Emily smiled. Imaiqah, thankfully, had reminded her that the happy couple would expect a present from each of their guests, saving Emily from a considerable amount of embarrassment. But she knew Alassa deserved more than a set of cutlery or a blender, assuming they even existed in the Nameless World. She’d settled, after confirming she wouldn’t have to hand the gift over publicly, for one of her notebooks, outlining the different political ideas from Earth. Alassa wouldn’t have an easy time of it when she took the throne and Emily hoped an infusion - another infusion - of ideas from Earth would help. She was, after all, one of the few people who knew about Earth.
“It’s almost finished,” she said. Writing the notebook had taken longer than she’d expected, but she was proud of her work. “She’ll love it.”
“As long as no one sees it,” Void warned. “The truth of your origins is not something we want to get out.”
Chapter Two
“I HAVE SPOKEN TO MISTRESS IRENE,” Void said, the following morning. “Lady Barb will be here this afternoon to escort you back to Whitehall.”
“That’s good,” Emily said. She couldn’t help feeling torn. Part of her wanted to go back to the school that had been her first true home, part of her wanted to stay put. She’d killed Master Grey. Nothing would ever be the same again. “Will...will you be making me do more spells this morning?”
“I was thinking we might do something a little bit different,” Void said. He tapped the table meaningfully. “But you would be well advised to eat before we start.”
Emily smiled as she opened the breadbox and recovered a loaf of bread, a crock of butter and several eggs, the latter all wrapped in preservation spells. Void had already brewed a pot of Kava; she poured herself a mug, then whipped the eggs, dumped them into a pan and scrambled them on the stove. It wouldn’t be very fancy, certainly not compared to the multi-choice breakfasts she’d enjoyed at Whitehall, but it would keep her going. Her appetite had increased along with her power.
“Make sure you cast preservation spells over everything before you leave,” Void said, as she reached for a plate and poured the eggs over the bread. “The last thing you want is to come home and discover that the food has gone bad.”
Emily nodded. Sergeant Miles had hammered that into her head, along with a number of other titbits she’d done her best to recall. She still wasn’t a very good cook, but at least she could make something that would keep her alive. Sergeant Harkin, on the other hand, had been able to create the most stupendous feasts, just from ingredients he’d found in the forest. She couldn’t help wondering, as she sat down, what that fearsome man would have made of her now. She’d killed a combat sorcerer in a formal duel.
“Your exams are scheduled for two months from today,” Void said, as she ate. “I will be expecting you to do well, very well. Despite circumstances...”
He shrugged. “But you’re still getting used to your increased power,” he added, warningly. “If you feel yourself having too many headaches, or having problems coping with spells you used to be able to cast without bother, go to Mistress Irene and ask to be held back. There’s no shame in admitting you need more time to recuperate.”
“But everyone would point and laugh,” Emily objected.
“You shouldn’t care about the good opinion of idiots,” Void said. “Would you have advised your boyfriend to take his scheduled exams even though he spent most of the year in a coma?”
“No,” Emily said, reluctantly. She knew he was right, but she’d picked up enough of the school’s ethos to believe that being held back was humiliating. She’d still be classed as a child even as she turned twenty-one. “But Caleb had an excuse for missing so many classes.”
“So do you,” Void said, dryly. “You can be held back, if you wish, and no one will think any less of you.”
That wasn’t true, Emily knew. It was rare for a student to willingly repeat their first four years of schooling - or even merely go back to Third Year or redo Fourth Year. The lure of being considered an adult, rather than a child, was too great. Caleb had been taunted, she remembered; she didn’t want to have to endure classes with students two years younger than her, all of whom would be scared witless by her. But he was right. The people whose opinions mattered would understand precisely why she’d repeated a year or two.
She finished her breakfast, washed the dishes in the sink and followed Void into the next room. The Grandmaster - she felt another pang of grief - had turned it into a study, lining the walls with row upon row of bookshelves. Most of them were classic texts that had been reprinted - it had amused her to discover that he’d purchased hundreds of books from the printing presses - but there were a handful of rare editions among the dross. She suspected she could have completed most of her formal studies just by sitting in the study and reading the books he’d left on the shelves.
“There is a second tradition,” Void said, once they were sitting. “When a child becomes an adult, at least in a magical family, the parents take the time to share certain magics that belong to one single bloodline. The children are sworn to secrecy and told never to share the spells with anyone, save for their own children when they become adults. It is quite rare for any of those spells to leak.”
Emily frowned. “Melissa was disowned...”
“Melissa was probably too young to learn,” Void said, dismissively. “I have no idea how the Ashworth Family handles such matters, but I imagine their oaths would make it impossible for Melissa to share any such spells with her children, now that she is no longer considered part of her former family.”
“If she knows,” Emily mused.
“If she knows,” Void agreed. He cleared his throat. “Now, I have no such spells to share.”
Emily blinked. “Your family didn’t have any?”
“My family...” He shook his head, his expression darkening. “Suffice it to say I have no such spells to share.”
“I’m sorry,” Emily said.
