Past Tense (Schooled in Magic Book 10) (44 page)

Julianne caught her in a tight hug and held her, just for a second, before leaning back.

“What now?”

“Now?” Emily asked. “Now we go save your father.”

J
ULIANNE STARED AT HER.
“T
HERE’S ... TAMA
said that hundreds of magicians had invaded the castle.”

“If Tama told me it was going to be a dry day,” Emily said tartly, “I would make sure to wear my cloak.”

She contemplated the problem for a long moment as she touched the crystal column. If she could get access to the wards, she could turn them against the invaders. But nothing happened. Either the wards had been programmed to reject her—Wolfe could have done it, if he’d feared her power—or something else had scrambled them. And it would have been hard, if not impossible, to separate the two sides.

And Chambers was one of the founders
, she thought, grimly.
The wards might refuse to turn on him in any case
.

“We have to get back upstairs,” she said, after a moment. “Are you ready?”

Julianne looked nervous, but nodded shortly. Emily felt a stab of sympathy—
she
disliked fighting and she’d had much more training—as she walked towards the door and peered out into the corridor. There was no sign of anyone, male or female. She wondered, as she glanced into the library, just how many of the newcomers had been influenced by Chambers or Reaper. Hundreds of people had visited the castle over the last few days and dozens of them had stayed. If even a third of them worked for Chambers, as part of a Trojan Horse operation, Whitehall and his loyalists had a serious problem.

“Keep very quiet and stay behind me,” she hissed. Master Wolfe had configured the wards to keep unwelcome guests out of the underground tunnels, but Chambers could probably tell his allies how to defeat the protections if necessary. Who knew what else Keldor might have done? “And get ready to cast a spell if necessary.”

She glanced at Julianne, worried. If she had someone—anyone—else along, she would urge Julianne to remain in the control chamber. Julianne might have grown up in a harsher world than herself—although she
had
had a father—but she had no experience whatsoever in actually
fighting
. Sergeant Miles had made
Emily
sneak through the forest and the castle until she could move like a ghost ...

But it has its limits
, she thought, as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
And the demon might be detectable too
.

She glared at the creature, a flickering impression at the corner of her eye. It hadn’t moved at all, even when she’d tried to touch the control system. What was it
doing
? She rubbed her scarred cheek as she slipped up the stairs, reaching out carefully with her senses in hopes of detecting any waiting magicians before it was too late. How long would it be before the scar healed? And how long did she have left in the past? She could practically
feel
time pressing down around her, insisting that she needed to sneak back to the statue chamber and begin her trip to the future.

Or maybe I’m imagining it
, she told herself.
There’s no way to be sure
.

She held up a hand, stopping Julianne, as she sensed a knot of magic at the top of the stairs, just in front of the wards. There was a magician standing there, a magician practically spewing wild magic in all directions. A DemonMaster, perhaps? Emily couldn’t
sense
any demons, but that meant nothing. He might just be powerful enough not to have to carry one around with him all the time.

He’d be down here if he could see the gates
, she thought, grimly.
Chambers must have told him where to look, but he doesn’t have the mental discipline to see through the first line of defense
.

Or he’s just there to keep us penned up
, her own thoughts countered.
They may already know that Keldor’s plan went awry.

“There’s a magician lying in wait for us,” she hissed. Julianne paled. “Stay here. I’ll deal with him.”

She wished, absurdly, for a sword or a dagger as she stepped through the wards. Her magic was far stronger than any mundane weapon, but Keldor had reminded her—again—that she could not depend upon it. The magician looked up, surprised—from his perspective, she had practically materialized out of nowhere—and then jerked up a hand. She slammed a hex into him before he could cast a spell, heedless of the dangers of using modern spellware in the ancient castle. The magician slammed back against the wall, then crashed to the ground, leaving a trail of blood behind. She was relieved, deep inside, to realize that she didn’t recognize him.

Stunned
, she thought, as she checked his pulse.
But he’ll probably live
.

She beckoned Julianne through the gates, then searched the magician thoroughly. He had five small pouches at his belt, each one filled with ...
something
... that had an evil aroma, but nothing else. Julianne looked revolted and muttered something about death magics and blood-based potions, then leaned away from the fallen man as Emily carefully took his pouches and dumped them through the gates. Whatever they were—and the magic surrounding them had felt
evil—
they wouldn’t play any further role in the battle. She cast a spell on the magician, just to make sure he would remain asleep for the next few hours, and reached out with her senses. Flashes and flickers of magic were darting through the castle.

“There’s a battle going on,” she hissed. Chambers had probably planned to turn the nexus point against the loyalists. Keldor would have done it too, if Julianne hadn’t managed to surprise him. Any hope of a quick victory had died with him. “But I don’t know who’s winning.”

Julianne stared at her. “Can you sense my father?”

Emily shook her head. “Not at this distance,” she said. “But we need to get up there.”

She contemplated possibilities as they made their way towards the stairs, cursing under her breath as she realized just how few options there were. Sergeant Miles had taught her that castles—and
this
castle was no exception—were designed to make it harder for the attacker to break in, but their interiors tended to be double-edged swords if the attackers actually
did
get into the castle. A couple of magicians guarding the stairwell would be quite enough to keep the defenders pinned down, at least before the attackers started hurling fireballs or other spells into the bowels of the castle. She
might
be able to punch her way through, but it would reveal her presence to everyone else.

We could go up the side of the castle
, she thought.
But can we get outside?

It didn’t seem likely. She had no idea how much experience Master Chambers had of warfare, but she’d seen bows and arrows at the Gathering. A handful of bowmen could keep the defenders from making a sally, let alone trying to scramble up the stone walls and crawl into an upper window. And Julianne probably couldn’t get up the walls in any case. Emily wasn’t entirely sure
she
could. Whitehall—
her
Whitehall—was charmed to make that difficult.

