Graduation Day (Schooled in Magic Book 14)

by Christopher Nuttall

  “Thank you,” she said. “I’m here to ask you about your former assistant. Frieda, Daughter of Huckeba.”

  The man eyed her for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “And who might you be, young lady?”

  “Emily.” She didn’t like reciting her titles, but she had no choice. “Daughter of Void, Baroness Cockatrice, Necromancer’s Bane, Mistress of Heart’s Eye ...”

  “I am Zach,” the man said. His voice quavered for a moment before recovering. “Frieda spoke often of you, Lady Emily. And you, Lady Barb.”

  He switched the sign on the door to CLOSED, adjusted the wards to deter any more persistent customers and led the way into the backroom. “What would you like to know?”

  “Everything,” Emily said. “How did she get on? And how much did you teach her?”

  “And did she leave anything behind?” Lady Barb added. “And anything else you consider to be important.”

  Zach frowned as he waved them to seats. “She was a good worker. She did her chores without complaint and never made the same mistake twice. A little behind on book knowledge - I’d often have to fill her in on tips and tricks she could have picked up from the textbooks, but didn’t. Also a little impatient, but that’s fairly common in apprentices of her age. I’ve had apprentices who needed to be beaten regularly before they learned to cool down and take things step by step.”

  Emily winced. “What did she do, when she wasn’t here?”

  “She made friends with a handful of the other apprentices,” Zach said. “They ran around outside, played games ... she never got into trouble, unlike some of the other young idiots who try to burgle shops for fun.”

  Maybe she just didn’t get caught, Emily thought. She’s good at sneaking in and out of places.

  “And I would have kept her on, if she’d wanted to stay,” Zach added. “I can’t offer any greater compliment.”

  “I know,” Emily agreed. Frieda had done well. Emily had done her work experience with Lady Barb, but there hadn’t been an offer of an apprenticeship at the end. “Did you notice anyone paying particular attention to her?”

  “Not unless you count some of the tradesmen,” Zach said. “The lads who brought goods into the store tried to flirt with her - quite outrageously, I might add. I don’t think she was particularly interested, although I suppose she could have met up with them when she was away from the store. She certainly never brought anyone back here.”

  He shrugged, expressively. “As far as most customers were concerned, she was just another apprentice. Hardly worth noticing, really.”

  Emily frowned. “Did you notice any changes in behavior while she was with you?”

  “She was a little unsure of herself, at first,” Zach said. “That’s not exactly uncommon, particularly when it’s someone’s first time in the big city. She got over it fairly quickly, Lady Emily. I was sorry to see her go.”

  “I see,” Emily said. “Can you show us her bedroom?”

  Zach led them up a narrow flight of stairs and into a small attic. Emily found the room a little claustrophobic - the ceiling was uncomfortably low - but Frieda would have been grateful just to have some privacy. It certainly beat having to share a room with an older man. A small bed, barely large enough for a young girl, sat against one wall; a chamberpot was placed next to it, beside a china bowl. Emily guessed that Frieda had filled it with water each night before going to bed. Her eyes swept the room, looking for potential hiding places. A small chest of drawers rested against the far wall, but otherwise the room was bare.

  “I believe she took everything when she went onwards,” Zach told her. “I certainly didn’t find anything of hers when I cleaned the room for the next apprentice.”

  Emily nodded, reaching out with her senses. There was nothing, not even a vague sense of Frieda’s presence. She hadn’t considered the tiny bedroom home, then. Emily wasn’t too surprised. A handful of weeks in residence wouldn’t make the room hers. She checked the drawers anyway, but they were empty. Frieda had definitely taken everything with her.

  “I would be happy to have her back,” Zach said. “Is there a problem?”

  “I’m not sure I can talk about it,” Emily said. She had no idea what rumors had reached Celeste. By now, the Allied Lands probably believed Frieda had murdered half the school and then fled across the Roaring Depths. “But I’ll tell her what you said.”

