Oathkeeper (Schooled in Magic Book 20)

by Christopher Nuttall

  “I think I’d better get you home,” Frieda said. She summoned the landlord’s daughter and ordered her to collect the dishes. “I’ll take you to Whitehall. We can go through the portals there.”

  “I can teleport,” Emily insisted. She knew it was a bad idea, but she didn’t want Frieda babying her. “I know how to teleport.”

  “And if you teleport right now, you’ll probably jump right into a mountain,” Frieda said, bluntly. She paid for the dinner, heedless of Emily’s protests, then helped Emily to stand. “Are you sure you’re not being drained?”

  Emily didn’t have the strength to object as Frieda cast a handful of detection charms. Her wards twitched uncomfortably, pushing back against the spells. She knew she should feel annoyed at the presumption, but... it was growing increasingly hard to focus. Her legs felt wobbly, as if she was on the verge of collapse. Frieda led her outside, back into the cold. It slapped her face, but failed to rouse her. She wondered, suddenly, if she was drunk. She might have drunk something alcoholic without noticing...

  The thought terrified her. She loathed alcohol. She’d seen the demon drink make monsters out of men and women alike. Her mother had been well on the way to drinking herself to death before Emily had been yanked into the Nameless World. Emily knew what booze could do. And yet, she also knew she hadn’t drunk any alcohol. Void didn’t allow it in his tower, although... she supposed it was possible the maids had some alcohol in their rooms. They wouldn’t have been fool enough to serve it to her though, or to their master. Void would have killed them. Literally.

  She looked from side to side, her head suddenly very heavy. The town seemed to split in two, as if there were a second town overlaying the first. The first town appeared unchanged, just as she remembered; the second was an alien realm, lined with strange buildings and streets that went in directions no human mind could comprehend. She shuddered as she saw things moving in the corner of her eye, somehow never quite there when she looked directly at them. There were things she knew no human should ever see, yet... voices were whispering, voices calling her name. And she listened.

  “Emily!” Frieda was shaking her. “Emily, wake up!”

  Emily started. They were on the outskirts of town, heading towards Whitehall... she had no clear memory of how they’d gotten there. They’d walked... they had to have walked. Right? She wasn’t sure. They were walking towards the teleport pad, even though they didn’t need to use them when teleporting out of the town. The kids she’d seen earlier were gone. They’d left a handful of weird-looking snowmen behind. She blinked hard, unsure what was real and what wasn’t. It felt as if everything was real. The thicket ahead of them was both a small corpse of trees and a gateway to something greater. She could feel it.

  “Emily,” Frieda said. She seemed... translucent somehow, as if she were part of only one world. Her voice sounded panicked, but... “Emily, we have to go back!”

  “Go where?” Emily tried to focus, but it was hard. She felt as if she were drifting outside her body, watching from above as she stumbled forward. “I can’t...”

  Frieda caught her arm and yanked her around. Emily looked back at the town - both towns. A series of visions assailed her mind. Dragons flew overhead, unseen and unremarked; creatures that looked like children, until she saw their eyes, whispered nasty secrets as they looked back at her. She couldn’t hear them, but... she recoiled as she saw the snowmen growing into monsters that threatened the other town. Frieda said something Emily didn’t hear. The world was changing around her. She found herself stumbling towards the woods, towards something that waited for her. Frieda grabbed her arm again, but her grip felt as insubstantial as fog. Emily didn’t have to shrug her off. She just kept walking.

  “Emily!” Frieda got in front of her as they reached the edge of the woods. She raised a hand, as if she intended to slap Emily. “Emily! Wake up!”

  Her eyes went wide with surprise as she started to change. Emily watched, feeling nothing, as Frieda’s legs became wood, her arms becoming branches, her face... Emily knew, at some level, that she should be horrified, but she felt nothing. It was... natural, something that should happen. She walked past Frieda and deeper into the woods, knowing - on some level - that she was walking into an alien realm. The thicket had never been that big, if she recalled correctly, but she felt as if she’d been walking for hours, travelling for miles. Wild magic blossomed around her as she found the path, walking on and on and on...

