Cave of Nightmares

by V. St. Clair

  Master Asher was at the front of the room, wearing a tinted visor so that he could face them all without being blinded by the sunlight. The room looked more like a study than a classroom, with heaps of books and papers all along the bookshelves and tables. His desk had so many diagrams and half-made prisms on it that Hayden had no idea how the man did any actual writing. To his surprise, Master Asher also had two familiars in the room with him: a glossy brown hawk sitting on a perch near the opposite wall and a dark purple dragon slightly larger than Bonk.

  Hayden had never heard of anyone having two familiars before, but assumed they must both belong to the Prism Master or else they wouldn’t be here. Bonk eyed the other dragon suspiciously but didn’t cause trouble, for which Hayden was immensely grateful.

  “Good afternoon, class. I expect you’ve all been studying up on the different patterns in chapter two in preparation for today’s quiz.” He smiled when Hayden gasped. “Don’t fret, Hayden, I expect you’ll be the envy of the class even without cracking the cover of your textbook.”

  Asher sighed and addressed the others, as though getting something unpleasant out of the way.

  “As many of you probably know, there has been a new addition to our class this year. For the first time in several years we have a natural prism in our midst. Let us get all the speculation out of the way and test his mettle, shall we?”

  Master Asher turned on a projector and nine circles appeared on the wall at the front of the room. Each circle was filled with a different array of light, the colors wider at the edges and narrower in the center. Hayden could immediately tell that they were meant to mimic what he would see in a prism.

  “Today you’re all off the hook, and Hayden will be taking the quiz for you. If he passes, you all get no homework tonight. If he fails, you’ll all get to enjoy drawing the four main aspects of the level-one prism for me, due tomorrow.”

  Hayden’s eyes widened in surprise. He didn’t like the thought of taking a test for the entire class one bit.

  “How many do I have to get right to pass?”

  “Normally I would say four of the nine, but for you…all of them,” the Master smiled.

  Hayden gulped, and the boy sitting next to him leaned over and whispered, “It’s okay, each of us has to take a turn at it and almost everyone fails. Just do your best.”

  Nodding, he focused on the first image, trying to relax his eyes and imagine an actual prism.

  “Umm…heat,” he guessed, recognizing the pattern immediately. He’d already used it several times before.

  “Next?” Master Asher prompted him.

  Hayden stared at it for a long moment but nothing came to mind.

  “It doesn’t look like anything…just gibberish, I guess.”

  “Correct. Next one?”

  Hayden exhaled in relief, moving down the line.

  “Water. Gibberish. More gibberish. Water again, just upside down. Slow. Fast.” He paused, staring at the last one for a very long time. A word came to mind, but he wasn’t sure how it could be possible. Finally, he answered, “Light?”

  Master Asher smiled.

  “Very good. You’ll all get to enjoy a night without homework from me.”

  Hayden exhaled in relief and his classmates cheered. The boy who’d spoken to him earlier leaned over and high-fived him.

  “How the heck did you guess all those?” his neighbor asked, sounding awed.

  “I don’t know, I just look at the patterns and a word or a feeling comes to me,” he shrugged.

  “Behold the powers of a natural prism,” Master Asher smirked. “Good job on the last one, by the way, it usually throws people who haven’t used it before.”

  Hayden raised his hand.

  “How can there be an array for light when you need light to see through a prism in the first place?”

  Asher pointed to him.

  “You’re just full of good questions, aren’t you?” He brushed his shaggy hair out of his eyes. “To use that particular array you only need a very small amount of light; moonlight would be more than sufficient. It allows you to create a much brighter light source in case you find yourself needing one.”

  Hayden joined the others in taking notes on that.

  For the first time all day he was in a class that made perfect sense to him. He copied down notes just for the sake of it, but he needn’t have bothered. Everything Master Asher explained to them felt natural and easy, and he was thoroughly enjoying himself by the time class ended and the others packed their bags.

