She undid the wards protecting the door and pushed it open. Dust hung in the air, a grim reminder that she hadn’t lived in the house for nearly two years. She’d visited, but... she shook her head as she closed the door and made her way down to the kitchen. The preservation spells had lasted, thankfully. She hadn’t been sure they would. There were limits to how long the spells could linger without inspection. She breathed a sigh of relief and removed a glass bottle of milk from the locker. It tasted as if it had been bottled only a few short hours ago.
Home, Emily thought. It didn’t feel like home, even when she boiled water for Kava. It felt like a guesthouse, a place she would stay for a few short days before going back home. But where was home? Whitehall had been her home, until she’d left. Now... she shook her head crossly. You don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself.
The air smelt musty as she made her way up the stairs. The master bedroom remained unchanged, including the dirty blankets she’d left years ago. She kicked herself for not changing them, understanding — for the first time — why Void had hired a handful of maids and a cook. But she didn’t want to hire one herself. It wouldn’t have felt right. She stripped the bed, dumped the blankets in a bag for later washing and headed into the next room. The secure chamber remained undisturbed. No one had tried to take down the wards. She opened it carefully, then picked up a handful of books including Void’s spellbook, a couple of advanced textbooks she’d been meaning to read and a small collection of charmed notebooks. She wanted to keep her work to herself until she had a finished result.
And something I can show to the world without setting off an arms race, she mused, as she closed the chamber behind her. If they learned how easy it was to set off an atomic-sized blast...
She kicked herself, mentally, for even coming up with the idea. There were ways the blast could be scaled up, if the caster didn’t care about the risks. It wouldn’t take more than a handful of crazy sorcerers to do immense damage. Memories rose up, mocking her. Her counterpart had shattered organized resistance before the local governments had realized what was happening. She’d practically come out of nowhere and destroyed the established order, smashing it beyond repair. Emily knew it could have been a great deal worse. The living would have, quite literally, envied the dead.
The wards quivered. She carried the books downstairs, placed them on a rickety-looking bookshelf and opened the door. Frieda stood there, looking more adult than ever. Her long dark hair hung down her back, and her robes were just a little too tight... Emily was pretty sure she knew who Frieda was going to see before she went back to Whitehall. Hoban was a powerful sorcerer. He could teleport to Dragon’s Den as easily as Emily.
“Emily.” Frieda ran forward and swept her up in a hug. “You look tired.”
“I feel tired too,” Emily said. She stepped aside, issuing an invitation that was not — quite — a formal invitation. It kept supernatural vermin out of the house. “How’ve you been?”
“Working hard and hardly working,” Frieda said. She looked Emily up and down. “He has been letting you sleep, hasn’t he?”
Emily led her into the kitchen and poured two mugs of Kava. “I’ve been sleeping for nearly nine hours each day,” she said. “And it still doesn’t feel like enough.”
“Go to bed earlier,” Frieda said. She sat at the table, resting her hands on the polished wood. “What’s he like as a teacher?”
“Good,” Emily said. “It helps that he’s only teaching me. There’s no one around to distract him.”
Frieda winked. “No chance to pull pranks without being noticed?”
“I don’t have time to pull pranks,” Emily said. She doubted Void would be very pleased if she did. “I hope you’re not wasting time pulling pranks yourself.”
“No.” Frieda shook her head. “I don’t have time. I’m working too hard.”
“Probably for the best,” Emily said. “Have you caught up?”
“I think so,” Frieda said. “I got lessons at Heart’s Eye. I might not get the highest of marks next summer, but I should pass. Or so they say.”
“A lot can happen between then and now,” Emily said. She leaned against the wall, feeling the wards pulsing against her magic. They were hers and... they weren’t. Both the Grandmaster and Void had added their magic to the structure. She’d have to tear them down at some point and rebuild them. “Try to have a peaceful year, please.”
“Peace is boring,” Frieda said. “Sergeant Miles was talking about taking me on as an apprentice next summer. He thought it would do me good.”
Emily shrugged. “It might,” she said. “What does he do over the summer?”
“I have no idea.” Frieda contemplated her drink. “But it will probably be more exciting than working in a shop.”
“True,” Emily agreed, with the private thought it might be safer too. “What do you want to do with your life?”
“Combat sorcerer,” Frieda said. She clenched her fist. Magic glittered over her pale skin. “I will never be weak again. Cat said I’d be good...”
She looked up, suddenly. “Have you heard from him?”
“Not a peep,” Emily said. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She’d always known the relationship wouldn’t last, but she’d thought it wouldn’t end quite so drastically. “I have no idea if he’d be interested in taking you as a student. Jade probably wouldn’t have the time.”
“Nothing at all?” Frieda snorted. “You’d think he’d at least write to you.”
Emily shrugged. Cat had felt helpless when she’d lost her magic. Like most people, he hadn’t handled it well. The chance to go off and do something must have seemed like a dream come true. She wondered if Cat had succeeded in his self-assigned mission. He was good at his job, but... she would have expected to hear something. Perhaps Jacqui was more capable than Emily had thought. She had graduated from Whitehall. She might lack raw power, and a certain degree of nerve, but she wasn’t incompetent. She might have caught Cat by surprise and... Emily didn’t want to think about it. She still hurt, sometimes, when she thought about how the relationship had ended, but she didn’t want Cat dead. Or wishing he was.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, curtly. Cat had never liked Frieda. “How’s Hoban?”
