The Wizard Heir

by Cinda Williams Chima

  Something in the way he said effective sounded almost sinister. It made Seph want to change the subject. Trevor’s laptop caught his eye. “I have my computer set up, but I don’t see any jacks in my room. Is the cabling included or do I have to pay for wiring?”

  “We don’t have our own Internet access,” Trevor said.

  Seph stared at him. “Why not? It’s so easy. They could use a campus-wide wireless network if they didn’t want to lay cable.”

  Trevor shook his head. “No, I mean, we’re not allowed. They have computers in the library. You can do searches in there if you want, but they screen the sites.”

  “That’s crazy. They can’t do that. I have friends online.” Seph didn’t remember that being mentioned in the glossy brochure.

  Trevor shrugged and looked at his watch again. “Well, it’s about time for swimming. You’d better get changed if you don’t want to be late.”

  Seph rubbed his aching temples. “I’m going to pass. It’s been a long day already.”

  Trevor’s eyes widened in surprise. “Dr. Leicester excused you?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Trevor stood up. “Then you’d better get ready.”

  It seemed that the visit was over, so Seph stood also. “Oka-ay, guess I’ll get ready, then,” he said.

  “I’ll wait for you, if you hurry up.”

  But Seph didn’t hurry fast enough, because a few minutes later he heard Trevor at his door. “I’m going ahead. I’ll see you down there.”

  Seph changed into his trunks and pulled his sweatshirt and jeans on over them. Descending the stairs two at a time, he left the building and followed a wood-chip path back through the woods toward the waterfront. He didn’t see any students around; they must’ve already gone down to the cove. A sign at the dock pointed him to the right, down the shoreline, to a well-worn path along the water.

  A cold slither up his spine said he was being watched. Twice, he turned and scanned the path behind him, then shrugged and walked on. Finally, the path turned back into the woods.

  “Hey.”

  He turned again, and this time a stocky boy with wire-rimmed glasses and a ruddy complexion stood in the middle of the path. He wore husky-style jeans and a sweatshirt, and blinked his eyes really fast, like he was nervous.

  “Hey,” Seph said. “You late for swimming, too?”

  “No, I ...ah ... I d-don’t ...” The boy began coughing, struggling to draw breath. He groped in his pocket and produced an inhaler. He took a long pull off of it, and put it back. Then, with a determined look on his face, he extended his hand to Seph.

  “I’m Seph McCauley,” Seph said, thinking maybe you got excused from swimming if you had asthma. He gripped the other boy’s hand, then flinched as he recognized the sting of power. “Hey! Are you . . . ?”

  “Listen. I n-need to talk to you.” The boy looked up and down the path, mopping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

  “I’d really like to talk to you,” Seph said, unable to believe he’d met two wizards in the space of a few weeks. “But I have to get to swimming. Could we meet later, maybe at dinner?”

  “No. I c-can’t . . . That won’t . . .”

  “Hello, gentlemen.” Seph looked up to see a handsome young man in a tweed sport coat with leather patches on the elbows, carrying a battered leather briefcase.

  “H-hello, Aar ... M-Mr. Hanlon.” The other student looked petrified, like he was about to wet himself. Or have another asthma attack.

  “Joseph. Aren’t you supposed to be at swimming?” Mr. Hanlon asked, smiling.

  “I was just on my way.”

  “Good. Best be going. Dr. Leicester doesn’t like it if you’re late.” Hanlon placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder and propelled him down the path the other way.

  “I didn’t get your name!” Seph called after him. But the boy only hunched his shoulders and kept walking.

  That guy has issues, Seph thought, continuing down the path. I don’t know how much help he’ll be. But I’ll try to find him at dinner.

  Eventually, the path broke out of the trees at a place where the ocean cut back into the shoreline, creating a protected inlet, lined with stones, out of sight of the school buildings.

  There must have been sixty boys in the water, their heads sleek and dark against the gray surface. A few more were stripping off their sweatshirts on the shore. All of them looked miserably cold. Seph spotted Trevor treading water ten yards out.

