“Well, believe it,” said Tamara. “Is Automotones back?”

“Many have returned,” said Marcus. “The Devoured One was consigned to chaos. But he was able to tear open a door into our world and return. He brought with him those he thought might help him here — Azhdaha, the Great Dragon. Automotones. The most savage of the Chaos-ridden ever to be hurled into the void. All have returned at his side.”

“What about Stanley?” said Jasper.

“Who the heck is Stanley?” said Gwenda. Even Marcus looked puzzled.

Call sighed. “He was a Chaos-ridden who was loyal to Constantine. Me. Whatever. I don’t think Stanley was his real name either; it’s just what I called him.”

“Stanley?” said Gwenda.

“Forget him,” said Tamara. “Marcus, we need to know how to kill a Devoured of chaos.”

“Yes, you do,” Marcus said.

Call was frustrated and sweaty. “Why did you want to see us? Warren said you got him to bring us here.”

At the sound of his name, the lizard scuttled up to Marcus’s shoulder and began kneading it the way a cat would, flicking his tongue out at the hot air. Call guessed they were closer than he’d thought.

“It was you who sought Warren,” Marcus reminded them. “I had him lead you to me because of Rufus. Had I not become Devoured, Master Rufus might have been less distracted, less willing to allow Master Joseph to get close to Constantine. We all bear a share of the responsibility for the Enemy of Death, and I would like to discharge mine by aiding the defeat of this new threat.”

“Great,” Call said. “Then help me. Help us!”

Marcus looked at him with burning eyes. “Everything you need is already with you.”

Does he mean me? Aaron asked.

“That’s not helping!” Call said. “Just say what you mean for once. No more riddles!”

“Good luck, mages,” Marcus said, then burst into a column of flame. When it died down, no one was there but Warren, the gems on his back gleaming brighter than ever.

“I will take you home now,” the little lizard said, racing ahead before waiting for a response, leaving them to scramble after him.

“That was Master Marcus,” Gwenda said as she followed. “I can’t believe you know him. I can’t believe we just talked to him. He’s a legend. And terrifying. A terrifying legend.”

“Yeah,” said Jasper, looking a little pale. “We’re really cool like that.”

Call’s leg was hurting as he scrambled through the tunnels and he felt the opposite of cool. In front of the Assembly he’d acted like he was capable of finding a way to stop Alex. But as they headed toward the less stuffy parts of the Magisterium, he started to despair.

We’re going to be fine, Aaron said, but he didn’t sound entirely sure himself.

Warren paused, alighting on a rock above a wending stream that flowed through the caves. They were back in the familiar part of the Magisterium.

“The time is now,” said Warren.

“Wait,” said Gwenda. “I thought it was closer than we think.”

“The time is now,” Warren repeated, then scuttled away into the shadows.

Gwenda turned to Call. “Does he always say that? Please tell me this is normal.”

“Uh,” Call said. “No.”

“Forget Warren being cryptic,” Tamara said, dusting off her uniform and tucking a stray strand of hair behind one ear. “Maybe we’re overthinking this. Maybe what we need is a weapon.”

Jasper looked back at her. “What kind of weapon?”

She gave them all a fierce look. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

A few hours later, they had covered the table, the couch, and a large chunk of the floor in their common room with books they’d borrowed from the library. Each of them had a stack and were skimming through, looking for weapons that might be useful against Alex.

It turned out that mages had made a lot of things over the years, though very few of them measured up to something like the Alkahest, which could kill chaos users with their own magic and which Alex had modified to steal Aaron’s Makar abilities and which had been, thankfully, destroyed. Most were useful but kind of dull things like knives that returned to the hand of the person who threw them. A few were just weird.

“I found a hatchet that cuts the heads off three pigeons with every single throw,” Jasper said, looking up from his book with a frown. “Who would want to make something like that?”

“Someone who really hates pigeons,” Gwenda said with a yawn.

Just then there was a knocking on the door. Call went over and waved it open to find a bunch of First Years including Axel and the girl who’d been carried into the air by the dragon.

“We just wanted to thank you,” said Axel. “Because you’re awesome.”

“I’m Lisa,” the girl said, thrusting a drawing at Call. “We just wanted you to know that we will never believe anything bad anyone ever says about you. You’re cool and you saved us and I drew a picture of it.”

Call took the picture and goggled at it. He couldn’t deny that it was actually very well drawn. The face really looked like him, but the body was much more built and also featured his shirt ripped open over six-pack abs. “Uh,” Call said, embarrassed.

Tamara grabbed it out of his hands. “This is amazing,” she said with enthusiasm that Call was sure came from mockery. “You’re really talented. We’re going to hang this on the wall.”

“We are most certainly not,” said Jasper, who would have loved the drawing had it been of him.

Thank them, Aaron said. Tell her it’s a great picture.

With Celia telling people that Call was evil, he supposed he couldn’t afford bad public relations. Maybe these Iron Year kids could help him get back in the good graces of the rest of the students.

“Thank you,” he told Lisa. “It’s great.”

“It definitely is,” Tamara agreed.

“We just wanted you to know,” said Axel, “whatever you want, we’re there for you. We’ll help. Really, anything.”

“You guys are so sweet,” said Tamara.

A wicked grin grew on Call’s face. Now here was a gift he knew what to do with. “Great!” he said. “As you can see, we’re really busy, so how about you go to the Refectory and get us some of those lichen cakes that taste like pizza. And then I need some more books from the library —”

“Call!” Tamara said, interrupting him.

He gave her an innocent look. “Maybe just the lichen cakes for now,” he said to the Iron Years.

They nodded and headed off to do Call’s bidding.

“They’re not your personal servants,” Tamara said.

“I think you will find that they are,” said Call, then admitted, “I guess I get an Evil Overlord Point for that.”

“What?” Tamara asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” he said, realizing that maybe he didn’t want her to know about the Evil Overlord list. And he definitely didn’t want Jasper and Gwenda, who were looking at him oddly, to start tallying up points for him.