Schooled in Magic

by Christopher G. Nuttall

  “So it does,” Emily said, finally. She reached over and pushed a key, watching the letter flare into existence in front of her. “How do you transfer what you’ve written to parchment?”

  “It gets burned into the parchment when you’re ready to copy it,” Aloha explained. “My friend, the one who made it work, says he doesn’t know how useful it will be in the long run.”

  “What use is a newborn baby?” Emily asked seriously. The first computers in her world had seemed useless, right up to the point where brilliant scientists had predicted, in all honesty, that the world would never need more than a handful of computers. But when she’d been taken, there had been more computers in the world than people. “This is just the start of something brilliant.”

  She looked down at the machine and wondered, inwardly, where this innovation would lead. Everyone knew that necromancers went insane because they tried to channel vast amounts of magic through their brains. Even if they didn’t kill themselves outright, their minds were warped–and they had no way of knowing just how badly they’d been damaged before it was too late. But what if someone could eventually channel such vast streams of power through a magical computer? Computers had made so many things easier back home. Here, those things might eventually include mass murder and genocide.

  Alassa’s parents had worried about the impact of something as tiny as Arabic numbers on their Kingdom. God alone knew what they would think of a magical computer, or the printing press, or ...

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Aloha said, breaking into Emily’s train of thought. “He actually wants to talk to you and see what else you can suggest for his device. The idea of producing a counting spell for the device...”

  Something clicked in Emily’s mind. She’d heard of abacuses, even seen one ... but it hadn’t occurred to her that they might be missing from her new world. The concept was so simple that it was hard to understand how it had been missed, if it had been missed. She scribbled down a reminder to herself–she would have to ask Imaiqah, before spending hours reinventing the wheel–and then looked down at the makeshift computer. The designer was already thinking about magical calculators. Where else would his mind take him?

  She shook her head. What use was a newborn baby, indeed?

  “Later,” Emily said, feeling unsure of what to do. “I have to sort out the gear for our camping trip.”

  “You’re going before us,” Aloha said. She grinned mischievously. “Be sure and tell me all about it, all right?”

  Emily snorted as she skimmed down the list of supplies. “I thought we weren’t allowed to share notes,” she said as she stood up. “Or do you want to spend the next few hours doing push-ups while the Sergeant questions your ancestry?”

  “I want to succeed,” Aloha said. She stood up and headed over to her cabinet. “I’ll come with you. We may as well get our supplies together.”

  The commissary was situated on the ground floor, open only to students who were studying Martial Magic. They had been warned in no uncertain terms that students who were not part of the class were forbidden to enter, whatever the excuse. It was easy to see why as soon as Emily stepped inside; there were mountains of supplies, weapons and tools, all seemingly unguarded. Emily suspected the vast chamber was actually protected by wards that only allowed them to pass because they were both in Martial Magic. It was hard to be sure. Whitehall’s strange interior made it difficult to sense additional magic near the commissary.

  “Make sure you account for everything you take,” Aloha reminded her. The Sergeant had told them that too, when he’d been lecturing them on logistics. Everything had to be accounted for, even if it was just the simplest little thing. “And don’t forget your special supplies.”

  Emily flushed as she started working through the list. The first section covered clothing suitable for a field trip, including a heavy, quilted leather shirt and thick trousers. This world had clearly never heard of shorts, or miniskirts. The thought made her smile. She wouldn’t want to wear anything of the sort on a field trip with five teenage boys and a pair of male Sergeants.

  The next section covered camping supplies and weapons. She was expected to carry a knife, a dagger, a short sword, a bow and ten arrows, a set of tools ... the list seemed endless. Emily looked down at the pile of supplies and blanched. How could anyone carry so much without help? The Sergeants had told her that infantrymen regularly carried their own weight in supplies, but Emily found it hard to believe. How could anyone be that strong?

  “At least you know how to use the sword,” Aloha said lightly. “The bow and arrows might be more dangerous to the Redshirts than anyone else.”