“Don’t be,” Void said, bluntly. He produced a pair of black gloves and pulled them over his hands. “I would like, however, to teach you some other spells you will probably need in the future. If, of course, you want them.”
Emily smiled, leaning forward. Learning new spells was one of the things she loved about being in the Nameless World. And learning something very few other people knew...she liked knowing something unique, even though she already knew too much. The Nuke-Spell alone would change the world beyond repair if it ever got out. She rubbed the snake-bracelet at her wrist as Void reached into one of his pockets and produced a small gemstone. It sparkled with an eerie light that sent shivers down her spine.
“Hold your hand above the gem, but be careful not to actually make contact,” Void ordered, as he rested the gem on his gloved hand. “It could get dangerous.”
Emily swallowed, then reached out. The sense of danger grew stronger as her hand approached the gem; she felt a sudden stab of pain on her chest, where the rune had been carved into her skin, once her hand was bare millimeters above the shimming crystal. And yet, despite the pain, there was something in the spell worked into the gem that called to her. She pulled her hand back before she could give into the pull and actually touch the gem.
“I don’t believe you will have covered gem-work yet,” Void said. Emily shook her head, unable to take her eyes from the glowing crystal. “Like a wand, you can embed a spell into a gem, but the principle difference is that the gem spell can be active. Nightmare Hexes, which I believe you have encountered, are often anchored to gems. A spell can be kept active for a considerable period of time, if the spellwork is done properly or there is a ready-made source of power nearby.”
“Like a nexus point,” Emily said.
“A nexus point would be considerably overpowered,” Void said. He returned the gem to his pocket. “A living person would be sufficient.”
He gave her a sharp look. “What do you think that gem was for?”
Emily hesitated. She’d felt
a compulsion to touch the gem the moment she’d held her hand above it, but her rune had sounded the alert at once. Maybe it wasn’t subtle magic - it certainly hadn’t behaved like subtle magic - yet she was sure it worked along the same lines...
“Influencing people,” she said, finally.
“Controlling people,” Void corrected. His voice was flat, completely toneless. “If someone were to be enslaved, for whatever reason, one of these gems would be inserted into their foreheads and fixed to the bone. They would then have to follow orders from whoever mastered the gem.”
Emily shuddered. “And you want to show me how to make those gems?”
“You need to know,” Void said. He waved a hand around to indicate the house. “This isn’t your castle in Cockatrice, Emily. You’ll need servants eventually and those servants will have to be completely trustworthy. Binding them to you is the simplest solution.”
“I couldn’t do that,” Emily said, flatly. She’d had nightmares for years after Shadye had used blood magic to control her like a puppet. “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
Void looked at her. “Would it help if I told you that most people who were enslaved thoroughly deserved it?”
Emily felt sick. “I couldn’t...just take someone’s free will like that, no.”
“Even when someone exercising his free will decides to steal from you - or worse?” Void asked. “The real world is a messy place.”
He met her eyes. “You will need to have servants, eventually,” he warned. “And most of them will expect some form of binding. You’ll be paying them well for their services.”
Emily shook her head. If the gem spells were anything like as powerful as the compulsion spells she’d learned at Whitehall, few people would be able to resist them. The potential for abuse was far too high. It would be easy to make all sorts of promises to someone she wanted to hire, then break the promises as soon as the man was bound to her. There were some temptations that were best left untouched.
“You may find that you pay for refusing to learn,” Void said. He looked down at the table for a long moment. “But I won’t force you to master the spell.”
“I know,” Emily said. Void had never pushed her to do anything, let alone threatened her with punishment. It had taken her some time to realize he expected her to have the self-discipline to learn - and if she didn’t, it would be her fault when the exams came and she wasn’t ready. “I thank you for the offer, but I don’t want to learn this.”
“As you wish,” Void said. He looked up. “Is there something you do want to learn?”
“Teleportation,” Emily said. “Do I have the power reserves now?”
Void considered it. “You should,” he said. “I understand you know the theory?”
“The basics, yes,” Emily said. She’d been taught at Mountaintop; her tutor, who hadn’t been best pleased to be teaching her, had warned her not to actually try the spell until she had the power to handle it. “But I’ve never tried to cast it.”
“Pity you didn’t mention that earlier,” Void said. “It would have saved you casting so many high-power spells each morning.”
Emily frowned. “I’m sorry...”
“Not your fault,” Void said. He sounded more annoyed than she’d expected. “It didn’t occur to me that you might be able to teleport now.”
He pointed a finger at her. “But we will go through the calculations first, piece by piece,” he added. “And you will not try to cast the spell until I’m satisfied that you know what you’re doing.”
Charms Tutors, in Emily’s experience, were always strict. Too many things could go wrong with a badly-written spell for them to be anything but precise. Void, however, made her go through everything with an attention to detail that made her eyes ache after four hours of working her way through the calculations. The math she’d learned on Earth, at least, gave her an advantage. She was used to thinking in terms of multiple dimensions.
But they know the world is round, she thought, sourly. The more she looked at the spell, the more she was convinced she could use it to jump to the moon...if she had the power to cast the spell and the precision to ensure it didn’t mean her immediate death. Why don’t they know more?
