Starting a spell in her head, Krystal stepped forward. ‘Get away from my friends!’ Krystal stepped out of the darkness and everyone stopped moving at the sight of a stark-naked royal dragon appearing in front of them. Krystal took the advantage and went with it, raising her hand and pointing at Darawen. He let out a moan of terror and lurched backward as Krystal’s spell hit him.
‘You will kneel before me, wretch!’ Krystal roared.
Darawen shook off the stupor the spell had caused, but his eyes widened and he slipped to his knees. ‘Y-you can’t stop me,’ he said, though he sounded as though he was struggling with the idea. ‘I love her.’
‘Love this, bastard!’ Ramona shrieked, just as she smashed a candlestick into the back of his head.
‘That… did it,’ Krystal said, looking down at the sprawled form of Ramona’s would-be lover lying at her feet.
‘Yeah,’ Xanthe said, rubbing the back of her head. ‘That did it. If you don’t get out of here pretty quickly, something else will be done for. Go! Come back when you’ve got some clothes on.’
Ramona turned from her contemplation of the blood coming from the back of Darawen’s head and looked up at Krystal. ‘Krys?’
Xanthe fixed her hand over Ramona’s mouth as Krystal turned back into the darkness. ‘She wasn’t here and you didn’t see what you just saw. Got that?’
Krystal did not wait to hear the answer. She could hear feet on the stairs up from below. Heavy feet, running, and probably belonging to men who worked for the Scarlins as well as the school’s security staff. She wanted to be her normal shape and colour before any of them figured out what was going on.
~~~
Dean Scintilla Rainshadow stood in the doorway of the room Ramona and Xanthe shared, dressed in a silk gown which she had thrown on in a hurry, with her arms crossed under her breasts and her most severe look fixed on her face.
Inside the room, various retainers belonging to the Scarlin family were fussing over the still unconscious form of Darawen Scarlin. Actually, one of the number was not a retainer but a minor member of the family. His name was Kasper Scarlin and he was really getting on Rainshadow’s nerves. The fact that the dean knew there were girls out in the halls listening in to the argument was not helping, though there was the matter of ensuring that Ramona Rose knew what was being done, so the eavesdroppers were useful to some extent.
Ramona and Xanthe were in Krystal’s room, well clear of the events unfurling at the other end of the hall.
‘A member of the Scarlin family has been assaulted!’ Kasper Scarlin said, again. He was, Rainshadow knew, doing his best to put pressure on the school, on the dean herself. He was working to gain leverage for a deal to have Darawen released into family custody, where he would stay for as long as it took him to escape again.
‘A member of the Scarlin family was incapacitated,’ Rainshadow said in as calm a voice as she could muster, ‘in self-defence, having gained illegal entry onto school property in order to abduct a student. I intend to hand down commendations to Ramona Rose and Xanthe Wild for their quick thinking and excellent use of improvised weaponry.’
‘I will see to it that they are both put before the royal tribunal at the next opportunity! The city guardians have been summoned. I’ll have them dragged away in irons if necessary!’
Rainshadow’s spine straightened and she was about to tell the imperious little used-wagon salesman exactly where he could put his royal tribunal when she heard a voice from behind her. ‘You will do no such thing!’ It was a very angry voice and the dean had not heard it quite so passionate about anything aside from students and magic in a while. Rather quickly, Rainshadow stepped out of the way so that Celestina Nightsky could enter the room.
The founder of the school was actually in her dracoform. She rarely used it, so when she did appear in that shape, it was a moment to note. Her age showed less on her transformed body. She was more upright and a little taller because of it, her waist was slimmer, her bust fuller, the skin on her face was tighter, and her hair was a vibrant dark purple, only a little faded at the tips. She was every bit the royal dragon who had gone out on her own to found a school to teach girls magic. And she was spitting mad.
‘I met the city guardians outside and sent them away,’ Celestina thundered. ‘They have no business here and their services will not be required.’