  Dr. Leicester stood on the shoreline, dressed in a heavy sweatshirt, jeans, and windbreaker. When he saw Seph, he blew sharply on a whistle to get everyone’s attention. “Boys, meet Joseph McCauley. This is his first day at the Havens, and he is late for swimming.”

  The reaction to this was remarkable. The other boys all looked away or looked down, as if they wanted to avoid any connection to his transgression. Some of them peered back toward him, when they thought Leicester wasn’t looking.

  Seph smiled, lifting his hands in apology. “Sorry. I got confused. I was waiting for everybody at the spa.”

  Laughter floated across the water, then quickly dwindled under Leicester’s disapproving gaze. The headmaster didn’t seem susceptible to Seph’s legendary charm.

  Seph left his clothes on a pile of rocks some distance from the water’s edge, and hobbled over the stony beach to the water. He’d hoped that the water would be warmer than the air, but was disappointed. It was like stepping into snowmelt. His feet went numb immediately. He waded out to his knees, then to his waist, gasping.

  The water was murky and unpleasant. The rocks along the bottom were slippery and invisible, so that even in the cove the waves threatened to knock him over. Something squirmed under his left foot and he thrashed backward, into unexpectedly deep water. His head went under, and he swallowed a mouthful. He came up like a sounding whale, spraying water everywhere.

  He’d had enough. A few quick strokes took him back to the shallows. Shivering, teeth chattering, he hauled himself onto the shore. He’d almost made it back to his muddle of clothes when someone gripped his arm.

  It was Trevor, covered in gooseflesh, lips pale with cold, water sliding off his dark body onto the rocks. “Get back in the water, Seph,” he said, without meeting Seph’s eyes. “Just do it. Come on.” He put a cold hand on Seph’s shoulder as if to urge him along.

  Seph blinked at him. He looked over his shoulder at Dr. Leicester, who stood expressionless, watching. All right, he thought. If he was going to try to stay here two years, it was best not to get into a battle of wills on his first day. Gritting his teeth, he picked his way back across the beach and waded out into the water, not looking back to see if Trevor was following.

  This time the water seemed more tolerable. Maybe he was getting used to it. His extremities tingled as the feeling returned, and he was no longer shivering. He strode ahead more confidently, continuing until the water lapped at his collarbone. Though the sun was gone, intercepted by the surrounding trees, he felt almost warm.

  He looked around. The other boys stood as if frozen, staring down at the water in disbelief. Another minute passed, and the surface of the water began to steam in the cold air. He might have been neck deep in the warm Caribbean.

  No. This can’t be happening. Seph looked over at Leicester, who was in conversation with one of the boys on shore. He hadn’t noticed that anything was amiss. Seph splashed toward a crowd of boys standing to one side, near the shoreline, positioning himself so that his head was just one of many pocking the gray surface. Now, just relax, he commanded himself, closing his eyes, trying to loosen his muscles, to empty his mind.

  How long could he last? He was in trouble already, and it was just the first day.

  He sorted through a litter of memories from his school career. The homicidal ravens at St. Andrew’s. The explosions and fires in Scotland. The wolves that had startled the nuns in Philadelphia.

  By now the water was close to spa temperature. All conversation i
n the cove had died. The swimmers looked down at the vapor collecting at the surface, rising up around them like morning mist on an upland lake. No one said a word, to each other or to Leicester.

  Finally, the boy who had been speaking with the headmaster broke away and stepped into the water. He stumbled backward with a yelp of surprise and sat down, hard, on the rocks. Gregory Leicester swung around and stared at the boys in the water and the steam boiling up around them. Then he began searching the faces of the boys in the water until he found Seph.

  Try as he might, Seph couldn’t look away. The headmaster stood, studying him like a specimen on a slide. No questions, no disbelief, no challenge or confusion, only this intense and clinical scrutiny, as if he were looking into Seph’s soul with full knowledge of what lay within. Then Leicester smiled like it was Christmas.

  Shuddering, Seph took a step backward.

