The Princess in the Tower (Schooled in Magic Book 15)

by Christopher Nuttall

“I know,” Emily said, dryly. She pressed on before he could interrupt again. “The downside with such wards is that they can be taken apart quite easily, from the inside.”

  “Yes.” Jade’s voice was angry. “And how do you plan to get inside? There seems to be a piece missing from this plan of yours...”

  “Dignity,” Cat said, dryly. “Jade, let her finish before you tear her to shreds.”

  Emily looked from one to the other, then shrugged. “I don’t plan to get inside,” she said. If they could get inside with their magic, the problem would be solved instantly. “I plan to have one of the guards take a chat parchment inside the wards for me.”

  “A chat parchment,” Jade repeated.

  “Yes,” Emily said. She explained, quickly. “In Beneficence, the Fists of Justice used a modified chat parchment to tear down the wards protecting a number of houses. They worked through the chat parchments, once they were inside the wards, to take control of the wards and bring them down. We could do the same. If we could take control of the wards, we could turn them against the guards or bring them down.”

  “If the wards are smart enough to be turned against the guards,” Jade said. He sounded as though he was trying not to be too hopeful. “What happens if they’re not?”

  Emily had no way to know for sure, but she suspected the wards wouldn’t be anything like smart enough to be turned against anyone. Randor wouldn’t want to rely on complex wards that could have flaws and imperfections, not when he’d have to put someone else in charge of monitoring and maintaining them. He’d prefer to rely on simplicity. The wards wouldn’t be able to support him as much as he might wish, but they wouldn’t be turned on him either.

  “Then we have a problem,” Emily said. “I...”

  “A big problem,” Jade said. “We’d have to get the parchment into the Tower. And then we would still have to storm the Tower.”

  “Not quite,” Emily said. “I was thinking we’d open a portal into the Tower.”

  Jade stared at her. “Have you gone mad?”

  “No,” Emily said. “I...”

  “We don’t have the tools to open a portal,” Jade said, sharply. “And we don’t have the magic to power it.”

  “The only other option is teleporting into the Tower,” Emily said. “We can bring down the wards, if my plan works, but teleporting will leave us drained. A portal would allow us to get into the Tower, find Alassa and Imaiqah and then get out again.”

  “And it would let us bring a small army into the Tower with us,” Cat said. “They won’t be expecting us to appear in their rear.”

  “Not as long as they don’t realize the wards have been hacked,” Jade said. “Emily, if we have to crash the wards, they’ll know it.”

  Emily nodded. “I was thinking that we’d have to do it very quickly, if at all. If we failed, they’d know about it. We would force them to move the prisoners at once.”

  “Or kill them,” Jade said, darkly.

  Cat had another concern. “It’s a large building,” he said, thoughtfully. “How would you know where to target the portal?”

  “And how would you gather the power to make the portal?” Jade sounded scornful, as if he’d already given up. “Emily, can you solve that problem?”

  “Yes,” Emily said. She swallowed, hard. She’d promised to do everything in her power to help them, but revealing a particularly dangerous secret came hard. “I think I can.”

  Jade’s eyes went wide. “How?”

  Emily took a long breath. “I need you two to swear you’ll keep it to yourselves, at least until I die or I give you permission to talk,” she said. “It’s a very dangerous secret.”

  Jade and Cat exchanged glances. “Very well,” Jade said. He swore. Cat followed him, slightly more reluctantly. “What is this secret?”

  “I designed a magical battery...ah, a way to store magical power,” Emily said. The word battery wouldn’t mean anything to them. She explained the concept as quickly as she could. “We can store power, then use it to cast a spell.”

  “A portal,” Jade mused. “But...wouldn’t we still have to forge the portal stones?”

  “Not if we had enough power,” Cat said. “We’d be able to shape the magic directly...”

  “And then our brains start leaking out our ears,” Jade said. “If we’re lucky, that is.”

