“You’ll be expected to work like a maniac,” Lady Barb added. “Make sure you get plenty of sleep tonight. You’ll need it.”
“She’s right,” Caleb said. “We’ve been working hard ever since the duel.”
Emily nodded as they walked up to the battlements, where they could chat while waiting for the others to finish dinner. It felt strangely comforting to be standing next to him, without saying a word. Outside, darkness was already falling over the land, sending a chill down her spine as the sun vanished behind the Craggy Mountains. Caleb wrapped his arm around her and she let him.
“It feels good to be back,” she said, seriously. “And thank you for all your letters.”
“I would have come if I could,” Caleb assured her. “But your father said no.”
“You wouldn’t have liked me so much,” Emily admitted. She was still astonished by just how patient Void had been with her, when her magic and emotions had been running rampant. “I had some very bad days just after the duel.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Caleb said. “I like spending time with you.”
Emily nodded and relaxed into his arms for a long moment, then pulled herself free. “The others should be finished by now,” she said. She wanted to be with him, but at the same time she wanted to catch up with her friends before she plunged back into schoolwork. “We can go spend some time with them.”
Caleb looked doubtful. “If they’ll allow me in the room.”
“They will,” Emily assured him. She took his hand and led him towards the door. “They invited all of our friends.”
Chapter Four
LADY BARB WAS RIGHT, EMILY DISCOVERED as she returned to classes; she was expected to work like a maniac. When she wasn’t in the classrooms, having facts hammered into her head, she was working her way through a list of practical exercises at twice the recommended speed or writing essays to prove she’d mastered the source material. She wasn’t the only one spending most of her evenings in the library, too; by the time the tailors arrived to measure her for her dresses, she simultaneously welcomed the break and cursed them for taking her away from her studies. She was so busy that she had hardly any time to spend with Caleb or her friends, outside classes. The only advantage was that she was kept so busy with the practical work that she didn’t have to worry about taking time to expend mana.
“You’ll be entering the exam protocols tomorrow,” Lady Barb told her, one evening. “This is pretty much your last chance to apply to restart Fourth Year.”
Emily shook her head. “I don’t think I want to do it all again,” she said, after a moment. Besides, she had the feeling she’d be expected to restart from Third Year, unless their joint project was credited to her anyway. They’d handed in the final version two days ago. “I just want to get it over with.”
“You’re doing better than I expected,” Lady Barb said. “Do you feel confident?”
“I’m not sure,” Emily admitted.
She sighed, inwardly. Exams on Earth had been useless; the ones she’d taken had involved nothing more than memorizing facts, none of which were any use outside the examination room. But at Whitehall, a good two-thirds of her mark would be based on her practical work and her results would follow her for the rest of her life. If she failed her exams, she would have to redo Fourth Year or simply be denied permission to advance to Fifth Year. In some ways, conceding defeat now would save her from being branded as a failure.
“I have to try,” she said, firmly. “If I fail...I can go back to Third Year and start again.”
“Very well,” Lady Barb said. She smiled, rather dryly. “Tomorrow morning, make sure you have a good breakfast before you assemble in the Great Hall. And I suggest that you listen, very carefully, to what you’re told. It could make the difference between success and failure.”
Emily nodded, thanked the older woman and hurried back to her bedroom. Both of her friends were already there, Imaiqah working her way through a large volume she’d borrowed from the library while Alassa wrote a long letter to her father. She, at least, wouldn’t have her results made public. The only reason Alassa was still taking the exams, Emily knew, was so she knew just how good she was. Everyone else thought she was being punished for abusing her position.
“There’s a note from Mistress Irene,” Imaiqah said, looking up from her book. “We’re to assemble in the Great Hall at nine bells.”
“And we’re not to be late,” Alassa said. She yawned and stretched - somehow, she managed to make even that look beautiful - as she rose. “Or there will be the dire punishment of being barred from the examination chamber.”
“Easy for you to say,” Imaiqah snapped. “My dad will kill me if I don’t get good results.”
“You’re a noblewoman now,” Alassa said. “You have a wonderful career ahead of you if you can’t do magic...”
“It isn’t the same,” Imaiqah retorted. “And you know it.”
“Calm down, both of you,” Emily said. It wasn’t the first fight or near-fight she’d seen as exams loomed nearer. Caleb had told her about a fight between five boys that had sent three of them to the infirmary and the remaining two to the Warden. Other students had snapped and snarled at one another as they’d struggled to finish their papers. “You both need some sleep.”
“This book won’t read itself,” Imaiqah said. She paused. “Well, it could, if I charmed it properly, but it would be useless for me.”
“You’re not going to be taking much of anything in,” Emily pointed out. “Leave it now, have a shower and relax. That will help you sleep better.”
She paused. “Are we actually starting the exams tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so,” Alassa said. “Mistress Irene is going to talk to us, it seems. You should have tried asking Aloha.”
Emily nodded, ruefully. Her older friend hadn’t spoken to her since Master Grey’s death. Aloha had practically had a crush on the combat sorcerer; she’d certainly learned a great deal from his harsh lessons. And now he was dead...Emily had a feeling that Aloha understood, but couldn’t really forgive. Master Grey had been precisely the sort of tutor Aloha liked.
