“Go boil your head,” Caleb said, without heat. “We’ll wait until the dust storm dies down, then make our way back to Heart’s Ease.”
“What a good idea,” Cirroc said, with suspicious affability. “And then we get caught by the next storm halfway to the city.”
“That’s what magic is for,” Caleb countered. “If we get caught in the open, we make a run for it.”
“You know as well as I do that directional magic isn’t reliable in a storm,” Caleb said. “Particularly here. They don’t call it the Desert of Death because they want to lure the tourists...”
Master Highland snapped out of his thoughts. “That will do, both of you.”
Caleb flushed. “I’m not your apprentice.”
“For which you and I are both grateful.” Master Highland turned to look at the door, clasping his hands behind his back. “I suggest you sit down, have something to eat and wait. The storm will be gone soon.”
“Hah.” Caleb made a rude sign at his back, then started casting spells to move the dust to the far corner. “What about the others?”
“They have common sense and magic.” Master Highland paused to consider. “Magic, anyway. They’ll be fine as long as they keep their heads down and wait, just as you should be doing.”
Caleb scowled, his face darkening as he looked at Emily. “How long do you think we’ll be trapped here?”
“A few hours at most,” Emily said. She remembered Sergeant Miles’s lectures. Being caught in a storm wasn’t fun. In most cases, it was better to wait for the storm to pass before continuing. One could go out in a howling blizzard and get hopelessly lost within seconds. “We can wait.”
She sat on the stairs and watched as Caleb and Cirroc cleared the floor. Great billowing clouds of dust rose into the air, only to be directed towards the door. The desert could absorb the dust and barely notice. Underneath, the floor was covered in tiles, each one marked with a single rune. She recognized a couple—protection, integrity—but the remainder were unknown. Whatever power they’d had was long gone. Dua Kepala wouldn’t have left them in place if they’d still been active.
But he missed the spells protecting the office upstairs, she reminded herself. What else did he miss?
She heard someone coming down the stairs and looked up. Frieda and Hoban were descending, hand in hand. Frieda looked slightly mussed, her lips puffy... Emily saw her blush and looked away. She’d have to straighten herself out before Master Highland saw her, if she didn’t want sardonic comments. It wasn’t any of the older man’s business—neither Frieda nor Hoban were apprenticed to him—but he probably wouldn’t see it that way. She’d met too many people who made a habit of minding someone else’s business to like it.
“There were some... interesting spells on one of the dorms,” Hoban said. “I took them down before we tried to open the door. They were lethal. Anyone who touched them would be dead within seconds.”
Emily blinked. “On a school dorm?”
“Yeah.” Hoban’s voice was grim. “The whole place was weird. It felt as if it had been locked, barred and hexed from the inside, but there were no bodies or secret passageways or anything. No way out.”
“No bodies,” Emily repeated. She looked at the mirrors, thoughtfully. “Were there mirrors?”
“There was nothing magical about them,” Hoban said. “I checked.”
“But there were a lot of them.” Frieda let go of Hoban’s hand. “There were even mirrors on the ceiling. Anyone lying in bed could look up and see themselves.”
“Weird,” Emily said. She could think of one use for mirrors on the ceiling, but... not in a school. “And they were perfectly normal mirrors?”
“I checked,” Hoban repeated. “They were just... mirrors.”
“The two other dorms we checked were both open,” Frieda said. “One of them looked to have been forced open, the other was probably open when... whatever happened.”
“The former looked to have been pushed open,” Hoban said. “It wasn’t blasted down, as far as I could tell. Something very strong leaned against it and smash, down it came.”
“A dragon?” Cirroc wandered over to join the conversation. “Or a bunch of drunken soldiers? Or...”
“Don’t let Sergeant Miles catch you saying something like that,” Emily warned. “He won’t find it very funny.”
“The doors were strong, even without magic,” Hoban said. “A dozen men might have pushed them down, but they’d have difficulty bringing all their strength to bear on the door. I thought about a modified force punch... maybe that’s what happened. But there were no traces of magic, no burn marks on the wood... I don’t know.”
