Alassa conceded the point with a nod. “Emily, spin the needle?”
Emily sighed inwardly as she reached out and spun the needle. She’d been lucky, she supposed; Frieda could easily have come up with something embarrassing or thoroughly unpleasant. The needle spun until it pointed at Alassa, who looked irked. Imaiqah and Alicia had both escaped so far.
“There should be a rule against having the needle pointing at me twice, at least until everyone else has had a go,” Alassa said.
Frieda smirked. “There’s nothing in the rules...”
“I know, I know,” Alassa said, cutting her off. “I choose truth.”
“I’ve got a good one,” Imaiqah said.
“It’s Emily’s turn,” Alassa pointed out.
Emily nodded. “Alassa,” she said, wondering just what she should ask. All the ideas that came to mind were either incredibly tame and harmless or nasty enough to encourage retaliation in kind. “Are you nervous about the wedding?”
Alassa frowned. “I rather wish I could have a smaller wedding. And just get it over with.”
“So no fears about the wedding night,” Imaiqah put in.
“That’s something else to worry about,” Alassa admitted. “Mother’s advice was rather less frank than yours.”
“My mother’s advice was appalling,” Alicia offered. “Everything she said was dressed up in so many metaphors that I couldn’t understand what she was saying.”
Emily smiled. “The birds and the bees?”
“If only,” Alicia said. “It took hours before she finally admitted that she was talking about men and women and I got slapped when I tried to ask her to speak bluntly.”
“Your mother was always weird,” Alassa commented. She spun the needle until it came to rest, pointing at Imaiqah. “What’s the most embarrassing thing you ever did?”
“I didn’t have a chance to pick truth or dare,” Imaiqah objected, after a moment of struggling with the compulsion.
“Well, there’s the question,” Alassa said. “Dare...or answer the question.”
Imaiqah sighed. “I forgot to tell one of my boyfriends that I was dumping him,” she said, after a moment. “And he caught me kissing another boy.”
Emily covered her face with her hands. “Was that what happened when you wound up spending the night in the infirmary?”
“We had a three-way fight,” Imaiqah admitted. “It got pretty nasty.”
“I’m not surprised,” Emily said. Bad as it was for Imaiqah, it would have been far worse for both of the boys. “He must have been furious.”
“That isn’t too embarrassing,” Alassa said. “You never did anything more embarrassing than that?”
“Not really,” Imaiqah said. “There was the time I didn’t check my chair in defensive magic and got zapped into a frog, but I don’t think that was quite as bad.”
“Even though you failed the test?” Alassa asked. “And had to redo it the following week?”
“Jade - he was the Teaching Assistant at the time - was very sarcastic about it,” Imaiqah agreed. “And then there was the fact I had to ask my father for help ordering everything we need for the wedding ceremony. But it wasn’t quite as bad as being caught by my former boyfriend.”
“I suppose not,” Alassa said, after a moment. “Who hasn’t been truth or dared?”
“I haven’t,” Alicia said. She crossed her hands and scowled at the needle. “But I’m not doing either until I get picked.”
“Fine,” Imaiqah said. She took the needle and spun it until it pointed at Frieda. “Truth or dare?”
“Dare,” Frieda said. “I doubt you can come up with something really embarrassing.”
Imaiqah smirked. “Get up and do a silly dance around the room.”
Frieda shrugged, rose to her feet and did as she was told. Emily recognized the dance as one she’d seen while she’d been in the Cairngorms - a violent series of movements that had little in common with a formal dance - but she doubted the others recognized it. Frieda finished and sat down, breathing heavily. Alassa clapped and, after a moment, the others joined in.
“Not a bad dance,” Alassa said. She winked at Frieda, who smiled back. “I should introduce it to court.”
“The aristocracy would have a collective heart attack,” Emily said. She had to smile at the thought of some of the more dignified older men hurling themselves around the dance floor, swinging their fists and kicking their feet. It had never surprised her that such dances rapidly turned into nasty fights. “It would be bad.”
