The Schism (The Broken Prism Book 4) Read online

  The Schism

  The Broken Prism, Book 4

  V. St. Clair

  Aleric,

  I hope you read this letter and see it for what it truly is. This is not an attempt to deceive or betray you—it never was. This is my last, desperate plea to make you see reason, to remember who you once were. Your desire for learning and discovery has taken you on this terrible road, and now even I fear you are beyond recall.

  Imperfect prisms have led you to disaster—this is the truth, though you don’t yet see it because the repercussions have not caught up to you. But they will. The natural order of the world dictates that they must, eventually. Please, meet with me, and I will do all I can to help you. I believe we can undo some of the damage that has been done to your mind—I have studied nothing else for these last five years. If you don’t accept this overture now, then I’m afraid the next time we meet it will be in battle.

  I am not your enemy, Aleric. No matter how far gone you are, I hope you will always remember that.

  -Ash

  1

  An Unexpected Guest

  It was hard to say how a yeti had ended up in Calypso in the dead of winter.

  The eight-foot tall, fur-covered monster was native to the high mountains, where the weather was always cold and snowy. Hayden Frost had never even heard of one being seen in the lowlands before, and had no idea how this one had wandered so far from its home.

  Yet there it stood, in the middle of the Festival Square, gnawing on something that looked suspiciously like a human leg bone, its white fur matted with the blood of its latest victim. Hayden approached it cautiously, making sure to stay well out of arm’s reach as he contemplated his options.

  Yeti hides are very thick; only my most powerful spells will be able to penetrate it.

  Letting his eyes wander around the mostly empty square, he caught sight of Zane creeping along behind the buildings, sneaking up on the yeti from behind and trying not to draw its attention. This was the plan they’d agreed on when they were asked to take this commission and rid Calypso of the man-eating beast who had come to terrorize them.

  Having endured much scarier fights than this before, Hayden wasn’t particularly frightened of what he and Zane were about to attempt—though he wished he had a smaller audience. Despite the fact that the Festival Square and surrounding area appeared deserted, he spotted dozens of onlookers peeking out from the windows of the nearby businesses and houses, which had been hastily boarded up when the yeti came to town two days prior. Zane even had to talk his family out of coming to watch them do battle—as if it was an interesting carnival attraction—saying that he couldn’t work properly with his sisters and parents gawking at him.

  Hayden rubbed his hands together to try and put some warmth back into his numb fingers, watching his breath rise in front of him in a white cloud. All he really accomplished was making his already-numb fingers ache from the friction. Zane had finally moved into position behind the yeti and was drawing on the ground with a piece of bright orange conjury chalk, which drew through the snow and ice on the ground as though it wasn’t even there.

  Pulling the eyepiece of his circlet into position before his right eye, Hayden twisted it slowly, contemplating the different arrays available to him in the mastery-level crystal prism. Each click of the eyepiece sounded loud to him as the clear prism rotated slowly before him.

  Tiring of the leg bone it was gnawing on and ready for a fresh victim, the yeti suddenly swiveled his head and looked right at him, narrowing its beady gaze, preparing to attack. Hayden felt his heart rate pick up as adrenaline kicked in, but he remained calm.

  I survived a war. Surely I can survive battle with a single yeti.

  He stepped forward as Zane completed his conjury circle and gave him the thumbs-up, taking aim at the yeti through his prism. The yeti lowered its head a little and lumbered towards him, closing the distance between them in a few long strides, but before it could reach Hayden, Zane activated his conjury circle and thick vines shot out of the ground like ropes, twisting around the beast’s arms and legs.

  The yeti was forcibly slowed by the constraints, struggling to continue forward, ripping the vines away from its body as it roared at Hayden and inched closer. Hayden took a few steps back and cast Sever at its head, hoping for a quick kill, but to his annoyance his spell missed entirely and instead sliced away the vines that were holding it in place. Lurching from the sudden lack of resistance, the yeti staggered forward and then charged him again, and Hayden had no choice but to dive out of the way, hitting the snow-covered cobblestones hard and bruising his elbows from the impact, before rolling back to his feet as the yeti turned to attack again.

  Zane cursed from somewhere nearby and was already drawing another circle, while Hayden twisted the clear prism as fast as possible and cast the first useful array he came upon: Pierce. This time his aim was better, and the yeti let out a roar of pain as the fur around its stomach blossomed with blood. Hayden took advantage of the pause to search for another alignment, while Zane activated his second summoning circle and called forth a column of bright orange light that seemed to come down from the sky itself and encircle the yeti. The blast of heat from it was so strong that Hayden’s freezing extremities ached from the sudden burst of warmth, and the snow melted on the cobblestones all around them.

  The yeti roared in pain as Hayden settled on another alignment and took aim, casting Stop directly at the monster’s heart.

  With a loud groan, the yeti dropped dead.

  Exhaling in relief, Hayden lifted his eyepiece and began dusting the snow from his clothing while Zane approached him.

  “What was all that about?” his friend greeted him grumpily. “Were you just trying to keep me on my toes by breaking the vines from my first circle? You know I don’t have unlimited chalk.”

