Schooled in Magic (8 page)

She picked a small amulet out of a bag and passed it over to Emily. “This is a guide to the interior of the building, which changes regularly,” she explained. “In the event that you need to go anywhere, hold the amulet in your left hand and speak the name of the place aloud. A ball of light will appear in the air and guide you to your destination. If it refuses to work, you don’t have permission to enter that part of the building yet. Certain parts will remain off-limits until you reach a particular level. Wear the amulet until you learn how to ask the school for directions using your own magic.”

Emily glanced down at the amulet, and then put it around her neck.

“Toothbrush, toothpaste, washing powder, watch, medical potions,” Madame Razz continued, piling bottles of liquid on top of the clothes Emily was already carrying. “During that time of the month, take one swig of this liquid per day and the effects will be much reduced. Be careful not to leave samples of your blood lying around; it maintains a link to you and someone with bad intentions can use it to hex you, or worse. There are charms to cut the link; until you learn them, hand any bloodstained items over to me for disposal.”

The watch was odd, seemingly out of place. Emily looked at it and realized, finally, that it was actually designed for someone to wear around their neck, or carried within their jacket, rather than worn on their wrist. It used clockwork, she decided, rather than anything electronic. She’d have to wind it regularly to keep it working.

Madame Razz finally picked a book up from one end of the room, then led Emily back into the corridor. Emily followed her, staggering slightly under the weight, until they reached a single door, no different from any of the others. Madame Razz rapped on it sharply, then opened it by tapping a finger against a rune that had been cut directly into the stone. Inside, there were three beds, two of them already made up and surrounded by piles of books and devices that Emily didn’t recognize. The third bed was nothing more than an uncomfortable looking mattress.

“Place the bedding on the bed,” Madame Razz ordered. “I assume you know how to make up your own bed?”

She sounded as if she didn’t expect Emily to be capable of tying her shoelaces without assistance, but Emily nodded. The last thing she’d wanted was her mother or stepfather coming into her room back home, so she’d taken care of everything from a very early age. It wasn’t actually hard to change a bed; it had always amused her that boys–and a number of girls–complained about how unfair it was that their parents made them do their own beds. They spent longer complaining than it took to make the bed.

“Yes,” Emily said.

“That’s
yes, Madame
,” Madame Razz snapped. She scowled at Emily then nodded towards the door in the rear of the room. “Toilet, washbasin and bath are in there. You’ll have to come to an agreement with your roommates about rotas for using the bath; I’d prefer not to have to enforce one. The water basin over in that corner contains drinking water; if you happen to want food or anything else to drink, wait until morning. As a new student, you are not allowed to wander the building after lights out.”

She turned and nodded towards the other beds. “I’ve put you in with Aloha and Imaiqah; Imaiqah is a first year student, like yourself, while Aloha is a second year student. As such, she is expected to take charge of the room. Should you keep the room clean and tidy, with a minimum of noise, fighting and bother, you will be rewarded with room points that can be exchanged for decorations, books or even sweets. I would strongly prefer
not
to have to intervene in disputes between you. In the event that it becomes unavoidable, you will
all
be punished. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Madame,” Emily said, trying not to roll her eyes. “I understand.”

“Good,” Madame Razz said. “I understand that Mistress Irene will contact you; in the event of her not doing so before dinner time, one of your roommates will take you down to the dining hall. Or use the amulet to find the hall.”

She marched over to the door and looked back at Emily. “This school is very different than anywhere else in the Allied Lands,” she added, her tone becoming almost compassionate. “It can be hard to adjust, particularly if you came from an aristocratic family. If you need help or advice, you can talk to me at any time.”

“Thank you,” Emily said.

Madame Razz left, quickly closing the door behind her.

Emily looked around the room, her gaze settling on a pile of books beside one of the beds. Her first impulse was to pick them up, but then she felt the magic haze surrounding them and realized that picking them up–at least without permission–would be a very bad idea. Instead, she sorted through the pile of clothing and bedding, before placing the clothing in the empty cupboard nearest her bed. The bottles of medicine went into the smaller cabinet beside the bed, followed by the amulet; finally, she started to make the bed. It was even easier than she had expected, although the mattress felt rough and uncomfortable once she’d tested it out.

Lying back on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling and shook her head. Her life had turned upside down, yet she found some aspects easier to deal with than she had expected. What was strangest of all was how she felt about her old world. It seemed almost dreamlike now. And she knew that she would never want to go home.

For a moment, she concentrated on her roommates. She’d never shared a room with someone else before, not even a sleepover with girlfriends. Whatever her roommates were like, she prayed that she could get on with them. Friends–or at least allies - would make her life here complete.

And was one of them really named
Aloha?
Or was that just a translation glitch?

Shaking her head, she picked up Void’s book and started to leaf through the pages, wishing that she could read and understand the words. But, even though Void had promised her that understanding would come in time, they were still nothing more than Greek to her. The spidery handwriting seemed impenetrable.

It’s only been a day
, she told herself.
See what you can do in a week
.

E
MILY WAS STILL FLIPPING THROUGH VOID’S
book when the door clicked open and the first of her roommates walked in. She was a short, mousey girl, with long dark hair, a freckled face and a tired expression, cute rather than beautiful. Emily found it impossible to estimate her age; she could have passed for fourteen back home, but she had a feeling that people aged faster in this world, considering that it had no technology. The girl looked surprised to see Emily, one hand coming up in a defensive stance, before realizing that Emily had to be a third roommate.

“You can call me Imaiqah,” she said. Her voice was low, almost as if she didn’t want to attract attention. “What would you like to be called?”

