Amon nodded. “Right. It is. But I needed to convince him that we should all stay here in Grindell Hall, which is against policy. Though you’re technically a first year, I wanted you in with fourth years.” The quill landed on the floor, and he bent down to get it. “I didn’t want to be lying awake at night, wondering if you were safe in a dormitory across campus. I wanted someone in authority to know, in case this goes wrong.”

“You trust him?”

“Aye. I trust him.”

Raisa recalled her interview with Master Askell. “That’s why he gave me such a hard time. He expected me to be temperamental and demanding.”

Amon nodded. “Right. He only agreed to what you wanted because he expected you to wash out right away.” He grinned, looking pleased with himself. “He doesn’t know you like I do.”

“He’s been coming to some of my classes,” Raisa said.

“He does that all the time anyway, but especially if he has a question about a particular student.” Amon hesitated, then plunged on. “Taim Askell is the heir to a noble Ardenine family. Remember when he asked you if you’d run away to join the army? That’s exactly what he did. He sailed across the Indio to Carthis and fought in the wars over there, working his way up from foot soldier.

“When he came back to the Seven Realms, he decided he needed schooling to become an officer. He came here. My da was his class commander. Askell thought my da was a jumped-up cake-eater, promoted beyond his abilities. Da thought Askell was an arrogant know-it-all who should shut up and learn something.”

“So what happened?” Raisa asked.

“Da never said, but the story goes they met off campus to fight it out, and beat each other up pretty bad. Then Askell shut up and learned something, and he and Da wrote a book about the Carthian wars that helped Askell get a teaching job here later on. It’s in the library, if you want to take a look.”

“What was it like, coming here to school under Askell?” Raisa asked.

“He gave me hell the first two years,” Amon said, grinning. “I saw a lot of him in my classes, too. But it ended with him making me class commander.”

C H A P T E R  S I X T E E N

A MEETING
WITH THE DEAN

In the days following the dean’s dinner, Han was so focused on charm-casting that he fell behind in his other classes. He had to prioritize, with so much to learn. He was especially keen to learn charms that would keep buildings from falling on him.

Because they were newlings, the Bayars, the Manders, and Han shared every class. They were a constant distraction.