  Visions flared around her, each strange and different. She was a helpless slave, held captive by a monster. She was a servant, a soldier, a teacher, a mother... the visions tore at her mind, reminding her of what she could have been. A surge of feelings ran through her as she held her child in her arms, tears dripping from her eyes - a moment later - as the child vanished back into nothingness. She didn’t have a child. She’d never had a child. And yet, for a moment, the child had been real. She wanted to scream and rage at the visions, but it was pointless. The visions weren’t real.

  The path came to a stop. Emily stopped too, staring into a lake of crystalline water. The moon hung low, seemingly close enough to touch. Wild magic boiled through the air, spinning around without ever touching her. She felt, in a strange sense, as if she’d come home. The water glowed, calling to her. She almost reached for it, intending to take a sip, before it dawned on her that taking anything from the alien realm would be a very bad idea. She might never make it home.

  A light darted on the far side of the lake. And another. And another... she watched as a cluster of tiny fairies materialized, a swarm of glowing creatures gliding towards her. She sucked in her breath, awareness suddenly returning as she remembered exactly where she was. The fairies were the Unseelie - or so the Grandmaster had called them - and she’d made a deal with them... coldness ran down her spine as she remembered what she’d promised. Anything, anything at all. She raised her head and saw... herself, standing on the far side of the lake. She knew, without knowing how she knew, that all times were one inside the wood. If she chose to break her word, her past self would be killed and... everything she’d done would simply be erased from reality. It would never have happened at all.

  She found herself on her knees as the tiny shapes danced in front of her. She’d felt their power, six years ago, but she hadn’t really understood just how powerful they truly were. It was hard to believe they were in hiding, hard to believe humanity could do anything to them. And yet, she knew it to be true. They were in hiding... they’d made her promise to keep their secret, as well as everything else. She had to force herself to look at them as their power beat on the air. Up close, they were somehow... wrong.

  They’re not human, she reminded herself. She had never claimed to be a social expert, but she understood that all humans had things in common. These creatures were not remotely human. Whatever they look like, they’re not human. They don’t think like us.

  “Emily.” The swarm spoke as one, their voices harmonizing into a single hypnotic sound that chilled her to the bone. “We have called you here. You have always been here.”

  Emily bit her lip, hard. The pain helped her to remain focused. She looked beyond them, at her past self. The older - younger - Emily wasn’t moving, caught in a timeless moment. She couldn’t see her, Emily recalled. She hadn’t seen her future self when she’d stumbled into the Unseelie Court. Perhaps, from her other self’s point of view, the oath hadn’t been made. Not yet. And if she refused to keep it, the oath would never be made at all.

  She swallowed, hard, as the implications dawned on her. She’d always assumed she’d die if she refused to keep the oath - and promised herself that she’d accept death if the demands were too onerous - but she saw now it was worse than that, far worse. If her past self died here, killed to keep their secret, the entire timeline would unravel. She couldn’t even begin to calculate the scale of the disaster. How many things rested - had rested - upon her? They had her over a barrel. Whatever the price, she’d have to pay it
. There was no choice.

  The voices hummed in unison. “You will complete your oath. Now.”

  Emily swallowed. Her mouth was very dry. Her voice, when she finally managed to speak, felt tinny, as if she were shouting inside an immense cathedral. “What do you want from me?”

  There was a long, chilling pause. “Seek out the Heart of All Things, in the Castle at the End of the Land,” the voices said. They rose and fell together. “And reignite the Eternal Flame!”

  Chapter Four

  EMILY FELT AS IF SHE WERE a puppet dangling on weak strings. Her legs felt like jelly. If she hadn’t been on her knees, she was sure she would have lost her balance and tumbled into the lake. She had a feeling, although she had no idea how, that falling into the water would kill her. The lake wasn’t real. Her surroundings weren’t real. Everything she saw was... perhaps... an illusion, something her mortal mind could comprehend. The swarm of tiny flying humanoids in front of her might be nothing more than the tip of the iceberg, a hint of something far greater...

  She bit her lip again, tasting blood. “The Eternal Flame?”

