‘But–’ Krystal began. She cut off sharply as Trudy pinched her other nipple.
‘No buts! I’ve got more of this bandage cloth and I will tie you to the bed if I have to.’
Krystal gave a soft whimper. ‘Okay,’ she said softly, ‘I give in. B-but maybe you could tie me down anyway…’
13th Day of Midwinter.
‘At the risk of sending everyone into a fit of depression,’ Felicia said as brightly as she could muster, ‘how did your tests go?’ They were talking over the evening meal, and just the way Felicia asked the question suggested that she was not too confident.
‘Oh,’ Krystal said, ‘I think I probably got through it okay. I, uh, I’m sure I messed up one of the questions on thaumolytic flow, but, well, I probably did okay.’
‘I thought I did okay,’ Jesse said.
‘That about covers it here, yeah,’ Charlotte agreed. ‘I think I answered it all okay, but that probably means I didn’t.’
‘Probably,’ Xanthe agreed.
‘I’m sure I fluffed at least half of it,’ Felicia said morosely.
‘You’ve more theory papers tomorrow to make it up on,’ Krystal said. ‘Assuming you need to make anything up.’
‘And they’ll take into account what happened with your mother,’ Trudy added. ‘We’ll all get a bit of an easy ride after what’s happened this term.’
‘Do you think you’ll need one?’ Krystal asked her, narrowing her eyes.
‘Uh, no. I think I did okay. I’m sure I messed up one answer. Thinking back on it, I’m sure I added the wrong value for the energy requirement of a body healing spell, but I’m also pretty sure I got that question on correspondences spot on.’
‘I should think so too, considering that correspondences were the first thing I helped you with.’
Trudy shrugged. ‘I misread the table they gave us for the energy figure. A mistake, I think. I knew how to work it all out, so maybe I get points for the method.’
‘You should,’ Felicia said. ‘In fact, that should be most of the marks. You’ll do fine, darling. I just wish I could say the same for me.’
15th Day of Midwinter.
Felicia was still not looking happy with the last of the exams out of the way. She picked at her food and did not smile even when Jesse cosied up to her on the way back to their rooms.
‘What do we do now anyway?’ Charlotte asked.
‘Wait for the results on Yellowday,’ Krystal said.
Felicia groaned. ‘Yes, I have to wait until midday on Yellowday to discover my fate.’
‘You’re going to be fine,’ Jesse said.
‘It’s sweet of you to say so, darling, but I’m sure I did terribly badly. It makes little difference if Papa intends to leave the city, which I fear he does, but I’d have liked to take a good reference away from here.’
‘No,’ Jesse said firmly.
‘No?’
‘No. I don’t want you to have to leave, for whatever reason.’
Felicia smiled warmly at her friend. ‘I’m afraid–’
‘No. I will not have it and it will not happen. And you will believe that, Felicia Goldring. Is that understood?’
‘Oh, well, if you put it like that th–’
‘Is that understood?’ Jesse repeated, more firmly this time.
‘I will be back here next term. It’s not allowed to happen any other way,’ Felicia said.
‘Good.’
‘And that’s you told,’ Charlotte said, smirking. They were at her door by then and, when Jesse turned her green eyes on the tall blue dragon, Charlotte let out a squeak and ducked inside.
‘I should think so too,’ Jesse said, and she nodded before proceeding down the corridor.
17th Day of Midwinter.
The results were posted on a board which had been erected in the main hall especially for the occasion. It allowed the space for almost two hundred students to gather in one place, read what they needed to read, and then either celebrate or commiserate with their friends.
The misfits went down together. Jesse supported Felicia right up until the point where she walked into the hall and saw the crowd. At that point, Jesse began to curl up and the two of them had to help each other get to the board. Trudy’s job was a little harder since Krystal was as nervous as she could get and excited to find out how she had done. Nerves won in the end.
‘I can’t look,’ Krystal said, turning her back to the board. ‘You look. If it’s bad… Well, then I’ll go and start packing.’
