(The Zero Enigma Book 6) The Family Pride

by Christopher Nuttall

  I blinked, then reached out with my mind. The wards were pulsing around us, yet ... something was wrong. No, an absence of something. I felt a flicker of alarm as I started to inspect the entire network. Someone had managed to slip a probe into my wards, carefully picking their way through the array of spells ... someone was spying on us. I exchanged horrified looks with Francis. We used similar spells to protect our bedrooms at the mansion.

  Saline caught my arm. “What’s happening?”

  Francis turned and ran towards the door. “Someone is spying on us!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I readied a spell as I followed Francis to the door, although I wasn’t sure what I’d do to any intruders. Turn them into toads, perhaps, or objects? Or ... there were limits, certainly before the Challenge actually began. Francis threw the door open and charged out, casting a powerful discovery spell. Anyone lurking in the shadows, hidden behind an obscurification charm or an invisibility cloak, should have been instantly noticeable. But the corridor was empty. Dust motes floated in the halflight, undisturbed by our presence. I listened as carefully as I could, but there were no retreating footsteps. We were alone.

  Louise stepped up to me. “I can’t see anyone.”

  “Nor can I,” Francis said. “But I definitely sensed someone.”

  Saline caught my arm. “Perhaps we should move.”

  “Hell with that,” Francis grunted. He shot me an unreadable look. “This is our room. We’re not moving just because someone knows where we are.”

  I was tempted to agree. The abandoned classroom was practically perfect for our needs. Room to practice spells, cupboards to store our supplies ... I didn’t want to abandon it in a hurry. And yet, Saline had a point. Anyone who wanted to hamper our team had already found our base. It was just a matter of time until they managed to find a way to break our wards and slip inside.

  “I don’t know,” I temporised. I stepped back into the room and reached out to query the wards again. There was no longer any sign of an intruder. If I hadn’t sensed it - if Francis hadn’t sensed it - I would have doubted the intruder had even been there. Whoever had probed our defences had been good. “This room is ours.”

  I forced myself to think as Francis closed the door and started tightening the ward network, piece by piece. How had the intruder even found us? We’d taken care to sneak through the corridors, making sure we took the long way around just in case we were being followed ... perhaps we were being paranoid, but all was apparently fair in the Challenge. And we’d used scattershot spells to make it difficult for anyone to track us through magic. It wouldn’t have been entirely impossible, but it would have been very difficult. It would have required blood magic, and blood magic was banned at school.

  “We can keep the room,” I said, finally. “But we’ll double our wards and look around for somewhere else, if necessary.”

  Louise checked her watch. “I have to be in the library in thirty minutes,” she said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go for a shower and a change.”

  “You’re cutting it fine,” Francis teased.

  “Hah.” Louise, for once, didn’t rise to the bait. “Saline? You coming?”

  Saline nodded. “When do we meet again?”

  “Tuesday evening,” I said. “But feel free to come here and practice at any time.”

  “You should practice.” Francis sounded stern. “You need to speed up your spellcasting.”

  Louise nodded curtly to me, then turned and walked out of the room. Saline followed, closing the door behind her. I shook my head slowly as I started to cast the next set of wards, warding the chamber as solidly as I could. The intruder had been very - very - good. It was hard to pick up traces of his presence now, as if he’d carefully repaired the damage he’d done when he slipped back into the shadows. It had been sheer luck we’d caught him in the first place.

  Francis squatted on the floor and peered up at me. “How did he even find us?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe we weren’t the first to find this room.”

  “Perhaps,” Francis said. “Or maybe someone betrayed us.”

  “Who?” It didn’t seem likely. Rose had been with me when I’d found the classroom, true, but she wouldn’t have told Alana. Or anyone else, for that matter. “Who even knew we were coming here?”

  “The girls knew,” Francis said. “One of them could have betrayed us.”

  I snorted. “Francis, they didn’t know we were coming here until we led them here. How could they give away our secrets if they didn’t know our secrets?”

  “Louise is smart,” Francis said, dryly. “And Saline is dumb. Louise could have tagged herself so our intruder knew to follow her - Saline could have been tagged without her knowledge. Either way, they would have led the intruder right to our door.”

  “Saline isn’t dumb,” I said, hotly. “She’s just a bit slow.”

  “That’s dumb,” Francis said.

  I shook my head. Saline wouldn’t have become an upperclassman if she was dumb. A student who’d reached their limits by the time they took their exams at the end of fourth year would have been gently advised to go elsewhere. They certainly wouldn’t be welcomed into the upper classes. Saline’s father could have bribed all and sundry, I supposed, but ... I shook my head. Cat’s father had pulled all sorts of strings to get her into Jude’s. It was astonishing just how much people were prepared to overlook if they were insulted with a fairly considerable bribe.

  Or so Father keeps saying, I reminded myself. But surely there are limits.

