Spycraft Academy B. Miles (new ebook reader txt) 📖

It was as dark as it usually was on his watch, which was to say that everybody but Sam was asleep in their beds while Sam sat under his usual tree beside the administrative building.

Sam opened his mouth to sing the next verse, but something caught his attention, and he closed his mouth before straightening. A small man-shaped shadow formed beside the school, getting closer and closer and gaining substantial shape until he recognized Apelles walking toward him. For a moment, he thought was the thief. What did he want right now?If Apelles planned on hanging around, maybe Sam could take advantage of the privacy and ask the spymaster what exactly was going on. Maybe this time, Apelles would entertain an answer.

When the spymaster finally drew up in front of him, he leaned his hand against Sam's tree and hovered like a pine.

"I've noticed that you've taken most of the watches, Sam."

No 'hello,' no small talk, just straight to the point.

Sam shrugged.

Apelles crossed his arms. "The bags under your eyes are quite telling. And you almost fell asleep in class the other day."

Sam shrugged again. "I like to be outside." Apelles made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat before he, too, shrugged and moved the topic along. "I haven't gotten any reports from you this past week."

"That's because there's been nothing to report," Sam said back.

"Ah. So it's not going well, I assume."

"You'd be the first to know, wouldn't you?"

He could feel Apelles’ eyes boring into the side of his face. Sam didn't look up. Apelles sighed and folded his legs under him, taking a seat next to Sam. It wasn't like the man to get on the ground next to a student for no good reason.

"Did you know that I was the one to scout you?" Apelles said, breaking the moody silence. Sam's eyebrows twitched.

How?

Apelles hadn't been his recruiter, Lebert was, and Sam had never seen Apelles in the city. He's pretty sure he would have remembered a face like the spymaster's, all sharp and angular.

"Oh?" Sam twiddled his blade of grass, waiting on his teacher to elaborate.

"Oh indeed," Apelles said. After a moment of silence, the older man broke it with a sigh. "It wasn't just your talent, you know."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I saw you and Mattie, or, specifically, I saw you and your crew breaking into a house. And I noticed the way you guided them. You didn't have to make a sound, you didn't say a word. There was an unspoken communication. They obviously relied on you to tell them what needed to be done, and you'd obviously been very successful with running your crew, considering you have no arrest record. I picked you not because of your talent, although shadow magic is admittedly one of the school's favorite talents. I picked you because of the way you lead people, Sam. You have potential. And we need more of that."

When Sam frowned heavily at Apelles, the spymaster waved him off. "Believe more or don't, but it's true. Better than your shadow magic is your ability to bring a diverse group of people together and coordinate them into a team regardless of who they are or what they can do."

Apelles stared at him with some sort of meaningful expression on his face that Sam couldn't decipher. He was too tired for this.

"You'll never come into your own if you don't rely on your crew more than you do," Apelles continued. "That's the point of having one. You're not the center of your own story, Sam, your crew is. Trust them more. For example, right now. Why are you on watch for the fifth night in the row? Do you plan to sleep anytime soon, or are you going to collapse on yourself? Or perhaps you'll sleep when you're unable to conjure magic?"

Sam thumped his head on the back of the tree. "You're right, I know you are...I just...It feels like if I don't do it, something will go wrong."

"That's called having a control problem," Apelles said. "When you feel out of control, you get anxious?"

"I suppose," Sam said.

"I imagine many things have been out of control in your life, Sam. For a very long time. And the only way you can feel safe is if you feel like you can control the things that happen around you. But I'll let you in on a little secret: nothing can be truly controlled, nothing except yourself. All you can do is trust the system or the people you work with. Do your best. And lead others to the best of your ability so they can do their best as well."

Thank you, Father. He wanted to snap at Apelles, but he bit his tongue. It was just the sleep deprivation.

"Let go of the control, Sam. People look up to you, they'll do right by you."

The control he had over his mouth didn't last long. He did snap at the spymaster that time. "Why do you care?"

Apelles closed his mouth and his jaw ticked. For a few tense breaths, he didn't say a word.

Does he care? Does he really?

Apelles took a long, deep breath and said, "Because we need you."

"Me?" Spirits, why?!

"Yes, you," Apelles said. "There's far more going on than you know, that you're allowed to know...at least at this point in your career. The sort of information..."

Sam had never seen Apelles look anything less than irritated, but the spymaster was actually worrying at his lip. What in all hells was going on?

"The information I'm about to give you does not leave this spot. You are not to tell your little girlfriends. You're not to tell your roommate. You're not to tell anybody. Because unlike the documents the thief stole, if this gets out, the country will actually be in danger. I shouldn't tell you this, and really, I could find myself quite discharged from the Varin service. So not a word. Promise me, swear it on your gods."

Sam's eyes widened, and suddenly he felt a lot more stressed about