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Now his father crouched over the wheel, jaw set and the fingers of his right hand wrapped tightly around the gearshift, changing gears with ineffectual violence

Call tried to focus his gaze on the trees outside, their leaves just starting to yellow, and to reisteriu about the Masters and how they chose their apprentices, he’d sat Call down in one of the big leather chairs in his study Call’s elbow had been bandaged and his lip was split fro Besides, his father had looked so serious that Call had gotten scared And that’s the way his father spoke, too, as though he was going to tell Call he had a terrible disease It turned out the sickness was a potential for ic

Call had scrunched up in the chair while his father talked He was used to getting picked on; other kids thought his leg et Usually, he was able to convince them he wasn’t That time, however, there had been a bunch of older boys who’d cornered hiym on his way home from school They’d pushed him around and come at him with the usual insults Calluht, so he’d tried to hit the tallest boy That had been his first round, one of the on his knees while another punched hiize and ad awesoht before he blacked out

He must have only been out for a minute, because when he opened his eyes, he could just see the retreating figures of the boys in the distance They were running away Call couldn’t believe his rejoinder had worked so well

"That’s right," he’d said, sitting up "You better run!"

Then he’d looked around and seen that the concrete of the playground had cracked open A long fissure ran fro the s directly in the path of what looked like athat had ever happened His father disagreed

"Magic runs in families," Call’s father said "Not everyone in a faht Unfortunately I around -- you’re saying I did that?" Call had felt torn between giddy glee and extre out He could feel the corners of his mouth turn up and tried to force thees draw on the elements -- earth, air, water, fire, and even the void, which is the source of the ic They can useapart the very earth, as you did" His father had nodded to hiic first comes on, it is very intense Raer … but balance is what teical ability It takes a lot of study to have as es have little control But, Call, you ain If you do, the es will take you away to their tunnels"

"That’s where the school is? The Magisteriuround?" Call had asked

"Buried under the earth where no one can find it," his father told hiht down there No s The place is a et lost in the caverns and die and no one would ever know"

Call licked his suddenly dry lips "But you’re a ic since your ain"

"And Moer to hear anything about his raphs in an old scrapbook, showing a pretty woman with Call’s ink-black hair and eyes a color Call couldn’t make out He knew better than to ask his father too many questions about her He never talked about Call’s mom unless he absolutely had to