“I’m not seeing a downside here,” Alassa said.
“You’d have the older aristocrats replaced by younger noblemen like Lord Hans,” Emily pointed out. “Would that actually be an improvement?”
“At least they wouldn’t see me as a child,” Alassa muttered.
Frieda spun the needle, which came to rest facing Alicia. “Truth or dare?”
Alicia hesitated, clearly nervous. “Truth.”
“You’ve been wanting to speak to Emily,” Frieda said. She tilted her head as she studied the older woman. “Why?”
“I’m pregnant,” Alicia said. Her face froze in horror as she realized what had slipped out. “I...”
Emily stared at her. Aristocratic girls were meant to remain virgins until their wedding nights, even the handful with magical talents. Alassa had made it clear to her, more than once...she risked losing everything if she gave up her maidenhead before the wedding night. And yet, Alicia was pregnant? She’d been carefully chaperoned by her parents and then ordered to live in the king’s castle. How could she be pregnant? And how long had she been pregnant?
There’s no baby bulge, Emily thought, looking at Alicia. Lady Barb had gone through the stages of pregnancy with them, back in Second Year. She can’t be more than three or four months along.
Alassa swallowed hard. When she spoke, her voice was very hard. “Who’s the father?”
Alicia struggled to keep from speaking, her face twisting as she fought the compulsion.
“Your father,” she said. “King Randor.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
ALASSA LET OUT A SCREAM OF PURE rage.
“You...you have been making love to my father!”
Alicia scrambled backwards as Alassa rose to her feet, her fists clenched. “You...”
“I had to,” Alicia pleaded. “I...”
Emily sensed the surge of magic a second before Alassa threw a spell right at Alicia. Her body shrank rapidly, her nightgown falling around her and landing on the ground. Seconds later, a rat nosed its way out of the fabric and stared up helplessly at Alassa. Emily had been transformed before - even as an experienced magician it was disorientating to suddenly find oneself in a different body - but Alicia would never have been transfigured into anything before. For her, the experience had to be utterly terrifying.
“You bitch,” Alassa snapped. A fireball flashed from her fingers and struck the ground, mere inches from where the rat stood. “You...”
Alicia spun and fled. Emily stared after her, horrified. Unless the new wards could track Alicia’s passage through the castle, they’d lose track of her as soon as she found a chink in the walls and ran into the shadows. She hastily shaped a freeze spell and threw it after the rat, only to miss. Frieda froze the rat in place a second later.
“Good,” Alassa said. “I...”
“You’ll kill the baby,” Emily said, hastily. Merely turning a pregnant mother into something else might have an effect on the child, although she had no idea what. Experimentation had been strongly discouraged at Whitehall. “Alassa...”
“Good,” Alassa snapped. She whirled around to face Emily. “A child. A male child. Do you know what this means?”
“You don’t know the baby’s a boy,” Emily said. Lady Barb had made it clear that they weren’t to tell pregnant mothers - or their husbands - the sex of their unborn children. “It...”
“Father spent years trying to get someone else pregnan
t,” Alassa snarled. “He wouldn’t have allowed Alicia to remain pregnant if the child wasn’t a boy!”
“If he even knows she’s pregnant,” Emily pointed out. Randor’s throne might not survive an allegation he’d aborted a child. “Does he know she’s pregnant?”
A thought struck her. Does the Queen know too?
It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but it had to be faced. If Randor had finally succeeded in siring a male child, he could put Queen Marlena aside and marry Alicia. He’d have no choice, if he wanted the boy to be seen as legitimate; he’d have to finesse the politics very carefully, but it could be done. And if Marlena knew she might be separated from her husband at any moment, no wonder she was sickening. The maids in the castle reported to her. If Alicia had missed more than two periods, Queen Marlena would have known that her worst nightmare had come to pass.
“He’ll find out,” Alassa snarled. “And then he’ll put me aside!”
Emily stared at her, shocked. “The child is innocent...”
