Schooled in Magic 5 - The School of Hard Knocks

by Christopher Nuttall

  By the time the exams finally came to an end, she was tired, depressed and not in the best of moods. The departure of almost all of the students from Raven Hall was definitely something of a relief. Nanette seemed to spend most of her time elsewhere, leaving Emily and Frieda alone. Emily would have liked the relative solitude if she hadn’t been so worried about how badly she’d screwed up. Any hope of getting information out of Aurelius seemed to be completely gone.

  At least Frieda doesn’t seem to have noticed anything, Emily told herself. But even if she did, what could she say?

  “I think it’s time we went exploring,” she said, to Frieda. The younger girl had been enjoying the break too, mainly practicing spells while Emily researched other countermeasures to the freeze charm. “Have you been in the lower tunnels?”

  “I thought we weren’t allowed to go there,” Frieda said. “It’s forbidden, isn’t it?”

  Emily shrugged. She’d asked at the quarrel and they’d said it wasn’t forbidden, merely dangerous. Like so much else, Emily suspected, it was only forbidden if they were actually caught. Besides, she’d explored the woods and mountains around Whitehall. It was only fitting that she explored the tunnels of Mountaintop.

  “I’m going to go,” she said. She pulled off her dress, replacing it with trousers and a shirt designed for hard or dirty work. Once she had changed, she cast a series of spells to locate any tracking hexes that might have been attached to her person. There didn’t seem to be any, as far as she could tell. “Come with me if you want.”

  She wasn’t surprised when Frieda jumped up and started to change into her own work clothes. The change in the younger girl was astonishing; she’d moved from being frightened of Emily to being capable of actually sticking up for herself. Emily had a private feeling that Ten probably regretted it more than anyone else, even though she was probably getting private lessons from Helen, too. Frieda wouldn’t forgive Ten in a hurry.

  Outside, the darkened corridors seemed more oppressive than ever. Emily led the way towards the edge of the settled tunnels, keeping a careful eye out for tutors and proctors. The majority of teachers seemed to have left Mountaintop, but the remainder appeared to think that anyone who had stayed over the holidays was in desperate need of something to do. Nanette had warned her that they had a habit of prowling the corridors, looking for volunteers, and made it very hard for anyone to refuse to help. Emily had thought she was exaggerating, but Frieda had confirmed it was true. She’d been caught out, more than once, during the preparatory year.

  They reached the edge of the school without incident and paused inside the gate. Emily had expected to have to pick the lock, but there was nothing more than a simple bolt, easily undone with magic. Given how many horror stories she’d been told about what lurked in the deeper tunnels, it seemed more than a little insecure. Emily puzzled over it, then understood once she stepped through the gate and the rune on her chest started to burn. There was an entire network of wards and runes covering the entrance, keeping out everyone who didn’t have permission to enter. The spellwork was actually surprisingly elaborate compared to Whitehall’s defenses. She didn’t understand why they didn’t use simpler spells.

  “I can feel them,” Frieda said. She looked scared for the first time in weeks. “Is that normal?”

  “I think so,” Emily said.

  She frowned, studying the ebb and flow of the magic. The subtle magic seemed to be a variant on the magic she’d sensed earlier, just stronger. It hinted there was nothing to see through the gate, nothing worth visiting... anyone who looked at it without defenses, she realized slowly, might just walk past the entrance to the school without ever knowing it was there. She had a feeling it would work on supernatural vermin as well as human beings.

  “This is something new,” she said, carefully casting a marker spell. “You see, we don’t have any maps of the tunnels and we could easily get lost down there. So...”

  She demonstrated the spell for Frieda, then showed her how to mark her way. “The spell makes it much harder to get lost,” she added. “But if we lose those markers, we can look for other ways through the tunnels by seeking out the gate.”

  “Clever,” Frieda said. She looked at the ground. “I never thought about becoming lost.”

