Seventeen Stones

by Vanessa Wells

  Greatlord Chilton lay crumpled in one corner, with no outward sign of damage. Headmistress Villanova was in a trance, with the footman standing protectively over her still form. The man eyed Greatlord Avery with great dislike.

  Avery was presumably searching for his wand in the wreckage. His velvet doublet was singed and dirty, with rusty blood stains down the front. The elaborate ringlets had fallen out of his hair, and the scent of singed pompadour oil hung around him.

  Professor Fain looked at him in disgust. “Get up Avery.” The Greatlord glowered at the absence of his title, but he did as the Professor asked. “Mia, keep your wand on him. If he moves, drop one of the statues from the grounds on his head.” Mia pointed her wand on the startled Greatlord as Professor Fain moved to wake Headmistress Villanova out of her trance.

  Mia was focusing on Avery’s sullen face, but she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned a little, really planning to summon a statue to drop on Strathorne if he’d moved. Instead she saw something entirely unexpected. A shadow hovered over the Greatlord’s still form. It seemed to sense Mia’s gaze and quickly blended in with the shadows on the wall. Mia shook her head and turned her full attention back to Avery who was searching the room with his little rat eyes, searching for his wand. She poked Avery with her wand a little harder than she meant to. “He meant it when he said to drop a statue on you if you moved.” The Greatlord squeaked and her low tone attracted Professor Fain’s attention. Mia nodded and he continued his efforts to rouse the head of the college.

  A few minutes later the Headmistress was awake and complaining about her furniture. “Really Ethan! That curio cabinet has been in my family for years! If you had to pick a fight with a Greatlord, couldn’t you have done it outside?” Professor Fain laughed. “The next time I fight an illegal duel in your sitting room, I’ll keep that under advisement. What did you find out from Chilton?”

  The headmistress lost her playful pretense. The footman helpfully levitated in a cup of hot strong tea. She looked up at him gratefully, then frowned as much as her face would allow as she considered the information she’d gleaned. “Chilton’s mind was protected by shields. They looked like they were set by someone from the Oracle. He has large gaps in his memory where someone has gone in and erased his mind. It’s a difficult thing to do, especially since one of his strongest gifts was always mental defense. It should have been impossible with the shields he had. That makes me think that whoever set the shields was also responsible for the memory loss. The only question is, who set his shields and why?”

  Professor Fain chuckled wearily. “That’s two questions.”

  A deep voice rang out from the door. “I have a question. What, in the name of all that’s decent, is going on here?” A man of indeterminable age was picking his way past the chunks of furniture. Avery spoke up from under Mia’s watchful wand.

  “Greatlord Markson! They are defying a direct order from Greatlord Strathorne! If you could only get a message to the Magus…”

  The addition to their party cocked a grin. “Oh, I just arrived from the Magus’ office Avery. He sends you greetings.” Mia’s heart skipped a beat as guardsmen walked in behind this new Greatlord. She closed her eyes for half a second, and then put her wand back on Avery. She wasn’t going without a fight.

  The Greatlord ignored Mia’s wand and handed Avery a scroll. “I’ll save you the bother of reading it. In effect, it says that you had better get yourself back to your job before he decides to transfigure you into something I won’t mention I front of ladies. It’s phrased slightly more politely than that of course.”

  Avery’s black brows pulled together in a look of utter incomprehension. “I don’t understand…” Mia shut her open mouth. No need to look as dumbfounded as she felt.

  The strange Greatlord grinned, obviously delighted. “You overstepped your authority by attempting to summarily take a student out of Headmistress Villanova’s care without the proper forms. Even Greatlords are supposed to obey the City Codes, a fact that Strathorne has been ignoring for years.” The two burly City Guards came in and grabbed the unconscious Greatlord.

  “Take him to the detention center on Second Street. Here are the orders from the Magus.” He handed the men a sealed scroll. “He wants the former Greatlord stripped of his titles and lands and he is to be transfigured into a tree frog before the hour is up.” The Guards looked at the scroll carefully and the bundled the ex-Greatlord out of the room. Markson picked up Strathorne’s wand and snapped it in half. “The Magus requested the pieces.”

  Avery looked around with his ferret’s eyes and moved from one foot to the other. Markson turned his back on him and drawled “I’d get back to work Avery. If I were you, I wouldn’t want the Magus’ personal attention turned toward me for a very long time. He’s already annoyed with you about your lack of progress on the missing person’s cases.” Avery gave a little squeak and scampered out the door to the sound of Markson’s chuckle.

  Headmistress Villanova looked up. “Markson. Explain yourself.” The Greatlord laughed. He glanced at Mia’s startled expression. “Mother, I think your student is confused.” He picked up the sofa and set it right, and indicated that Mia should sit. “I am Greatlord Markson Villanova. Since my mother is a Greatlady, I’m generally known as Greatlord Markson.”

  He turned toward his mother, who was righting her sitting room. He took out his wand and they had the room put in order quickly. There was even a hot pot of tea and refreshments. Professor Fain was gobbling sandwiches as fast as he could stuff them into his mouth. Greatlord Markson grinned like an impish youngster as he poured himself a cup of tea and added three sugars.

