Graduation Day (Schooled in Magic Book 14)

by Christopher Nuttall

  “I will be in touch with the White Council,” Gordian said. “Fulvia will be declared outlaw and ...”

  “She has Frieda,” Emily said, cutting him off. “What is she going to do with her?”

  “I don’t think she’ll kill her immediately,” Gordian said. “Frieda herself is worthless in the grand scheme of things.”

  Because Fulvia’s real target is me, Emily thought. She held on to her anger, trying to ride it rather than push it away. And as long as Frieda is alive, Fulvia has leverage she can use.

  “We need to go after them,” Emily said, sharply. “They could be anywhere by now.”

  “Yes,” Gordian said. “And I will inform the White Council ...”

  Emily blinked as the meaning of his words impacted on her. “You haven’t told them already?”

  Her temper flared. It was impossible. Gordian was impossible. Even if Fulvia had shattered the direct links to the White City, Gordian would have no trouble getting a message to the White Council. Someone could just walk out of the school and teleport directly to the White City, if necessary. Gordian could send Master Tor or Sergeant Miles if he couldn’t go himself. There was no excuse for delay. Fulvia could be on the other side of the world by now.

  And the sooner she’s declared outlaw, the sooner she’ll be thrown back on her own resources, Emily thought. A chill ran through her. Fulvia had been thrown back on her own resources once before and the results had been disastrous. Her family isn’t going to support her after this, surely ...

  She met his eyes. “The Ashworths won’t support her now,” she said. Being declared outlaw might push Fulvia into doing something desperate, but ... she’d already crossed that line. She certainly couldn’t expect Gordian to try to cover up the whole affair. “Surely ...”

  “I do not know,” Gordian said.

  Emily shook her head in disbelief. Fulvia had been kicked out - or so Emily had been told - for nearly starting a knife-range battle between the Ashworths and their bitter rivals. Two-thirds of both families could have been wiped out, if they’d started fighting. The winner might have only two or three adults left, an open invitation to someone else to destroy the remainder of the family and vacuum up the scraps. And now Fulvia had made an enemy of practically everyone in the Allied Lands. There wasn’t anyone who’d forgive her for opening Whitehall to attack ...

  And we can prove it, Emily thought. She couldn’t understand why Gordian was reluctant to act. It was his job to act. There won’t be any way to deny what happened ...

  Understanding clicked. “You don’t want to tell them what really happened,” she charged. “You don’t want to admit that your actions allowed her access to the wards.”

  Gordian’s face darkened. “Watch what you say.”

  “Or what?” Emily demanded. Her magic grew stronger as her temper flared. “You’ll expel me?”

  Gordian rose, his own power surrounding him. “I am not Jacqui,” he said, in a tone so calm she knew he was angry. “I strongly advise you not to try intimidating me.”

  Emily held his eyes. “You wanted to undo my link to the wards.” She was damned if she was going to back down now. “And you brought wardcrafters into the school to do it, because you didn’t want to tell anyone what you were actually doing. And some of them, maybe just one, allowed Fulvia to bring a small army into the wards.”

  She took a breath. “All of this is your fault.”

  Gordian didn’t try to deny it. “I did what I thought best,” he said. “And I was wrong.”

  “And now you’re reluctant to blow the whistle on Fulvia because it would render your position untenable,” Emily pushed. “Fulvia didn’t exploit a previously undiscovered flaw in the wards, you let her put the flaw in the wards. You’d be sacked if the truth ever came out.”

  “Yes,” Gordian said. He stared back at her, his eyes dark. “And that would unleash a political firestorm.”

  Emily lifted her eyebrows. “And Fulvia’s attack on Whitehall won’t?”

  She shook her head. Gordian couldn’t hope to cover up what had happened. Even if she - and everyone else involved with the inquest - kept their mouths shut, rumors would start leaking out at once. Students were probably already using chat parchments to alert their parents. Emily wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that some of the older students were already spreading the word to Dragon’s Den. The best Gordian could do was delay matters, but not for long. Perhaps he was hoping the rumors would mutate into something completely unbelievable.

  “I do not know,” Gordian said, resignedly.

