The distribution of Shipovites took place right there, in the courtyard of the garrison. Each was assigned as a partner a student of the military academy. No one, not even Paladin Lathar, believed in the success of joint training, but we should still be accommodated, at the same time we were introduced to the training order of the academy.

“I don’t know about practicing martial skills, but we are provided with training in endurance and patience,” the junior paladin of Gloom announced thoughtfully.

— And what awaits us? - The question sounded before I realized that it was I who asked it.

As soon as our commander-in-chief left the courtyard, taking Essier Royce and Mrs. Orton with him, my breathing became much easier, well, my voice cut through, how could it be without it.

“Junior Paladin Lathar. The woman looked at me coldly.

“Junior paladin Lathar, what awaits us upon arrival?”

"You'll find out if you get there," she promised ominously, and continued distributing. - Lady Miranda Mirth - Thorin Sart. Lord George of the Troop - Jeremy Dayan...

All couples were voiced without a shadow of a doubt, as if we and our abilities had already been evaluated.

The two lines of students were rapidly shortening, and it was already clear that a shortage was expected. There was one less battlemage, so I was hardly surprised when I was left alone in front of the junior paladin Lathar.

And it's all? Since I have no one to practice non-existent combat skills with, will they let me go? Why keep an extra mouth at the Karagata Military Academy?

- Dinara Lasart - Elmar Ertshar. That's all..” The junior paladin slipped the scroll into her bosom and disappeared.

And I began to look around in search of a non-existent partner. What if he also has a talent for invisibility?

“You’re trying in vain, Lasart. He didn’t come,” one of the militants suggested, who was just trying to persuade Tiana to climb onto the battle griffin.

These griffins turned out to be something else unexpected. It turned out that every battle mage of Karagat was supposed to have such a bird. It was on the griffins that those who managed to get an additional saddle arrived. I didn’t know how the rest got there, but now they were stomping along with their classmates in the direction of the gate.

Judging that I still have time to take a walk, I stopped next to Tiana and frankly envied her warm jacket from the shoulder of a battle mage. My here is not even bothered to drag himself to the meeting. If only I could take off my jacket. And even from a corpse!

I already had a tooth on tooth from the cold, and the desire to bang a certain Elmar Ertshar increased with every second.

“Let me guess, Elmar’s bird is dead?” I asked darkly.

The gunman stared at me.

Yes, she was fine in the morning.

“Poor thing,” I feigned a sigh and explained for the especially stupid: “I feel sorry for the bird.

- Why is that? — The fighter was visibly alert.

- So young, and already practically without a master. If I find it, I'll kill the lazy asshole! I barked.

And what? I'm not a lady now - I can express myself!

“Elmar is not lazy,” Tiana’s partner was offended for his comrade. “He is forbidden to leave the territory of the academy until a special order from the commander-in-chief.

- And why such disgrace?

- He wants to tell. We are not women and do not wash our bones, - the militant contemptuously turned up his nose and stifled a sigh.

Standing next to Tiana put her foot in the stirrup, awkwardly pulled herself up, lost her balance and stepped on the guy clearly on the foot. And her shoes were fashionable, with sharp heels.

"Sorry, I'm so clumsy," she squeaked in a particularly nasty voice and winked at me.

“If we get to the academy, you’ll get normal shoes,” the militant promised in a choked voice, he didn’t turn around, so he got a plus in the stress resistance column. Tiana finally nestled into her saddle and straightened her full skirt. “And clothes,” the adept of combat magic added gloomily, wondering how he could get to his saddle now.

“Adept, what are you doing?! I exclaimed pathetically, wringing my hands. She overacted terribly, but the adept did not really understand the intricacies of acting. “Getting under a lady’s skirt before she even had breakfast!”

The boy withdrew his hand and blushed. Tiana and I looked at each other, the approach to this battle mage was found.

“They will feed you at the academy,” he said plaintively. “The first thing you need to do is get there somehow.

“We… will fly.” Tiana nodded majestically and finally deigned to straighten her skirt. “Get in, adept… How are you?” I didn't remember. And you know, don't tell me, I still won't remember.

The adept sniffed and climbed into the saddle. I went to the gate with a wide smile on my face, I even felt a little warmer.

* * *

Unable to get an additional saddle for the griffin, they arrived at the garrison on horseback. Of course, no one thought to grab a third horse for Elmar's partner. So, having found myself outside, I could only admire the shiny groats of other people's horses heading towards the city gates.