  Emily smiled. She’d looked at maps of the tunnels in the library, but one thing had become clear very fast. No two maps agreed on what was in the lower levels, below the school. She had a feeling that relying on one of the maps would have been disastrous, while trying to determine which one was actually accurate would take far too long. Instead, she’d remembered her lessons on how to lay a trail of magical breadcrumbs. The sergeants had deliberately allowed her Martial Magic class to get lost once, just to teach them the importance of marking their path. It had taught them all a harsh lesson.

  “It’s common sense,” she said. “Didn’t you have caves near your home?”

  “I was never allowed out of the village,” Frieda said. “Mother always said there were monsters in the forest.”

  “There are,” Emily said, recalling the horrific night when Lady Barb had lingered on the edge of death. She’d seen all manner of creatures then, some very dangerous, before the sun had finally risen and banished them. “But they rarely come out during the day.”

  She shook her head, then looked around as they walked through the downwards-sloping tunnels. The stone walls were pitted and marked by hammers and chisels, rather than the smooth walls she’d seen inside the school, while some of the ceilings were so low she had to keep her head down to avoid banging it into the rock. No one had tried to make these tunnels fit for human-sized creatures, she realized, wishing she knew more about dwarves. Everything she’d read about them suggested they hated humans and preferred to remain deep below the ground, but there hadn’t been much to read.

  No one is really interested in studying their culture, she thought, sourly. I wonder if they all have beards and spend their courting days trying to discover if they’re chatting up a male or a female.

  The temperature fell rapidly as they continued slipping down the long passageway, glancing into empty caves as they moved. A faint dampness in the air puzzled her until she looked into a cave and saw an underground river at the far end, racing through the caves to an unknown destination. Emily had a nightmarish image of a person falling in, only to be swept away under the rocky walls and lost forever. It was enough to convince her not to go anywhere near the water.

  She paused, suddenly, as she heard something odd in the distance, and put her hand up to stop Frieda’s movement, then tapped her lips to warn the younger girl to stay quiet. They’d been able to hear dripping water for a while, but this was different. It sounded almost like breathing. She exchanged a glance with Frieda before they followed the sound, leaving markers as they went along, until they reached a large cave. Inside, a giant creature lay on the rocky floor and slept, snoring loudly.

  Frieda started. “What... what is that?”

  “I have no idea,” Emily said, very quietly. The creature seemed humanoid, a strange cross between a lizard and a gorilla. It was definitely several times her size. As far as she could tell, it didn’t have any way to get out of the tunnels either. If she had problems walking through the labyrinth, a creature that size would find the passages utterly impassable. “But I don’t think we should go any closer.”

  She took a final look, then tiptoed backwards as quietly as she could. The creature snorted loudly, but didn’t show any signs of being aware of their presence. Emily let herself exhale in relief as soon as they were well up the tunnel.

  Carefully, they continued to explore. It rapidly became clear that there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of monsters stored in the caves, all sleeping peacefully. Emily couldn’t help wondering if the dwarves–or Mountaintop - had shrunk the creatures using magic, then carried them down into the caves and released the spells. Trapped, the creatures would have no choice but to sleep...

  But how did th
ey eat?

  “Maybe they eat unwary students,” Frieda muttered, when Emily said that aloud. “We’re not the first to explore the caves.”

  Emily had her doubts. Whitehall and Mountaintop might take a relaxed attitude to health and safety, but she couldn’t see either school being casual about allowing students to become monster snacks. Perhaps the monsters were under a form of sleeping spell that prevented them from becoming too hungry, or perhaps they were just in some form of permanent hibernation. There was no way to be sure.

  She hesitated as they reached another tunnel, this one leading further down into the bowels of the earth. Part of her wanted to go on, but the other part of her was uncomfortably aware that she had lost track of time and they might already have been missed. After a moment’s deliberation, she led the way down the passageway, feeling odd sensations crawl over her skin. It took her a moment to realize she was sensing a very odd form of magic.

