“I trust you had a good weekend.” Samra’s voice was tightly controlled, but there was an element of annoyance in her tone. “Today, we’re going to move on to the next stage of your lessons.”
Emily kept her face as impassive as possible. The sharp look Samra shot her told her that she hadn’t succeeded. But then, Samra had made it clear she didn’t want to teach Emily anything ... and it was easy to see why. Soul magic was dangerous, particularly in the hands of someone who’d either managed to evade the oaths or simply never taken them in the first place. She couldn’t help wondering if Daze had been taught at Mountaintop. It was the most logical place for him to have learned the spells.
And Aurelius would have been a tutor when Daze went through the school, Emily thought. Did Aurelius have ties to Fulvia?
“For our first step, Melissa is going to read your mind,” Samra informed her. “And for the second, you are going to try to commune with her mind-to-mind.”
Emily fought down the urge to recoil. The idea of having her mind read - again... She looked down at the floor, trying hard to keep her face under control. Melissa had sworn the oaths and there were no loopholes, as far as Emily had been able to tell. And yet, she didn’t like the thought of baring her soul. She would sooner have walked through the school stark naked.
Melissa let me read her mind, Emily reminded herself. It was hard, so hard, to keep from utter terror. And she knew I hadn’t sworn the oaths.
She swallowed, hard. Her mouth was dry. “Must we?”
“If you wish to proceed, then yes,” Samra said, curtly.
She didn’t seem fussed. Emily wondered, bitterly, if Samra was hoping Emily would run. It would save her from having to offer any more lessons, lessons she’d never wanted to give at all. If Void hadn’t pushed for them, Emily knew she wouldn’t have been given them. She still wasn’t sure why Void had wanted her to have the lessons in the first place.
“Then we will.” Emily looked around, feeling like a trapped animal. “I ...”
“Lie down on the bed, like before,” Samra ordered, leading her into the next room. “I’ll be here, if you need me.”
Emily wished, suddenly, for Lady Barb. Or someone else, someone she trusted more than Samra. She couldn’t help feeling as though she was getting undressed, even though her clothes remained firmly in place. Melissa wasn’t a friend, was she? But after everything they’d gone though, she was hardly an enemy either. God knew that neither of them had time to carry on their old feud. Emily hadn’t cared much about it in the first place.
It was Alassa’s feud, Emily thought. She lay down, calming herself as best as possible. I was merely caught up in it.
“I want you to hide your past from her,” Samra said. “Everything before your arrival at Whitehall. She ... has to find it.”
Emily rubbed her forehead. Of course Melissa would be looking for something specific, but that? She cursed Samra under her breath, then Fulvia for good measure. The secret was leaking out, piece by piece. It wouldn’t be long before it became a matter of common knowledge - and who knew what would happen then? She was surprised that King Randor hadn’t already tried to exploit the knowledge.
Although it’s useless without the ability to cross the dimensional barriers, she thought, wryly. Shadye had used extra-dimensional entities - perhaps a demon - to kidnap her, but she knew nothing about how they were summoned and tamed. King Randor, for all his considerable intelligence, might not know how to summon them either. The knowledge that I’m not Void’s daughter is considerably more dangerous.
“Melissa,” Samra called. “You can come in now.”
Melissa looked nervous as she entered the room and sat down next to the bed. Her pale cheeks were flushed, suggesting she wasn’t happy either. Emily reminded herself, firmly, that she’d encountered demons and dragons. Melissa touching her mind couldn’t be any worse than a demon scanning her memories to find a way to present itself to her. And yet, the demon couldn’t warp her thoughts. Melissa could do real harm if she slipped up ...
She swore the oaths, Emily reminded herself, firmly. She won’t be able to cause deliberate damage.
“Ready?” Melissa sounded nervous, too. “If you don’t want to do it ...”
“Do it,” Emily ordered. “Before I lose my nerve.”
