Alex nodded. He glanced at Kyle. “I asked specifically for your team.”
Kyle grinned. “I got the roster already. You're on it.”
“Excellent!” Alex pushed past them and headed down the hallway. The chute doors behind them opened again, and Marysa and Daymon stepped out amid a crush of students.
“Can we say fire hazard?” Marysa gasped as she neared them. “Seriously, they should put double chutes in or something. I don't care that the chute is crazy fast; there are way too many people trying to go up and down at the same time.”
Alayne shrugged. “If there was a fire hazard, you'd fix it.”
“Or you.” Marysa winked. “Come on, you guys, don't just stand there. We're going to be late for class.”
Alayne could feel Kyle's almost tangible nervousness as they neared the room. She stopped, her hand on his arm. “Kyle, what's the deal?”
He dropped his gaze to the floor. “Nothing.”
The two of them slid into seats next to Marysa just before the gong sounded for the beginning of class.
Beatrice Pence swept into the room, her black Justice robe trailing behind her. She stepped onto the stage and stopped in front of the podium, her manicured fingernails tapping the seconds on the wood with the precision of clock-work. Her blonde hair was pulled carefully away from her face, every strand in place, and her blue eyes stared out at the classroom full of Second-Years. She let a heavy silence fall on the class before finally opening her mouth.
“If I understand correctly, class, the ideas and methods you have been taught by your previous Throw-Casting professor left much to be desired. I would like you all to try as much as possible to erase the notions you derived from the previous year, and let us begin this year with fresh minds, blank slates, and willing dispositions to improve your knowledge to the best of your own ability.”
Alayne glanced at Kyle. His eyes were fixed on the table in front of him; his mouth looked as if he had swallowed a vat of rotten potato skins. Soft murmurs swept across the classroom. That was the wrong approach to take, Pence. Professor Grace was a popular teacher.
Professor Pence picked up a pointer and rapped it hard on the podium's wood. “Quiet, class. Let one thing be immediately understood. In this class, I will inform you of what you need to know. You will listen. There will be no discussion in the meantime.”
The silence was deafening. Beatrice Pence frowned at the roomful of students as she reached for the MIU and switched it on. In the air at the front of the classroom, the outline of a holographic human body appeared, front view and back view. The major organs were labeled in detail.
“Did I miss something, or did I accidentally sign up for biology?” Marysa whispered to Alayne. “What's this have to do with Throw-Casting?”
Beatrice Pence's sharp blue eyes darted to Marysa. “Miss Blakely, stand please.”
Marysa's face drained of color. She slowly pushed her chair back and stood. Alayne could see her hands trembling as she clasped them in front of her.
Pence's eyes swept the tiered classroom. “I will show you today that I mean what I say. I said there would be no talking. Miss Blakely appears either not to have understood the simple instruction or is not willing to follow it. In either scenario, she obviously is unable to continue this class until she has managed to find her concentration. Miss Blakely, you are dismissed. We will try again tomorrow. You will still be responsible for all material we cover in class today.”
Two bright spots of color appeared on Marysa's otherwise parchment-white cheeks. She stared at the teacher for a moment and then picked up her bag, edging behind Alayne and Kyle to the aisle. Alayne watched her friend march up the steps to the door. Alayne's heart squeezed with pity.
Beatrice Pence waited for the door to close. Once it had, she turned her attention and the pointer to the diagram in the air. “Mr. Wynch, your element, please?”
Alex's face paled. He straightened in his chair. “E—excuse me?”
Pence's lips tightened. “What—is—your—element?” She separated each word as if speaking to a small child.
Alex looked embarrassed. “Water-Wielding, ma'am.”
“Ah.” Pence tapped the pointer on the open palm of her other hand. “Mr. Wynch, do you see this area here?” She raised her pointer and touched the head on the image.
“Yes, ma'am.”
“The brain is full of your element. Every cell, every neuron, is saturated with water. An Elemental with even the most basic training should be able to make use of the elements within the brain.”
