She looked over at the snake for a long moment. “I had an idea,” she added, changing the subject. “You can transfigure the snake into something less harmful.”
Emily narrowed her eyes. “A dog or a cat?”
“I was thinking a bracelet,” Lady Barb said. “You wear it, all the time. No one thinks anything of it. But when you need a secret weapon...”
“The snake comes back to life,” Emily said. She hesitated, wondering if it was a good solution to her problem. The part of her that was linked to the snake seemed divided on the issue. She wasn’t sure how the snake felt about it. “I’d have to keep the spell in place permanently.”
“You wouldn’t be the only person to carry a secret weapon,” Lady Barb pointed out. “And you are in far more danger than most of your classmates.”
Emily nodded, remembering the knife Alassa had strapped to her leg. It had saved both of their lives in Zangaria. A hidden snake – a hidden, absolutely lethal snake – would make a very useful weapon. If another necromancer came after her, she could order the snake to bite him...if a necromancer could be killed by snakebite. But poison had been used to kill necromancers in the past, hadn’t it?
And there was a necromancer roaming the mountains right now...
“There’s little hope of replacing the supplies we used in this town,” Lady Barb said. “I want you to write up a list of everything we used, and we’ll send it in a letter down to the nearest city. They’d have supplies to send back up here.”
Emily nodded and left the table. The guesthouses were meant to be kept fully stocked, but the mystery thief had taken too much to be easily replaced. Someone would have to see to it before any further help could be offered to the townsfolk. She wondered, absently, if she could work out what the thief had wanted from the stolen ingredients, before deciding that it was probably pointless. There hadn’t been anything unique to one or two potions in the storehouse, not when such ingredients were too expensive to waste. Everything that had been taken had a multitude of uses.
She wrote out a list anyway, careful to separate the ingredients she’d used from the ingredients that had been stolen, then walked back into the main room. Lady Barb had fallen asleep, resting her head on her arms as students had been known to do in the library. Emily smiled, placed the sheet of parchment on the far table, and looked at her snake. It was still lying beside the fire, asleep. Emily crept around Lady Barb and clambered up the ladder into the bedroom. It was dangerous to disturb sleeping magicians.
Despite her own tiredness, she didn’t really feel like sleep. Instead, she wrote out another letter, this one to Imaiqah. She was a little more honest with her oldest friend, but again kept the details about Hodge to herself. It wasn’t something she wanted to talk about, even to the only one of her friends who might have understood. Alassa would have wanted to know why she hadn’t killed the young man.
Finishing that letter, she wrote out another one to the Gorgon. She wasn’t actually sure if it would reach her – the Gorgon lands weren’t on the formal postal routes, which meant the letter would have to be delivered specially – but it was the thought that counted. Besides, the Gorgon had even fewer close friends than Emily herself. She finished the letter, undressed as fast as possible and walked over to the window. Outside, the moon was rising, casting its eerie light over the town. No one, even soldiers, could be seen in the streets below.
Emily had always liked the darkness, but this was different. The shadows could have hidden anything, from a vampire to a merely human enemy. And it did hide a necromancer. She peered into the darkness, wondering if the faint hints of light marked where someone had built a fire for the night...or if it was something more sinister, waiting for them. A shape fluttered across the window and she jumped, catching her breath, before she realized that it was nothing more harmful than a bat. Shaking her head, she turned and walked back to bed.
There were no marks on her skin, she discovered, not from where the snake had rested on her chest. She didn’t know if she was unharmed because of the bond or because the snake’s skin hadn’t had time to reach her bare flesh. Even now, with the snake downstairs, she could still feel it at the back of her mind, something that wasn’t quite there, but still present. There were some stories about mental links between humans and animals that had chilled her to the bone, but she didn’t seem to have picked up any of the bad effects. Or so she hoped.
She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. But it was a long time before she dropped into a dark, dreamless sleep.