She closed her eyes as Melissa’s fingers touched her forehead. Her presence mushroomed into life a second later, pressing against Emily’s mind. Melissa was nowhere near as strong or focused as Samra, Emily noted; her presence seemed to flicker in and out of existence, as if she was reluctant to push. Emily - oddly - found that a little reassuring. Melissa wasn’t trying to force her way in ...
The presence grew stronger. Emily fought the urge to recoil as Melissa’s power slowly began to sink into her mind. Sparks of pain flashed through her thoughts, caused by ... she wasn’t sure what they were caused by. Melissa wasn’t hurting her deliberately, she thought, but it was hard to be sure. Caleb had hurt her too, the first time they’d slept together. He’d been clumsy - they’d both been clumsy - and it had been an uncomfortable experience for both of them. Thankfully, it had gotten better.
She darted her thoughts away from Melissa’s questing presence, trying to conceal herself within her own mind. Melissa pushed forward, trying to pin Emily down; Emily resisted, slipping away from Melissa as she probed deeper and deeper.
Memories flashed in front of her face, a stream of images and emotions running backwards in time. Of course ... Melissa couldn’t pick out a precise memory, but she could steer from newer memories to older memories. Caleb’s face popped up in front of her, followed by a stream of memories; their break-up, the day they’d spent together, their first kiss ... she felt a wave of pure embarrassment, followed by rage. How dare Melissa look at those memories?
You looked at hers, she reminded herself. She gathered her thoughts, then tossed another stream of memories at Melissa. It was easy enough to distract her with images of classes, at least for a handful of seconds. The problem was that it wouldn’t last any longer. You saw some of her most intimate moments.
The memories flickered backwards and forwards. Void’s face popped up, followed rapidly by Shadye’s. Emily sensed Melissa’s surprise and allowed herself a moment of triumph, followed by the grim realization that Melissa knew part of the truth now. Void wasn’t her true father, no matter what she’d come to feel for him, any more than Lady Barb was her mother. And now that Melissa had a thread to follow, she followed it ruthlessly. Shadye’s kidnapping ... and beyond, her former life.
Melissa recoiled in shock. Emily almost smiled, even though she knew she’d lost the contest. Earth must be strikingly unfamiliar to anyone born on the Nameless World, almost completely alien. Cars, airplanes, cell phones ... there was so much about Earth that was utterly incomprehensible to Melissa. But then, Emily supposed that was true of the Nameless World too. There had been nights when she’d dreamed of being permanently transfigured, or enslaved, or simply killed, just because she walked into a trap someone born on her new world would have spotted with their eyes tightly closed. Melissa knew things she would never know.
But she also has the mentality of someone born here, she thought, as she felt the last of her resistance crumble. She doesn’t know ...
The world seemed to blur. And then she was lying on the mattress, staring up at Melissa’s worried face.
“Emily,” she said. “Are you alive?”
Emily blinked. “Alive?”
“Your mind went blank, just for a second,” Samra said. “It’s not uncommon, when someone’s mind is completely exposed. The brain shuts down to protect itself.”
“... Oh,” Emily said. Her body felt limp. She tried to sit up, but it was impossible. “I feel tired.”
“You’ll recover,” Samra said. “And when you do, you can commune with Melissa.”
She passed Melissa a potions gourd, then strode out of the room. Melissa uncapped the gourd and pressed it to Emily’s lips as if she
were a baby. Emily was too tired and drained to feel ashamed as she sucked the warm liquid, feeling her strength slowly return. She sat up, staring at her hands. She didn’t want to meet Melissa’s gaze. Melissa knew too much now.
“You had a hard time too,” Melissa said, softly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Emily rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry too.”
“Everyone just assumed you were his daughter,” Melissa added. “Why didn’t he correct them?”
“I think he thought it was necessary,” Emily said, shortly. Void had given her a family ring, after all. He wouldn’t have done that, she thought, unless some degree of feeling had been involved. It was effectively an adoption. “And it did give me some protection.”
“It would have done,” Melissa agreed. “You’re a very brave girl. I don’t think ...”