  “The strangest thing happened today Mother. I was waiting for an appointment with the Magus a few minutes ago, when I was handed a stack of scrolls and sent, like a common errand boy, to handle a slight problem. I’ve never seen the Magus in a temper before. It was terrifying.” The smile left his face for a split second. It returned with full force as he continued. “Apparently there was something very wrong here. I was hustled into the Magus’ private carriage, which is very fast and handed a new accessory.” He pointed at the golden council medallion hanging from his neck.

  He glanced over at Chilton’s still form. “Is he still alive?” Headmistress Villanova shrugged. “I haven’t checked.” Her tone implied that she didn’t care much either. Stone-mad or not, she blamed him for his dereliction of duty.

  Greatlord Markson squared his impressive shoulders and walked over to the Greatlord. “He’s still in a trance, but he has a pulse. This scroll relives him of duty as the Council Representative for the College. It basically banishes him to his estate under the guise of retirement.” He handed the scroll to his mother.

  She read it and grinned as much as her stiff face would allow as she looked up at her enormous son. “So you are the new Representative for the college? I imagine we could work together…” Greatlord Markson laughed. “I imagine so. We may have to move slowly, but we’ll be able to make some changes that you’ve been requesting for the past forty years.”

  ***

  Mia was sitting in front of the fire in the girl’s sitting room when Ella brought her a book. “Here you go! Mildred Weaver’s Life of the Anubis. There wasn’t a copy left in the library, but Professor Stoats let me borrow his.” Mia smiled absently at her friend and thanked her.

  “Cheer up Mia! At least you don’t have to worry so much about the Council finding out about you anymore!” That was true enough. The headmistress had been trying to arrange her son’s posting as College council representative for years. The good headmistress was looking decidedly smug about his appointment.

  Greatlord Markson Villanova was now officially the final word in all matters concerning the college. Only the Magus himself could contradict his orders. The Greatlord had visited Mia before he left the campus. “I have never supported the practice of taking the most talented young wand wielders away from the college before their studies ar
e finished. I don’t expect I would approve the measure unless there was some sort of emergency. My mother” and his mouth quirked into a slight smile at the mention of the lady “insists that the apple tree was a fluke, an accidental aberration. Who am I to argue with the Headmistress’ evaluation? Still, I should caution you that the Headmistress might have to revise her opinion if a second incident occurs that draws the attention of the council.” He stood up to go. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Amelia.”

  He bowed over her hand like she was a real lady instead of a first year student and turned to walk away. He suddenly stopped and turned his head to look at her again. His grin held more than a hint of self-depreciating humor when he said “You don’t have your mother’s coloring; but there is something about your chin and eyes that reminds me of her…just a bit. And of course, her power was remarkable too. Try not to get yourself killed over the next two years, would you? I’m looking forward to the stir you’ll make when you’re introduced to the rest of the council.” He chuckled to himself as he walked out the door. Mia was left feeling like she’d been kicked in the gut, and she had no idea why.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mia was still taking extra classes with Professor Fain. The headmistress had looked at her with the oddest expression on her face and insisted that they continue.

  Professor Cavendish did not approve of Professor Fain, no matter how Mia implied that he had saved her from Strathorne. “He’s the young idiot who almost got you killed once before. I can’t believe that the headmistress is allowing him to continue to teach at all, much less teach Creation of all things!” Mia defended him, but it didn’t do much good. Even Vivian couldn’t find out what the original argument had been on the day the apple tree nearly killed her. All anyone knew is they were speaking quietly at the infirmary one minute and yelling the next. Vivian was more than slightly annoyed: neither Professor Cavendish nor Professor Fain had discussed the incident, cutting off her easiest route to finding out about it.

  The apple tree was less conspicuous once the grass grew around the ruts it had made in the grounds. People sometimes forgot and bounced off the invisible shield that kept the apples away from the students. The tree would shake its branches in a tree snicker when things of that sort happened. Mia made a point to visit a few times a week. She always had the feeling that the tree missed her. It was less likely to trip students on purpose right after one of her visits anyway, and that didn’t hurt her general popularity.

  Greatlord Markson was, of course, mostly sympathetic to his mother’s agenda. “She’s itching for Marshall to set a toe out of line, because then she can haul him up in front of Markson and finally get his reeking carcass out of here. If he hadn’t been granted tenure under her predecessor he’d be gone already.” Professor Fain was sharing this with Mia over a snack in his office. She didn’t spend quite so much time in the music rooms these days, with the threat from the council lessened.

  Mia finished the snack and stood up reluctantly. “I’d better get back. I have to deal with the reeking carcass tomorrow in class.” The professor almost growled. “I hate to see you taking class with that…” She shot a grin at him. “Now, now professor, you wouldn’t want to undermine my faith in a fellow educator, would you?” He didn’t dignify that with a comment. “I’ll walk you back to the dorm.”

