Seventeen Stones

by Vanessa Wells

  It was mid-afternoon when Mia finished adding the last memory to the book. She slumped against her chair and saw a cold cup of tea, a plate of cookies, and a note beside her elbow. She munched on the cookies and washed them down with the cold peppermint tea while she quickly read the note. The others were waiting for her at the tea room. She’d have to thank whoever had left the snack. Mia put her work away and grabbed her cloak as she hurried out the door. She was betting that the tearoom would have warm bread or pastry this time of day.

  The wind was so cold when she stepped outside that she would have rushed back into the dorm if she’d been on an errand of her own. Sighing, she huddled down into her cloak as best she could and ran most of the mile to the library.

  She arrived out of breath from the cold air searing her lungs and hopped up the stairs to the library entrance. She was panting slightly as she slid into the warm interior of the building. She pulled the map of the library out of a pocket of her cloak, knocked three times on the second of the twelve doors. It was marked with a large brass twenty-two today. She opened the door and walked into the tea room.

  The tea room wasn’t entirely deserted. Mia wasn’t certain that there was any amount of foul weather that could keep some of the students from indulging in a hot cup of tea and a flirtation on a cold winter’s day. But much to her relief it wasn’t the mad crush that it sometimes turned into.

  Vivian was enthroned at one end of the room, gracefully flirting with four attentive boys, while Ella was talking quietly with a studious looking lad at the same table. Lizzy and Beth were discussing musical theory with a group of second year students in one corner. Sarah was indulging in a fast-paced game of chess with a boy who had old blood coloring, each hitting the timer after a move. A few young men watched quietly. Ella gestured for Mia to join her at her table. Mia did, after ordering a slice of fresh bread with butter and an oversized cup of tea.

  Vivian laughed as Mia walked up. “I thought you’d never get here. You were so focused on your work you didn’t even hear us saying that we were leaving, so Beth wrote you a note.” Mia should have known. Beth was probably the most thoughtful of the girls. Ella grinned. “Did you finish all of your work?” Mia shrugged. “No, but I needed a break. I’ll work for awhile after we go back.” One of the boys smirked. “You should do your homework during the week so you can enjoy the rest day.” Vivian rolled her eyes. “You’d have a bit of a problem with that too if you were taking thirteen classes.” The boy huffed off and Vivian shrugged. “Serves him right for nattering about things he doesn’t understand. Now Mia, we were discussing going to the main City stage for a theater production in the spring! These gentlemen say that the performances are fantastic…”

  She batted her eyes at a particularly good-looking young man. He seemed fascinated with Vivian. He cleared his throat, but never quite took his eyes off of her. “Well…we wanted to invite all of you to the last winter show, but Vivian mentioned that you were planning to go to a house party over break. I was hoping to arrange a trip to the main stage sometime in the spring, once the show starts up again.”

  Mia grinned and was about to accept for the entire group when a familiar voice said “You don’t actually intend to take this group anywhere do you Gabriel? There’s not a speck of proper breeding in between the three of them.” Martin Ainsley, surrounded by a group of smirking old bloods, sneered as he nodded to Mia. “Her mother might have been a Greatlady, but everyone knows her father was some dirt farmer or stable hand. He didn’t even speak up when she was born.”

  Gabriel turned. He looked older without the friendly smile, maybe even a little dangerous. “I can’t see what business it is of yours, Ainsley, who I take and where I take them.” He turned his back on Martin, who turned an ugly shade of magenta. “Real old blood doesn’t mix with mongrels Fields. I suppose this just proves that you are as common as your last name.” Martin swept out of the room, white skin still tinged with pink, lackeys following like puppies on a leash.

  Gabriel grinned, revealing perfect teeth and double dimples. “What an ass. Someone really needs to do something about him.” Vivian grinned. “He’d make a lovely houseplant.”

  Mia snickered. “He’d be a stinkweed. Even transfiguration couldn’t change his personality.”

