“They’re my…” Viola shook her head and swallowed. “They’re Cyril Harlow’s apprentices.”

SEVEN

That evening, the seven apprentices returned to the Guild House, waiting for the other Guardians to arrive.

Across the room, Cyril Harlow silently paced by the fireplace.

He looked as Barclay remembered, pale and very slender, with brown hair cut blunt and short and wearing clothes spangled in medals and adornments. His forehead glistened with sweat. If Barclay didn’t know better, he’d guess that Cyril might be sick.

“Why would the High Keeper hire both Cyril and the Fang of Dusk?” one of the new girls whispered beside him—the friendly one with the dimples. According to Viola, her name was Hasu Mayani, and the girl with the metal prosthetic was Shazi Essam. “Doesn’t she know they hate each other?”

“Maybe she didn’t care,” said the slouchy girl with the magpie Beast. Viola hadn’t known her name. “If Lochmordra is attacking the islands of the Sea, it sounds like she could use all the help she can get.”

“Well, whatever it is, I don’t want to have to leave,” grumbled Shazi, who was busy polishing one of her sabers. Barclay had never met a kid who carried around a sword, but Shazi had two of them. “It took us ages to travel here.”

“Where did you travel—?” Barclay started to ask, but Viola immediately shushed him. Just because the seven of them were sitting at the same table didn’t mean they were speaking. In fact, Viola seemed determined not to look at the three girls, not once. For twenty minutes, she’d buried her face in A Traveler’s Log, but Barclay had yet to see her turn a page.

It must’ve been hard for Viola to see Cyril again. Barclay still never understood why Cyril would’ve fired Viola as a student. She was the hardest-working and smartest person he knew.

But what he was really nervous about was what would happen when Runa returned. The last time Runa and Cyril had seen each other, Cyril had testified against Runa for a crime she hadn’t committed. And even before that, it was no secret that the Fang of Dusk and the Horn of Dawn loathed each other.

Mitzi, however, was delighted to be reunited with old friends. She flew around the spiral staircase with the beelike Beast.

Beneath their table, Root also ignored Viola’s no-speaking rule and curiously padded over to the scorpion Beast, who was almost as large as he was. But when he bent down for a butt sniff, the scorpion jerked its pointy tail. Root growled at it, then scampered back to Barclay’s side.

“You’re all right, boy,” Barclay told him, scratching Root behind the ear.