Page 56 of The Black Witch

I remember the tattooed women I saw at the Verpacian horse market and am confused.

“But...he’s not a woman.” Amaz tribes are made uponlyof women. They kill men who wander into their territory. I lean in toward Aislinn. “And I thought they used rune-magery to only have baby girls.”

“They do,” Aislinn concurs, “but it doesn’t always work. Every now and then, a male is born. By accident.” Aislinn gestures to the front of the room with her chin. “That’s his mother—Professor Volya.”

I scan the green-robed professors sitting silently in rows behind the High Chancellor and quickly locate a woman who greatly resembles Andras. Her face is similarly rune-marked, though her hair is black with streaks of purple.

“She refused to abandon Andras when he was a baby, so she was exiled from Amaz lands,” Aislinn explains. “For a while she and Andras lived on their own in Western Keltania, but then she came here. About ten years ago. Andras has pretty much grown up here.”

“What does she teach?”

“Equine Studies, of course. And Chemistrie. That’s one of your classes.” Aislinn reaches over and riffles through my papers, pulls one out and hands it to me. “I’m taking it, too.”

I skim the paper.

APOTHECARY SCIENCES, YEAR ONE

Apothecarium I with Laboratory—Professor

Guild Mage Eluthra Lorel

Metallurgie I with Laboratory—Professor

Guild Master Fy’ill Xanillir

Botanicals I—Professor Priest Mage

Bartholomew Simitri

Advanced Mathematics—Professor Guild

Mage Josef Klinmann

History of Gardneria—Professor Priest Mage

Bartholomew Simitri

Chemistrie I with Laboratory—Professor

Guild Master Astrid Volya

There it is.Chemistrie.Professor Astrid Volya.I glance back over at Andras.

“What’s her son like?” I wonder.

“He’s quiet,” Aislinn whispers, looking over at him. “And he’s amazingly good at every sport: sword fighting, ax throwing, archery, you name it. And he’s a natural with horses, just like his mother. That’s his job. He cares for the horses stabled here. The Amaz can talk to their horses, you know—with theirminds. He’s a skilled horse healer, too. Last year one of the Gardnerian military apprentices took a nasty fall on his horse, and the horse’s leg was broken. The animal was so wild with pain, no one could get near it. But Andras could. Within a week, he had the horse good as new.”

“How do you know so much about everyone?” I ask, impressed.

Aislinn smiles. “My own life is so incredibly boring, I have to live vicariously through everyone else’s.” She pauses and lets out a sigh for dramatic effect. “I suppose, seeing as how I’ll be fasting to Randall, perhaps the most boring young man on the face of Erthia, I will always have to amuse myself in this way.”

Around us, scholars are beginning to talk and get up, the High Chancellor having finished his presentation. Aislinn and Echo stand up, and I follow suit, glancing down at my pile of papers. Aislinn helps me search through them and pulls out one from the middle.

“You’re supposed to meet with the Vice Chancellor,” she tells me, handing the paper back to me. “Come. I’ll bring you to her.”

Reluctantly, I say my goodbyes to Echo and follow behind Aislinn, trying my best to ignore the Kelt, Yvan Guriel, as he sets his fiery green eyes on me and shoots me a parting, hostile glare.

CHAPTER FOUR

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