Dutch's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

Dutch left the red crystal hidden in her drawer and followed the bell to the old amphitheater. Ivy climbed the turrets, and students packed the stone seats. She kept her ring turned inward. Six weeks. She needed to know what the academy actually housed before she stepped into any trial blind. At the center sat a shallow pool, its surface glowing pale green. A robed proctor said each student could touch the water once. The pool would show the creature meant for them, somewhere in the cave network beneath the school. Names and shapes rose in the mist above it as students stepped forward. A boy got a fire lynx. A girl got a horned owl. Dutch watched the images and memorized every creature she saw. None of them moved like cold water. When her turn came, she pressed two fingers to the pool. The green light pulled back. The water went black, then colder than the lower room had ever been. No shape rose. No name. Only a single ripple, slow, and a sound like ice cracking far below. The proctor frowned and waved her on. Whispers followed her down the steps. Dutch walked straight to the mouth of the caverns and read the carved roster beside the entrance. Every housed creature was listed, every tunnel marked. She traced each name with her finger. Not one matched what the pool had shown her. Whatever waited for her was not in the caves at all. It was already under the academy, in the cold room, and it had been waiting.