The stairs looked downright creepy as we inched down the main stairwell towards the lower levels. Giant stone statues took on thoroughly unpleasant forms, all teeth and claws, as we passed. I felt a nasty sensation at the back of my neck - a sense that we were being watched - but there was no one there when I turned to look. The air was cold and utterly silent. My heart beat so loudly I was surprised I hadn't woken half the school. We reached the hallway and stopped, alarmed. I could hear a faint sound, echoing down the corridor. Someone was coming our way.
I caught Rose’s hand and pulled her into the shadows as the patroller came into view. It was hard to be sure, in the half-light, but I thought it was an upperclassman, not a teacher. Sandy had warned me that the upperclassmen patrolled the school, after all. If we were caught out of bed at this hour, lines would be the least we could expect. I felt Rose’s hand shaking in mind as the upperclassman passed by, his gaze sweeping over us without seeing a thing. The shadows moved so often at Jude’s that most students were trained to ignore them. He probably thought we were more of the same.
Rose sagged against me, just for a second, as the upperclassman vanished up the stairs and into the distance. I squeezed her hand, then led the way down to the kitchens. The main doors were locked and heavily warded, according to the plans, but the rear door wasn't so heavily defended. Unless, of course, the wards had been updated in the last decade. It was what I would have done.
I dug into my pocket for the dispeller, then held the sensor against the door. It vibrated over the lock, warning me that someone had placed a hex there. I checked the rest of the door, just to be sure there wasn't an additional surprise - Alana had made a habit of hiding one hex under a second - and then pressed the dispeller against the lock. The gemstones glowed, brightly, as the hex collapsed.
“Stay back,” I warned, as I reached for the next tool. “If this goes wrong, go straight back to the dorm.”
I pushed the unlocker against the lock. It clicked open. Carefully, very carefully, I twisted the knob and opened the door, holding the sensor out ahead of me. Nothing moved, deep within the kitchen. I peered into the darkness, catching sight of dark and cold fireplaces, caldrons, roasting pits and other pieces of equipment. The staff would be down in a few hours to light everything, I knew. By the time the students stumbled into the dining room, everything would be ready for them. I nodded to Rose, then headed into the room.
A voice echoed through the air. “Stop,” it said. It was so odd, so creepy, that I thought I’d imagined it. “Relax. Wait to be collected.”
I blinked. Maybe it was just my imagination. But the sensor twitched in my hand ...
Something clattered to the ground. I jumped, then spun around. Rose had dropped her sensor and was just standing there, her eyes vacant. I stared. What ... I swore under my breath as I remembered the voice. A subtle hex, one designed to capture anyone who sneaked into the kitchens and hold them until they were found. Useless against me, but very effective against anyone with a wisp of magic. And Rose had no experience in resisting any such spells ...
I caught her arm and shook her. She jumped, glancing around in shock. “What ...?”
“They would have caught you,” I said, grimly. She stared at me in horror, only dimly aware of what had happened. The hex was so subtle that its victims rarely realised they’d been caught. If I hadn't caught her ...
I gritted my teeth. There was no time for her to catch up. “You’d still have been standing there when the staff came down in the morning.”
“Oh,” Rose said. Her voice sounded very small. “I ... I didn’t even know it was there.”
“Neither did I,” I said. My lack of magic had saved us both. Alana would be furious, when she heard. I hoped I’d have the chance to tell her. “We have to move.”
I pulled her onwards, into the storeroom. There was a second hex on the door and a third on the knob itself. I dispelled them both, then opened the door. The pantry was huge, crammed with everything from preserved biscuits to cured meat. I glanced down at the list, then started to take what Isabella wanted. Biscuits and cakes, bread and jam ... it was going to be a big feast, if we managed to carry everything upstairs. I didn't know if the bags were big enough.
Rose caught my arm. “Shouldn't we be taking stuff from the back?”
I shook my head. Tradition, according to my mother, dictated that no one would make a fuss, if we weren't caught in the act. The staff would know that someone had broken into the kitchen - there was no way we could keep them from noticing the missing hexes - but we wouldn’t get in trouble. Coming to think of it, could they pick either Rose or I out as possible suspects? We hadn't used inherent magic to break into the pantry ...
“It should be fine,” I said. I hoped I was right. The staff might make an exception for a couple of students they considered troublemakers. “As long as we don’t get caught ...”
I glanced around the pantry as we finished dumping food into the bags. There was nothing else we wanted, as far as I could tell. I picked up one of the bags and grunted under the weight. The bag was surprisingly heavy ... I wished, suddenly, that I’d thought to show Rose how to lighten things. The charms weren't that complicated. Rose didn't seem to have any trouble with hers, but then she was surprisingly muscular. Being on a farm had given her more strength than anything I’d done.
“Come on,” I hissed. “We need to move.”
