Past Tense (Schooled in Magic Book 10) (21 page)

It might have driven me insane
, she thought.

“My master taught me how to perform these spells,” Master Drake said. He sounded angry, but not at her. “He never suggested the spell could be modified ...”

Emily looked at him. “Why not?”

“He always believed that the spells had to be cast with such force,” Master Drake said. “And when I tried the spells as a young man, they didn’t work.”

“Because you didn’t have the power to make them work,” Emily said.

“I assume so,” Master Drake said. “Why ... why does this work?”

“Spells are structures,” Emily said. “Like houses ... spells are
structures
. You can take apart a large house and use the materials to build a smaller house ...”

“And have enough for a second house afterwards,” Master Drake finished. He tapped the wooden desk thoughtfully. “And I could make more gold.”

Emily frowned. “How long does the gold last?”

“Not long,” Master Drake said. “If you’d tried melting it down, it would have reverted to wood pretty quickly. But otherwise there would be no way to know.”

“You’re overpowering the spell,” Emily mused. “And so some of the results are random.”

She made a mental note to take the transmutation spell apart and see just what every last spell component actually
did
. It was possible that Master Drake was actually transfiguring the same thing time and time again—and equally possible, she supposed, that some parts of the spell were cancelling out other parts of the spell. If the transmutation didn’t hold when the object was damaged ... perhaps ...

Perhaps some demon tempted his master with the idea of unlimited wealth
, she thought,
and his master never noticed the sting in the tail
.

“I shall have to study Master Wolfe’s work more closely,” Master Drake said.

“And you could let him study your other spells,” Emily pointed out. “Who knows what might happen when he starts looking at
them
.”

Master Drake eyed her, sharply. “Secrets are secret for a reason.”

“But trading knowledge would make it easier to come up with new inventions,” Emily said, softly. “You could do a great deal more if you understood how the magic actually worked.”

She rose to her feet and bowed, then headed for the door. She could
feel
his gaze on her as she walked, but managed to resist the urge to start running or to hurl back something nasty, knowing it would merely cause trouble. Robin was waiting outside, looking oddly amused about
something
. Emily closed the door behind her and then nodded at him. Where was Bernard?

“He’s out with his master,” Robin said. Emily blinked, then realized that Robin must have read the question on her face. “And I have nothing to do.”

Emily sighed, inwardly, as he fell into step beside her. “You don’t have more floors to clear?”

“We’ve cleared enough space for the moment,” Robin assured her. He gave her a mischievous smile. “Didn’t you kill him?”

“No, I did not,” Emily said, realizing—a second too late—that she was being teased. “We had a very productive discussion.”

“You don’t
seem
to have been turned into a dog,” Robin bantered. “Bernard won’t have to do any of his chores for a week.”

Emily frowned. “He won’t?”

“Master Drake has a habit of turning apprentices into animals,” Robin said. He didn’t seem worried by the prospect, even though Master Drake’s spells were far more powerful than any of the prank spells. “He turned Galveston into a chicken for babbling too much and Harold into a fish for ...”

“You’re joking,” Emily said. Turning someone into a chicken was quite bad enough—particularly as there was a very real danger of someone mistaking the chicken for dinner—but a fish? Harold would have been lucky to survive. Hell, she wasn’t sure if he
could
survive without being dropped into water. “Are you ...?”

She shook her head. Of
course
he wasn’t joking.

“So they all thought you’d be coming out of the room in some other shape,” Robin said, ignoring her comment. “Or that you’d kill Master Drake. And Bernard bet on you and he’s going to be pleased.”

“Oh,
goody
,” Emily said, with heavy sarcasm.

Robin didn’t seem to hear it. “What do you plan to say to
my
master?”

Emily shuddered. Master Chambers was a DemonMaster. If he had any speciality, apart from summoning demons, no one had told her about it. And she didn’t
want
to summon demons. It was just too difficult to keep them from finding a loophole in their instructions and exploiting it mercilessly.

