Frost Prisms (The Broken Prism Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

him. Asher always stomps me in duels, and my father managed to beat him the first time around like it was nothing.”
    “But time has passed since then,” Tess insisted gently. “You don’t know how good of a fighter Master Asher was five years ago, just how good he is now. And your father has been out of practice for just as long, so maybe things won’t be as bad as they were the first time.”
    Another loud thump hit the other side of the infirmary door, causing them all to jump in unison.
    “What in the world is going on out there?” Zane grumbled. “Some kind of party in the corridor?”
    “No idea,” Hayden answered without interest. “And anyway, he may be out of practice, but he still knows spells that I will never be able to learn, courtesy of the Black Prism.”
    “But everyone says you have the most Source power they’ve ever seen—maybe even more than your father,” Zane countered mildly. “If that’s true, then you at least have more raw power than him, which gives you an advantage.”
    “That’s true…” Hayden admitted slowly.
    Hayden opened his mouth to say something else, but for the third time they were startled by the sound of something slamming against the other side of the infirmary door.
    “That tears it,” Zane stood up so rapidly that his chair was shoved backwards and toppled over behind him. “I’m going to punch whatever idiot keeps banging on the door to a sickroom.”
    Zane stomped over to the door and tugged it open with righteous fury on his face, but his expression immediately changed as he said, “Oh—hi, sir…uh, what’s going on?”
    “Sorry to bother you with all the noise,” Master Asher’s voice answered, sounding unusually strained—as though he was lifting something heavy while he spoke. “But since you’re here, do you mind grabbing his legs and helping me?”
    Intrigued and alarmed, Hayden got out of bed and hurried to see what was going on, Tess in tow. They both stopped right behind Zane, gaping at the sight of the Prism Master attempting to drag an unconscious body away from them.
    “Any day now,” Asher snapped. “I need to be ready in case more of them show up, and I don’t want their bodies littering the hallways and scaring off all the other students.”
    Still looking stunned, Zane hurried to lift the unknown man’s legs and assist with carrying him towards an unused classroom.
    “You mind telling me why you’re knocking out—I hope he’s only knocked out—strangers in the hallway?” Hayden asked curiously, following along with Tess at his side, both of them shielding the body from view of anyone who happened to walk by.
    “He’s alive—they all are,” Asher explained curtly, still straining from the effort of hauling the slightly-overweight mage into the empty classroom, where he dropped the body unceremoniously besides two others.
    Examining them more closely, Hayden noted that they were all mages—two men both slightly older than Asher, and a woman who looked a couple years younger. Judging by the equipment on their belts, the first man was a Powders major, the second a Conjury one, and the woman was carrying mostly wands.
    “Uh, I usually try not to question the weird things you do,” Hayden began uncertainly, “but I have to draw the line at hauling unconscious mages around the school. What in the world is going on here?”
    Asher spared him an unreadable glance as he chivvied them back out of the room and withdrew a prism to magically lock the door behind them.
    “Willow sent word that the Council reacted quite predictably to the news that Aleric has returned—which is to say, they went nuts.” He sighed and motioned for them to precede him into the infirmary. “He asked me to watch out for attempts to take you from Mizzenwald against your will, which is what I’ve been doing for the past couple hours. As you can see, his concern turned out to be valid; these three showed up practically on top of each other. It’s