Frieda colored. “I’m meeting him later,” she said. “I... I hope you don’t mind.”
“No,” Emily said. “I hope you’re having a good time.”
“We are,” Frieda said. “He was trying to talk me into joining him on the next dig, over half-term. But it’s back home.”
In the Cairngorms, Emily thought. Frieda won't want to go back there.
“They found something, he told me. He wasn’t sure what. The reports were a little vague.” Frieda looked as if she was remembering something unpleasant. “It’s too close to my father’s old hometown for comfort.”
Emily frowned. “Your father’s hometown?”
“He left his village, years before I was born,” Frieda said. “A little later, the village was burned to the ground. No one goes near it now.”
“Burned to the ground?” Emily frowned. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Frieda shook her head. “The elders refused to talk about it. It could have been anything. The kids used to whisper that the villagers had offended the awful folk, but... I don’t know. It was several years before I was born.”
Emily considered it for a long moment. It could have been anything, from a newborn magician losing control to the local baron burning down the village after it refused to pay its taxes. Or purely for kicks. The mountain aristocracy were among the worst of the lot, in her experience. They saw their subjects as little more than cattle. Perhaps less than cattle. She could easily imagine a handful of young lords deciding to burn down a village for fun.
“It could have been anything,” Emily said. “Are you going there?”
“I...” Frieda gazed into her mug. “Part of me wants to go back there and teach my family a lesson
. Part of me wants to rub their noses in my power, and... show them what they threw away the day they sold me to a traveling magician. And... part of me doesn’t want to go back, as if I’d lose everything the moment I set foot in the village. They thought I was worthless. I was worthless. Even the dung-gatherer didn’t want me!”
“Then he was a fool,” Emily said.
Frieda raised her eyes. “Would you go back? If you could?”
“No.” Emily hadn’t really thought about it. “Being here is so much better.”
“Yeah,” Frieda agreed. “But you can’t go home. Can you?”
Emily shrugged. Shadye hadn’t used his powers to yank her into the Nameless World. He’d summoned entities and used them. And they’d tricked him... Emily had no idea how to summon them herself, let alone ensure they didn’t trick her too.
“Probably not,” she said, finally.
“But I can.” Frieda looked down again. “I want to go back. I want to teach them a lesson. And, at the same time, I don’t want to.”
Emily understood, better than she cared to admit. “You have every right to want revenge,” she said. She knew enough about Frieda’s childhood to be certain that, if she ever met Frieda’s parents, she’d kill them. “But... if you take revenge, it will do something to you. You might not like the person you become.”
“Ha.” Frieda finished her drink and put the mug to one side. “At least they’d face some kind of punishment...”
“I know.” Emily put the mugs in the sink. “And what will you do afterwards?”
She sighed as she muttered a spell to clean the mugs, then put them back in the cupboard. It wouldn’t be easy to change the Cairngorms. The locals were too poor and too deprived to adhere to any civilized standard of morality. Frieda had been ill-treated because she was a weak and sickly girl, a child unable to add value to the family. She’d been lucky, too. Older folks — the ones too old to work — were often exposed to the winter cold. They froze to death so their children and grandchildren could live. She’d been assured, more than once, that it was voluntary, that the elders saw themselves as making the final sacrifice for their people. She rather doubted it was true.
We can find a way to change things, she told herself. But what?
“We’ll get something to eat,” she said, as she tugged on her robe. “Coming?”
Frieda met her eyes. “Are you happy?”
Emily gave the question serious consideration. She was. She certainly had a great deal to be happy about. She was learning magic, studying the different disciplines and how they went together, with a tutor who could give her his full attention. They’d worked through hundreds of spells, learning how to change them and blend them together into greater spells. Void was a good teacher. And she liked to think she was a good student.
“I think so, yes,” she said. “I’m having fun.”
Frieda nodded as they walked back to the door. “Lady Barb was concerned about you,” she said. “I walked in on her and the sergeant talking about you.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t walk in on them doing something else,” Emily said. She frowned as she stashed the books in her knapsack. “Did she say why?”
“No.” Frieda stepped through the door. Snowflakes hung in the air, portending a snowstorm. “But she did sound very concerned.”
“I’ll write to her,” Emily promised. She’d eat with Frieda, then teleport back to the tower and write a letter. “Did you hear from anyone else?”
Frieda shrugged. “Your namesake is very loud,” she said. “And she keeps her parents up all night. And Alassa flatly refuses to give her to a wet nurse. Little Emily is hers.”
“Good,” Emily said. Wet nurses had always struck her as creepy. She had no idea what her mother had done, when Emily had been a baby, but she was fairly sure it hadn’t included a wet nurse. Formula, more likely. “How’s Jade coping?”
“I’m not sure,” Frieda said. “Imaiqah said they were working on ways to put the Great Charter into practice. I think Jade had to teach a couple of aristos a lesson.”