Emily blinked in surprise as she realized what she’d been missing; names! The Grandmaster–that wasn’t a name, that was a title. And he had never asked her name, which was quite odd, once she came to think of it. Neither had anyone else, not even Shadye. Or Void.

She wracked her brain, thinking hard. Void had told her that it wasn’t a good idea to ask for a sorcerer’s name, which made her wonder if she shouldn’t tell anyone else her name either, for fear it could be used against her. She couldn’t understand how an entire school operated without anyone knowing their real names, but this was a whole different universe. Things worked differently here.

“Call me ...” She stopped, shaking her head. What
could
they call her? Could they call her Emily, without her surname? Or should she pick a nickname ... surely, Madame Razz had to be a nickname too. And Imaiqah sounded vaguely Arabic. “I’m honestly not sure.”

Imaiqah smiled, brightly. “Your tutor will help you decide what you want to be called. First day?”

“First day,” Emily admitted. Madame Razz had said that Imaiqah was a first year student too. “How long have you been here?”

“Seven months,” Imaiqah said. She stepped over to the bed and held out a hand for Emily to shake. “I’m an herbalist and a mirror magician, or so they tell me. Herbs I understand; mirrored magic isn’t working so well. What will you specialize in?”

Specialize? Emily didn’t know what, if anything, she
could
specialize in. Void had given her the book of spells, but he hadn’t said
anything
about specializing. Remembering some of the role-playing she’d done before being transported to a different world, it was easy to see that Void had probably taken it for granted that she would specialize in something–and that she would know more than she did about magical talents. He might not have understood that her world had no magic at all and therefore also had no specialized magicians as this world knew them.

Imaiqah saw the book on the bed before Emily could answer, her eyes going wide. “You’re a sorceress,” she said, astonished. “How many spells do you know?”

Emily hesitated, and then admitted the truth. “None.” She knew nothing about casting spells, let alone tapping her magic, the magic she didn’t quite believe she had. “I only just discovered that I was a sorceress.”

Imaiqah stared at her, as if she suspected that Emily was lying. “How is that even possible?” The surprise in her voice was obvious. “I thought that all students were tested for magic.”

And then her eyes narrowed. “Where do you even come from? I can’t place your accent.”

“A long way away,” Emily said, unsure how much she should admit to Imaiqah. The truth, that she came from another universe, or a vague statement that wasn’t quite a lie? “It’s my first day at Whitehall.”

Imaiqah nodded in sympathy. “I remember my first day too,” she said, turning away and walking over to her bed. “Mistress Irene will see that you are properly set up for your studies, then assign you to classes. Maybe we’ll share a class or two.”

The door opened again before Emily could say a word, revealing a tall, dark-skinned girl with a scowl on her face. “I swear I will turn that fool into a toad,” the newcomer said, one hand clutching a wand as if she intended to start firing off spells in every direction. “How
dare
he try to ask me to walk out with him on the grounds?”

Imaiqah ignored the question as the door banged closed. “Aloha, this is our new roommate,” she said. “She doesn’t have a name yet.”

Emily heard her tone and understood, instantly, that Aloha considered herself the Alpha female in the room. She
was
a second year, whatever that meant. The mushy girls boarding school books her mother had owned had suggested that senior girls could punish younger girls at will. They’d also included suggestions of lesbian affairs among the girls.

“Right,” Aloha said. Up close, she
reeked
of magic ... and of something Emily couldn’t identify. “I would prefer not to be bothered by any junior students. Keep to your side of the room and I will keep to mine–and don’t even
think
about touching my books.”

She dumped a bag onto her bed and stalked past them, into the bathroom. Emily watched the door close and then glanced at Imaiqah, who looked a little frightened. No doubt her roommate bullied her, she decided, or at the very least considered associating with a first year to be undesirable. Aloha might have magic, but she was still very human.

“She means it,” Imaiqah said. She sounded as if she were trying to make light of it, but couldn’t quite pull it off. “Everything she owns is covered in protective charms. I once picked up one of her books and ended up frozen to the floor until she came back and released me.”

Emily stared at her, and then looked down at the stone floor. If she’d touched any of the books ...

A dull gong echoed through the building and she looked up. “Dinner,” Imaiqah said, with some relief. “Do you want to come with me to eat?”

Emily wanted to say no. She wanted to stay and hide in the room until the sense of weirdness - of being out of place - faded away, but she was hungry. Besides, the world wouldn’t change if she hid herself under the blankets. She nodded once, pushing the book of spells Void had given her under the bed, and then picked up her new robes, pulling them over the robes she already wore, even though Madame Razz had effectively stated that non-school clothes were forbidden. But there was no time to change.

She should have changed while waiting for her roommates, but the sense of weirdness had just grown stronger and stronger.

Imaiqah picked up a book from her bedside table, then led the way back out into the corridor. There were dozens of students outside, all wearing robes of different colors, several old enough to be adults. In fact, Emily realized as she looked from face to face, some students looked to be barely entering their teens, while others seemed to be in their twenties. A handful of them carried wands, or staffs; a couple carried broomsticks and one carried what looked like a gnarled club of wood. Their chatter didn’t fade away when they saw Emily; they didn’t seem to be surprised by an unfamiliar face.

Or maybe there were so many pupils at the school that no one could hope to know them all. Emily had spent two years at her last school and she’d barely known anyone outside her grade.

“That’s Marcus,” Imaiqah said, pointing to a taller male student wearing a green robe and a red badge that seemed to glow with an eerie light. “He’s one of the prefects assigned to keep us all in line; he isn’t a bad person, but he takes his responsibilities seriously. Don’t go running in the corridors in front of him.”