“We can’t let this slide,” Master North said. “Discipline is important for apprentices and for mages in general. We’re going to have to punish them.”

  Anastasia’s chilly hand patted Call’s cheek. He felt vaguely frostbitten. “Tomorrow is soon enough, surely,” she said. “I’m the wronged party, after all. I ought to have some say.”

  “I will personally escort these three back to their rooms,” Master Rufus said. “Now.”

  With that, he dragged Call and Aaron toward the gates. Tamara followed, probably happy Master Rufus had only two hands. Call looked back at Anastasia. She was standing with the others but not speaking with them. Her gaze rested on Aaron, watching him with a fascination that made Call’s stomach knot without quite knowing why.

  Call kept expecting Master Rufus to burst through the doors of their new sleeping quarters and yell at them for breaking into the elemental prison. He slept fitfully all night. He woke again and again, gasping, hand to his chest, out of a dream where something he couldn’t quite see was about to drop down on him.

  Havoc, who had given up sleeping in the fourth bedroom, licked Call’s feet sympathetically each time he cried out. It was a little gross, but also kind of reassuring.

  By the time the bell rang, tired as he was, Call was almost relieved not to have to battle sleep any longer. He pulled on his uniform, yawning, and stepped out into the common area. Havoc was at his heels, eager for a walk.

  Tamara sat on an arm of the sofa in a bathrobe, a towel covering her head. Aaron was next to her, in his uniform, hair sticking up from sleep. With them on the sofa was Master Rufus, his face grave. They’d clearly been waiting for Call to emerge.

  Well, he’d been anticipating this. He sat down heavily next to Aaron.

  “You know that what you did last night was inexcusable,” Master Rufus said. “You broke into an Assembly member’s chamber and you sent the guard away from the elemental gate — a boy who, by the way, fell into a crevasse and broke his leg. If he hadn’t, I would have found you a lot sooner.”

  “He broke his leg?” said Aaron, looking horrified.

  “That’s right,” said Master Rufus. “Thomas Lachman is now under the care of Master Amaranth in the Infirmary. Luckily, he was spotted by a student, nearly unconscious at the bottom of a dry ravine. As you can imagine, after his discovery, the Masters’ meeting was thrown into disarray. If we hadn’t been distracted, your little adventure in the elementals’ domain would have been cut even shorter than it was.” He looked coldly from one of them to the other. “I want you to know I hold you personally responsible for the boy’s injuries. Had he remained there longer, he might have died.”

  Tamara looked stricken. She was the one who’d given Thomas her guide-stone. “But we — we wander around the caves all the time and nothing ever happens.”

  Master Rufus’s expression grew even colder. “He wasn’t an apprentice here. Anastasia selected him because he was an outsider, educated at a different Magisterium, so he wasn’t familiar with the caves, while you are.”

  Unbidden, Call remembered his father’s warnings about the Magisterium and the caves: There’s no light down there. No windows. The place is a maze. You could get lost in the caverns and die and no one would ever know.

  Well, they’d found Thomas. At least Alastair had been wrong about that part.

  “We’re sorry,” Call said. He meant it, too. In a way that maybe Rufus wouldn’t understand, he was sorry they’d ever gone to the elementals’ caves. He wished he’d never heard Marcus say that the person trying to kill him was the best Makar of their generation. He wished Tamara hadn’t seen her sister, or at least what was left of her. She’d been horribly silent and tearless when Master Rufus had left them in their chambers after frog-marching them back from the guardroom. She’d slammed her way into her bedroom and locked the door. Call and Aaron had faced each other awkwardly for a moment before going to bed themselves.

  “We really are sorry,” said Aaron.

  “It’s not me you need to apologize to,” said Rufus. “Assemblywoman Tarquin has considered your punishment and decided that you must all pay a visit to her room and apologize to her personally.” He held up a hand, forestalling any comment. “I’d suggest you do it tonight. You are lucky to be getting off so very lightly.”

  Too lightly, Call thought, and not because of luck.