Alayne's hand shot into the air.
Pence had opened her mouth to begin another sentence, but she stopped when she caught sight of Alayne. “Yes, Miss Worth?” The icy edge to her voice was unmistakable. Alayne wondered how much Beatrice Pence had been told about Alayne.
“Doesn't that enter the realm of Shadow-Casting, Professor?”
The absolute stillness that followed Alayne's question was almost palpable. Every student in the classroom had been raised with the moral law that taught that Shadow-Casting was a crime against humanity. It ranked up there on the list next to murder and child abuse. Now that the High Court had begun allowing for it in special circumstances, tensions rifted right through families as people took sides on the issue.
Opinions were all over the board since Jeb Smyth's unfortunate choice to kill a member of the Elemental Alliance. If someone nearby could have Shadow-Casted Smythe, Rand would still be alive. The conversation had played itself out countless times on Continental Media.
So much for protection with the elements outside one's body. Nobody remembered that in the wake of the shooting.
Beatrice Pence walked to the podium and carefully laid her pointer on the wood. The ends of the pointer were equidistant from the sides of the podium. Pence gripped the edges of the podium and leaned forward, her gaze boring into Alayne.
“Miss Worth, are you questioning my method of teaching?” Her voice could freeze flames.
“No, ma'am.” Alayne leaned forward, meeting the cold blue eyes of the professor without flinching. She spoke slowly and distinctly. “I'm questioning your content.”
Beatrice Pence's mouth pinched and her nostrils flared. “Stand please, Miss Worth.”
Anger filled Alayne—she knew she would serve detention for this, but she didn't care. She stood so quickly, her chair tipped back into the table behind her with a crash. She could feel all eyes in the room trained on her. Except Kyle's; his focus was fixed resolutely at the floor between his shoes.
“Miss Worth, come to the front immediately.”
Surprise sliced through Alayne; she had expected to be bid to leave the class. After a silent moment, she slid behind Kyle to the aisle and approached the dais.
“Stop there.” Pence's blue gaze pinned her to the floor. “Mr. Pence,” she called.
Alayne heard Kyle's sharp intake of breath.
“Approach the front.”
Another silent moment, and then Kyle unwillingly pushed his chair back, rose, and came to stand next to Alayne.
“Over there.” Beatrice Pence motioned to a point about ten feet from Alayne. Kyle moved to the spot, turning to Alayne when he stood where his mother had ordered him. He raised his blue eyes to Alayne's and gazed at her, neither moving nor blinking. Alayne could read the underlying pain beneath his blank expression.
“Miss Worth, as I understand it, you have the unusual ability to wield all four elements. Is that correct?”
Alayne didn't take her eyes off of Kyle's face. She nodded her head a fraction of an inch.
“Miss Worth, you will respond verbally when asked a question. Do I understand correctly that you master all four elements?”
Alayne cracked her stiff lips. “Yes, ma'am.”
If interest were audible, the room would have been deafening. Students leaned forward, wrapped up in the first showdown they were allowed to see between the Quadriweave and the professor. Most students had a cursory knowledge
of the Vale—it had long been part of Elemental myths—but few knew much beyond the fact that it could control the four elements. Still, it didn't stop the students from embellishing what they knew. Alayne's victory over Malachi had become something of a legend as the tales grew and evolved over the summer.
“Very well, then, you must have a major awareness of the elements within Mr. Pence's body.”
Alayne couldn't deny it. The entire world was a matrix of the four elements to her now. When she concentrated, she could feel the heat in Kyle's cheeks and in his fists where he clenched them in his pockets. She could sense the thunder of his blood as it pounded furiously through his heart. “Yes, ma'am.”
“Miss Worth, using your skills, you will cause Mr. Pence to break his own index finger. You will not break it for him; you will command the elements within his body to cause him to break it himself.”
The words had the effect of an explosion in the room. Some of the girls gave gasping shrieks. An undercurrent of disapproval gained strength in the student audience.