  “The Eternal Flame,” the voices echoed. “You will reignite the Eternal Flame.”

  Emily’s mind raced. She’d never heard of the Eternal Flame, not in any context that made sense. The Heart of All Things? The Castle at the End of the Land? She thought she recalled a reference to the latter, but she couldn’t remember where and when she’d heard it. She concentrated, but her memory refused to oblige her. It had been a vague reference, something that hadn’t made much of an impression on her at the time.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she managed. “What do you want me to do?”

  The voices broke apart into a discordant racket, all the little creatures talking at once. Emily tried to follow the argument, but it was incomprehensible. They didn’t seem in agreement about anything beyond the basics. They hadn’t been keen on making the deal with her in the first place, she recalled suddenly. They’d thought twice about doing it at the time... she swallowed hard, wondering precisely what they wanted her to do. They could have killed her past self in an instant if they’d wanted to.

  “Reignite the Eternal Flame,” the voices said. “Reignite the Eternal Flame.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said, trying to plead with them. “I can do it, but I don’t know what you want me to do.”

  Emily gritted her teeth as the voices broke apart again, bombarding her with an endless series of statements that made absolutely no sense. She felt her heart sink, convincing her that she’d have to make her excuses to Void and do... and do what? She had no idea where to go, much less what they wanted her to do. Reignite the Eternal Flame? Where was the Eternal Flame? What was it? She felt the wild magic grow stronger as the little creatures started to glide away. They were leaving, throwing her back out...

  “Wait!” Her voice sounded weak, even to her. “I need you to listen.”

  “Listen, listen,” the voices echoed.

  “I need to tell my master something,” Emily said. “Can I tell him the truth?”

  “You may, you may,” the voices sang. “Reignite the Eternal Flame!”

  The world spun. Emily squeezed her eyes shut, the ground trembling under her knees. The cold struck her again... she realized, suddenly, that she was on her knees in the midst of a snowdrift. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. Snow was falling... she stumbled to her feet, hastily wrapping her cloak around her body. The temperature was dropping rapidly...

  She cursed and started to run. Frieda! Her friend had been turned into a tree! Emily couldn’t believe she’d been so unconcerned, even if she’d been in the grip of powerful - and wild - magic. The Unseelie had been calling to her... no wonder she’d been having bad dreams. She wondered, numbly, why they hadn’t simply yanked her to them. They had the power. But then, being slightly disconnected from time - at least as humans understood it - must bring its disadvantages. They’d known what they'd wanted when she’d come to them. They hadn’t needed to bring her to them ahead of time. She rubbed her forehead as she continued to run through the woods, slipping and sliding as she crashed through the ice. Where was Frieda...?

  “Emily!” Frieda stood at the edge of the thicket, looking confused. “What happened to you?”

  “Frieda!” Emily gave her friend a hug. “What happened to you?”

  Frieda gave her an odd look. “You stumbled into the forest,” she said. “And then you came out.”

  “You were turned into a tree!” Emily had heard strange tales about wild magic, but she’d never seen it in action. “I saw...”

  She shook her head. “It’s a long story,” she said. She could feel the oath at the back of her head, pushing her onwards. It felt like a geas, one she couldn’t dispel. She’d have to complete her mission if she wanted it gone. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah.” Frieda eyed her, suspiciously. “Are you feeling better?”

  “I think so.” Emily rubbed her eyes. The visions of the other town and its alien denizens were gone. “But I think I’d better go.”

  “What happened?” Frieda caught her arm. “Emily, you’re behaving like a madwoman.”

  “I’m not sure if I can tell you,” Emily said. The geas didn’t seem to care, but it was hard to be sure. Oaths were tricky things. The Grandmaster hadn’t forced her to break the oath deliberately, when he’d peeked into her mind. “I...”

  She swallowed hard and outlined the story, half-expecting the geas to tighten around her mind and freeze her tongue. But nothing happened. Frieda listened carefully, her eyes going wide as Emily described - in vague terms - the deal she’d made six years ago. It felt odd to say it out loud, after keeping it to herself for so long. She’d practically forgotten the oath had ever been made. She wondered, sourly, if the Unseelie had done it deliberately. She’d had her mind read, several times. The searchers might have learnt the truth without her ever breaking the oath.

