My insides felt tight. I reached for my sais.

With an exasperated huff she relaxed. “Ulrick. Guess you forgot to tie his leash.”

The instant vision of Ulrick chained to a post like a dog made me laugh out loud. To an outsider who didn’t know about the various threats, Ulrick’s behavior around me would appear guard doggish.

My laughter wasn’t the reaction Pazia hoped for. She frowned, flashing me a cold stare from her olive-colored eyes.

“I haven’t pushed him away, and you’re jealous,” I said.

“Of course. He’s gorgeous, smart and caring. He deserves better than you.”

“I was right. You do think you’re better than me.”

“No. You’re still wrong. I said he deserved better. Not that he deserved me. In one small way, Opal, I’m just like you. I don’t know who to trust.” She strode on ahead and rounded the corner.

I stared at her back for a moment before rushing to catch up. Ulrick was berating her for leaving me alone. She met his tirade with a bored air, answered him with a flippant response and sauntered away.

“She only cares about one person,” Ulrick said. “Herself.”

But I wasn’t so sure I agreed with him.

Once the kiln reached the proper temperature, the sand mixture was loaded into the inner cauldron. It would take another half day to melt into molten glass. In the meantime, we set a schedule for the three of us to keep the fire hot.

“We could use a few more people to help,” Mara said. “Leif would—”

“You can’t ask Leif to shovel coal,” Ulrick said.

“Why not?” she asked.

“He’s too important. It’s like asking Master Cowan to mend socks.”

Mara fixed him with a cold stare. “If Leif thought shoveling coal was too menial for him, I wouldn’t be here.”

“It’s just—”

I touched his shoulder. “You really shouldn’t say any more. You’ll just dig yourself in deeper.”

He threw his hands up in surrender and checked the temperature of the annealing oven. However, Mara was right, we did need more helpers. I wondered if I could send out a general request to the Keep’s student body. Perhaps a few would be interested in learning how to work with the glass.

Zitora approved the idea and I wrote a message on the dining hall’s announcement blackboard. In no time, a handful of students arrived at our glass shop, offering to lend a hand. Working with their class schedules, Mara added the five of them in when they had free time and promised glass lessons in exchange for shoveling coal.

I erased the request off the board. Five would be enough for now.

Finally the melt was ready. We had loaded the kiln with a sand recipe that was similar to the Stormdancers’ mix. The three of us had decided to craft a few orbs for our first project to see if I could channel another’s magic into glass as I had done when Tricky attacked me.

“It almost feels like home,” Mara said as she gathered a slug for Ulrick on the end of a blowpipe.

“Do you miss home?” I asked.

“Yes, but it really was time for me to move on. If Mother mentioned grandchildren to me once more, I would have…”

“What?” I smiled.

“Threatened to remain childless!” Mara shaped the molten slug into a sphere then handed the pipe to Ulrick.

“My nieces and nephews were constantly underfoot,” Ulrick said. He blew a bubble into the sphere.

Annoyance twinged at how easy he made it look, and I was sure by the end of the day even our new helpers could thumb a bubble. Swallowing my frustrations, I reflected on Ulrick’s comment.

“Do you miss your family?” I asked him.

Mara lifted the pipe from his workbench, and reheated the glass in the glory hole.

“Not at all,” he said.

My sister returned when the glass glowed yellow. Ulrick grabbed the jacks and, as he turned the pipe, Mara blew into one end as he narrowed the glass around the other end, forming an almost-complete ball. I hurried to get a small amount of glass on a pontil iron and formed a punty. Using the metal tweezers, Ulrick brought the punty to the end of the ball, then dripped water near the end of the blowpipe. One hit with the end of his tweezers, the orb cracked off the blowpipe and was now attached to the pontil rod.

The orb was inserted back into the glory hole to heat. When the tip was pliable, Ulrick worked to craft a lip for the orb. He used the orb I stole from Tricky as a guide to how to shape it. Since we didn’t plan to trap energy inside, we didn’t worry about finding a way to plug the opening.

We made four orbs and set them in the annealing oven to cool. It would be twelve hours before we could work with the orbs.

“I have twenty pounds of my special sand mix on order,” Ulrick said. “When it arrives, I’ll show you how I make those vases.”

While Ulrick helped Mara make a bowl, I showed Piecov how to gather glass from the kiln. The first-year student had signed up to help with the glass shop. He had watched us work, and now it was his turn to try.

“Watch, it’s very hot. You want to get in and out as fast as possible,” I said. “And keep the rod turning all the time or the glass will drip to the floor.”

He was quick to learn and asked all the right questions.

Overall, I was very pleased with the glass shop’s first day of operation. Everyone worked together well, and the equipment ran without problems. It was a shame the harmony didn’t last very long.