A Sliver of Stardust by Burt Marissa

Author:Burt, Marissa [Burt, Marissa]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-08-27T07:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

Birds of a feather flock together,

And so will pigs and swine.

Rats and mice will have their choice,

And so will I have mine.

At first, Wren thought the group lessons that included all the apprentices would be nice, an opportunity to make new friends. But she soon saw what Mary meant about the Crooked House being political. Except for a few apprentices who, like she, Simon, and Jack, had arrived relatively recently, the others stood clustered according to their Fiddler mentor. Pockets of whispering kids eyed one another across the amphitheater. A lot of the time, the whispering was directed at her. Two girls giggled and pointed as Jill came in and sat alone against the wall.

Most full Fiddlers had two or three apprentices. The white-bearded Fiddler on the Council even had five. But Jill was the only apprentice who had to endure Elsa.

Wren moved over to the wall and sat down next to her. “Hey, Jill.”

Jill looked up at Wren with dull eyes.

“You okay?”

“Fine.” Jill’s gaze darted over to the entranceway, as though she expected Elsa to show up any minute.

“Hope things go better than last time,” Wren said. During the previous group lesson they had spent about five minutes learning a new multiplication rhyme when the snooty girl next to Wren overdid it with the stardust and let loose an exponentially expanding waterfall of butterflies. Afterward, Wren still didn’t know how to multiply objects, but she did learn that the easiest way to catch and trap a butterfly was by standing perfectly still until one landed close enough to pinch its wings. “Did you see the look on the butterfly girl’s face?”

“I guess,” Jill said.

Wren sighed. That should have at least gotten a smile. The track record for the all-apprentice lessons wasn’t that great so far. There had been another that was supposed to teach them how to read the traces of stardust left behind after a rhyme. But two apprentices ended up having to take sick leave, because somehow instead of looking at the stardust they managed to magnify it and coat their eyes with it. Temporary blindness was not on the list of things Wren wanted to experience. Now she sat waiting for the next lesson with a sour taste in her mouth and a nervous feeling in her stomach. “I suppose butterflies are better than being stuck in the sickroom, though.”

“It’s healing this time,” Jill said tonelessly. “The lesson is on healing.”

“Oh.” Wren proceeded cautiously. It was the first time Jill had volunteered information. “Who teaches healing?”

Jill shrugged.

Wren gave up and sat next to her in silence until a woman wearing jeans and a button-down shirt came through the doorway. The other apprentices didn’t seem to notice her until she made her way to the center of the floor and cleared her throat.

“If you’re here for a healing lesson, you’d better pay attention,” she said.

It took Wren a minute to register that this woman was a full Fiddler. She looked like she might be a college student out in the real world.

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