We could teleport
, she thought.
But how would the wards respond to that?

She cursed Master Wolfe under her breath as she reached the bottom of the stairs and peered up, her senses probing for trouble. A surge of magic—and a teleport spell was easily powerful enough to qualify—would trigger the wards ... and then what? She doubted he’d been able to program them to dump her into the oubliette, if there
was
an oubliette. But merely preventing the spellwork from forming would be quite bad enough. She’d waste a great deal of her reserves for nothing.

And that’s the good option
, she thought, tartly.

There were no magicians at the top of the stairs, according to her senses, but that proved nothing. Chambers might well have hired sellswords, although she found it hard to imagine that he’d found many willing to attack a magician’s home. Even the lowliest of the apprentices could pose a serious risk to mercenaries. But then, Chambers could have promised them magical protection and enough money to make them independently wealthy for life. It wasn’t the sort of offer that could be sneered at easily, despite the risks.

She pushed the thought out of her mind as she motioned Julianne to stay back, then slowly inched her way up the stairs. The flickers of magic from high overhead were growing stronger all the time, suggesting that the battle was intensifying. Both sides would have realized that neither one was going to get an easy victory. And they were committed. Neither Chambers nor Whitehall could just walk away from the castle, not now ...

“All right, girl,” a voice growled. “Come on up.”

Emily looked up. Four men were standing at the top of the stairs, carrying swords and peering down at her with disdainful expressions. Sellswords, she decided; none of them had any trace of inherent magic surrounding them. They
did
have
some
protections, she realized, as she slowly walked towards them, doing her best to seem both obedient and fearful. But their protections simply weren’t very good.

Chambers should have listened to Wolfe
, she thought, gathering her power.
His protections are full of holes
.

She cast the spell, pushing it forward as she reached the top of the stairs. The four men froze completely, utterly unable to move. Emily smiled, even though she knew they would probably have raped her and Julianne if they’d had a chance. Clearly, Chambers’ warning about female magicians—if he’d bothered to issue such a warning—had fallen on deaf ears.

He probably didn’t
, she thought.
Convincing the sellswords to join the fight would have been hard enough without it
.

“Come on up,” she called. “Hurry!”

Julianne ran up the stairs, her eyes going wide when she saw the frozen men. Emily nodded to her, then led the way down the corridor. The sound of fighting grew louder, the flickers of magic stronger and nastier. It sounded as through the enemy had secured the entrance hall, but not managed to push much further into the castle. Sergeant Miles would not have been impressed.

She sucked in her breath as she stuck her head into the dining hall. Several magicians were fighting savagely, brilliant spells smashing into wards or exploding uselessly against the stone walls. It didn’t
look
as though either side was thinking
tactically
, she noted; they stood, gathered together, blasting away at the other side. A child with a machine gun could have killed everyone on both sides within seconds. And it was hard, so hard, to tell just who was on which side.

And then she saw Bernard, standing with his fellow magicians.

Emily braced herself, gathering her power, then threw a spell towards the opposing side, shaping the spell to tear through their defenses. Their position wavered and broke as her spell struck them, utterly unprepared for an attack from the side or a spell designed to pick its way through the weak points in their protections. She saw Master Reaper turning to face her, his face contorted with hatred; he made a gesture towards her, a second before a fireball slammed into his chest and incinerated him. A demon rose up from his body and glided towards Emily, its face twisted with malice ...

She froze, numb horror rooting her to the spot. The demon was so powerful that its mere presence blanked everything else out, as if it were
realer
than
real
. It was hard, so hard, to get a clear impression of what it
looked
like, but its mere presence was like trying to stare into the sun. She suddenly found it impossible to muster a spell or run for her life ...

“Down,” a voice shouted.

Emily staggered backwards as the spell snapped.
Something
—another demon—flashed past her and dove into the first demon. Moments later, they both blinked out of existence, leaving nothing but a malign stench in the air. Emily turned. A young man was standing behind her, his face tried and worn. She had barely a second to recognize him as one of Master Wolfe’s students—a magician of so little power that he would never have amounted to anything, without his understanding of spellwork—before he turned and hurried away from her. He’d had a demon, she realized numbly. And he’d unleashed the demon to save her life.

Bernard ran past her and grabbed Julianne, hugging her tightly. Emily rolled her eyes as she cast spells to cover them—making out in the middle of a fight was crazy—and watched the loyalists as they began mopping up the room. The remaining attackers were swiftly killed by the defenders, without even a hint of mercy. It would have sickened her a year ago, she knew, and in some ways it still did. But it was their world.

And they cannot be allowed to escape
, she told herself, numbly.
Or continue the fight elsewhere
.

“Emily,” Bernard said. Emily turned back to him. He was flushing and Julianne, holding his hand tightly, refused to meet her eyes. “What happened?”

“Keldor betrayed us,” Emily said, shortly. “He did something to the control system, weakening it. I ... it needs Whitehall to retake control.”

“Understood,” Bernard said. He looked grim. “I don’t know what happened to him.”

Emily closed her eyes, reaching out with her senses, but there were so many magical traces in the hall that she couldn’t sense anything useful. Whitehall couldn’t be dead, could he? She had read a number of accounts of the founding of the school that insisted Whitehall lived to a fine old age, but she had good reason to know that most of the history books were either inaccurate or flat-out wrong. And yet, they all agreed that Whitehall lived for decades before turning the school over to Bernard.

But all of the books are intensely focused on him
, she thought, numbly.
Master Chambers and Master Drake are barely mentioned ... and Julianne isn’t mentioned at all.