Kasper rallied himself as best he could in the face of a furious, senior royal. ‘Celestina Nightsky, I don’t–’
‘Darawen Scarlin has committed acts of assault upon my students under my roof,’ Celestina went on as though the man had not spoken. ‘Under Concordance law, as agreed by all the families, that makes him subject to my justice. And justice will not only be done, it will be seen to be done. Leave my land now, you snivelling excuse for a petty bureaucrat, before I determine that a suit must be brought against you for obstructing a royal in the pursuit of her duties.’
~~~
Down the corridor, in Krystal and Trudy’s room, Ramona was looking confused. It had not been hard to hear Celestina’s speech. Half the school had probably heard her. ‘Can she do that?’ Ramona asked.
Trudy gave a nod. ‘It’s not something that happens a lot, but the royals wrote it into law so they could override common law on their own land whenever they feel like it. The school is Celestina’s property and, if she chooses to invoke the right, she can hand out personal justice to whoever she sees fit.’ The royal-hating grey smirked. ‘I never thought I’d be happy to see a royal invoking privilege, but that lady goes up in my estimations every time I come into contact with her.’
‘What do you think she’ll do to him?’
‘Not really sure, but from the sound of things, I wouldn’t want to be him.’
‘She’s a magus,’ Krystal said. ‘I suspect she’ll do something magical.’
‘Yeah,’ Ramona said, and she turned her gaze on Krystal. ‘Uh, we are going to discuss that thing I didn’t see earlier, right?’
‘Now that you’ve seen what you haven’t seen, yes. We’ll talk about it at the misfits club tonight. For now… Just don’t mention it. To anyone. It’s important.’
Ramona nodded. ‘You and Xan just saved my ass from that freak. I don’t care what the deal is. If you say it’s a secret, no one’s getting it out of me without magic.’
Charlotte appeared in the doorway, slipping quickly inside and over to Trudy’s bed. ‘Celestina’s on her way here,’ she whispered in passing.
Krystal’s eyes widened a little as Celestina marched into the room, still looking like she was fuming. Trudy was more obvious about her surprise at the founder’s appearance. ‘You should wear scales more often, Celestina. You look amazing.’
The old royal came to a sudden stop, blinking, and pulled at the collar of the mauve shirt she had thrown on, with a pair of jeans and some heeled pumps, when she had received the news from Nightsky Hall. There was even a hint of a blush to her cheeks. ‘Age doesn’t show as much in dracoform, young lady, but I can’t stand all the eating that goes along with it. Thank you for the compliment. I assume you all heard more or less everything?’
‘Not if anyone questions us about it,’ Charlotte said.
‘In this case, Charley, discretion is not required. You may inform anyone who asks that I have taken this matter personally and will be dealing with Darawen Scarlin myself.’
‘Uh, Celestina Nightsky,’ Ramona said, her voice a little hesitant, ‘what are you going to do with him?’
Celestina pursed her lips thoughtfully. ‘The gargoyles on the roof here are in some disrepair. One is entirely headless on the north side. Perhaps I could replace it.’
Charlotte winced. ‘Remind me never to get on your bad side.’
‘The gargoyle on the north wall should do that,’ Krystal said.
‘Quite,’ Celestina said, ‘but if you could see your way to helping out the aerobatics team, Charley… Frankly, this year’s intake has been… weak.’
‘Uh, I’
ll get right on that,’ Charlotte said.
‘Excellent. Now, what time is it? Almost four… And we’re not done with this yet. I’ll speak with Scintilla and have morning lectures cancelled. We’ll extend breakfast hours too, and get a cleaning team into that room… Ramona and Xanthe will need somewhere else to sleep for what’s left of tonight. I’ll make arrangements. May we presume upon your hospitality, Krystal and Trudy, for another hour?’
‘Of course,’ Krystal replied. ‘I’m not sure I can sleep again yet anyway.’
‘Very well. I’ll make the arrangements.’ Celestina turned toward the door and then paused, looking back at Ramona. ‘Ramona Rose, there is no need for you to remain at the school with Darawen Scarlin out of the picture. If you wish, I can arrange passage for you back to Scarlin Cantervale.’