  Emily sighed. “I don’t have time for this. I have to get after her.”

  “Be reasonable,” Gordian said. “The Allied Lands are vast. You have no idea where she went.”

  “I know,” Emily said. Fulvia wouldn’t take Frieda to Emily’s house, would she? Even if she did, she couldn’t get in. Unless she managed to dismantle the wards completely ... Emily considered it briefly, then dismissed it. Fulvia was smart enough to realize that taking down Emily’s wards would render the house defenseless. “But I can start looking for her.”

  Gordian frowned. “You’d be wasting your time.”

  “Perhaps.” Emily glared at him. “I’m going to go after her anyway. And you are not going to stop me.”

  She went on before Gordian could say a word. “I’m going to leave. And if you do try to stop me, I will make sure that everyone knows the whole story. The trip back in time, my role as one of the founders, my access to the wards, your role in bringing them down ... everything.”

  Gordian looked, just for a second, as if she’d struck him. “Do you have any idea what that could do?”

  “Yeah,” Emily said. She’d considered the consequences of telling the Allied Lands about time travel long ago. “I just don’t care.”

  “You are prepared to risk everything,” Gordian asked, “for one little girl?”

  “She’s my friend,” Emily said, deciding not to point out that Frieda was nineteen. And a student of Whitehall. “Yes.”

  She braced herself, unsure what to expect. Gordian was older and stronger than her ... if he decided he wanted to stop her from leaving, he could certainly try. She had no idea if she could draw on the wards before he overwhelmed her. And even if she could, the wards wouldn’t want to lash out at their grandmaster. Gordian deserved to be fired, but the wards wouldn’t know that.

  And if he teleports me away from the school, she thought, I lose my link to the wards anyway.

  “Very well.” Gordian held up a hand. “But I cannot let you take any of the staff with you.”

  Sienna, Jade and Cat aren’t part of the staff, Emily thought. She didn’t have to do it alone, did she? A thought struck her. And you didn’t mention the students either.

  “Fine.” Emily started to turn, then stopped herself. “Why didn’t you talk to me?”

  “If you come back, we’ll talk then,” Gordian said. “And if you don’t ...”

  Emily shrugged and walked out of the room. Gordian was more concerned with his life and position than Frieda’s safety. She wasn’t sure why that surprised her. Frieda might be a magician, but she was a newborn magician with few ties to any other magicians. Of course Gordian didn’t consider her particularly important. The Nameless World didn’t bother to pay even lip service to the concept of equality. Frieda was expendable in the greater scheme of things.

  Not to me, Emily thought. Sienna might not want to be involved - she had a family, including a very vulnerable daughter - but Jade and Cat would certainly help. Unless ... Jade might have to ask Alassa first, just to make sure he didn’t drag Zangaria into open conflict with the Ashworths and their clients. Cat will help, even if no one else does.

  “Emily,” a quiet voice said.

  Emily stopped. Jacqui was standing at the end of the corridor, leaning against the wall. Her face was still badly bruised, suggesting the healers hadn’t had time to worry about her vanity. Or perhaps she’d been cursed too ... Emil
y pushed the thought aside as she stepped forward, daring Jacqui to try to stop her. She didn’t have time for the former Head Girl.

  She glared at Jacqui, trying not to take any pleasure in how the other girl cringed back and refused to meet her eyes. “What do you want?”

  Jacqui held up a parchment. “She told me to give you a message. She ...”

  Fulvia, Emily thought. A ransom demand, perhaps. Fulvia had to move quickly. Gordian might be stalling, but he couldn’t stall for long. And Fulvia couldn’t know he’d be stalling at all. She beat the hell out of Jacqui, then told her to give me the note ...?

  She looked at the other girl. There was no point in trying to take the chat parchment. It would be charmed so that only the owner could read it. Aloha had programmed that into the original charm, just to ensure complete privacy. There was probably a way to undo the charm without destroying the parchment, but Emily didn’t know it. Trying and failing would cause the parchment to burst into flames.

  “Well,” she demanded, after Jacqui said nothing. “What does it say?”