  Emily flushed. For a class that claimed to be about Martial Magic, they spent a surprising amount of time practicing with conventional weapons. Basic swordplay had been tricky, to say the least; there had been so much to unlearn before she could start using a sword properly. She’d expected archery to be easier, but it had been even harder. A single slip while drawing back the string and the arrow would go flying off in the wrong direction. The Sergeants had pointed out that advancing armies had been slaughtered by archers, describing battles that reminded Emily of the Battle of Agincourt. It wasn’t a reassuring thought.

  The final section of the list included a tent, a set of blankets and several potions that Emily didn’t recognize. One glance at the tent told her that it was large enough to take all eight of them comfortably. There seemed to be no such thing as a private tent, nor would there be on campaign, she realized. All the books she’d read about female warriors had glossed over that part.

  Shuddering at the thought, she piled up the tent and the rest of the supplies, then stared at them in disbelief. She’d thought it was bad, but now ...? How could she hope to carry even half of the supplies?

  “Maybe it’s a test of some kind,” Aloha said. “How would you do it if you had a choice?”

  A camper van, Emily thought. Useless, of course; there were no vehicles here. Maybe they’d be allowed to take horses ... no, the Sergeant had specifically stated that they would be walking. They had to carry everything with them at all times...

  “I’m an idiot,” she said out loud. The answer had been right in front of her face and she hadn’t seen it. “It’s definitely another test.”

  She laughed at herself in some irritation. “We don’t need six tents, do we? And that’s what we’ll get if we all do this separately.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  SERGEANT HARKIN STARED AT THE REDSHIRTS. He didn’t look happy.

  “I presume,” he said finally, “that you have an explanation for this?”

  Jade, as spokesman, stepped forward. “Yes, Sergeant. Your list gave us plenty of duplicates. We discussed the matter and decided to trim it down.”

  The Sergeant eyed him nastily. “And exactly when did I give you the authority to decide what you could and could not carry?”

  Jade held up the briefing note they’d been given on the camping trip. “It says here that the team may be required to reinterpret orders to produce something practical,” he said. “That is exactly what we have done.”

  There was a long pause, just long enough for Emily to wonder if she’d ruined all of their chances of passing. “Very good,” Harkin said, finally. “And what, exactly, have you decided?”

  Jade didn’t relax at all. “One tent for the eight of us. Only one set of cooking tools, because we don’t need more than one. Rucksacks repacked with the supplies and then passed around in a rota so we all have a chance to carry the heavy bags ...”

  He went on until he reached the end of his list.

  “Not too bad,” Harkin sneered. “And do you think that you are ready for the walk?”

  “Yes,” Jade said. “We’re ready.”

  Emily shifted uncomfortably as Harkin’s gaze passed over her. Like the boys, she was dressed in shirt and trousers, rather than the loose and comfortable robes she’d worn ever since coming to Whitehall. The clothes itched
and she had the unpleasant thought that she was going to sweat like a pig while wearing them.

  One thing they hadn’t been able to reduce had been the canteens of water. They’d been warned to drink whenever they felt thirsty.

  “We shall see,” Harkin said. He raised his voice. “We will be travelling through the desolation towards the ruins of the Dark City. There may be dangerous creatures on the hunt for anyone foolish enough to enter their territory. Keep a watchful eye on your surroundings and be careful where you lay your head. Are there any questions?”

  Bran raised a hand. “Are we going into”–he suddenly looked very nervous–“into necromantic territory?”

  “We will remain on our side of the mountains,” Harkin said. “You’re not ready to travel into the Blighted Lands just yet.”

  He glanced from face to face. “This march will be hard,” he promised, “so just keep this in mind. You won’t be marching anything like as hard as infantry soldiers trying to lift a siege before it is too late.”

