Oracle (Book I)

Resting Place

Like a thin shell of ice, the protective spell over the students melted.

Caprice didn't even flinch at the racket around her. She took her out her wand and gripped it tight, feeling the remainder of her outburst channeling down her arm and into the wood.

Mr. Clang and Karrigan lay sprawled on the floor before her. A moaning Karrigan's face was buried in the thick cream of a bilberry pie and some gravy from a tureen. Caprice gripped the false wand in her hand, feeling it burn with her power.

A hand grabbed her wrist and Caprice's head swung around. Professor Earithean coolly gazed into her furious eyes, appearing utterly calm.

"That is quite enough, Miss Bilberry," the professor said quietly.

"I think Bossa's rubbing off on you," Grace Sula said from nearby, laughing nervously. She pulled a squished bit of treacle tart off her butt with a grimace.

Alastair stumbled over to his sister's side.

"Are you mad! You could've killed her!" he blustered, all umbrage.

"It's just a few cuts and bruises, Pupil Whitehare. Nothing the Mederi cannot mend before she ever even pulls herself together." Before Alastair could speak again, Earithean interjected sharply, "Pupil Whitehare, please go with Pupil Whitehare to the nurse's."

"She attacked my sister!" Alastair stabbed a finger at Caprice.

"A result of aggravated provocation. Your fellow classmates will attest to that. Off to the nurse's, Master Whitehare. Go on now. I want your sister back here the moment the Mederi is done to discuss this matter. Rowan, please send Miss Whitehare's guest home once he is patched up."

Redbeard was stepping out from behind Danielle's shield and saying something in the affirmative when he turned to Bossa's shout.

"Oi, Redbeard!" She pointed at Nezzle and her still bleeding hand.

After checking Clang and Karrigan and noting aloud that they had sustained no injuries worth immediate attention, Redbeard strode right over and gently took Nezzle's injured appendage in his hands.

"What's this?"

"Just an accident," Nezzle grimaced, drawing a hissing breath as he unraveled the sticky, bloody strip of Caprice's dress from the wound.

He raised an unamused eyebrow. "Right." He took a small vial from his pocket, uncorked it, and held it to her lips. "The whole thing. All of it."

Nezzle drank down the pastel liquid in the vial. The flesh of her palm knitted back together and the raw hole there closed seamlessly.

"It'll be tender for a bit but you're patched, Nyrvenna. No more bloody stab holes in your hand, if that's not too much to ask." Mederi Redbeard went and took Alastair by the arm. "Come on, lad." Kneeling down, he put Karrigan's hand on Mr. Clang's sleeve, and took her of her other wrist. With a rumbling like great tons of shifting earth, symbols like the ones carved in the deck of his ship appeared on the floor. The Mederi, his patients, and Alastair vanished, taking the symbols with them.

To Caprice, Professor Earithean continued, "Pupil Bilberry, you will repair every one of these windows. The hops will assist you in the restoration of the hall." She clapped her hands and the butler's livery leapt up from the floor, once more filled by invisible forms. She summoned them brooms and pans, setting them to sweeping broken glass from windows and dishes. Quickly and efficiently, she set a team of hops to clean up all the ruined food and resetting the tables. She even assigned one to clean their food-encrusted uniforms as they worked.

"Great," Caprice snapped. "It's not like I don't have a lot of experience cleaning and mending things!"

Earithean raised an eyebrow at her.