Page 16 of Sonnets and Serpents
“Yes, but I made the connection toactivationage.”
“You expounded on groundwork already laid, but you did not break new ground.”
“So if I break new ground, I’ll have my position?”
Afshin turned away too late to hide a smile, and Silas felt a flash of triumph. With effort, he remained silent, allowing the dean to consider. And because it couldn’t hurt, he also sent a silent prayer to the heavenly realms. After leaving behind his sister, his best friend, his native country and kin, all he had left was the university. He couldn’t lose this too.
Slowly, Afshin said, “What is your proposition?”
Silas cast his eyes desperately around the office, trying to spark any idea forgroundbreakingresearch in a single moment.
Gill came to mind. His best friend was the strongest Caster alive, activated at birth, and Silas had been itching to write about that ever since he’d realized it. But he’d kept Gill out of his thesis for a reason. As an orphan responsible for two younger brothers, living in the worst country for magic users, the last thing Gill needed was a group of curious researchers breaking down his door to put his Fluid Casting through a battery of tests.
No, Silas couldn’t betray Gill. Not for the sake of his own future. Not even to advance the field of warlockry as a whole.
There was something else . . .
An unproven hypothesis about nature’s balance and how, ifmagic users existed, then they must be countered by anti-magic users. Magic stealers.
“Proof of magic stealing,” Silas said.
Afshin shook his head. “That has been exhausted in study, by Casters and Affiliates both. Magic cannot be stolen by any—”
“Mine almost was.”
The dean fell silent, leaning forward with intrigue.
It had been what finally sent Silas home. One month ago, he’d almost lost his magic, upending everything he knew. He hadn’t told anyone, not even Kerem. The moment had felt so surreal, it was hard to believe it had even happened.
But if it could open a future for him, he would face it.
“Someone tried to steal mine,” Silas restated with force.
Afshin smiled, wide with raised eyebrows, a man who couldn’t resist betting on a horse race if only to see what a certain majestic creature was capable of.
“Put me up in a university dorm for three months,” Silas said. “Threadbare budget for living.”
But the dean shook his head again. “I haven’t the funds for that. The warlockry department is over budget as is, and I’ve had to refuse most of the latest research proposals.”
No, no, no.He couldn’t bethisclose and lose it.
“Kerem will pay me,” Silas said desperately. “I’m practically his research assistant anyway, and he wants me here.”
“If he’s willing, then it seems we’ve found an agreement.”
Silas stuck his hand out, quick as a viper strike, and Afshin laughed as he shook it. His grip was firm, and with his other hand, he pointed at Silas’s heart.
“I expect great things,” he said.
Without hesitation, Silas answered, “I’ll be back with proof on your desk. So tell the school of warlockry to prepare for Iyal Silas.”
There was a snake in the library.
Eliza stood, petrified, looking at a wide planter nestled between bookshelves, home to a stretching tree. Wrapped around its branches sat a brown python, nearly invisible despite its enormous size, ten feet long at least.
She’d climbed the hill to the mysterious white-and-blue buildings only to discover it was a school, filled with students rushing around with books and papers and even musical instruments. They all seemed to be her age or not much older. A university?
They had a university back home, on the western side of Loegria. Eliza had never visited it, but she knew they taught students from Patriamere as well as Loegria. Sometimes her mother gave music lectures there in either language.