Lady Barb woke her the following morning as she undressed and changed into a new set of clothes. Emily found herself staring at the scars covering the older woman’s back, including a handful that looked as if she’d been flogged months ago. Outside, the sun was barely rising in the sky, but Emily didn’t feel like going back to sleep. She pulled herself out of bed and looked over at her mentor. The scars went all the way down to Lady Barb’s buttocks.
She found her voice. “What...what happened to you?”
“You don’t want to know,” Lady Barb said, darkly. She was clearly in a vile temper. “Get dressed, then brew up the remaining potions. We will have more visitors this morning.”
She kept Emily busy all day, moving between brewing potions to helping patients who needed some additional treatment. Emily tried to speak to her a couple of times, but after she was snapped at she decided to leave the older woman alone until she was ready to talk properly. She paused long enough to offer the snake something for lunch – it didn’t seem hungry, which puzzled her until she remembered that snakes could go weeks between meals - then returned to work. Lady Barb wanted to get through the patients as soon as possible.
“You know how to make your own protections,” Lady Barb said, when the last patient had departed and the door was firmly closed. “Have you tried applying the same principle to a transfiguration spell?”
Emily shook her head. Transfiguration spells eventually wore off – or at least the prank spells did. Hodge would have turned back eventually, unless someone turned him into pork roast without realizing what they’d done. But protections drew on her power permanently...
“You’ll need to keep the bracelet on or near you at all times,” Lady Barb instructed, as she showed Emily the spell. “Once it is too far from you, the snake will revert to normal. I suggest you add anti-theft jinxes to the snake, once it’s a bracelet.”
Emily shuddered. Someone might steal the bracelet...and find out they were clutching a lethal snake. She cast the spell carefully, keeping her eyes on the target, and sighed in relief when the snake became a simple, gold bangle. There was a faint scaly pattern on the outside, she realized as she picked it up, but nothing else to indicate that it was anything other than a piece of jewellery. She closed her eyes, concentrating. The spell had frozen the snake’s mind – and it felt almost as if the snake was asleep.
She added the two protective spells, then pulled it over her left arm. She’d never been one for jewelery – she’d never had the money for anything special – but she had to admit it suited her.
There was a sharp rap at the door. “That will be the carriage,” Lady Barb said. She sounded calmer now that the snake was harmless. Had it rattled her in the morning? “Go get into your dress robes. I’ll delay them.”
She reached out and caught Emily’s arm before she could reach the ladder. “And make sure you pack your staff,” she added. “You might need it.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
WHOEVER HAD DESIGNED THE CASTLE, EMILY decided as the carriage wound its way up towards the grim forbidding mass, had read too many gothic horror stories. The towering battlements loomed over the countryside, giving it a distinctly sinister appearance. She didn’t even want to look at the road as it wound its way up towards the castle, steep cliffs on both sides. A single strong gust of wind would blow the carriage over the side, sending them plunging to the jagged rocks below. Without magic, the castle would be almost impossible to take by force.<
br />
It didn’t look so forbidding yesterday, she thought. But that was before the bodies...
It was smaller than her castle in Cockatrice, she saw as they passed over the bridge – there was no moat, merely another plunging cliff – and into the courtyard. A handful of soldiers strode about, several clearly being trained by men who resembled Sergeant Harkin. They didn’t look very happy, although she shuddered to think about how she must have looked after her first class. A man dressed in red swept past them and down towards the carriage. Emily couldn’t help noticing that several of the soldiers made rude faces at his back.
“Lady Sorceress,” he said, addressing Lady Barb. “I welcome you to my lord’s castle.”
“Thank you,” Lady Barb said. “We are honored to be here.”
Emily remained behind Lady Barb, like a good little apprentice. The man ignored her, concentrating on trying to impress Lady Barb. Emily rather doubted he was succeeding; the man reminded her far too much of one of Alassa’s servants from Zangaria, a little creep whose power depended on pleasing the king. But she followed the two of them down a series of stone corridors and into a large dining room, far larger than it needed to be. There was one table, with one chair placed at the end and two more midway down the side. Emily guessed that Lord Gorham would take the chair at the end, being the master of the castle, and she and Lady Barb were expected to take the other two chairs.
