldn’t even have to try that hard.” Spencer moved over to one of the cafeteria’s windows. “After all, Alana would be off advising Priscilla, and I wouldn’t even be at the school.”
Wirt thought he understood, but it didn’t make things any easier. Spencer went on.
“You’ve been my closest friend here, Wirt,” he said. “I don’t want to have to disintegrate you. I don’t want to have to disintegrate anyone, but I don’t think I have a choice right now, and you… I know you don’t have much of a choice either.”
Wirt nodded. He needed to get into that class. In fact, judging by the way several of the teachers had worked so hard to maneuver him into it, he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to pull out now if he wanted to.
“If there were any other way to get into the elite class, I’d take it,” Spencer said.
Wirt nodded. “Me too, and maybe there should be.”
“What do you mean?”
Wirt shrugged. “I just can’t believe that a place like this would allow something like these Games. It’s brutal, and it’s barbaric.”
Spencer nodded. “I agree. If it weren’t for the Quantum Games, a lot of people would still be alive, including the girl my father and Roland’s loved.”
Wirt could still remember being called into the headmaster’s office. He could remember seeing the images of the past, because there were some things that were hard to forget. Spencer’s father and Roland’s had both loved a girl named Elise. The two of them had been opponents in the Quantum Games, and Elise had jumped in the way of the quantum ball to stop it hitting Roland’s father. Wirt could still remember every detail of the moment when the girl had disintegrated, right before his eyes. One moment she had been there, the next…
And now it felt far too much like history was repeating itself.