“I don’t think she’s talking to me at the moment,” Emily said. She undressed, showered and headed for bed. “Get some sleep, really. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
She closed her eyes and concentrated on her meditations. It must have worked, because the next thing she knew, the bed was shivering, threatening to throw her onto the floor. She jumped up hastily, checked the time and showered while Alassa and Imaiqah struggled out of bed. When they were all dressed, they headed down to the Dining Hall for breakfast and then made their way to the Great Hall. Caleb sat next to her as they waited for the stragglers to enter, just before the doors closed with an audible boom. Emily had a feeling that anyone who was late would be in deep trouble.
“Good morning,” Mistress Irene said. She marched into the room from a hidden door and stood on a podium, her cool voice carried across the room by a spell. “You stand at the cusp of taking your first set of major exams. If any of you have chosen to take a step back and repeat the year, please leave now.”
There was a long pause. No one left.
“Very good,” Mistress Irene said. “For those of you who are leaving us this year, these will be the most important qualifications in your life. You will find that they allow you to enter careers that would otherwise be firmly closed. For those of you who intend to continue your studies at this school, your results will hopefully convince your future tutors that you’re worth teaching. I advise you all to make sure you put forward your very best effort during the exams.”
There was a long, chilling pause. “You should have read the official guidelines by now, but I will go through them just to make sure you all know what you need to know,” she continued. “You will be escorted from here to the examination section, where you will be completely isolated from the rest of the school until you have completed your exams. There is no barrie
r preventing you from leaving, but if you leave without completing all of your exams, the ones you miss will be marked as failed. You may take nothing into the examination section without special permission. If you feel you need to have something with you, speak to one of the tutors during the passage through the entrance corridor. Bear in mind that they will err on the side of caution, so I suggest you make your arguments convincing.”
Emily fondled the snake-bracelet on her wrist and scowled. Lady Barb knew what it was, but no other tutors knew. The snake would have to stay with her or she’d have to tighten the spells and hope she could recover the bracelet before it reverted to its normal form. A magician’s familiar wouldn’t try to hurt someone who found it, but a Death Viper would certainly be seen as a threat. She’d probably be able to hear the screaming through several layers of silencing wards.
Someone coughed, loudly. “But what about our revision notes?”
“It’s a bad idea to cram right up until the final moment,” Mistress Irene said, coolly. “You’ll have the information you need provided on the exam papers, if necessary.”
She cleared her throat and continued. “You will be separated into two groups, male and female. Once you reach the entrance corridors, you will undress and don examination robes. You will be scanned by protective spells as you pass through the doors; again, if you are caught with anything, you will have to explain its presence. Everything you need will be provided. If we catch any of you trying to slip notes through the doors, you will be barred from taking the exams and quite possibly expelled. These exams are serious.
“Inside, you will be given your examination timetables. You will sleep in the dorms provided, be escorted to the examination rooms when the time comes and - when all of your exams are completed - you will be allowed to leave. Until then, remember that your fellow students are trying to rest when they’re not in the examination rooms. Any of you who make a noise, or a disturbance, will be frozen until the start of their next exam. There will be no further warnings.”
Emily shivered. Mistress Irene meant it.
“If there are no further questions,” Mistress Irene concluded, “we shall begin.”
No one asked anything, not entirely to Emily’s surprise, but there were dozens of pale faces surrounding her. They’d known the exams were about to begin, yet they hadn’t truly comprehended that they’d be separated from their revision papers. Emily sighed inwardly as Lady Barb started calling for the female students to follow her, then fell into line behind Alassa. She waved goodbye to Caleb as they made their way through a hidden door and down a long corridor into a changing room. There were so many wards buzzing over the compartment that her hair threatened to stand on end.
“You’ll find robes in the lockers,” Lady Barb said. “Place everything in the lockers, unless you feel it deserves special permission. Do not waste my time.”
Alassa opened one of the lockers and pulled out a long dark robe that looked several sizes too small to fit her. Emily frowned, then realized it was charmed to resize itself to fit its wearer; Alassa pulled off her robes and underwear in one smooth motion and pulled the robe over her shoulders. It fitted tightly - too tightly - to her body. No one could be in any doubt she wasn’t hiding anything.
“I don’t think I can keep the knife with me,” Alassa said, pulling it from her ankle holster and holding it up to the light. “I’d be too tempted to bury it in an examiner.”
“I think that would be an automatic fail,” Imaiqah said, as Alassa hid the knife in the locker and closed it firmly. “I’d be tempted too.”
Emily laughed, despite herself. They’d been told stories about examination board supervisors who’d vanished one day and been discovered, a year later, in the frog pond, but they’d also been warned that attempting to hex the supervisors was a guaranteed fail. They were powerful and experienced magicians, after all. Getting caught trying to...convince them to give someone a pass would be embarrassing.
“Come on, Emily,” Lady Barb called. Most of the girls had already passed through the other door, leaving Emily and her friends alone. “Use a glamor to hide yourself if you wish.”