  A few of his classmates patted him on the back on their way out and congratulated him for getting them out of homework. The boy who was sitting next to him introduced himself.

  “Hey there, I’m Tucker, third year. Great job on the quiz.”

  Hayden shook his hand.

  “I’m Hayden, and thanks.” He began packing his bag. “Are most of the others in their third year too?”

  Tucker snorted.

  “Hardly. I’m considered pretty advanced, but you mop the floor with me.” He didn’t look angry about it. “Most people are terrible at prisms and just drop out, but some of the stubborn ones like Oliver are determined to tough it out. But he’s in his sixth year here and he’s only in the third-level class,” he grinned wickedly.

  “Really?” Hayden marveled at that. “I thought he was a Prism major.” In fact, Oliver had as much as told him he was during their brief encounter in The Magnificent Mage.

  “Pff, he wishes,” Tucker rolled his eyes. “He’s in Powders, but he’s been working his tail off at Prisms since he got here in the hopes of claiming dual-majors before he graduates.”

  Hayden frowned. “How many years are we allowed to hang around here anyway?”

  “You’re guaranteed six, but after that you can stay as long as you can pay for it.” Tucker shrugged. “After the sixth-level classes there’s nothing to take but mastery-level though, or research projects.”

  Hayden considered that for a moment.

  “So if Oliver’s only in the third-level Prism class, who’s in the fourth?”

  Tucker laughed.

  “There is no level-four class; hasn’t been since Master Asher came through school.” He shrugged. “You’ve gotta be crazy-good to get that far, and unless you’re a natural prism it’s almost impossible.”

  Hayden was suddenly determined to get to the level-four class before his time at Mizzenwald was up, no matter what.

  “Anyway, have you got your challenge group all lined up yet?” Tucker continued, following him out of the room and back towards the main stairwell that led to the dormitories.

  “Uh, not yet,” Hayden replied, not wanting to admit that he still had no idea what a challenge group was.

  Tucker didn’t seem to find his answer odd because he said, “Cool, me neither. Well, if you need a Wands major, keep me in mind, okay?”

  “Thanks, I will.” Hayden began climbing the stairs and Tucker turned towards the main entrance. He had reading assignments in three classes, a one-page report for Powders, and was supposed to practice drawing circles for Conjury, but he was determined to find time tonight to ask Zane what a challenge group was and why he might need a third-year Wand major to help him with it.

  6

  A Helping Hand

  It took him until the dinner bell to finish his essay for Powders, so he brought his textbook for Wands to the dining room with him, loaded up a plate with food, and ate by himself in the hallway while he tried to catch up on his reading. The laughter and conversations of his peers was muffled from here, and Hayden did his best to ignore the noise and focus on his work. Starting the school year days later than everyone else had put him at a disadvantage, and he was determined to make up for lost time.

  Unlike the reading he’d done for Powders, Wands was actually interesting to him, and he made decent time finishing the first chapter by the end of dinner. Bonk was picking at the remnants of his ham-and-bean casserole, and Hayden patted him on the h
ead for behaving himself for the entire meal as he got up to take his plate back inside.

  He nearly collided with Master Kilgore as he rounded the corner, but the Master of Elixirs managed to weave around him at the last second, glancing at the book tucked under his arm.

  “Didn’t want to join your friends for dinner?” he asked in his usual gruff tone. There was just no getting around the fact that the man looked and sounded like he belonged in a forge.

  “I did, sir, but I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on and it’s quieter in the hall,” he explained.

  Master Kilgore looked at him with mild approval.

  “Glad to see you putting forth some effort,” he nodded. “Carry on, Frost.” He strode past Hayden and entered the hallway.

  The rest of the school was leaving the dining hall by the time he found a table to set his empty dishes on, and he couldn’t find Zane in the departing crowd. Figuring his roommate would return to the dorm eventually, Hayden went back upstairs by himself and sat down at his desk with a piece of paper to begin drawing circles, consulting his Conjury book to see if it had any tips.