  She kept her thoughts to herself as Zach bowed them out. Frieda had the potential to be far more than just an apothecary - or even an alchemist. And yet, that potential might have been lost. Even if Frieda was declared innocent - or the Ashworths agreed to abandon the case - she would never be the same again. She might be too badly damaged to return to the apothecary, let alone take over the shop when Zach died.

  “We’ll get something to eat,” Lady Barb said. “And then we’ll go to the charms master.”

  They stopped in a small cafe and ate lunch. Emily listened, barely tasting her food, as Lady Barb dissected every last moment of their meeting with Zach. There had been some good points, she noted, but also some weaknesses. Emily silently promised herself that she’d work to get more experience interrogating people. She might well come up with more questions later, when it was too late to ask them.

  “It’s an odd city,” she said, as they resumed their walk. “What’s it like to grow up here?”

  “It’s definitely an odd place to grow up,” Lady Barb said. “I knew a couple of people who came from here. It’s both very safe and very dangerous, Emily. Serious crime is almost unknown, but you can wind up in real trouble if you mouth off to the wrong person. I wouldn’t care to live here.”

  Particularly if you had no magic, Emily thought. Growing up here would be a nightmare.

  There were more people on the pavement as they made their way past a temple and turned left onto a smaller street. Emily could hear a faint buzzing in her ears, as if the privacy wards couldn’t dampen out all the chatter. A handful of children walked out of a gate and hurried past them, all wearing the same white uniform. A school, Emily guessed. The unmarked schoolhouse was so heavily warded that she would have mistaken it for a bank, if she hadn’t seen the children. She guessed the teachers had no intention of allowing anyone to use magic on the premises.

  “Here,” Lady Barb said. They stopped outside an isolated house, surrounded by a low fence and powerful wards. “Be polite, remember.”

  Emily nodded as they twanged the wards, requesting admittance. There was a long pause, long enough to make her wonder if Master Lathes was out. And then the wards parted, inviting them to walk up the tiny path and into the building. She felt the wards grow stronger as they moved, pressing against her magic. Master Lathes clearly didn’t want unwelcome visitors. There were so many wards that it would be hard to cast spells with any degree of reliability in his home.

  I should ask him for pointers, she thought, as the door opened. He might be able to teach me something useful.

  Master Lathes was tall and almost inhumanly thin. Emily couldn’t help thinking of Mr. Spock, when she laid eyes on him. He had the same short dark hair, sharp eyes, angular face and very pointy nose, although his ears were reassuringly human. She was almost disappointed, even though she knew few magicians would deliberately embrace an inhuman look. It would have made them outcasts.

  “Lady Emily, I presume,” Master Lathes said. His voice was dry as dust. “You are welcome in my abode.”

  “Thank you,” Emily said. She felt a sudden stab of sympathy for Frieda. Master Lathes was clearly a harsh taskmaster. And he’d recognized Emily straight away. “I pledge to hold my hand in your house.”

  Master Lathes bowed his head, then motioned for her to walk down the corridor and enter a sitting room. It was surprisingly austere: the walls were bare, while the chairs were hard and cold. There were no bookcases, no paintings ... Emily rather suspected he’d concealed his books somewhere else in the house. A man couldn’t be a sorcerer without books. Even Profess
or Lombardi, one of the most accomplished charms masters in the world, referred to the textbooks on occasion.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you in person,” Master Lathes said. It was impossible to tell if he was being sincere. “What can I do for you?”

  “We need to ask you some questions about your former apprentice,” Emily said. “Frieda, Daughter of Huckeba.”

  “Indeed,” Master Lathes said. “I would not class her as an apprentice, myself. She was not sworn to me. But you may ask. I will even try to answer.”

  Emily sighed. “How was she? As a semi-apprentice, I mean.”

  “Frustrating,” Master Lathes said. “She had talent and power, but she lacked knowledge. I frequently had to go over concepts that should have been covered in her general schooling. It was quite irritating. Much of her work was thus rather limited.”

  “I see,” Emily said. Frieda had said something very different when she’d talked about her work experience. “What did she do for you?”

