Call flattened himself into the shadows so he wouldn't be spotted, pressing the cage behind him to hide the light.
"Young Jasper showed bravery in throwing himself in front of the wyverns," said Master Lemuel, with a glance at Master Milagros, amusement showing on his face. "Even if he was unsuccessful."
Anger raced through Call's veins. He and Tamara and Aaron had worked hard to do well on that test and they were talking about Jasper?
"Bravery will only get you so far," said Master Tanaka, the tall, thin Master who taught Peter and Kai. "The students who returned from our most recent mission had plenty of bravery, and yet those were some of the worst injuries I've seen since the war. They barely made it back alive. Even the fifth years weren't prepared for elementals working together like that -"
"The Enemy is behind this," Master Rockmaple interrupted, running a hand through his ruddy beard. The image of the injured students, bloody and burned, coming through the gate had stuck with Call, and he was glad to know that wasn't how students returned from a typical mission. "The Enemy is breaking the truce in ways he thinks we won't be able to trace back to him. He is getting ready to return to war. I'll wager that, while we've deluded ourselves into thinking he's staying in his remote sanctuary, working on his horrible experiments, he's actually been making greater and more devastating weapons, not to mention alliances."
Master Lemuel snorted. "We have no proof. This could simply be a change among the elementals."
Master Rockmaple whirled on him. "How can you trust the Enemy? Anyone who wouldn't balk at putting a piece of the void inside animals and even children, who slaughtered the most vulnerable among us, is capable of anything."
"I'm not saying I trust him! I just don't want to prematurely panic that the truce has been broken. World forefend that we break it because of our fears and, by doing so, incite a new war, one worse than the last."
"Everything would be different if we had a Makar on our side." Master Milagros tucked her pink lock of hair behind her ear nervously. "This year's entering students had exceptional Trial scores. Is it possible that our Makar could be among them? Rufus, you've had experience with this before."
"It's too soon to tell anything," said Rufus. "Constantine himself didn't start showing signs of an affinity with chaos magic until he was fourteen."
"Maybe you just refused to look for them then as you refuse to look for them now," said Master Lemuel disagreeably.
Rufus shook his head. His face was rough-edged in the flickering light. "It doesn't matter," he said. "We need a different plan. The Assembly needs a different plan. It is too great a burden to set upon the shoulders of any child. We should all remember the tragedy of Verity Torres."
"I agree, a plan is needed," Master Rockmaple said. "Whatever the Enemy's scheme, we can't just bury our heads in the sand and act like it will go away. Nor can we simply wait forever for something that might never happen."
"Enough of this bickering," said Master North. "Master Milagros was saying earlier that she's discovered a possible error in the third algorithm of folding air into metal. I thought perhaps we could discuss the anomaly."
Anomaly? Figuring that there was no point risking discovery to listen to something he wouldn't understand anyway, Call slid back into the gap between the rocks. He wriggled through, emerging on the other side with his mind full of his father's words. What was it he had said? The more you learn about the magical world, the more you will be drawn into it - drawn into its old conflicts and dangerous temptations.
The war with the Enemy had to be the conflict Call's father had been talking about.
Warren stuck his scaly nose through the bars, his tongue flicking in the air. "We go a new way. Better way. Fewer Masters. Safer."
Call grunted, and followed Warren's directions. He was beginning to wonder if Warren actually knew where they were going, or if he was just leading Call deeper into the caves. Maybe he and Warren would spend the rest of their lives wandering the twisty caverns. They would become a legend to new apprentices who would speak about the lost student and his caged cave lizard in hushed tones of dread.
Warren pointed and Call scrambled up the side of a pile of rocks, sending shards flying.
The corridors were bigger now, zigzagged with sparkling patterns that teased Call's mind, as if they could be read if he only knew how. They passed through a cave full of odd underground plants: big red-tipped ferns that stood in still pools of glittering water, long fronds of lichen drifting from the ceiling and brushing against Call's shoulders. He looked up and thought he saw a pair of glittering eyes disappearing into the shadows. He stopped.
"Warren -"
"Here, here," the lizard urged, flicking his tongue toward an arched doorway at the other end of the room. Someone had carved words into the highest part of the arch:
Thoughts are free and subject to no rule.
Beyond the archway flickered an odd light. Call moved toward it, curiosity getting the better of him. It gave off a golden glow, like that of a fire, though it was no warmer when he stepped through the door than it had been on the other side. He was in another large space, a cavern that seemed to spiral down along a steep and winding path. All along the walls of the room were shelves holding thousands upon thousands of books, most with yellowed pages and ancient bindings. Call stepped to the center of the room, where the sloping path began, and looked over the edge. There were levels and levels, all illuminated with the same golden light and ringed with more bookshelves.
Call had found the Library.
And other people were there, too. He could hear the echoes of their hushed conversation. More Masters? No. Glancing around, he saw Jasper three tiers down, in his gray uniform. Celia was standing across from him. It had to be really, really late, and Call had no idea why they were out of their rooms.
Jasper had a book open on a stone table, his hand extended in front of him. Again and again he thrust out his fingers, gritting his teeth and scrunching up his eyes, until Call started to worry he was going to make his head explode, trying to force the magic to come. Again and again, there was a spark or a puff of smoke between his fingers, but nothing else. Jasper looked ready to scream with disappointment and frustration.
Celia paced back and forth on the other side of the table. "You promised that if I helped you, you'd help me, but it's almost two in the morning and you haven't helped me with anything."
"We're still on me!" Jasper yelled.
"Fine," Celia said long-sufferingly, sitting down on a stone stool. "Try again."
"I've got to get this right," Jasper said softly. "I've got to. I am the best. I am the best Iron Year mage at the Magisterium. Better than Tamara. Better than Aaron. Better than Callum. Better than everyone."
Call wasn't sure if he belonged on that list of people Jasper clearly worried he wasn't better than, but he was flattered. He was also a little disappointed that Celia was hanging out with Jasper.
Warren scrabbled in his cage. Call turned to see what the fussing was about.
The lizard was staring at a framed illustration of a man with huge, red-orange spiraling eyes magnified and diagrammed to one side of the body. Chaos-ridden, Call thought. A shudder ran through him at the sight - along with something else, some feeling he couldn't quite put his finger on, as if the inside of his head was itchy or he was hungry or thirsty.
"Who's there?" Jasper said, looking up. He raised his hand defensively, half shielding his face.
Feeling stupid, Call waved. "It's just me. I got a little - lost - and I saw light coming from in here, so I -"
"Call?" Jasper stepped away from the book, his hands flailing. "You were spying on me!" he shouted. "Did you follow me here?"
"No, I -"
"Are you going to tell on us? Is that the idea? You going to get me in trouble so I don't do better than you at the next test?" Jasper sneered, though he was clearly shaken.
"If we want to do better than you on the next test, all we have to do is wait until the next test," said Call, unable to resist.
Jasper looked like he was going to burst. "I'm going to tell everyone you were sneaking around at night!"
"Fine," said Call. "I'll tell everyone the same thing about you."
"You wouldn't dare," Jasper said, grabbing the edge of the table.
"You wouldn't, would you, Call?" Celia asked.
All of a sudden, Call didn't want to be there anymore. He didn't want to be fighting with Jasper, or threatening Celia, wandering around in the dark, or hiding in a corner while the Masters talked about things that made the hair rise up on his neck. He wanted to be in bed, thinking over his conversation with his dad, trying to figure out what Alastair had meant and if there was any way that it wasn't as bad as it had seemed. Plus, he wanted to hunt around the bottom of his box for any last gummi candies.