“We will catch up some other time, my sweet,” the crown prince told Ella.
Darren turned on the three of us. “Now leave,” he snapped, “and next time you had best address my brother with the respect his title deserves!”
Ella turned to me as soon as we entered the barracks. “I don’t know why I let him affect me like that.” She had refused to discuss Blayne in front of my brother. I was the only one who knew about her past. “It was like I hadn’t aged at all, and I was that twelve year old girl all over again.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Alex and I won’t let him come near you again, I promise.”
She gave me a grateful smile. “I am lucky to have the two of you as friends.”
“I think you and I would have found each other, one way or another,” I said grinning. “How else would we have survived a full year of Piers and Narhari?”
She laughed, and the two of us relaxed into a comfortable silence.
“Do you think Alex still cares for me?” Ella asked abruptly. It was the first time I had ever heard her acknowledge any sort of tension between them.
I sighed, not sure I wanted to encourage my friend, or my twin. Things were complicated enough as it was. “Let’s just survive the trials first,” I told her. “We can figure out my dolt-headed brother’s intentions later.”
She sighed. “Fine…It’s probably better not to know anyway.” She paused, “Did you see Ruth earlier? Thank the gods Combat doesn’t go first. Poor thing, I don’t think she’ll be sleeping at all tonight.”
“Our turn will come soon enough,” I pointed out.
Too soon, I added silently, pulling my covers as far as they would reach. Tucked in a cocoon of blankets, I tried to ease my racing mind. There was no point in studying late this evening. I was too nervous.
Bidding Ella goodnight, I willed myself to dream.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
My family arrived early the next morning looking much better rested than any of my class. Since the first four hours of the Alchemy trials were not for public viewing we took a tour of the village instead. Most visiting families did the same, and this time Alex and I were able to tell our parents and Derrick a bit more about our experiences at the Academy. When we returned to the school around noon, a quarter of the nobility, including the Crown, was noticeably absent.
Derrick, of all people, was the one to offer up an explanation. He had overheard conversations the day before, and he explained that the first half of the Alchemy trials actually was viewable—for a price.
Usually first-year trials were held in the training field to accommodate a large audience. For the brewing stages of Alchemy, however, students needed certain accommodations. As a result, seating in the upstairs laboratory was awarded to the highest bidder. Nobility paid handsomely for the inevitable advantage an experience like that bought.
After the afternoon meal, I followed my family to the raised seating bordering the Academy field. Anyone who wasn’t participating was allowed to watch. I probably should have been preparing for my own trial two days away, but the appeal of watching the culmination of everyone’s efforts was too tempting to ignore. The rest of the factions shared the same opinion. Not one of us was absent.
A loud span of clapping erupted, and I looked back to the grass. Master Barclae and the twelve students of Alchemy had arrived. Each first-year carried a small wooden crate filled with flasks of differing colors and sizes. Some liquids were translucent and bubbling. Others were thicker and more mysterious in nature. I spotted Ruth near the end of the row, looking as pale as a ghost with bloodshot eyes and dark circles beneath. Everyone in her faction looked equally distraught.
Did they realize how hard everyone had worked to be here today? Whether any of us won an apprenticeship or not, the forty-three students left had beaten impossible odds to last this long. We had carried on at all costs. A wager was a cruel way to measure that sacrifice.
“My dearest friends,” Barclae spoke, his voice resonating across the field. “We will now commence the second half of the Alchemy trials. For the next four hours, Master Ascillia will be naming one desired casting every thirty minutes. Students’ potions will be judged on their ability to produce a desired outcome. The judges and I will evaluate each first-year’s draught, apply the necessary remedies, and then continue on to the next. No scores or remarks will be given aloud for any of the trials. Only on the seventh day will our decisions be made public during the official naming ceremony.”
Barclae took a couple steps forward so that he could join the Three on their bench in front of the first row adjacent the king and his two sons. They had a small table in front of their bench with rolls of parchment and writing ink.