Study in Slaughter (Schooled in Magic)

by Christopher Nuttall

  Lin’s voice took on a thoroughly unpleasant tone. “I think that the Allied Lands will be safer without your presence,” she said, darkly. “I won’t make the mistake of allowing others to use you.”

  Emily’s blood ran cold. She’d been in danger before, but this was different. She’d liked Lin...or had that too been dictated by the runes? And why did Lin care about the Allied Lands?

  Lin raised her hand. “It’s time...”

  The door opened, revealing the Gorgon. Emily saw Lin flinch as she turned to see who had entered the room, then cast a very nasty spell aimed right at the third roommate. The Gorgon jumped aside, moving with a nimbleness that revealed her origins, her snake-like eyes open wide with disbelief. She’d been influenced by Lin, Emily realized, perhaps just as much as Emily herself. The Gorgon certainly hadn’t suggested Lin as a potential suspect.

  Emily threw a spell right at Lin’s back, but the girl’s protections prevented it from affecting her. “Run,” she croaked. She tried to alert the tutors; the spell failed to form properly. “Get help.”

  The Gorgon’s snakes twisted—and changed, becoming something so inhuman that Emily tried to look away. But something refused to let her. A wave of utterly unfamiliar power washed through the room, something so alien that it was hard to comprehend it. The snakes were channelling power...Lin let out a cry and cast a spell of her own. There was a blinding flash of light, which seemed to fall over the Gorgon’s body. Emily saw her glowing with light and then, as the light faded away, turning to stone. It wasn’t until Emily tried to move that she realized that she too had been turned to stone. There was no sign of Lin.

  “Well,” Lin’s voice said. “Hoist by your own petard?”

  There was a faint shimmer at the edge of Emily’s field of vision and Lin appeared, smiling with genuine relief. “Funny thing about Gorgon petrification magic; if you happen to be invisible or simply looking away, it doesn’t actually work.”

  She looked over at the Gorgon. “Should have stuck with the human spells,” she added, nastily. “Can you free yourself from your own magic?”

  Emily tried, desperately, to move. But her body refused to work at all. She wasn’t even breathing or anything else...but then, she realized, what would a stone statue actually do? It felt different from the other times she’d been transfigured or immobilized; this time, there was a sense that her awareness was slowly drifting away. If the spell wasn’t reversed in time...

  Panic howled at the corner of her mind, demanding release. But there was no way to escape, not even through silently casting the spells that might have released her if she’d been struck by normal magic. She remembered just what she’d read in the library about how Gorgon magic was difficult to undo and shivered, mentally. Lin might just have condemned her to a slow, lingering death as her mind dissolved into madness—or stone.

  “Quite an ironic ending,” Lin said, as she walked past Emily. “You and the Gorgon lash out at each other, both ending up caught in the magic she unleashes. It will be easy to ensure that the Gorgon is blamed for your death. Her people will be exterminated for her crime.”

  There was a rustling sound as she picked up papers and stuffed them into a bag. They were papers from Emily’s desk, she realized bitterly, still fighting to move. Now that she had been exposed—and the wards were gone—Lin would simply leave the school and walk down to Dragon’s Den, where she could step through the portal and go anywhere. Or perhaps she had another escape plan. Not, in the end, that it mattered. No matter what spells she tried to cast, Emily was starting to think she was trapped for good. And, with the Gorgon equally petrified, there was no way she could simply undo her magic. They were both on the verge of death.

  Lin moved back into view, staring up at the Gorgon. “I could smash you,” she said. “I wonder what would happen to your mind if your stone body shattered. But I think that would tell them that something else happened. Instead...maybe they will think I was the Mimic’s last victim.”

  They wouldn’t believe that, Emily thought. Lin had been seen after the Mimic had been destroyed. On the other hand, would it actually matter? If she was far away from Whitehall by the time the Grandmaster realized that she’d been a spy, she would never be found.

  “And thank you,” Lin added, looking towards Emily. “Your notes were very helpful.”

  She walked out of the door, closing it behind her.

