Page 155 of The Fifth Heir

“She saved everyone in this Hall,” Torren said.

Whispers spread through the audience.

Not accident.

Not wingless.

Dangerous.

I heard all three.

Malcolm raised his staff, and the acoustical runes carried his voice through the chamber.

“The demonstration is concluded. The fifth heir’s status will be reviewed immediately.”

The headmaster stepped onto the broken platform.

“No.”

Malcolm looked at him.

“The fifth heir will receive medical treatment,” the headmaster said. “The reversed containment channels will be investigated, and every person responsible for their installation will be questioned. No review of Talia’s status will occur until we know why a controlled demonstration became an attack.”

The word moved through the Hall.

Attack.

Malcolm’s face revealed nothing.

Behind him, Leander looked at the shattered black metal.

Then he looked toward the gallery where his family representatives had been seated.

His expression changed.

He knew something.

Whatever it was, he had not told me.

Chapter 21

Leander

My father called the demonstration an unfortunate failure.

I called it what the headmaster had called it.

An attack.

We stood inside the North Council Chamber less than an hour after the healers removed Talia from the Hall of Prism. My father remained near the window while two council advisers examined copies of the damaged containment design.

The reversed channels were clearly marked.

They were also absent from the proposal my father showed me the previous evening.

“You asked for simultaneous exposure,” I said.

“We asked the academy to determine whether her power depends upon all four elemental heirs.”