“How would he find us on Hanalea? Don’t you have to be able to visualize a place before you visit it in Aediion?” Dancer said.

Han shrugged. “I got no idea. I don’t know how this works. But maybe somebody overheard us saying we were meeting there.” Maybe I should go back and read the text, he thought.

“So what happened?” Dancer said. “Did he say anything?”

Han remembered what Crow had said. Do not tell a soul about this.

No reason he had to do as Crow commanded. “He said he wanted to partner up with me against the Bayars. He offered to teach me magic. Then Gryphon yanked me back.”

Dancer looked at Han for a long moment, his brows drawn together. Finally he said, “Well, you were lucky, Hunts Alone. Fiona went after Abelard because Gryphon and Micah were out almost as long as you. We were beginning to think nobody was coming back. I was about ready to open the portal and go back after you when they woke up. Gryphon rushed over and revived you.”

“Huh,” Han said. “Well, if Gryphon really went to Aediion, he must be stoked, then. He still had plenty of power on board, and I was nearly out.”

“How did you leave it with Crow, then?” Dancer asked.

Han snorted. “I didn’t say, one way or the other, but I an’t a fool. Seems chancy to take lessons from someone I don’t know in a place where I don’t know the rules.”

Just like Oden’s Ford, he thought.

The bells in Mystwerk Tower sounded the end of the first class period, meaning they had fifteen minutes to walk downriver to their next class at Healer’s Hall. Something about amulets and talismans.

“I’ll walk you back to Hampton, and then go on to class,” Dancer said.

“I an’t going back to Hampton,” Han said, turning onto the gallery along the river. “I don’t want to miss class. We’re behind enough already.”

“But Master Gryphon said—”

“We won’t tell him, all right?”

But Crow’s words still sounded in his mind, like a phrase of music he couldn’t forget.

I can teach you how to use that amulet. I can teach you marvelous things.

C H A P T E R  F O U R T E E N

DEAN’S
DINNER

When Han returned to Gryphon’s class the next day, he made sure he did nothing to call attention to himself. His amulet was still low on power, though he’d stoked it all night long. He kept a hand wrapped around it all morning, and it greedily sucked him dry.

His report on his visit to Aediion was as sketchy as anyone’s. Gryphon smashed his lips together tight, but said nothing after except “Thank you, Alister. That is, indeed, a remarkable story.”

Micah and Fiona provided equally vague reports.