Just awesome! I sniffed, straightened my bag and stomped into the city.

You should at least hire a cab. Or not, first buy a coat and a map of Karagat, drink hot cocoa, and then you can go to school. Still, they don't expect me there.

I put on the illusion of a short, inconspicuous gnome child before I had gone five steps. I managed to do it just in time - the soaring Essier Royce ran out of the garrison.

- People, have you seen a magician with a beaten muzzle here? Scary like this?

The incubus spoke to the watchmen on the wall. I found someone to ask, I spread a sheltering canopy over me even in the courtyard of the garrison, so that those upstairs did not even see my conversation with Tiana and her magic partner.

I love narrow-focused illusions! They are harder to track or catch. If I thought of just disappearing, there would be a commotion, someone would definitely notice how I dissolve into thin air.

Failing to get the answer he wanted, Nathan Royce pointed his finger at me.

- You!

- I?! I looked around in surprise, as if I was expecting another child dwarf nearby. Although I was in vain, these pairs never go, especially when they work.

- Madam...

“Gnomella,” I said affectionately and with a clear movement opened the illusory cloak with many hidden pockets. “Poisons, love potions, sleeping powder?

At first, Essier Royce thought he had misheard, and turned pale, then two red spots flared up on his narrow, carefully shaven face:

“Do you have the audacity to suggest such a thing to a junior Essier?”

I grimaced in displeasure and pulled the cloak over my chest.

- No poisons, no love spells? Then why are you distracting? I am an honest child-gnome, I buy only what they themselves offer.

“Are you saying that one of ours is pushing confiscated goods to the side? Yes, I…” Essier Royce suddenly fell silent, apparently remembering why he started talking to me at all.

- Then. Better tell me, have you seen a fair-haired magician in a blue dress?

— Terrible, how is your life? I pointed out matter-of-factly. - No, every dog of Karagat already knows that you were not taken on patrol. And your magicka drove off outside the city gates. I hired a cab driver - and fyut!

- Oh, you freak! I'm sorry and thank you for your help. - Nodding goodbye to me, Essier Royce ran back to the garrison, but in less than a couple of seconds, he jumped out again already on a black stallion.

I smiled and walked down the street.

Karagat turned out to be a pleasant town, admiring it from the window of a coffee shop is a pleasure, but the sight of a lathered Nathan Royce looking for a dwarf child is another thing. Realized quickly. I only had time to look into the bookstore for a map, and I had to hastily cancel the illusion of both the dwarf and the beaten muzzle. The guards of Karagat were already looking for this dwarf, but with a painted face they would not let me into the coffee shop.

“A magical cache, a two-quarter jump, a speed potion?”

Finally! And then I was already beginning to worry that I wasted my time in front of the garrison in vain. No, Essier Royce should have been taught a lesson. There is no need to call me ugly names, for the truth I am not offended only by my friends. But now the main target of the performance was now stomping around at my table and grinning conspiratorially in her beard.

Childen is impossible to find unless he wishes it to be. These people know secret ways, and in cities, especially large ones, they feel like a fish in water.

They say the first childens came from gnomes and leprechauns. However, they usually say this in a whisper, making sure that the ancestors of the Childens themselves are not nearby. If a purebred gnome can fly with an ax or a stool, then the leprechaun will create such a negative obcast that for a long time you will stumble out of the blue and knock down all the sharp corners with yourself.

The Child Gnomes resembled their purebred relatives as little as the ladies' dogs resembled the hunting dogs. That is, the growth is about the same, but the complexion of the children has already gone to leprechauns: dry, sinewy and agile. But beards were respected no less than gnomes, they wore them with dignity and adored inventing new haircuts and colors. The beard next to him was square in shape and had an absolutely stunning color transition from fiery red to mahogany.

- So, honey, do you want to buy something or did you call in vain?

Here! Not a word of resentment or indignation that I dared to try on the guise of a child. I love business!

- I want to buy a route. “I laid out the Karagat card on the table.

Even though I was raked into military exercises, I was not going to deviate from my original plans.

I got a good map, all the local portals were marked on it, but I needed one where the regular magician would turn a blind eye to the identity of the moving person.

- Routes are now more expensive. - After making sure that I was still a client, the child sat down at my table. - The commander-in-chief is fierce, ordered to keep track of who, where and for what need is sent.

“Can this stop the masters of the Way?”

“We don’t,” Childen chuckled and jacked up the price so much that I had to answer:

- Coins only twenty percent, the rest will work.