“I welcome you to my castle,” Lord Gorham said, emerging from a side chamber. He sounded...kinder than he’d sounded the previous day. “It is always an honor to play host to a sorceress.”
“I thank you,” Lady Barb said, as Emily hastily curtseyed. Her tone was surprisingly warm. “It is always an honor to visit a lord.”
“Please, be seated,” Lord Gorham said. “We have much to talk about, I’m afraid.”
Emily took her seat, wondering why the aristocracy either went for sinfully comfortable chairs or chairs so hard that they hurt the posterior. Lord Gorham seemed to believe that the latter was ideal; his chair might be larger than theirs, but it had the same solid wooden seating. Emily watched as Lady Barb sat down, sensing magic flickering around her mentor as she looked for trouble.
“My son will return in time, I am sure,” Lord Gorham said, as the servants brought in the first dishes. Emily hadn’t seen so much food for so few people since she’d last been in Zangaria. It looked as though they’d slaughtered the fatted calf. “He will take his place in my plans for the future.”
Lady Barb looked over at Emily. Lord Gorham didn’t sound angry or upset, merely...unconcerned about Rudolf’s disobedience. It didn’t make sense. Emily recalled just how angry he’d been when he’d heard that Emily hadn’t retrieved his son. Had he thought better of snapping at a pair of magicians, or was something else going on?
“You may have another problem,” Lady Barb said, as Lord Gorham began to slice the meat, piece by piece. “We found a handful of dead bodies in the forest. A handful of dead bodies concealed by very powerful spells.”
Emily watched Lord Gorham carefully, but he showed no reaction at all. Instead, he finished carving the meat and distributed it. That was not a normal reaction, she told herself; even if the aristocracy didn’t care about the peasants, they had to care about a magician who was preying on their population. And then there was the proof of necromancy...
“My son will marry Lady Easter’s daughter,” Lord Gorham continued, as if Lady Barb hadn’t spoken. “Together, they will unite our lands into one.”
“The bodies were clearly used to power a necromantic rite,” Lady Barb said, sharply. “You have a rogue necromancer running around in your territory.”
Lord Gorham still seemed unaware of her words. “Please, eat,” he told them. “My cooks are the best in the mountains.”
Emily took a look at the meat. It seemed undercooked, as though they’d merely waved the pig in front of a fire and then declared it done. The bread looked more appetizing, she had to admit, but the gravy smelled unpleasant. Cooking in Zangaria wasn’t very elegant, not compared to cooking in Dragon’s Den, yet it was usually better than this!
I won’t complain about bread and cheese again, she thought.
She took a nervous bite, then winced. It tasted unpleasantly fatty, as if the cook had carefully removed the good meat before starting to roast it. Even the half-burnt rabbits and birds they’d cooked during camping trips for Martial Magic had tasted better. She nibbled her bread, wondering just what atrocities the cook had performed to make the gravy. It looked as though the cook had merely melted some fat, then added a hint of flavor. She’d seen more appetizing food in the inn she’d visited with Lady Barb.
Maybe I can turn it into something more edible, she thought, desperately. But that would be rude.
“Tell me,” Lady Barb said carefully, “why do you want your son to marry Lady Easter’s daughter?”
“Because it will unite our lands,” Lord Gorham repeated. “Lady Easter only holds the lands in trust for a male heir. My son will automatically become her lord, once he marries her daughter. And then he will succeed me and our lands will be joined.”
He beamed, as if he expected them to bow down in wonder at his sheer brilliance. Emily had her doubts; Rudolf clearly hadn’t wanted to marry the daughter and, for all she knew, the daughter felt the same way. And if Lady Easter was giving up political power when her daughter wed, she had a good reason to make sure that her daughter never married. Emily couldn’t recall if anything like it had happened on Earth, but she was fairly sure it must have at one point.
