The answer was meaningless. In reality, my finals had gone by in a slow-moving and trancelike blur all week. The last of them, my Seeing Arts final, finished only a few hours earlier,yet I couldn’t remember a single question or practical exercise I’d attempted to complete during those two hours. I had no idea how I’d done on any of them. Worse, I struggled to care, despite my usual obsessiveness around my grades.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out I’d failed every one.
“You did not fail mine,” Professor Forsooth said kindly. “…If that is of any comfort. I imagine you did far better than you think on the others, as well.”
I wanted to smile back. I knew that was the polite thing to do, but I just couldn’t manage it. All I could really focus on was how exhausted I felt. I wanted to go back to Valarian and sleep for the next three weeks, until the start of next term.
“I will not keep you long,” Forsooth assured me. “I apologize for my summons, but I thought you would want to hear this, Ms. Shadow.” He paused, clearing his throat. “Mr. Bones… meaning Caelum, of course, your classmate… has recovered enough to be moved from Pruella Bones Sanitarium in Cambridge.”
I flinched, then stared at him.
I was suddenly much, much clearer in mind.
“Bones?” I asked. “He’s all right?”
They hadn’t let me visit him.
I’d tried. I’d really tried.
Forsooth informed me that the Bones family had a strict policy around their son’s medical care, one that stayed in place even with their patriarch awaiting trial for prison, apparently. Because of that policy, the hospital in Cambridge refused my petition to see him within seconds of my making the official request. Regardless of what was wrong with him, Caelum could only be seen by members of his immediate blood family. He could also only be treated by a single physician who worked directly for the family, which meant he was quarantined from the rest of the hospital for the duration of his stay, as well.
Forsooth smiled, and nodded his head, that kind look still in his eyes.
“He is all right,” he assured me. “I am told he has recovered from the most worrisome elements of his injuries entirely. He will still need recovery time, of course, and will likely be taking medicines when he returns, but he is officially out of danger now.”
Forsooth cleared his throat again, waving a hand. “There was actually some implication, from his attending physician at least, that the mephysicians who examined him here, at Malcroix, vastly over-estimated the severity of his injuries.”
He steepled his fingers, watching me shrewdly from behind his massive desk. It was made of some dark wood, possibly mahogany. I don’t know much about old woods, but it looked heavy, and very old, and was carved all over with runes.
His words clicked then, and I frowned, unable to help it.
“Was there?” I asked cynically.
Forsooth quirked an eyebrow. “Do you not agree with that assessment?” he asked, his voice a touch wry. “That we exaggerated the severity of Mr. Bones’s condition? Out of some sense of misunderstanding the exact form of magic used against him?”
“No,” I said, coldly. “I don’t agree.”
Meeting my gaze, Forsooth nodded thoughtfully.
“I found myself skeptical of this assessment as well,” he said, leaning deeper into his chair. “In any case, I am told your friend quite astonished some of theotherdoctors who treated him, when he first arrived at their hospital. They did this primarily out of concern for his life while they waited for his family physician to arrive.”
His eyes shrewd, Forsooth continued gravely, “Then again, I suspect none of them, his family physician included, haveeverseen Mr. Bones in a hospital setting before. I am told his father was always quite private about such things.”
I heard the added meaning even less subtly that time, but I didn’t let my understanding of that meaning reach my facial expression.
“He’s being sent home, then?” I asked, my voice neutral.
“He will not be sent home, no,” Forsooth said.
The tension in my body immediately returned.
“I thought they’d found him completely innocent?” I asked, sharper. “There was a ruling. I was there. I testified. They took my memories. And his father’s. And his. He wasn’t involved in any way with whatever his father was doing at the Sanctum. He had no idea they were even going there. Or that they’d targeted my brother.” Forcing myself silent, I swallowed. “He was with me. All night. The Oracles confirmed that. Our memories lined up exactly.”
Forsooth had already raised a hand, presumably to calm me, or to get me to fall silent so he could explain further.
I forced my mouth shut, biting my tongue.
“I did not mean to distress you,” Forsooth said, his voice gentle. “You were both absolutely cleared of all charges. I only meant that Mr. Bones has askednotto be sent home, to his family estate in Exmoor, for the holiday break. We have agreed to allow him to spend his break here, at the Academy, instead. We in the school administration have also agreed that he can take his finals at the beginning of the spring term, under the supervision of his teachers.”
