Ariel gazed out the window, trying to absorb everything. Still in the vicinity of the airport, the vehicle passed an interesting donut-shaped glass building labeled “Vojvodanska Banka,” and she quickly realized the whole structure was serving as a billboard for some Serbian bank. According to her phone, the building actually functioned as an Aeronautical Museum.

Up ahead, on the side of the highway, she saw a green sign with the letters Београд and an arrow pointing right; she took a quick picture and fed it to her translate app, which gave her “White City.” That was the Serbian name for Belgrade, and it was called that because of the white wall of a fortress that once enclosed the city in medieval times, though the wall was mostly in ruins today. Yup, she’d been reading up on it.

Ariel was a bit disappointed because Hugh took a left turn, heading west away from the city. She was really hoping to see Belgrade, if only by car, but it seemed they weren’t even going to pass through the city.

She pulled up her map and followed along as Hugh drove west on a highway labeled “A3,” which crossed the Syrmia region of Serbia and led all the way to the border with Croatia. The highway was bordered by fenced off villas, estates, and farms. They passed Dobanovci, considered a suburban neighborhood of Belgrade according to her phone. The buildings were quaint, plaster-walled structures with red tile roofs.

Well, at least I got to see some of Belgrade, if only one remote neighborhood...

They reached a small town after a few minutes and exited the A3, heading north. Thirty minutes and two more small towns later, Hugh turned off onto a secluded road bordered by thick trees on either side.

They reached a checkpoint consisting of two rifle-wielding men clad in army gear beside a glass-walled booth. A red-and-white checkered boom gate blocked the road. The men wore headsets, and also glasses with small metal attachments on the right lenses. Projector screens?

Mathis held up one of his rings. The closest soldier beckoned toward the booth behind him and the boom gate opened. The soldiers waved the SUV through.

“You’ll all be getting one of these,” Mathis said, turning around to show Ariel and the others an inconspicuous silver band he wore next to the bone rings. “It contains an RFID. It will tell the guards, or any witch for that matter, your name and rank, as well as where you’re supposed to be at any given moment.”

“So basically a way to make sure we don’t sneak out of the Tower,” Brian said.

“I always knew you were the smartest one here,” Mathis commented dryly.

The SUV continued down the winding country road for several minutes. Finally the thick trees fell away on either side and a cylindrical tower, at least twenty stories in height, loomed ahead. Architecture-wise it reminded her of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, without the lean, and much bigger. It was surrounded by a tall concrete wall. Walkways on top of the wall were patrolled by soldiers between lookout towers. The edges of the walkways were wrapped in deadly ribbons of razor wire.

“Looks more like a prison than a witch training camp,” Ked said.

“Believe me, we’re concerned more with keeping people out than trapping witches inside,” Mathis told him.

Along the top of the wall, Ariel spotted large anti-aircraft launchers stocked with batteries of missiles.

“Wouldn’t want to get hit by one of those,” James commented.

She wasn’t sure how Jett was going to get past all that. She retrieved her phone, set it to silent, and took surreptitious pictures. Whatever she could do to help him, she would.

The SUV approached a gate in the wall. More soldiers waited there, and once again Mathis raised his ring hand and the soldiers let the vehicle pass.

Immediately inside, clusters of satellite dishes bumped up against the road on either side. Ariel spotted helicopter pads beyond some of the satellites, some of the pads holding well-armed gunships. She continued to take pictures.

“Wow, scratch the prison comment,” Ked said. “Now it feels like we’re entering a military base.”

Outbuildings began to crop up, and Ariel saw warehouse workers ferrying crates between two buildings. She spotted mechanics in one hangar, maintaining helicopters and vehicles, and cooks shouting from the window of another small building, from which the mouth-watering scent of cooking meat wafted. And through it all were the omnipresent soldiers, guarding buildings or out on patrol.

She saw some witches, too, easily identifiable by the bone accessories they wore. They all dressed somewhat similarly, in different forms of business casual. White dress shirts were common, as were blouses and blazers. There were no ties, or robes, and certainly not any trench coats. Mathis was alone in his attire, at least among these witches.

There were large swaths of land between buildings. In one such field, Ariel saw a group of young men and women in green robes gathered around a woman in business casual, apparently their professor. The woman, a witch, had an open palm held in the air, and above her fingers hovered a small red globe.

“Slow down,” Mathis instructed Hugh, and the driver complied. “I want the Potentials to see this.”

