Worse, they would lock him in one of those special cells the other boys talked about once the candles were doused. The cells where no one could use their Gift. He would be cut off forever from the thing he loved most, all because this instructor wouldn’t leave him alone!
One of the doors slammed open, knocking aside the students standing there. Water flooded into the hall. An elderly black woman and a snowy-haired white man, both in the red robes of master mages, stepped into the classroom once the depth was down to ankle level.
Flood or no, the drenched students knew that everyone was supposed to keep their heads and follow the rules in any emergency. They hurried to stand beside their desks as required when masters entered the room. They did not know the old woman, but Arram recognized the man. He was Cosmas Sunyat, head of the School for Mages.
Master Cosmas made glowing signs with his hands; the old woman made different ones with hers. Slowly every trace of water, even of dampness, vanished. The dish where Arram’s troubles had begun was empty even of a drop. It fell to the worktable with a clatter.
Arram picked it up and turned it over in his hands. Despite the bother, he was sad that his spell was gone. The surge of excitement had faded, too, leaving him no idea of how to call it back.
Girisunika was furious. ‘Who helped him?’ she demanded, glaring at Arram’s classmates. She was so angry she ignored the newly arrived masters. ‘He’s a child – he couldn’t do it himself! Which of you vile parasites connived at this?’
Master Cosmas thumped his ebony walking stick on the floor. ‘Master Girisunika, control yourself!’ he commanded. He surveyed the room. ‘Youngsters, report to Hulak in the kitchen gardens. Let us see if you remember the difference between coriander and weeds.’ As Arram’s fellows gathered their things and filed out of the classroom, Master Cosmas added, ‘Girisunika, Arram Draper, come with us.’
Masters Cosmas and Girisunika drew ahead as they walked through the marble halls. Arram, who had been raised to be polite, kept pace with the slower old woman. They had not gone far before she asked, ‘Did you have help from the others?’
Arram looked at her. ‘No, Master,’ he said. ‘They couldn’t have done it anyway. They aren’t very good.’
The woman snorted. ‘They are perfectly suited to those studies for their age, young man – as you should be. I am Master Sebo Orimiri. Who are you?’
Arram bowed as he’d been taught. ‘I’m Arram Draper.’
‘So you are the Draper lad. That explains a great deal.’ She walked on, making him trot to catch up.
‘It explains something?’ It was accepted in the Lower Academy that nothing explained the strange events that happened around Arram. ‘Whatever it explains, I probably didn’t do it on purpose,’ the boy added.
‘Tell me, what is your favourite place in the university?’
Arram looked at the master, sensing a trap but unable to figure out what manner of danger it could possibly hold. In the end he decided honesty would probably get him in the least amount of trouble. ‘The river. Or – or the gardens. But usually the library, Master Sebo.’
‘Only the Lower Academy library?’ She glanced at him and smiled. ‘The truth, lad. I’ll know if you lie.’
Something about her convinced him that she meant what she said. ‘No, Master. The mages’ library for the Upper Academy.’
‘Indeed!’ He seemed to have surprised her. ‘Not the Upper Academy? Aren’t the mages’ books too difficult?’
‘Most of them,’ he admitted. ‘Usually I read encyclopedias and books like that. They aren’t too hard, and I can look up the parts I don’t understand.’
‘I see. And how do you get past the librarians?’
‘There is this one book … The spells make me seem like part of the background.’ Arram smiled.
‘But surely, when you move, they notice.’
‘There was a note that you shouldn’t move when people look at you,’ Arram said.
‘Very practical. And this spell is useful, I take it? Not just for reading?’ Master Sebo asked drily.
He liked the look in her old, watery eyes very much. ‘I’m tired of doing the same things over and over,’ he explained. ‘With the not-seeing spell I can watch the masters and seniors experiment after the library is …’ He realized that he watched them when he was supposed to be in bed, after the masters and seniors had locked the doors. He sighed and dug his hands into his breeches pockets. Now he was truly in deep muck.
‘Don’t the masters inspect the library to ensure they have no witnesses?’ If Master Sebo was angry, her voice did not give it away. ‘I would like to think they are properly cautious.’
‘The, um, the spell I used works on masters as well as seniors,’ Arram mumbled.
Sebo halted, forcing Arram to do the same. ‘Where did you get it?’
Arram looked at her crinkled face. Could he get in any more trouble? ‘I found a little book on the upper level, mashed between … Bladwyn’s Book. It’s called Bladwyn’s Book. It has all kinds of spells for fighting and concealment. I learned that spell from it. Most of the rest only made my head hurt.’
‘I should think so,’ the old woman replied. ‘Bladwyn was a black robe mage who lived in the early three hundreds.’ She tugged on one of the ropes of beads that hung around her neck. ‘You were trying to work a black robe’s spells, Arram Draper. And here you are, alive and in trouble. How old are you?’
His breath hitched in his throat, but he managed to say, ‘Eleven, Master.’
‘Liar,’ she told him cheerfully. She didn’t seem to take offence.
The four of them entered the receiving room to the headmaster’s offices. The youth who sat reading there put aside his book and jumped to his feet. Cosmas beckoned to him and murmured instructions in his ear. The young man nodded and trotted out of the chamber. Cosmas ushered Master Girisunika and Master Sebo through the door to the inner office. Then the older man looked at Arram.
‘Remain here until you are summoned, young Arram,’ he said. ‘I suggest you work on a ten-page essay for me. It will be upon the virtues of maintaining one’s concentration, no matter what distractions may present themselves. In a while we shall summon you, understand?’
Arram understood. He understood that he was about to be very bored. He bowed to the head of the School for Mages. ‘Yes, Master Cosmas.’
‘Very good.’ The older man walked into his office and closed the door.
Arram hated boredom. That was the source of many of his problems. Bored, he might tinker with the spells he was taught – just tinker, not actually cast the whole thing! Then came visits to the healer, unhappy interviews with instructors, and labour or essays after that.
The head of the academy had told him to think about an essay on concentration, he reminded himself. But how could a fellow concentrate when he was so easily bored? Boredom had set his grandmother to teaching him to read when he was three. The first teacher for his Gift had come soon after, when he accidentally burned a month’s supply of firewood. He was six when his teachers gathered to tell his parents that the best – the only – place for him was the Imperial University of Carthak. No one in Tyra could teach a child whose Gift was so strong so young.
Yusaf hadn’t wanted to send him away, but Mother, Metan, and Grandmother had overruled him. Farm children apprenticed in the weaving houses at Arram’s age, they said. Embroiderers began their apprenticeships even younger. Besides, did Yusaf want to wait until Arram’s Gift burned the house down?
With soot on his hands from fighting Arram’s most recent workroom fire, Yusaf agreed. He brought Arram to Carthak himself and sat through