Alayne cleared her throat. She gazed into Kyle's blue eyes. She saw no fear there, only sadness. She could break the finger herself, she knew. She could feel the mass, the weight, the density of every one of his bones, the texture. A quick twist of the element would be all it would take to snap the bone in half. So easy. The Vale allowed her to have healing powers. All she would have to do would be to touch it again to heal it. But the professor had asked her to have Kyle break his own finger, which meant she would have to take control of Kyle's mind.
“No, ma'am.” The words left her lips, and Alayne felt their weight. For the first time in her life, she dared to stand up to someone in authority, to stare them in the face, and to refuse to obey a direct order. A thrill of adrenaline raced along her veins.
“Excuse me?” Beatrice Pence's eyes blazed blue fire.
“I said, no, ma'am,” Alayne answered patiently, turning her whole body to face the professor. “You can ask all you want, but I will not Shadow-Cast.”
Pence's eyebrows lowered. “You will do what you're told to do.”
“I will not.” Alayne's words bit on the heels of the professor's sentence. Her tone was cold. “This class may be required for course credit, Professor Pence, but if you keep teaching this, you'll wake up to an empty classroom one of these days.”
She turned and walked to her table to retrieve her bag. Slinging it over her shoulder, she marched up the steps. She had gotten about halfway to the door when someone began to clap. Another joined him and then another. Soon the entire room was full of clapping, cheering students.
Alayne continued to the door, opening it, and letting herself out quietly.
* * *
At lunch in the commissary, Chairman Sprynge's hologram lit the air over the tables just as Alayne grabbed the salad dressing from the air and turned it onto her mix of lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots.
“Good afternoon, students. I hope the first day of classes is treating you well.” His kindly face smiled benevolently across them all. Alayne grimaced and speared a tomato with her fork.
“I want to take this opportunity to announce that we will be attempting a similar approach to this year's final examinations as we did last year, a hands-on experience that will test the strength and creativity of each student here.”
Buzzing voices crescendoed across the commissary as students looked at one another in shock and disbelief.
“I can't believe he's doing that!” Marysa gasped. “After what happened last year?”
Sprynge held up his hands. “While the events of the last year are shameful, we will make strenuous efforts to ensure that such things do not happen again. As I'm sure you are aware, troubled times require drastic action to maintain peace and normalcy. It has been decided that our students need to develop more advanced skills—skills to equip them to face the warfare and strife that are to come. You will notice our teaching tactics this year have changed, have become more rigorous, more demanding. We seek to bring out the edge in you, to hone you into true weapons for the Capital, weapons that will root out subversive efforts that undermine authority. A changing world demands strong, adaptable leaders. We will forge you into the elite cadre of an enduring society, where Elementals stand together in an allied force, a force to be reckoned with. As you study this year, let that be your motivation. Though CommonEarth seems on the tipping point of chaos, we, together, as Elementals, can restore peace.”
An undercurrent of unrest and fear ran through the room. Alayne's knuckles turned white where she gripped her fork. She made a mental effort to ease her grip.
“Another change you will be seeing is implementation of your skills into Shadow-Casting. Nothing major, of course, but as there are many dangerous Elementals out there who are not afraid to use their knowledge of Casting others' minds, we must be prepared. Clayborne equips its students to face the powers of CommonEarth, both good and evil, with all that they need to survive and improve our society. The High Court has decided that Shadow-Casting is a necessary skill, and so you will find some of your lessons geared to this new way of thinking.”
Alayne's lungs deflated. Her father had warned her that the High Court might implement Shadow-Casting in the new course materials, but such a drastic action had seemed so unlikely.
“We realize, of course, that this is a change from the current program. However, the Elemental Alliance has placed a Justice on the education wing of the High Court bench who fully supports the organization and who will be overseeing this new addition to your curriculum. Clayborne, for now, will work with the government to implement these steps.”