  Emily kept struggling to move, but her body was completely unresponsive. The Gorgon, it seemed, had the same problem. She couldn’t undo her own magic, at least not when it had affected her...how, Emily asked herself, had Lin managed to turn the Gorgon’s magic back on her? The puzzle distracted her as she stared at the Gorgon’s unmoving form. What sort of creature would have a magic that could be so easily turned against them?

  Bees die when they sting, Emily remembered. Besides, the Gorgons weren’t natural. The faerie had created them, along with so many other humanoid creatures. Maybe the Gorgons are so painfully polite to one another because they’re all constantly carrying deadly weapons around with them.

  The thought would have made her smile, if she could move her lips. All of the etiquette lessons she’d had, from Alassa and her other tutors, had been designed to ensure that she avoided giving offense. She would be dealing with aristocrats and magicians, both of whom could do her harm if they thought that she had offended them. Manners, even excessive manners, were a good way to avoid trouble.

  An armed society is a polite society, she recalled. And this society is very heavily armed. And it will get worse as guns are introduced...

  She felt her thoughts starting to drift away and struggled to hold them in place. If she lost her mind completely...she would die, her body forever trapped in stone. Perhaps they would put her in the Great Hall, she thought, perhaps with a sign memorializing her as the former Necromancer’s Bane. Or maybe Jade would go off on a quest to remove the curse...she’d read a legend about a brave warrior who had done just that, although by the time the story had ended he’d been an old man and barely had time to do anything else before he died.

  Or maybe in the nexus chamber, she thought. They should have a plaque there, one that mentioned Shadye’s defeat. HERE FELL SHADYE. SO THERE. The thought caused her a bitter flash of brief amusement. If the necromancers were truly terrified of her, perhaps the Grandmaster would seek to create an illusion that she was still alive. Or would too many people know the truth? Lin might advertize it from wherever she was...unless she had a vested interest in keeping the necromancers in the dark. But then, they were the enemies of everyone, including each other.

  There was a knock on the door. It opened a moment later; Emily heard a girl she didn’t recognize gasp in disbelief, then start screaming for Madame Razz. She couldn’t help feeling relief, even though she knew that it was going to be hard to undo the Gorgon’s magic. At least someone knew what had happened...

  Perhaps they just need Jade to kiss me, she thought, as Madame Razz ran into the room, followed rapidly by several other staff members. It can’t be that simple, can it?

  Lady Barb stepped in front of her, right into Emily’s field of vision. “I know you’re in there,” she said, touching Emily’s stone forehead. “We’ll get you out. I promise.”

  Emily shivered, inwardly. She knew that it was a promise Lady Barb might be unable to keep.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  IT TOOK FOUR DAYS FOR THE Grandmaster, working with Lady Barb and Sergeant Miles, to prepare a spell to undo the Gorgon’s magic. Emily spent the time listening to lectures from her teachers, including—surprisingly—Master Tor. Somehow, the lectures helped keep her sane, even though her thoughts still threatened to wander from time to time. She had a feeling that she would be expected to write essays on them after she was returned to human form. But it was better than thinking she would never be able to write to Jade or anyone else again.

  The worst moment had come when she’d heard Lady Barb suggest simply smashing the Gorgon. They
hadn’t realized that Lin was missing; they’d believed that Emily and the Gorgon had fought and they’d somehow both ended up stone. By the time Emily became human again, she had prayed endlessly that she would be able to warn them before they killed the Gorgon. It hadn’t been the Gorgon’s fault.

  “Rest,” Lady Barb said. “You’ve had a very unpleasant time.”

  “Not the Gorgon’s fault,” Emily gasped, as exhaustion finally threatened to overcome her and drag her down into sleep. She hadn’t dared sleep while she was a statue for fear that she would never wake up. “Lin! It was Lin!”

  Lady Barb stared at her, then nodded.

