“Jace!” Abi called. “Somebody kill that alarm. I can’t hear myself think.”
Two of the apprentices snapped to attention and darted off to follow my friend’s orders. A few seconds later, the red lights died, and the sirens trailed off with a pathetic whine.
“Sorry,” Abi said. “Your clearance came through a few minutes ago. We didn’t have time to reconfigure the alarm. Next time tell the Temple to give us a half-hour, at least, unless you want to spend a few hours locked up with security.”
“It’s good to see you again.” I threw my arms around Abi’s neck and pulled him into a tight hug. “I haven’t seen anything but old man faces for months. And congrats on your nice new stripes.”
The black badge on the shoulder of Abi’s gray uniform bore a pair of diagonal silver stripes to reflect his recent promotion.
“Oh, that,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “It just means I’m not a complete newbie like these guys.”
He gestured to the other PDF apprentices around us. None of them had badges on their uniforms, and they all looked at me as if they were still uncertain whether I was supposed to be there.
“We all have to start somewhere,” I said. “Have you seen Clem or Eric?”
“Not yet,” he said. “I’ve been stuck here running security drills for the past few days. I’m off tomorrow for the first day of classes, though. We need to get together and catch up.”
“We’ll definitely do that. What time is it?” The moonlight that poured in through the windows of the portal room told me it had to be much later than three in the afternoon, which was when I’d left the Temple.
“Almost eight,” Abi said. “Where did you come in from?”
“Atlantis,” I said. “Though I’m not really sure I was there. I only saw the inside of some stupid old church.”
“You were with the inquisitors?” Abi’s jaw dropped at the thought. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I laughed. “I’ll explain it all tomorrow. I don’t want to have to tell the story twice.”
“Sounds like you had an interesting summer, my friend.” Abi grinned and shook his head. “I hope this year is less eventful for you. Try to get some rest tonight. Tomorrow is a busy day for third years. We get to start the aptitudes. There should be a notice in your room about it.”
“I’ll take a look,” I said. “Don’t let me hold you up. Somebody needs to keep all these apprentices in line.”
“Somebody named Abi.” My friend laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jace.”
I left Abi to his work and wandered the School’s quiet halls. Most of the students hadn’t arrived yet, and the campus seemed to be holding its breath in anticipation. By this time tomorrow, we’d have a new crop of initiates, all my friends would have arrived, and it would be time to get down to work finding my mother. For the moment, though, I wanted to soak up the quiet and relax for the first time in months.
I walked without any destination in mind. The School was my only real home, and it was a comfort to see so many familiar sights after the stark emptiness of the Temple. My feet took me past the upperclassman dormitory and the strange passage to the frosty mountains I’d hiked with Rachel Lu last year. I ambled through the long hall of library cells where I’d researched the Eclipse Warriors. A curving flight of stairs carried me to the main floor, where my footsteps echoed through the silence. I checked the grand hall for the secret passage to Tycho’s alchemical laboratory. It hadn’t reappeared, and I wasn’t sure if I felt grateful or disappointed. Finally, I found myself at the dueling grounds where I’d gone toe-to-toe with Rafael.
That duel had changed many things and set in motion a series of events that had ended with me as a guest of the inquisitors. I wasn’t surprised that my aimless wanderings had led me to a place so charged with my past emotions.
What did surprise me, though, were the statues that now occupied that courtyard. They were enormous things, each three stories of solid stone. A statue of an older man leaning on an giant sword, his eyes covered with a blindfold and his clothes in tatters, stood on the left side of the courtyard. A long, serpentine dragon with a cruel-looking muzzle clamped over its snout reared up on the opposite side. Its body was a neat corkscrew resting atop a coiled tail. The statues seemed to glare at one another from their respective sides, as if nursing old grudges.
“Where did they come from?” I asked myself.
“Nobody knows,” Hahen responded as he appeared from the shadows. The rat spirit looked much happier than he had the last time I’d seen him. He’d exchanged his old robes for simpler, lighter ones, and his perpetually blistered skin had cleared up. He looked much, much younger than he’d ever seemed before.
“Hahen!” I called out and rushed over to meet my mentor. I bowed low before the rat spirit and held that posture until he returned the gesture and straightened. “How have you been?”
“Better, thanks to you,” he said. “Without Tycho ordering me around, I’ve been free to rest and restore myself. How did they treat you in the Temple over the summer?”
His question surprised me. The inquisitors had scooped me up from the School so quickly I hadn’t had time to tell anyone goodbye or explain where I was going. I’d been afraid that Hahen would be offended by my sudden disappearance, or, worse, that he’d worry himself sick about where I’d gotten off to. It wasn’t as if my last year hadn’t been filled with assassination