She shook her head. “Can we talk about it? Your world, I mean?”
“Later,” Emily said. Samra wanted to talk about Earth too. She wondered what Melissa would make of Earth, if she had to go there. A wonderland or an incomprehensible high-tech nightmare? Both, perhaps. The Nameless World was wonderful and terrible at the same time. “It’s not something I want to talk about.”
“I don’t blame you,” Melissa said. She shook her head. “I never even heard of someone traveling to another world.”
Emily nodded. She’d heard stories - passed down through the years - that might have been about interdimensional travelers, but the stories had always been so vague that she’d never been quite sure how much of them were real. Hell, there were slightly less than a thousand years between Lord Whitehall and Grandmaster Gordian and most of the stories about the former bore little resemblance to the reality she remembered. Emily’s involvement had been almost completely wiped from history. She couldn’t help wondering just how much of that had been deliberate.
Samra returned. “All better now? Good, sit up and get ready to commune.”
Emily and Melissa shared glances, then sat facing each other. Emily felt her cheeks heat as she realized just how close they were to each other. She’d seen Melissa’s memories ... and Melissa had seen hers. She hoped Markus wouldn’t be upset, when he heard what they’d done. They hadn’t made love, but - in some ways - they’d been almost as intimate.
And perhaps it would have been worse, she thought, if Melissa hadn’t already had a marriage bond.
“Join hands,” Samra ordered. She rattled out instructions as Emily took Melissa’s hand. “And focus on the spell.”
Emily closed her eyes. She could feel Melissa again, a presence pulsing at the edge of her mind. And yet, it was different. She pushed forward, feeling as though she was an intruder in her own mind, until she was touching that presence. Light flared around her, so bright it made her recoil, then faded away. In its place, there was a ... thread ... linking their minds together.
This is how we visualize our minds, she thought. Her mind wasn’t a never-ending library, but the mental image made it easier to focus. And now ...
She drifted to one end of the thread and called out. Hello?
Hello, Melissa called back. It was her voice, flavored with a complex mixture of strong emotions. I can hear you.
Emily felt something - a hex, perhaps - strike her hand. She yanked it back, breaking contact with Melissa. But the link remained in place. She could still feel Melissa, if she concentrated. Her eyes snapped open in shock. She could still talk to Melissa.
“Interesting,” she said. “Are we still meant to be linked?”
“It will fade in time,” Samra said. “You can spend the next few days exchanging thoughts and memories over the link. It will serve as a practical exercise for assisting someone to examine their own mind.”
Like Frieda, Emily thought.
Melissa cleared her throat, nervously. “Is she going to be reading my mind all the time?”
“No,” Samra said. “After the first few minutes, you will require conscious effort to open the link. And after that, the link will fade. Imagine barring the door closed, if you wish. The link will eventually flicker out of existence if you don’t use it at all.”
Emily leaned forward. “If we can talk to each other at a distance, why isn’t this used all the time?”
“Because it can be perverted,” Samra said. “Apprenticeship and marriage bonds are tightly regulated, just to keep an unscrupulous magician from enslaving the weaker party. The advantages of using a mind-link are outweighed by the disadvantages.”
Her lips quirked. “But you two should be fine, as one of you has an outside bond,” she added. “I’ll see you both next week.”
Chapter Sixteen
UNDER OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES, EMILY WOULD HAVE enjoyed playing with the mind-link.
It was new and powerful magic, and it was fascinating. And Melissa was oathbound not to take advantage of the link, let alone try to hurt Emily. But as the week wore on, as Frieda’s condition refused to improve, Emily couldn’t help feeling as though she was just spinning her wheels, waiting for something to happen. It was almost a relief when Jacqui ordered her to supervise detentions on Saturday morning. She didn’t want to do it - she’d planned a meeting with Sienna, now she had responses from all of her prospective jurors - but Jacqui hadn’t given her a choice.