  The headmaster’s gaze shifted to include the whole group. “Gentlemen, perhaps it is a bit brisk for swimming after all. You are dismissed to your own pursuits until dinner.”

  For a moment, no one moved. Then the exodus began, silent as lemmings in reverse. Seph left the water on the far side of the cove, keeping as much distance between himself and Leicester as possible. He pulled his sweatshirt and jeans over his wet skin and picked up his shoes, unwilling to linger long enough to put them on. Slinging his towel about his shoulders, he followed the others toward the woods.

  “Joseph.”

  Seph froze in midstride and stood waiting without turning around. The headmaster’s gaze pressed on the back of his neck.

  “Come up to my office after dinner. I think it’s time I explained a bit more about our program.”

  Seph nodded and walked on, into the trees.

  Chapter Three

  A Magical Collaborative

  Seph awoke to a loud pounding. Still groggy, he stumbled to his door and opened it. It was Trevor, dressed for the outdoors, smiling tentatively.

  “Seph. Supper’s at seven thirty. We have time before then, if you want to look around.”

  Seph rubbed his eyes and looked back at his bed. “Sure. Thanks. I’m glad you knocked. I might’ve slept right through.” He yawned. “Do we have to dress for dinner?”

  “Collared shirt or sweater. No jeans or sweats.”

  “Okay. Give me a minute.”

  Trevor hovered by the door while Seph changed his clothes and ran his fingers through his hair. They descended the stairs and pushed through the front doors.

  The frail autumn daylight had already fled. It would have been pitch-black under the trees, save for the tiny lights that outlined the paths between buildings. Seph braced himself for questions or comments about the peculiar events in the cove, but none came, so Seph said, “That was pretty weird. What happened at swimming, I mean.”

  “You never know what’s going to happen around here,” Trevor said, shrugging.

  “What do you mean? Are you saying weird things have happened before I—before now?”

  “I mean nothing.” Trevor hunched his shoulders like a turtle retreating into his shell.

  “I ran into this guy in the woods. A student, I think, kind of stocky, with glasses and an inhaler. Do you know who that would’ve been?”

  Trevor looked him in the eyes. “I don’t recollect anyone like that.”

  Seph debated whether to force the issue. He guessed he could get what he wanted from Trevor. But decided not to push it. It’s my first day, he thought. I can use all the friends I can get.

  Trevor took his role as tour guide seriously, pointing out features of the campus: the tennis courts, the amphitheater.

  “There’s almost a hundred students here, freshmen through seniors. They come from all over, and a lot of them get scholarships. There’s also a bunch of alumni living here on campus, doing research with Dr. Leicester.” They passed more dormitory buildings. “All the dorms are pretty much the same. The alumni have their own dorm, cafeteria, and commons area.”

  “Why would alumni hang around on campus after graduation?” Seph asked. “What about college?”

  Trevor looked away, focusing on the path ahead. “You’d have to ask them.”

  They walked through Gareth Hall, the classroom building, past empty lecture halls. “School’s been going for a couple weeks, so you’re going to have to catch up with your assignments,” Trevor said. “Let me know if you need help with anything.”

  The art and music building was farther north along the shoreline. “They make us all take a musical instrument,” Trevor explained. Seph nodded. Typical. He’d brought along his saxophone.

  Next Trevor led him down to the waterfront and out onto the dock. “Dr. Leicester’s a sailing fanatic. Our sailing team has held the Atlantic Seaboard Scholastic Cup for three years. Everyone helps.”

  “Mmmm,” Seph replied, committing himself to nothing. He couldn’t very well tell Trevor he expected to be gone by Christmas, given the start he’d made at the cove.

  “This is our boathouse.” Trevor pushed open the door to the small, weather-beaten building Seph had noticed when he arrived. It was a plain, square wooden structure with a rough planked floor. A narrow wooden walkway ran along the far side of the room, surrounding the boat slip. The water sucked and slapped at the pilings underneath. The building smelled of marine gasoline and what Seph assumed to be fish guts.

  “They keep the motorboat in here most all the time, and sometimes the sailboats if they need to be fixed.

