The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(84)

“It was,” Ellabell smiled, sharing a slice of Natalie’s enthusiasm.

“Everything is so different here! It is all new and exciting, and there is so much to learn. They have taught us, in one day, how to focus magic and go beyond the basics. It is truly wonderful to be learning so much. And they care about learning, and they want us to do well. It is most refreshing!” Natalie enthused.

The excitement they exuded made Alex feel a little disappointed with his own education. So far, Demeter had only told him stories and histories—nothing remotely useful in terms of practical applications. Still, he had to hope that would be coming and that today had been more of an orientation session. A getting-to-know-you kind of thing. He wasn’t sure he could take history lessons indefinitely.

“How about you? How did you get on?” asked Aamir.

“My teacher is a little bit… kooky, shall we say,” chuckled Alex. “Master Demeter? Any of you have him?”

The others shook their heads, which puzzled Alex, making him wonder where Alypia had dredged the peculiar Spellbreaker-loving man from.

“We just went over some histories and things. Nothing quite as interesting as what you guys are learning,” he said a little bleakly.

“I’m sure it’ll pick up, man,” encouraged Jari. “It beats being cooped up in here with nothing to do!”

Alex smiled. “I guess it does.”

“How’re things with you?” Jari turned to Aamir.

He shrugged. “It’s strange. A bit like with you, Alex, only more focused on the magical side rather than the anti-magical,” he began. “My tutors, Master Garai and Mistress Winter—do you have them?”

Natalie and Ellabell nodded in concurrence.

“They have been going over school things, mostly.” Aamir paused, as if wondering whether or not to elaborate. “Well, not even school things. They’ve mostly just focused on the Ascension Ceremony.”

The room went still.

“What about it?” pressed Alex.

“Just how important it is to everything they do here,” he murmured. “Don’t worry, I’ve not been drinking the Kool-Aid,” he assured them with a smile, seeing everyone’s worried faces. “I think they just wanted me to understand, so I pretended I did. Then they went over the behaviors and spells from the winners and losers of the last few years—they have it all written out in these huge scrapbook-type things, with lists and lists of spells used and successes and things of that nature. It is very peculiar, but fairly interesting too. After a few hours of that, they took me on a tour through the tunnels beneath the arena. You know, the ones the combatants come out from and get taken back into… if they, you know, lose.” He looked as baffled as the rest of them did, as he relayed the day he had had.

Alex, however, found himself intrigued by what Aamir said, as he remembered the night of the Ascension Ceremony and the strange, hypnotizing horror of it, to have what was essentially ‘graduation’ so openly cheered and celebrated. Even they hadn’t been able to tear their eyes away from the scenes that had played out that night, as wrong as they knew the Ceremony to be. He thought of those poor, tortured mages, forcibly dragged away by guards to have their essences removed—from students to sacrificial prisoners in the space of one evening.

Somehow, his remembrance of those guards turned his thoughts to the prisoner he had seen from the tower, brought in with the guards who had come back from Spellshadow. With Helena there, he figured it was as good a time as any to ask.

“Helena, do you know anything about the prisoner who was brought into Stillwater today?” he asked.

The others looked at him in surprise, clearly not having heard anything about a prisoner or anyone new arriving at Stillwater House that day. Neither had Helena, Alex thought, seeing the blank expression on her face.

She shook her head. “I don’t know of any prisoner. Nobody told me,” she replied, seemingly perplexed.

“When did you see them?” quizzed Ellabell.

“I went for a walk before my first lesson. There was this loud trumpet, and I just followed it and happened to see someone being brought in,” he explained. “I think they came from Spellshadow.”

Aamir frowned. “How do you know?”

“The Head was with them… and so was Professor Renmark, only not the one we knew,” he sighed grimly.

“What do you mean?” Jari chimed in, eyes filled with macabre interest.

“Renmark is the new Finder.”

Natalie gasped. “No—what do you mean, he is the new Finder?”

The faces staring back at him were pale with dread. It had not been an easy thing for him to absorb either, and he had seen it with his own eyes. He felt a pang of remorse for Natalie, whose face showed more horror than the rest; she had known Renmark better than any of them, taking private lessons from him in dark magic, and he knew she had learned a lot from the professor, which had built a certain mutual respect between them, despite the hatred Renmark had incited in the others.

“The Head needed a new Finder, so he chose Professor Renmark,” explained Alex. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen him with my own eyes, all raggedy and gray—the same state Malachi Grey was in… Only, weirdly, it seemed like he could see me. He looked my way.”