Forest of Illusions (The Broken Prism) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was built like a forge-worker.
    “How was your break, sir?” he ventured cautiously, not sure if it was an impertinent question.
    “Not my best, but fair enough. Access to the Forest of Illusions is becoming greatly restricted, which hampers the bulk of my research, but I had other things to look into that passed the time tolerably.”
    “Are we still d oing challenge arenas this year with the war going on?” Hayden asked, capitalizing on the Master’s willingness to talk to him.
    Master Kilgore narrowed his eyebrows and said, “For now, yes. If things take a turn for the worse, the challenge arenas will likely be cancelled to free up our evenings.”
    Hayden nodded grimly, but the Master of Elixirs startled him by adding, “I expect you’re looking forward to dropping Lorn Trout from your arena team this year?”
    His immediate instinct was to agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, but something gave him pause. It seemed like a strange thing to ask out of nowhere, and Kilgore was watching him closely, which meant this was probably a test of some sort.
    “I don’t know…” Hayden began neutrally. “If he’s still a good fit for our team then he stays. If I find someone better at Powders or with a broader skillset then I guess I’ll try and trade him.”
    Master Kilgore let out a low chuckle and said, “Glad to see you learned something last year. Carry on, Frost.”
    The Master returned to the accounting with Kly after they added Hayden’s purchases to the roster, and Hayden made his way back to the castle with his belongings, still thinking about what Kilgore had said. Obviously he had been pleased with Hayden’s response…
    But why? What was he looking for?
    Hayden thought back to last year, when he had first found out that Lorn Trout was going to be in his arena group. He was at dinner when Zane told him, and he’d immediately left the room to go shout at the Prism Master about it. Was there a chance that the other Masters had found out about that at some point?
    Probably; I’m sure they all share information about their students with each other.
    Hayden frowned. Now that he thought about it, he had done an awful lot of shouting at the Masters last year, and on one occasion he even dueled the Prism Master on the front lawns, after his first horrific challenge arena of the year. In retrospect, that was probably a bad thing.
    Maybe that’s what Kilgore was looking for— he frowned thoughtfully— to see if I’ve calmed down and gotten control of myself.
    It was unnerving to think that his teachers were watching him so closely, but it was also strangely comforting to know that they were invested in his future. As he unpacked his bags, he realized he had a lot to think about this year.

3
    The Absorber
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Hayden’s friends didn’t return to school until the day before the start of term, and he spent most of the intervening time playing ‘fetch’ with Bonk and Cinder or doing research in the library. In the entirety of his previous two years at Mizzenwald, Hayden realized he had only been to the library on the second floor a handful of times to look up reference materials for his homework assignments.
    By the end of the week he thought he knew it well enough to work there. Kept behind the only set of glass doors that Mizzenwald had, it was either a very low-ceilinged room or else it just felt that way due to all the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves throughout it. The room wasn’t laid out in an open rectangle like most of the other areas in the school, but was some sort of irregular shape that meant he had to turn corners and follow short corridors to find different sections of it, reminiscent of a maze that he might have to navigate in the challenge arenas (but lacking the monsters).
    There was an art to the organization of the books as well, which took the better part of his first day to figure out. Books were grouped in broad categories, and then by either author,