  Scowling, Hayden replied, “Sorry about that. My severing spell missed the mark.”

  “That’s an understatement.” Zane rolled his eyes. “You must not have been paying attention at all if your will was that poorly distributed.”

  “Yeah, well, it happens sometimes,” Hayden responded, nettled.

  “It shouldn’t,” Zane continued doggedly.

  People were beginning to exit the boarded up buildings now that the yeti was dead, applauding and cheering as they drew nearer. Despite the victory, Hayden had no desire to deal with them right now, his mood as black as ever since he’d come to Calypso.

  “It seems to be happening to you a lot more ever since term ended and we came back to my house for the winter break,” Zane persisted flatly. “And I know you’re still having nightmares about the war, because you flail around in your bed half the night these days, while Bonk dances around trying to think of a way to console you.”

  “Come on, let’s get away from all these people before they insist on another celebratory feast,” Hayden grumbled, pulling his fur hat down over his ears as he turned and walked briskly down the snow-dusted lane that led out of town, ignoring the people who called out to him and concentrating on not slipping on the slick cobblestones. His elbows felt swollen, but they weren’t bleeding or broken, so Hayden simply tried to avoid bending his arms much until he could get back to Zane’s house and examine them more closely. He probably could have fixed them with a spell or tincture on the spot, but for some reason he found himself almost relishing the pain, as though he deserved it in some bizarre way.

  It took Zane a few minutes to catch up to him, but Hayden didn’t mind the solitude. He imagined that his friend was making up an excuse for his sudden departure and accepting the town’s gratitude for the both of them. When he did finally jog up to Hayden, he offered him one
of two long canine teeth with blood on one end.

  “Spoils from our kill,” Zane explained needlessly, as Hayden pocketed it. It was customary for mages to keep something from the monsters they slayed as proof of their skill, which would earn them more commissions in the future and more money for their work. It didn’t seem terribly important at the moment.

  “Thanks.”

  They walked in silence for a few moments, passing the tailor’s shop and following the path out of the town and into the farmlands.

  “I don’t get why you’re having nightmares about the war now, since you didn’t seem to be really bothered by them until the school year was over,” Zane said gently, resuming their previous conversation.

  “I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it before then; I was focused on getting through finals and just taking things as they came,” Hayden replied.

  The northern sorcerers had invaded the Forest of Illusions the year before, and most of Hayden’s teachers had been called to battle, where they lost contact for months on end. It wasn’t until Hayden’s familiar—Bonk—got sick that he decided he’d had enough waiting and wondering, and led a group down to the Forest to investigate the situation. Things took a turn for the worse, and he ended up fighting in the war he wanted no part of, and inadvertently blew up a few hundred sorcerers in the process. He was hailed as a war hero—the medal had arrived from Kargath a week ago and was presently sitting in the bottom of his bag—but he felt no satisfaction from it. He knew how many people had died protecting him so that he’d have enough time to bring down the Suppressors that were dampening their magical power.

  “Look, I know you’re bummed out about accidentally killing all those sorcerers, but they were landing an invasion force and would have cheerfully destroyed us all—”

  “It isn’t the sorcerers that give me nightmares,” Hayden cut his friend off. “Well, not really. I’ve accepted that things worked out for the best, even though I didn’t want to be the person responsible for all those lives…” he sighed. “It’s just hard not to think about all the people on our side that died to buy me time with those Suppressors, people I never even knew, who probably didn’t even like me anyway. Now people keep treating me like some hero—”

  “Which you are…” It was Zane’s turn to interrupt him. “If you hadn’t brought down those dampeners, we would have lost the war.”

  “I know, but it’s not like I took down the crystals with any great personal skill. I was casting simple magic that anyone could have done, and the only reason it worked for me where it failed for others is because my Foci are so messed up that I had three-inch correctors buffering most of the magical backlash. I didn’t do anything special, but now I’ve got this medal in my backpack, and people at school and even here in Calypso suddenly want to shake my hand and be my friend and tell me how great I am. I don’t deserve the praise, and I’m tired of wondering whether strangers are only being nice to me because I’m popular now. It was almost easier being an outcast who everyone hated, because at least then I knew who my real friends were.”

  Zane frowned thoughtfully.

  “I guess I can see your point, but there’s not a lot you can do about what other people think of you.” He shrugged. “If you’re trying to avoid all the fame and glory, then why did you even agree to take the commission against the yeti with me when the mayor came to us about it? You know every time we save a village from a monster we just get more and more attention.”

  “I don’t know,” Hayden sighed. “I guess I thought that if I helped take down the yeti, I’d feel like I sort of earned my new reputation, at least here in Calypso. But then I nearly messed that up when my spell went awry. If you hadn’t been there to draw another circle, the yeti probably would have ripped my arms off before I could find a good array to use against it.”

  “Don’t sweat it, Hayden, we’re teammates.” Zane led the way up the front walk to his parents’ house. “Besides, we all mess up a spell every now and again.”

  “Yeah, but like you said, my magic has been a lot less reliable since we got back from school. I can’t seem to focus properly half the time, even when I’m concentrating as hard as I can.”