  “Curious,” she said. It felt oddly familiar, yet she was sure she’d never sensed anything like it in her life. “Can you feel the magic?”

  “I think so,” Frieda said. She sounded disturbed. “What is it?”

  Emily shrugged. It wasn’t a ward, she was sure, or she would have sensed it blocking their path. Or she would have walked right into it and been caught. And she was fairly sure it wasn’t subtle magic, although she could make out a handful of glowing runes carved into the stone walls. Her protection would have warned her if the magic had been powerful enough to be dangerous. Instead, it was just... there.

  And it ebbed and flowed downwards, deeper into the ground. Emily stopped, reminded herself that she was here to find out the secrets of Mountaintop, then forced herself to walk down the long passageway. The magic didn’t seem to grow stronger, she noted, which puzzled her. It wasn’t behaving in any logical fashion, even for magic. And there was something about it that bothered her on a very primal level.

  They reached the bottom of the tunnel and looked out into a giant cave. There was nothing there, as far as Emily could tell, apart from inky darkness. No, she realized slowly, that wasn’t quite right. The more they walked into the cave, the lighter it grew. There was a night-vision spell on the entire cave...

  She dowsed the light-globes. Here, it seemed, night-vision spells worked. She puzzled over it for a long moment, then froze as she saw something–something–moving ahead of her in the semi-darkness. Frieda looked equally surprised as a hooded figure came into view. Emily grabbed her, pulling her well to the side, pressing them both against the wall. She held Frieda close, feeling the girl’s heartbeat thumping in her chest, as the proctor walked past them, clearly on the prowl. He stopped, his head turning from side to side, as if he had sensed some hint of their presence.

  Emily braced herself, uncertain of what to do. If they were caught, they’d be in trouble, but she had a feeling they were very close to one of Mountaintop’s true secrets. There might be something worse in store for them than detention if they were caught down here. She considered trying to use magic on the proctor, but she knew it would be dangerous. If the spell failed, if the proctor was powerful enough to deflect it, they’d be caught red-handed assaulting a representative of the school. She doubted that would be taken lightly.

  The proctor remained still, as if he were sniffing the air. Emily, raised on Tolkien and Rowling, couldn’t help wondering if the proctor was even human. There was an odd sense around the hooded figure that felt strange, at least to her. He didn’t seem to be looking around for anything out of place, merely sensing magic. Emily held Frieda tightly, silently praying the younger girl wouldn’t panic. The only hope of getting out of the trap alive was to wait for the proctor to either catch sight of them or decide he had imagined whatever he had sensed and move onwards. The seconds became minutes, which felt like hours...

  And then the proctor turned and walked away.

  Emily let out a long sigh of relief, then helped Frieda to stand upright. The younger girl had clung to Emily’s shirt so hard it had almost torn. Emily grunted in pain as she realized that Frieda had actually bruised her, then caught the girl’s hand and led her back the way towards the school. That had been far too close.

  I’ll have to come back down here, she thought. Alone.

  As soon as they reached the upper levels, she cast a night-vision spell of her own. It worked, barely. There just wasn’t enough ambient light around for it to work properly, she decided, remembering Sergeant Miles’s warnings. The spell drained more power in absolute darkness and wasn’t entirely reliable. But it worked better in the caves than it did in Mountaintop itself.

  “That was a proctor,” Frieda said once they were well away from the caves. It was the first thing she’d said since the proctor had made its appearance. “What’s he doing down there?”

  Emily shrugged. “I have no idea,” she said, untruthfully. Given the strange stream of magic and the proctor’s location, she had the feeling he was guarding something. There was probably no shortage of students who wanted to explore the caves, the dangers of being eaten notwithstanding. Hell, it was probably safer to face the monsters than having an Alchemy class with students who had a habit of making their woks explode regularly. “I think I’ll be coming back here.”