“They probably needed it,” Emily said. She closed the door behind her, then resealed the wards before walking down to the gate. “I might try and visit them on my next day off.”
“They’d probably love that,” Frieda said. “And you should probably go see your other friends too.”
“Caleb seems to have Heart’s Eye well in hand,” Emily said. “And...”
She broke off as she saw a familiar person walking up the road. Frieda jumped, hastily smoothed back her hair and ran towards Hoban. Emily winced, feeling a twinge of irritation mingled with guilt as Frieda and Hoban kissed. Frieda had every right to enjoy her first relationship, even if it meant... she shook her head. She didn’t have to be a third wheel.
“Lady Emily,” Hoban said, as she caught up with them. He bowed, politely. “It’s good to see you again.”
“And you,” Emily said. It wasn’t entirely true. Hoban was one of the good guys, but there was something about him that annoyed her. She couldn’t put it into words. Perhaps it was his blunt good looks. He had muscles on his muscles. “I hear you’re going digging in the Cairngorms.”
“Perhaps,” Hoban clarified. “They’re still trying to decide if it’s more than just another crazy rumor. The grave-robbers got stung a few years ago and no one’s let them forget it.”
Emily nodded. “I’ll leave you two to get on with it,” she said. “Frieda, stay in touch?”
Frieda looked torn. Emily understood. Frieda wouldn’t want to slight either of them, yet... she might not have a choice. “You can join us for dinner, can’t you...?”
“I have to get back,” Emily said, a deadpan look on her face. She was pretty sure Hoban didn’t have dinner in mind. The lovers couldn’t have seen each other for at least a week. “You two have fun.”
“And you.” Frieda gave Emily a hug. Hoban bowed again, face carefully blank. “I’ll see you soon?”
“Yes,” Emily promised. She slung her knapsack over her shoulder. She’d teleport back, then spend the evening reading and writing. Void had promised her something new for her next set of lessons. She was quite looking forward to it. “You will.”
Chapter Eleven
Emily felt cold.
SHE SHIFTED UNCOMFORTABLY, SLOWLY DRIFTING BACK to awareness. Her bed felt hard and cold. An even colder mist drifted across her face. She thought she heard someone, words echoing through her musty head. Her eyes snapped open. She stared up at a gloomy overcast sky, alarm flashing through her and banishing the rest of the cobwebs. She was no longer in her bed. She was... somewhere else.
Emily sat up, glancing from side to side. She was in the midst of heavy fog. Visibility was minimal. She couldn’t see anything within the gloom. She glanced down at herself, confused. She wore her nightgown and little else. Her head spun, a memory flickering to the fore. Void had given her a potion just before she’d gone to sleep. She’d drunk it and...
He said he was going to test me, she thought, as she stood. The ground felt solid under her feet. Where did he put me?
She reached out with her magic, but sensed nothing beyond a faint background hum. The mist appeared to be natural, yet... there was something sinister about it. She shivered, muttering a pair of heating charms under her breath. The air grew a little warmer, before cooling again. She muttered a stronger charm, holding it in place as she ran her hands down her nightgown. There was something in her pocket, a piece of parchment... she pulled it out and unfolded it. Someone — Void, she assumed — had written a simple set of instructions. FIND YOUR WAY HOME. Emily tested the parchment for charms, then put it back in her pocket. It might come in handy for something later.
Find your way home, she told herself, crossly. Where am I?
She peered around but saw nothing beyond the omnipresent fog. She could be anywhere. A sorcerer like Void could have taken her halfway around the world while she slept. The potion would have ensured she didn’t wake, at leas
t until he was ready. She scowled, reminding herself to be more careful. She’d never been a heavy sleeper. She disliked the thought of people moving her while she slept. She made a mental note to tell him so, then forced herself to think. She was lost, without any helpful landmarks to assist her. And that meant that teleporting would be very dangerous.
I can’t be too far from the tower, she thought. He wouldn’t have given me an impossible task.
She considered, then forced herself to run through a set of spells Sergeant Miles had taught her during survivalist training. The compass spell found north for her. It was useless, without knowing the lay of the land, but at least it was something. The pointing spell found nothing, even when Emily tried to search for Silent as well as Void. She wasn’t too surprised. The spell had always been easy to spoof. Sergeant Miles had cautioned her not to rely on it. Given a little effort, an unwary searcher could be sent off on a wild goose chase that led right over a cliff.
I suppose I should be grateful he didn’t do that, this time, Emily told herself as she started to walk. It wouldn’t be easy to save myself if I ran into a trap.
The fog seemed to grow denser as she headed north. There was magic in the mist, absorbing her searching and detection spells. Water drifted in the air, soaking her gown and trickling down her skin. She repeated the warming charms, time and time again, even though they refused to last more than a few minutes. Her stomach rumbled, warningly. It had been hours since she’d eaten. If she’d known she was going to be dumped into the middle of nowhere, she would have made sure to eat more. She glanced at her right wrist in frustration. Void had taken her watch, as well as everything except the snake-bracelet. She had no idea how long it had been since she’d drunk the potion. It could have been days.
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