Lady Barb’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that Lady Easter will allow your son to marry her daughter?”
An odd look flickered across Lord Gorham’s eyes. “She will,” he said. There was nothing, but absolute confidence in his tone. “She will love to have my son married to her daughter.”
“Why?” Lady Barb asked. “Why do you think she would give up power so readily?”
Lord Gorham stopped, suddenly. “I...”
“And this marriage will upset the balance of power between the mountain lords,” Lady Barb added. Her eyes never left Lord Gorham’s face. “It could spark a war. Why do you feel it is necessary?”
Subtle magic, Emily realized. Lord Gorham had been programmed, to all intents and purposes, programmed to encourage his son to marry and ignore all traces of necromancy. A necromancer could dance in front of him, stark naked, and even that might remain unnoticed. But what necromancer could make subtle magic work? The stronger the magician, Emily knew, the harder it was for them to make subtle magic work well. It tended to be either blatantly noticeable or useless.
She stood up and checked under her seat. It was a breach of etiquette to rise before the lord, but Lord Gorham barely noticed. The human mind didn’t like being controlled, certainly not so subtly that it was impossible to notice without someone pointing it out. There were no runes scratched under her chair, but there was a thin trace of magic glittering across the floor.
“I...I don’t know,” Lord Gorham said. “I...”
Emily threw caution to the winds and looked under Lord Gorham’s chair. There were four runes carved into the underside, one concealing the other three. She had no idea what they did – they weren’t ones she had been taught at Whitehall – but they were clearly having an effect on Lord Gorham.
“You’re not in your right mind,” Lady Barb said, quietly. “What happened to you?”
Lord Gorham rose to his feet, then staggered and collapsed. Lady Barb bit back an oath, then drew her staff from her pocket and enlarged it to normal size, just as a handful of guards charged into the room. Emily groped for her own staff and raised a ward, while Lady Barb cast a spell that knocked the guards over. The staff twisted in Emily’s hands, reminding her of the dangers of using one. She gritted her teeth and put the staff down. As always, it was difficult to let go. It seemed to ensnare her mind.
“Your master has been attacked,” Lady Barb said. “If we’
d wanted to kill him, we could have done it by now.”
She ignored the guards and concentrated on helping Lord Gorham to his feet. Once he was away from the chair, she snapped her fingers and the chair collapsed into broken splinters, destroying all trace of the runes. Emily felt the magic flicker out of existence, but she knew there would be more runes in other parts of the castle. Like Lin, Lord Gorham’s mystery opponent had probably hidden some in his bedchamber.
“There were three runes I didn’t recognize under the chair,” Emily said, as Lady Barb carried Lord Gorham over to the fire and placed him on the ground beside it. “Do you want me to draw them out?”
“Better not, at least not now,” Lady Barb said. “You stay with him while I go search the castle. If he starts to wake up, summon me at once, but don’t let anyone else near him.”
Emily nodded. Lord Gorham had been under the influence of hidden runes for months, perhaps years. They’d worked on his mind like post-hypnotic suggestions, working their way into his innermost thoughts. A simple compulsion spell would be simple enough to break, but this was worse. Even with the runes destroyed, it could take years for him to return to normal. He would never know what was truly him – and what had been urged on him by the runes.
She looked around after Lady Barb stepped through one of the doors and closed it behind her. A handful of swords and shields hung from one of the walls, while the others were just bare stone. She couldn’t see anything to suggest why they were there, unless they were intended as concealed weapons. Sergeant Miles had told her that every aristocrat had a handful of concealed weapons in his home – and seemingly decorative swords might surprise someone. A chambermaid poked her head into the room, then fled when Emily looked up at her.
Lord Gorham moaned, then subsided again. Emily heard a sound and looked up, just in time to see Lady Barb stepping into the room again. “There were runes everywhere,” she said, grimly. “Under his bed, in the bathroom...quite a few more in Rudolf’s room. But they don’t seem to have had any effect on him.”
Work Experience (Schooled in Magic Book 4) Page 21