  “You’re to come to House Ashworth, at once,” Jacqui told her. “If you don’t come by the end of the day, Frieda will suffer the punishment she deserves.”

  Emily bit down on a sharp response. She had no idea where House Ashworth was, let alone how to get there. Teleporting wasn’t an option when she didn’t have a rough idea where to go. Jacqui would have to take her, unless she couldn’t teleport. And that meant Emily wouldn’t have time to plan a counterattack, let alone get one moving. Fulvia was still one step ahead of her. And yet, she’d gone back to her home ...

  That made no sense, did it? Her family might not know what had happened, when Fulvia arrived, but they’d find out quickly. Adana might already have told her father about the attack on the school. Unless Adana didn’t know the full details ... Emily shook her head, crossly. Fulvia presumably thought she’d be safe. She wouldn’t have risked whatever was left of her life unless she was sure she was safe. Perhaps Fulvia could simply lock the house down until she came to terms with Emily.

  But it’s hard to see what I can give her that will convince the White Council not to declare her outlaw, Emily thought. And she couldn’t lock the house down forever, could she?

  A thought struck her. If Fulvia had gone to House Ashworth, that meant ...

  “I don’t know where House Ashworth is,” she said. “Can you teleport?”

  Jacqui nodded, miserably. Emily felt an odd flicker of sympathy. Fulvia was Jacqui’s patron, after all. And yet, she was horribly abusive to her clients. The best Jacqui could have hoped for, when she’d come to Whitehall, was spending the rest of her life doing what Melissa told her. Now ... Jacqui was caught between two people, both of whom could destroy her. Fulvia certainly wouldn’t lift a finger to help Jacqui afterwards, if Emily wanted to take revenge ...

  “Very good,” Emily said. The bare bones of a plan were starting to take shape in her mind as she glanced at her watch. “I have to take a shower and change. I’ll meet you in the lobby in ninety minutes. We’ll go then.”

  Jacqui looked torn between relief and terror. “As you wish,” she said. Thankfully, she didn’t seem inclined to question why Emily needed so long to shower. “Ah ... you’re not supposed to tell the Grandmaster.”

  “Don’t worry,” Emily said. She wasn’t sure where Jade and Cat were, but she could find them. “I won’t tell him anything.”ouseHousrf

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “YOU DO REALIZE THAT THIS IS a trap, don’t you?”

  Emily nodded, curtly. Jade was right. It was a trap. And yet, it was one she had no choice but to spring. There might be no other way to get inside House Ashworth, certainly not without inside help.

  She looked around her bedroom, silently kicking herself for not using the common room or one of the classrooms. But there had been no choice. Jacqui might notice if Emily held a meeting anywhere outside the dorms. Someone else might have been reporting to her too. No one had seen anything of Cerise since Fulvia had kidnapped Frieda.

  The room felt smaller than usual, almost claustrophobic. Jade and Cat were both big men; Markus, sitting next to Melissa on the bed, wasn’t much smaller. She wished Lady Barb or Sienna could join them, but Lady Barb hadn’t woken up. And it would be unfair to ask Sienna. She’d considered asking Caleb, but that would have placed him in an invidious position. Asking Melissa was pushing the limits about as far as they would go.

  And I wouldn’t have asked her at all if I hadn’t needed her, Emily thought. No one else has been inside House Ashworth.

  “We have to rescue Frieda,” she said. Ideally, she would also like to remove Fulvia as a threat - permanently - but she’d settle for what she could get. “Or, at least, I have to. If any of you don’t want to come ...”

  Cat snorted. “It sounds like fun. And besides, the bounty on Fulvia’s head is likely to set me up for life.”

  “Assuming you’re actually the one to kill her,” Markus pointed out. “Has the bounty been posted yet?”

  Emily shook her head. She couldn’t even guess how long it would be before Gordian made a formal complaint. Fulvia’s clients would try to stall further, she imagined, although she had no idea how long that would last. There was plenty of evidence to show that Fulvia had knocked down the wards long enough to do a great deal of damage and snatch Frieda. Unless Gordian held some details back. He had plenty of reason to try to minimize the whole situation.

