Trial By Fire (Schooled in Magic Book 7) (16 page)

The spell holding her in place snapped. “We stick together,” Aloha said, as they advanced towards the door. “And check everything for traps. The building will probably go after both of us.”

Emily nodded as they checked the door, carefully opening it to reveal a long dark corridor, illuminated only by lanterns hanging from the walls. If she hadn’t known it was impossible, she would have thought that whoever had designed the building’s interior had spent far too much time watching horror movies set in haunted houses. The door creaked, and so did the floorboards; she inched along the side of the corridor, straining her senses for the first hint of Master Grey’s position. But there was nothing, save for an ever-present silence that hung around them like a tangible thing.

He could be moving around the house, keeping ahead of us
, she thought. Aloha might have been wrong. The traps infesting the house might be charmed not to go after tutors.
Or he could just have hidden himself somewhere to wait.

Aloha nodded towards a half-opened door, then cast an illusion of herself and sent it forward, through the door. Emily doubted it would fool anyone for more than a few seconds, but those seconds might be vital...nothing happened as the illusion moved through the door, followed carefully by Aloha. Inside, the room was empty, the wooden walls carved with words and pictograms that sent chills down Emily’s spine. At the far end, another door led into darkness.

Emily cast the night vision spell - cursing herself for not having thought of it earlier - and peered into the darkness. There was nothing there, save for a long corridor lined with doors, each one leading to an unknown destination. She checked for traps and found nothing, which alarmed her. Blackhall was supposed to be
loaded
with traps. If there was nothing ahead of them...

He could have disarmed them as he walked down the corridor
, she thought. She remembered her first visit to Blackhall and shuddered.
Or the traps could be purely mechanical, without magic
.

“Watch my back,” Aloha muttered, as she slipped ahead of Emily. “The door at the end of the corridor is open.”

“It could be a trap,” Emily muttered back. Sergeant Miles had taught them how to lay down a false trail, pointing out that it might be necessary to put someone off the scent. “He could be lying in wait for us.”

“I know,” Aloha said. “But we don’t have the time to search Blackhall inch by inch.”

Emily swallowed and nodded as Aloha inched down towards the door and peered through it, before beckoning Emily to come up to her. Inside, there was another set of stairs, leading upwards. Aloha crawled up, deactivating a nasty trap as she moved, then stepped through a door at the top. Emily followed her, feeling magic crawling around them, but stopped as the door snapped closed as soon as Aloha had stepped through. She hastily used a charm to unlock it, but when it opened there was no sign of Aloha.

Shit
, she thought, feeling cold fear running through her veins. They’d been separated, quite deliberately. And there was a funny smell in the air, something oddly familiar that her mind refused to recognize.
Where the hell is she
?

Something
moved
at the end of the corridor, half-hidden in shadow. A cloak...she snapped off a freeze spell, then ran forward. Master Grey’s cloak was hanging from the ceiling, frozen solid, but there was no sign of its owner. Emily barely had a moment to stare at it before a pair of strong arms grabbed her and shoved a damp cloth into her face. She struggled, but she couldn’t keep herself from breathing in some of the liquid. Her head swam as she fell to the ground; she tried to cast a spell, but the magic refused to form.

Durian
, her mind yammered at her.
That’s a Durian-based potion
.

Master Grey yanked her arms behind her back, tying them so tightly that Emily couldn’t flex them at all. She tried to kick out, but it was futile; Master Grey bound her legs together, rolled her over and pushed the cloth into her mouth. No matter what she tried, it was impossible to work magic. She’d been caught as neatly as a rat in a trap.

“Emily,” Aloha said. “What...”

Emily twisted her head, just in time to see Aloha hurl a spell at Master Grey. It struck his silver breastplate and dissipated, harmlessly. Master Grey leapt at her, bowled her over and rammed a second cloth into her face. Aloha struggled viciously, fighting desperately to escape, but to no avail. Emily could only watch helplessly as Aloha was tied up, then dragged over next to her. They’d
both
been caught effortlessly.