“The entire room was devastated,” Frieda put in. “Beds ripped to pieces, cabinets shattered, showers and toilets smashed... there was a fight there, I’m sure.”
“Probably.” Emily was suddenly very aware of just how grimy she was. The first thing she’d install, she promised herself, was a proper shower. She’d probably have to take multiple showers before she managed to remove all the layers of dust. “But who were they fighting?”
“It was a little messy for a schoolgirl spat,” Hoban said.
Frieda made a face. “Don’t bet on it. Back at Mountaintop...”
She stopped herself. Emily nodded, remembering when she’d clashed with some of her dormmates during her unwilling visit. She’d torn a dorm apart and there had been rumors of worse fights, duels that had ended with one or both participants being sent for medical attention. Frieda had seen the worst of it, back when she’d been a Shadow. She’d been very lucky to be assigned to someone who’d actually cared.
Eventually, she reminded herself. It took far too long to realize that Frieda needed help.
“They would have been in real trouble, if any of them had survived.” Hoban shook his head, firmly. “The kind of forces they’d have had to unleash might not have let them live long enough to be expelled. No, the dorm was broken into... either by the necromancer or something else. We just don’t know what.”
“We’ll find out,” Emily said. She looked out the door. The storm was still raging, clouds of dust pressing against the wards. Sparks of tainted magic flared through the air, irritating her... irritating all of them. If she hadn’t been so tired, she might have felt angry... or worse. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
“There will be time,” Master Highland agreed. He turned away from the door, his dark eyes glittering in the half-light. “Not all puzzles are solved at once.”
“Yes.” Hoban sounded exhausted. He’d worked the hardest, save perhaps for Emily herself. “And some of them are never solved at all.
Chapter Eight
IT WAS NEARLY AN HOUR BEFORE the storm faded.
Emily sat up and stretched as bright sunlight started to make its way into the castle. Waiting it out hadn’t been pleasant. They’d snapped at each other many times before separating to prevent personality conflicts becoming violent. She wasn’t sure if it was the dust, the sense of claustrophobia from being unable to leave the building or simple tiredness, but it hardly mattered. All that mattered was that it had come close to wearing them down. Her scalp itched. It was difficult to believe it was only dust in her hair.
“I’ll go fetch the others,” Cirroc said. “Or do we want to go down to Heart’s Ease instead?”
“Bring them here,” Emily said, shortly. It wasn’t as if Heart’s Ease offered anything, certainly not anything she wanted. A shower, a bath... she seriously considered teleporting to Dragon’s Den or Zangaria, just to wash. She’d even go to a public bathhouse if there was no other choice. “As long as we have a clear route to the dorms, they should be safe enough.”
“They’ll go wandering,” Master Highland predicted, darkly. Dust stained his beard as well as his robes. “They won’t even be able to see the danger until it’s too late.”
“They’re not children,” Emily reproved him, mildly. Children might not believe in a danger they couldn’t
see, but adults knew better. Mostly. “They know the dangers.”
She rubbed her eyes as Cirroc hurried out. She was tempted to go with him, if only to stretch her legs. Frieda and Hoban had disappeared again, perhaps to the dorms... Emily felt abandoned, even though Caleb sat waiting for her in the far corner. She should have invited the Gorgon to come with them. If she’d known they’d be stranded for several hours, she would have. She could talk to the Gorgon without feeling as though she was walking on eggshells.
It felt like an eternity—another eternity—before she heard carts pulling up outside the school. She rubbed her eyes in irritation as she stepped outside and saw the orcish slaves being unhitched from the carts and commanded to unload their contents into the hall. The drivers looked surprisingly normal for men who profited from the labor of others... she shook her head, the dust tickling her back. The slave-drivers saw nothing wrong with their conduct. They were probably more concerned about spending a few days away from the city than the well-being of their slaves. It wasn’t as if the orcs were human.