‘Right,’ Trudy said, shaking her head before she pushed through the crowd gathered in front of the long lists of names.
The display was divided by subject. Trudy located the magical theory list and scanned down it to her own name, which was near the top since it was in alphabetical order. There was no actual score, but the word ‘Pass’ was next to her name. Smiling, she skipped down to the bottom of the list to locate Ward, Krystal…
‘Well?’ Krystal asked when Trudy emerged from the throng wearing a sombre expression. ‘Is it bad? How bad is it? I failed, didn’t I?’
‘It’s bad,’ Trudy said, nodding slowly.
‘Oh… I should just go pack n–’
‘You came top of the class in both magical theory and meta-magic.’
Krystal’s jaw dropped open. ‘What?!’
‘I mean, it’s terrible. How can you possibly improve on that? You’ll be haunted by this for the rest of your time at school! People will look up to you and ask your advice. You might even be, gasp, popular!’
‘Trudy,’ Krystal wailed. Then she turned and pushed through the other girls to check that what Trudy was saying was actually true. While she was at it, she checked other names too. Everyone had passed, even Felicia. Charity had passed in second place to Krystal and had come top in the mind corpus exam.
‘Everyone’s through,’ Charlotte said, grinning like a maniac, when Krystal pushed her way back out of the scrum to find the others gathered together. ‘The adventures of the marvellous misfits continue next term!’
‘If I’m not in another city,’ Felicia grumbled.
‘W-what did I s-say about that?’ Jesse said.
The effect was a little weaker given the stammer, but Felicia pulled herself up a little straighter anyway. ‘I didn’t fail, so I’ll be back next year.’
‘Good. You g-got first in the c-class, Krys!’
‘Yeah,’ Krystal said, nodding. ‘Charity was second.’ Lifting her head, Krystal looked around the hall. ‘I’m surprised she’s not here. Anyone seen her.’
‘None of them are,’ Felicia replied. ‘I’m surprised. Charity should be here crowing over the results and probably claiming Krys cheated.’
‘Thinking about it, none of them were at dinner last night. I’m sure they’ll be here for the ball tonight.’ As Krystal said it, images flickered into her head: destroyed decorations and fallen bodies. One body in particular, rising unsteadily to its feet with glowing eyes. ‘Uh, who’s going?’
‘Oh, Jesse wouldn’t be comfortable there,’ Felicia said, ‘and I’m not really that excited about it.’
‘I’m not going,’ Xanthe said. ‘Not my kind of thing at all.’
‘Nor mine,’ Charlotte agreed.
‘Oh,’ Krystal said. ‘Well, if Trudy isn’t too keen, maybe we could all hang in our room tonight. A, uh, last misfits meeting before we break up.’
‘Let’s see…’ Trudy mused. ‘A night in uncomfortable shoes being looked down on by a lot of dragons in dresses I can’t afford, or a comfy night with my friends. It’s a tough one.’
‘I guess it’s party time in your room then,’ Charlotte said.
~~~
‘Now this is a party,’ Charlotte said. She was lounging on the floor, resting on a couple of pillows from Jesse’s room, and she had a glass of wine and a bag of pan-fried potato slices to eat. Xanthe had supplied the snacks this time and Felicia had managed to sneak the wine in.
‘I’m not sure it’s e
xactly a party, darling,’ Felicia replied, ‘but it is more fun than I’d expect to be having in the hall.’
‘It’s certainly more fun than I’d be having in the hall,’ Jesse agreed.
‘And me,’ Xanthe added. She gave a small shudder. ‘Eight hundred drunk magic students pretending to like each other. The founding thing was bad enough that I don’t feel like repeating it.’
‘We can’t avoid them forever, you know?’ Krystal said. ‘At the very least, we’ll have to attend the graduation ball.’
‘That’s three and a half years away, darling.’ Felicia reached out to pat Jesse’s arm. ‘By then, I might even have persuaded Jesse out of her shell.’
‘Maybe,’ Jesse said, not really sounding that convinced. ‘Anyway, I got a reply from home and they’d be happy to meet one of my friends from school. You can stay as long as you like. Uh, to be honest, I think they were just glad that I had a friend here.’