  When Call, Aaron, and Tamara entered the Refectory, a hush fell over the room. Apprentices who had been lined up to fill their bowls with lichen and mushrooms and spicy yellow cave tea froze in place, staring.

  “What’s going on?” Tamara whispered as they hurried to their usual table. “Is it me or is everyone acting bizarre?”

  Call glanced around. Alex was looking at them from a table full of Gold Years. He gave a short wave and then looked down at his plate. Kai, Rafe, and Gwenda were staring — Gwenda was pointing at Celia and then at Aaron, which didn’t make any sense. As for Celia herself, she was settled at a table with Jasper, holding hands with him over a plate of what looked like wet leaves. They seemed to only have eyes for each other.

  “I don’t think I even know what normal is anymore,” Aaron said under his breath. “Do you think they know about last night? That we broke into the elementals’ prison?”

  “I don’t know,” said Call. Under regular circumstances he might have gone and asked Jasper, but lovestruck Jasper seemed incapable of doing anything but staring at Celia, saying stupid things to Celia, and drooling a little.

  Call wondered how long Jasper was going to be a lovestruck idiot. He wondered if whatever was happening to Jasper would have happened to him if he’d gone on the date instead.

  “Let’s just sit down,” Tamara said, but her voice wasn’t steady. She was obviously shaken, in a way Call hadn’t seen since the day she’d discovered who he really was. He wished they were somewhere they could talk about her sister. He wished that everyone would stop staring at them.

  “Tamara.” It was Kimiya, standing over their table with her arms crossed. “Why don’t you come and sit with me?”

  Tamara looked up sharply, her big dark eyes widening. She seemed stricken speechless at the sight of her sister. “I — but why?”

  “Come on, Tamara,” Kimiya said. “Don’t make me do this in front of everyone.”

  “Do what?” said Call, suddenly angry. Kimiya was acting like he and Aaron didn’t exist.

  “I don’t want to move,” Tamara said. “I want to sit with my friends.”

  Kimiya jerked her chin toward Aaron. “He’s not your friend. He’s dangerous.”

  Aaron looked shocked. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your dad’s in jail,” Kimiya said bluntly. Aaron recoiled as if she’d smacked him. “Which is bad enough, but then you lied about it. To everyone.”

  “So what?” said Call. “You’re not entitled to know private things about Aaron.”

  “I am if he’s staying at my house!” Kimiya snapped. “My parents deserved to know, at least.” She glared at Aaron. “After everything they did for you —”

  Rage went through Call, white-hot; some of it was for Aaron, and some of it was at Aaron. Because he couldn’t quite shut up the nagging voice inside him that said What if, what if, what if, and he hated everything about not trusting Aaron. Including Aaron himself. He pushed himself to his feet, glaring at Kimiya.

  “Your parents sucked up to Aaron because he was the Makar,” he snarled. “And now you’re acting like that means he owes you something? He doesn’t owe you anything!”

  “Stop it! Both of you, stop it!” Tamara whirled on her sister. “Did you tell Mom and Dad?”

  Kimiya looked offended. “Of course I did. They have a right to know what kind of person the Makar is.”

  Aaron dropped his face into his hands.

  “Tattletale,” Tamara snapped at Kimiya, her face reddening. “Who told you about Aaron’s dad? Who?”

  “I told only three people,” said Aaron, his voice muffled. “Call and Jasper and you.”

  “Well, I didn’t hear it from any of them,” said Kimiya irritably. “Look —”

  “Jasper told Celia.” It was Alex, appearing behind Kimiya and putting a hand on her arm. “And Celia told everyone. Sorry, Aaron.”

  Aaron lifted his head. His green eyes were darkly shadowed. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  “Everyone’s wound up,” Alex said. “After what happened to Jen, and the elemental attack on you guys. They want someone to blame, and, well, you’re a Makar. It makes you potentially scary.”

  “I didn’t hurt Jen! And I’d never hurt Call,” Aaron protested. “Or anyone.”

  Alex looked sympathetic. “Just stick it out,” he said. “People will find something else to talk about. They always do. Come on, Kimiya.”