That’s what they always say about slaves, Emily thought, morbidly. The Romans had allowed slaves to work themselves out of bondage. By and large, they’d accepted slaves who’d managed to free themselves as citizens. But other slave societies hadn’t been anywhere near as kind. The slaves are not considered human and therefore can be mistreated at will.
Yvonne appeared, looking tired and harassed. “My Lady?”
Emily nodded, feeling her cheeks heat. It had been six years and she still felt odd being addressed as nobility. Yvonne was older than her and more accomplished and yet... Emily reminded herself that she was accomplished too. Yvonne wasn’t fawning over a royal brat who had no achievements to her name, save for having the right parents. Who knew what would have happened to her if Emily hadn’t changed the world?
“We’ve been clearing the dorms so we have a place to sleep,” she said, putting her thoughts aside. “Tell your people to stay on the beaten track. We’ve discovered several nasty surprises already.”
Yvonne looked pinched. “As long as the dorms are safe...”
“They should be.” Emily made a mental note to check them herself, just to be sure. Hoban and Frieda made a pretty good team—Frieda knew where girls might hide hexes to catch their enemies, a big plus—but they’d been distracted by each other. “But some of the traps we’ve discovered were lethal.”
“We’ll be careful.” Yvonne didn’t sound pleased. Emily didn’t blame her. Heart’s Eye was unsettling to her, even though she controlled the wards. It had to be a great deal worse for someone who couldn’t sense magic. “When do you want us to start work?”
“Tomorrow, I think.” Emily glanced at her watch. “We probably need a day or two to settle in.”
“Probably longer,” Yvonne said. “How big is this place?”
Emily shrugged. Heart’s Eye wasn’t bigger on the inside, like Whitehall, but... the fairy tale castle was still a large building. And the interior seemed designed to confuse any intruders, just like most other castles she’d seen. She wondered, again, who’d built it and why. Lord Whitehall hadn’t built Whitehall Castle. The original builders had been long gone by the time he’d stumbled across the nexus point. No one knew what had happened to them.
“We have time,” she said, although she knew it wasn’t true. Void would call, sooner or later, and she’d have to go. Frieda would have to go back to Whitehall in a few weeks too, unless she intended to take her exam results and leave. Emily hoped Mistress Irene would have arrived by the time Emily had to go. “Better to start slowly then make mistakes through haste.”
A ghost of a smile crossed Yvonne’s face. “I say that to all my apprentices,” she said. “The smart ones are the ones who listen.”
Emily nodded, then turned as Jayson hurried up. “Emily,” he said, awkwardly. “Can I see the library?”
“One moment,” Emily said. Heart’s Eye would have to be searched from top to bottom before they started accepting students. A single death could derail the entire project. “I’ll take you there.”
Jayson looked... worried... as they slowly made their way up the stairs and down the corridor. Emily was fairly certain there were no booby traps waiting—Alanson had marched Frieda and her down the corridor, without running into anything nasty—but she took precautions anyway. She had the feeling that lowering her guard would be the last thing she’d ever do if she walked into the wrong place.
“Emily,” Jayson said. “I... we have to talk.”
“Not now.” Emily shook her head. Jayson had kissed her... partly because his family had asked him to court her. She wasn’t sure if she should be horrified, amused or... or what? It said a great deal, both good and bad, about Jayson that he’d tried to court a powerless girl... although it hadn’t been his idea. “Perhaps later.”
Jayson reddened. “Yes, but...”
“Later,” Emily repeated. She cleared her throat. “The library is just down here.”
She heard Jayson inhale in shock as they stepped through the remains of the door. Jayson loved libraries almost as much as she did. The sight before them was enough to break her heart. Hundreds of books and scrolls lay on the floor, some torn to shreds... she shuddered, imagining just how hard it would be to put them back in some semblance of order. She glanced at Jayson, feeling a flicker of pity. He’d volunteered to be the librarian. It was going to take months, if not years, to get the library ready for students...
