Schooled in Magic 5 - The School of Hard Knocks Read online

  She turned, forcing herself to stand upright. Tall and blonde, Lady Barb’s patrician composure broke slightly to wink at her. Her silver armor glittered in the light emanating from the walls. Beside her, Sergeant Miles looked like an amiable gnome. His short brown hair seemed damp, clinging to his skull. Emily’s eyes narrowed as she realized he was standing too close to Lady Barb, his sleeve brushing against hers...

  It was selfish, she knew. But she couldn’t help a pang of bitter jealously and fear at this fresh evidence that Lady Barb and Sergeant Miles were lovers.

  “This is outrageous,” Professor Lombardi said. “You do not turn a student loose on my wards for practice.”

  “You were the first professor who managed to stop her,” Lady Barb pointed out, mildly. “I think you should be proud of your success.”

  Professor Lombardi glowered at her, but Lady Barb cut him off before he could say anything.

  “Emily, the Grandmaster wishes to speak with you,” she said. “Go to his office. I’ll speak to you afterwards.”

  “And you can tell him that I object in the strongest possible terms to allowing anyone to practice on my wards,” Professor Lombardi said. “And if you hadn’t been encouraged by your tutors...”

  “Testing wards is hardly an unimportant part of her training,” Sergeant Miles said. As always, he seemed utterly inoffensive. If Emily had met him without his armor or uniform, she would never have taken him for a soldier, let alone a combat sorcerer. “And besides, testing the defenses here is an old rite of passage for students.”

  “And so is hideous punishment for those who get caught,” Professor Lombardi snapped. “Emily; go.”

  Emily nodded apologetically and fled down the corridor. Behind her, she heard the argument getting louder, then fade out as Whitehall’s wards absorbed the noise. She slowed as soon as she turned the corner and walked up the stairs to the Grandmaster’s office. Whitehall felt eerily quiet to her, although she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it. She knew it would be another month before the majority of the staff and students returned from holiday and resumed their studies.

  She paused outside the Grandmaster’s office and checked her appearance in the mirror hanging from the wall. Her dark brown hair had grown longer, reaching down to the small of her back. She was tempted to keep it that way, although she knew she would need to cut it before classes resumed in the fall. But her face no longer looked pale, even compared to the dark shirt and trousers she wore, while her body looked stronger and healthier than ever. And she felt more confident too, despite the certain knowledge that she would have been in real trouble if Lady Barb hadn’t intervened. She could have endured whatever Professor Lombardi chose to dish out as punishment.

  The Grandmaster’s door was solid wood. Emily hesitated, then tapped once. It creaked open a second later, allowing her to enter the office. Surprisingly, there was a large bookshelf mounted against the far wall, something that hadn’t been there the last time she’d visited the Grandmaster’s office. The Grandmaster normally kept his office completely barren, which no longer surprised her. He was blind.

  “Emily,” the Grandmaster said, rising to his feet. “Take a seat.”

  Emily sat and studied the Grandmaster as he returned a book to the shelf. He was a short man, barely taller than Sergeant Miles, yet he radiated power that blurred into the wards surrounding Whitehall. As always, a white cloth was wrapped around his eyes, a reminder of his blindness. Emily knew he had to see in some form, perhaps through magic, but she had no idea how it worked. She’d asked, once, and had been told she would have to wait to learn when her own magic was strong enough to use the technique.

  Perhaps I should introduce Braille, she thought, morbidly. There were spells to cure blindness, but they were only available to the rich or well-connected. Poorer victims couldn’t hope to have their blindness cured. It made them completely useless to their families, nothing but an additional mouth to feed. Braille might make the difference between them having a chance to live or being thrown out into the gutter to die.

  But she didn’t know how to recreate Braille from what little she knew of it...

  The concept might work if I passed it on to someone, she thought. They’d have a clue how to proceed...

  The Grandmaster cleared his throat. Emily started in embarrassment.