‘You have several. And I shall be sure to make that known.’ Felicia’s lips quirked. ‘You are friends with the brightest young talent in the school.’
‘She means you,’ Trudy said, poking Krystal in the ribs with a finger.
‘I got that,’ Krystal replied. ‘I’m not sure it’s accurate, but I got that. I got lucky. They asked questions I knew the answers to.’
‘Then why did we have to go through all that stuff about not being sure and you thought you’d done just about well enough to pass?’
‘Well, um, I didn’t know I knew the answers until I got the results.’
Trudy rolled her eyes. ‘I bet Scintilla Rainshadow is looking for you down in the hall. She probably wants to congratulate you.’
‘Well, she’ll just have to congratulate Charity instead.’
~~~
Scintilla Rainshadow moved through the crowd of girls thronging the hall with a frown hidden behind her smile. She had been expecting to get the top two or three students in each of the first-year classes in magical theory to come up on stage and be congratulated for their efforts, but she could find only the top scorers from the beginners’ class. Neither Krystal Ward nor Charity Darkmoon were there. For Krystal Ward, Rainshadow could believe she was missing, but Charity Darkmoon?
Spotting Theodore Marin walking casually among the girls, Rainshadow moved closer, her pulse quickening a little as she did so. ‘Theodore, have you seen Krystal Ward or Charity Darkmoon?’ She spoke softly and with more than a hint of familiarity, but in the noise of the room, no one else was going to notice.
Marin shook his head. ‘I have not. That Krystal Ward has not come to this… event is not a surprise, however.’
‘No. Agreed. But I expected to see Charity Darkmoon here. Probably crowing over her placement in the theory papers.’
Marin formed an indulgent smile. ‘Perhaps she has stayed away since she did not place highest, but I believe that she merely means to make an entrance.’ He paused and leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. ‘Would anyone notice if we were to adjourn to more comfortable surroundings for a while?’
Rainshadow looked quickly around, her cheeks colouring. ‘Give me thirty minutes more to be seen. Join me in my apartments.’
‘Of course,’ Marin said, his smile turning to something of a leer.
~~~
‘I’m not saying she cheated,’ Felicia said, ‘but Charity’s sudden comprehension of magical theory was extremely unexpected.’
‘Theory and practice,’ Krystal said.
‘Indeed, but the one follows the other, you’ll agree?’
‘More or less. You’re right, she did seem to gain an unusual insight into the subject overnight. But I’ve woken up after a good night’s sleep and found I understood something which vexed me the evening before.’
‘To the extent that you could suddenly work magic you found difficult the evening before?’
Krystal frowned. ‘Well, no.’
‘And there we have the conundrum.’
‘That’s a long word,’ Charlotte said.
‘It means–’
‘I know what it means. It means you haven’t had enough wine.’
Felicia moved her glass before Charlotte could add to it. ‘I don’t understand how one can simply know more than one did the day before, without apparent effort. And I’d love to know what she was up to that kept her awake most of several weekends. For that matter, where has she been this last couple of days? Tell me that.’
‘Krystal’s the one with the astrology book,’ Trudy said. ‘Maybe that could tell us what she was doing.’
‘Astrology works for divining the future,’ Krystal replied. ‘It’s worthless for past events. You’d need something like crystal gazing or pyromancy. Geomancy could tell you things about the past of a place. Uh, and there are ways to find out past events through necromancy, but that’s usually the distant past because it asks questions of a spirit passed over. Unless Charity’s been murdering people, we’d be unlikely to get much that way, even if it were legal.’
‘I don’t think she’d quite go that far,’ Felicia said. ‘Charity is many things, but a murderer is not among them.’
~~~
Charity Darkmoon strode into the Grand Hall with her five followers close behind her. Their entrance was noticed, and those who noticed moved aside to allow them entry. There was something not quite right about all six of them.