  Emily gulped as she hefted the rucksack and pulled it on. It seemingly weighed a ton and she staggered under the weight. The guys had offered to give her one of the lighter bags, but she’d refused, knowing that the Sergeant would mark her down for it. She could take one of the lighter bags later, after she’d completed the first part of the march.

  Jade winked at her as Harkin led them to the door and out into the field.

  “I think we should have asked them if they wanted to spread the weight,” he murmured to her. He motioned to the Sergeants, who didn’t seem to have any trouble carrying their rucksacks. “Who knows what they are carrying?”

  Emily looked at the muscles rippling along Harkin’s arms and shrugged. “I think they know what they’re doing,” she said, hoping that she was right. “They would have asked us if they wanted us to carry some of their weight.”

  Jade nodded, thoughtfully. “Let’s move,” he said. “They won’t want us to be late.”

  The trail led out of Whitehall’s grounds and up into the mountains, the opposite direction from Dragon’s Den. In a very brief amount of time, Emily found herself sweating as she felt the sun beating down on her back; she staggered slightly under the rucksack’s weight. But no one else seemed to be having any problems, so she swallowed any complaints and forced her legs to walk onwards.

  The longer she walked, the more she felt as if she were walking through a swamp, no matter how hard she forced herself to move. The weight on her back seemed to double, then triple. She wanted to stop and catch her breath, but her team was forging ahead and she didn’t want to be last. Who knew what Sergeant Miles would do if she started to lag behind?

  It seemed to grow hotter as they stumbled further up the trail. Glancing to the left, Emily realized that they were already higher than Whitehall, and bare meters from a long drop to the stony valley floor below. In the distance, she could see the towns in the Allied Lands, all illuminated by the bright sunlight. The landscape looked strange without cars and other vehicles, and so quiet. There were no planes flying through the air ...

  Bracing herself, she walked onwards as the trail grew harder to follow. Rocks were scattered everywhere and she had to catch herself before she tripped over one, grimly aware that if she fell with such a heavy weight on her back she might not be able to get up again. The pressure grew stronger and she didn’t know what she could do to force herself to take another step ...

  ...and then she felt herself relax. She’d heard that if she forced herself to keep going, eventually she’d push through her body’s resistance, but she hadn’t experienced it until now. And to think she’d doubted the Sergeant’s word.

  The trail reached the highest point it could, then started to descend. Soon, it led into a hidden valley, which concealed a forest from human eyes. Emily heard the sound of running water before they actually saw it. Crystal-clear water came down from high overhead, where the mountain peaks vanished into the clouds.

  On Sergeant Harkin’s barked orders, they stumbled gratefully to a halt. They unbuckled their rucksacks and placed them on the stony ground. Cat managed to break one of the bottles of potion and had to endure a long lecture from Harkin on taking care of his equipment, all the while trying to salvage what he could. Most of it, judging by the smell, had gone off the moment it had been exposed to the open air.

  “Break out your bread and eat,” Harkin ordered. “We move on in twenty minutes.”

  Emily was surprised to discover that she was hungry and thirsty–and that she’d somehow drunk more than half of her water without being aware of it. How badly had she zoned out during the walk?

  The bread and cheese was dry, treated by the chefs to ensure that it would remain edible for months, if necessary. It tasted like manna from heaven, even though the water from her canteen was warm and tasted faintly brackish. After finishing all of her water, she stood up, used a spell to test the water in the stream, and then refilled her canteen.

  “Swap bags,” Jade ordered as they started to prepare to leave. “Emily, take this bag. No arguing this time.”

  “What a Captain,” Harkin observed dryly.

  Jade flushed. None of them had been appointed team leader, although Emily couldn’t decide if they were meant to appoint their own or if they should be solving problems together.

  Harkin’s next comment surprised both of them. “And are you ready to take on life and death decisions?”

  “No, sir,” Jade said.

  “You’d better get ready,” Harkin said. He pulled on his own rucksack and glanced at the students. “Follow me.”