“The brat is a civil war waiting to happen,” Alassa snapped back. “It has to die. Now!”
“And if it gets out that you aborted a child, even if you didn’t kill the mother, it would be disastrous,” Emily said. Abortion was taboo in the Nameless World. It was almost invariably seen as a form of human sacrifice. “There would be riots in the streets!”
“There will be civil war if the child is born,” Alassa said. “How many aristocrats will gladly take advantage of the opportunity to weaken my family?”
“The child hasn’t been born,” Imaiqah said, quietly. “Alassa, it may be a girl.”
“You don’t know what it is,” Alassa thundered. “And what happens if it’s a boy?”
Emily shuddered. King Randor could put Queen Marlena aside if he wished, at the price of his daughter’s eternal enmity. That would put his child with Alicia at the top of the line to the throne, even if the baby was a girl. But Alassa was the Confirmed Heir, the one named as his successor. He couldn’t undo that without very good cause. She shuddered again as she thought about some of the possibilities. Alassa had magic, a nasty streak of ruthlessness and she’d be married to a combat sorcerer. Emily wouldn’t bet good money on the child - or King Randor - surviving long enough to take the throne.
“Then we take steps,” Imaiqah said.
Alassa laughed, harshly. “Do you want to know the punishment for encompassing the death of the heir apparent? I believe it’s something lingering in boiling oil!”
She jabbed a finger towards the rat. “That...that bitch has been sleeping with my father!”
“There’s no way you can kill the child or Alicia without risking your position,” Imaiqah said, keeping her voice very calm. “There may be another way to manage it.”
“She may not want to marry your father at all,” Frieda put in.
Alassa rounded on her. “And what do you know about it?”
Frieda didn’t flinch. “Your father would have been delighted to know he’d actually managed to sire another child,” she said. Emily realized that someone must have filled her in on King Randor’s near-complete infertility at some point. “Male or female, he would have been delighted. She knew she was pregnant, so she could have gone to him at any moment and told him the good news. That she didn’t suggests she doesn’t actually want to marry him or bear his child.”
“She is bearing his child,” Alassa snarled.
“Yes, and she could have married him at any moment,” Frieda said, evenly. She gave Alassa a look that suggested she thought Alassa was being idiotic. “The fact she didn’t suggests she had something else in mind.”
Alassa stamped her foot. “She could have swallowed something that would have induced a miscarriage!”
Imaiqah frowned. “And where would she get it? Even if she knew what to take, she isn’t exactly used to finding stuff for herself - and whoever she asked would report to the king.”
Emily held up a hand. “I’m going to take her down to my rooms, turn her back to normal” - she ignored Alassa’s bitter snort - “and talk to her. You three are going to remain here and try to calm down.”
“I’m perfectly calm,” Alassa hissed. “That child is a civil war waiting to happen!”
“So you said,” Emily said.
She picked up the rat and headed for the door. Alicia had to be completely terrified by now, particularly after she’d heard Alassa’s threats. There was no one outside, much to Emily’s relief, as she carried the rat down to her room, opened the door and placed the rat on the carpet. She secured the wards, raised a couple of new privacy wards and then contemplated the spells surrounding the rat. Being unable to move a muscle had to be just as maddening as being in a new form.
And Jade’s wards should have sensed Alassa’s spells and sounded the alert, she thought, as she gently touched her finger against the frozen fur. A hundred guards should have been dispatched at once, unless he thought it better to handle it himself. Did he tune the wards to ignore Alassa? But her father would want to know what she was doing with her magic...
“Probably not a problem right now,” she said, out loud. “I’ll check the wards later.”
Bracing herself, she looked down at the rat. “I’m going to release the spells, one by one,” she said. She knew Alicia could hear her, unless she’d already lost her mind. It was all too easy to believe that the rat was already dead and cold. “Please don’t run or do anything stupid. Please.”
