“You dare?” The magical apprentice jabbed a finger at him. “You...”
Emily raised her hand, but it was too late. There was a flash of blinding green light...
... And, when it cleared, a small frog was standing where the mundane apprentice had been.
Chapter Fifteen
SILENCE FELL, LIKE A THUNDERCLAP.
Emily forced herself forward, pushing her way through the crowd. The apprentices didn’t seem to know what to do, if they should run or fight. Shock ran through the air, mingled with anger and hatred. The entire room seemed primed to explode. Emily understood, all too well. There was something uniquely terrifying about watching a grown man—a strong man—reduced to a tiny frog, something... something that couldn’t be truly comprehended until it had been experienced. Emily had hated it. And it was worse when there was no prospect of either escaping the curse or learning how to do it yourself.
“Seth,” Master Highland said. “What are you...?”
Emily flared her power. Seth—the magical apprentice—took a step back in shock. He was two or three years older than her, Emily guessed, but he wasn’t anywhere near as powerful. He could be dangerous—a weak magician who knew what he was doing could tie a stronger magician in knots, if the stronger magician didn’t know what he was doing—yet she was damned if she was letting him set a ghastly precedent. If she had to slap him down, publicly, she would.
“Undo the spell,” she ordered. “Now.”
Seth glanced between Emily and Master Highland, his eyes flickering around the room in a futile search for his master. Dram had departed as soon as the ceremony was over, rather than staying for the wake. Emily allowed herself a moment of relief. Dram would have had to defend his apprentice, even if he knew the boy had overstepped himself. Boy. Emily gritted her teeth in annoyance. Seth was no boy. If he’d been a mundane, he might well be a father by now. Instead...
“I made the rules very clear,” she said, firmly. “You are not allowed to use magic to settle disputes.”
Seth’s face twisted. He looked past Emily, at Master Highland. Master Highland said nothing. Emily felt a twinge of relief, mingled with a grim concern that Master Highland knew how to pick his battles. If he’d taken a stance against her publicly, with dozens of witnesses, his position would have become untenable. No one would have blamed her—openly, at least—for forcing him out. She sighed, inwardly, as she focused her power on Seth. In some ways, she would almost have preferred it if Master Highland had given her a clear shot at him.
“Fine.” Seth clicked his fingers. The frog blossomed back into a man, kneeling on the floor. The man was pale and trembling, completely unmanned. “Now, can we...”
“No.” Emily flared her power, daring him to defy her. She could slap him down, in public, if he gave her the slightest excuse. “Come with me.”
She swept past him, trying not to look at the stunned and terrified apprentice. She knew just how terrifying it was to suddenly find oneself in a different body; she knew, too, that the only comfort she could offer was to pretend not to notice. Seth... she cursed under her breath as the implications started to sink in. Seth had broken his victim, perhaps for the rest of his life. And what could she do to undo what he’d done? Even if she made the victim forget, everyone else would remember...
Seth followed her, his footsteps echoing as she marched down the corridor. Master Highland didn’t follow, thankfully. Emily hoped that Caleb would be able to take control, to keep people from panicking or a worse fight from breaking out... she wondered, sourly, if Seth would have dared cast such a spell if Mistress Irene had been in control. Very few people defied her once and no one defied her twice. Emily was all too aware that she didn’t look anywhere near as intimidating. Seth probably found it hard to think of her as anything but a peer.
If that, Emily mused. There was a hierarchy amongst magicians, and apprentices ranked higher than students. He probably doesn’t believe I have the right to order him around.
She led the way into a cleared, but—as yet—unoccupied dorm and turned to face him. He closed the door as soon as he was inside, shutting it with a surprising firmness. Emily wondered, morbidly, if he thought he could talk her into letting him get away with it, once they were alone. Did he think she was just pretending to be angry, as if she was simply keeping up appearances? Or... she allowed her anger to build. A few months without power—again—had reminded her of just what it was like to be powerless.