  The path grew more treacherous as they stumbled down into the hidden valley. Bran almost tripped and fell, catching himself at the very last moment. The walk would have been tricky without the rucksacks; as it was, Emily’s second pack wasn’t light enough to make the walk easy. If the others hadn’t been taking it so calmly, she might have turned and scrambled down backwards as the path grew worse.

  It was a relief to finally walk into the forest and relax for five minutes under a rocky ledge that provided shelter. When she looked up at the path, she couldn’t believe they’d walked down it.

  “A pool,” Bran called. He put his rucksack on the ground and started to undo his leather trousers. “We can go for a swim!”

  “No you bloody can’t,” Harkin snarled. “Have I taught you nothing?”

  He picked up a stone and tossed it into the pool. The moment it hit the water, the pool exploded into life. Claws snapped at thin air, clacking away horribly before withdrawing back under the liquid.

  Emily almost fell over backwards in shock; Jade let out a swearword ... everyone had been badly shocked. She didn’t know what the rest of the creature looked like and she didn’t want to find out. Those claws had looked sharp enough to cut through her body like a knife through butter.

  “I’m sure I have told you,” Harkin said into the appalled silence, “that still water is always suspicious. Always. And it’s doubly suspicious when it’s in a place where there are no animal droppings lying around the pond. Anything that sticks its neck in there isn’t going to come out again.”

  Emily found her voice. “What ... what is that thing?”

  “I have absolutely no idea,” Harkin said. “It could be some necromancer’s idea of a joke. Or it could be a creature that has been mutated by exposure to mana. Or it could be something the Faerie left behind to discourage visitors to their city.”

  Emily stared at the still waters and shivered.

  Harkin allowed them a few moments to relax - and contemplate their near-disaster - before leading them on a dog-leg around the forest’s edge. Cat asked why they didn’t simply walk through the forest and Harkin, in a tone that suggested he was running out of patience with idiotic questions, pointed out that the forest wasn’t uninhabited. Even with that warning, it took Emily several minutes to spot the spiders lurking in the darkness, following the team as they walked. It was impossible to escape the sense that th
e spiders were part of one vast hive mind, just waiting for unwary victims to enter the forest.

  “We need to get CT out here,” she muttered to Jade as they avoided a suspicious-looking patch of shadow under an isolated tree. “Or maybe burn the entire forest to the ground.”

  Jade nodded. “My father used to tell me stories about hunting,” he said. “There was a ... creature that had escaped the mountains and started to hunt near a town. We never knew if it had been sent to terrorize us or if it were merely trying to survive, but father told me that killing it was difficult. Eventually, they had to burn down a house after trapping the monster inside. And even then he had his doubts. They never found a body.”

  “Consider it a lesson in what lurks where human life is scarce,” Sergeant Miles put in suddenly. Emily would have jumped if she hadn’t been carrying the rucksack; she hadn’t known that he was listening to their conversation. “If you go on to be combat sorcerers, you will be expected to fight such creatures as well as dark wizards, necromancers and other unpleasant problems. You cannot afford to relax for an instant.”

  The opposite side of the valley was a sheer cliff wall, utterly impossible to climb even without the rucksacks. Emily thought they might be trapped before Harkin silently led them around a rock and pointed out a hidden tunnel that was concealed by a very strange form of magic. Every time she looked at it, she felt her attention being subtly diverted elsewhere, so slyly that she would have missed it and never noticed the tunnel if the Sergeant hadn’t pointed it out. The others had similar reactions.

  Inside the tunnel, all she could see was darkness. After what she’d seen in the zoo, it was unnerving.

  Rupert seemed equally nervous. “Are there more spiders in there?”

  “Of course not,” Sergeant Harkin said with a nasty grin. “The scorpions ate them all.”

  Emily blanched. “Scorpions?”

  “Giant mutated creatures with lethal stings and bad attitudes,” Harkin informed them. His grin twisted into a smirk. “But don’t worry about them. They’re actually quite friendly as long as you leave them alone.”