Little Witches (Schooled In Magic Book 21)

by Christopher G. Nuttall

  “The manipulation wouldn’t have worked if they hadn’t already had some inclinations towards supremacism,” Emily pointed out. “They thought...”

  “They will have a chance to learn from the affair,” Duchene said, firmly. “They will not, of course, be trusted with any real power if they return. They’ll repeat the entire year. We will keep a close eye on them, with an understanding that they will be expelled if they misbehave again. Their parents will be collecting them later today.”

  Emily nodded. “And Damia?”

  “Damia has requested a leave of absence,” Duchene said. “I don’t know, yet, if she will return.”

  She paused. “I’ve already put out a request for a replacement, but it will probably take some time to find someone suitable.”

  “Lady Barb would be ideal,” Emily said. “You might have to billet her in the town, but...”

  “We’ll see,” Duchene said. She cleared her throat. “We were lining up possible replacements for you before all hell broke loose. Do you want to see out the year here?”

  Emily frowned. “My master will call me back soon, I am sure,” she said. “Probably not.”

  “Then you may as well leave at once,” Duchene said. “We can have your bags sent after you.”

  “I can pack,” Emily said. She could also send a note to Jan, inviting him to join her for lunch if he was still in Pendle. “I didn’t bring that much.”

  “There will be an inquest, of course,” Duchene said. “They’ll probably want to speak with you at some point. Until then...”

  Emily nodded, stood and curtsied. She was fairly sure Duchene wanted her out of the school as quickly as possible. The headmistress had one hell of a mess to clean up, something that wouldn’t be made any easier if Emily said the wrong thing to the wrong person. She’d probably prefer to smooth over the affair as much as possible, perhaps by talking up the mind control aspect of the story. Dionne and her friends would look like puppets, but at least they wouldn’t look evil. Emily’s lips twisted as she left the chamber. Whatever happened, the girls would not walk away unscathed. Everyone would know what they’d done.

  Their victims will have to be compensated, Emily thought. And perhaps the families can be induced to compensate Simon’s hosts, too.

  “Emily,” Brier said. “Karalee is waiting for you.”

  Emily took a breath and stepped into the small antechamber. Karalee stood, hastily. Her hair had turned white, as if she’d aged a century overnight. Emily looked her up and down. Her body seemed unharmed, but her magical aura was low. Too low. It might take weeks or months before her powers recharged.

  “Lady Emily,” Karalee said. “I... I wanted to ask you...”

  Her voice trailed off. Emily waved her to a seat, giving her time to think. She had a feeling she knew what the younger girl wanted to say, but... she wanted, she needed, to hear it from Karalee herself. It would tell her if the girl had learned her lesson… or not.

  “You... you promised me an apprenticeship,” Karalee said, finally. “Is that... can we... is that still on the table?”

  Emily sat and looked her in the eye. “You were party to the abuse of other people, both magical and mundane. You took part in a rite with the declared intention of summoning a long-dead witch, a rite with the actual intention of blowing you and your friends into dust, a rite that would have killed you if I hadn’t intervened. Precisely why should I consider you as an apprentice?”

  “I helped you out,” Karalee said. “Look, I’m really sorry...”

  “I bet you are,” Emily said. “I saved your life. I think we’re even.”

  Karalee’s face fell. “But... I was under a spell!”

  “It’s not that simple,” Emily said. “It wasn’t a simple compulsion spell. It played on your feelings, making some stronger and stronger until they overpowered your common sense. The trick wouldn’t have worked if you hadn’t already believed, on some level, that what you were doing was right.”

  “Subtle magic,” Karalee said.

  “Yes,” Emily agreed. “There are limits to how far it can go if someone is unwilling to let themselves be pushed.”

  She felt a flicker of sympathy. “I’ll make you an offer,” she said. “You’re going to be suspended for the rest of the year. When you come back, you’ll retake the year again. That gives you two to three years to learn from your mistakes. At that point, if you still want the apprenticeship, send me a note. I won’t make any promises, and it depends on where I find myself at the time, but I’ll do my best to give you a fair chance.”