  The next thing Emily knew, she was lying on a bed in the infirmary, with Imaiqah and Alassa sitting next to her. Her body felt stiff; desperately, she sat upright and looked around, feeling the sheer joy of movement. The Gorgon was sleeping in the next bed, her snakes curled around her head. Emily silently prayed that she hadn’t heard the staff when they’d talked about smashing her. It would have traumatized her for life.

  “Welcome back,” Alassa said. She reached out her arms and pulled Emily into a hug. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too,” Emily said. “But you were lucky to get out.”

  “My father was mad at me for wanting to come back when he realized what had actually happened,” Alassa said. “I think the thought of a Mimic being so close to his daughter actually got to him.”

  Emily couldn’t blame King Randor for worrying. He lived in a world where impersonating someone else was easy, given the right level of magic. There were homunculi, shape-change spells, simple glamors...even potions to copy someone’s memories and mannerisms. And now they knew the true nature of the Mimics. Who else might be a Mimic in human form?

  “I’m not surprised,” she said. “But we made it through the nightmare.”

  “Others didn’t,” Imaiqah said, quietly. “Forty students died before you killed the Mimic.”

  Emily scowled. The truth about the Mimics probably hadn’t been widely shared, although she suspected that the Grandmaster would inform the White Council. They wouldn’t want to encourage someone else to start trying to duplicate the monsters—and they would, if they knew that it was possible. Emily had certainly started a revolution simply by introducing new ideas to the Allied Lands.

  “Forty students,” she repeated. And last year Whitehall had been brutally attacked by Shadye. How many students would return next year? “What happened after...after I was turned into a statue?”

  “They searched the school for Lin,” Imaiqah said, quietly. “But they found no trace of her.”

  She shook her head. “I still can’t believe that she was a...a spy,” she added. “I never even thought twice about her.”

  “Neither did I,” Emily admitted. But Lin had been cunning. “Subtle magic. Very subtle magic.”

  There was a hiss as the Gorgon opened her eyes, her snakes billowing around her head. Emily hesitated, then swung her legs out of bed and stood upright, feeling oddly unstable. But she needed to talk to the Gorgon...the snakes hissed unpleasantly as she tottered forward and stopped next to the Gorgon’s bed. She didn’t look happy.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she said, before the Gorgon could say a word. “Lin was a spy.”

  “They wanted to kill me,” the Gorgon whispered. “I heard it all.”

  Emily felt a wave of sympathy for the Gorgon and reached out to take her hand. It felt oddly warm, faintly scaly. She had been isolated on Earth—and isolated again at Whitehall—but she had never been so completely alone. The Gorgon was different from everyone else in the school. There wasn’t another Gorgon for hundreds of miles.

  “I told them that it wasn’t your fault,” she said. She hesitated, then pushed ahead. “And Lin ensured that we would be fighting each other.”

  “She twisted my own magic,” the Gorgon said. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

  “She’s a skilled magician,” Emily agreed. She waved a hand to indicate Alassa and Imaiqah. “These are my friends. Why don’t you join us?”

  The next hour passed quickly once Alassa located a board game for four players. Emily had never played it before and wasn’t too surprised when she ended up losing, but the Gorgon proved a canny player, almost Imaiqah’s match. Judging by the way they were chatting as they pushed Alassa out and started battling for supreme control of the board, they’d become friends over the game. Emily’s acceptance of the Gorgon encouraged both of her friends to try to accept her too.

  Maybe I can invite the Gorgon to Zangaria, Emily thought, wondering just what King Randor would make of that. But she was supreme in her own lands...and maybe it would help to break down the barriers between humans and Gorgons. Besides, she had the feeling that the Gorgon might be a friend worth cultivating. She already knew more about magic than Emily.

  She looked up as the Grandmaster stepped into the ward. “I need to borrow Lady Emily,” he said, shortly. “Emily?”

  Emily nodded and followed him out of the room, hoping that the other three would keep playing on their own. Or perhaps they would move to a card game...she might not have been able to recall the rules of poker, but she had managed to introduce playing cards. It probably wouldn’t be long before someone started gambling rings using them.

  “You told the Gorgon you were going to smash her,” she said, as soon as they stepped into the Grandmaster’s office. “That was cruel.”