  “She has the power,” I mused. “But she cannot quite grasp the concepts without a lot of hard work.”

  “It sounds like she needs remedial education.” Francis stood up. “Are you going to be teaching her the basics? Again?”

  “If I have to,” I said, evenly. I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary, but if there was no choice ... I’d do it. “She does have a lot of power.”

  “So you keep saying.” Francis winked. “Do you have a crush on her?”

  “I ... no.” I was genuinely shocked at his suggestion. “I’m betrothed!”

  “Just because you’re betrothed doesn’t mean you can’t look.” Francis gave me another wink. “Saline is just the sort of girl you like. Cute. Sweet. Huge tracts of land ...”

  My face grew warm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes, you do.” Francis smirked at me. “You like her.”

  “Enough,” I snapped. “I’m betrothed!”

  Francis shrugged. “And your betrothed is far from here. She’ll never know.”

  “I’d know.” I glared at him. “And I do care about her.”

  “How sweet,” Francis said. He waved a hand at the wooden ceiling. “Do you realise what you’re missing?”

  “Enough,” I repeated. “Right now, we have to get through the Challenge without being killed. Or being turned into dogs.”

  “Woof, woof,” Francis said. He headed to the door. “You do realise that we’re going to have to push back?”

  “No,” I said, as I followed him. “We don’t know who spied on us. We can’t go around hexing people at random.”

  Francis managed to sound genuinely puzzled. “Why not?”

  I made a rude gesture at his back as I started to cast a series of wards, detection charms and booby traps. Anyone who tried to enter the room, unless they were already keyed to the wards, would find it very difficult. And, if they got through the first layer of keep-out wards, they’d find themselves caught in a network of booby traps. I made a mental note to come and check regularly. Someone might wind up trapped so thoroughly they couldn’t get out.

  Which would get us in trouble, if they didn’t show up to class, I thought. It would depend on who actually got the blame.

  “Nice work,” Francis said. “I’d like to see the sorcerer who could get past that.”

  “No, you wouldn’t.” I snorted, rudely. “If we saw him, he’d be getting past
it.”

  I took one final look, then turned and headed along the corridor. Francis followed, his footsteps echoing in the silent air. I looked from side to side, watching for signs of our intruder, but there was nothing. I didn’t even see other footsteps in the dust until we reached one of the more well-travelled sections. Behind me, Francis cast a spell to hide our footsteps from prying eyes.

  And someone else could have easily done the same to us, I thought, coldly. Who knows?

  Francis nudged me as we reached the top of the stairs. “You talk to Penny, when you have a moment,” he said, as we cast spells to remove the dust. “I’ll see about a couple of other possible players.”

  “Check with me first,” I said. “We don’t want to make anyone fail their exams.”

  “Then they can retake the year.” Francis chuckled. “They won’t be the first and they won’t be the last.”

  I gave him a sharp look. “Seriously.”

  Francis shrugged. “I’m expected on the sports field in an hour,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Later,” I agreed.

  I watched him go, then turned and walked towards the office complex at the heart of the school. It felt odd to be stepping through the wards as if I owned the place. I felt vaguely as through I was trespassing, even though - as Head Boy - I had a perfect right to enter as I saw fit. I’d sneaked in and out of the section a couple of times, when I’d been younger, but if I’d been caught ... truthfully, knowing that I would be in trouble if I was caught was part of the thrill. Francis and I had more in common than I cared to admit.

  The records room sat at the bottom of the corridor, guarded by heavy wards. I put my hand on the doorknob and waited for the wards to unlock before I stepped inside. The air inside was very cold, a sense of potential hanging in the air. I felt an odd little shiver. The feeling of being out of place, of being somewhere I really wasn’t supposed to be, grew stronger. I told myself, firmly, that I was being silly. The wards would never have let me in without a fight if I wasn’t supposed to be there.

  And even though I do have a right to be here, I don’t have a good explanation, I thought. I’d better hurry before someone demands answers.

  The filing cabinets opened at my touch, revealing hundreds upon hundreds of files. I was tempted to peek at a handful - Alana’s, Francis’s, my own - but instead I merely sifted through them until I found Saline’s. It was thicker than I’d expected - Alana’s was surprisingly thin, given all the trouble she’d caused - and a pair of nasty charms snapped at me until I managed to counter them. I took the folder, put it on the desk and started to skim through it. I knew better than to risk taking the file out of the room.

  Saline’s permanent record was ... odd. She’d clearly been a very bright girl when she’d started school, although - curiously - she’d done her first year at Roanoke. I supposed that explained why she didn’t have many friends. By the time she’d transferred to Jude’s, most of her peers had formed friendships and patronage networks that wouldn’t have much room for a newcomer. And yet ... she’d done well, up until she became an upperclassman. There was no hint that anyone had bribed the school to admit her. There had been no need.