  With a reluctant sigh, Kimiya let him lead her back to the Gold Years’ table.

  Tamara lifted her chin. “We go get food,” she said, “and if anyone says anything to our faces, we set them straight. If they whisper behind our backs, they don’t deserve our attention. Okay?”

  After a moment, Aaron rose. “Okay.” As they made their way toward the food tables, he spoke to Call under his breath. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

  Call nodded. He felt bad for even considering Aaron might be the spy.

  And yet, the thought of it wouldn’t go away.

  By the time they got through the line for food, Call’s plate was piled high with lichen, mushrooms, and tubers although both Aaron’s and Tamara’s plates remained uncharacteristically bare. The three apprentices slid into their usual spots at the same table where Jasper and Celia were, but they took care to pick seats as far from them as possible. Celia looked away from Jasper long enough to glance in their direction with pity, but Call’s evil glare made her turn away fast. He’d always known she liked to gossip, but he’d never thought that she’d tell everyone something like this. Of course, Jasper had probably made Aaron’s family seem worse than it was, to impress her. Probably Jasper and Celia deserved each other. Call hoped they’d suck face for so long they ran out of oxygen and choked.

  “We need to find the spy,” Aaron said, bringing Call’s thoughts back to the here and now. “None of this is going to go away until the real spy is caught. And we — especially Call — won’t be safe until then, either.”

  “Okay,” Call said slowly. “I mean, I’m in favor of that plan, except for the part where it’s more of a declaration of the end goal and not a plan at all. How are we going to find the spy?”

  “Anastasia must know something,” Aaron said. “I mean, given what we found, she has to be involved in some way.”

  “Her password is the name of the Enemy of —” Tamara began whispering and then stopped herself. “I mean, Captain Fishface. Her password is Captain Fishface’s brother. She has a picture of Fishface himself in her room. So she’s got to be on the side of his people. The only problem with this theory is that they’re not the people who want Call dead.”

  Call opened his mouth to object, but Tamara interrupted him. “Or at least they didn’t want him dead when Automotones was sent to kill Call. Even if Master Joseph’s changed his mind since then.”

  “Maybe she hates Master Joseph, hates the Enemy, and keeps that stuff around to remind her of her quest for revenge,” Aaron suggested. “Maybe she sent Skelmis after Call because she knows he’s really Captain Fishface.”

  “She doesn’t seem like that,” Call objected.

  “Yeah,” Aaron said, his voice brittle. “That’s the same thing you said about Celia. Stop acting like the spy is going to be someone who’s mean to you or who you hate. You can’t just believe that because someone is acting like your friend, they really are your friend!”

  “Oh, really?” Call asked, letting Aaron’s words hang in the air.

  Aaron sighed and put his head down on the table, cradled in his hands. “That’s not what I meant. That came out wrong.”

  “Maybe we should let my sister out. Maybe she could help us,” Tamara said in a small voice.

  Call turned toward her, shocked. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, pushing at some greens on her plate with a fork. “I need to think more about it. After Ravan became one of the Devoured, everyone — my parents, her friends — acted like she was dead, so that’s how I thought of her. I mean, sometimes I tried to picture her happy, swimming around in the lava of a volcano or something, but I never thought she was trapped here in the Magisterium. And now, seeing her, I feel like everyone lied to me. I feel like we didn’t try hard enough. And I feel like I don’t know how to feel.” Tamara let out a ragged breath.

  “If you want to get her out, we’ll get her out,” Call said, with feeling.

  “But we need to be careful,” Aaron cautioned. “We need to know more about the Devoured. In our Iron Year, we promised you, Tamara, that we wouldn’t let you be drawn into becoming one of them. I think that promise extends to not letting you be drawn in by them. Once someone is Devoured, are they still themselves? How much of them is left? If it was a relative of mine standing there, I would want to believe it was really them.”

  “You’re right,” Tamara said, but she didn’t look totally convinced. “I know you’re right.”

  “We’ve got a morning class today, right? The first thing we need to do afterward is go to Anastasia’s room and apologize to her,” Call said.