Although finding a way to dismiss a demon would be useful
, she thought. Aurelius had taught her a few Words of Banishment, but they didn’t always work when she hadn’t summoned the demon.
But do they know?

She glanced at Robin. His magic field was tainted, but she didn’t
think
there was a demon nestled within it. “Can you dismiss your demons?”

Robin frowned. “It depends on the demon,” he said. “Some have to be summoned time and time again—they can be dismissed easily, if you keep your nerve. Others ... others cannot be dismissed without destroying their sigil in the Book of Pacts. And once you destroyed it, you wouldn’t be able to call on them again. They don’t come when you call.”

“I see,” Emily said. She wasn’t sure she wanted to ask more questions, but Aurelius’s vast collection of books had included more speculation than hard facts. “Are there limits to what you can ask a demon to do?”

“Yeah,” Robin said.

Emily waited, but he said nothing more. “And those are ...?”

“I’m not permitted to talk about them,” Robin said, after a moment. “My oaths ...”

He cleared his throat. “All I can tell you is what my master told me, years ago,” he added, slowly. His words were hesitant, as if he were choosing them carefully. “A demon will do anything for you—if you meet its price.”

Emily nodded, slowly. A couple of Aurelius’s books had discussed that, although the writers had written in such elliptical terms that it was hard to be sure. Demons were omnipotent—they’d insisted—but it had never made sense to her. If they could do anything they liked, why would they do favors for the DemonMasters? And if there was a
reason
they did favors for the DemonMasters, why weren’t the DemonMasters ruling the world?

But if they need something from us
, she thought,
it might put limits on their abilities. Or they might not be so powerful after all
.

“You offered the demon blood for a spell,” she said, deciding not to point out the flaw in the spell. If Robin didn’t already know, someone else could tell him. “What else do you trade?”

Robin frowned. Sweat was prickling on his brow. “I can’t tell you,” he said. “I ...”

He cleared his throat. “You should ask my master,” he added. “He could tell you.”

“I’ll consider it,” Emily said. It was hard enough being close to Robin when his demon was clearly visible. She had no intention of walking into a DemonMaster’s lair. Master Chambers might not want to let her go afterwards. “What are you doing this evening?”

“Just playing soccer with the lads,” Robin said. “At least until the sun goes down ...”

He gave her a wry look. “Do you want to come along?”

“Julianne insists on going to bed early,” Emily said. It wasn’t entirely untrue, but Julianne also insisted on spending half an hour practicing spells first. Besides, she’d never liked team sports. “We have to be up early in the morning.”

“Yes, we do,” Robin said. He frowned, wiping his brow. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to break a sworn oath,” Emily reassured him. Even basic oaths could be unpleasant, if they were broken. And with demons involved, she was sure the consequences would be horrific. “Shall we go for dinner?”

Robin hooked his arm through hers. “Why not?”

E
MILY WAS SURPRISED —PLEASANTLY SURPRISED
— at just how quickly some of the seeds she’d planted began to bear fruit over the next few weeks. Master Drake joined Master Wolfe and herself as they worked out the spells for tapping the nexus point, Master Wolfe determined to rewrite Master Drake’s spells so he could use them himself. Whitehall joined them too, abandoning his private sessions with Emily so he could throw himself into the new project. And Sake—now Master Sake—not only learned the spells she taught him, but—at her suggestion—taught them to four of the unattached apprentices.

“You seem to be encouraging us to share ideas,” Whitehall commented, during one lunch break. Master Wolfe still had problems eating and sleeping, although he’d calmed down a little after Whitehall had started threatening to force-feed him a sleeping draught. “Is that deliberate?”

“The more minds working on a problem,” Emily pointed out, “the greater the chance of finding a solution.”

“Not with magicians,” Whitehall countered. “Getting a bunch of magicians working on the same problem is worse than herding cats.”

