Dan was trying to practice magic in his room, but all he’d managed was a small illusion that looked more like an image projected onto fog. It was wavering and ephemeral, and he was irritated. Even with focus, what he could do was a far cry from the sort of thing Ellie had done in their class with Lord Scylla.
“Don’t exhaust yourself tonight,” Sondre said from the doorway. He strode into Dan’s room, making the space seem significantly smaller. “You’re going to need your reserves tomorrow.”
“What’s tomorrow?”
“Congress,” Sondre said, but quickly and visibly dismissed that topic with a raised hand. “No other student knows yet, buttonight,I need you to go into town and retrieve Lynch and Brandeau.”
“The one you, er, talked to at the pub and the strong witch?” Dan paused, feeling fairly sure there was something not being stated here that he probably ought to know. “They’ll both pass, I think, but Lynch doesn’t want to stay anyhow, so who—?”
“Tonight is a bed check, according to arumor,” Sondre interrupted.
“Where did you hear the rumor?”
Sondre gave him a look that was almost parental. “I’m here to tellyou,Daniel. What you choose to do to help your friends that you saw leaving the castle earlier…”
“I saw—” Dan caught himself. “Right. I saw that. Sure did.” He nodded, feeling acutely aware that subterfuge wasn’t his skill set. “A friend would tell people, so they didn’t get caught. Where did I see them?”
“Leaving through the balcony.”
“Oh.” Dan forced a laugh. “Better go get them then, huh?”
“You should know that there will be consequences for you being in town,” Sondre said quietly.
Dan muffled a noise of frustration. He really had no choice but to obey Sondre’s requests. He knew that. To be sure he was secure here, he had to obey his master. That was how it worked. A host of sci-fi and fantasy franchises flittered in his mind, and in every last one, the whole “obey the bad guy” thing ended poorly for them.
Except Sondre’s not entirely bad, right?
Something of Dan’s struggle must have been evident in his expression because Sondre added, “Trust me, Daniel. Go to their rooms, and then use the tree there.”
“The tree?” Dan echoed.
But Sondre was already gone. The only answer was the soft click of the door closing. He, obviously, was fine with subterfuge.
Dan tugged on his robes, reminding himself yet again that this was the path he’d chosen, and the ends justified the means.Unless I get expelled.He was hopeful Sondre wouldn’t do that, but hopeful wasn’t the same as certain.
Focus on the now.
Focus on the goal.
Dan had taken to wearing robes over his trousers and shirt any time he left his room. Hewouldbe staying here; Sondre had as much as promised it. Hopefully, the headmaster wasn’t reneging on that by sending him out to break the rules.
“What tree?” Dan asked the empty room, half hoping a hob wouldappear with an answer. “This is going to be fine. Find the tree. Find the witches. Earn Sondre’s respect. I can do this.”
With as much stealth as he had in him, Dan made his way to the rooms of the two witches. The first room, Maggie’s, was locked.
“There’s a bed check tonight,” Dan told one of the people in the hall, a student whose name he hadn’t bothered to learn. “Pass it on.”
Then as the woman went off to knock on another door, Dan went to Ellie’s door. This one was—conveniently or not—unlocked.
“Hello?” He poked his head inside, leaving the door open behind him. “Hello? Ellie?”
He was loud enough that others might hear him, providing an excuse for why he was there. At the balcony, he stopped cold in his tracks. He wasn’t under any illusion that Ellie Brandeau wasaverage,but the sight before him was next level.
“Holy bat balls,” he whispered.
Unfamiliar envy suffused every inch of him at the sight of a perfect tree—and with stairs, too! There was no way she was leaving Crenshaw. Ellie was going to be—to quote Sondre—“a person of influence.”
And Dan was going to be her friend.
