How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The wizard laughed aloud, his hoarse voice scraping at my ears. Then he vanished.
I mean that. He didn't walk away, or slide into the shadows. He disappeared. He was there one instant, then gone the next. (14.16-17)
Okay, we'll admit it, that's a pretty cool little magic trick. It would be a handy one to bust out when someone's trying to sell you something you don't actually want. But it seems like in the academy, the wizards use tricks like this to intimidate the boys into behaving. Not cool, wizards, not cool.
Quote #5
"Watch closely," he growled. Then he faced the impossible gem and touched it, his palm flat against its surface. There was a sound like distant thunder, then something high, like faint screams, then a barely perceptible flicker of bluish light in the room. Then a tray as big as any my father's house servants had ever labored to carry appeared on the flat stone pedestal in front of the massive gem. (20.16)
Another impressive magic trick. It's kinda creepy how it happens, though. What's up with the sound and light effects? We're not really sure, and Hahp never learns either. We're guessing that the mystery of the gem gets explained in later books in the series, if it ever does.
Quote #6
I felt myself sweating, sharp, smelly fear-sweat. Piss on all the wizards, I hated them for turning us into animals. Would the one who graduated end up like the flying horses? Able to do strange, wonderful things, but with cold, dead eyes, changed forever into something else? (28.22)
Since Hahp's dad raises the magical flying horses, he's gotten to observe them up close. And what he sees isn't a pretty sight: their eyes are lifeless and cold. Is that what magic does to people as well as animals? And is that where the boy who graduates from the academy is heading? Suddenly becoming a wizard is starting to sound like not such a great idea…