Seventeen Stones

by Vanessa Wells

  Mia jerked the reigns. “Listen Puppychow. I. AM. NOT Going to die trying to ride you. Get me back down to the ground and I will get off, just like you want me to.”

  The mare flicked an ear at her rider, skimmed back toward the ground, and tried another brush with a tree. Mia kept her head even with the mare’s and clung to the saddle. The mare studied her with one eye as she flew low and seemed to decide something. They landed near the college entrance and took a few bouncing steps before she stopped. Mia immediately scrambled off her back, clutching the reins as the irritated animal bucked furiously and tried to get back to the sky. The other riders landed softly and their more obedient mounts waited as Professor Stoats administered a calming mist to the mare.

  Her eyes glazed and one back leg went slack as the mist overcame her desire to fly. The Professor turned to Mia. “Are you still alive?” Mia nodded. “Just some scrapes. She wasn’t interested in hurting me exactly; she just didn’t want me on her back.”

  The professor ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve never seen a pegasus act like that before.” He sighed and tugged on the animal’s lead reins. “Well, let’s get back to class.” He grinned at Mia. “Would you care to ride?”

  Mia nearly choked. “No…go on without me. I’ll pick up my things when I get there.” Ella (who had of course followed on her own mount) smiled down at Mia. “I’ll bring them to the dorms, if you can make it that far?” Mia nodded again, and held her hand up over her eyes as they took off toward the pasture. Then she sunk down on the ground, silently promising it that she would never, ever leave it again.

  Mia was still catching her breath, sitting on the ground, when a harsh voice came from behind the hedge. “Have Chilton take care of it then.”

  Another voice, not as harsh, but unpleasantly nasal replied. “You didn’t see her face. I was afraid she was going to murder me right there in her office.” The first voice was amused. “You never were much for the dueling ground.”

  The second voice had real fear in it. “I’m not jesting. Do you know how much pressure I’m under? Whatever projects that are necessary must wait. If another student comes back to this college with only half his wits the Headmistress is going directly to the Magus, and I don’t need to tell you what will happen then.”

  The first, colder voice chuckled. “If you are thinking of betraying me to save your own hide, think again. You are in this too deep to back out now.” He let the threat hang in the air for a moment and then continued in an amused tone. “Go commission another new waistcoat with your tailor. I’ll deal with the headmistress, and with the Magus if need be.”

  Mia heard the men moving away. Her earlier weariness faded away. She rushed toward the headmistress’ office, dreading what she knew to be true: when she arrived, she would learn which of her school mates were dead or lying on a cot, totally unresponsive, with little hope of ever waking.

  ***

  The headmistress was in an uproar when Mia arrived at her study. Greatlord Chilton was on the mirror. “Accidents happen Greatlady, sometimes even minor tasks end in tragedy.” The headmistress took a deep breath. “And if it were sometimes Greatlord, perhaps once every five to ten years, then I would agree with you. This is the fifth accident this year. The council member in question dumped the unconscious students at the infirmary like so much baggage. I don’t even know which council member did it, and Avery was worse than useless when I called him in to explain. These children are under our care. The City has entrusted us, you and I, to protect its most valuable resource, the next generation of wand wielders. How can I protect them when I don’t even know where they are or what they are assigned to do?”

  Chilton sighed. “You know as well as I do that secrecy is sometime required for City security.”

  She glared at the mirror. “With all due respect, I doubt the children involved feel all that secure Greatlord. We have no less the twelve young wand wielders on special projects at the moment. I want them all back. The council is not treating them with nearly enough care. I want to recall all of them until we have some sort of system of accountability.”

  “Now, now Greatlady. Being a Council Member requires a certain amount of dignity. You will be impugning the gentlemen’s honor if you make them sign out the students like library books!”

  The headmistress growled. “At least when you check out a library book, you have some inducement to bring it back undamaged!”

  “Headmistress! Control yourself. This absence of decorum is not like you at all.”

  She slammed the mirror down on her desk. Mia was shocked it didn’t crack from the force of it. “I wish I could say that this lack of sense and reason wasn’t at all like you. Good day.”

  The headmistress looked up at Mia. “Hiding your talents was the right decision.” She looked worn and old, despite her raven hair and unlined face.

  “I thought I should report something I heard to you…”

  After Mia explained what she’d overheard, the Headmistress looked wary and sighed. “It’s good to know that I can at least frighten Avery if nothing else. Not that there’s much that doesn’t frighten him, the blasted dandy.” She stood and walked over to the portrait of the Magus. “But which of the council members truly thinks they can take on the Magus and survive?”

  Mia cleared her throat. “He didn’t say he was planning to duel the Magus, he said he would ‘take care’ of him. Couldn’t that mean this person was planning to do something like…manipulate him…or…”

  The headmistress cut her off. “It could mean any number of things. One thing it surely means is that I need to write the Magus immediately and complain about Chilton and Avery, and tell him that there is at least one other council member involved.” Her face, though stiff from wand use, managed a smile. “Thank you for bringing this to me. I trust you’ll keep this information to yourself? The fewer people that know about this, the better.”

  She took a closer look at Mia and pulled a leaf out of her hair.

