The Copper Gauntlet

Call tried to smile at Aaron encouragingly, but Aaron wasn’t looking at him.

Master Rufus went on to outline the rest of the year’s studies. They were going to go on missions in the forest surrounding the Magisterium and do small tasks — move the paths of streams, put out fires, make observations of their surroundings, and bring back items for further study. A few of their missions would include other apprentice groups, and, eventually, all of the Copper Year students would be sent together to capture rogue elementals.

Call thought about camping under the stars with Tamara and Aaron and Havoc. It sounded great. They could make s’mores — or at least toast some lichen — and tell ghost stories. Until their Copper Year ran out and summer started again, they could pretend the rest of the world and all its expectations didn’t exist.

That night, Call was on his way to the Mission Gate with Havoc when Celia caught up to him. She had changed out of the uniform they had to wear during school hours and was wearing a fuzzy pink skirt and a pink-and-green-striped blouse.

“Are you headed to the Gallery?” she asked, a little out of breath. “We could go together.”

He usually loved the warm pools and fizzy drinks and movies of the Gallery, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to be around so many people right then. “I was just taking Havoc for a walk.”

“I’ll come along.” She smiled at him as if she really thought that standing outside in the muggy mosquito-infested dark with him was just as much fun as the Gallery. She bent to pet Havoc’s head.

“Uh, okay,” Call said, unable to hide his surprise. “Great.”

They went outside and watched as Havoc nosed around patches of weeds. Fireflies lit the air like sparks from a fire.

“Gwenda snuck a pet in this year,” Celia said abruptly. “Fuzzball. She says that since you guys get to keep a wolf, her ferret should be no big deal. The ferret’s not even Chaos-ridden. Jasper’s allergic, though, so I don’t know if she’ll be able to keep her, no matter what she says.”

Call grinned. Anything that was bad for Jasper had to be good for the world. “I think I like Fuzzball.”

It turned out that Celia was a font of information. She told Call which apprentice had a weird rash, who got cave lice, which Iron Year supposedly wet the bed. Celia knew about Alex and Kimiya breaking up and about Alex sulking. She also claimed that Rafe was a cheater.

“On tests?” Call asked, confused.

“No,” Celia said, laughing. “He kissed one girl on the mouth after he told another girl that he liked her. It’s Susan DeVille, who cheats on tests. She writes the answers on her wrist in invisible ink and then uses magic to turn it purple.”

“You know everything,” Call said, amazed. He had no idea that apprentices were telling one another that they liked one another. “What about Jasper? Tell me something bad about Jasper.”

She gave him a reproachful look. “Jasper’s nice. I don’t know anything bad about him.”

Call sighed in disappointment, just as Havoc trotted back toward them with an enormous leaf-covered branch in his mouth. He dropped it at Call’s feet, tail wagging, as though he’d brought over a regular-size stick he hoped Call would throw.

After a moment of awed silence, both Call and Celia began to laugh.

After that, Celia joined him for Havoc’s evening walk most nights. Sometimes Tamara and Aaron came, too, but since Tamara took Havoc for morning walks and Aaron got extra Makar work piled on top of his regular studies, mostly they begged off.

One day toward the end of September, someone else joined Call on the path outside school. He thought for a second when he saw a boy loping toward him in jeans and a sweater — the hot weather had cooled off and there was a definite chill in the air — that it was Aaron, but as he got closer, Call realized it was Alex Strike.