  You’ll get really good at slapping on varnish, believe me.”

  That was no problem. Seph was used to hard work. He’d spent every summer cleaning and changing beds and washing dishes at Genevieve’s bed-and-breakfast.

  “Time to eat,” Trevor announced, and turned back toward shore.

  The dining hall was on the first floor of the admin. building, with a full wall of glass overlooking the water. Servers circulated through the room, clearing tables and refilling water glasses.

  In addition to burgers and pizza, there was hand-carved roast beef, a fish entrée, a sauté of the day, a vegetarian wrap, grilled sandwich, and a salad bar. Could be worse. Seph had been raised to appreciate good food, but he wasn’t a snob.

  Seph scanned the dining room, but he saw no sign of the boy with the glasses.

  He and Trevor carried their trays to a large, rectangular table by the window. A half dozen boys were already seated there. Conversation died away when Trevor and Seph sat down, but then everyone took turns introducing themselves. Troy was a small, scholarly-looking black student, dressed in a white dress shirt and bow tie. Harrison had the kind of clean-cut, preppy look that is often misleading, while James was blunt and cocky with overdyed black hair and multiple piercings and tattoos.

  Troy was from Philadelphia. “I’ve been in public school, private school, every religious school you can think of,” he explained. “They said I was hyperactive.” Seph found that hard to believe, given his buttoned-down appearance. Troy was a senior, and said he hoped to attend Yale the following year.

  Harrison and James were juniors, Harrison from San Diego and James from Houston. Both readily admitted to a history of heavy partying.

  “I had a trust fund, you know?” Harrison said, stuffing down the last bite of a burger and chasing it with soda. “So I didn’t see much point in school. I got high a lot, cut class a lot. Meanwhile, my parents were spending all their time getting a divorce. Then my grandfather said I had to come here, or there would be no more money. I guess I forgot that a trust fund has a trustee.” He laughed loudly and punched Seph playfully in the shoulder.

  This place is full of misfits, Seph thought, rubbing his shoulder. Just like me.

  Well, not exactly like me.

  Once again, he waited for mention of the incident of the cove, but it didn’t come up. It might as well have never happened.

  “What about you?” James asked Seph. “How’d you end up here?”

  “I had to leave my last school.” Se
ph tilted back a bit from the table, resting his palms on the edge of the hardwood, rocking back in his chair. “I had a difference of opinion with the administration.”

  “About what?” Troy leaned forward.

  “They thought I should come to class,” Seph replied, making eye contact with each of them. “I had other priorities.”

  “Like what?” Harrison grinned in anticipation.

  “You know. Hanging out with girls. Hacking into the school computer.” He rocked forward, so all four legs of the chair struck the floor with a bang. “Skinny-dipping in the faculty pool.”

  This brought hoots of laughter from Harrison, smiles all around. An end to the inquisition.

  Time to change the subject, he thought. Seph never had any difficulty directing a conversation. “How do I get my schedule? I guess I should’ve asked Dr. Leicester about it.”

  “They’ll deliver it to your room before Sunday night, with the books you’ll need,” Trevor replied.

  Seph went through the rest of his usual list of questions. All the students had mailboxes in the administration building. He could get money at the cashier’s office, but there wasn’t much to spend it on. He could use his student card to rent movies and order pizza through the bookstore.

  “So what do you do for fun around here?” Seph asked, pushing a last bite of fish around his plate.

  “Not much,” Troy replied. “Watch movies, hang out. And hey, you can go see the bears and raccoons at the Dumpster.”

  Harrison added, “There’s lots of sports, like cross-country skiing and snowboarding. Sailing’s over, but it’ll start up again in the spring. Over at the rec. center you can do tennis and racquetball.” He shrugged. “That’s about it.”

  “Don’t worry about having nothing to do,” Trevor said, rolling his eyes. “They work us pretty hard.”

  “What about girls?” Seph had attended boys’ schools before, but mostly in cities, where there was ample opportunity for socializing.

  “You’ll have to wait until summer,” Harrison said regretfully. “Or winter recess, anyway.”