Past Tense (Schooled in Magic Book 10) (27 page)

And the creature we saw was very unnatural
, she thought.
A manavore
,
perhaps
?

She pushed the thought out of her mind as Bernard and Robin explained what had happened, starting with the arrival of the creature and ending with its destruction. Whitehall looked very pale up until they told him what Emily had done, whereupon he turned to her, looking as though he had a hundred questions he wanted to ask. There was a calculating expression on his face that Emily didn’t like, although it was hard to blame him. He was one of the most powerful magicians in the world and yet he’d been forced to flee by the creatures, which had casually destroyed his home and butchered his friends.

“Emily,” he said. His eyes flickered over the gash on her cheek. “What did you do to it?”

“I drained the local magic around it,” Emily said. In hindsight, she’d read a couple of books where gods and monsters had flickered out of existence when the
mana
levels dropped too low to support them. It was both good and bad, she thought, that something akin to the Warlock’s Wheel couldn’t work on the Nameless World. “And once the level dropped too low to sustain it, it died.”

Whitehall frowned. “Are you sure it died?”

“She got rid of it, My Lord,” Robin said. “Does it matter if it’s dead or merely gone?”

“Yes, it does,” Whitehall said, flatly. “If it’s dead, then there’s no need to worry about it reporting back to its comrades. But if it’s alive, then it could be telling the rest of its people about us right now.”

“Yes, My Lord,” Robin said.

“But we stopped it,” Bernard said. He hesitated, then leaned forward. “A demon couldn’t stop it, but we did!”

Whitehall’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”

Bernard looked at Robin, who scowled. “I unleashed a protective demon, My Lord,” he said, slowly. He was clearly reluctant to say anything, but it was obvious that he didn’t want to defy Whitehall. “The demon should have torn the creature into little pieces. Instead ...it just died.”

“It fled,” Bernard said.

Robin’s face flushed angrily. “With your permission, My Lord, I would like to seek out my master,” he said. “He needs to be informed.”

“You may inform him,” Whitehall said, after a moment. “And then inform him that I would like the pleasure of his company.”

He looked at Bernard as Robin hurried off. “Escort my daughter back to her bedroom,” he ordered. “And then hunt down the other masters and ask them to meet me in my office, one hour from now.”

Bernard looked surprised, but he bowed anyway and took Julianne’s hand. Emily didn’t blame him for being astonished. Normally, he wouldn’t have been left alone with Julianne under any circumstances. She wondered if Whitehall knew that Bernard and Julianne had grown closer, then realized that Whitehall knew that Julianne had magic too, now. Bernard would be in for an unpleasant surprise if he tried anything stupid ...

Which he isn’t going to do
, she thought, as Whitehall led her back into the castle.
He’s almost sickeningly sweet on her
.

The thought nagged at her mind, tormenting her.
She’d
kissed Robin—and she’d
wanted
to kiss Robin. The forest had been romantic ... no, it had been
more
than merely romantic; there had been something in the air that had encouraged romance. Julianne and Bernard did have feelings for one another, thankfully, but had the forest pushed them together? Would they come to regret it in time?

“Emily,” Whitehall said. They stepped into his office and sat down. “What happened?”

“The Manavores
hunt by using magic,” Emily said, flatly. “They ...”

“Manavores,” Whitehall repeated. “Is that what they’re called?”

“I named them,” Emily said. She brushed her hair out of her eyes as she leaned forward, hoping to convince him. “It went after the boys first, Master. It didn’t seem to notice me until I used magic and it completely ignored Julianne. When they attacked your village ...”

“They went after the powerful magicians first,” Whitehall finished. “The ones covered in ...
slop
.”

“Yes, Master,” Emily said.

She paused, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. “I hit it hard enough, physically, to kill a man,” she added. “I don’t think it even
noticed
the blow. The only way to stop them seems to be to drain the surrounding magic field.”

“I see,” Whitehall said. He looked like a man who had bitten into a particularly sour lemon and forced himself to keep chewing. “Should we abandon the castle?”