  Gabriel grinned at the girls and took the opportunity to scoot closer to Vivian, much to Mia’s amusement.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lady Anne was leading the girls down the sidewalk at a quick pace. The weather was bad, with wet sticky snow that stuck to everything and melted. The gentle lady wished the nasty weather to the nether regions of the world under her breath. There hadn’t been any indication that it would be like this before noon. The morning had been bright and sunny, if cold. Now they were only halfway through the list of errands and the snowflakes were chilling them all to the bone. Worse, the carriage had been ordered for five o’clock, and it was now three-thirty. Lady Anne sighed and looked at the red nose of her daughter and the flushed cheeks on her friends. “All right! Change of plans girls. Let’s step in the Sweet Shop over there and warm our cold fingers and toes, shall we?” Sniffles and sighs of relief greeted the announcement. Lady Anne made a mental note to have the girls take an anti-cold concoction. It simply wasn’t done to attend one’s first ball with a runny nose and a fever.

  The attentive wait staff seated their party in the private parlor and quickly brought tea and hot chocolate. Lady Anne ordered a large slice of fresh gingerbread and encouraged the girls to order their favorite sweets. Platters were brought in, along with another pot of tea. One of the waiters quietly asked Lady Anne a question that obviously vexed the good lady to no end. Then, seeing no way around it, she tried to look like she was acquiescing gracefully.

  She whispered to the girls: “We are about to be joined by another lady of rank here in the City, apparently she was out doing her shopping as well.” Sarah’s brow creased. “Who is it mother?” Lady Anne did not sigh. “Helena Ainsley”. Sarah groaned and turned to Mia. “This is Martin’s mother.” She whispered the warning just as the fine-boned lady swept into the room.

  Helena Ainsley was pale and petite, barely five feet tall. Her coal black hair was smoothly arranged in the popular triple bun style, standing a good foot above her head. She smiled at Lady Anne as she sat in an empty chair, but the smile did not touch the cool blue eyes. “Lady Anne. How good of you to share the private parlor. I declare, I’m not sure what I would have done if the room had been in use.” Lady Anne’s smile didn’t look forced but Mia had the strangest feeling that it was. “I would never be so ungracious as to allow another lady to sit in the common room when we have the private parlor.”

  Helena Ainsley’s icy-blue eyes sparkled. “And such a…varied group you are escorting today!” She turned to Sarah. “How are you doing in school? I hope you haven’t loaded yourself down with unnecessary class work, but I know you well enough to know my hopes are entirely unfounded.” She heaved a sigh and directed her conversation back to Lady Anne without giving Sarah a chance to speak. “You really must put your foot down Lady Anne. How will the child ever marry decently if she spends all of her time at college cooped up doing lessons?” Lady Anne arched a blond eyebrow. “I imagine that we disagree about education as much as we did during our own stay at college.” Lady Anne laughed lightly, as if she considered this subject a bit of a joke.

  Helena Ainsley chose that moment to notice the rest of the party. “How rude of me, Lady Anne!” Somehow, her tone implied that it was Lady Anne who had been rude. “I haven’t been introduced to your daughters…friends?” She made it a question. Sarah was beginning to show the slightest tinge of pink in her pale cheeks, a sure sign that she was holding on to her temper with effort.

  Lady Anne smiled. “Oh yes, these are Sarah’s dorm mates: Amelia Rusticov, Greatlady Alexandria Rusticov’s daughter, you remember her…” Helena jerked her head as if remembering something unpleasant. “She was a year or two ahead of us if I recall
correctly.” Lady Anne nodded.

  “The twins are Lizzy and Beth Fairchild, Granddaughters of Greatlady Imogene Fairchild.” Mrs. Ainsley nodded politely enough to Lizzy and Beth and the introductions continued. “This is Vivian Martin, one of the Merchant Martins.” Vivian nodded pleasantly but Mrs. Ainsley barely gave a jerk of her head in acknowledgement. “And last but not least is Ella Ward, one of the top students in Creation this semester.” Helena Ainsley’s glance took in the flaming red hair, hand-me-down clothes, and the obvious lack of pedigree. She smirked slightly.