I held the sensor in one hand as we sneaked back towards the door. Dad had taught me a little about traps - and about how setting one to catch the thieves on the way out was surprisingly effective. It was when most thieves relaxed, he’d said. They got careless. But there was nothing. We slipped out of the door, closing it behind us. I motioned for her to stay very still and listen, but we heard nothing. The entire school was silent.
And then I heard a voice snapping out a spell.
I froze. I couldn't move a muscle. I couldn’t see Rose, but I knew she was frozen too ...
We were trapped.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“She was right,” a male voice said. “Someone did try a kitchen raid.”
Isabella, I thought. She wanted us to get caught.
I would have shook with pure rage, if I’d been able to move a single muscle. Isabella had set us up. She’d tricked me into taking the card, then tipped off the upperclassmen to the raid. No doubt they'd expected to find us trapped in the kitchen ... I pushed the thought aside. We were trapped. The spell wouldn't last as long as our captor clearly expected - at least, it wouldn’t hold me indefinitely - but what then? I doubted I could free Rose and then escape before we were caught again.
The upperclassman came into view, his face oddly wrapped in shadow. A concealment charm, I guessed, probably not too different to the one we’d used on the way down to the kitchen. Dad had told me that magicians preferred to use concealment rather than invisibility, knowing that the human mind preferred to accept a simple explanation for any flickers at the corner of one’s eye rather than look for an invisible target. But no charm would hide us, now the upperclassman knew to look. I stared at him as he cast a simple light spell, waving a beam of light over our faces. I couldn't even blink!
His face grew clear. He was tall, but completely unfamiliar. A pale face, just starting to show signs of stubble; muscular arms ... a faint smile curling around his lips. The seven bands around his upper arm told me he was a seventh year, someone trusted enough to patrol the corridors after dark. I had half-hoped we’d been caught by someone who might want an apprenticeship - or something - from my father, but I had no way to know if we had any room to bargain at all. I wasn't sure what would happen to anyone caught raiding the kitchen - apart from writing lines until our wrists dropped off - yet I doubted it would be fun.
The upperclassman reached out with his wand and tapped me on the forehead. A faint tingle ran through my body. My head moved, but everything below the neckline remained frozen ... I would have been impressed, if it wasn't confirmation we
were trapped. He tapped Rose too, then looked down at me. I couldn't help wondering if he recognised me. Most upperclassmen pretended not to know anything about the lowerclassmen, but my sisters and I were very well known. Rose, of course, was a complete stranger.
“Well,” he said. His voice would have been pleasant, if he hadn't been sneering. “What do I have here?”
I briefly considered claiming to be Isabella. But I didn't think it would fool anyone.
“We got out of the kitchen,” I said, instead. “That means you have to let us go.”
“Actually, you have to get back to the dorms, young lady,” he said. “I’m afraid I caught you red-handed.”
He cocked his head. “Although I am impressed you managed to get in and out of the kitchen,” he added. “Are you really first years?”
“No,” I said. “We’re actually seventh years in disguise.”
“Then you’d be sneaking over the walls instead of into the kitchen,” he said, dryly. He smiled. It utterly transformed his features. “Besides, you’re just a little bit short to be seventh years.”
He smirked. “So ... what should I do with you?”
I thought fast. “Give us a slap on the wrist and then let us go?”
“Now,” he said. “What would the Castellan say if I did?”
“He’d say you were upholding an old school tradition,” I told him. “Particularly as someone thought it would be fun to tip you off.”
He smiled. “I’m afraid that’s part of the game too, little firstie,” he said. “What else can you offer me?”
I groaned, inwardly. There was nothing. I wasn't going to write another blank cheque, certainly not for this. The punishment we would face if we were marched in front of the Castellan - or whichever staff member was on duty - would be unpleasant, but survivable. I could put up with another few weeks of scrubbing floors, if necessary. It would give me plenty of time to plot revenge. Isabella wouldn't know what had hit her by the time I was finished.
Rose cleared her throat. “You can take half our bags,” she said. “How about that?”
The upperclassman smirked. “You’re trying to bribe me?”
I blinked. Trying to bribe him with our ill-gotten gains had honestly never occurred to me.
“Yes,” Rose said. Her voice was very even. “We’ve got biscuits and bread and cakes and plenty of other nice things. You could take half of them and have a feast of your own.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You could have a last feast before you graduate.”
The upperclassman snorted. “And what’s to stop me from simply taking your bribe and turning you in anyway?”
“You would have to explain what happened to the food,” I pointed out. I would never be the chess grandmaster my father was, but I did know how to spot the weakness in someone’s position. “Even if we didn't rat you out, the kitchen staff would notice the missing food and demand answers. Sneaking into the kitchen might be traditional, but what about taking the food from younger students?”
He studied me for a long moment. “You have nerve, for a firstie,” he said. He took my bag and opened it. “And you were greedy too. Planning to feed the entire dorm, were you?”
