face and shrugged.

Lord Havelock was stopped in front of Rohan’s desk, peering into Rohan’s satchel.

And then Lord Havelock’s expression changed to a dangerous sneer as he removed his hand from Rohan’s satchel, his long, pale fingers closed tightly into a fist.

“Mr. Mehta, would you care to explain this?” Lord Havelock asked.

“Explain what, sir?” Rohan asked, puzzled.

Lord Havelock opened his fist.

Lying in his palm was a tiny obsidian statuette, the missing artifact.

“I didn’t …, ” Rohan began, “I mean … you can’t possibly think that I would … this is absurd.”

Lord Havelock stared down at Rohan, his mouth a thin, hard line, his eyes glittering treacherously. “Mr. Mehta, I think that you should come with me. The rest of you are dismissed.”

“He didn’t do it, sir,” Henry said. “I was here the whole time; I would have seen something.”

“Are you implying that you helped Mr. Mehta to steal this object?” Lord Havelock asked.

“No, he didn’t,” Rohan put in quickly. “Henry, Adam, go on. I’ll be all right.”

Henry gave Rohan what he hoped was an encouraging smile and trudged out into the hall along with Adam.

Neither of them ate anything in the dining hall that afternoon. Henry sat staring at the doorway, waiting for Rohan to walk through any moment and say that everything had been sorted, and did anyone happen to save him a roast beef and cress sandwich?

But he didn’t.

Finally, with just ten minutes before they needed to leave for their next class, Henry and Adam slipped out of the dining hall and opened the door to their room.

Rohan was inside, standing over his open school trunk, eyes puffy as though he’d recently been crying.

“Well?” Henry prompted.

“I’ve been expelled,” Rohan said tightly, tossing an untidy ball of shirts into his trunk.

“What?” Henry asked.

“But you’re innocent, mate,” Adam said.

“Tell that to bloody Lord Havelock,” Rohan said, throwing his books into the trunk on top of the mountain of shirts. “He dragged me off to see Headmaster Winter. ‘This boy was caught red-handed,’ he said, ‘stealing a valuable Nordlandic artifact from my lesson. He was given ample time to come forward and return the item, yet he chose to see if he could get away with it.’ ”

“Surely Headmaster Winter didn’t believe him,” Henry said.

Rohan smiled sadly. “What choice did he have? It was our head of year’s word against mine. Lord Havelock was dead set that he’d caught me stealing, and without any reason for doubt, they didn’t even need to gather the trustees for a vote on my expulsion.”

“But anyone could have planted it in your bag,” Henry said desperately.

“Lord Havelock didn’t think so,” Rohan said sadly. “In fact, after making me out to be a thief, he rather blamed the headmaster for all of this, because what did he expect would happen if he let commoners into the academy?”

“This is what Professor Stratford warned us about,” Henry said. “That if we do anything wrong, Headmaster Winter could be fired. … Not like you did anything wrong, though.”

“Well, it’s as good as if I had,” Rohan said bitterly.

“You can’t leave,” Adam wailed, sitting down on his bed and putting his head in his hands. “Not now!”

“It’s not as though I was begging to be expelled,” Rohan said with an odd little laugh. “But my father might be able to convince them to take me back. Build a new library. Or how about some nice combat training rooms?”

“How come it’s funny when he jokes about it?” Adam whined.

Henry swallowed, his throat tight. Rohan was expelled from the academy. He couldn’t believe it.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do without you,” Henry said quietly.

“I do,” Rohan said firmly. “Find out who’s behind all this. Convince someone of what you saw in the Nordlands. Fix this.”

“I’ll try,” Henry said doubtfully. It wouldn’t be the same without Rohan as the calm voice of reason by his side.

“When are you leaving?” Adam asked.

“Now,” Rohan said. “On the next train to Holchester. They want to keep this quiet, since I’ve apparently broken the Code of Chivalry and all.”

Rohan smiled sadly and reached into his trunk. He took out his stack of leather-bound adventure novels and his gold pocket watch.

“Here,” Rohan said, handing Adam the novels. “Take them.”

“I couldn’t,” Adam protested.

“Please.”

Adam accepted the books quietly and, with a crooked grin, gave Rohan a salute.

Rohan turned to Henry, who shook his head. “You’ll be back,” Henry said.

“Keep this for me until then,” Rohan said, giving Henry the pocket watch. And even though they were fourteen, and far