“Don’t tell me we have to dress in green robes while on the Tower grounds,” Tina said.

“Oh no, you don’t dress in green robes,” Mathis said.

“Good!” Tina said. “Because those things are fashion nightmares!”

“You get to dress in the white robes of First Years,” Mathis said.

“Gah!”

“Green is the color of the Second Years,” Mathis said. “Most of you probably won’t make it that far.”

Ariel squinted her eyes at the woman professor. “What’s that floating above her hand?”

Mathis glanced out the window. “Water. Dyed red.”

“Neon red,” Michelle said. “Like a hair coloring session gone bad.”

As Ariel watched, the floating ball of water changed shape, forming a long arc, then spread apart into a lattice. More water flowed into the air from a bucket on the ground beside the professor. It was colored a neon blue.

“The witch is demonstrating a Weave of Fire and Air,” Mathis said.

“With water?” Katelyn asked.

Mathis shrugged. “Water is the best medium to demonstrate Weave formation, as the affinities are otherwise only visible to the caster.”

The two masses of different-colored water combined in an intricate pattern, and then remained in place, floating higher into the air so that all the students could see. The witch seemed to be encouraging the apprentices to follow her lead, because the green-robed men and women spread apart and began moving their hands.

A curved, glowing mass of energy appeared in front of one of the apprentices. The field appeared before the others one by one as more students achieved the invisible design.

“A defensive Weave,” Mathis said. “It will prevent Fire, Water, Air, or Earth from touching the apprentices.”

As Ariel watched, the professor hurled fireballs and lightning bolts at the shielded students. The magical creations dissipated upon touching the masses of energy, and Ariel noted that those defenses shrunk after each impact.

“Something to look forward to,” Mathis said.

“Yeah, in a year, if we make it,” Ked said.

The SUV reached a garage door at the base of the tower. That close, she realized the building really was made of steel. The surface was covered in small embossed symbols and polished to a burnish.

Hugh drove inside the garage and a scuffed ramp took them to the first level. Parked between the gray concrete pillars that held up the low roof were other vehicles, most of them SUVs, though all of different makes, models and colors.

Hugh descended to the second underground level and parked in a numbered spot between two SUVs.

Mathis opened the door. “Well then, let’s meet your handler.”

Ariel opened the sliding door and joined Mathis and the other apprentices outside the vehicle. Flickering lights overhead cast odd shadows as they walked across the parking garage. The group reached a small concourse area containing a stairwell and two elevators.

A dark-skinned, middle-aged gentleman with a receding hairline was waiting for them. Dressed in a suit and tie, he wore a headset and those glasses with the metal attachment on the right lens, like one of the soldiers. The bone rings on his fingers told Ariel he was a witch.

“Well well, Mathis, this is quite the diverse group you’ve got for me this time,” the man said.

“No more diverse than any of the others,” Mathis said. “Potentials, your handler: Walter Baez.”

“Pleasure to meet you all,” Walter said. “I’ll take it from here, Mathis.”

Mathis nodded, then went to the elevators and pressed the button. Meanwhile Hugh vanished into the parking garage.

As he waited for the elevator, Mathis turned back to look at the shifters one last time, and said: “Good luck to you all. If we meet again, it will be as equals.”

The elevator opened and Mathis stepped inside. His eyes lingered on Ariel in the moments before the doors closed. She wasn’t entirely sure what she saw in that look. Sadness, maybe. And hope?

“First order of business,” Walter told the remaining group. “You are no longer Potentials. You are now First Year apprentices. Come then, worms, let me show you to your dorm rooms so you can change into attire appropriate to your rank.”

“Did he just call us worms?” Tina said under breath.

“I think he did,” Michelle replied.

“Backpacks and suitcases on the cart.” Walter gestured toward a cart beside him.

The shifters loaded their luggage onto it.

James pressed the elevator button but Walter held up a hand.

“Oh no,” Walter said. “The elevator is not for you. First Years always take the stairs.”

“Uh, how far exactly is it to our floor?” Ked asked.

“Fifteen flights,” Walter replied.

“What about our luggage?” Ariel asked.

“I have an assistant coming down to retrieve it,” Walter said. “Now, the stairwell, please.”

“Somehow, I have a feeling that this training isn’t going to be as fun as we all thought it would be,” Brian said, entering the stairwell.

“Speak for yourself,” James said, entering behind him. “I for one never thought it would be fun.”

“Hurry it up!” Walter said. “Double time. Double time!”

