e

at the ceiling, and went over everything I knew. Elemental theory. The forms of channelling. The seven principles of focus. I

't do an

oor was black ice, ground smooth as glass and kept frozen all year by old wards in the foundation stones. Frostveil had held its first as

e had been saying it all morning. "It's forty seconds. You do

ng," I said, "consider

our nothing wi

but it ca

on my shoulders. Master Corvane stood on the ice holding a list in his scarred left hand. He was a thin, grey-faced man who looked as if he had been tired for twenty

e at a time, in

from both palms in two long ribbons that twisted around each other and climbed toward the ceiling before they b

lk, spun from his fingertips and wrote his initials in the air as neatly as a signature before it faded. He t

breath, and shoved out both hands. A gust of wind, completely out of control, ripped across the hall and se

stood blinking, with his

low I thought sh

her, and she knew it, and she grinned all the way back to her sea

ane called, and t

d onto

hoes on the frozen floor. I could hear someone coughing in the third gallery. I could smell cold st

he centre and

s said. Find the thread an

nd in the dark of my bed as a little girl, begging whatever might listen. I reached down inside myself for the

was only me, warm and ordinar

dren glowing one by one like lamps being lit, and how it ha

y. Somebody in the gallery giggled. It started smal

eyes. Nothin

said, and I could hear how carefully

er Co

the calm, reasonable look of a boy who had ne

galleries as much as to the teacher. "Magic often wakes under pressure. A shock. Is

rt of the asse

s no magic, it's just a bit of warmth. And if she does, we'll finally

g. House Voss had paid for the new library wing. House Voss paid half his salary, one way or another. I

"The lowest level only, and yo

ourse

t the ice two inc

there was no floor under me at all, only air and a flat, slamming crack as my knees and pa

stopp

, strolling across the ice toward

were bleeding thr

, and I stumbled from one side to the other like an animal in a pen while the galleries howled. Someone shouted, "Dance, scholarship!" Nyssel

that only I could hear. "Say you

nderneath anger, the part that holds when everything else gives out. I thought of my mo

ighten

t hoarse and perfectly level. "You were handed

ile va

d to ice, a deep, hard cold that took the breath out of my lungs. Throug

ane stood alo

d under his fingers frost was spreading along the rail in jagged white veins. His face gave nothi

said sharply.

real ball, white at the heart and so bright that the shadows jumped back from it. He was furious. A girl

san

hrew

mall white sun, and I thought, with a strange cle

he ice

whole world had taken a breath. The black ice under me slid. It carried me sideways in one smooth movement,

as a sound like a bell cracking. Steam burst across the hall in a white sheet. The wall shuddered and rippled a

he ice closed over his boots and locked them to the stone, and he sat th

y bre

't said any words of invocation. I hadn't reached, called, focused, or done one thing the textboo

low spiral, glowing silver at the edges. Master Corvane stared at them. His s

lowly, "was not a

d all the way around it. He wasn't angry. I had seen him angry. His face was bone white, and his lips were a little apa

Then he turne

was out of breath, and she gripped my arm

know," I

't crying about Lysander, or the laughter, or the burned hem of my skirt. It was something much stranger. I had been knocking on

t so badly my chest hurt. And I had no idea if she would be pr