  “Whatever were you doing on that part of the campus anyway?”

  ***

  When Mia finally showed up at the dorms, dinner was being served. Ella cast a worried glance at her while the others looked a bit more reproachful. She couldn’t tell them everything in the public dining room so she laid their fears to rest with the tidbit she could explain.

  “The headmistress is going to make sure that no one is required to ride anything they don’t feel comfortable riding. She said we couldn’t afford to lose wand wielders to accidents.”

  ***

  Two weeks into the new term, Mia was studying with Sarah in the common room when a gorgeous purple dragonfly buzzed into the room and said in Vivian’s voice “Tea room! C’mon!” Sarah eyed the insect with great dislike as it flew back to its mistress. Vivian’s parents had sent her the tiny messenger for her mid-winter gift. “Is it just me or is this the most annoying fad that has ever been or ever will be?” Mia shrugged. She didn’t own one yet, but she’d seen a bright pink model with iridescent blue wings a few days ago. “I don’t know. It’s a convenient way to send messages.”

  Sarah fumed. “Except that you can only record five words with the dragonfly’s tiny little mind, so everyone’s talking in code. NF: Not Funny. WAA: Wandering Around Aimlessly. SAAB: Smile and Act Brainless. Uggg.” Mia ducked her head to hide a grin. She hadn’t heard any of those, but she might start using WAA.

  The sudden fad was based on the fact that the dragonflies were fairly inexpensive (they only lived six months), the enchantment was simple, and feeding them was as easy as ordering an extra bag of mosquito eggs with the rest of your potion supplies. The dragonflies ranged in price from the indigenous small green variety that could be purchased for a couple of copper pieces to the top of the line black model that was the size of a sparrow and cost more that it weighed in gold. The smaller ones were able to record a few words and fly a mile or so, the largest were able to send whole paragraphs and could travel all over the City. Most of the
students were sporting either the small green dragonflies or a yellow breed that originated near the western desert. Professor Fain had invested in one of the great black monsters, but he was the only teacher who seemed interested.

  Professor Marshal swatted any dragonfly that dared buzz in arm’s reach, while the normally sweet Professor Ambrose had threatened to throw any that delivered messages in her class into the nearest cauldron. Professor Cavendish accepted them more gracefully, anticipating that there would be fewer mosquitoes come spring.

  Mia and Sarah put away their homework and hurried to the tea room. They were late. Everyone was meeting at six. A few of the boys had started a band and they were supposed to hold a concert about that time.

  The normal noise of a hundred students was tripled in the tea room. Everyone was sending messages from opposite ends of the room. Mia began to see Sarah’s point about the noisy little insects. They were tolerable in two’s and three’s, but fifty of them in a room (speaking in code, with different people’s voices) were maddening.

  The band was still setting up as they walked in but started to play about the time they sat down beside Vivian. Gabriel was sitting next to her. Lizzy was on the other side of the table glaring at the Stubbs boy, who was weaving his way through the crowd with two cups of tea and a plate of sticky buns floating behind him.. Young Mr. Stubbs looked uncomfortable with Lizzy’s unfriendly gaze, but it didn’t deter him as he slid a cup in front of Beth. Lizzy narrowed her eyes and looked away. Mia tried to ask where Ella had gotten off to, but before the words were out of her mouth she heard the unmistakable sound of Ella’s voice.

  With each of the boys playing as fast as their guitars, harp, and drums would allow, Ella sang in her lower register. The effect was mesmerizing. Within seconds the rambunctious audience quieted. A gigantic blond boy played lead guitar; his fingers worked magic as they flew across the strings. The song reached its crescendo, and Ella used more and more of her range until she ended on a glorious C above high C. The audience was screaming and clapping, not looking at all like the stodgy students of the college. A crowd of villagers at a harvest fair couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. Martin Ainsley and his group were conspicuous for their silence in one corner, but Mia barely spared him a glance. Her friend was obviously enjoying the applause. Ella bowed to the crowd, grinned at the band, and stepped down from the raised wooden dais that was serving as a stage.

  The boys played a slower ballad, and a few couples started dancing, but Ella’s friends instantly grilled her, asking about the performance. She shrugged. “We just decided to try it this afternoon. It isn’t as if I have time to be in a band. The blond playing guitar, Nathan, is from my village, the baker’s son. He comes home on holidays and knew I could hit that note from hearing me sing with my brothers and mother. He’s friends with my oldest brother, John.”

  Mia expected that Nathan’s presence in the band might have acted as a check to Martin’s behavior. The young man in question grinned down at Ella from the stage. His arms were the size of small trees and his palms were larger than her head. He stood at least six feet, five inches tall and probably weighed two hundred and forty pounds, all muscle. He sang in a pleasant baritone during most of the other songs, a younger boy harmonizing in tenor from a small harp.

  Vivian whispered “Funny, he doesn’t look like any baker’s son I’ve ever seen. I would have pegged him for a blacksmith or a woodcutter…or a troll.” Mia giggled a little, but the music was loud enough to cover both the comment and the reaction.