  He was so focused on the task at hand that he didn’t hear Zane enter the room until his friend was standing right behind him.

  “That last one wasn’t half-bad,” Zane said cheerfully, pointing over Hayden’s shoulder to the circle he’d just finished. Hayden startled so badly he nearly toppled onto the floor, clutching a hand over his heart from the shock.

  “Sorry, didn’t hear you come in,” he gasped, setting his pencil down and wiggling his cramped fingers.

  “I assume this is for Reede’s class?” Zane grinned at him when he nodded. “Good, now you can start appreciating how good I am at Conjury.”

  “It’s your major, right?” Hayden frowned. “Does that mean you can draw a perfect circle?”

  “Sure can.” Zane removed a piece of green chalk from his belt, leaned over the desk and casually drew a circle there without even looking at the paper.

  “That’s unfair,” Hayden grumbled.

  Zane quickly added a double crosshatch through the bottom and top of the circle, pressed his palm to it, and seemed to pull a piece of tissue paper from out of thin air. He passed it to Hayden.

  “Cry me a river,” he grinned, laughing at Hayden’s scowl.

  “I give up on circles for the night,” he sighed, rubbing his eyes. “But there is something else I wanted to ask you about…something called a challenge group?”

  “Ah,” Zane brightened immediately. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you if you want to be in mine. We’ve got to put in our names by the end of the week or we’ll be up for grabs.”

  “Mind telling me what a challenge group actually is?”

  Zane sat down on the edge of his bed, facing Hayden’s desk.

  “Sure. It’s lucky they gave you second-year status, because that’s when we first become eligible to join them. There are four people to a challenge group, and the team you get at the beginning of the year is who you’re stuck with for the entire school year.”

  “But what do we actually do?” Hayden pressed.

  “I’m getting there. The point of a challenge group is to train us for handling real-world problems. We’re put on a rotating schedule so that about once a month every group is up for a challenge. The Masters have these different scenarios set up for us, and they send us into them with an objective—a goal to accomplish. We get points awarded for how well we use our skills to get through it, up to ten if we do a really good job.”

  Hayden raised his eyebrows in interest.

  “So it’s like a practical exam.”

  “Yeah, pretty much. I’ve been looking forward to it since I learned about it last year. Obviously this year they’re not going to give us very hard stuff, but the sixth-years sometimes get transported to face real-life monsters around the Nine Lands,” he grinned.

  Hayden was glad that they weren’t going to be handed over to a pack of chimaeras just yet.

  “So we get to choose our own teams?”

  “Well, we can write down who we want to be teamed with, but the Masters get final approval. It’s really important to get a good spread of talents on each team, since four wand-users wouldn’t be able to do certain things.

  “Some people make it work because they like the offensive power, but most people hedge with a little defense and healing as well,” Zane continued. “Anyway, if you don’t ask to be grouped with anyone, or if your group is incomplete, you have to go out to the lawns this weekend so you can see who’s left to pick from.”

  “So we’re scored as a team? And we can get anywhere from zero to ten points?” Hayden asked, wanting to be certain that he understood.

  “Yeah, we’re scored as a team, though if there’s someone who did really well or really badly the Masters can choose to score us individually. That way if you’ve got someone who isn’t pulling their weight they’ll still get to climb the team rankings with everyone else, but at the end of the year everyone will know that they were awful so they won’t get a good group next time. If we’re scored as a team, then each of us gets the team average as our individual score for that round.”

  Zane was fidgeting with his hands now.

  “So…do you want to be in my group? I know everyone’s going to want you on their team, probably even some of the older kids, but—”

  “Of course I want to be on your team,” Hayden cut him off.

  “Really? You’re sure?” Zane looked surprised. “I mean, like I said, you could probably get a fourth-level conjurer if you tried…you’re the only natural prism in the school right now so everyone will want you…”

  “I don’t care. You’re my friend and they’re not. Besides, when we get a really hard challenge you can always summon up a tissue for me to cry into when we fail.” They shared a laugh over that.