Sprynge's smiling face disappeared as the MIUs shut off. Alayne glanced at Marysa's mouth, which still hung open, outrage scrawled across it, and then at Kyle, who studied his pork loin with intense concentration.
“What was that all about?” Marysa's fork clattered onto the table where she plunked it. “All that stuff about building a fighting force for the Capital?”
Alayne shook her head. “We've been hearing it all summer, Mary. It's just that we're seeing signs of it now, here at Clayborne.”
“Signs of what, though? I don't understand.”
“The Elemental Alliance. The fact that it's taking over the High Court. Sprynge talked about using Elementals as a weapon against those who would subvert the government, but I think the EA are the subversive ones.”
Kyle took a long swallow of water and lifted his plate from the table to take to the window where dirty dishes were stacked. “I have to run,” he mumbled as he pushed away. “I have an appointment before class. I'll catch up with you later,” he said.
Daymon's unreadable gaze speared Kyle's back, his dark eyebrows drawn together in concentration. His look unnerved Alayne. She forked another tomato and ate it without tasting it.
* * *
Fire and Ice, Alayne's third class, was a small group. Only Second-Year Water-Wielders and Fire-Breathers attended it, and given that there were over a thousand students enrolled at Clayborne, this Fire and Ice class was only one of several Second-Year classes that Professor Cassandra Lye taught. Approximately fifty students stood around the professor as she called their attention from where she stood on the boat dock at the river.
Marysa hadn't been in their room when Alayne had gone to look for her, but as Alayne stood in the crowd of students, Marysa appeared silently at her side. Alayne glanced over and noticed at once her friend's red-rimmed eyes. She wrapped one arm around Marysa's shoulder and squeezed. “Kyle's mom is a jerk,” she whispered.
Marysa tossed her a watery grin just as Professor Lye whistled shrilly. The class quieted.
“We have a new shipment of freshwater fish for our river,” Professor Lye began, pushing a stubborn strand of iron gray hair from her face. “Due to an oversight by the committee that ordered the fish, they are tropical, and require much warmer water than that which flows in this bed right here.” She glanced around at the students. “The goal of your cl
ass this year will be to work together to make things happen—to not rely solely on your own use of the elements. We will learn sharing elements, handing off elements mid-bend, and twisting elements together into an unbreakable force. Now,” she raised her voice, “some of you had questions about how much you would be able to use an element that is not your primary element. The answer isn't a simple one; it depends on your ability to apply yourself. Each of you can pull an element strand on the grid of elements, but it's much like trying to manipulate a mirage. The element will resist you if it is not your primary element. If you work hard, however, with practice, you should be able to nudge the other element strands. You will never, however, master another element. That is only something that has ever been accomplished by a Quadriweave.”
The heat rushed to Alayne's face as suddenly, every person in the class craned their heads to stare at her. She scuffed her shoe in the dirt, tempted to pull the earth over her head.
Professor Lye ignored the class's disturbance. She motioned to a large box that rested on the planks of wood beside her. “In the box are two hundred tropical fish an environmental committee in Grenton ordered. The idea was for them to eat some of the algae that grows in certain spots in the river. But the water temperature needs to be between seventy-five and eighty degrees for these fish to live. The current water temperature is fifty-six degrees.” She nodded once, brushing her hair back again. “It will be up to you to figure out what to do. I'll be watching, and will give points for teamwork, concentration, innovation, and of course, success.” She stepped off the dock, and the students began to shift into groups to discuss the assignment.
Alayne glanced over at Daymon, who stood with folded arms near the back of the group. He caught her eye, but didn't react. She motioned to Marysa, and the two girls moved toward him.
“Tell me again why you felt the need to take this class?” Alayne murmured when she stood next to him. “Your grade's going to suffer if you can't help with the assignments.”
Daymon shrugged. “I can do a little Water-Wielding and Fire-Breathing.”
Shadows of Uprising (Guardian of the Vale Book 2) Page 6
