THE SOLDIER LED THEM THROUGH the halls, pointing out markers here and there to help them find their way toward what would be their Healing classroom. Each of the hallways was labeled with a number and letter, which Fort had noticed during his weeks here but hadn’t really taken into account every time he got lost. But now that they were getting farther away from the area he knew, he welcomed finding out that the base was built in a sort of grid, so at least he could find his way around better in the future. Hopefully.
Finally, the soldier stopped at a large theaterlike room with American flags surrounding the walls. Here and there a seat or two remained bolted to the floor, but it looked like most of those had been removed, and the room was now filled with familiar-looking steel tables.
Up onstage, right next to a podium, Dr. Ambrose sat at a desk covered in papers. She didn’t look up as the students filed in, each of the kids making their way through the tables to gather in front of her desk. When they had all arrived, and Dr. Ambrose still didn’t say anything, a few of the students began to talk quietly to each other.
Dr. Ambrose’s head immediately shot up. “Who said you could speak?”
The crowd went silent.
She narrowed her eyes. “So no one’s going to answer me? And here I had hope for you new kids. Assistant!” She clapped her hands.
Someone sighed heavily from offstage, and then Sebastian strode out from behind a curtain, looking no happier to be here than Fort was to see him. “Yes, Dr. Ambrose?” he said.
“Your students are here,” she told him, nodding at the assembled kids below the stage. “Get to it. I have things to do.”
Sebastian nodded, still looking annoyed, then stepped forward to address them. “Good morning. I’m Sebastian Thomas, but you can and will call me ‘sir.’ I’ll be teaching you, since as has been explained to you, none of you were born on Discovery Day, and therefore you need extra help.”
Fort glanced around in surprise. None of these new students were born on Discovery Day? The Oppenheimer School hadn’t taken that type of student before, so maybe he’d actually proven something, back at the old school.
Or maybe there just weren’t that many available kids born on May 9.
“Dr. Ambrose will be around for part of each class,” Sebastian continued, “but otherwise she’ll be occupied…”—he trailed off, like the next bit was painful for him—“with a special project, one that my class is helping her with. But instead of being there, probing the limits of Healing magic, I’m here, teaching you how to take out splinters.” He glared at them. “Which means you’re all going to work extra hard to learn your magic, or I’m going to be annoyed. And you don’t want to see me annoyed.”
One of the kids snorted at this, and Sebastian slowly turned his head. “You think I’m joking?” he said, his hands glowing with a blue energy.
The boy shook his head, suddenly nervous. All the students around him backed away, leaving the boy alone in the crowd. Sebastian jumped down from the stage and patted the boy’s shoulder, the glow flowing from his hand into the boy. “I hope you liked having your tonsils out, because now you’ll be going through that a second time.”
“Wait, what?” the boy said, then put his hands up to his throat. “What did you do?”
“You will listen when I speak, or you’ll be spending a quiet few days in the infirmary as the rest of your class leaves you behind,” Sebastian said to the others. “Am I clear about that?”
The students nodded, all except for Fort, who rolled his eyes.
Sebastian, of course, locked onto Fort immediately. “Ah, our former sole New Kid,” he said, moving toward Fort through the crowd as the other kids parted like the Red Sea. Sebastian’s hands began to glow blue again, and he reached them both out toward Fort’s shoulders. “So happy to be teaching you, Fort!”
Fort put his hands up defensively, but Sebastian was too quick, clamping his hands down on Fort’s shoulder before he could dodge. But instead of making him ill, the energy in Sebastian’s hands gave Fort a small burst of energy. “You looked like you were about to fall asleep on your feet,” Sebastian said, releasing his shoulders. “That better?”
“Yes, actually,” Fort said, not sure what he was being set up for.
“Good,” Sebastian said. “Because I need your help with something. Everyone else, grab a spot at a table and wait for my next instructions.”
As the other kids began to maneuver through the tables to find one near their friends, Fort just stared at Sebastian, not liking where this was going. “What’s this about?”
“I know you’re supposed to be tutoring someone,” Sebastian said. “Which kid is it again?”
Fort nodded at Gabriel, who’d waited nearby instead of taking a seat at one of the tables.
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, okay. That’s not going to happen. I need you for something more important.”
As much as Fort hadn’t wanted to tutor Gabriel, the last thing he was going to do was admit that to Sebastian. “Well, you should take that up with Colonel Charles, since he was the one who ordered me to tutor Gabriel.”
“Don’t give me that,” Sebastian whispered, stepping closer. “You think I don’t remember how many rules you and Cyrus broke at the last school? You don’t care about orders. And this is important.”
“What’s important?” Fort asked, getting more annoyed the longer this lasted.
Sebastian nodded up at Dr. Ambrose, who was gathering her things just out of earshot. “Ambrose is working with my class to see if they can come up with spells without using the book of Healing, just like you did back when you fought that Damian kid. If they succeed, we’ll never have to bother with mastering spells again, and we’ll be free of that stupid book.”
Ah, so that’s why Sebastian needed him. He wanted to know how Fort had come up with the pain spells. “No way,” he said. “I’m not telling you how I did it. I don’t even remember what I did, so I couldn’t even if I wanted to, which I definitely don’t.” That was mostly the truth, since he really couldn’t remember the exact words to the spells he’d come up with. But he did remember how he’d learned them. All it’d taken was figuring out what each spell word had meant, and then mixing and matching.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “ ‘No way’? You do what I say here, New Kid.”
“Tell that to Colonel Charles, Teach,” Fort said, and turned around, only to stop as a cold hand pressed into his shoulder.
“Like I told the others,” Sebastian said, “you call me ‘sir.’ ”
And then he pulled his hand off of Fort’s shoulder, letting his magical flu hit Fort so hard it almost knocked him off his feet.