  Karalee looked at her for a long moment, then lowered her eyes. “Yes, My Lady.”

  She stood, curtseyed and hurried out of the chamber. Emily watched her go, then frowned as Dionne stepped into the room. The girl looked as though she’d been through the wars. Her hair was white, her face covered in scars and she held her left arm as though it pained her. Emily was surprised the healers hadn’t fixed it... if they could. Dionne’s left hand was in a glove. Emily wondered, suddenly, just how badly she’d been hurt. The hex that had exploded in her palm could have blown her hand right off.

  “Dionne,” she said. “What do you want?”

  Dionne bobbled a tiny curtsey. “You saved my life,” she said. Her voice was no longer so self-assured. She sounded almost broken. “Why?”

  “Because it was the right thing to do,” Emily said.

  “You could have let us die,” Dionne said. “You could have stood back and watched while we died. And yet you put your life at risk to save ours. Why?”

  “Because it was the right thing to do,” Emily repeated. She shrugged. “What answer would you like? I could give you several.”

  “We were horrid to you,” Dionne said. “And... why did you save us?”

  Emily met her eyes. “I’ve faced necromancers,” she pointed out. “You and your friends are - were - just little brats. Not stupid, perhaps, but ignorant. You didn’t deserve to die.”

  “You’re probably the only person who thinks that,” Dionne said.

  “I dare say your victims hate you,” Emily said, bluntly. She’d known popular girls who were quietly hated by everyone else. It had never quite made sense to her. “Have you learnt anything from what happened to you? From what you nearly did to yourself?”

  Dionne shuddered. “I wanted to believe,” she said. “I thought... I truly thought Pendle would come to us and grant us power. I thought...”

  “It’s a common delusion,” Emily said, dryly. “And it was used to manipulate you.”

  “I really believed it.” Dionne stared at her. “I truly believed we were superior. I truly believed...”

  “Yes, you did,” Emily said. “Do you believe it now?”

  “I don’t know,” Dionne said. “I...”

  She swallowed, hard. “My parents are going to kill me.”

  “I don’t think they’re going to kill you,” Emily said, dryly. “They’re not going to be very pleased with you, to be sure, but they’re not going to kill you.”

  “I let them down,” Dionne said. “I... I ruined the family and...”

  Emily met her eyes. “Listen to me, just for a moment,” she said. “And then you can do whatever you like.”

  She took a breath, choosing her next words carefully. “It’s very easy to believe you have passed beyond the limits of redemption,” she said. She’d said the same thing to Simon, but he hadn’t listened. Or he hadn’t been able to listen. Whoever had hired him had gone to extreme lengths to make sure he couldn’t talk. “It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking there’s no way back. I don’t promise it will be easy, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy the experience very much, but you can redeem yourself. You don’t have to let yourself fall any further, just because you think you can’t climb up again.

  “You know you made a mistake. You know you let yourself be manipulated. You treated a bunch of people terribly. But you can admit to the mistake, do what you can to make up for it and t
hen work hard to regain a position of trust. Or you can just let yourself fall still further.”

  Dionne shot her a sharp look. “Do you really believe no one is beyond redemption?”

  Emily shrugged, expressively. “That’s not the question,” she said. “The question is, are you beyond redemption?”

  “My parents will think so,” Dionne said. “They had plans for me.”

  “They won’t kill you,” Emily repeated. “You have a chance to be better. Make use of it.”

  “I will,” Dionne promised.

  She turned and left. Emily frowned after her. Dionne’s family really wouldn’t be pleased, whatever happened. The little brat would face reality check after reality check as it sank in that she was no longer trusted. Even if her family - and friends - believed she’d been manipulated, and decided she wasn’t to blame for any of it, they’d still consider her a weak-minded fool. Emily knew that wasn’t fair, but... she shrugged as she stood and headed for the door. Brier had already taken the girls back to their dorm. Emily hoped they’d do well for themselves, given time. They might have learnt the right lesson from their experiences.

  Lillian met her outside her bedroom. “Is it true you’re leaving?”

  “Yes,” Emily said. “Aren’t you supposed to be in your dorm?”

