“Exactly!” he cried. “And so I’ve told them a hundred times. But they both studied at the University themselves and are now academics. They’re convinced I need to keep my options open and that this is the best way.”
I shook my head at the foolishness of that. I had seen plenty of youth come through the advanced class who were only there because their parents pushed them to keep studying, despite their lack of inclination or ability. They never lasted.
But Zak wasn’t a dependent child, forced to follow his parents’ wishes. Unless he was still dependent on them financially. Some minor mage families were significantly poorer than a merchant family like the Robarts. They wouldn’t tutor or sell their compositions otherwise.
“If you join a discipline, don’t you receive a salary?” I asked. “You might have to live modestly at first, but I’m sure you could make it work.” I had no idea how much graduated mages were paid when they first entered a discipline, but surely it was enough to live on. “If you need help finding affordableaccommodation, I’m sure I could point you in the right direction.”
He chuckled to himself, not seeming offended by my suggestion but clearly amused at something I didn’t understand. “I can just imagine my parents’ response to that.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not willing to risk their ire.” He shrugged, not quite meeting my eyes. “You probably think me very cowardly, but I foresee that I’m going to need all the parental goodwill I can muster at some point in the future, and I don’t want to burn that goodwill now. I have, therefore, agreed to at least start at the University. They’ve agreed that we’ll reassess after the first year. If it’s a disaster, then I’ll apply to another discipline next summer.”
I supposed one year wasn’t much of a loss, although I didn’t know if it would hurt his chances of being accepted by his chosen discipline. Then my mind caught up with the most important aspect of the situation.
“But that means we’ll be starting at the University together!” I immediately flushed and added, “Although I’ll be in the commonborn stream, of course, and you’ll be in the mage classes.”
“Exactly!” he sounded triumphant. “And unlike me, you’re not a terrible student. You’re an excellent one. So I’m willing to spend the summer teaching you how to read and write if you’ll tutor me in return.”
My mouth fell open. “You wantmeto tutoryou?”
“Why not?” He grinned. “You are sealed now, remember?”
I looked slowly down at the pattern around my wrists, a smile growing on my face. “I suppose I am.”
“So you’ll do it?” He sounded eager, although I couldn’t imagine why he found the prospect of intense study all summer so appealing.
I knew why I found the idea appealing, though. I snuck a glance at him, sucking on the inside of my cheek.
Zak was dangerous. There was no other way of putting it. He was attractive in ways that only seemed to grow every time I saw him. If it was hard enough to put him out of my mind now, how hard would it be after spending every day with him all summer?
The thought of being stuck in a classroom with Byron and Teacher Wendell every day of the summer flashed into my mind. My hand moved of its own accord, reaching out to shake Zak’s.
“Deal,” I said with more confidence than I felt as his warm, strong fingers gripped mine.
I would just have to guard my heart very,veryclosely. And hope that exposure lessened the effect he seemed to have on me.
CHAPTER 8
Ihad to tell my family about the arrangement. There was no avoiding that. But thankfully none of them had yet gotten a glimpse of Zak, so I was able to present the whole thing as a simple business arrangement.
My mother was predictably overjoyed, saying that it would be worth something indeed for me to start at the University already having a mage acquaintance. My father only said that he was glad I had found a way to avoid the Robart puppet.
I smiled and agreed with everything both of them said, not wanting to encourage them to ask more questions. If Zak and I were really going to study together all summer, one of my family members was bound to spot him eventually, and then the questions and suspicions would come. It was inevitable when Zak looked…the way he looked. But I was hoping to put that day off as long as possible.
My first concern had been where we would study—we needed access to books as well as parchment and pens, and we wouldn’t find those in many places in the lower city. Certainly nowhere where they weren’t secured.
But Zak had been ready with an answer, one I should have thought of for myself. Nearly five years ago, after the sealingceremonies began in earnest, the crown opened an office for the management of sealed affairs. It was built on the outskirts of the city, near the outer wall, and had occasioned great excitement at the time. All four of my brothers had found excuses to visit the area when the creator mages were razing the derelict building that had stood there previously and raising a new, sturdy public building of red sandstone in its place. Even I had detoured past the building on occasion, thinking proudly of the day when my name would be on the lists kept within its walls.
“I already investigated,” Zak told me. “They have a small library that’s open for use by any sealed commonborns. And they have a whole series of study rooms. You can even request a locker where you’ll be able to keep your parchment and pens stored between sessions, since you can’t take them home. In the long term, you’ll want to set up a safe place in your house to secure them. The office for the management of sealed affairs are also the ones to review and approve those arrangements. But you might not be able to do that until after you graduate the University and get a home of your own. And so we can use the lockers in the meantime.”
When we actually stepped into the building for the first time, I buzzed with excitement, my arms bare and wrists on clear display. It still felt surreal that I had the right to freely enter a building that contained a library.
When an official bustled over to us, a frown on her face, I held out my hands hurriedly, words ready on my lips. But they died when I saw that her attention was fully focused on Zak, not me.
“We don’t take applications for being sealed here,” she said firmly. “You’ll need to apply through one of the usual channels. And in the meantime, I can’t permit you entry since we have?—”
I laughed, unable to help myself. Zak had returned to his old way of dressing, and I had thought from the beginning that hischoice of clothes made him blend in. If he was wearing a mage robe, he wouldn’t confuse anyone, but presumably he wouldn’t have the right to wear a black University robe until he actually started there in the autumn.
The official turned her disapproving expression on me, and I tried to cut off my giggles. “He’s my tutor,” I said since it was close to the truth and by far the simplest explanation. “Mymagetutor. He doesn’t have any need to be sealed.”