“Tell me.” She channeled Lady Barb as best as she could. “What were you thinking?”
Seth hesitated, clearly trying to decide what tack to take. “He was just a mundane,” he said, dismissively. “He died because...”
“He didn’t have any magic,” Emily snapped. “That doesn’t mean his life was worthless.”
“But he shouldn’t have been here,” Seth argued. “This whole building is a death trap for mundanes.”
Emily met his eyes. “And you decided to turn his friend into a frog... why?”
“He punched me,” Seth argued. “I had every right...”
“After you insulted the dead?” Emily was surprised that anyone had crossed that line. “Why did you do that?”
Seth looked away. “I thought... he shouldn’t have been here. I...”
“This is my place,” Emily said. Her voice dripped ice. “I, not you, get to determine who is allowed to enter. And I allowed Sixth to enter.”
“I...” Seth broke off. He couldn’t argue that Emily had no right to determine who could enter her property. It was a basic principle of magical law that a magician’s home was his castle. A guest had guest-right, as long as he behaved himself. “Lady Emily, I...”
He swallowed, hard, then clearly determined to be stubborn. “We are encouraged to keep our distance from mundanes for a reason,” he said. “We are too different...”
“No,” Emily said. “We’re both human. We both live and die, love and hate... we both bleed red. We are not so different that we have to segregate ourselves from them.”
But was that true? She wasn’t so sure. A person with a little magic could dominate a village, a town... perhaps even a city, if they had no opposition. One hardly needed to be Anthony Fremont to take control. A few salient examples, and everyone would fall in line. Someone—she’d forgotten who—had once argued that magical society was set up to prevent magicians from taking control. And yet, magicians were not all-powerful. Seth was as vulnerable as anyone else to a blow on the head. His wards and spells had their limits.
She met his eyes. “You broke my rules,” she said. “Rules that everyone, including your master, agreed to follow when you came here. And you have to be punished.”
Seth looked as if he thought she was being unfair, but didn’t dare protest. Emily supposed he found his punishment easier to take, if he thought he’d transgressed against another magician rather than a mundane. She didn’t care. She’d make it clear that he was being punished for turning the apprentice into a frog... it galled her, suddenly, that she didn’t know his name. If Seth thought to ask... she wondered what he’d think about her, if he knew she didn’t know someone’s name. It was hard to tell.
She waved a hand at the dusty dorm. “You will clean this place, by hand. No magic. You’ll spend as long as you need to clean it from top to bottom. And you...”
Seth stared at her. “Clean by hand, like a...?”
Common mundane, Emily guessed. She’d noticed that some teachers took a perverse pleasure in making high-born students, from magical or mundane backgrounds, perform manual chores for their detentions. The students found them more humiliating than corporal punishment. He’ll never live it down.
“Yes.” Emily met his eyes, evenly. “You will clean this entire room, without magic. I want it sparkling clean by the end of the week.”
“But...” Seth stared at her. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“Figure it out,” Emily told him. He could get the answer in an instant if he asked
a mundane—or even someone who’d been forced to clean classrooms or washrooms as part of a detention. She wondered where Seth had studied. Mountaintop? He had the entitled attitude down pat. “And if you use magic”—she flared her power again—“I will know about it and I will make your life miserable. Your master will not be happy with you if I have to expel both of you from the school.”
Seth blanched. “Lady Emily, I...”
“You know what to do.” Emily turned and headed for the door, then stopped and turned to face him. “Oh, and one other thing?”
Seth looked downcast, as if he expected something worse. “Yes?”
Emily met his eyes. “If you ever use magic to bully your fellow apprentices again, magical or mundane, you will regret it. Believe me.”
She turned and walked out the door, closing the door behind her. Cleaning the entire dorm wasn’t a difficult task, but Seth would find it humiliating. He’d probably prefer to be beaten to within an inch of his life than spend a week on his hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. She wondered how long it would take him to realize that he could draw water from the showers, buckets and clothes from the communal supplies downstairs and... she smiled, thinly. She’d certainly spent enough time cleaning her home, back on Earth. Seth, on the other hand, had probably left it to the maids. If he’d watched while they worked... her lips quirked. She thought it was rather unlikely.
