Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George Page A

rush to her cheeks. Hot prickles of embarrassment ran down her sides and back. She reached out a hand to beg for him to forgiveher, and ended up rubbing vigorously at the place where Rufus’s feathers turned to fur, which always itched him.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh,” she mumbled. “It was just … I didn’t expect you to say that.”
    “No one does,” he said with a crooked smile. “At least, I’m assuming they won’t expect it. That’s why I haven’t ever told anyone.”
    “Not even Bran?”
    “Well, Bran knows,” Pogue said. “He was there when I applied to the College of Wizardry.” He shrugged. “But anyone can apply, and they promise to not even tell your parents, if you ask them not to.”
    Celie nodded. She knew this well. She’d applied to the College herself once.
    Anyone over the age of five could meet with one of the testing wizards, who traveled all over the world, looking for children with magical gifts. It only took a few minutes; they asked your name and a few questions, but really, they were just seeing if their gift found a spark of magic in you.
    Since Bran had the gift, Celie had wondered if she had it, too, and had met with the testing wizard who stayed at the Castle for a few days when she was six. He’d been very kind, had asked her about her birthday and whether she had a pet, and then smiled gently and told her that he was sorry, that she had gifts other than magic.
    At first she’d been nearly bursting with excitement over the idea that she was special, that she had other giftseven more rare than magic. But over time she’d come to understand that that had just been his way of telling her that she wouldn’t be joining her oldest brother in Sleyne City.
    So she understood Pogue very well. She understood what it was like to have everyone think they knew you, and knew what you liked and what you wanted, but to secretly want other things, want to be different.
    She almost started crying, but instead gave Pogue a tremulous smile.
    “I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” she said, waving a hand at her sketchbook.
    “It’s a deal,” Pogue said, offering his hand for her to shake.
    She gave his warm hand two firm pumps, but when she tried to let go, his fingers locked around hers in panic. She looked up, and his eyes were wide, his mouth open. He was staring over her shoulder.
    She wheeled around to see Rufus perched in one of the windows, stretching out his wings. He had to lean far out of the arch in order to get his wings free and extend them all the way.
    “Now we’re in trouble,” Pogue said. “I think he’s trying to fly.”

Chapter
16

    I’ll help you get him back to your room,” Pogue said, after he and Celie had wrestled Rufus down from the window-sill. “Will you be all right after that?”
    “I guess so,” Celie said.
    She had both arms around Rufus’s neck, and her heart was still thumping. The Spyglass Tower was at the northernmost point of the Castle, and from the north window, which Rufus had been about to leap out of, it was a sheer drop to a rocky gully. Rufus’s golden body would have been a broken heap on the rocks far below, and it would have taken Celie nearly an hour to reach him. Of course, he might have been able to open his wings all the way and fly, but he was still so young and so clumsy that she doubted it.
    “It’ll be fine,” Pogue said.
    But he said it in a sort of frantic way, as if he were only trying to reassure her before he went off and had hystericshimself. He ran down the stairs ahead of her and Rufus, and checked to see if anyone was in the corridor. When he saw that it was clear, he signaled to her, and she and Rufus hurried after him.
    “I’ll just get you to your room,” Pogue went on, leading them down the corridor at a fast clip. “And then I’m going to see Bran about something.”
    “Oh, okay,” Celie said.
    She felt like she and Pogue had just bonded, and now he was going to leave her? Now