  Damn him, Emily thought.

  “We don’t have time to wait for a bounty.” Emily glanced at her watch. “I have to leave in forty minutes.”

  Cat nudged Jade. “Can you come with us? Or has your wife stolen your balls?”

  “Alassa hasn’t replied to my messages,” Jade said, grimly. There was a trace of worry in his voice. “I think, however, that she’d understand me taking part as a private citizen.”

  “I don’t think you can be disowned,” Emily said. Jade was Prince Consort, not some random nobleman. And he might also be the father of Alassa’s child, if Alassa genuinely was pregnant this time. “If you want to stay behind ...”

  “I’ll come,” Jade said. “I owe you too much.”

  “We’ll be coming too,” Melissa added. “We owe Fulvia a great deal too.”

  Emily looked at Markus. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

  “I’ve been better,” Markus said. He shared a long look with Melissa. “But I have to come too.”

  Jade cleared his throat. “How many people can we expect to find inside the manor?”

  “I don’t know,” Melissa said. “Normally, there are around a hundred people in the building: family, close allies, staff and servants. I don’t think Fulvia would have changed that, but ... she might have. She might also have called in support from the family’s clients, if she expects attack.”

  “But some of them will know what happened here,” Markus said. “They might refuse to side with Fulvia.”

  Emily frowned. “Is there any way to know?”

  “I doubt it,” Markus said.

  “Adana might have a chat parchment linked to her father,” Melissa put in. “We can ask her to use it. But I don’t know if she’ll be believed.”

  She doesn’t, Emily thought.

  “True,” Jade agreed. It took Emily a moment to realize he was talking to Melissa. “Which leads to a second question. How are we going to get inside the wards?”

  “She’ll have to let Emily in,” Cat pointed out. “We could just pretend to be her ... ah ...possessions and let her carry us in.”

  “The wards would notice,” Melissa said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Fulvia demands that Emily strip before she enters the mansion. It’s the sort of thing she’d do.”

  Emily shuddered, helplessly. The idea of undressing in front of unfriendly eyes was terrifying. And she was sure Melissa was right. Fulvia would take great pleasure in humiliating her before getting to the point. There wasn’t even any guarantee that Fulvia would
let Frieda go. It wasn’t as if Fulvia had anything to lose by going back on her word.

  “So what do you suggest?” Cat leaned forward. “You don’t have access to the wards now, do you?”

  “No,” Melissa said. “But Adana does. There are ... rituals ... we can use to get through the wards, if we have a sample of her blood.”

  “So ask her for it,” Jade said.

  “Or take it,” Cat said. Everyone looked at him. “Adana is ... what? Seventeen? We have to leave her with some plausible deniability if this all goes belly-up.”

  “Fulvia wouldn’t believe Adana was innocent even if we overloaded her mind with compulsion spells,” Melissa muttered.

  “Ask her first,” Jade said, reasonably. “And then we can take it, if she refuses.”

  Emily scowled. Adana would be in real trouble if the rescue mission failed. Just contacting her father alone would get her in Fulvia’s bad books, even if she refused to let Melissa take some of her blood. And Fulvia wouldn’t hesitate to make sure Adana regretted it. Emily cursed Gordian, again. Hasdrubal would have protected Adana if she’d gone to him for help.

  And no one would have tried to push him around either, Emily reminded herself. Gordian is in a far weaker position.

  She forced herself to lean forward as the brainstorming session grew more complicated, considering all the possible problems and knocking them down one by one. The mental link to Melissa was weaker now, but it would last - Emily had tested it - long enough to let them communicate in House Ashworth. Markus didn’t seem pleased, when he heard about the link, yet he said nothing. Emily guessed that Melissa would be getting an earful after the mission.

  I wouldn’t like it if Caleb shared his memories of me, she acknowledged, silently. And Markus has every reason to be concerned.

  “We have a rough plan,” she said, finally. “Remember, the objective is to get Frieda out - not to kill Fulvia. Let the White Council or her family handle her.”

  “If they can,” Cat muttered. “Those idiots couldn’t decide to take a piss if their bladder was full.”