“Not the greatest of successes,” Master Grey observed, sardonically. “Emily, you allowed yourself to be distracted by my diversion, which gave me an opportunity to drug and capture you. Aloha, you saw me attacking Emily; you should have tried to overwhelm the breastplate” - he tapped the runes carved into the silver - “before I could catch you.”

He knew this place would separate us
, Emily thought. The interior of Blackhall wasn’t as mutable as Whitehall, but the sergeants had worked hard to prepare it for their students.
And I even smelled the potion and didn’t recognize it.

“I didn’t use any active magic,” Master Grey continued. “That didn’t stop me using the potion, of course, or the advantages offered by picking my ground. When you arrived, following the trail I left, you walked right into my trap.”

Emily wanted to spit. The taste in her mouth was growing stronger; despite herself, she had to swallow more of the potion. She wouldn’t be able to work magic for hours, even if Master Grey let them go. Her wrists were starting to ache from the bonds...

“You are helpless because you underestimated me,” Master Grey stated, flatly. “Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”

He met Emily’s eyes. “You should have been
much
more careful,” he added. “If you’d acted with more forethought, Lady Emily, neither you nor your friend would have been caught.”

Emily’s cheeks burned at the injustice of it all. She’d made a mistake, yes, but so had Aloha. Why wasn’t
she
being lectured, publicly, on her own failings?

“You have twenty-five minutes before the next class arrives,” Master Grey said, turning to leave. “Wriggle free or be found by them. No doubt they will happily release you from your bonds.”

And never let us hear the end of it
, Emily thought, miserably.

“Your homework assignments are waiting in your lockers,” Master Grey concluded. “Goodbye.”

Emily watched him stride off, never looking back, and tried to tug at her bonds. They proved impossible to weaken, no matter how desperately she wriggled. Without magic, she didn’t see
how
she could free herself. She tried to spit out the cloth, but it was too firmly wedged in her mouth to allow her to get rid of it. Aloha made a sound as she wriggled too, yet even she couldn’t free herself...

The knot
, Emily realized, as she looked at Aloha’s wrists. Sergeant Harkin had taught her a great deal about tying knots; he’d taught her one that was secure, yet easy to release if the ends were tugged. She managed to roll over until her back was pressed against Aloha, then she grabbed hold of the end of the rope and pulled. Aloha’s hands came free; she rubbed them hastily, then pulled the cloth out of her mouth and freed Emily. Emily removed her own gag and spat. The taste lingered in her mouth like a very unwelcome guest.

“We could have done better,” Aloha said, as she stood. “He was right.”

Emily rubbed her wrists, cursing Master Grey under her breath. Maybe he
was
right, but he was still an asshole. It wouldn’t be
easy
to learn from him.

“And now we have to get out of the building,” Aloha added. “That won’t be easy, will it?”

“No,” Emily agreed. The charms infesting the building would go after them even if they were leaving...and, without magic, they would be completely defenseless. “But I don’t want to be caught by the Second Years.”

“No,” Aloha agreed. They shared a long look. Being magic-less at Whitehall would invite attack, even from people who would normally never dare to take a shot at them. “That would be the final humiliation.”

M
ASTER GREY HADN’T LIED ABOUT THEIR
homework assignments, Emily discovered, when they finally made it back to Whitehall and checked their lockers. In fact, he’d given Aloha two assignments and Emily three; to write an outline of their mistakes in Blackhall, to detail the strengths and weaknesses of combat sorcerers in battle and - for Emily personally - a complete report on everything she’d seen in the Blighted Lands. Emily, still smarting after the humiliation in Blackhall, pocketed the papers and headed up for a shower, praying that the potion would wear off before she started classes on Friday. Thankfully, when she woke up the following morning, her magic worked as normal.

“You did make mistakes,” Alassa pointed out, when Emily complained to her. “But I think leaving you defenseless was a nasty stroke.”

Emily nodded. “We could have been attacked by anyone,” she agreed. “He set us up deliberately.”

