The statue was worn, but the master’s eyes were stern and watchful. Maya had probably made sure the statue captured something of her memories of her old master.
Master Garlan stood above a fountain, in the centre of a grove of trees not far from the sandstone buildings of the Academy of Enchanters. From some unseen source, water filled an upper pool at the statue’s base, the run-off spilling down a series of smaller pools, finally flowing along a narrow canal, about a foot wide and deep, paved and walled with stone. At the end of the canal the water turned down a further series of steps before ending up at the largest pool of all, far beneath the statue’s base. Somehow it all made its way back to the top, where the cycle started again.
Evora looked up at the statue’s eyes and her breath caught. Master Garlan was looking at a particular part of the stone canal.
“Under the bed,” she muttered to herself. “Guarded by the watchful eyes of the old master.”
Evora walked to where the statue was gazing. Here the water followed its level path, hemmed in by stone on either side. She sat on the canal's low wall and peered down into the water. Some passing girls in the green woolen dresses of students looked at her curiously, but Evora was a full enchantress, apprenticed to a master, and she was allowed to do odd things.
Evora lifted her dress above her knees and hopped over the wall, standing now in the flow of the water, feeling it cool on her calves. Evora thought she could see some symbols on one of the fitted stones that paved the stream, but looking through the water as she was, she couldn’t be sure.
How could she find out if there was something under the riverbed? She obviously had to remove the water, yet as far as Evora knew, the fountain had been flowing for hundreds of years. She didn’t think it would be possible to turn it off, or if there would be anyone alive who would know how. What would she say to them, anyway?
She would have to come up with a better way.
~
The next day, Evora returned to the fountain carrying a polished metal rod, covered with arcane symbols. She was eager to try out the object she’d spent all night working on
As she approached, Evora glanced at the place in the canal where the frowning eyes of Master Garlan pointed the way. However instead of heading down to the canal, she climbed up to the statue’s base until she was close to the water of the uppermost pool. She still couldn’t see how the water from below was carried up to this pool, but she hoped it wouldn’t matter.
Evora spoke ten words and the tip of the rod in her hand turned blue. Hoping that the enchantment she had created would work, Evora touched the surface of the pool with the rod.
Instantly, the water froze.
Evora could see new water start to well on top of the frozen pool, but the water ran over the hard ice and spilled over the sides instead of flowing into the canal below. She had time, but not much.
Evora climbed back down, following the little canal. Already the water level was dropping as the water from the canal drained to the lower pool without being replaced. Evora’s heart raced as she watched the level continue to fall, until finally the stones of the canal’s floor were exposed to the air.
Again Evora climbed into the canal, and she could now see that there were definitely symbols on one of the stone blocks between her feet. Under Master Garlan’s stern gaze she crouched and peered down at the flat block, perhaps six inches on each side, desperate to translate the runes and find the activation sequence before the water returned to the canal.
With a surge of triumph, Evora knew she had it.
She said the words.
At first nothing happened. Then, as Evora looked down, the block began to sink. As it disappeared further into the ground she could see a space open up. The block stopped moving, and Evora quickly felt into the space.
Her hand found paper, and Evora withdrew a single scroll, old, but dry and undamaged.
Before the returning water could enter the space Evora spoke the words to move the stone block back into place. She didn’t know how Maya had dealt with the water, but it no longer mattered. She had found the scroll.
But Evora knew that with her demonstration at noon the next day and no knowledge at all about what was in the scroll, she would need to apply herself like she never had before.
~
The three apprentices stood in the centre of the Great Court, waiting for Master Zoran to tell them who would be the first to give his or her demonstration.
In his green enchanter’s robe, Barrick looked like he was trying not to appear nervous and failing miserably. Next to Barrick was a trough filled with water, evidently required for the demonstration he was about to give.