  Frieda looked hurt. “Without me?”

  “I think you shouldn’t be caught here,” Emily said. She paused as they approached the gate. “And...”

  She broke off as another form stepped out of the shadows. “Tell me,” Mistress Granite said. “Is there a reason you were prowling through the caves?”

  Frieda jumped. “I...”

  “We were exploring,” Emily cut in, smoothly. Being caught by Mistress Granite was bad, but nowhere near as bad as being caught by a proctor, if the rumors she’d heard were true. The quarrel’s older members seemed determined to scare the younger ones with horror stories, few of which made sense. “I don’t believe it is forbidden.”

  “It is certainly forbidden to newcomers,” Mistress Granite snapped. “And it is also forbidden to go exploring without telling someone where you’re going. Come with me.”

  Emily sighed, then allowed the tutor to march them both through the corridors. It was an odd coincidence that Mistress Granite had been waiting for them here, if it was a coincidence. And that didn’t seem likely. King Randor had taught her, in one of his few lectures on statesmanship, that anything that looked like a coincidence probably wasn’t. It was almost always the sign of someone plotting.

  She sighed at the memory. Alassa’s father was more than a little paranoid, Emily knew, but he had good reason to be. He’d almost lost his throne, daughter and brother two years ago–and if she hadn’t been there, he would have lost everything.

  “You should know better,” Mistress Granite snapped, “than to take a First Year into the unknown. You could have been trapped down there.”

  “Trapped by what?” Frieda asked, innocently.

  Mistress Granite glowered at her, then flung open the door to one of her classrooms. It looked a mess, Emily saw in alarm; there were empty potions bottles everywhere, tables and chairs stained with blood and even several half-dissected animals lying on desks. She honestly couldn’t imagine Mistress Granite tolerating her students leaving her classroom in such a state. It was so unlike her that Emily was immediately sure of what had happened.

  “Some... pranksters thought it was a good idea to turn my classroom into a mess,” Mistress Granite said. She glared at Emily, as if she held her personally responsible. “You two will clean up this room, without magic. I expect to see it spotless before you get anything to eat.”

  She stamped out of the room, closing the door behind her. Frieda made a rude gesture at the door as it locked, then sighed in relief.

  “I thought she was going to cane us,” she said. “I...”

  Emily snorted. “This way, she gets us to clean up her mess,” she said. It wasn’t much of a relief. “What happened here?”

  “A few of us decided we
really disliked old stony-face,” Frieda said. “Does it matter?”

  “It does if I have to clear up the mess,” Emily pointed out, tartly. She sighed, then started to pick up potion bottles. The empty ones would have to be washed and cleansed of magic, the half-full ones would need to be discarded. Who knew how long exposure to the air would change the magic bottled inside? “I hope it was worth it to you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  EMILY HAD HOPED THAT MISTRESS GRANITE’S detention would put an end to the matter, but somehow, that didn’t seem to be the case. While there was no formal punishment beyond the detention, she was uncomfortably aware that Nanette and the remaining staff were watching her closely after their adventure in the caves. The Head Girl had spoken to her after they had finally finished cleaning the room, and given her a sharp lecture on exploring the caves with a First Year. Emily had nodded in all the right places, but continued to make plans to return underground. She had to know what was hidden in the darkness.

  But it was several days before she could figure out a way to get back to the caves. They’d been missed, according to Nanette, when lunch had been served and they hadn’t shown up to eat. Emily had attended lunch religiously, mainly to make sure Frieda ate, and their absence had been noted. Then the staff had discovered they weren’t anywhere to be found in the school, and started to search. But they hadn’t searched very hard.

  They didn’t have to, Emily thought, as she sat in the library and consulted more old maps and guides. Nothing was consistent, nothing agreed with anything else, but there were some useful flakes of detail. All they had to do was set a guard on the gate and wait for us to come back. There was nowhere else we could go if we wanted to get back inside.