Trial By Fire (Schooled in Magic Book 7)

by Christopher Nuttall

  She was still breathing, in and out, in and out, when Alassa entered the room and glanced into Emily’s bed. “You awake?”

  “No,” Emily said, dryly. “Are you asleep. too?”

  Alassa smiled, then sobered. “I just caught Tam and Penelope trying to sneak back into the dorms,” she said. “They could have waited half an hour, if they hadn’t wanted to be caught...”

  “Idiots,” Emily agreed. It might have been possible to wait until Alassa set off on her patrols, then sneak through the door. “Didn’t they know you’d be waiting outside?”

  “Probably not,” Alassa said. “Madame Beauregard didn’t usually hang around outside the door in Third Year.”

  That was true, Emily recalled. She’d stayed in her office, further down the corridor, and waited. If someone had made enough noise to summon her, that someone would not have had a very pleasant time of it. But Alassa had waited at the door.

  “Bad for them,” she said, dryly. “What did you do?”

  “Took their names,” Alassa said. “What else can I do?”

  Emily shuddered, remembering Mountaintop. “Be glad of it,” she said, as her friend started to undress. “This might be intended to teach you something about wielding power.”

  “I already know how to wield power,” Alassa muttered. She finished undressing and climbed into bed, without bothering to don a nightgown. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” Emily echoed.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing, but it was a very long time before she finally fell asleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  “THIS SHOULD BE FUN,” ALOHA SAID, the following afternoon. “How are you feeling?”

  “Nervous,” Emily grunted, as she pulled the uniform jacket over her head. It seemed to be a rule that uniforms should be ill-fitting, uncomfortable and itchy. “I didn’t sleep very well. Then I had Advanced Charms.”

  “Just wait until you get to Fifth Year,” Aloha said, unsympathetically. “You’ll have Very Advanced Charms.”

  Emily sighed, checking her uniform. It was a dark green, something that was supposed to make her harder to see in a jungle, although she had her doubts about its effectiveness in actual combat. The three black bands around her upper left arm puzzled her, unless they were meant to indicate that this was her third year of Martial Magic. She’d worn something similar at Mountaintop, but then she’d been an actual Third Year student. She tied her hair back into a long ponytail, and glanced at Aloha. Her friend looked...

  Pretty, Emily thought, numbly. Aloha practically glowed. Is she dressing to impress him?

  She gritted her teeth at the thought. Aloha’s uniform was a little tighter than it should be, particularly around her chest, and her face was scrubbed clean. Her long dark hair was bound up in a bun, drawing attention to her face and cheekbones. Was she actually crushing on Master Grey? Emily honestly couldn’t recall seeing Aloha put so much effort into her appearance before. She opened her mouth to ask, then shut it firmly. Whatever the answer, she didn’t want to know.

  “Let’s go,” Aloha said, as she checked her watch. “He’s waiting for us outside.”

  At least he isn’t changing in front of us, Emily thought. She’d always hated trips outside the school, even though the boys had given her some privacy. Sergeant Miles had warned her, privately, that that wouldn’t always be possible. He’s just waiting for us to get changed on our own.

  She pushed the thought to the back of her mind as Aloha led the way out of the changing room and into the Armory. It was a giant room, crammed with all kinds of weapons both mundane and magical, but Emily had no time to look at them. Master Grey stood in the exact center of the room, hands clasped behind his back, watching them through cold blue eyes. Emily shuddered inwardly as his gaze moved over her, but forced herself to straighten up and hold herself steady. Beside her, Aloha snapped to attention, and held herself at parade rest.

  “Your uniform needs adjusting,” Master Grey said, eyeing Emily sharply. He walked forward and tugged at it, almost pulling Emily over. “And you need to tie your hair back or shorten it considerably.”

  Emily fought to keep her face calm. Her long hair was her one real vanity, something she’d kept even though she knew it would be easier to handle short hair. Carefully, not taking her eyes off him, she undid her ponytail and bound her hair into a bun, like Aloha. Master Grey nodded once in cold approval, then walked around them both. Emily shivered as she felt his gaze moving over her, then on to Aloha. If Master Grey noticed how pretty she looked, he said nothing.