  The Grandmaster had no interest in starting a fight, she thought. But other people would have felt differently.

  “You made a deal with the other folk,” Frieda said. “With the awful folk...”

  “I had no choice,” Emily said. “If I’d died there...”

  “It’ll bite you,” Frieda predicted. “Where I grew up... everyone knows that bargaining with the other folk is asking for trouble.”

  Emily pulled her cloak around her as the snow kept falling. “I had no choice,” she repeated, quietly. “What have you heard?”

  “Bad stories,” Frieda said. “They’re not called the awful folk for nothing.”

  She lowered her voice, even though the wild magic was gone. “Children snatched from their cradles, bundles of sticks left in return. Men turned into animals, women mazed into... there’s a myth, back home, that magicians are descended from changelings, from creatures left behind when the babies are stolen. There are places no one will go, for fear of never coming out again. Entire villages, vanished into the night. I...”

  Her voice grew quiet as she remembered something from the past. “My father’s hometown was destroyed, shortly after I was born,” she added. “They said the villagers had angered the awful folk.”

  Emily frowned. “Why?”

  “I don’t know.” Frieda looked pained. “No one ever went anywhere near the village after it died. Not even me.”

  She looked at Emily. “You have to be careful,” she said. “Really.”

  “I will be.” Emily looked towards the distant mountains. “Do you want me to teleport you back to the school?”

  “You were dead on your feet, only minutes ago,” Frieda pointed out. “I’ll walk back when the snow stops, I think. You can teleport home and do... do whatever you have to do.”

  “Sergeant Miles used to say that walking through a blizzard was dangerous,” Emily said, dryly. Lady Barb had said the same thing, only with much more profanity. “You’re sure?”

  Frieda smiled. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “But re
ally, you should rest before you teleport anywhere.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Emily assured her. She felt strange. Her magic felt refreshed, as if it were just the work of a moment to teleport right around the globe, and yet... she felt the geas prodding her, urging her not to waste time. She hadn’t felt so jumpy since she’d drunk an energy potion for the first time. “Take care of yourself.”

  “I’ll be here when you need me,” Frieda said. She gave Emily a hug, then stepped back. “And watch your back.”

  Emily nodded, feeling a twinge of guilt. She’d intended to watch the winter rituals, even though she couldn’t partake. They’d always meant more to Frieda than they had to any of her other friends. But... she raised a hand, then closed her eyes and carefully cast the teleport spell. This time, everything worked perfectly. She opened her eyes to see the tower rising in front of her. The heat melted the snow on her cloak, turning it to water. Emily took it off, then headed for the tower. The wards welcomed her home. She rubbed her forehead, wondering precisely what time it was. Teleport lag was never easy to overcome.

  “Lady Emily.” Silent curtseyed as she entered the tower. “You’re home early.”

  Emily blinked in surprise. Silent rarely showed any interest in her comings and goings. And yet, the maid was always there to greet her when she returned home. Emily guessed the tower had something to do with it. Silent’s job was looking after Emily... she put the thought aside as the geas poked at her, reminding her she had to talk to Void. She reached out with her mind as she took off the cloak and passed it to Silent, asking them where to find Void. He was in the living room...

  “My Lady,” Silent said. “I...”

  “Later,” Emily said. The geas wouldn’t let her do anything else. She felt as antsy as a fly on a griddle. “We’ll talk later.”

  She hurried up the stairs, hoping the tower wouldn’t start to play games. It - or Void - had tested her by rearranging the corridors on short notice, forcing her to realize she was trapped and needed to manipulate her surroundings to get out. She thought she felt something watching her, as if the tower were considering doing just that before thinking better of it. She frowned as she stopped outside the living room, then opened the door. Void sat in an armchair, facing the sofa. Master Lucknow - and Jan - were sitting on the sofa. Emily was astonished. She’d never known Void to have guests before.