Wandmaker's Apprentice by Ed Masessa

Author:Ed Masessa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

“Enough already!” Coralis yelled in frustration at the castle wall, which immediately created an opening for them to leave the castle’s confines. It had given them fits, almost as if it knew what they were up to and wanted to prevent it.

Forest wasn’t much more cooperative than the castle until a similar outburst set them on a clear path in a direction they had never taken before. Henry and Brianna followed Coralis in silence. Henry thought about what Coralis had told them, and he assumed his sister was doing the same. Using the time slip was not as easy as either of them had originally imagined. It was an “unnatural science,” as Coralis had phrased it, that had inherent risks—the biggest of which was getting caught in a time loop.

The way Coralis explained it, he would assume the lead, tuning his voice to a specific pitch that would set the tranquillityite crystals vibrating. That would typically be enough to allow the Wand Master to pass through. But with three of them, Brianna was going to have to match his pitch while using her Nailinator Wand. Even that was going to be tricky, as too much power could scramble the crystals at the molecular level and ruin the gate.

There were nine gates, three of which were under oceans and not reachable with current technology. One of them was near Castle Coralis, and another close to Milan. “Slipping” was tricky. The location from which they exited the time slip would remain open for approximately ninety minutes. Within the ninety-minute pulse window (a term Coralis used to describe the opening), the travelers could still enter the time slip and return to their original place and time. Once it got beyond ninety minutes, “things could get a bit dicey,” as Coralis put it.

Henry was very nervous about the short time window, but Coralis assured them they could get what they needed with time to spare. Yet Henry thought he detected a small twitch in the Wand Master’s left eye as he said it. And there was something bothering him … something he couldn’t put a finger on. Coralis had admitted he was taking an enormous risk by using two apprentices with very little training. If things got “dicey,” they might lose their opportunity to stop Malachai. So why chance it? Henry’s gut was telling him he was missing something.

They arrived at a rocky outcropping that was partially concealed in a copse of pine trees. A shadow moved and a Hutsul woman emerged. Coralis greeted her. “Good morning, Lesya.”

“Good morning, old man,” she replied with a wink in the children’s direction. Her accent was thick but understandable—like Dracula might sound as a woman. She was as tall as Coralis, and slender. Henry thought under different circumstances she could easily be a volleyball player. But two things stuck out—she had only one arm, and that arm held an imposing rifle.

Coralis grumbled. “You know why we are here?”

“There can only be one reason. And yet … ”

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