  “And if she is the spy, we have to make it out alive,” added Tamara.

  “Master Rufus knows where we’re going to be, though,” Aaron said. “It would be crazy to attack us. She’d get caught.”

  “Depends on whether she’s going to stick around after,” Call said. His arm ached — he was still wearing both wristbands, even though he was extra conscious of the Enemy’s now. “Look, either she’s out to get us and she’s been nice to me to lull us into a false sense of security, or she’s in league with Master Joseph and she’s being nice to me because I’m Captain Fishface. Either way, she’s dangerous.”

  “You’re not Captain Fishface,” Tamara hissed under her breath.

  “You know what I mean.” Call sighed.

  “We’ll get in and out of her room fast,” Aaron said. “Eat nothing, drink nothing, stick together. We deliver an apology, then we go. And we stay on high alert the whole time.”

  Call and Tamara nodded. As plans went, it wasn’t the greatest, but with Tamara worried about her sister and the whole room whispering about how chaos mages were bad news, it was the best they were likely to come up with. Call couldn’t help remembering what he’d realized after the Collegium ceremony: that there was a problem with the Enemy of Death being considered officially dead and the war over — in this new world, where Makars weren’t desperately needed, they made everyone afraid.

  Call wondered how class would go that morning with Master Rufus when all three of them were in such a somber mood, but to his surprise, a special guest lecturer had been scheduled for their group.

  To his even more extreme surprise, it was someone he knew: Alma from the Order of Disorder. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been trying to kidnap Havoc so she could add him to her massive stable of Chaos-ridden animals in the middle of the forest.

  She still didn’t look like a dognapper. She looked like a kindergarten teacher. Her white hair was braided into a coil against her dark skin. She wore a gray shirt over a dark green skirt. Several long strands of jade beads hung around her neck. When she saw the three of them, her gaze went immediately to Aaron. She smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, which remained deep and watchful.

  “This is my old friend Alma Amdurer,” Master Rufus said. “She taught at the Magisterium when I was an apprentice and knew my Master, Marcus.”

  Call wondered if Alma knew what had become of Marcus. Her expression didn’t change at the mention of him.

  “She knows a great deal about chaos magic. Far more, I am sorry to say, than I do. Call and Aaron, you are going to spend the morning working with Alma while I teach Tamara alone. I have been thinking a great deal about what Assemblywoman Tarquin said at the meeting of the mages and I’ve decided that, as much as I don’t like to admit it, she was correct. You need to know things, and I don’t believe I am the right person to teach them. Alma agreed to come here on very short notice, so I want you to be polite and listen very attentively.”

  The whole speech made Call more than a little nervous. Alma had been thrilled when Aaron had turned up at the Order of Disorder. She’d been dying to get her hands on a Makar. He recalled her trying to talk Aaron into returning to the Order of Disorder so she could experiment on him. Now, Master Rufus was practically handing him over.

  “Okay,” Aaron said slowly, not sounding entirely enthusiastic.

  “We’re going to stay here and work, though, right?” Tamara sounded as if she shared Call’s concerns and didn’t want to leave Aaron alone.

  “We’ll be next door.” Master Rufus waved, and the stone wall parted, rock groaning and opening a crack, wider and wider, to clear a way for himself and Tamara. He turned back to Alma. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “We’ll be fine,” she said, with a glance at Call and Aaron.

  Call watched Master Rufus and Tamara step into the next room. They looked distant and faraway through the hole Rufus had made. Tamara was trying to communicate something to Call with her face — her eyes wide and her hands making a gesture that looked like a dying bird — when the rock slammed back into place and they both were removed from view.

  Without any choice, Call turned to Alma.

  “You both look very skeptical,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t blame you. Can I tell you something that might surprise you? Master Rufus didn’t tell anyone else that he was inviting me to teach you. Not Master North. Not the Assembly. Not anyone. The Order of Disorder isn’t exactly respectable these days and neither am I.”

  “You threatened my wolf,” Call said. “And my friend.”

  Alma was still smiling. “I hope your friend here doesn’t take it personally that you mentioned the wolf first.”