Frieda met her as she walked down the corridor. “Roland was in quite a state,” she said, quietly. “Caleb put him to bed in one of the empty offices.”
Emily nodded, stiffly. Roland. That was his name. “If he wants to leave, he can go.”
She scowled as they walked down the corridor. Roland had been helpless against magic, but... that wouldn’t stop his peers from making fun of him. And even if they didn’t, being handled so easily would gall him. And even if that didn’t bother him, being saved by a girl probably would... she shook her head in irritation. Neither Cat nor Jade had made a fuss when she’d saved their lives, but they’d seen her as a fellow magician... not a girl. She rolled her eyes. What next? Would people complain about being healed by healers on the grounds they weren’t healers themselves? Anyone left to the mercies of the chirurgeons would certainly know better than that.
“It’ll stay with him forever,” Frieda predicted. “He’ll want to go, even if he tells you he wants to stay.”
Emily nodded. She knew how that felt. She still had nightmares about her stepfather, even though nothing he’d done had been her fault. She’d never looked back, after Shadye had kidnapped her, because there had been nothing for her back home. But Roland... she wondered, suddenly, if he’d truly understood where he was going before it was too late. He might never have met a magician before travelling to Heart’s Eye.
Certainly not as an equal, Emily thought. Most magicians are treated as aristocrats by default.
Caleb was waiting outside the door. “Dram wants to see you,” he said. “He’s in the alchemy classroom.”
“Joy.” Emily was tempted to make the alchemist wait. “How are the others?”
“A little shaken up.” Caleb sighed. “Master Highland said he’d give the other apprentices the ear-roasting of their lives, but...”
Emily nodded, grimly. Master Highland couldn’t argue—convincingly—that magicians and mundanes should be treated as equals. She wasn’t sure she could... she sighed to herself. She’d expected some teething troubles, but not this. Not so quickly. In hindsight, that had been foolish. Perhaps she should have asked Lady Barb to join them, right from the start. Or waited for Mistress Irene... she shook her head in frustration. She couldn’t hide behind the older women forever. It would not do wonders for her reputation.
“We’ll continue searching the school tomorrow,” she said. There was a whole maze below the ritual chamber. She wondered if the school had been built on top of a pre-existing structure. Mountaintop had been built inside the old dwarf caves; Whitehall... no one really knew who’d carved the chambers and catacombs under the school. “And... hopefully, we can finish it before Mistress Irene arrives.”
“Of course.” Caleb gave her a half-bow. “Do you want to recruit extra magicians? I’m sure we can hire a few dozen students who’ll be going back to school at the end of the summer...”
“We might have to,” Emily said. They hadn’t found anything, when they’d searched the occupied parts of the castle for a second time, but... she was feeling paranoid, too paranoid to believe they really had checked everything. “Right now, though, we have other problems.”
“Unfortunately so,” Caleb said. He glanced at his watch. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Don’t drink too much,” Emily warned. “I should have thought of banning alcohol.”
“You wouldn’t be able to ban it from Heart’s Ease,” Caleb said. “And that is where most students will go to drink.”
“And if they come rolling home drunk, they’ll regret it.” Emily had heard horror stories from Dragon’s Den. The townspeople might be glad of the money the students brought—Dragon’s Den’s economy would be completely wrecked if the students were forbidden to enter—but they had no reason to love the chaos they brought in their wake. Sudden transfigurations were the least of it. “Mistress Irene will make sure of it.”