Ariel ran after James, taking two steps at once.

After eight flights they were all panting loudly, and only taking one step at a time. The older among them fared the worst.

“Thought we were joining the witches, not the military,” Katelyn complained.

“Come on, pick it up!” Walter said from the rear. “You call yourselves shifters?”

“I thought shifters and humans were supposed to be treated the same here!” Michelle told Walter.

“Oh you are, in most things,” Walter said. “However, I am your handler. And I am a shifter. I know how much stronger than human beings you are. I know what you’re capable of. Now pick up the pace!”

James transformed into a panther, slipping out of his clothes to take the stairs four at a time.

Walter raised his voice immediately. “Oh no you don’t!”

James floated into the air and froze, captured by an invisible vise.

“Change back!” Walter said. “Immediately!”

James became human once more, and when he knelt to retrieve his abandoned clothing, an invisible whip audibly struck his backside. James howled, leaping. A red switch mark appeared on his naked buttocks.

“No clothes for you,” Walter said. “Because you changed without permission. It’s probably for the best, since you won’t be needing them anyway. Your white robe awaits.”

Ariel resisted her own urge to change, and continued up the stairs as fast as she was able. She felt completely winded by the time she reached the destination floor. When she piled out into the hallway with the others, she doubled over and rested both hands on her knees.

“Four minutes,” Walter said. “Pathetic. We’ll have to work on improving your time. If you wish to discipline the mind, first you must discipline the body!” He surveyed the panting group. “Well then, let’s make a visit to the wardrobe closet for this level, shall we? I’m growing tired of looking at the panther shifter’s hairy backside.”

“I’m not,” Michelle quipped.

Ariel wasn’t sure if Michelle’s panting was due entirely to the exertion, or partially because of the naked, manly bum in front of her. He did have a nice physique, Ariel had to admit.

When she looked up and realized James had caught her looking at him, she averted her eyes, blushing.

Nothing wrong with looking, she told herself.

She examined her surroundings. She was in a red-carpeted hallway with walls painted a drab brown. Equally spaced doors, all closed, lined the left side, while windows looked down onto the grounds to the right. The hallway curved inward slightly, following the outline of the tower exterior. Other than the shifters, the passage was deserted.

As Walter led the winded group through the hallway to the ‘wardrobe closet,’ an exhausted Ariel couldn’t help but think that if this was a glimpse of what awaited in the coming weeks and months, the training definitely wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Maybe this was a mistake after all.

* * *

Mathis switched his weight from one foot to the other. He stood before the desk of Savanna Kettleburn, president of the Steel Tower, and his current boss. The dragon shifter was a powerful witch in her own right, and answered directly to Queen Yvonne. Rumor had it that she had the Ability to use compulsion directly, rather than via the Strength. Mathis doubted that rumor, because he knew she wasn’t a member of the royal family. Still, he supposed it was possible.

She finally looked up from her laptop. “You can sit.”

Mathis made himself comfortable in the guest chair.

“I reviewed the application you sent by email,” Savanna said. “I’m afraid your request is denied.”

“I know it’s policy not to allow any vacation time in the first few months after a new posting,” Mathis said. “But I figured, in light of my years of dedicated service, that you would grant me an exception.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Savanna told him. “The foundation of the Steel Tower is Wayfarer law, followed closely by discipline. If I started breaking our rules to grant vacations to everyone who asked, our carefully built society would break down.”

Mathis clenched his jaw. “Giving me a vacation isn’t going to cause the downfall of the Wayfarers.”

“Yes, but when the other witches find out, I’ll never hear the end of it,” Savanna said. “I’ll be inundated with different requests. Vacations. Transfers. Pay increases. I have to keep my foot firmly planted to the ground, and refer those who would ask favors to our rules.”

“But I have at least four months banked up,” Mathis said. “What’s the point of banking vacation time if I can’t use it?”

“Maybe you should have thought about that before sleeping with the vampire you were tasked with destroying,” Savanna said.

Mathis lowered his gaze and exhaled softly. He was ashamed of that. One moment of weakness, one moment of lowering his guard... the vampire had been so beautiful. She reminded him of Gwendoline, both in looks and spirit, or at least the way Gwendoline had been in her youth. It had all been an act, of course. The vampire was using him. Mathis had revealed all of that in his report, leaving out only one thing, and that was how close Mathis had come to allowing the vampire to turn him into one of them. When Mathis refused the final time, the vampire showed her true colors and nearly killed Mathis. He was lucky to get out of her coven alive.