Ramona blinked. ‘Thank you, Celestina Nightsky, but I think I’d prefer to stay here, if it’s all the same to you. I’m a misfit now and the misfits stick together.’
Celestina smiled. ‘We will be most pleased to continue your education, Ramona Rose. Good friends are important. I’m glad you’ve found some.’
‘So am I,’ Ramona replied. ‘So am I.’
Part Two: Home Is Where the Nunnery Is
Concord City, Concordance, 27th Day of Midsummer.
For once, Krystal was not nervous about a test. Not very nervous anyway: she was second-hand nervous since she was not the one who had results to be nervous over.
Trudy was nervous. This was not like the end of the last term when failure could mean that you had to leave the school, or retake classes, but she had put a lot of effort into her extra magical theory classes in the specific hope that she could catch up with the more advanced track. That would put her in the same theory classes as Krystal next term and she really wanted that. She was fairly confident that she had passed. Fairly confident. Still…
‘You go look for me,’ Trudy said.
‘Why don’t you–’ Krystal began.
‘I did it for you last term. You go look.’
Well, Trudy had checked the last list because Krystal was too nervous to. Plus, there were fewer girls milling in front of the board this time. The results for the final-year exams would not be out until tomorrow, and fewer people took the extra theory classes, usually going for a speciality corpus as soon as possible. ‘Okay,’ Krystal said, and she started on her way through the collection of girls.
There were actually a couple of courses with exam results on the board and it took Krystal a moment to find the right one and then to find Black, Trudy listed. She smiled and pushed her way back out again.
‘Well?’ Trudy asked.
‘I am going to stop helping you with your homework,’ Krystal said.
‘Huh?’
‘Well, I don’t see why someone who placed first in her theory class needs my help.’
‘I what?!’
Krystal smirked. ‘And we should see about a hearing test.’ But Trudy was already pushing into the crowd to confirm this unbelievable event.
‘I don’t need a hearing test,’ Trudy said as she emerged again, looking a little wide-eyed. ‘I could really do with somewhere to sit down though.’
‘Well, it is lunchtime. Come on, we’ll get some lunch and you can tell the others the good news.’
~~~
‘That’s wonderful, darling,’ Felicia said. ‘Of course, none of us doubted you could do it, but placing first? That is an achievement.’
‘Yeah, but now Xan and I will be on our own in the slow class,’ Charlotte said.
Trudy flashed her a grin. ‘Should have done the extra theory like me. Impatience, that’s your problem.’
‘My problem is that I’m going to need to get good in four corpuses to be useful to the Weather Bureau.’
‘True,’ Trudy admitted. ‘It does reduce your options for general magic.’
‘But this term’s course has improved your control with air,’ Krystal said, ‘and you haven’t let the aerobatics team get in the way of your coursework.’
‘Thanks to you lot,’ Charlotte replied. ‘I doubt I’d have stuck with it so well without the misfits.’
‘I’m glad to hear that, Charlotte Cloudborn.’ Trudy more or less bounced off her seat at the sound of the dean’s voice coming from behind her. ‘I know Celestina Nightsky encouraged you to join.’
‘She did hint, Dean Scintilla Rainshadow,’ Charlotte said, grinning.
‘Yes. However, I’m here to congratulate Trudy Black on her success in the theory paper she sat.’
Trudy turned in her seat. ‘Thanks, Dean Scintilla Rainshadow. I don’t think I’d have done as well without my friends to help me through some parts of it.’
‘Friends are always a useful thing to have standing at your side. I am hoping that you’ll all be standing at each other’s sides at the Summer Ball. We aren’t expecting any undead necromancer spirits this time.’
‘No one ever expects the undead necromancer spirits,’ Krystal replied. ‘Uh, the Summer Ball is a little less formal than the one last term, isn’t it?’
Rainshadow nodded. ‘I’m sure there will be a few gowns, but it’s more of a party-dress event. There will be a band.’
‘I know,’ Ramona said, smirking.
The dean glanced at her with a slight frown, but went on. ‘Things will be… There’s more of a party feel to it. The students are celebrating getting out of school for a month.’