They all wore black and were in scales, and moved with unusual purpose for six women arriving late to a party; very late since it was eleven in the evening and the ball was due to end at midnight. But Charity drew the most attention. She was dressed in a long black skirt of silk, split down the left side to the hip, and over that was a leather corset with the bodice cut deeply down to the waist. It was a seductive sort of outfit, but not entirely appropriate for the gathering. Eyes surrounded by black make-up and lips painted scarlet did nothing to stop her from looking like some evil dragon queen bent upon conquest.
Then the six were lost in the crowd, fanning out through the hall, and no one thought much more about it.
~~~
Krystal lifted her head as the sensation of magic being worked nearby hit her. No, not nearby, but not far. A spell of some power for her to have felt it this far away.
‘Something wrong, Krys?’ Trudy asked.
‘You don’t feel that? Magic. Someone’s working a spell.’
Trudy grinned at her. ‘What do you mean, “feel it?” You can feel magic?’
Krystal blinked at her. ‘You can’t?’ She looked around at the others, but all she got in return were blank looks. ‘I figured since I could that everyone… Okay, never mind. I can feel magic sometimes. Most of the time. And someone’s working magic, powerful magic, uh, it’s…’ She pointed in the general direction of Trudy’s bed. ‘That way, and about… And somewhere around where the Grand Hall is. Definitely the admin building.’ Krystal felt her stomach turn over. Her skin felt cold, clammy.
‘Why would someone be working magic in there?’ Charlotte asked.
‘Something for the ball?’ Felicia suggested. ‘Lights and sound? An illusion?’
‘It didn’t feel like an illusion,’ Krystal replied.
‘It’s stopped?’
‘I… I’m not sure. It’s like… like when you get hit with a strong smell. After a while your nose decides it’s had enough of that and you can’t really tell it’s there. But I think it’s still working. I think it’s still being shaped.’
‘I say we go look,’ Charlotte said.
‘No!’ Krystal said quickly. Too quickly.
‘Why?’ Trudy asked, drawing the word out into something a little accusatory.
‘B-because I like it here. I don’t want to–’
‘No, you know something. There’s a reason you don’t want us to go over there. You were pretty quick to suggest we come back here instead of going to the ball too. You knew the dean would be looking for you.’
‘That’s a good reason not to go, if you ask me.’
‘But that’s not all of it. Come on, Krys, what have you not said?’
Krystal grimaced and she looked down at her lap. ‘The… The divination I did on you.’
‘The one you said just showed you blurs?’
‘I saw you, at the ball. You… You were…’
Trudy reached out and grabbed Krystal’s chin, lifting it. ‘What did you see?’
‘You died and rose as a zombie,’ Krystal said in a rush.
‘Oh.’
‘You think someone might be working necromancy over there?’ Felicia asked.
‘Do you think it could be the bastard who killed Glinda?’ Charlotte added, already standing.
‘I don’t know!’ Krystal yelled. ‘I do know that if we go over there, Trudy could die, and worse. And I only did the spell for her so the rest of us could end up the same way!’
‘Krys,’ Charlotte said, her voice hard, ‘if it’s the man who killed Glinda, I want him.’
‘Worse than that,’ Felicia said. ‘That warning letter sent to the palace, it was a lie. If it’s the same necromancer, he means to start the attack tonight. And he’s going to use the entire student body to start his army.’
‘Sh-shouldn’t we tell the city guardians?’ Jesse asked.
‘We need to know what’s going on first,’ Trudy said. ‘If we call them in saying some necromancer is going to turn everyone into a zombie, they’ll either laugh at us, or they’ll come out here and we’ll get expelled if we’re wrong.’ She frowned. ‘Expelled might be a best-case result.’
Krystal sighed. ‘I don’t suppose anything I say is going to dissuade Charley anyway. We’ll go. There are windows high up on the side of the hall. If we fly up, we can look in and probably not be seen.’
‘We can fly up?’ Charlotte queried, her brows rising.
‘If there’s someone working magic in there, I might be able to work out what they’re doing. No one will see me. I hope.’
Misfit Magic (Misfits Book 1) Page 21