Childen nodded imperturbably, he already knew that I was an illusionist magician.

- Vacation at the military academy is rare, but on Saturdays - the day of visits. In a month you will return the favor, and if you can magic something sensible, then you will pay off earlier.

- Accumulators and limiters - the concern of customers.

“Of course, honey, of course.

He quickly unfolded the map and pointed to a house a couple of blocks from the military academy.

What you are looking for is in the attic. On the first bakery, on the second lives the baker himself with his family. His son is very talented.

And desperate. Who opens the portals in residential buildings?

“I told you, the commander-in-chief is raging. Routes are expensive. Childen froze, as if listening. The flower girl remembered that she had seen a sweetheart in a thin summer dress enter the coffee shop.

- Thanks. I reached for the cake.

Breakfast should have been faster.

* * *

I was swallowing two whole cakes and licking my fingers when an incubus appeared on the threshold of the coffee shop. He saw the loss, muttered something under his breath and resolutely walked towards me. Without asking permission, Essier Royce flopped into a chair, folded his hands on the table, was silent for a moment, and then sighed wearily:

- Satisfied with yourself?

- Not really. You still have to go to the academy.

The incubus grinned wryly, pulled off a profiterole from my plate, threw it over his cheek and muttered with his mouth full:

“Ho-wa-osho, what do you understand about this… Kh! - The cake clearly got across the throat.

- Seagull? I asked kindly.

Essir Royce thought for a moment, then shook his head with visible regret.

- Eat up and move out.

- It's cold there.

- I took a cloak for you from the warehouse. So far, I have drawn up a lot of papers…” The Incubus looked at me with disapproval.

So that's why he was delayed. If Nathan Royce had thought to deliver me to my destination in one dress, the escape would not have taken place.

- I could say thank you.

- Thanks. For breakfast. I reached for a mug of cocoa. It was almost cold, but it was still very tasty, it is unlikely that militants in the state canteen are pampered like that.

“I was offended by the ugly one,” the incubus drawled lazily. “You know what's the strangest thing? Here you look at you: a mouse with a mouse, you will pass by such a mouse and not notice it, and then you give out something that only surprises you: and how did you not feel it, how did you not foresee it?

Am I all that sudden?

- Here! Essir Royce pointed his index finger at me. Now you are real and look different. The rest is just a mask. Keep in mind, Lasart, I am a mediocre magician and I don’t reveal other people’s disguises well, but within the walls of the Karagat Academy, the masters are more talented than me. If a mouse wants to hide, it must stop acting like a cat.

“And if the mouse wants to be discovered?” I whispered, feeling my heart pounding desperately in my chest.

For a year, I got used to hiding my longing behind a fake smile of a carefree impudent, but now everything inside me was trembling with a tight string. Probably Nathan Royce felt my condition. He looked at me carefully and seriously, and then nodded:

- Make up your mind - let me know. I will help with all I can. In the meantime, pay attention to this: you, half-finished illusionists, have been assigned as partners to those for whom training has long been held in survival mode. Your rector was the first to realize what was happening, and disappeared. The professor of everyday illusions sobbed excitedly, proving to our commander-in-chief that she had no idea where Alsar Riolsky had gone.

That's the news!

“And we thought that Alsar was summoned by the emperor,” I said in confusion.

— There was no such thing. No one suspected at all that Lord Lien would require you to transfer your course to the Karagata Military Academy. They didn’t expect you there either, so I had to spend the night in the garrison, but that’s not the point ... Think, Lasart, what was happening in your academy that heads would roll in a short time.

“Um…Besides the fact that few people in THORN study hard at all?” So it's not a secret. The wand of the magician-illusionist has long turned into a fashionable accessory for an aristocrat. Few of the graduates work in their specialty, there is no question of military service. The days when illusionists covered the rear of battle mages are over. Is the situation in our army so miserable that half-educated illusionists are needed on the border?

“No, Lasart, our army is in perfect order, but the commander-in-chief is still fierce,” Essier Royce said ominously.

- Do you like to escalate the situation? I muttered.

“I want you to understand that there will be no concessions, there are no idiots among the teachers at the military academy, and illusions are general magic. All masters of Karagata possess it to one degree or another.

“That can’t be…” I whispered, already beginning to understand what Essier Royce was driving at.

“Yes, Lasarte…” he drawled, not without pleasure. “A re-examination awaits you all soon.

Essier Royce's confession hit me like a butt, so that all the way I was silent, immersed in my thoughts. And these thoughts were very disturbing.