  “I trust you have been enjoying your time at school without actually having to attend classes,” the Grandmaster said. “You’ve certainly been keeping the librarian busy.”

  Emily flushed. She’d spent over half of each day in the library, just reading her way through the colossal collection of books on magic and the Allied Lands. The remainder of the days had been spent with Lady Barb or Sergeant Miles, exercising and practicing newer forms of magic. Some of them had been so tricky she doubted she would be able to master them for years to come.

  “Yes, sir,” she said.

  The Grandmaster hesitated, then got to the point. “You will recall the events of last year, of course,” he said. “Lin stole some of your notes and almost killed you.”

  Emily nodded, even though the Grandmaster couldn’t see it. She still had nightmares about how close she’d come to death, time and time again. The Mimic would have killed her outright, then stolen her form, but the Gorgon’s magic would have leeched away her thoughts piece by piece, eventually leaving her as nothing more than a stone statue. It was a thoroughly horrifying way to die.

  And the Gorgon would have been blamed for my death, she thought. Lin would have covered her tracks very neatly.

  “We have been investigating since then,” the Grandmaster continued. His voice sounded oddly awkward. “We have uncovered a plot to kidnap you.”

  Emily blinked. “Kidnap me?”

  “You are quite important,” the Grandmaster pointed out, sardonically. “If you didn’t have such a powerful guardian, it is quite likely there would be more plots to kidnap or assassinate you. Your mere presence has turned the world upside down.”

  Emily took a long breath. “And what should I do? Hide?”

  “No,” the Grandmaster said. “We want you to let yourself be kidnapped.”

  He went on before Emily could say a word. “The kidnap plot seems to come from Mountaintop,” he said, referring to one of the rival schools of magic. Lin had come from Mountaintop, along with a number of other exchange students. “They actually asked for you to be considered for the student exchange program in Second Year. Now... we believe they are moving to find a way to bring you to Mountaintop without our permission.”

  Emily frowned. “By kidnapping me?”

  “They would probably make it look like an accident,” the Grandmaster said. “Or perhaps have someone else do the kidnapping, then claim they rescued you. The point, Emily, is that they would have you at Mountaintop. At that point...”

  He hesitated, noticeably. “At that point they will try to seduce you.”

  Emily felt herself blushing. Male attention had always bothered her, although she had a feeling that it was more of a legacy from her stepfather than anything more fundamental. But the thought was absurd. Did they plan to send a handsome young wizard to woo her?

  “They’ll offer you knowledge and power,” the Grandmaster said. “Lin... will have told them that you have a habit of pushing the limits. They’ll give you access to forbidden books, show you magics you are not yet ready to handle and encourage you to progress forward as fast as you think you can go. Mountaintop does not have a reputation for turning out excellent sorcerers without cause, Emily. There is a great deal they will be able to offer you.”

  “Oh,” Emily said. She swallowed, nervously, as it dawned on her that it would be tempting. She’d resented the librarian’s flat refusal to show her some of the forbidden books without permission from the Grandmaster more than she cared to admit. “But what will they want in exchange?”

  “They’ll want you, on their side,” the Grandmaster said.

  Emily frowned before she looked u
p at him, staring at the cloth covering his eyes. “And why do you want me to... to let them kidnap me?”

  The thought was nightmarish. She hated being helpless. Being trapped by a professor’s wards was one thing, but deliberately letting herself be taken... it was horrifying. She felt her heart start to pound as it dawned on her she could be walking into a trap.

  “There’s something going on at Mountaintop,” the Grandmaster said. He picked a file up from his desk and passed it to her. “Spying on us is one thing, but there are other–worrying–rumors. The MageMaster hasn’t been seen in public for over a year and we have picked up hints that there’s a power struggle underway within the school. This plot to kidnap you may be part of it, Emily, or it may be something more sinister.

  “We have tried to discover what is happening, but none of our sources have been able to provide answers. And yet Mountaintop produces a fourth of the combat sorcerers and trained magicians available to the Allied Lands. We must know what is wrong, if something is wrong. And we have been unable to slip someone through their defenses.”