‘And the staff are celebrating getting the students out of the school for a month?’ Charlotte suggested.
Rainshadow made a slightly strangled noise as she, apparently, tried to stop herself from laughing. ‘Of course not, Charlotte Cloudborn. How could you even suggest such a thing? All of our staff love the students.’
‘We’ll be at the ball,’ Krystal said. ‘I actually have a dress to wear that’ll work at a party.’
‘I’ll certainly be there,’ Ramona said.
‘I guess I’ll be there,’ Jesse said. ‘I’ll just be hiding behind Flis as much as possible.’
28th Day of Midsummer.
The misfits stepped into the Grand Hall together, much as they had done at the last ball held there, though the circumstances were so different that there was no realistic comparison. Just the fact that the dragons in the room were moving instead of watching the stage in a mesmerised state was a big change.
Krystal paused as the relatively subdued music and the far louder wave of conversation hit her, and she managed to stop herself from adjusting the neckline of her dress. Either she was going to have to come up with some way of coming to functions like this in scales, or she was going to have to buckle under and buy a dress that fitted properly. Trudy was lucky: the dress that Felicia had given her did not come with a low neckline.
There were a few girls walking around the hall in scales. Mostly, they seemed to be indigos, but Krystal spotted at least one yellow. In Krystal’s opinion, while the indigos had the social status, the golden flicker to a yellow’s scales looked better. Following some convention Krystal had not previously been aware of, it seemed that the girls in dracoform wore as little as they could get away with, showing as much of their colourful skin as they could. It was not a look everyone could pull off, including some of those trying to.
‘I thought there was a band,’ Charlotte said.
‘They’ll be on later,’ Ramona said. ‘When things have warmed up a bit.’
‘You seem to know a lot about this band. Azuria’s singing?’
‘Yes!’ Ramona squeaked gleefully. ‘The school booked a band she works with sometimes. They call themselves the Spectres and they don’t have a regular lead vocalist. They asked Az to take the vocals for tonight. They’ll even be doing some of her songs. She’s written a couple for them.’
‘A talented girl, your paramour,’ Felicia said. ‘I hope you’ll do another duet with her, darling.’
In the weeks since Darawen Scarlin had been turned into a statue on the roof of Nightsky Hall, Jesse
, Ramona, and Trudy had celebrated their birthdays. The girls had gone to Sirens again, celebrating all three days on the one evening since they were quite close together, and Azuria had more or less dragged Ramona up on stage to sing a duet which had gone down very well with the audience.
Then again, Ramona had become more confident with Darawen removed from the picture. She was still distrustful of men, but she no longer saw her phantom stalker on every street corner. And her relationship with the beautiful singer seemed to be paying dividends too: Ramona’s confidence about performing was increasing. ‘If there’s a chance, maybe we will,’ Ramona said, grinning.
‘First things first,’ Trudy said. ‘Where have they hidden the booze?’
‘You are not allowed to get too drunk,’ Krystal told her.
‘Why not? No lectures tomorrow, or for several weeks after tomorrow.’
‘Because we’re on a train to Appleyard at ten in the morning.’
‘Oh, yeah.’
Krystal leaned in closer and whispered, ‘Plus, I want you sober enough to appreciate all the things I’m going to do to you when we get back to our room.’
Trudy’s cheeks flushed, but she said. ‘Right, booze, but not too much booze. Show me the booze!’
~~~
‘We’re going to have to get up fairly early, aren’t we?’ Trudy said, looking at her almost empty glass.
‘We’re packed,’ Krystal replied. ‘We need to be at the station at ten. So–’
‘Eight, maybe eight thirty if we rush. Like I said, early. Whose idea was it to go to Appleyard again?’
‘Uh, well, Jesse’s, sort of.’
Trudy narrowed her eyes at the green dragon who shrank a little. ‘I just said that there’s a witch in the forest not too far from Appleyard, and it stood to reason that Krystal was probably born not too far from Appleyard, so the message probably meant that witch.’
Misfit Witchcraft (Misfits Book 2) Page 9