“Let’s do this,” Viola breathed. “We’ll prove that Runa is the better teacher.”

But Barclay wasn’t convinced. Maybe it was from living in Dullshire, but he didn’t like breaking rules. Runa already felt that Barclay lagged behind Tadg and Viola, which meant if all three of them were punished, he’d probably be punished the worst. If Barclay was banished from Munsey, he had nowhere else to go.

But he didn’t want to voice that to the others. Instead, he said, “But what if we encounter dangerous Beasts?”

“You want to be a Guardian, don’t you?” Tadg taunted. “You should be able to handle it.”

He should be. But Barclay couldn’t control his Lore like the rest of them.

The others didn’t give Barclay a chance to change their minds. Within five minutes, they had each kicked off their boots. Cecily used her shadow Lore to swallow up the Sunboards and stow the black marbles in her pocket. Shazi removed her prosthetic. And Viola untied her hair from her buns and braided it into two pigtails.

Cecily slapped one of the stolen Polypops in Barclay’s hand. He grimaced. It was cold and slimy. And it was even grosser when he looped it around his ears like the others. He felt like he was breathing through a booger.

Each of the apprentices trekked into the ocean. It was frigid, and it would certainly be colder the deeper they dove.

This was going to be miserable.

Once the water reached their waists, Tadg summoned Mar-Mar, the terrifying Nathermara that he’d inherited from his father. Mar-Mar looked like a lamprey, and his fleshy gray body was lit from within by lightninglike sparks that sizzled through his veins. He was also massive, over a hundred feet long. And when he lifted his head out of the water, baring a hideous circular mouth of teeth, Barclay cowered, expecting to be eaten.

Instead, Mar-Mar just shrieked. Hasu and Viola both covered their ears, but Tadg, face-to-face with the Beast, rolled his eyes as though bored. “Yes, I know you’re happy to be home. We need a ride.”

“That’s a happy noise?” Hasu asked. “He sounds like he wants to kill us!”

“Oh, he does. But I keep reminding him that killing people is rude.”

“Maybe he gets his rudeness from you,” Viola muttered.

Ignoring her, Tadg hoisted himself onto Mar-Mar’s back. “Well, come on,” he told everyone.

After such a description, Barclay hardly wanted to pet Mar-Mar, let alone ride him. But the others all did as Tadg instructed, so he had no choice. Barclay clutched the Beast’s side, wishing Mar-Mar had fins or scales he could grab onto. Knowing his luck, he’d be thrown off Mar-Mar’s back and lost out at Sea.

“This better not make me sick,” Yasha grumbled.

Then, before Barclay could even muster up his nerve, Mar-Mar dove.