  “But they want me there,” Emily said, remembering the story of the Trojan Horse. “They’ll take me in because they want me.”

  “Precisely,” the Grandmaster said.

  “And you want me to do what?”

  “Look around,” the Grandmaster said. “Find out what’s happening, if you can. We don’t expect you to do anything else.”

  “That sounds vague,” Emily told him.

  The Grandmaster smiled. “There’s no point in issuing precise instructions you might not be able to follow,” he said. “We don’t know what you’ll find when you enter the school.”

  Emily stared down at her pale hands. “And what... what if they just kill me?”

  “They’d be out of their minds,” the Grandmaster said.

  Emily just looked at him. She’d been in the Allied Lands for just over two years. In that time, she’d met far too many people who could be described as being out of their minds. Shadye the Necromancer, the Iron Duchess, Hodge...

  “They believe you to be a Child of Destiny,” the Grandmaster said. “Right now, the Necromancers are slowly winning the war. Your presence must swing matters in our favor because there’s no other way it can go. Your loss would mean all of us losing everything to the Necromancers.

  “And besides, for you to suffer an accident would start another war,” he added. “You are a student of Whitehall, after all, and entitled to our protection. And your guardian would hardly take your death lightly. No, they won’t kill you. But they will try to seduce you.”

  He paused. “And you already know there are far too many ways to tamper with a person’s mind.”

  Emily nodded. Lin had been a mistress of Subtle Magic. So had Mother Holly. And, done properly, it was incredibly difficult to prove that someone had been under the influence at any time. She might go to Mountaintop and find herself slowly bewitched, never knowing she wasn’t acting entirely of her own volition. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

  But Lin had her notes. Who knew what she could do with them?

  Gunpowder, Emily thought. Steam engines. Everything else I thought might be worth considering...

  And she could copy them, easily, her own thoughts reminded her. By now, there could be hundreds of copies. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

  “You don’t have to decide immediately,” the Grandmaster said. “And we won’t hold it against you if you decide to turn down the task. But we need an answer within two or three days.”

  “I understand,” Emily said.

  “You can consult Lady Barb or Sergeant Miles, if you like,” the Grandmaster told her. “And don’t worry about Professor Lombardi. I’ll have a few words with him.”

  Emily nodded, ruefully. All of a sudden, spending the next few weeks in detention didn’t seem like a bad thing. It might be dirty and unpleasant, but it didn’t carry the risk of death.

  “How long will you want me to stay there?” she asked. “A month?”

  “They will try to tempt you into spending your entire Third Year at Mountaintop,” the Grandmaster said. “It won’t affect your grades, I think.”

  “I see,” Emily said.

  “You may go,” the Grandmaster said. He tapped his desk, then looked at her with his sightless eyes. “You’re excused from everything else for the rest of the day. But think carefully before you give us an answer.”

  Emily nodded, then stood and left the room.

  Chapter Two

  EMILY PAUSED TO WIPE THE SWEAT from her eyes as she reached the ledge, then sat down on the grassy knoll. Jade had shown it to her, two years ago, back when they’d first started exploring the mountains surrounding Whitehall. He’d claimed that it made an excellent place to sit and think, well away from the school yet close enough to get back quickly if necessary, but in hindsight Emily sometimes wondered if he’d had other motives in bringing her to the secluded spot. It assured privacy... at least to magicians. But it hardly mattered now.

  She shook her head, then gazed down at the school. From high overhead, Whitehall shimmered in the sun. Brilliant flickers of light seemed to dance around the castle, giving it an atmosphere of fragility, almost like a fantasy palace from a Disney movie. And yet the wards protecting the building were far stronger than any merely physical defense. It was impossible to break them without inside help.

  And Shadye had inside help, she reflected, bitterly. Me.