  “Follow me,” he said, curtly.

  He turned and jogged out of the room, forcing them to follow him. Emily groaned under her breath as he picked up speed, jogging through the doors that led to the training field. Sergeant Miles was lecturing a group of new students just outside; Master Grey ignored them as he led Emily and Aloha towards the lightning-blasted tree at one edge of the fields, then into the path that ran into the forest. Emily forced herself to keep going when her body started to ache as she followed Master Grey and Aloha, cursing mentally. She simply hadn’t had time to walk in Cockatrice, let alone run, and her body had weakened. Neither Master Grey nor Aloha seemed to be breathing hard, let alone showing any other signs of tiredness. Aloha must have been keeping up with her physical exercises as well as preparing for her next year at school.

  Probably didn’t have to worry about anything else, Emily thought, resentfully. She knew nothing about Aloha’s family, but surely they’d be proud of such a brilliant girl. There wouldn’t be any suggestion that she should find a husband, or do anything other than what she was doing. She could devote all her time to her studies.

  Master Grey stopped, standing next to a tree trunk. Beyond him, the pathway led down towards a second marker, half a mile away. Emily knew, from running the path before with the sergeants, that there were four markers in all, between them covering two miles. Students like her, graduates of Martial Magic, were expected to run the entire track in less than nine minutes. It wasn’t something she’d ever enjoyed.

  “I shall be bringing up the rear,” Master Grey informed them, removing a baton from his belt. “I expect you to complete the track in ten minutes - and that’s being generous.”

  Very generous, Emily thought, sourly. It took me months to complete the track in less than fifteen.

  “Go,” Master Grey ordered.

  Aloha ran, sprinting down the path as though a wild animal were after her. Emily followed, cursing Master Grey under her breath. She’d been told to pace herself, back when she’d been running for the very first time, but it wasn’t easy when she heard Master Grey’s pounding footsteps behind her. She forced herself onwards, despite the growing stitch in her side, yet no matter how hard she tried she found herself slowing down. He swatted her backside with the baton, pushing her to run faster, yet it was hopeless. By the time she finally reached the final marker, she knew she was running very late.

  “Thirteen minutes, with a little encouragement,” Master Grey sneered. Emily fought down the urge to rub her behind as he glowered at her, then shot Aloha a droll smile. “You made it in ten, barely.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Aloha said.

  “You will both have to do better,” Master Grey said. He produced a canteen of water from his belt and passed it to Aloha, who took a long swig and then held it out to Emily. “You may discover your lives depend, one day, on being able to outrun someone.”

  He smirked, took back the canteen after Emily had taken a drink, and turned to lead them back down the path. “Follow me,” he ordered, as he sprang into a jog. “You don’t want to fall too far behind.”

  Because the forest is charmed to make life difficult for unwary students, Emily thought, as she followed him down the path. The pain in her backside was fading, but her body ached due to the sudden exercise. He was right; she’d need to go running more, at least if she wanted to stay in the class. And you probably added a few nasty surprises for us per
sonally.

  The pathway opened suddenly to reveal Blackhall, a towering mansion that wouldn’t have been out of place in a gothic horror novel. Emily caught her breath as Master Grey stopped outside, forcing herself to remain calm. The original defenses of Blackhall might have been removed long ago - although Sergeant Miles had hinted that some remained intact - but hundreds of Martial Magic instructors had charmed the building to test their students to the limit. Emily had been inside too many times to be sanguine about whatever they might have to face.

  “Your mission is very simple,” Master Grey said. He turned to face them, his cloak swirling around his body to reveal he was wearing a silver breastplate over his chest. “I will be going inside Blackhall. You will follow me in ten minutes” - he jabbed a finger at them; Emily felt her feet suddenly and firmly stuck to the ground - “when that spell wears off, and try to catch me. I will be using no active magic of my own; you two may use whatever you please.”