  “Then we’re not taking any more commissions until you get things sorted out, because there’s no sense in us risking our necks for no good reason,” Zane insisted, and Hayden nodded in agreement, yawning widely. The constant anxiety-nightmares that had plagued him for the last few weeks left him exhausted during the day.

  They stepped into the warmth of the house to find most of Zane’s family eagerly awaiting their return. Hayden’s numb skin began to prickle from the heat of the fire in the living room grate. Bonk, who was covered in soot from rolling around in the fireplace, shook off the burning bits of wood and flew over to perch on Hayden’s shoulder. Hayden could feel the heat radiating off of his familiar like a tiny sun.

  “Did you get it?” Florette—Zane’s youngest sister—bounced towards them, trying to see behind them as though they’d dragged the yeti carcass home with them.

  Zane held up the bloody tooth he’d acquired for himself.

  “Got him.”

  There was a general cheer amongst the group, as his parents pushed their way through their cluster of daughters to embrace their only son. Hayden swallowed an unexpected lump of emotion from the knowledge that his own mother would never be there to hug him again.

  I guess I’m destined to be in a bad mood today.

  Bonk must have sensed something of his feelings, because he cuffed Hayden affectionately with one wing, and Hayden forced a smile for Zane’s family while his friend retold the story of their victory, nodding occasionally in confirmation whenever anyone looked to him. He couldn’t help but notice that Zane downplayed his magical failures to make it sound like he just simply missed, a mistake anyone could make.

  As soon as everyone was done celebrating their victory over the yeti, Hayden made up an excuse to retreat to the bedroom he shared with Zane, desperate for some time alone. He collapsed onto the mattress and closed his eyes, his body succumbing to fatigue. He wanted to let sleep take him, since he’d been having nightmares for longer than he cared to remember, but he couldn’t see how this time would be any different. Instead he dedicated his time to weighing the pros and cons of sleeping in his head, trying to decide whether it was worth it.

  Occasionally his thoughts were punctuated by giggling from downstairs; it sounded like Florette was trying to coax Bonk into cuddling with her, though the dragonling apparently refused to leave the warmth and safety of the burning fireplace. Hayden didn’t blame him for taking sanctuary where none of Hayden’s sisters could reach him.

  He let his thoughts drift to Tess, wondering what she was doing right now and whether she was thinking about him. Given her demonstrated hunting prowess last year, she was probably out collecting a winter’s worth of food for her and her father to share until the next school term started. He tried to imagine what she would say to him if she knew he was having nightmares and screwing up his magic.

  She’d tell me that I’m a good person and that she supports me.

  Hayden shook his head and draped an arm over his closed eyes. In truth, he had no idea why he was still so upset about his involvement in the war last year, and about the fame and popularity that had come about as a result of it. He accepted that he did what he had to do, that he wasn’t a bad person, and yet there was still something blocked inside of him that wouldn’t let him rest and move on.

  Sighing, he lurched out of bed and rummaged around in his knapsack in the corner of the room, tossing clothing over his shoulder with careless disregard until he found what he was looking for at the very bottom.

  He lifted the Medal of Heroism to eye-level and studied it for the umpteenth time since receiving it. The medal was cut in the shape of a star, rendered in crystal so that it would catch the light if he ever actually wore it, reminiscent of a prism. It was edged with some sort of silver metal to make the
shape more definitive, and hung on a blue velvet ribbon that could either be folded and pinned to his clothing or draped around his neck. It was one of the highest honors a person could receive in the Nine Lands, and he had acquired one before his fifteenth birthday.

  Hayden shoved it back into his bag and began piling his clothing on top of it once more. The thought of actually wearing the thing in public made him shudder, like a declaration of arrogance for the whole world to see.

  He was halfway through repacking his bag when a gentle knock on the door stirred him from his thoughts. Expecting Zane, Hayden turned and was momentarily surprised to find Zane’s mother looking back at him, Bonk perched on her shoulder. Since he had left the door ajar when he came in here to sulk, he wondered how long she had been standing there watching him in silence. Judging by the sympathetic, slightly sad look on her face, longer than he would’ve cared for.

  “Hi, Mrs. Laraby,” he blurted out on instinct. “Sorry about the mess in here; I was just cleaning up now.” He had no idea why he bothered; whatever she had come up here to talk to him about, it wasn’t the state of Zane’s bedroom, which usually looked like a tornado had recently swept through it.

  “I thought you might be napping,” she ignored his previous greeting, stepping further into the room and setting herself gently on the edge of Zane’s mattress to face him. “I’m told that fighting monsters can be very tiring work.”

  Hayden forced a small smile and resumed packing his knapsack, much slower this time, mostly to give himself something to look at other than Mrs. Laraby, because she made him miss his own mother.

  “Usually it is, but this one went pretty quick. The worst part was the cold and the ice.”

  “Zane tells me you’ve been having trouble sleeping, and that your magic is beginning to suffer as a result,” she changed the subject abruptly.

  Without thinking, Hayden responded, “Zane talks too much.”