Emily concealed her amusement as they finished their lunch and prepared to head down to the nexus chamber. They said the same in her time, although magicians
could
work together if they learned the habit from the start—or if they liked each other. She recalled how much she’d enjoyed working with Caleb. The thought was bitter—being stuck in the past was enjoyable, but if she stayed she’d never see him again. And she missed him more than she cared to admit.

“This is dangerous,” Master Chambers warned. He sounded pessimistic. “A single surge of raw magic would be enough to kill everyone.”

“We’ve been through this already,” Whitehall said, tiredly. He definitely sounded as though he’d had enough horror stories. “We
have
to tap the nexus point or we won’t be able to remain here indefinitely.”

Emily sighed, inwardly, as the two men kept sniping at each other. They were
meant
to be friends, according to their apprentices, but their arguments had grown more frequent over the past two weeks. Master Chambers seemed to like living in the castle—it was certainly better than a village—yet he didn’t like trying to use the nexus point. And, she suspected, he didn’t like
her
much either. He’d even scolded Robin for trying to spend so much time with her.

“The spells have been carefully worked out,” Master Wolfe called back. He sounded confident—or at least trying to pretend he was confident. “We can handle any surges of magic.”

“And if you’re wrong, we’re all dead,” Master Chambers snapped.

Emily resisted—barely—the urge to point out that Master Wolfe
wasn’t
wrong. Master Chambers wouldn’t want to hear
anything
from her, not after he’d heard how Emily had convinced Master Drake to work with Master Wolfe. Emily had no idea why he disliked her so intensely—unless he was very wedded to the idea that women should be neither seen nor heard—but it hardly mattered. All that mattered was that he wouldn’t listen to a word she said.

Maybe I should propose calling up a demon
, she thought, as they walked into the nexus chamber.
He’d drop the idea in a hurry if it was my suggestion
.

She closed her eyes for a long moment as she felt the beating power surrounding her, then opened them and looked directly at the nexus. Her head started to swim a moment later as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing; the nexus point was tiny and yet immensely huge, pulsing with raw magic that made her hair want to stand on end. It was like staring into a terrifyingly bright light, one that could blind you if you looked at it long enough. None of the other magicians, even Whitehall, seemed able to look at the nexus point. Just being this close to it was unpleasant.

“I have the materials ready,” Master Bones said. “Shall we begin?”

He sounded oddly amused, Emily noted; it was hard to blame him. Master Bones was an Elementalist, a magician who worked with the elements; he might be considered a master, but he was looked down upon by many of the other magicians. They didn’t see any value in his work, from crystals that held spells to wooden wands and stone knives that could focus and direct magic. And yet, once Master Wolfe had started putting together the spells to control the nexus point, it hadn’t taken him long to realize that something stronger would be required than mere spellwork. He’d pulled Master Bones into the research team shortly afterwards.

And there aren’t any Elementalists in my time
, Emily thought. Master Chambers had sneered at the whole concept, treating it as little better than potions or divination, but she’d had a different idea.
The discipline must have been folded into alchemy.

She made a mental note to encourage Julianne to discuss the matter with Master Bones—if he would talk to her—and then watched as Bones and Wolfe carefully drew out the runes on the floor. Wolfe was a walking dictionary of runes and he was
delighted
to share, telling her what each of the runes did when they were drawn by a trained magician. Most of them worked on their own, like the rune on Emily’s chest; the magicians had barely begun to consider the possibilities for using one or more runes in tandem. Emily had a private suspicion that Master Wolfe would end up with rather more apprentices than he could handle, after the nexus point was tamed. And
they
would be the ones who would work out how to use five or six runes per spell.

That might be why some of the runes went out of fashion
, she told herself. The old runes weren’t mysterious—or long-lost keys to power. Professor Locke would have been disappointed, if he’d been with her.
They were no longer necessary after newer techniques were developed
.

“This is a remarkable mess,” Master Keldor said, as he slipped into the chamber. He smelled unpleasant, his shirt stained with blood. Emily didn’t want to think about what he might have been doing, earlier in the day. “Are you sure it will work?”