  “Awesome! I’ll put our names down,” Zane grinned. “Is there anyone else you can think of who we should invite, or should we just roll the dice and see who else is left over at the end of the week?”

  “What about Conner?”

  Zane shook his head. “He and Kayce are already committed to a group.”

  “Well…” Hayden thought back to his Prisms class that day. “There’s this third-year in my Prisms class named Tucker….He said he’s a wand major and told me to keep him in mind for my challenge group, but I don’t know if he’s any good.”

  Zane looked impressed.

  “Tucker Claxen? I’ve heard he’s good; besides, he’s a third-year, so he’s ahead of us at least. You think he’d really be game? A wand would be good to have in our group.”

  Hayden shrugged. “I can always ask him again tomorrow and find out for sure.”

  “Okay, well don’t forget, because tomorrow is the last day for pre-selection,” he yawned. “This is going to be so cool; we’re going to own these challenges.”

  Having heard nothing about the sorts of tasks they’d be set, Hayden didn’t quite share his friend’s level of confidence, but he was looking forward to it all the same. Still, even nervous as he was, that night he dreamt of seeing his name on top of the scoreboards and proving to everyone that he was more than his father’s reputation.

  Hayden was awoken the next morning by Bonk, who cuffed him in the head with his wings as he stretched them and took flight, coasting around the room in a wide circle several times before alighting next to Conner’s owl on its perch.

  Hayden yawned and climbed out of bed, pulling on his Focus-correctors from the edge of his desk and frowning down at them. Zane, who was fully-dressed and sitting upright in bed with his Conjury book, noticed his displeasure.

  “Don’t let it get you down,” he greeted Hayden, closing the book and nudging Felix the fox awake. “Sure, you’ve got the biggest correctors in the history of mage-kind, but you’re still able to do magic even with them on.”

  Hayden glanced down at them thoughtfully.

  “I know, I was just wondering how pow
erful I’d be without them.”

  His friend let out a low whistle as he considered the possibilities. “No idea, but maybe it’s for the best that we don’t find out.”

  Hayden shrugged to concede the point and got dressed, tracking down all of his completed homework assignments and tucking them into his bag. Conner was still snoring loudly in the next bunk, but Kayce had already left the room.

  “Come on, let’s get some breakfast before it’s too late.” Zane let Felix precede him into the hallway, but when Hayden called for Bonk, the little dragon stayed resolutely put on the owl perch.

  “Fine, suit yourself,” he shrugged, following Zane out and shutting the door behind him. He would come check on Bonk before lunch and maybe his familiar would be hungry then.

  By the time they got to the dining hall almost everyone else had already cleared out, and Hayden was forced to grab a leftover piece of toast from the nearest table and eat it on his way to Wands. He wondered if they should have woken Conner before they left, or if he didn’t have a class first thing in the morning.

  Hayden had done the assigned reading last night, but was surprised to discover that some of his classmates hadn’t, or else they just had terrible recall. Master Willow went around the room questioning them on various parts of the chapter, and Hayden was relieved when he was asked something he knew the answer to. When the Master of Wands had made his way around the entire room, he addressed them collectively.

  “Those of you who answered your questions correctly, remain seated. Those of you who took the reading assignment as a recommendation rather than a requirement, you are dismissed for the day.”

  There was a lot of surprised gasping and grumbling as about half of the class got up, packed their bags, and left the room. Hayden was doubly glad he’d taken his homework seriously.

  When the door shut behind the last person Master Willow addressed them again.

  “Mizzenwald has a reputation for producing excellent mages. In fact, we win the Eastern Inter-School Championship about three times out of four. I don’t have the time or the inclination to teach students who are uncommitted to doing their best.” He glanced around at them for a long moment before abruptly changing the subject. “Now then, today we’ll begin with one of the simple spells that you read about last night, if you’ll all take out your birch wand.”