  And yet, she’d started to decline.

  I read through the records - exam reports, essay marks, disciplinary referrals - and frowned as I tried to make heads or tails of them. There was no cause, as far as I could tell, but Saline had simply started to go downhill. She’d started having problems, which had led to more problems, which had led to her falling behind. The teachers hadn’t noted any behavioural problems, but ... I shook my head. Had she been pushed too hard? Or had she simply peaked?

  And no one noticed? My thoughts mocked me. That doesn’t seem very likely.

  I read through the last notes in the file, then closed it up and returned it to the cabinet. Whatever had gone wrong had gone wrong very slowly, which meant ... what? A charm? If she was under a charm ... I considered the possibilities as I slipped out of the room and headed back to my suite. If she was under a charm, a spell designed to make it harder for her to learn ... why?

  Who would do that to her? I asked myself. And why?

  Francis didn’t think much of the idea, when I told him about it. “Every time we go home, we cleanse ourselves. It’s common sense. Why would Saline’s family not check her for spells whenever she went home?”

  I had to admit he had a point. Louise was common-born - her parents might not be aware of the danger, let alone know what they needed to do about it - but Saline came from an aristocratic family. They’d been practicing magic for centuries. They might not have qualified as a Great House - if they had, I doubted she would have joined my team - but they were far from powerless. Saline’s condition could hardly have passed unnoticed. If they’d had any reason to suspect long-term spell damage, or a charm someone had placed on their daughter, they would have turned the world upside down to find a cure.

  “Maybe they can’t find the spell,” I mused. “Or it did its work and evaporated.”

  “There would still be something detectable,” Francis pointed out. “You can’t hide a curse.”

  “Not easily,” I agreed. The really dangerous curses were designed to hide themselves, but the effects were noticeable even if the curse itself was invisible. “But it’s odd to think that she slowly went downhill without anyone noticing.”

  “People don’t always get better,” Francis said. “Look at Lope. A terror on the minor fields, when he was a lowerclassman, but he came apart the moment he set foot on the major fields. I had to kick him off the team for actually catching the ball ...”

  “How terrible,” I said, dryly. “Catching a ball someone kicked at you.”

  “He nearly cost us the game,” Francis said. “Only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with his bare hands.”

  “And then someone cheated by claiming that, as he was wearing gloves, he wasn’t actually touching the ball with his bare hands,” I said. I’d heard the story. “Didn’t he get away with it?”

  Francis grinned. “They had to rewrite the rules, just for him.”

  I snorted. There was a certain kind of pleasure, I supposed, in finding a loophole ... even if the loophole was closed very quickly. But it still struck me as silly. If Francis put as much effort into his studies as he did into playing games, he would have left me behind long ago. He might even have bested Alana in the quest for valedictorian. She was pretty much at the top of the league.

  “The minors are meant to be fun,” Francis said, more seriously. “No one really gets mad if you make a mistake. But the majors? Oh, if you make a mistake, it will haunt you for the rest of your life. Lope just folded under the pressure.”

  “Fun,” I repeated. “Let me tell you how much I hate sports.”

  Francis held up his hands in mock surrender. “You don’t need to tell me again, really.”

  He shrugged. “But you know as well as I do that upperclassmen are under a lot of pressure. If you want an apprenticeship, this is your last chance to prove yourself worthy. If you’re an Heir ... this is your chance to prove yourself worthy too. How many students have trouble coping? And how many of them actually dare to show it? We’d be mocked if we showed weakness in front of the class ...”

  “True.” I’d seen Janice break down and cry once, back in fourth year. She’d never been allowed to forget it. “But Saline is too good-natured to be under stress ...”

  “You do like her,” Francis carolled. “I knew it.”

  I glared. “And she does pick up concepts, when people take the time to explain it to her,” I insisted. “She’s not stupid.”

  “She may be under a lot of stress you can’t see,” Francis said. “I know you think I’m being stupid, when I talk about the importance of winning games, but it’s important to me.”

  “I suppose,” I conceded. “Do you think we should bring it to someone’s attention?”

  Francis frowned. “That Saline needs help?”
r />   “That something might be wrong,” I said. “If she has been charmed, or spell-damaged ...”

  Francis cut me off. “First, you don’t know she’s been charmed. You’d need to have some kind of proof before you started hurling those accusations around. And second, if she hasn’t been charmed, people will say you’re showing an untoward interest in her.”

  “People like you?” I met his eyes. “She’s a teammate, you know. We have a responsibility to help her.”

  “And we’re not allowed to ask for outside help, or we might wind up being disqualified,” Francis said. He shrugged. “Why don’t you suggest she teaches Louise how to cleanse herself? It might get rid of any ... unwanted spells on Saline too.”

  I gave him a sharp look. “You have got to be kidding.”