Han pulled out his journal and looked over the notes he’d scribbled down from his sessions with Crow. He didn’t want to be caught unprepared. He wished he could take notes in the dreamworld and carry them back with him. Maybe he’d ask Crow about it.

“You meeting with Crow again?” Dancer asked, reeling wire off spools and braiding it together. He made no attempt to hide his disapproval.

“I don’t have a choice,” Han said. “I’m learning a lot. You know that.” Han always shared what he learned with Dancer.

“If any of it works,” Dancer said. “Those charms you used on the Bayars—has anything come of that?”

Han shrugged. “I haven’t heard anything. But at least I got in and out of their rooms without a hitch.” He’d waited till darkman’s hour, then ghosted down to the second floor. Disabling their protective charms using Crow’s instructions, he slipped into their rooms and took hair clippings in order to anchor his charms to them.

“I’d think between your regular classes and what you’re getting from Abelard, you’d have more than enough to do,” Dancer said. “You must be stuffed full of knowledge by now.”

“You should talk,” Han said, gesturing at Dancer’s project. “You spend all your spare time on flash, and holed up with Firesmith.”

“At least I know who Firesmith is,” Dancer said. “And I don’t have to go to Aediion to meet with him.” He shook his head. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Just then they heard someone clumping up the stairs.

“Blevins,” Han said.

Dancer tossed a blanket over his metalsmithing equipment.

The dorm master’s head and shoulders appeared in the open stairwell. He glared around, struggling to catch his breath. One good thing about being on the fourth floor was that Blevins never came up there unless he absolutely had to.

“What’s all this furniture doing on the landing?” he demanded, waving at the little common area they’d created.

“We’re airing it out,” Dancer said.

“Hmpfh,” Blevins grunted. “They an’t filled with vermin, are they?”

“Vermin?” Dancer raised his eyebrows. “Why do you ask?”

“Seems we have a vermin problem on the second floor,” Blevins said. “Three of the rooms is infested with rats and mice. Every time I think we got them cleared out, a whole flood shows up again. They must be coming from somewhere.”

“It can’t be just three rooms,” Han said, careful not to look at Dancer. “You see one mouse, you know you got a problem everywhere.”

“Them boys must be doing something to attract them is all I can say,” Blevins muttered. “I moved them into different rooms while I was trying to smoke ’em out of theirs, and the critters followed ’em like a swarm of bees.”

“Who?” Dancer asked Blevins, with a puzzled frown. “What boys?”