Friday turned into the first real day of schooling, she discovered; she had three more classes and, by the time they finished, a small pile of assignments she had to complete by the end of the month. She carried them back to her room, sorted them out as best as she could, and started to work on Master Grey’s assignments. In hindsight, it was easy to see just how many mistakes they’d made; she’d seen his breastplate, she’d smelled the potion and she’d allowed herself to be distracted. The breastplate should have been a tip-off, she conceded reluctantly; he’d told them he wasn’t going to be using magic, so he shouldn’t have any problems wearing a charmed set of armor for protection.

And he showed it to us deliberately
, she reasoned. Trying to cast spells while wearing protective armor would be dangerous.
He wanted us to have a chance to see it
.

She gritted her teeth as she finished the essay, then sighed. He’d included a note insisting he wanted the first and the third assignments completed by Tuesday, while Lady Barb had noted she wanted
her
assignment complete on Monday. It didn’t look as though she was going to have any time to spare for Caleb, even though they had to get a move on with their joint project. By the time they got the wood, they’d need a new plan of action before too much time was wasted. She reached for another sheet of paper, and started on Master Grey’s third assignment. He probably wanted to know all about the orcs.

He’ll probably want me to go back there and count
, she thought, sourly.
How many were down at the bottom of the pit
?

Imaiqah found her that evening, sleeping on a pile of half-completed work. She helped Emily to undress without saying a word, turning out the light as soon as Emily was in bed. Emily slept, dreaming fitfully of orcs and goblins and things that went bump in the night, but snapped awake the following morning feeling as if she hadn’t really slept at all, even though she’d missed Alassa’s return to the room. She was halfway through preparing for class when she remembered it was Saturday and she could sleep in, if she wanted.

“I think you need to spend the morning with us,” Alassa said. “My father says that it’s vitally important to take time for yourself.”

“Your father has a small army of minions he can fob his work onto,” Emily countered, crossly. She eyed the pieces of homework. Master Grey’s second assignment had a later due date, but it would probably be the hardest. And then she had essays to write for both Professor Thande and Professor Lombardi. “I can’t get anyone to do my work.”

“Not unless you don’t care about passing,” Alassa agreed. It wasn’t impossible to cheat at Whitehall, but failing to grasp the basics generally meant a magician couldn’t move on to more advanced matters. “But you really do need a break.”

She pulled Emily out of the room, down to breakfast and then out onto the playing fields, where a number of students were already running around. Alassa’s team gathered around her, and headed into the arena - Alassa had clearly booked it first - where the would-be players, including Frieda, waited. Emily waved cheerfully to the younger girl, and headed over to the mound to sit on the grass and wait. She might not have enjoyed team sports, either as a player or a spectator, but she knew they were important to her friends. And besides, the sun beaming down from overhead was warm. She lay back on the grass and closed her eyes for a long moment, enjoying the sensation. Maybe there was something to be said for sunbathing after all.

“Hi,” Caleb said. “Emily?”

Emily opened her eyes, smiling, as Caleb sat down next to her. “Hi,” she said. A loud whoop from the arena cut her off before she could say anything else. “What’s happening over there?”

“Someone seems to have scored a point or something,” Caleb said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

He gave Emily a sharp look. “Don’t you like Ken?”

“Not really,” Emily said. “I played it once and it was a minor disaster. What about you?”

“Stronghold didn’t field more than a single team,” Caleb said. “I never actually played.”

Emily frowned. “How did they manage to compete?”

Caleb laughed. “Let’s just say that there’s a reason Stronghold is at the bottom of the tables and leave it at that,” he said. “There just aren’t enough magicians at the school to put together a proper team, let alone two. The school team gets next to no practice because none of the other schools will play friendly matches...”

“Because it would help their competitors win when the games come around,” Emily said. It made sense, in an unethical kind of way. But then, if she’d cared who actually won, she might have been inclined to refuse a friendly match too. “What
do
they play?”

“Football, mostly,” Caleb said. He rubbed his jaw meaningfully. “You have to be a hulking brute of a man to survive on the football pitch. Casper, of course, fitted in perfectly.”