She sat at the desk, feeling irked as she surveyed the room. Thirty-seven students, all looking thoroughly unhappy to be in detention, all scowling at her when they thought she wasn’t looking. Jacqui had been busy, apparently. She’d handed out more detentions over the last week than Emily had handed out over her entire term in office. More detentions than Aloha had handed out too, Emily suspected. But then, Aloha had never had any difficulty in commanding respect.
And she didn’t have to take over halfway through the year, Emily reminded herself. She felt a pang of bitter guilt, mingled with relief. At least it isn’t my job any longer.
She picked out a handful of scowling faces and winced, inwardly. Jasmine and Tiega, whom she’d mentored last year; Derrick and Radcliff, both of whom were in Fifth Year. It wasn’t entirely unknown for Fifth and Sixth Year students to be given detentions, but it was rare for them to share their detentions with younger students. Neither of them would be remotely pleased at the humiliation, not when they’d already passed the first set of exams so they could proceed to the upper years. The younger students would spread the news as soon as the detention period was over.
Emily looked at the clock, then opened her textbook. Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl, leaving her feeling as though she’d been sitting in the wretched chair for hours. Jacqui had definitely devised an unpleasant punishment for everyone in the room, including Emily herself. The only upside was that she didn’t have to write a punishment essay.
But I have to plan our case instead, she thought. It isn’t much of an improvement.
She heard the sound of someone casting a hex and looked up, sharply. Derrick had just cast a spell at one of the younger students, probably for tittering a little too loudly. Beside him, Radcliff looked ready to cast one of his own. He dropped his hand the moment Emily glared at him, but the defiant look on his face suggested he wasn’t too impressed. Too many students knew she’d let Frieda get away with casting spells on younger students.
“You are not allowed to cast any spells in here,” she snapped, feeling her temper starting to fray. “And you” - she switched her glare to the younger student, cancelling the hex with a wave of her hand - “are not to snigger either.”
She leaned back in her chair, silently daring one of the little brats to say something - anything. She’d wanted to be a teacher, hadn’t she? All of a sudden, she thought she understood precisely why some teachers had flipped out and attacked their students with their bare hands. She could sentence any troublemakers to be caned - or another few hours of detention - and they still pushed the limits.
Of course, sentencing them to detention would probably mean having to supervise them, she thought, as she picked up her
book. Which one of us would really be punished?
It felt like hours before the bell finally rang. She rose, gathered in the essays and then nodded to the door. Most of the students jumped up and fled, practically fighting to get out of the door. Emily didn’t blame them. The detention classroom wasn’t bad, certainly not compared to some of the places she’d studied in Old Whitehall, but it was effectively a prison. And it was a warm day outside. That wouldn’t last.
She reached for her books, then stopped. Jasmine and Tiega hadn’t left the room. Instead, they were eying her nervously, as if they wanted to talk. Emily looked from one to the other, then sat down on the nearest desk. They weren’t her mentees any longer, but she still felt a certain responsibility towards them. Jasmine wouldn’t even be at Whitehall if it wasn’t for her.
And Tiega is neglected by her parents, Emily reminded herself. Someone has to look out for her.
She looked from one to the other, silently waiting for them to speak. Jasmine hadn’t changed much, although she had filled out a little. Her long brown hair framed a pale face with slanted - and very dark - eyes. Tiega had grown a little slimmer, but she was still startlingly ugly. Her curly brown hair framed a face that was masculine, her hefty body barely recognizable as feminine. Emily felt a stab of pity for the girl, mingled with an odd contempt for her parents. It wouldn’t have been that hard to use cosmetic magic to improve Tiega’s looks. And while standards of beauty were different on the Nameless World, Tiega was still ugly enough to draw unwelcome attention. It was no surprise that she was also very good at hexing people.
Like she hexed Jasmine, Emily thought. It’s odd to see them together.
Her patience ran out. “I have to get lunch, then be at a meeting immediately afterwards,” she said, crossing her arms over her breasts. “If you have something to say, say it.”
Graduation Day (Schooled in Magic Book 14) Page 15