in my throat.”
Ben was furious. He made a move for the door, but a huge hand clamped down on his shoulder.
“I'm coming over to inspect your snow storm spell in a minute,” James said, staring hard at Joshua. “I expect to see a vast improvement.”
Ben was pleased to see the smirk wiped off Joshua's face and he turned to go.
“Wait,” James ordered, and Joshua turned round. “I want you to watch Ben's next attempt.”
“What? Why?” Ben asked. The thought of Joshua smiling if he messed up again was not a pleasant one.
“To help you focus,” James said. “The fear of failure will drive you.”
Ben had no answer to that. He flashed a dirty look at Joshua, who was now watching with renewed amusement.
“No pressure,” Joshua said. “I promise not to cough this time, but I've had hiccups all morning. Let's hope they don't re-surface.”
Ben had several nasty responses ready, but held his tongue. Instead he turned to James. “Did my last go count? It's a bit unfair; Joshua distracted me.”
“You think it's going to be nice and peaceful every time you fire a spell?” James said, his humour returning. “That would be nice, wouldn't it? No, that effort counted just as much as your first one. This is your third attempt.”
Ben bit his tongue, retrieved another spell and marched back to the starting position. He swung his arm back, but before he could thrust forwards, a hand grabbed him.
“Slow down,” James said, releasing Ben's arm. “I want you to count to sixty before throwing.”
Ben almost ignored him and threw anyway. His count to sixty started off rushed, eager to get to the end so he could smash the spell against the target as hard as he could. But by the time he neared sixty, his breathing had slowed and he gave James a grateful nod.
“Now, concentrate,” James said. “I don't mean block out all the noise, because that's impossible. Just focus on what you're doing and don't worry about external distractions.”
It was a lot harder than Ben had imagined. He kept trying to block out all the noises and create a cone of silence. But as James said, that was impossible, and eventually he figured out a way to accept the external sounds and not be bothered by them. He took a deep breath, eyed up the target, and then, instead of giving everything in the follow through, launched the spell at a much more measured pace. It arced through the air and hit the target. There was a puff and a tiny flame, no bigger than a candle, before disappearing.
“Very good!” James said, clapping, his huge hands sounding like a drum. “Success at the third attempt. You join a very exclusive group.”
Charlie gave him a high five and Jimmy attempted the same, but missed his hand completely. Both the girls were smiling and clapping too.
Ben grinned, and couldn't help turning to Joshua who looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. There was a look of undisguised hatred in his eyes that was so strong it sucked away some of Ben's elation. Surely that couldn't stem from the silly incident when he stole Joshua's spellshooter in the library a few weeks ago? There was something else there, Ben was sure of it. As Joshua turned to leave, Ben decided he was going to find out.
— Chapter Fourteen —
An Uninvited Guest
It took the rest of the session for Ben to cast five consecutive spells and move up to the next grade, which earned him a pat on the back from James. Charlie managed to cast his first spell on the twentieth attempt, which he was delighted about, having been worried that he was simply incapable of it at all.
To Ben's surprise, training in the other departments turned out to be just as interesting. In Diplomacy, they learnt about the different races and cultures in the Unseen Kingdoms and how to deal with them, from the Grey Dwarves in the north (always place your left fist to your chest in greeting) to the Sea Fairies (they are easy to bribe, especially with sweets). Despite Ben's dislike for Draven, the Department of Wardens was almost as cool as the Spellswords. A large part of their job was to watch the country borders and make sure no Unseens entered the ordinary world without authorisation. They sent out teams to track and capture those that did. In their first practical, Ben and Charlie got to watch a group of three Wardens poring over a map, tracking