Emily shook her head, without thinking. Whitehall
couldn’t
abandon the castle. The school
had
to be established—and she’d been laying the groundwork for it all along. She didn’t dare let him simply walk away, but how could she stop him? And the rest of the Whitehall Commune? She’d earned some respect from him, she felt, yet not all the masters saw eye-to-eye with him. Master Chambers disliked her personally and she rather suspected that Master Reaper felt the same way.

And I killed Master Gila
, Emily thought.
They’ll hold that against me, even if it had to be done
.

“You don’t think we should go,” Whitehall said. “Why not?”

“The current system of learning magic is doomed,” Emily said, grimly. “Those creatures—the Manavores—are going to be hunting you for the rest of time, until they run out of prey or you learn to kill them. Each apprentice raised in the old system is going to be prey, as far as those creatures are concerned. Their magic will draw the hunters like moths to a flame.”

“Which is why they kept discovering our villages,” Whitehall muttered. “But our apprentices cannot abandon magic.”

“You don’t have to,” Emily said. “The creature ignored me
until
I used magic. And even after I did cast a spell, it had problems seeing me. You have to teach your students to mask their powers.”

“Like you do,” Whitehall said. He cocked his head, thoughtfully. “How very convenient for you.”

Emily flushed. “I didn’t set out to ...”

“I know,” Whitehall interrupted. “But this is not going to go down well.”

“Yeah,” Emily said.

She sat back in her chair, suddenly feeling very tired. Logically, if she already had the scar on her cheek, it couldn’t be long before she petrified herself. The scar couldn’t be allowed to heal ... it crossed her mind that she could
keep
the scar from healing, but she’d definitely not looked very much
older
than she was when she started her trek back to the future. She hadn’t spent as much time admiring herself in the mirror as some girls she could mention, yet she didn’t
think
she’d put on too many years ...

I need to work out the spell
, she thought.
Then I need to find my hiding place
.

“And Robin’s demon was banished,” Whitehall mused. “It didn’t turn on him?”

“No, Master,” Emily said. “It just vanished.”

She leaned forward. “What
was
it?”

Whitehall frowned. “A protective demon? Robin would have bound the demon to one task—protecting him. When released, the demon would attack the person threatening Robin and then return to the darkness. DemonMasters prefer not to use them because they’re completely indiscriminate. There’s rarely any time to get them targeted before they have to be unleashed.”

“And they could lash out at everyone,” Emily mused.

“They could,” Whitehall agreed. “And their presence can make it harder to summon some of the other demons.”

And the demon simply flickered out of existence when the Manavore attacked it
, Emily thought.
Does that mean that demons are made of magic?

She pushed the thought aside for further consideration as she met his eyes. “It should be possible to use the nexus point to safeguard the castle,” she said. “And now that the nexus point has been tamed, the level of ambient magic in the vicinity should drop sharply.”

“That might have been what brought the creature here,” Whitehall said. He looked back at her, thoughtfully. “Can you show me how to cast the runes you used?”

Emily hesitated, briefly. The runes
had
come from the future, after all. But realistically ... it wouldn’t be long before Master Wolfe duplicated them, once he knew they were possible. He was already halfway towards building up a comprehensive outline of runes, sigils and other rituals that would eventually lead to subtle magic. And Whitehall
needed
them. If the Manavores were on the prowl, he’d have to prepare to defend the castle.

“On one condition,” she said. “You teach the girls how to use them too.”

Whitehall gave her a sharp look, but nodded. “Very well,” he said. “You might have to do the teaching, though.”

“I know,” Emily said. “Julianne will learn quickly, I am sure.”

She sketched out the runes for him, briefly explaining how they diverted magic around the circle, leaving the interior isolated from the ambient magic field. The Manavore had starved very quickly, suggesting that it desperately needed
mana
to survive. And yet, there was the nagging doubt over precisely what had happened after it had been trapped. Had it died—or, as Whitehall had warned, had it merely gone home? The implications worried her more than she cared to admit.