  “Very little,” Master Lathes said. “I couldn’t trust her with anything beyond the simplest of tasks. Even when I explained things to her, she didn’t grasp the underlying theory. She would often rush ahead of herself and get into trouble because she didn’t really know what she was doing. I generally kept her in the workroom, preparing tools and the simplest of charms. I doubt she will ever become either a charms mistress or an enchanter.”

  “I see.” Emily took a long breath. “How did you find her? As a person, I mean.”

  “Frustrating, like I said,” Master Lathes said. A hint of annoyance entered his voice. “She wasn’t disobedient. She didn’t need constant supervision. I didn’t have to wear out my belt on her backside or kick her out into the streets. But I couldn’t get any real use out of her either. The charms she devised were all pretty basic stuff.”

  Emily lifted her eyebrows. “She devised some charms?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Master Lathes said. “Much of her work was drawn from charms she learned at school, without any real flair. She couldn’t really break down two pieces of spellwork and put them together. It took her several tries to start enchanting small objects - and, realistically, her work probably wouldn’t last all that long. I let her get on with it, in the hopes that she’d learn something from failure.”

  Emily nodded, slowly. “Did you check her later work?”

  “No,” Master Lathes said. “I believed she needed to learn from failure, rather than have me point out every weakness in her spellwork.”

  “I see,” Emily said. “Did you keep records? Her charm diagrams?”

  “I stored them, as per request,” Master Lathes said. “Do you want to see them?”

  “Please,” Emily said.

  Master Lathes got up and left through a side door, closing it behind him. Emily glanced at Lady Barb, but said nothing. If she was any judge, the wards were monitoring them. Even leaving the room without permission might provoke an unpleasant response. Perhaps it was no wonder that Master Lathes lived alone, save for the occasional apprentice. She certainly wouldn’t want to live in such a heavily warded house.

  The door opened. Master Lathes stepped back into the room, carrying a wooden box. “By law, charms apprentices on short-term work experience are required to leave all of their notes with their master when they go,” he said. “I can’t let you take them without written permission, but you are more than welcome to look at them.”

  Emily glanced at Lady Barb. “Why ...?”

  “There are concerns about apprentices stealing trade secrets,” Lady Barb said. “The laws have never been updated.”

  The box wasn’t warded, save for a single locking charm that crumbled the moment Emily cast the counterspell. Inside, there were a number of sheets of paper - covered with Frieda’s messy handwriting - and a couple of textbooks, both several years out of date. Emily picked them up and looked at them, then put them aside. Professor Lombardi used only the very latest textbooks, but an independent charms master might consider it too expensive to be practical.

  Emily parsed her way through the papers, one by one. Master Lathes had been right, she admitted ruefully. Frieda had practically plagiarized most of her charm diagrams from her textbooks. It wasn’t an offense, but it was short-sighted. A well-understood charm had a number of well-understood holes. Even a handful of careful modifications would be enough to make life harder for any would-be intruders ...

  She sucked in her breath as she found the final sheet of paper. It showed a protective charm, but it was clearly mingled with another charm. She looked up at Master Lathes, then back at the paper. Frieda might not be able to work out the side effects before it was too late, but Emily could. The charm would reinforce strong emotion as well as protecting its wearer from harm.

  “I need to take this one,” she said, flatly. “It’s important.”

  Master Lathes smiled. “Do you have permission?”

  “I have a warrant,” Lady Barb said. She held out a sheet of parchment. “Can we take the whole box?”

  “You have a warrant,” Master Lathes said. “You can take it if you wish.”

  He looked at Emily. His voice softened a little. “She was a poor student and a worse apprentice, but she wasn’t a bad person. I hope these documents help you.”