  “We don’t have to risk madness,” Emily said. She understood his concern. Channelling vast amounts of magic in seconds drove necromancers insane. Some managed to hide it, for a while, but eventually they all cracked. “We can build the spell inside a pocket dimension”–she decided it would be better not to mention that Caleb had helped her develop the technique–“and then create the portal. It’ll last as long as the power holds out.”

  Jade stared at her for a long moment. “You don’t think small, do you?”

  Emily blushed. “No.”

  “It strikes me as a workable plan,” Cat said. “That said, there are some problems we need to solve. Starting with the obvious, how do we find them once we’re in the Tower?”

  “I do have a marriage bond to Alassa,” Jade said. “Once the wards are down, I should be able to find my way to her.”

  “We could also use your blood to track your unborn child,” Emily said, slightly more doubtfully. There was no reason, in theory, why it wouldn’t work, but there was something about the concept that worried her. “It should be workable.”

  “I hope so,” Jade said. He met her eyes. “Can we make it work?”

  “I’d have to do the calculations, then build the batteries,” Emily told him. “And then we’d have to put the spellwork for the portal together, as a group. We need to keep control of the way out.

  “Point,” Jade said. “And then what? What do we do after we get out?”

  “Get out of the city,” Cat said, simply. “After that, you can decide what you and Alassa want to do next.”

  He lay back on the bed, resting his hands on his chest. “It’s the best idea we’ve had so far,” he added. “Jade, what did you learn from Tam?”

  “The Levellers are keen, but they’re short on weapons and training,” Jade said. “A lot of weapons were seized, it seems, during the Purge. They’ve been stockpiling firearms and gunpowder, but they haven’t been able to practice using them. And they’re understandably worried about who might be reporting back to the king.”

  Particularly now, Emily thought.

  “In some ways, the Purge might have been a blessing in disguise,” Jade added, after a moment. “Flower knew a lot, but most of the names and faces she probably reported to her superiors have already been purged. I dare say that any spying networks within the Levellers have been severely dented, at least for the moment. They’ll recover, of course, but by then we should have a new cellular structure in place.”

  His face darkened as he looked down at his hands. “That said, supplies of food coming into the city have started to fall. Really, it’s been happening for a while now, but Randor has been opening the siege stockpiles to keep people fed. The last thing he wants is food riots, obviously...”

  “But he’ll run out of food sooner or later,” Cat said, from the bed. “Right?”

  “Right,” Jade said. “The Levellers have been doing some calculations. Tam thinks the city has a month or two before starvation becomes a very real possibility. Personally, I think that’s optimistic. Randor can issue whatever orders he likes, but if the food supply really starts to fall, prices are going to go up sharply. And then people will start hoarding food...”

  “Like Farrakhan, but on a much bigger scale,” Cat said. “Surely, they can expand the fishing fleets. It isn’t as if they can fish the water dry.”

  “No,” Jade agreed. “But men can’t live on fish alone.”

  “Tell that to the dockyard workers,” Cat said, dryly.

  Emily cleared her throat. “Why are the food supplies starting to fall?”

  Jade grimaced. “It depends on who you believe,
” he said. “One theory suggests that the peasants are simply leaving the land and going...away. Another blames the nobility; a third insists that it’s the king himself who’s starving his people. It’s probably some combination of the three. Randor has every reason to want the peasants to return to the farms and grow more food.”

  “It isn’t going to work,” Emily said, quietly.

  “Probably not,” Jade agreed.

  Cat sat up. “So,” he said, clapping his hands. “What’s the plan?”

  “Emily works out the spellwork, carefully,” Jade said. “And we both check it, equally carefully. And then we start building and charging the...ah, batteries. How long will it take?”

  “I’m not sure,” Emily admitted. “Several days, at least. More likely a couple of weeks.”

