“Eight eyes are better than one,” Aaron said when Call told him that he wanted to go alone to walk Havoc.
“I have two eyes,” Call reminded him.
“Well, sure,” Aaron agreed. “It’s just a saying.”
“You’re just hoping to run into Celia, aren’t you?” Tamara asked, prompting Aaron to give Call another stern look.
Celia’s date with Jasper was that Friday and Aaron thought it would be the perfect opportunity to discover whether she was the spy. Tamara had managed to wheedle most of the details of the date out of Celia. It was going to be in the Gallery, and they were going to meet there at eight o’clock, after dinner, and watch a movie.
“Seems innocent,” Tamara said with a shrug as they sat at lunch, forking up lichen pasta.
“Well, of course it seems innocent,” said Aaron. “You wouldn’t expect her to make her evil intentions known this early.” He cast a glance toward Celia, who was giggling cheerfully with Rafe and Gwenda. Jasper was sitting with Kai and looked as if he was in the middle of an animated story.
“If it’s Celia, how did she manage to get hold of a giant elemental?” Call demanded. “Without it, you know, killing and eating her?”
“Elementals don’t eat people,” said Tamara. “They absorb their energy.”
Call paused for a moment. He was remembering Drew, who had been killed by a chaos elemental while Call had looked on in horror during Call’s first year. He remembered how Drew’s skin had turned blue and then gray, his eyes going empty.
“… seems weird,” Call heard Aaron say as he snapped out of his reverie.
“What’s weird?” Call asked.
“The way everyone’s looking at us,” Tamara answered in a low voice. “Have you noticed?”
Call hadn’t. But now that Tamara mentioned it, he realized that people were staring at them — at Aaron, specifically. And not the way they usually stared at Aaron, with admiration, or with a sort of Look, there’s the Makar expression.
This was different. Eyes were narrowed, voices lowered. People were glancing at him suspiciously, whispering and pointing. It gave Call a queasy feeling in his stomach.
“What’s going on?” Aaron asked, bewildered. “Do I have something on my face?”
“Do you really want to know?” said a voice above their heads.
Call looked up. It was Jasper. “Everyone’s talking about the elemental that almost ate Call —”
“Elementals don’t eat people,” Tamara insisted, cutting him off.
Jasper shrugged. “Fine. Whatever. Anyway, people are saying Aaron was the one who summoned it. Somebody told somebody that they overheard you two fighting and everyone saw Aaron summon all those chaos creatures last summer …”
Call gaped. “That’s ridiculous,” he said.
Aaron looked around the room. When he met other apprentices’ gazes, they looked away. Some of the Iron Years started giggling. One began to cry.
“Who’s saying that?” Aaron demanded, turning back to Jasper. His ears were pink and his expression was that of someone who wanted to be anywhere but where he was.
“Everyone,” Jasper said. “It’s a rumor. I guess because Makars are supposed to be unstable and everything, they figure you tried to kill Callum. I mean, some people think it’s understandable because Call is so annoying, but other people figure that there’s some kind of love triangle situation going on here with you two and Tamara.”
“Jasper,” Tamara said in her firmest voice. “Tell people that’s not true.”
“Which part?” Jasper asked.
“None of it is true!” Tamara said, her voice rising dramatically.
Jasper held up both his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. But you know how gossip is. No one is going to listen to me.” With that, he wheeled away from the table, back toward the food.
“Don’t listen to him,” Tamara said to Aaron. “He’s ridiculous and he gets mean when he’s scared. He’s probably nervous about his date and taking it out on you.”
Maybe, Call thought, but something really was going on. People were definitely cheating looks in their direction. Call got up and chased after Jasper, catching his elbow as he’d reached a large pot of cinnamon-and-clove-smelling brown liquid.
“Jasper, wait,” he said. “You can’t just tell us all that and then walk away. Who started the rumor? Who’s making this stuff up? You’ve got to have a guess, at least.”
The boy frowned. “Not me, if that’s what you’re implying — although I have to say, it got me thinking. Aaron told you two different stories about his past. That’s pretty suspicious. We have no idea where he came from, or who his family really is. He just shows up out of nowhere and then, boom! Makar.”
“Aaron is a good person,” Call said. “Like, way better than either of us.”
Jasper sighed. He wasn’t laughing or sneering or making any of his usual pompous expressions. “Don’t you think that’s suspicious?” he asked.
“No,” Call said, stomping back to the table. Fury boiled inside him. Jasper was an idiot. In fact, everyone in the room was an idiot except for him, Tamara, and Aaron. He flung himself down at their table. Tamara was leaning in to talk to Aaron, her hand on his shoulder.
“Fine,” Aaron was saying, his voice strained. “But I really think we should leave.”
“What’s going on?” Call asked.
“I was just telling him not to let this get to him.” Tamara was flushed, red spots on both her brown cheeks. Call knew that meant she was furious.
“It’s ridiculous,” Call said. “It’ll blow over. Nobody can believe something this stupid for long.”
But Aaron’s expression told Call that he wasn’t reassured. His green eyes were darting around the Refectory as if he half expected people to start throwing things at him.
“I’m going to go back to the room,” he said.
“Hold on there.” It was Alex Strike, his long, lanky form casting a shadow across their table. His Gold Year band gleamed as he held out his hand. In the center of his palm were three round, reddish stones. “These are for you.”
“You want to play marbles?” Call guessed.