  “It got creepy, with just me,” Lillian said. She grinned, suddenly. “Can I ask you a favor?”

  “Perhaps.” Emily opened the door and stepped into the room, then started to pack. “What do you want?”

  “Karalee said you offered her an apprenticeship,” Lillian said. “I... can I ask for one, too?”

  “That’s not quite what happened,” Emily said. She glanced at the younger girl. “Do you know what you’re asking?”

  “Yes,” Lillian said. “I think... it isn’t as if anyone is going to want me.”

  Emily smiled. “Right now, you have a better record than the rest of your entire year,” she pointed out. “Anyone who wants an apprentice in two years is going to be short on possible candidates.”

  “I want you,” Lillian said. “I...”

  “I see,” Emily said. She was sure Lillian would make a better apprentice than Karalee, but who knew? “I don’t know where I’ll be in two years, so I’ll make you the same offer I made her. Do well in your studies, then contact me when you graduate and I’ll give you a fair chance.”

  Lillian bobbed her head. “Thank you, Lady Emily.”

  Emily nodded. “Good luck,” she said. “And I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

  Chapter Forty

  “WE’LL SEE YOU AGAIN, I’M SURE,” Duchene said, as she opened the gates. “And I hope you complete your apprenticeship without too much trouble.”

  And you can’t wait to get rid of me, Emily thought. The headmistress really wanted her to leave before the parents arrived. She’d barely left Emily any time to pack - concealing the pistol in her dress, just in case - and then say goodbye to Brier and Nadine. They’d both promised to write, once the political storm finally died out. What do you think I’ll tell them?

  She put the thought out of her mind. “It was an interesting experience,” she said, with studied understatement. “Teaching, I mean.”

  “Try again when you’re older,” Duchene said. “You may not have studied here, Lady Emily, but you’re still very much a schoolgirl at heart.”

  Emily made a face. There was some truth to the charge, she supposed, but...

  “We’ll keep some of your ideas,” Duchene added. “Having the older students tutor the younger ones... that worked. And we’ll look at the charter and see how it can be improved.”

  “You can’t afford to drive people out of the town,” Emily said, quietly. “You need them.”

  Duchene grimaced. “That may be a job for my successor,” she said. “The school board is meeting tomorrow. There’s a very good chance I will be asked to retire.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Emily said. It wasn’t entirely true. Duchene had been caught between two fires, true, but she’d put politics ahead of common sense and simple human decency. It was hard not to blame her, a little, for the problems that had almost destroyed the school. “I wish you the very best of luck.”

  “You’re a terrible liar,” Duchene said. She smiled, rather sardonically. “Thank you. For everything.”

  “You’re welcome,” Emily said. “Good luck with the parents.”

  She smiled as she hefted her bag, dropped a final curtsey and headed through the gates and down onto the road. Duchene had a point, she supposed, yet... right now, she intended to have lunch with Jan and then return to the tower. Void hadn’t sent her any instructions to hurry up, but she suspected she needed to get a move on. His patience wouldn’t last forever.

  She felt a surge of mixed feelings as the gates closed behind her, the wards shimmering into place and making it clear she was no longer on the staff. She felt oddly rejected and yet relieved. She’d liked some parts of the job and yet detested others. Shaking her head, silently promising herself she’d complete her apprenticeship before anything else could happen, she turned and started to make her way down the winding road. The air smelt fresh and clear, after the thunderstorm. Emily had a nasty feeling the weather would remain unpredictable for weeks.

  And that won’t be good for the farmers, Emily thought, numbly. They could lose all their hard work overnight.

  She frowned as the Redoubt came into view. The ruined castle really did look as if it had been blown apart from the inside, not bombarded into rubble. She studied it for a long moment, wondering if there was some truth in the story after all. Pendle could have been woken - or freed - a long time ago, well before Dionne and her gang of little witches had been born. Emily had to smile at the thought, before she dismissed it. A person who’d shaped history so dramatically would hardly be staying out of sight, perhaps pretending to be a janitor. Who knew how many of the stories were actually true? Emily was all too aware that a great deal of nonsense was said about her and she wasn’t even dead yet.