  “That gives us enough time to find a few other ways to bring pressure to bear on Randor,” Jade said. He sounded energized, now they had the makings of a plan. “Cat, you and I will start training the Levellers...once we develop a way to vet their loyalties. We’ll also start crafting useful tools for them, chat parchments and the like. Emily can help with that, once she’s done the calculations.”

  “You’re welcome,” Emily said, dryly. She understood Jade’s logic–Lady Barb had told her that female instructors had problems getting the point across–but she didn’t like it. It was easier when teaching magic. “I’ll need a handful of supplies.”

  “I’ll make sure you get them,” Jade said. “And ask for a few other things too, just in case. We don’t want them working out what we’re planning to do.”

  Emily rather doubted anyone would connect an iron ring to a pocket dimension, let alone a magic-storing device, but she took his point. The spies would understand a request for gunpowder or potion ingredients–it would make sense to them–yet a request they didn’t understand would alarm them. They’d either think they were being conned or, more likely, they’d spend a great deal of time and effort trying to figure out what was going on. There was no point in risking detection unnecessarily.

  “Two weeks,” Cat said. “We should consider moving a little slower. Too much activity is bound to alert the king.”

  “There’s also a lot of anger on the streets,” Jade said. “We have to make use of it before it fades away again.”

  And you want to get Alassa out of jail before it’s too late, Emily thought. She understood, all too well. She’s...what? Three months pregnant? Or four?

  “That is a good idea, I suppose,” Cat said. He didn’t sound convinced. “As long as the rebels aren’t linked to you, we should be fine.”

  Jade leaned forward. “There’s another point,” he said. “Emily, Alicia and her husband have moved into the Winter Flower Mansion.”

  Emily lifted her eyebrows. “Both of them?”

  “Yes, and their baby,” Jade said. “I don’t know why they’re staying there.”

  “It isn’t as if Randor doesn’t have the room,” Emily said, automatically. Alicia had been the king’s mistress, once upon a time. And Lord Burrows could be expected to be compliant if the king decided to resume the relationship. “I wonder if Alicia and Randor fell out.”

  “You’d expect him to hurl her into the Tower,” Jade said, shortly. “As it is, if the Levellers are correct, she’s spending a lot of time at the castle. She just isn’t staying there.”

  Emily puzzled over it for a long moment. A person’s importance at court–and their relationship with the king–could be gauged by where they stayed in Alexis. Someone the king wanted to honor would be offered rooms in the castle; someone who was not in royal favor might be offered a townhouse on the Royal Mile, where there was more room but less prestige. It had driven Imaiqah mad, when she’d been making the arrangements for the wedding. Putting the wrong person in the wrong place could lead to social disaster.

  She frowned. A baron–or a baroness–who stayed with the king would be so closely associated with him that no one would believe they were independent. Randor had used her like that, once upon a time. Alicia moving out of the castle might be a declaration of independence or, more likely, Randor trying to show the country that Alicia was an independent woman while maintaining control. There was no reason to believe that Alicia would turn against the king. And there was a great deal to be gained by having her appear to be acting of her own free will.

  “Interesting,” she said, finally. She needed some time to sort it out. “Do you want to make contact now?”

  “It would be worth trying,” Jade said. “She’d listen to you, not to me.”

  Emily nodded, stiffly. “We’ll try to figure out a way through her defenses,” she said. She had no idea what sort of defenses Alicia might have, but there was a good chance they’d be fairly weak. Her father had made the mistake of plotting treason, after all. “And then I’ll try and talk to her.”

  Jade stood. “I’ll tell Tam the good news,” he said. “But not in too many words.”

  “Don’t tell him anything he doesn’t need to know,” Cat warned. “We don’t want him spreading the word. If Randor figures out what we’re doing, we’re fucked.”

  “I know,” Jade said. “Emily, get started on those calculations. I want to know we can make it work within a day or two.”

  “Yes, sir,” Emily said, dryly. “I’m sure we can make it work.”

  Jade smiled at her. “I’m sure you can make it work too,” he said. “But I also want Cat to check your work.”

