cadet and reveal their position to the observers.’
‘Quite useful,’ Draco had to admit; the artefact seemed incredibly handy, and he was even surprised he hadn’t heard of such an item before.
‘Don’t get too excited, because the necklaces only work within the formation,’ Aiden dampened his enthusiasm. ‘In any case, anything goes apart from attacking people who’ve already been eliminated. Besides, teamwork is key.’ The redhead bit his tongue too late, so they covered the rest of the way in an awkward silence.
As soon as everyone had gathered around the three instructors and their dozen or so assistants, Cedric and the other two joined Draco and Zane without a word. The three of them seemed to be in an even worse mood than before.
‘To begin with, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our new head instructor of combat and fencing, Sethi Isverna Gar’quette, who will be assessing you today.’ A short pause for a polite round of applause. ‘As you’ve all heard, today’s task allocation will be fairly straightforward.’ Carter’s voice rose above the murmur of the small crowd. ‘Without further ado, I invite Group Ten to enter. Your supervisor will hand out the tasks to the individual teams. Group Two will enter the Crater exactly half an hour after the last team of their opponents. Let’s get started.’ He clapped his hands, and the students split up and dispersed according to their groups.
As he walked away, Aiden wished the dragon good luck once more and quickly joined his team. Draco felt strange, with the vague impression that he’d be better off with the redhead. However, there was no choice in the matter, and he had to make the best of the situation. He had to play the hand he’d been dealt. Fortunately, he had at least one person he could talk to.
‘We’ve got five teams in total,’ Carter said to his class after the sethi Gar’quette had left. The orc woman merely swept her gaze over them all, nodded, and set off up the slope. ‘You’re to find and secure the designated