  Putting the thought aside, she kept walking. The road had largely dried, although puddles of water lay by the roadside. Emily glanced at the woods as the road twisted and turned, walking past the Guesthouse and down into Pendle. The streets were more crowded than she’d expected, even though she’d uncovered and destroyed the source of the trouble. A handful of townspeople glanced at her, nervously, as she reached the bottom of the road and walked into town. It would be a long time before trust was regained, if indeed it ever was. Too much had happened in the last few months. Too many people had been hurt, or killed, or simply disappeared.

  Jens has vanished too, Emily thought, as she walked up the street. The damage from the riot was already being fixed, although it was painfully clear that two shops had closed permanently. I’ll probably see her again one day.

  The thought made her scowl. Jens had been disturbingly articulate, for a supremacist and a bigot. She’d been more convincing than a lunatic raving about aristocratic rights or magical privilege and that bothered Emily more than she cared to admit. If she hadn’t been born powerless, if she hadn’t lost her powers for a few terrifying months, she might have been tempted herself. She liked to think she wouldn’t have fallen for it, but... she shuddered as she reached the inn and pushed open the door. If Hitler hadn’t been very convincing, when he’d been running for office, he wouldn’t have been able to make so many people willing to support him.

  Of course, Hitler was preaching to people who felt themselves powerless, Emily thought, grimly. Magicians are already at the top of the heap.

  “Emily,” Jan called. He was seated in an alcove, reading a book. “Over here!”

  Emily smiled as she made her way over to him. “What are you reading?”

  “The latest tome on the end of the war,” Jan said. “Does the name Prince Valiant mean anything to you?”

  “No,” Emily said. She vaguely recalled a comic strip character with that name, but she’d never actua
lly read it. “Why? What did he do?”

  “Won the war single-handedly,” Jan said. He passed her the book. “According to this, of course.”

  Emily opened the book and glanced at the text. “I was there,” she said. “Prince Valiant did not bisect a necromancer with a magic sword. And he didn’t rescue a bunch of sexy young woman from a necromantic plantation, either.”

  She shook her head as she glanced at the last page, then handed it back. “You’ll rot your brain,” she said, not unkindly. “Anyone who writes a history report based on this book deserves everything they get.”

  Jan laughed. “Give him time,” he said. “In a hundred years, everyone will be talking about the noble Prince Valiant and his band of all-girl warriors.”

  “I hope not,” Emily said.

  “Me too.” Jan waved to the waiter and asked for the menu. “What happened up there?”

  “Someone set out to ruin the school,” Emily said. She made a face. She was sure she was missing something. “And they came very close to succeeding.”

  She frowned. She’d have to discuss it with Void. And Lady Barb. The plot might have been accelerated when she’d arrived. The plotters had known she hadn’t been in the school when the plot had begun. They might have assumed she would have uncovered it before they had a chance to get their hooks in her. And yet... she wondered, suddenly, if Simon had been driven by hatred for her. He had good reason to hate and fear her, even if he’d deserved to be booted out of his former job. Or he might have assumed she’d track him down sooner or later anyway.

  The plotters couldn’t have known the conference was going to be called, let alone that it would take place at Laughter, she thought, again. Was that a lucky shot, or just an unexpected bonus?

  “I spoke to a few people while I was here,” Jan said. “The general feeling is that they’ll be moving out if things don’t calm down. A couple of apothecaries were talking about moving to Dragon’s Den or Heart’s Eye. The latter has more open spaces, they insisted, but less security. But then...”

  He shrugged. Emily nodded as she glanced at the menu and placed her order. Dragon’s Den was far too close to another magic school. Grandmaster Hasdrubal had been strict about keeping the students under control, when they visited Dragon’s Den, but she had no idea if Gordian was just as firm about it. He’d always struck her as something of a weak reed, allowing himself to be blown over whenever the political winds blew. It wouldn’t take long for a well-connected parent to convince the Grandmaster to let his little gem get away with murder, unleashing an endless series of horrors as every other student asked why they couldn’t do it, too. Emily scowled. That wasn’t going to end well.