When Mathis met Savanna’s eyes once more, he merely nodded. “I understand. Thanks for considering my request.”

“Of course,” Savanna said. “Send me another application in a year, after the prerequisite time, and I’ll approve it.”

“I will,” Mathis said.

“You’ve received your new assignment?” Savanna asked.

“Yeah, I got it,” Mathis said. “Guess I have a flight to catch.”

“You do,” she said, returning her attention to the laptop.

A year.

He wasn’t sure he could wait that long.

He turned to go, but there was some other matter he had almost forgotten to bring up with her. “By the way, did you ever send anyone to investigate the Death magic I sensed last time I was here?”

“I went myself with a hand-picked team,” Savanna said, not looking up. “We destroyed a small vampire coven that had taken up residence in our domain.”

“Ah,” Mathis said. “Was she there?”

“If by she, you’re referring to the vampire who got you into this mess, then no,” Savanna said.

“Too bad,” Mathis said, meaning it. After all the grief she had caused him, he really wouldn’t have minded if the creature had met her demise. “What did Yvonne have to say about a coven hidden so close to our apprentice school?”

“The queen didn’t like it, obviously, and was pleased by the destruction,” Savanna said. “She sensed the Death magic unleashed during our battle, and expressed relief that none of us were hurt.”

“I’m glad, too,” Mathis said. “I bet the vampires weren’t expecting the dragon witch president of the Steel Tower herself to show up.”

Savanna looked up and smiled impatiently. “I'd love to chat with you, Mathis, but I do have pressing matters to attend to. If there is nothing else, would you mind terribly much...” Her eyes flicked toward the entrance.

“Ah, yes.” Mathis said.

He spun on his heel.

“Please shut the door behind you,” Savanna said.

With that he left, closing the door as instructed.

He made his way across the intricately marbled hallway of the topmost level, hardly noticing his surroundings, and took the elevator to the basement garage. On the ride down, he quickly forgot the news of the destroyed coven. Gwendoline filled his thoughts.

In the parking garage, he found Hugh waiting in the assigned van.

“So what’s the plan, boss?” his Keeper asked when Mathis loaded into the passenger seat.

Mathis glanced at Hugh. “We’ve been assigned to test the shifter territories outside the New Hampshire den.”

Hugh studied his boss. “We’re not going to New Hampshire, are we?”

“Oh we are, man,” Mathis said. “The president already booked us a commercial flight.” Wayfarers usually flew commercial, unless they were on a sensitive mission, such as transporting Potentials to the Steel Tower.

“And when we get there?” Hugh asked.

Mathis looked at his Keeper. His friend. “We’ll take the vehicle assigned to us. You’ll drop me off next to a car rental company, and then drive to the different shifter crews in the area.” The Wayfarers could track their own vehicles, and they would have no reason to believe Mathis wasn’t with Hugh doing his job, especially if he left his RFID ring with Hugh. It was a little bit risky, considering that the shifters might report Hugh’s solo visit to the Wayfarers. It was also against the rules to travel outside safe havens without his Keeper, mostly because of the danger to himself. But Mathis was willing to bend the rules and risk punishment, not to mention his life, for her.

“What do you want me to tell the shifter crews I drive out to?” Hugh said.

“Make something up,” Mathis said. “You’re performing a census. You’re doing a survey on dragon-shifter relations. Anything.”

Hugh nodded. “The census should work. One question, what will you report to the President? She’ll get suspicious if you don’t find any Potentials in those territories.”

“I plan to join up with you along the way,” Mathis said. “So be sure to take your time traveling between shifter crews.”

“And if you don’t show up before I’m done visiting them all?”

“Then I guess I’ll have to revisit a few without you until I find a Potential,” Mathis said.

Hugh drove the van out of the parking garage without saying a word more. When they were on the road to the Belgrade airport, the Keeper finally broke his silence.

“Is she worth it, boss?” Hugh asked.

Mathis sighed. “If you can’t judge her worth by my actions, then no words will convince you of that, my friend.”

Hugh nodded. “You’re doing all this work, all this effort. Spending time, energy. Risking everything. For what? How do you know she’ll take you back?”

“I don’t,” Mathis admitted. “But I have to try. And I think you know, I’m not one to give up easily.”

Mathis swore he was going to set things right with Gwendoline.

Somehow, he would.

Even if it meant spending the rest of his days in a Wayfarer prison.