  Emily blinked. “You won’t be using magic?”

  “I won’t be using any active magic,” Master Grey repeated. “Are you deaf?”

  “No, sir,” Emily said, biting her lip.

  “You are to catch me and take me out of Blackhall within the hour, before the next class arrives,” Master Grey continued. “That’s all you have to do.”

  He turned and walked through the door, which closed with an ominous creaking sound. Emily hastily tested the spell binding her feet in place and discovered it was unbreakable, at least with the standard spells. It would probably take longer than the spell would last to break it, unless she found a shortcut. Maybe it would be better to just wait...

  “All we have to do is catch him,” Aloha said. “And he won’t be using any magic. It sounds easy, doesn’t it?”

  “There’s probably a sting in the tail somewhere,” Emily muttered. Blackhall was crammed with traps. “Something we’re not seeing.”

  She gritted her teeth. On the face of it, a mundane - or someone pretending to be a mundane - fighting a magician was committing suicide. She knew a hundred spells that could be used to render a powerless mundane harmless. Hell, she’d learned enough to protect herself in her first few weeks at Whitehall. Master Grey might be more experienced than either of them, but could he fight without magic? Unless he planned to cheat...

  The spell holding her in place snapped. “We stick together,” Aloha said, as they advanced towards the door. “And check everything for traps. The building will probably go after both of us.”

  Emily nodded as they checked the door, carefully opening it to reveal a long dark corridor, illuminated only by lanterns hanging from the walls. If she hadn’t known it was impossible, she would have thought that whoever had designed the building’s interior had spent far too much time watching horror movies set in haunted houses. The door creaked, and so did the floorboards; she inched along the side of the corridor, straining her senses for the first hint of Master Grey’s position. But there was nothing, save for an ever-present silence that hung around them like a tangible thing.

  He could be moving around the house, keeping ahead of us, she thought. Aloha might have been wrong. The traps infesting the house might be charmed not to go after tutors. Or he could just have hidden himself somewhere to wait.

  Aloha nodded towards a half-opened door, then cast an illusion of herself and sent it forward, through the door. Emily doubted it would fool anyone for more than a few seconds, but those seconds might be vital...nothing happened as the illusion moved through the door, followed carefully by Aloha. Inside, the room was empty, the wooden walls carved with words and pictograms that sent chills down Emily’s spine. At the far end, another door led into darkness.

  Emily cast the night vision spell - cursing herself for not having thought of it earlier - and peered into the darkness. There was nothing there, save for a long corridor lined with doors, each one leading to an unknown destination. She checked for traps and found nothing, which alarmed her. Blackhall was supposed to be loaded with traps. If there was nothing ahead of them...

  He could have disarmed them as he walked down the corridor, she thought. She remembered her first visit to Blackhall and shuddered. Or the traps could be purely mechanical, without magic.

  “Watch my back,” Aloha muttered, as she slipped ahead of Emily. “The door at the end of the corridor is open.”

  “It could be a trap,” Emily muttered back. Sergeant Miles had taught them how to lay down a false trail, pointing out that it might be necessary to put someone off the scent. “He could be lying in wait for us.”

  “I know,” Aloha said. “But we don’t have the time to search Blackhall inch by inch.”

  Emily swallowed and nodded as Aloha inched down towards the door and peered through it, before beckoning Emily to come up to her. Inside, there was another set of stairs, leading upwards. Aloha crawled up, deactivating a nasty trap as she moved, then stepped through a door at the top. Emily followed her, feeling magic crawling around them, but stopped as the door snapped closed as soon as Aloha had stepped through. She hastily used a charm to unlock it, but when it opened there was no sign of Aloha.

  Shit, she thought, feeling cold fear running through her veins. They’d been separated, quite deliberately. And there was a funny smell in the air, something oddly familiar that her mind refused to recognize. Where the hell is she?