  The memories of Shadye’s attack on Whitehall still felt nightmarish, even now. It was odd how her memories of Earth had faded as she’d grown accustomed to the Nameless World, but she’d never quite been able to rid herself of her darker memories. Shadye had used her, manipulating her sleeping body like a puppet, forcing her to lower the wards and allow him access to Whitehall. And he’d come far too close to success to suit her.

  She sighed before forcing her churning thoughts to slow down. Shadye was dead, forced into a pocket dimension that had then been deleted, wiping him from existence. Few people knew how he’d broken into Whitehall and fewer still knew how he’d been defeated. Emily’s success had made her a hero, yet it had also started ripples of change running across the Allied Lands. The innovations she’d introduced, ideas from Earth, had spread far out of her control. It was no wonder, she admitted privately, that she’d been targeted by spies, kidnappers and assassins. The knowledge in her head could change the Allied Lands for the better–or the worse.

  “You shouldn’t come up here alone,” a familiar voice said, from behind her. “This isn’t a safe place for anyone, let alone you.”

  Emily flushed as she turned to see Lady Barb pulling herself onto the ledge. The older woman looked tired, yet surprisingly understanding as she strode over and sat down next to Emily, staring out over the castle below. Emily sighed inwardly–she’d hoped to be alone for a good while, long enough to have a proper think–then started to rise to her feet. She wanted to pace.

  “Sit down,” Lady Barb said, without turning her head. “You really shouldn’t have come up here.”

  “I wanted to be alone,” Emily confessed. “I...”

  “There’s an entire castle full of empty classrooms and abandoned dormitories,” Lady Barb pointed out, snidely. “You could have sneaked into a Year Six study and claimed it as your own.”

  “It wouldn’t have been the same,” Emily said. She knew just how closely the interior of Whitehall was monitored. Anyone who had wanted to find her quickly could have just asked the wards. “And besides...”

  She waved a hand, indicating the natural beauty surrounding them. On Earth, she had never left the city, never seen anywhere closer to nature than a park. But here... Sergeant Miles and Jade had introduced her to the joys of walking for pleasure, even though the mountains surrounding Whitehall were home to all manner of creatures, some of them more dangerous than anything walking on two legs. But she’d been careful not to go anywhere near the truly dangerous areas.

&nbs
p; “You should have asked one of us to accompany you,” Lady Barb said, firmly. “Particularly now. The Grandmaster told you what he had in mind, I assume?”

  “Yes,” Emily said. She felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment. It had never really occurred to her that anyone would need to give up their work to accompany her up the mountain, even now. Some of the teachers had more time for her now it was outside term time, but others had left the building for a well-deserved holiday. She hadn’t wanted to intrude on their business, whatever it was. “I’m sorry.”

  “So you should be,” Lady Barb said, firmly. She turned, allowing her bright blue eyes to meet Emily’s. “Have you come to a decision?”

  Emily frowned and looked away. “I don’t know,” she said. “Part of me wants to do it, to recover the notes Lin stole; part of me thinks it’s too dangerous...”

  “This from the girl who challenged Mother Holly,” Lady Barb said, dryly. “And has the most fearsome reputation in the Allied Lands.”

  “Apart from Void and the others like him,” Emily said. She looked around, half-expecting the ancient sorcerer to appear. “Do you think he would approve of this?”

  Lady Barb snorted. “Do you need his permission to go to the bathroom?”

  Emily looked back at her, refusing to be distracted. “This is a little more complex and dangerous than going to the bathroom,” she said. “And I don’t know what he would make of it.”

  “Sink or swim,” Lady Barb said. “That will be his attitude.”

  She shrugged. “Emily,” she added, “there’s one thing you need to know right now. If you refuse this mission, no one will complain and it will certainly not be counted against you in the future. You have no obligation to help us deal with the puzzle surrounding Mountaintop, or anything other than being a good student and graduating with a respectable number of awards and plaudits.”

  “But it’s partly my fault,” Emily said. “Lin... Lin wouldn’t have come to Whitehall if I hadn’t been there.”