  “Thank you,” Emily said. “I hope so too.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  EMILY HAD HOPED THE CHARM DIAGRAMS would be enough to prove Frieda’s innocence on the spot. It was clear to her - and Lady Barb agreed - that anyone who tried to use the charm to enchant an object would be setting themselves up for a very nasty fall. But Sienna, when Emily and Lady Barb took their find back to Whitehall, wasn’t so sure. There were too many variables, she pointed out. Frieda might have had her mind poisoned, but it was equally possible that she had poisoned herself.

  “Her assessment makes it clear that she might have done so,” she said, bluntly. “And while accidents do happen, it is unlikely that anyone will accept it as an excuse.”

  “But it does help,” Emily said. “Doesn’t it?”

  “I’ve studied the remains of the bracelet,” Sienna said. “The charm is gone. I cannot prove, even to my own satisfaction, that the enchantment was enough to push Frieda until she crossed the line. Fulvia will have no difficulty in raising questions and undermining our arguments.”

  She sighed. “And if she puts Master Lathes on the stand, Emily, it will raise questions about Frieda’s general level of competence.”

  “We didn’t find a link between Frieda and Daze,” Emily said. “I mean, in Celeste.”

  “You may have to hire private investigators,” Sienna said. “But I wouldn’t be too hopeful. There are very few people who actively watch their neighbors coming and going, Emily. You might be able to trace some of her friends, but ...”

  She broke off as Emily yawned. “Go get some rest. You have classes tomorrow, don’t you?”

  Emily nodded, curtly. She wasn’t looking forward to it. Part of her was honestly tempted to take Void up on his offer, once Frieda was cleared. She didn’t need the final exams, did she?

  “I will,” she said. “Did you hear anything else?”

  “Nothing useful,” Sienna said. Her lips twitched. “I imagine Fulvia is gathering evidence herself, but her people are not speaking to my people.”

  Emily bid her good night, then walked to the infirmary. Frieda was asleep, watched by a pair of healers and their trainees. Emily briefly considered staying and sitting by Frieda for a while, just in case her friend woke up, but she would simply get in the way. Every bed appeared to be occupied, surprisingly. Perhaps the dueling club meeting had gotten out of hand.

  It’s the weekend, she thought, as she made her way back to her bedroom. There couldn’t have been a potions accident, could there?

  She didn’t feel like going down for dinner, so she made herself a beef sandwich in the communal kitchen and took it back to her room. There was no one in the common room, which surprise
d her. It wasn’t that late. But then, every Sixth Year in the school was probably trying to study, even Jacqui. Emily felt a flicker of relief as she stepped into her room and sat down at the desk. Jacqui was more than welcome to be Head Girl.

  And if she messes it up, Emily thought sourly, so much the better.

  She ate her sandwich, showered, climbed into bed and closed her eyes. A moment later, she heard the morning bell ringing loudly. She sat up, feeling as if she hadn’t slept at all. But when she glanced at the clock, it was breakfast time. She’d slept so deeply that she hadn’t had any dreams at all.

  “Which is something,” she muttered, as she changed into her robes. There was no time for a shower. She would barely have time for breakfast before her first class. “At least I managed to sleep.”

  She ate a hasty breakfast in the communal kitchen, then hurried down to Alchemy. It was almost a relief to have a purely theoretical class, even though it was mainly centered on material she’d already covered. The other classes were more practical, forcing her to make her tired brain think. She had wistful thoughts about potions that could sharpen her up all day, tempered by the knowledge that such brews were dangerously addictive. Thankfully, for better or worse, she wasn’t the only one who was short-tempered on Monday. She didn’t stand out.

  She was tired and drained by the time she made her way into Madame Samra’s office at the end of the day. Melissa was sitting in an armchair, looking disgustingly fresh for someone who had probably gotten up at the crack of dawn. Emily forced down a moment of pure envy, calming herself as Madame Samra entered the room. She looked tired and thoroughly displeased.

  She’s probably spent the last few days thinking about what she saw in my mind, Emily thought. Lady Barb hadn’t found the knowledge maddening, but Void and Alassa had questioned her constantly about Earth. Samra was probably too much of a stuffed shirt to ask directly, yet it was clear she was curious. And how can I blame her for that?