  Something moved at the end of the corridor, half-hidden in shadow. A cloak...she snapped off a freeze spell, then ran forward. Master Grey’s cloak was hanging from the ceiling, frozen solid, but there was no sign of its owner. Emily barely had a moment to stare at it before a pair of strong arms grabbed her and shoved a damp cloth into her face. She struggled, but she couldn’t keep herself from breathing in some of the liquid. Her head swam as she fell to the ground; she tried to cast a spell, but the magic refused to form.

  Durian, her mind yammered at her. That’s a Durian-based potion.

  Master Grey yanked her arms behind her back, tying them so tightly that Emily couldn’t flex them at all. She tried to kick out, but it was futile; Master Grey bound her legs together, rolled her over and pushed the cloth into her mouth. No matter what she tried, it was impossible to work magic. She’d been caught as neatly as a rat in a trap.

  “Emily,” Aloha said. “What...”

  Emily twisted her head, just in time to see Aloha hurl a spell at Master Grey. It struck his silver breastplate and dissipated, harmlessly. Master Grey leapt at her, bowled her over and rammed a second cloth into her face. Aloha struggled viciously, fighting desperately to escape, but to no avail. Emily could only watch helplessly as Aloha was tied up, then dragged over next to her. They’d both been caught effortlessly.

  “Not the greatest of successes,” Master Grey observed, sardonically. “Emily, you allowed yourself to be distracted by my diversion, which gave me an opportunity to drug and capture you. Aloha, you saw me attacking Emily; you should have tried to overwhelm the breastplate” - he tapped the runes carved into the silver - “before I could catch you.”

  He knew this place would separate us, Emily thought. The interior of Blackhall wasn’t as mutable as Whitehall, but the sergeants had worked hard to prepare it for their students. And I even smelled the potion and didn’t recognize it.

  “I didn’t use any active magic,” Master Grey continued. “That didn’t stop me using the potion, of course, or the advantages offered by picking my ground. When you arrived, following the trail I left, you walked right into my trap.”

  Emily wanted to spit. The taste in her mouth was growing stronger; despite herself, she had to swallow more of the potion. She wouldn’t be able to work magic for hours, even if Master Grey let them go. Her wrists were starting to ache from the bonds...

  “You are helpless because you underestimated me,” Master Grey stated, flatly. “Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”

  He met Emily’s eyes. “You should have been much more careful,” he added. “If you’d acted with more f
orethought, Lady Emily, neither you nor your friend would have been caught.”

  Emily’s cheeks burned at the injustice of it all. She’d made a mistake, yes, but so had Aloha. Why wasn’t she being lectured, publicly, on her own failings?

  “You have twenty-five minutes before the next class arrives,” Master Grey said, turning to leave. “Wriggle free or be found by them. No doubt they will happily release you from your bonds.”

  And never let us hear the end of it, Emily thought, miserably.

  “Your homework assignments are waiting in your lockers,” Master Grey concluded. “Goodbye.”

  Emily watched him stride off, never looking back, and tried to tug at her bonds. They proved impossible to weaken, no matter how desperately she wriggled. Without magic, she didn’t see how she could free herself. She tried to spit out the cloth, but it was too firmly wedged in her mouth to allow her to get rid of it. Aloha made a sound as she wriggled too, yet even she couldn’t free herself...

  The knot, Emily realized, as she looked at Aloha’s wrists. Sergeant Harkin had taught her a great deal about tying knots; he’d taught her one that was secure, yet easy to release if the ends were tugged. She managed to roll over until her back was pressed against Aloha, then she grabbed hold of the end of the rope and pulled. Aloha’s hands came free; she rubbed them hastily, then pulled the cloth out of her mouth and freed Emily. Emily removed her own gag and spat. The taste lingered in her mouth like a very unwelcome guest.

  “We could have done better,” Aloha said, as she stood. “He was right.”

  Emily rubbed her wrists, cursing Master Grey under her breath. Maybe he was right, but he was still an asshole. It wouldn’t be easy to learn from him.

  “And now we have to get out of the building,” Aloha added. “That won’t be easy, will it?”