I nodded, curtly.
“I’ll leave you with a packet of biscuits,” he said. He took Rose’s bag and dumped most of my food into it, then slung it over his shoulder. “The spell will wear off soon and you can go back to your dorms. Just pray no one else comes along before it does. And congratulations on getting in and out of the kitchen. Very few firsties could have managed that.”
I glared at his retreating back as he walked into the kitchen, closing the wooden door behind him. Isabella ... Isabella was going to pay. Rose was sniffling quietly, clearly upset about being caught again. I wanted to hug her - or at least to take her hand - but I still couldn't move. It was nearly ten minutes before the spell broke, allowing me to free Rose too. No doubt our captor had intended for us to be caught again. There was no point in trying to sneak back into the kitchens, so I grabbed my bag and led the way back up the stairs. If we were lucky, we could sneak back to the dorms without being caught again.
“I’m sorry,” Rose whispered, as we crept down an empty corridor. “I didn't think he’d take it all.”
“We’d have lost it anyway,” I whispered back. I glanced into my bag. True to his word, the upperclassman had left us with a packet of flavourless oatmeal biscuits. They were normally eaten with cheese, but we didn't have any. “Why did you think of trying to bribe him?”
“He sounded like a taxman,” Rose said. “The swine will happily claim that you have nothing, if you bribe them. If you don’t, they tell the king you live in a castle and that you swim in gold coins.”
“That sounds uncomfortable,” I said. I couldn't imagine anyone actually believing that, although I doubted King Rufus would bother to leave his comfortable palace just to check on a peasant hovel. Dad had told me, more than once, that it was dangerous to rely completely on one’s servants. They eventually - inevitably - tried to take advantage. “Do you really swim in gold coins?”
Rose elbowed me. “What do you think?”
I shrugged. I’d read a story, once, about a greedy governor from the empire who’d been killed by having molten gold poured down his throat. And another, an even less pleasant fellow, who’d been turned into a golden statue and melted down. There had even been a story about a king who had gained the power to turn anything he touched into gold, but that had ended badly. Dad had told us the story as a warning against using magic to solve everything. In my case, the warning hadn't been necessary.
Although it might be now, I thought, as we stopped just outside the dorm to remove our spectacles. I may not have magic, but I have power.
I pushed the door open, bracing myself for a fight. Isabella and the others were sitting in a circle in the middle of the dorm, playing a game that involved passing a hexed ball around as fast as possible. Sandy was sitting on her bed, keeping her back turned. I figured she wanted to be able to deny everything, if we got caught. And we had been caught.
Isabella looked up. I saw her eyes widen in surprise.
“You told them we were coming,” I snapped, as I yanked the biscuits out of the bag. “We were caught as we left the kitchen!”
“I did not,” Isabella said, hotly. She rose to her feet. I couldn't help noticing that she had changed into black pyjamas, with her family's crest clearly visible. “You tripped an alarm and got caught!”
“We did not,” I snapped. I threw the biscuits at her, angrily. She jumped aside a moment before they could hit her. “They knew we were coming!”
“Well, I didn’t tell them,” Isabella snapped back.
“Maybe someone else was planning to raid the kitchen,” Zeya put in, her eyes flickering between Isabella and me. “You just got caught up in someone else’s trap!”
I glared at her. “And what are the odds of someone else going to raid the kitchen at the exact same time as us?”
“Better than you’d think,” Sandy said. I glanced at her. She still had her back to us. “You cannot hold a midnight feast when you have classes tomorrow. A feast, therefore, has to be held on either Friday or Saturday night. There’s a good chance that someone else might have decided to have a feast of their own ...”
“And that someone might have decided to tip off the upperclassmen?” I countered. “She made sure I would go and she made sure we would be caught!”
Sandy said nothing. I glowered at Isabella. The students most likely to tip off the upperclassmen were the firsties, the ones least integrated into the school. A sneak wouldn't have a very happy time of it, if he or she was caught. And Isabella might assume she could ride out any problems. She was still her father’s probable heir.
“We had enough food to last for a week,” I snapped. It was a slight exaggeration, but pardonable. “We could have sneaked it all up here if they hadn't been waiting for us.”
Isabella glared back. “And how
do we know you even made it into the kitchens?” She countered. “You could have brought those biscuits from home!”
I clenched my fists. “Do you really think I would have brought those biscuits from home?”
“We have the bags,” Rose offered, gently. “They came from the kitchen.”
“That’s not proof of anything,” Isabella sneered. She leaned forward. “I think you just lurked around outside, then came up with this story to justify your failure. Who caught you, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It isn't as if he bothered to make formal introductions!”
Isabella snorted. “You should know everyone in the upper years,” she jeered. “But then, your father never bothered to teach you, did he?”
The Zero Blessing Page 34
