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room and the one he was currently looking at had no
hands, so he had no idea what time it was. He spent a brief period
wondering how he could figure out the time, but then he gave up on
it. There was no way to tell what time it was other than to
recognize that it was the current moment, whatever one decided to
call it. After a few more minutes, he started wondering what Moss
meant about reflecting on where he was. He knew he was in the
castle, but he wondered if Moss was trying to get him to think
about where in the kingdom he was, where in the room he was, or
where he was in terms of his lessons. The more he thought about it,
the more bizarre the concept of location seemed to him, because
there were so many locations to which Moss could be referring. Just
as he was about to ask for clarification, he saw the hands on the
clock appear again and there were so many in every position and
the layers were so deep that they
appeared infinite. They were everywhere. They even seemed to be
multiplying.
    “How many hands
are there? ” Moss asked as he watched Nicholas' eyes suddenly
widen.
    “Too many to
count! ” Nicholas shouted with alarm. “ I don’ t know how the clock can hold them all! ” The volume of hands on the face
of the clock appeared to be growing with each
moment.
    “Exactly! ” Moss exclaimed with satisfaction. He folded his arms and
smiled. “ You ’ re a natural. Megan was
right. ”
    “Told you
so, ” Megan said
as she smiled, displaying her long fangs.
    “A natural at
what? ” Nicholas
asked. He looked again at the clock and there were only two hands
upon it, just as when he started. “ It looks normal
again! ’ he
exclaimed in alarm.
    “Of course it
does, ” Moss
replied dismissively . “ Time always settles when you ’ re not paying attention to
it. ”
    “I
don’ t understand. What does it
mean? ” Nicholas
asked again.
    “It means that
you have an aptitude for learning the art of
sorcery, ” Moss
replied. Nicholas felt the bottom of his stomach
drop.
    “I
don’ t want that, ” Nicholas said quickly. “ I
don’ t want to be like ... him . ”
    “Like who?”
    “The sorcerer. The one who’s
trying to take over the kingdom.”
    “Sorcery
isn ’ t a bad
thing. It ’ s a
rare thing that few understand, but just like anything else, it
depends upon what you do with it. Almost nothing is good or bad in
itself, ” Moss
replied. “ It ’ s the intention that makes it
so. The sorcerer we ’ re fighting
uses his talent for his own means and to gratify his desire for
power, but that doesn ’ t make all of it bad. ”
    “Do you know
him? ”
    “Yes, but not
well. You could say that I know more of him, than actually knowing
him. But I probably know more about him than
most. ”
    “Did you train
him? ” Nicholas
asked as soon as the idea came to him. “ Do you know about him because
you taught him? ”
    “No, ” Moss replied. “ I didn ’ t teach him, but
I ’ ve studied
him. My job is to teach others about him. ”
    “What ’ s
his name? ”
    “We
don’ t know, ” Moss replied. “ He ’ s hidden it from us. It ’ s one of the ways he protects
himself. ”
    “Why is he
hiding it? Is he a coward? ”
    “No,” Megan jumped in.
“He ’ s not a coward.
He ’ s smart. If we don ’ t know who he is, then we
don ’ t know his
true nature or how to defeat him. He ’ s hidden his name and identity
extremely well, and his spell is so strong that it would take a
miracle to figure out how to defeat him. ”
    “Or another
very strong sorcerer, ” Moss replied.
    “Aren ’ t you a
sorcerer? ” Nicholas asked. “ You brought Newton to life, so
you must have some powers. ”
    “My powers are
limited. ”
    “How? ”
    “Some other
time. Right now we ’ re trying to help you develop your talents. This is a
lesson. ”
    Nicholas looked
from Moss to Newton and then to Megan. He didn ’ t know that any other sorcerers
existed, and now he was standing in front of one and