“We’re going to have to be careful,” Jayson said. He reached for a book, lying on the floor, and stopped before his fingers touched the cover. “There’s a hex on that book.”
Emily nodded. “How many books do you think will be hexed?”
“Perhaps all of them.” Jayson sounded worried. “The older magicians really wanted to keep knowledge out of the wrong hands.”
The people who don’t have magic, Emily thought. Most protective hexes could be dispelled with a simple counterspell... if, of course, the reader had magic. It seemed pointless. A mundane could roar and chant until they were blue in the face and nothing would happen. Knowledge wasn’t always power, as she had good reason to know. We’re going to have to keep this room sealed.
Jayson didn’t look daunted by the scale of the task before him. “I’ll get started at once,” he said. “If we’re lucky, the books were arranged by subject anyway.”
“True.” Emily didn’t know if they had been that lucky. The Nameless World’s cataloguing system left something to be desired. “If not, you might have to re-catalogue the entire library.”
“Or start a new library somewhere else.” Jayson grinned. “How much floor space can I claim?”
Emily had to smile. She wouldn’t have cared if he wanted to clear the sports fields and replace them with a whole new library block, but she suspected that everyone else would disagree. Loudly, even though the fields were buried under the sand. She looked at the door, reminding herself there would be abandoned dining halls and spell chambers to be repurposed. Heart’s Eye was huge. They should be able to find room for a second library while they repaired the first.
“We’ll see.” She looked around the room. “I need to find a map of the place. A simple floor diagram would do.”
“They normally keep those separate,” Jayson said. “I wonder...”
He headed towards a door, set behind the librarian’s desk. Emily followed at a distance, ready to intervene if he walked into a trap. Some librarians had very nasty senses of humor, which they demonstrated to anyone who dared keep an overdue book. Emily’s lips twitched at the memory, then flattened as she looked at the broken stacks. The necromancer had apparently hunted through them, throwing books everywhere as he searched. If a student had tried that, she’d have been lucky not to be unceremoniously turned into a book.
Jayson gingerly touched the door. It swung open, revealing a surprisingly neat office crammed with filing cabinets. Emily felt claustrophobic—again—as she looked aro
und. The librarian—she couldn’t tell if the librarian had been male or female—had had surprisingly little room. The walls were so covered in cabinets, there weren’t even any mirrors. She looked up, somehow unsurprised to see a mirror affixed to the ceiling. Her reflection looked back at her, archly.
“There has to be something on mirror magic in here,” Emily said, as Jayson started to fiddle with one of the cabinets. “I...” She jumped back as the cabinet opened in a shower of sparks.
“Nasty little trap,” Jayson commented. “But perfectly normal, for a librarian.”
Emily eyed him. “She couldn’t just lock the cabinet?”
Jayson grinned. “How many people do you know who would consider that a challenge?”
Emily said nothing as Jayson worked his way through the contents. It seemed nothing more than a collection of notes on which students could be trusted to borrow the rarer books from the library and which ones had to read them in the library themselves, under supervision. Emily was surprised to discover that some students had been allowed to take the rarer books out of the library in the first place. The tomes were effectively irreplaceable, at least until she’d introduced the printing press. Yvonne would be setting one of those up, eventually. The apprentices could start churning out cheap copies of the rarer textbooks when she was done.
“It might be worth coming back later,” Jayson said, as he shut the cabinet. “If nothing else, it will tell us a great deal about what was happening before the school fell.”
He looked up at her, his eyes dark. “You noticed the dates?”
“No.” Emily shook her head, impatiently. “Why?”
“The school was invaded ten years ago,” Jayson said. “But the records actually stop a couple of weeks before then.”
Emily frowned. “So things weren’t normal even before the necromancer attacked?”
“Apparently so.” Jayson turned his attention to the next filing cabinet, swearing as a cluster of nasty-looking boils appeared on his hands. He muttered the countercharm and went back to work. “They certainly weren’t keeping very good records.”
Mirror Image (Schooled in Magic Book 18) Page 8