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A bright blue wor him to spill his airborne sand all over his lap The worround and lay there Okay, it’s definitely a candy worelatinous

On the other hand, that described a lot of things in the Magisterium

"I can’t do this," Aaron panted He had his hands raised, sand spinning; his face was red with concentration An orange wor open and was throwing handfuls of worms "Gah!" Aaron said -- the worreen one stuck in Taain This ti with hirin split his face as he looked fro as hard as they could to concentrate

"Come in, Alex!" said Rufus cheerfully "Leave the sandwiches just over there! Enjoy thehis own Iron Year He hoped Alex wasn’t visiting any of the other apprentice groups, ones that were learning cool things with fire or levitation If Jasper found out any details of what Call had to do today, he would never stophim

It doesn’t matter, Call told himself sternly Concentrate on the sand

Ta theh the air Slower than before, but they were in the zone, working even when they were suled up in a braid and didn’t even seem to notice

Call closed his eyes and focused his mind

He felt the damp cold smack of a worm on his cheek, but this time, he didn’t let the sand fall The music pounded in his ears, but he let all of that slide away One grain after another at first, and then, as his confidence grew, ht

Another hour went by before they took a break to eat their lunch When they started up again, the e bombarded them altzes As his apprentices sorted sand, Rufus sat on a boulder and did a crossword He didn’t seem bothered when they went hours over their time and missed dinner in the Refectory

They tramped back to their rooms, tired and dirty, to discover food laid out for them on the table in the coood , and Aaron made him and Tamara crack up over dinner with his i with a wor, Master Rufus showed up at their door just after the alar the first test They all yelled in excitement Tamara yelled because she was happy, Aaron yelled because he liked it when other people were happy, and Call yelled because he was sure they were going to die

"Do you knohat kind of test it’s going to be?" Ta the arive us a hint? Like just a tiny little itty-bitty --"

Master Rufus looked sternly at her until she stopped talking "No apprentices are given advance knowledge of how they are to be tested," he said "That would confer an unfair advantage You must win on your own merits"

"Win?" Call said, startled It hadn’t occurred to hi them to win the test Not after a wholeto win" He was mostly concerned hether they would survive

"That’s the spirit" Aaron hid a grin He was already wearing his ared to make it look cool Call had tied his around his foreare

Master Rufus rolled his eyes It worried Call that the corners of his h he was actually starting to understand Master Rufus’s expressions and responding to them