“There’s no reason why mundanes can’t draw out the runes,” she finished. “You could surround the castle with traps designed to catch and kill the monsters.”

“This is something that should be spread far and wide,” Whitehall said. “And something that I should discuss with the other masters.”

He shrugged. “And unfortunately, I cannot ask for you to attend.”

Emily felt oddly conflicted. On one hand, she would have liked to be there, standing and watching as history was made ... but, on the other hand, she knew that Master Chambers wouldn’t welcome her presence. And some of the others would probably agree, pointing out that Emily was no master.
And
that she’d only been with the commune for a few short weeks.

“You have to propose changing how to teach apprentices,” Emily said. Could she spy on the meeting? It might have been possible before the nexus point was tamed, but now ... she had a feeling her spells would be detected. “And you have to try to bring other apprentices here.”

Whitehall smiled, humorlessly. “We will see,” he said. He rose. “Go to your bedroom and wait; have a wash, if you like, but don’t try to sleep. I may have to summon you to answer questions.”

“Yes, Master,” Emily said. She rose and bowed. “Please make sure they all know how to cast the runes.”

“Of course,” Whitehall said, dryly. His smile grew warmer. “That will be the first order of business—once we finish hearing the protests, of course.”

“Of course,” Emily agreed.

She turned and walked out of the office, then paused by the air vent, glancing up and down the corridor before removing the snake-bracelet from her wrist and undoing the spell, freeing Aurelius from his confinement. The Death Viper curled on her palm, sniffing the air; a barrage of impressions slammed into her mind as the familiar bond returned to life, leaving her feeling oddly guilty for keeping Aurelius in suspension for so long. But what other choice did she have? No one else in Whitehall had a familiar that was utterly lethal to everyone else.

Gritting her teeth, she introduced Aurelius to the air vent and watched as he crawled inside, slithering up the pipes. The castle was threaded with tiny air vents, all far too small to allow a human to use them to move from room to room. But a snake would have no difficulty in finding a place to listen, spying on the conversation. And they’d have no way to know that they should be watching for him.

And I’ll know what they’re saying
, she thought, as she hurried to her bedroom.
And then I might know who truly understands what is at stake
.

J
ULIANNE LOOKED HALF-ASLEEP WHEN
E
MILY
entered the bedroom, but she still insisted on cleaning the wound on Emily’s cheek and disinfecting it before lying down on her blankets and downing a foul-smelling potion of her own. She fell asleep moments later, leaving Emily sitting on the blankets, watching her. Emily allowed herself a moment of relief—she’d been considering casting a sleep spell on Julianne to make sure she couldn’t interfere, then checked the potion before lying down and closing her eyes. It was strange to see through her familiar’s eyes—the world always looked weird—but she’d grown used to it. Void had made her practice, back when they’d shared a house.

And I really should spend more time with him
, she thought, as the snake slid into a vantage point.
Other familiars spend all their time with their partners
.

She shook her head, dismissing the thought. Aurelius was just too dangerous to be left off the leash, no matter how she felt about him. His poisonous skin wouldn’t cause
her
any harm, but anyone else who touched him would be lucky if they
only
lost a hand. She still shuddered when she heard the horror stories, including a number Lady Barb had told her when she’d been trying to convince Emily to turn Aurelius into alchemical ingredients. But the thought of slaughtering her familiar had been unbearable.

I’ll just have to give him more time in my bedroom
, she mused, as she watched Master Chambers and Master Reaper step into the chamber.
And when I get home, I can take him to the house for a few days
.

She couldn’t help feeling oddly dirty as the remaining masters gathered in Whitehall’s office, even though they weren’t doing anything naughty. Magic provided hundreds of ways to spy on one’s foes—hell, Emily had heard that trying to crack the spells protecting the girls changing rooms and bedrooms at Whitehall kept a number of male students gainfully occupied when they weren’t actually studying. She
knew
she’d be in real trouble if she was caught spying on another student, let alone a tutor ... she felt, despite herself, that she shouldn’t be doing anything of the sort. And yet, she wanted desperately to know what was going to be said. She
had
to know.