The Iron Trial

The Iron Trial
File:TIT cover.png
Information
Author	Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
Illustrator	Scott Fischer
Cover artist	Alexandre Chaudret
Release Date	September 9, 2014
Publisher	Scholastic Press
Cover	Callum Hunt, Aaron Stewart, Tamara Rajavi
Series	The Magisterium
Pages:	304
Chronology
Preceded by N/A	Followed by The Copper Gauntlet

The Iron Trial is the first book of the Magisterium series co-written by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. It was published on September 9, 2014.

Synopsis

Most people would do anything to pass the Iron Trial and get into the Magisterium.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic, and told his whole life that he should never trust a magician. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him. So he tries his best to do his worst – and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him — a place that's both sensational and sinister. And Call realizes it has dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning. Call's biggest test is still to come . . .

---

Twelve-year-old Callum Hunt has grown up knowing three rules by heart. Never trust a magician. Never pass a test a magician gives you. And never let a magician take you to the Magisterium.

Call is about to break all the rules. And when he does, his life will change in ways he can't possibly imagine.

Plot

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The war against the Enemy of Death, known as the Third Mage War, began at least a decade ago. When the Enemy does not show up on the field of the Great Battle to face the mages' champion, Verity Torres, Alastair realizes that his family may be in danger. Alastair Hunt goes to La Rinconada to make sure his family is safe, but arrives too late. Everyone in the cave, except his son, Callum Hunt, is dead, including his wife Sarah Hunt and her brother Declan, who had died protecting him. This is called The Cold Massacre. While Alastair initially promises to raise Callum knowing his mother's bravery, this changes when he sees the message his wife wrote in the ice with her knife, Semiramis, as she died. It reads: "KILL THE CHILD." Sarah did this knowing that as the Enemy of Death died, he his soul had entered Call's body.

Alastair raises Call, though not as he had originally hoped to, teaching him to fear magic and be distrustful of mages. They live in Asheville, North Carolina, where Call is notorious for being troublesome and sarcastic. Call is lonely in Asheville, and is at one point, attacked by some kids. Call retaliates by starting a mini-earthquake, scaring the kids away. Unbeknownst to Call, he is being watch by Joseph, who knows the Enemy of Death's soul was inside Call. Soon, it is time for Call to attend the Iron Trials. Alastair prepares Call to fail this, not wanting him to go to the Magisterium, as attendance is mandatory if one passes the test. When they arrive in Virginia, Call and his father enter an abandoned airfield's hangar. There are over one hundred families, though not all of them know why they are there, until the aspirants are alerted by Master Phineus of the test's true nature.

The aspirants are then divided into groups. During the test, Call distances himself from the other aspirants, not interested in making friends as he fully intends to fail. The first test is a written exam with strange questions, overseen by Master Milagros. Call is unable to even begin, since the pen he is holding blows up as he tries to get it to work, highlighting his uncontrolled power. While Call thinks he failed, he is, in fact, given full points for it. The next two tests are supervised by Master Rockmaple; the second task involves climbing an enchanted rope ladder and reaching the big red ball hanging from the ceiling. Only Aaron Stewart, one who seems carefree enough and is trying to befriend Call, is able to finish it. Call, the last to be called, then makes the ball burst in frustration. For the third test, they are told to make a piece of paper levitate in the air. Remembering his father's advice, Call thinks of doing the very opposite of what they want him to—instead of making it float, he thinks very hard of making something pin the piece of paper down, like an imaginary hand. Because of this, when Master Rockmaple finally lets those unable to do it stop trying, they can no longer remove the paper from the desk. For this, Call gets negative scores (apparently a first in the history of Iron Trials) and thus gets ten points deducted from his already low score.

The final test is one with Call's parents' old mentor, Master Rufus. Rufus instructs him to lift a bowl of water with fire burning in the middle. When Call finally takes the bowl, the fire inside leaps and only gets stronger as he tries to put it out. Rufus realizes that Call had been trying to fail and calls him out for it. Upon the mention of Call's mother, Call loses his temper and the bowl explodes, causing fire to scatter on the floor. Rufus makes Call put the fire out and tells him that he failed the test before sending him out to wait for the others and their final scores.

By the end of it all, Call is disappointed that he didn't have to try too hard to even fail the tests—that he merely genuinely failed them. When he shares this concern with his father, Alastair is evidently pleased to hear of his failure and reminds Call that he was supposed to fail.

Once everyone is done with the test, all the aspirants return to their seats and the Masters come out to choose their apprentices. Master Rufus chooses first. Unsurprisingly, he chooses the two aspirants who are tied at the top of the test rankings, Tamara Rajavi and Aaron Stewart. He also picks Call, who ranked last. Alastair makes a scene, refusing to let Rufus have him. He tries to negotiate with him, asking Rufus to allow him to train Call himself, to which Rufus tells him that he had twelve years to do so and he hadn't. Alastair is then forced out of the hangar, but before he leaves, he throws Sarah's knife, Semiramis, at Call. Aaron catches it in midair just before it hits Call.

After it quiets down, Master Milagros picks her apprentices next, and she chooses Jasper deWinter, a boy who was rude to Call during the tests and had ranked second, below Tamara and Aaron. Jasper is angry that Call has 'taken his spot' as Master Rufus' apprentice.

Their training is officially initiated by Master Rufus the next day at the school. He brings them to a secluded room, which Call will later dub the Room of Sand and Boredom, to sort through sand, much to the trio's disappointment. On their first day, Call winds up losing control and ruining what they had accomplished so far, much to Tamara's frustration and Call's shame.

Contrary to what they had hoped, the sorting would go on for weeks, while they continue to hear about the fantastic lessons the other groups got from their Masters. While both Tamara and Aaron had people to spend their time with, Call usually spent time alone in his room. Despite this, Call began to adjust, such as to the strange food that they eat, which surprisingly tasted like something else entirely; something better. He also did have some people to talk to, particularly a girl named Celia and some other apprentices who were friendly with him.

During the second week of their sand sorting, Call finally asked them if there was a faster way to finish their task. Though skeptical, Tamara told them of a way to tap into an element—one that was dangerous and would most likely draw the ire and disapproval of Master Rufus. While they did discuss the risks, like the possibility of turning into elementals, they did it anyway. They each swallowed grains of sand to open themselves up to the earth element.

Upon eating sand, they became more in tune to the element. Call lifted the whole pile of sand and let it float over them effortlessly, though he became slightly lightheaded, feeling an urge to sink into the ground. Aaron separated the pile, and Tamara made patterns out of the sand. Suddenly, Master Rufus arrived, surprising the trio enough that they dropped the sand, and called for Call. Assuming he was in trouble, Call was disappointed that neither Aaron nor Tamara seem interested in standing up for him.

~ work in progress ~

Gallery

File:Iron Trial, Italian cover.jpeg

Italian cover

Trivia

• The cover art depicts Call, Aaron, and Tamara.
• The cover was illustrated by Alexandre Chaudret, and some of the design elements were done by Jim Tierney.
• The book features interior illustrations per chapter done by Scott Fischer.
• The screenplay for a possible film adaptation has already been written by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. The film rights are also currently owned by Constantin Film, the same production company responsible for another adaptation of Cassandra Clare's work, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

External links

• The official site on Scholastic.com

References