  The Grandmaster looked at her, then nodded. “We believed that she was responsible for your...condition,” he admitted. “We were wrong.”

  “I think you owe her an apology,” Emily said, tartly. Part of her mind was aware that she was ticking off one of the most powerful magicians in the world, but it needed to be said. “You frightened her to death.”

  “I will speak to her once I have finished talking with you,” the Grandmaster said. He motioned for her to sit down. “Do you have any other reprimands you would like to offer or can I speak now?”

  Emily flushed, embarrassed.

  The Grandmaster smiled. “You’re right,” he said, “but be careful who you use that tone to, young lady. Not everyone is inclined to be forgiving.”

  He looked down at the desk, then back up at her. “We searched your room carefully—again,” he said. “This time, we found nearly fifty runes scattered throughout the room, designed to keep you unaware of Lin’s presence and to encourage you to be a little bit careless. I have been forced to have hard words with Madame Razz and Master Tor.”

  Emily blinked in surprise. “Why?”

  “They searched your room after your little...experiment,” the Grandmaster pointed out. “The runes were not found.”

  “But they might not have been there,” Emily said, wondering at her own willingness to defend Master Tor. But then, he had read to her and lectured her while she’d been petrified, giving up some of his own time to help her. “Lin could have put them in afterwards...”

  “They would have needed to be there almost from the start of term,” the Grandmaster said, grimly. “They were missed.”

  Emily nodded, silently resolving to look up the runes herself, later.

  A thought struck her and she grimaced. Had Master Tor put her in with Lin deliberately? He’d made the room assignments and Emily had wound up with the spy. A lucky break for Lin .. or something more sinister?

  “Master Tor may not be at this school for much longer,” the Grandmaster said, “but I did interrogate him under truth spells. He wasn’t directly involved in the whole affair. His rationale for putting you and Lin together was sound.”

  Emily relaxed, slightly.

  “We found nothing when we searched her bed, apart from a set of protections that should have been above her level,” the Grandmaster continued. “It wasn’t until we interrogated a couple of the other transfer students that we realized what she was. She was a spy for Mountaintop.”

  “The other magical school?” Emily asked. “Why?”

  �
��One of them,” the Grandmaster confirmed. “And as for why...are you aware of just how much you have changed the world?”

  “I think so,” Emily said, although she wasn’t sure. There had already been unintended consequences flowing from her work, including some that had turned the world upside down. Who knew what there would be in the future? “She was sent to spy on me?”

  “Yes,” the Grandmaster said. “Apparently, the other students were...encouraged to transfer, even though Mountaintop rarely allows it. My best guess is that they were pushed into moving because Lin coming on her own might have seemed suspicious. They didn’t know precisely what they were doing, of course. They were just cover.”

  “And she has some of my notes,” Emily said, grimly. What might Lin have taken from her desk? “How advanced was she?”

  “She was no second year,” the Grandmaster said. “Potions intended to de-age someone are rare—they tend to have unpleasant side effects—but she could easily have taken one to pose as someone your age. At a guess, she was in fifth or sixth year; knocking you and Imaiqah down would have been easy for someone at that level. Under the circumstances, I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that she didn’t slit your throat at night.”

  “Or smash us while we were statues, leaving the Gorgon to take the blame,” Emily said, softly. It would have looked like a tragic accident. She scowled as a thought occurred to her. “Do you think she summoned the Mimic?”

  “I doubt it,” the Grandmaster said. “That might just have been coincidence. She wouldn’t have attacked you at all—risking exposure—unless she had nowhere to go. And she didn’t, while the wards kept us trapped in the school. All she could do was try to slow you down.”

  Emily nodded. The Mimic had acted oddly, but perhaps that was understandable if the spells that powered it worked along the same lines as necromancy. It had moved from consuming sheep and other animals to a school full of magic-users. The Mimic must have thought that it was enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet. If, of course, it had thought at all. Did the sheer complexity of the spells that defined it allow for true independent thought?