  Emily nodded in understanding. Simple spells were very hard to get wrong, particularly when one had enough magic to overpower any flaws in the spell, but opening a portal required an incredibly complex spell. The slightest mistake could waste the magic they had gathered or, worse, open the portal to an unknown destination. Emily didn’t want to jump through and find out the portal opened several miles above the ground. She didn’t think she could teleport out of that.

  “We won’t mess it up,” she said. She’d make sure he checked it too. The more eyes on it, the better. This was too important for pride. “And we’ll get them out of there.”

  Jade nodded, then strode out of the room. Cat winked at her as the door closed.

  “This is a brilliant plan,” he said, as he stood. “All we have to do now is make it work.”

  “And find someone we can get to carry the parchment into the building,” Emily reminded him, as they kissed. “That isn’t going to be easy.”

  Cat laughed. “Compared to everything else? That, Emily, will be the easy part.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  THE PIECE OF PAPER WAS COVERED in notes.

  Emily rubbed her eyes, trying to work out the ache as she stood and poured herself a cup of cold water. She knew she was good at working out magical equations, but the spellwork she’d sketched out was an order of magnitude more complex than anything she’d done at Whitehall. The basic idea was simple enough–and she thought she could cast most of the spells without setting off any alarms–but the execution was going to be very difficult.

  And there’s not going to be any time to practice, she thought, sourly. She’d considered suggesting that they go somewhere well away from the city to experiment, but neither of the boys would have gone for it. They would have had a point, too. The gates were under increasing scrutiny in the wake of the riot. We’re only going to get one shot at this.

  She paced the room for a long moment, feeling old. A single mistake would doom them, which meant that every last piece of spellwork had to be checked and checked again before it was slotted into place. And then she would have to test the spellware as much as she could without actually triggering the spell. She thought it would hold together, once they started to actually trigger the spell, but she didn’t know for sure. Too much power would be unleashed in too short a space of time for her to be certain.

  And we have to get the chat parchments set up, she added, as she stopped beside the next table and looked down. Getting the parchment hadn’t been easy. It had always been expensive a
nd, with the development of paper, supplies had dwindled drastically. We can’t afford a mistake with those either.

  She sat down at the table and tested the latest set of parchments. The king’s spies–Jade had warned everyone, time and time again, that they couldn’t assume they’d weeded out all the spies–wouldn’t think there was anything odd in producing chat parchments for the Levellers, although they’d certainly want a word with the magicians doing it. Chat parchments offered enough of a tactical advantage, particularly for an underground group, to ensure that no one would consider that they might be used for something else. There was a risk in producing them, particularly without blood magic being used to bind the parchments to a single set of users, but it was one that had to be endured. They couldn’t risk meeting too many people.

  It should work, she told herself. She didn’t fully understand the magic binding two sets of parchment together, but it was relatively simple. And wards can’t block them.

  She felt a flicker of sour admiration for the magicians who’d improved on the original design, even though they’d nearly gotten her–and Caleb’s entire family–killed. It was a neat piece of work and quite tricky to reverse-engineer, although she had the advantage of knowing it was possible. The spells could be used to allow her to hack the wards from the inside, as long as one piece of parchment was inside the wards. She had yet to think of a way to get one piece inside the wards, but Jade was sure they could overcome that problem in time. It wasn’t easy to detect a piece of chat parchment. A guard might be tricked into carrying one inside the wards without ever knowing what he was doing.

  Shaking her head, she stood and walked over to the small collection of bubbling cauldrons. Truth potions were quite forgiving, thankfully. It wasn’t hard to brew several cauldrons at once as long as she kept a careful eye on the time. The spies would have noticed the sudden demand for potions ingredients–and other magical supplies–but hopefully they’d be a little confused about what the Levellers were actually doing. Feeding truth potions to prospective new recruits was also something entirely understandable, if irritating to the king’s spymasters. They might not realize the enemy magicians were also up to something else.