  “And I thought your mother-in-law was the one with all the good causes! Here you are, treating these poor creatures to a feast in the private parlor of the City’s most exclusive bake shop, and no one even knows! You hide your light too well Lady Anne!” Lady Anne drawled her response “Not at all. I was merely intruding on the girl’s rest day, and taking the opportunity to do a bit of shopping before the Holiday rush starts.” She flipped her fan open with an audible snap. “You know how it is this time of year. These large house parties are nearly impossible to put together, but one must endeavor.” Helena had a strange stiff smile pasted on her face. “I’m rather unencumbered by such things. Augustus and I normally attend the Magus’ festivities during Mid-winter.”

  Lady Anne moved in for the kill. “As well you should! It is so much effort to put on one of these parties! The guest list alone is a major undertaking.” She took a small sip out of her china cup, and still fanning slightly. “I do wish I had the option of simply attending one of the invitations that we receive. But my little gatherings are always a modest success, so I couldn’t really in good conscience stop having them.” Lady Anne took a large bite of her gingerbread as Helena Ainsley pulled out the tiny silver timepiece nestled into the pocket of her jacket. “Oh my, just look at the time! My carriage will be picking me up at the milliner’s in a few minutes!”

  Lady Anne made a small moue of disappointment. “Already? It seems as if we never have time to catch up!” Helena Ainsley smiled, but Mia didn’t think it was a very nice one. “Alas, such is the way of the world, I fear. Never mind! We’ll meet, I’m sure, at Lady Viola’s benefit for wandless orphans just before mid-winter and we can catch up then!” Mia wondered why that last statement sounded like a threat. Mrs. Ainsley clicked her handbag and carelessly threw a handful of coins on the table. Helena air kissed in the general vicinity of Lady Anne’s cheek and didn’t even nod to the girls as she swept out of the room.

  Sarah made a noise like a strangled goose. “I hate that woman.” Lady Anne pinned her with a hard look. “Shush.” Lady Anne twitched her wand at the door. “Now girls, we won’t be overheard by the staff. A word of caution. Helena Ainsley is a vindictive harpy who would gladly roast any and all of you if she can do so without looking like a harpy. She’s particularly vicious to anyone who’s a first generation wand wielder. She’s absurdly proud of her own social prominence and obsessed with being in all the right places with all the right people.”

  Lady Anne smiled serenely. “She’s actually relatively harmless as long as you know that she’s a shrew. Stay away from her when you can, and be polite when you can’t. That’s the best you can hope from someone like that. Eat your cake girls! It’s too good to waste good cake and good company on someone you don’t care for.”

  ***

  Two weeks before the break began Mia was sitting at the desk, desperately trying not to yell at Lizzy, who was humming under her breath as she worked on her end of semester composition. Sarah was hidden behind a stack of books, seemingly oblivious to Lizzy’s faux pas. Mia’s temper was made more uncertain by lack of sleep and enforced inactivity. She’d had a bad head cold for a week before she consented to see Mrs. Bennett. The healer rightly chided her for waiting so long.

  Mia didn’t tell anyone why she hadn’t wanted to face the infirmary again. She hadn’t mentioned all those still forms she’d seen on the day she delivered the potions to anyone. She felt a great unease when she even thought about it. But she eventually (when Vivian and Sarah threatened to drug her and drag her to the healer) she went back to the infirmary. The large building was quiet, empty…rather disturbingly calm. They seemed to have plenty of time to deal with Mia’s cold.

  Mrs. Bennett was in a terrible mood. The healer ordered Mia to stay out of the freezing rain and snow except when she was going to class. To prove that she meant it, she pulled out her wand and placed a compulsion spell on her. Mrs. Bennett growled “There, now I know you won’t be running around, making it worse and giving me more work. As if I didn’t have enough to do! The compulsion will end when the cold does.” She shoved a bottle of the vilest potion Mia had ever encountered into her hands. She was certain that the old biddy had done it out of spite.