She braced herself, then released the freeze spell. Alicia twitched, turning to face her, but otherwise remained still. Emily nodded once, then undid the second spell. Alassa, thankfully, had used a prank spell rather than anything more dangerous. Alicia might have been terrified and humiliated, but she should be fine. There was a flash of light and Alicia, stark naked, appeared in front of her. Emily glanced at her belly and frowned when she saw no sign of a bulge. Unless Alicia was lucky enough to be able to carry a baby to term without showing any signs of pregnancy, she couldn’t be more than three months pregnant.
“It’s going to be fine,” she said. Lady Barb had told her to be as reassuring as possible when comforting patients. Given everything that had happened, she suspected it was wasted effort, but she tried anyway. “Really.”
“She’s going to kill me,” Alicia said.
“I’ll try to talk her out of it,” Emily said. She held her hand above Alicia’s bare chest for a moment, using a simple spell to check on the foetus. She’d half-wondered if Alicia had been wrong - it wasn’t as if she could go to a doctor for a pregnancy test - but it was immediately clear that she definitely was pregnant. “The baby doesn’t seem to be harmed.”
Alicia shuddered, but said nothing.
Emily rose to her feet, poured a glass of water and passed it to Alicia. “Once you drink that,” she said as she searched for something for Alicia to wear, “I want you to tell me what happened.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Alicia said, sipping her water.
“You don’t have a choice,” Emily said, picking up a dressing gown and tossing it towards Alicia. She hadn’t thought King Randor would try to seduce a girl barely a year older than his daughter, but he evidently had. All of a sudden, the private meetings between the king and Lady Regina took on a more ominous tone. “I need to know everything.”
Alicia stared at her, bitterly. “My father didn’t Confirm me before he died,” she said, as she pulled the dressing gown on. “I could have taken the barony at once, but no...I had to be sent to the court and placed in the care of the king while his men ran my inheritance. What could I do at court?”
Emily nodded, remembering Alassa’s explanation. King Randor had effectively inherited guardianship of the unconfirmed children after their parents had been beheaded for their role in the plot against him. He could use them as he saw fit, even to the point of marrying them off to his cronies as a reward for good service. Alicia...wouldn’t have any say at all in who married her. All she could do was wai
t for him to decide her fate.
“I see,” she said, finally. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for the poor girl. “And then?”
“I thought if I kept talking to him, he’d give me my rights without a husband,” Alicia said, angrily. “He seemed happy to talk to me. And...and then he seduced me and I let him!”
At least it wasn’t rape, Emily thought. But was that actually true? Randor was in a vastly superior position, perfectly capable of organizing Alicia’s marriage to a complete monster if she displeased him. She might have feared to say no.
“We just kept meeting and doing it afterwards,” Alicia wailed. She started to shake as tears ran down her cheeks. “I didn’t know I could get pregnant! He told me he couldn’t have children!”
“Ill-luck,” Emily said tiredly, as she passed Alicia a handkerchief to wipe her eyes. “He had good reason to believe he was telling the truth.”
It was, she had to admit, incredibly bad luck, at least for Alicia. Years of trying to have another child, years of moving between mistresses, years of coming to terms with the fact that Alassa would be the only child he’d ever have...Randor had finally managed to impregnate another woman, after Alassa had already been Confirmed. There would be aristocrats who would line up behind Alassa in defense of her rights - and in hopes of avoiding a precedent that could be used to undermine their positions.
She rubbed her eyes. Alassa was right. Alicia’s child was an open invitation to civil war.
Alassa isn’t likely to stand still and let her claim be stolen, Emily thought. Alassa was simply too stubborn to surrender the throne easily, even if part of her didn’t really want to keep it. And she has powerful magic - and Jade.
She looked at Alicia. “Do you love him?”
“I don’t think so,” Alicia said. “He’s the king, of course, and my lover, but I don’t think I love him. I...”
She cleared her throat. “I wanted to talk to you because you might understand my position,” she said, pleadingly. “When I become visibly pregnant, I will be the laughing stock of the aristocracy; everyone will know I sullied myself...”
Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) Page 28