Resit! Real! Just not in all subjects! For all, even I will not give up. Much of what was learned in the first year has long been forgotten. What am I to do now? And the girls? I didn't worry about guys at all. Let them get out! Throw the SHIP adepts feigning fainting on the cold paving stones. Fie on such friends! Large, illusory and sometimes poisonous.

For a whole year we were a real team. And suddenly on you: we do not know you - crawl past! It's embarrassing, but you need to calm down. The magic of a psychotic illusionist is sudden and dangerous, first of all, for himself.

So I exhaled, mentally wrote down the traitors in a black notebook and focused on a more important goal: the upcoming acquaintance with the so-called partner, who did not even send a horse for me. You can see right away how happy I am that I was forced on him. We’ll have to grieve for a couple, should the partners have at least something in common ?!

Thinking, she almost slid to one side from the horse's croup. Saved only by the reaction of the incubus: Essier Royce turned around with lightning speed and grabbed my shoulder.

Don't sleep, you'll fly away.

Aha! Right now! Yes, I will not fall asleep, even if sleeping powder is sprayed on my face. A premonition of revenge is always so adrenaline-filled, but falling off a horse is also not a good thing, so I grabbed the pommel of the saddle tighter and looked around.

There was nothing special to admire, our path passed along the city wall. Apparently, it was easier to go around Karagat than to trudge through it along the narrow, winding streets.

The back of an incubus loomed invitingly before my eyes, at first I wanted to leave an autograph on it, and then I abandoned this idea. Somehow petty and frivolous, in the end, though Essier Royce was a rare grach, he was the only one who shared information with me, in addition, he deigned to wait while I bought cakes for girls.

And yet what a good back Essier Royce has. Wide, smooth, such a stupid not to use. Reaching into my bosom, I fumbled for the map and recreated a copy of it right in front of me. Anything is better than admiring the endless hills, and the rugged line of the Karagat Range, whose peaks were hidden in a foggy haze. It was not easy to find a flat area in these parts, even in the city the streets either sharply went down or climbed uphill. The bypass road was not so steep because it ran along an embankment.

I studied the names of the streets near the academy, noted the bank and the nearest tavern. Food bribes were practiced in SHIP, who knows, what if the militants like to eat delicious food? There was also a magic shop in the city, but it was not accessible on foot. Yes, and well, these specialized outlets, you will not have time to buy a bottle of blood, and the local guard will already receive a signal about a possible forbidden ritual. Prove later that you only wanted to study the texture and smell of the blood in order to conjure the correct illusion.

— Lasart, wake up! We are approaching!

It was only then that I noticed that the city wall was about to end, and the road went to the left.

Royce's horse turned a corner, and I couldn't help but gasp in shock at the sight of the tall, silver trunks of the arb tree. Majestic red-brown crowns propped up the sky, and below, between the roots, a greenish mist caressed.

Behind the southern city wall, a real forest began! And in it there were no stunted bushes, no young growth, only powerful trunks of a cart, such that one could not wrap one's hands around. Not a forest, but a living wall. You can't grow one without magic.

I remembered the iron fence around our school, eaten through with rust in some places, and somehow felt ashamed of my native educational institution. No, I understood that the SHIP had long been self-supporting, but the masters could at least cover up the signs of the withering of the once solid institution with an illusion.

Essir Royce stopped the horse.

“Lasart, I am flattered that you cannot part with me, but we have arrived.

I awkwardly dismounted and rubbed the fifth point. Still, I'm an awful rider. But on skis and sledges, I cut so much that everyone who saw it clutched at their hearts. But where is this snow in Karagat at the end of spring? He only stayed in the mountains, but at home, in the Twilight, all the hills are still littered.

A heavy sigh escaped my chest. Nothing. I will definitely be back. I'll deal with the last task of the pope and return. It cannot be that Helena Sator has completely disappeared.

- Don't drift. No one will let you into consumption from the fly, - the incubus “encouraged” me. “The passage to the academy starts a little further, between the trees, but they won’t let me on the bridge, so you’ll have to stomp yourself.”

- Yeah. Thanks for the ride. I started to untie the ties on my cloak.

— Not worth it. By the time you get to the hostel, you will be cold.

I nodded and stomped along the living wall.

— Lasart.

- Yes? I turned around.

If anything, you know where to look for me.

Nodding goodbye, Nathan Royce turned his horse in the opposite direction and put it into a gallop. From infection! I forgot to remove the illusory card from his back! Somehow it got awkward.