She felt the wards shimmer around her and blinked. “We have a visitor.”
“Don’t try the spell until after your exams,” Void said, as he rose to his feet. “Lady Barb is here early, I’m afraid.”
“I’ve already packed,” Emily said. She rose and headed for the door. “And thank you for everything.”
Void smiled. “Just make sure you do well on your exams,” he said. “You have a reputation to keep.”
Emily opened the door. Lady Barb stood outside, wearing black robes that contrasted neatly with her long blonde hair. She carried a staff in one hand; beyond her, Emily could see a horse-drawn coach waiting for them. Emily gave Lady Barb a tight hug - she’d missed her badly - and then stepped back, welcoming Lady Barb into her house.
“I pledge to hold my hand in your house,” Lady Barb said, tightly. Her lips thinned when she caught sight of the ring on Emily’s finger. “I trust you are ready to depart?”
“I am,” Emily said. There was bad blood between Lady Barb and Void. She’d wondered about trying to get her parental figures to talk, but she had the feeling it would merely get her hexed by one or both of them. “I’ll just fetch my trunk.”
She hurried up the stairs to her bedroom, grabbed the trunk from where she’d left it at the foot of the bed and hurried back downstairs. Void already stood at the door, holding his own trunk in one hand and quietly ignoring Lady Barb. Emily put her trunk down, hurried to place spells on everything that needed preserving and then started to close the wards. The house would remain sealed until she returned. She bid a silent farewell to the Grandmaster as they stepped outside, the final wards falling into place. Anyone who tried to break in would be held in stasis, if they managed to break through the first three protective wards.
“I thank you,” she said to Void. “I’ll see you soon?”
“Soon,” Void confirmed.
He stepped backwards, nodded to her and vanished. Emily stared at where he’d stood, feeling a flicker of envy. His teleportation spell had been so perfectly controlled that he hadn’t even caused a flash of light. Lady Barb caught her arm and tugged her gently towards the carriage, leaving the house behind. Oddly, Emily felt as if she was leaving home. She hadn’t felt like that since she’d gone to Zangaria after her first year at Whitehall.
“I trust you have been preparing for your exams,” Lady Barb said, curtly. “You have a great deal of work to do.”
“I know,” Emily said. The older woman looked stern, too stern. “I did my best to keep up with my reading and practical spells.”
“You still have a great deal of work to do,” Lady Barb said, as they climbed into the carriage and sat down. She tapped on the headboard, ordering the driver to start moving, and then looked back at Emily as she pulled the curtains closed and cast a handful of privacy wards into the air. “Are you all right?”
“He didn’t hurt me, if that’s what you’re asking,” Emily protested. She knew why Lady Barb disliked Void, but the Lone Power hadn’t done anything to her. “He helped me learn how to cope with my new power reserves.”
“I’d keep that to yourself if I were you,” Lady Barb said, flatly. “Your masking is good, but it isn’t perfect. Your fellow students will be quite jealous.”
Emily swallowed. “What...what happened at the school?”
“Mistress Irene is still doing the Grandmaster’s job without the pay,” Lady Barb said. “So far, the White Council has yet to decide on a successor. There are so many deals being struck in the White City that no one can keep track of who’s in the lead. I imagine they will come to an agreement by the start of next year.”
“Oh,” Emily said. “Why don’t they just give the position to Mistress Irene?”
“Because she doesn’t have the polit
ical capital the Grandmaster had,” Lady Barb pointed out, directly. “The Grandmaster of Whitehall is more than just the ruler of the school, Emily; he or she has a great deal of influence over magical policy. It isn’t a post that is given to just anyone. And...after what happened over the last four years, I think they’ll want someone capable of taking the school and keeping it in line.”
“There isn’t anyone who dares to cross Mistress Irene,” Emily said. “If she isn’t the strictest tutor in Whitehall, she’s certainly the second or third.”
“That’s not what they care about,” Lady Barb said. She leaned back in her seat as the carriage shook, vigorously. “Master Grey was just the latest in a stream of...incidents.”
Emily nodded. Shadye’s invasion, the Mimic, the Demon...
Lady Barb frowned. “Did you inspect Master Grey’s property before time ran out?”
“I wasn’t in any state to go,” Emily said. “Void arranged for me to get an extension.”
“No other claimants, then,” Lady Barb mused.
She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it right now, though,” she added. She fixed Emily with a gimlet eye. “You’ll be back to classes tomorrow, so make sure you have a good night’s sleep. No wandering out of your room after Lights Out.”
“I won’t,” Emily promised. She took a breath. “What...what do they think of me now?”
“A great deal of respect, seeing you managed to kill a combat sorcerer with far more experience than you,” Lady Barb said, curtly. Emily wondered what she thought of Emily now, but didn’t dare ask. Being in proximity to Void always put Lady Barb on edge. “And also a considerable amount of fear. I’d tell you to watch your back, but I doubt anyone would take a shot at you. Just concentrate on your exams and leave the future to worry about itself.”
She sighed. “And I would take a very careful look at anything Void gave you,” she added, darkly. “It might well have a sting in the tail.”
Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) Page 3