  “Isn’t it against the law to put a compulsion spell on a person without a court order?” Mia was pacing in the dorm room, itching to be away for a bit. Beth sighed and put down her pen, sensing that this was going to take a while. “Healers are exempt under the Guild regulations. The only thing you can do is report her to the Guild for abusing the spell, and I doubt they would rule in your favor, since they always side with the healer.” Mia continued to pace. “It seems pretty stupid to waste a powerful spell like that on me…I didn’t even know that Mrs. Bennett could do a compulsion spell.” Beth giggled. “It obviously wasn’t wasted. If she hadn’t set a compulsion on you, you’d be out in the snow right now, making your cold worse. You don’t want to have northern pneumonia or wyvern flu during your winter break, do you?”

  She had been inside (except for classes and piano practice) for five days. If she tried to leave to go somewhere (like the library) she found her feet taking her back into her dorm. It was incredibly irritating. Last night she was grumbling that the cold might have ended by now if she hadn’t taken the antidote. Sarah looked up from her book long enough to remark “If you don’t stop complaining I’m going to call on Mrs. Bennett and tell her you’ve been out in the snow. She’ll transfigure you into a tadpole and I’ll be able to study.” Mia took the subtle hint to open a book of her own.

  Today she finished pacing, flopped into the window seat and stared moodily out of the window. Beth was right. She needed to stay inside. But there was something annoying about being forced to do it. It made her want to go play in the snow, even if she didn’t really feel like doing anything but lying in bed. Emma’s last letter was marking the place in her book. She knew what her guardian would say about her behavior. She didn’t hold with feeling sorry for one’s self, or with putting off medical treatment that you knew you needed.

  If Mia had simply taken the anti-cold concoction she would have been fine like the rest of the girls…but no, she’d gotten involved with piano practice when they returned from their shopping expedition with Lady Anne. She was feeling terrible, and it was her own fault. That just made it harder to deal with.

  She shut her book and trudged downstairs to the kitchens. A pitcher of Maggie’s chicken soup was a better cold remedy than the foul-smelling green liquid Mrs. Bennett had prescribed. The cook was just pulling cinnamon buns out of the oven when Mia snuck into the main kitchen. “How many times do I have to tell you kids to use the…Oh, hello Mia.” She had ingratiated herself with the cook on the first day, after succumbing to the delicate aromas and later the delicious tastes that wafted out of the ovens.

  “Do you still have the head cold ducky?” Maggie called everyone ducks, ducky, or love. Mia had heard that if she ever called you pumpkin that you should start running, but she’d never personally seen the cook knock anyone down with a half-stuffed turkey.

  Mia nodded in the most despondent way she could manage, hoping to acquire a few of those mouthwatering cinnamon buns. Apparently Maggie was as susceptible to miserable puppy dog face as everyone else, because Mia was quickly the proud bearer of a pitcher of chicken soup, a pot of piping hot tea, a pile cinnamon buns, three different kinds of nuts, and enough strawberries and cream to feed any five people. Mia grinn
ed at the loaded platter, gave Maggie a quick hug, and levitated the whole thing upstairs.

  She slid the loaded tray onto the empty desk where Vivian should have been studying. The other girl was sprawled in the floor beside the fire instead, idly twirling her wand, pretending to work on some charm or another. The scent of food alerted all of them except for Sarah, who had to be physically pulled away from her frantic notes to take a break.

  The cinnamon buns were just as good as they smelled. And at that moment, Mia realized that she must be getting better. She hadn’t been able to smell any of the wonderful cooking for nearly two weeks.

  Mia bolted the green brew from Mrs. Bennett and drank a long gulp of cold water to get the taste out of her mouth. “Ugg.” It burned and felt cold going down all at the same time. She wondered if they’d used dirty socks as the key ingredient. Surely it didn’t have to taste that bad to be effective.