  The rest of the performance was lackluster without Ella’s incredible range, so the girls wandered home before the concert was officially over. Vivian wandered somewhat slower than the others, with Gabriel’s arm around her waist. Mia didn’t slow down. She still had homework to do for Creation tomorrow, and she’d be an eperbubulious if she’d let Martin Ainsley really beat her in that class, even if he was beating her on paper.

  ***

  Sarah was extremely frustrated with the quality of information they’d been able to glean, though no one could argue with the sheer quantity of information Vivian was able to her hands on. They knew more about the petty concerns of the council members than Mia ever wanted to know, but there wasn’t any information about the catatonic state of the young mages. They were hampered in their information gathering efforts by real life. They were a group of fourteen and fifteen year olds, with no direct access to the records of the incidents they were trying to investigate…if any records existed.

  Professor Fain flatly refused to answer Mia’s questions about the council or the Magus. “Investigating is what Greatlord Avery is supposed to be doing. You need to keep your head down and study.” Mia took that tidbit back to the girls. Vivian was less than pleased. “The Council is finally moving and they assign Avery to investigate?” She shook her head. “Avery practically lives in Greatlord Strathorne’s pocket.”

  Sarah had received a pretty good overview of how the council worked from her grandfather, who was a member. She didn’t ask for specifics, since his sense of honor wouldn’t let unfounded suspicions blacken the names of his fellow council members, but he wasn’t above telling his granddaughter privately to avoid certain parties. “Avoid Greatlord Strathorne. There’s no reason you should encounter him, but he’s a cad and he’s not one to cross. Prosper’s not fit company for a young girl, and neither is his crony Greatlord Rainly. Greatlord Avery is proof that if you have enough clout you can get your children proclaimed Greatlords whether they have the power or not. He’s a bumbling idiot, the worst possible sort of person to be in charge of the City Guard, especially now…” He’d glanced at Sarah and changed the subject. “Devon and Forney are capitol gentlemen, as is old Harv Eggerton.”

  Sarah flipped through the notebook with evident displeasure. “From what I can tell, you can trust my Grandfather. The rest of the council is iffy.” Mia ignored her sour attitude and continued to scratch out an essay for Creation. “It was always a long shot, Sarah.”

  Vivian snorted, at least as annoyed with the information as Sarah was. “Well, I for one am not giving up. I want to know what they’re up to.” Her determination was somewhat unsurprising since she was growing steadily more attached to one of the more powerful third year students. Mia didn’t think that Vivian needed to worry. Gabriel was from a prominent old blood family.

  Ella was chewing the end of her wooden pen in a way that made Sarah avert her eyes. She asked “Has anyone asked the servants? Real live people do most of the work in the City. They don’t talk much, but they see everything.”

  Vivian nodded. “But why would they confide in us? Anyone who knew anything important would also know that they’d better keep their mouth shut.” Ella smiled, just a little. “I’ll ask around, see what I can do.” Vivian was hardly content with such an answer, but it was the only one Ella would offer.

  ***

  One evening they fell asleep to harsh winter winds and snow flurries. The next morning Mia noticed the first snow drops poking their green shoots out of the drifts. It progressed rapidly from there. Spring fever infected the campus like any other disease, with every student trying in his or her way to welcome the end of winter.

  Professor Tate’s classes reached a new level of difficulty during spring. “Now tell me class, why did Magus Jonas decide to build the canal?” The class raised their hands. The text clearly stated that the canal piped water out of a marsh and into the grain lands. One of the other girls in the class was called on and duly gave the answer. Professor Tate grinned. “That’s a quote from the book, but the book didn’t quite get it right in this case. That’s the difficulty with history. We can confirm what people did, but the why is elusive. Half the time people don’t know why they react the way they do in the first place. Even when they do know why they reacted that way, they won’t just come out and tell other people their true motivations.”

  The professor adjusted her glasses (which seemed ever determined to escape down her nose). �
�When it comes to Greatlord Jonas, we have some research that can help. His oldest daughter died in the swamp while studying the native flora. His wife went stone-mad afterward and had to be confined to the estate. We know this because Greatlord Jonas kept excellent records. He paid nurses to take care of his wife and healers to come to the estate to try to cure the madness. He even left a legacy in his will to fund research to discover the cause of stone-madness after he died. He drained the swamp that used to be where Greenvale is today. The addition of another river caused the Delta swamp down south to triple in size, eventually displacing thousands of people, including several estates. Of course, the canal has provided much needed water to the grain belt, assuring that we never have another repeat of the Great Famine.”

  A quiet knock at the door alerted the professor to a shadowy figure outside. She bobbed her head and turned to the class “Read chapter forty-five and forty-six for the next ten minutes or so.” With no more explanation than that, she rushed out of the room.

  Vivian was out of her chair, listening at the door faster than Mia could open her book to the proper page. The rest of the class was watching Vivian. Mia hissed for her friend to come back, but Vivian’s dark head was heading out the door. She turned to Lizzy and Beth. “Should we follow?” Lizzy shook her head and dug around in Vivian’s bag. Then she opened it to the third page of chapter forty-five. Vivian raced in and slid into seat seconds before the Professor re-entered the room. She threw a grateful look at Lizzy as the distracted Professor returned.