She nodded to Frieda, then turned and made her way down to the alchemy classrooms. Dram had taken the section for himself, after cleaning up the mess; she’d read his request for potions ingredients and alchemical supplies with a certain degree of amusement. It didn’t help that true alchemists were expected to forge their own tools, apparently under the belief that it helped temper the alchemist as well as the tools themselves. Professor Thande had told her that it rarely mattered, outside truly advanced potions, but... she shook her head. If nothing else, it was an excuse to have a small blacksmith’s shop in the school.
Dram looked up from his cauldron as she entered, closing the door behind her. “Lady Emily.”
“Alchemist.” Emily nodded to him, then clasped her hands behind her back. “Your apprentice has been... handled.”
“It is my responsibility to handle him.” Dram didn’t sound particularly angry, merely... irked. “You are not his master. Or his mistress.”
“No,” Emily agreed. “But I do own the school. And Seth broke the rules.”
“Quite.” Dram’s tone didn’t change. “And I trust you strapped him good and proper?”
“He’s cleaning a dorm, without magic.” Emily allowed herself a smile. “He has a week to finish the task, or else.”
“He might prefer the strapping,” Dram said, sardonically. “And you might want to think of a suitable or else.”
“I will, if he doesn’t finish in time.” Emily kept her thoughts to herself. She’d read enough stories about people complaining about not being executed to be certain that most of the characters were idiots. “I’m sorry if this means you won’t be able to call on his services for the next week.”
“It will be awkward, but I will survive.” Dram returned his attention to the cauldron. “I may have to borrow one of the other apprentices, if that is acceptable, but I will survive.”
“If their master agrees,” Emily said. “But, right now, we have to clear the entire school.”
“A shame.” Dram looked up, his eyes dark. “I was midway towards codifying a protocol for multiple brewers working in harmony. If we use puppeteer spells...”
“There aren’t many magicians who would go along with it,” Emily pointed out. “And even if they were, a random surge of magic might be enough to ruin the entire brew.”
“Quite,” Dram agreed. “That said, there may be ways to compensate for the problems... as they arise. Perhaps if we were to adapt...”
At least he’s thinking of new ways to do things, Emily thought, as Dram proposed a whole series of ideas. We just have to find a way to pay for the ingredients... and compensate for any problems, before they blow up in our face.
“It
won’t be easy to acquire the ingredients,” Dram finished. “The prices will start to go up the moment sellers realize we’re trying to buy.”
“You’re right,” Emily said. The iron law of supply and demand couldn’t be defied. Unless... “Do you think you can find substitutes?”
“Perhaps.” Dram sounded uncertain. “So far, no one has found a substitute for phoenix tears... if someone did, it would be the discovery of the century. Or unicorn horn or manticore blood or... dragon scales. A substitute for dragon’s blood would be fantastic.”
“Perhaps you can find one.” Emily understood the problems, as well as anyone could without being a full-fledged apprentice. Experimenting was extremely expensive as well as incredibly dangerous. “That would be worth any price.”
“I have theories,” Dram said. “But turning them into reality will take time.”
“We have time,” Emily assured him. It was true, she thought. There was certainly no point in asking for a timetable. Merely ruling out what didn’t work would be progress in its own right. “First, though, we have to clear the school.”
Chapter Sixteen
“SO,” CALEB SAID. "HOW’S SETH COPING with his punishment?”
“Better than I expected,” Emily conceded, as they readied themselves to open up another unexplored section. “He’s figured out he can use water and cloths to mop up the dust.”
Caleb laughed. “How long did it take him to figure that out?”
Emily snorted. “How long would it take you to figure that out?”
“Not long.” Caleb grinned at her. “Mother always made us clear up our own messes before we came into our magic. She always said we’d take better care of our clothes and stuff if we had to wash them and mend any damage ourselves.”
“Clever of her,” Emily said. She felt a twinge of envy. Sienna—Caleb’s mother—was strict, but she’d ensured her children knew how to take care of themselves. And she loved them. Emily’s mother would have sold her for a bottle of cheap wine. “You’d know how to clean the dorm, wouldn’t you?”
Mirror Image (Schooled in Magic Book 18) Page 15