  Markson’s comment on missing persons hadn’t been lost on Mia. A slight crease folded her brow. She’d told the others everything…well everything except the odd shadow she thought she saw. Sarah had been enraged that the papers hadn’t been covering anything like the disappearances.

  “Look at this! Here’s a piece on Greatlord Strathorne’s genealogy, claiming that the author always knew he was a bad egg, but not mentioning exactly what he was turned into a tree frog for…six pages in the Times about new décor’ for summer, three pages in City Today about a broken drain in the wandless quarter…nothing at all in any of the papers about people going missing!”

  Lizzy glared at the paper as if it offended her. Beth looked at it uncertainly. “Do you suppose they’re trying to avoid a panic?” Sarah growled. “Trying to avoid being transfigured into frogspawn by an enraged populous is more like it.” Ella was re-reading the front page, as if she expected the headline to change. “Do you suppose someone is leaning on the papers about covering this?” Vivian shook her head. “Maybe…maybe not. There’s not even a rumor about this in the market.” Mia crossed her arms. “If anyone is leaning on the papers my vote is that Avery is responsible.” Sarah’s lips twitched. “He’d need help. He’s not bright enough to repress a rumor by himself.”

  Mia had uncrossed her arms. “He’s bright enough to still be a Greatlord and the wandless haven’t rioted.” Sarah cocked a brow. “Not yet.”

  ***

  “Has something happened? Another accident…or an unexplained disappearance?” Ethan Fain pulled on his cloak and nodded wordlessly. She tossed her cloak around her suddenly chilled body. “How many does Avery think are missing?” He opened his mouth and glanced at her face. “Avery couldn’t find his…well Avery doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. His second in command is the competent one. If he didn’t spend all his time covering for Avery the Magus would have turned him into a slug by now. As for the disappearances…there was another one reported last week. Fifteen since the start of the school year, maybe more. Those are just the ones I can confirm from the City and Port area. The Guard is pursuing it with the Magus’ aid. They’ve even drafted another score of dragons, though that’s a dangerous card to play with the current political climate. All I know is that they can do everything in their power to protect the populace, but fifteen is too many. Too many to be coincidence, and too many to let you wander around by yourself, with or without extra lessons from Professor Patrick.”

  Mia would have argued the point, but she didn’t mind the company on what was, after all, a mile long walk. She should just get herself a dragonfly…but the fad was passing as the first batch of dragonflies were killed, lost, and died of natural causes. Mia didn’t mind. It made the campus a lot quieter. She only regretted the lack at times like this.

  They were quiet as they walked down the path in the misty evening. Mia was thinking about the fifteen people who had vanished without a trace since she began school. Professor Fain kept his thoughts to himself, content with the silence for the moment. Mia looked up to thank him for walking her to her dorm and noted the most peculiar look on his face.

  She looked at his intense stare and asked “What?” He looked away, almost embarrassed. “You know, you never told me how you liked that silly musical that you went to see.” Mia grimaced. “That good huh? But I suppose the company was pleasant.” She turned to look at him, a bit confused. “What else would it have been? It wasn’t as much fun as working on advanced Creation…”

  He snorted. “Yes, because you have so much fun working every rest day.”

  Mia cringed. “I’m sorry if I made it seem that way. You’re working as hard as I am, and I want you to know that I appreciate it” He looked up and sighed. “You shouldn’t have to put in twice the amount of work and three times the effort that everyone else does, just because you’re more talented to begin with. I wish you could just be a normal first year student, for your sake.”

  Mia laughed out loud as they walked up to the dorm. “Can you imagine me as a normal student?” He stared at her for a second, seemingly trying to concentrate, and apparently failed. He chuckled lightly. “Well, for my sake, I’m glad you’re above average. I can’t imagine how dull my life would be if you weren’t in it.” He shot her a small smile and walked into the mist as she climbed the stair to the dorm.

  Time progressed, as time often does. There were more social obligations as summer began to emerge. Mia visited Madam Reece’s shop one afternoon and ordered her spring and summer wardrobes. There were visits to the estate, and to Mr. Smith’s office to see to business there.

  The headmistress was trying to find candi
dates for the position that Professor Cavendish held so long. Botany wasn’t a popular field: those who knew about it were busy in places like Forestreach or on their family estates. There were a number of learned gentlemen who claimed to be experts in the field; the headmistress allowed the Professor to conduct the interviews. Mia was entering the greenhouse when an old blood wand wielder in a white suit and yellow beribboned shirt ran out, crying.

  “You’re never going to be able to retire if you don’t play nice with the other children.” Mia half-sang as she walked in. The Professor wheezed as he laughed. He’d caught a cold on the cusp of spring and winter, and he was still feeling the effects. “Idiots. Flaming Idiots. I’m not supposed to remember that now that they’re all grown up. If that’s the standard to which I have trained my students, I suppose I deserve what I’m getting now. Fifteen applications in the last two weeks, and not a single one of them has ever done more than study these plants from inside a cozy room with a bottle of brandy. Armchair horticulturalists! I never thought I’d see the day!”