It wasn’t that Barclay wasn’t interested in lessons from each of the teachers—he knew he needed them—but he also wanted to help with Lochmordra. And Barclay still hadn’t mastered his last assignment. What if these lessons were just more chances for him to fall behind?

Tadg elbowed Barclay in the ribs. “This never would’ve happened if you and Cecily hadn’t gotten lost.”

“Or if we hadn’t all done the contest to begin with,” Barclay countered, shooting Viola a glare. “I thought it was a bad idea from the start.”

Viola let out a “Hmph!” and turned her back to him. But Barclay wasn’t sorry. Shazi and Cecily might’ve suggested the competition, but it was Viola who had dragged them into it.

Maybe that wasn’t fair. Obviously Viola still held a grudge against Cyril and her old friends. But if any of them deserved to worry about being cast out, it was him. He was the Elsie. He was the one who couldn’t control his Lore.

He was the one who didn’t belong.

An hour later, Cyril led the seven apprentices across the mossy stone causeway to the Isle of Dunsey, Munsey’s brother island. They trekked through the quiet town to a bog at the island’s center.

Barclay opened to a fresh page in his notebook. “What is a bog?” he asked.

“It’s like a swamp,” Hasu replied, since neither Viola nor Tadg were speaking to him. “Apparently most of the Sea’s islands are covered in them.”

Barclay had never seen a swamp up close, but to him, the bog looked like a muddy field. Pools of water formed tiny rivulets that wormed through the scraggly grass, and the air smelled strongly of mud. Workers dug up clumps of dirt and grass and piled them in tall stacks.

“Why are they collecting… dirt?” asked Shazi.

“Bog peat makes good fuel for fires,” Cyril answered, and Barclay realized this explained why the hearth in the Guild House always smelled so earthy. He quickly jotted that down in his notes. “But that isn’t why I brought you here today. The bogs are home to all sorts of Beasts, and I thought we could study them. In particular, the bogs are famous for preserving the bodies and fossils of long extinct species that roamed the world thousands of years ago. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if we were to discover one?”

“Discover an old body? Like bones?” Hasu asked, horrified.

“I want to find bones!” Cecily said giddily. She leapt into the bog, splashing water on Barclay and Yasha behind her, and rubbed her hands together. “I bet I could find a good skull. Maybe a femur or two.”

Shazi rolled her eyes. “You’re so weird.”