Emily nodded and undressed slowly, before pulling the robe on. It adjusted itself automatically, as she’d expected, but it was far too tight around her body. She’d never worn anything so revealing, even though everything below her neck was covered by black fabric. Caleb would probably like to see her in it, the treacherous part of her mind noted, as she hastily cast a glamor over herself. She had never dared let him do anything more than hug and kiss her.
“I need to keep this with me,” she said, holding up the snake-bracelet. “It’ll revert to its normal form soon, without me.”
“Keep it,” Lady Barb said, after a moment. Emily allowed herself a moment of relief as she returned the bracelet to her wrist. “Are you carrying anything else?”
“Only my hairpins,” Imaiqah said. She took one of them from her hair and held it up, allowing her hair to drop down to her shoulders. “Should I dump them?”
“Yes,” Lady Barb said. She took them from Imaiqah and dropped them into a box, which she marked with Imaiqah’s name. “Anything else?”
Emily shook her head. Lady Barb gave her a sharp look, then motioned her up the corridor and into the dorm. She felt spells crawling over her as she walked through the corridor, probing at her body to make sure she wasn’t hiding something. It was paranoid, she had to admit, but she knew why. Whitehall’s reputation rested on its exam results. They couldn’t afford to allow anyone to cheat, even though it would catch up with the cheater sooner rather than later.
A dark-skinned young woman in a black robe counted them into the dorm, then closed the door and motioned them towards the beds. Emily frowned in dismay as she realized she’d be sharing a room with forty girls, but there was clearly no point in arguing. Besides, no one would dare pick a fight on the night before the exams. She sat down on the bed, picked up an envelope with her name written on the front and opened it carefully, pulling out her timetable. It was as bad as she had feared.
Imaiqah waved to the supervisor. “Where are the boys?”
“They have their own dorm,” the supervisor said, curtly. “You won’t be seeing them until after the exams.”
Good, Emily thought. She didn’t want any of them, even Caleb, to see her in such a revealing outfit. The glamor might not work perfectly. There won’t be any distractions for either of us.
“Charms first,” Alassa said, reading the timetable. “That’s not a surprise; Healing tomorrow...I’d have expected that later, really.”
“Some of the students will be taking a second Healing exam,” Imaiqah commented. “The ones who want to become Healers have to prove they can handle it.”
“It isn’t listed here,” Emily mused. She ran her eye down the list, mentally ticking off the exams she’d prepared for. The second Healing exam had probably been left off, as there was no way she could become a Healer. “We have Alchemy on Day Three. And here...”
She frowned, then waved to the supervisor. “I’ve got Military Magic listed here,” she said, puzzled. “I didn’t apply for it.”
“One moment,” the supervisor said, checking her record book. “Sergeant Miles put your name down for it. You’re only doing the theoretical section, it would seem. Didn’t he mention it to you?”
Emily shook her head, blankly. She hadn’t seen the sergeant since the Grandmaster’s funeral. Lady Barb certainly hadn’t mentioned it to her. She hadn’t even revised!
“I’ll check that,” the supervisor said. She took Emily’s timetable and inspected it. “You’re scheduled to take it on Day Seven, I see. I’ll let you know before then what’s happened. It may be just a mistake.”
Maybe, Emily thought. She hadn’t wanted to take Martial Magic - and she hadn’t taken Military Magic at all. It was a special course, as far as she knew; she didn’t know anyone who’d taken it. Jade might have done, in his fifth year, but it was already far too la
te to ask him. Or someone might have entered my name for other purposes.
She shook her head and turned back to the timetable, just as a bell rang. The supervisor cleared her throat, loudly.
“The compartment has been sealed,” she said. She jabbed a finger towards a set of doors at the far end of the room. “One of those doors leads to the washrooms; you may use them up to thirty minutes before the exams. Another leads to the dining room, where you can eat whatever you want; again, the doors will be locked thirty minutes before the exams. The toilets are always open, but I suggest you don’t get caught in there when the exams start. If you fail to present yourself for the exams, you will be marked as non-attending and you will fail.”
Emily swallowed. Beside her, Alassa and Imaiqah looked equally nervous.
“Your first set of exams starts in two hours,” the supervisor finished. “Those of you who are attending should be lined up in front of the door” - she pointed a finger - “ten minutes before the start time. Once you are in your private rooms, you will be told when to start and finish. Until then, I suggest you relax as best as you can or talk quietly. If you sleep, bear in mind I will not be waking you.”
Alassa elbowed Emily. “Are we ever going to get more than someone wittering away at us?” she whispered. “So far, we’ve been lectured by two separate people...”
“Yes,” Emily said, before the supervisor could overhear. “In two hours, we start Charms.”
She looked at the washroom door, then lay back on the bed. There was nothing to do, save rest and clear her mind as best as she could. She was almost glad of the lack of anything to distract her. Once the exam started, she knew all too well, they would be pushed to the limit. And afterwards...
Alassa will be married, she thought. It was a galling thought. She didn’t begrudge Alassa her happiness, but Alassa would have less time for Emily in the future. And Imaiqah will be going to stay with her in Zangaria, while I stay here. And even if I learn to teleport, we won’t be able to be so close after they leave. And...
Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) Page 5