Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) (4 page)

She finished her breakfast, washed the dishes in the sink and followed Void into the next room. The Grandmaster - she felt another pang of grief - had turned it into a study, lining the walls with row upon row of bookshelves. Most of them were classic texts that had been reprinted - it had amused her to discover that he’d purchased hundreds of books from the printing presses - but there were a handful of rare editions among the dross. She suspected she could have completed most of her formal studies just by sitting in the study and reading the books he’d left on the shelves.

“There is a second tradition,” Void said, once they were sitting. “When a child becomes an adult, at least in a magical family, the parents take the time to share certain magics that belong to one single bloodline. The children are sworn to secrecy and told never to share the spells with anyone, save for their own children when they become adults. It is quite rare for any of those spells to leak.”

Emily frowned. “Melissa was disowned...”

“Melissa was probably too young to learn,” Void said, dismissively. “I have no idea how the Ashworth Family handles such matters, but I imagine their oaths would make it impossible for Melissa to share any such spells with her children, now that she is no longer considered part of her former family.”

“If she knows,” Emily mused.

“If she knows,” Void agreed. He cleared his throat. “Now, I have no such spells to share.”

Emily blinked. “Your family didn’t have any?”

“My family...” He shook his head, his expression darkening. “Suffice it to say I have no such spells to share.”

“I’m sorry,” Emily said.

“Don’t be,” Void said, bluntly. He produced a pair of black gloves and pulled them over his hands. “I would like, however, to teach you some other spells you will probably need in the future. If, of course, you want them.”

Emily smiled, leaning forward. Learning new spells was one of the things she loved about being in the Nameless World. And learning something very few other people knew...she
liked
knowing something unique, even though she already knew too much. The Nuke-Spell alone would change the world beyond repair if it ever got out. She rubbed the snake-bracelet at her wrist as Void reached into one of his pockets and produced a small gemstone. It sparkled with an eerie light that sent shivers down her spine.

“Hold your hand above the gem, but be careful not to actually make contact,” Void ordered, as he rested the gem on his gloved hand. “It could get dangerous.”

Emily swallowed, then reached out. The sense of danger grew stronger as her hand approached the gem; she felt a sudden stab of pain on her chest, where the rune had been carved into her skin, once her hand was bare millimeters above the shimming crystal. And yet, despite the pain, there was something in the spell worked into the gem that called to her. She pulled her hand back before she could give into the pull and actually
touch
the gem.

“I don’t believe you will have covered gem-work yet,” Void said. Emily shook her head, unable to take her eyes from the glowing crystal. “Like a wand, you can embed a spell into a gem, but the principle difference is that the gem spell can be active. Nightmare Hexes, which I believe you have encountered, are often anchored to gems. A spell can be kept active for a considerable period of time, if the spellwork is done properly or there is a ready-made source of power nearby.”

“Like a nexus point,” Emily said.

“A nexus point would be considerably overpowered,” Void said. He returned the gem to his pocket. “A living person would be sufficient.”

He gave her a sharp look. “What do you think that gem was for?”

Emily hesitated. She’d felt a compulsion to
touch
the gem the moment she’d held her hand above it, but her rune had sounded the alert at once. Maybe it wasn’t subtle magic - it certainly hadn’t
behaved
like subtle magic - yet she was sure it worked along the same lines...

“Influencing people,” she said, finally.

“Controlling people,” Void corrected. His voice was flat, completely toneless. “If someone were to be enslaved, for whatever reason, one of these gems would be inserted into their foreheads and fixed to the bone. They would then have to follow orders from whoever mastered the gem.”

Emily shuddered. “And you want to show me how to make those gems?”

“You need to know,” Void said. He waved a hand around to indicate the house. “This isn’t your castle in Cockatrice, Emily. You’ll need servants eventually and those servants will have to be completely trustworthy. Binding them to you is the simplest solution.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Emily said, flatly. She’d had nightmares for years after Shadye had used blood magic to control her like a puppet. “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”

Void
looked
at her. “Would it help if I told you that most people who were enslaved thoroughly deserved it?”

Emily felt sick. “I couldn’t...just take someone’s free will like that, no.”

“Even when someone exercising his free will decides to steal from you - or worse?” Void asked. “The real world is a messy place.”

He met her eyes. “You will need to have servants, eventually,” he warned. “And most of them will
expect
some form of binding. You’ll be paying them well for their services.”

Emily shook her head. If the gem spells were anything like as powerful as the compulsion spells she’d learned at Whitehall, few people would be able to resist them. The potential for abuse was far too high. It would be easy to make all sorts of promises to someone she wanted to hire, then break the promises as soon as the man was bound to her. There were some temptations that were best left untouched.

“You may find that you pay for refusing to learn,” Void said. He looked down at the table for a long moment. “But I won’t force you to master the spell.”

“I know,” Emily said. Void had never pushed her to do anything, let alone threatened her with punishment. It had taken her some time to realize he expected her to have the self-discipline to learn - and if she didn’t, it would be her fault when the exams came and she wasn’t ready. “I thank you for the offer, but I don’t want to learn this.”

“As you wish,” Void said. He looked up. “Is there something you
do
want to learn?”

“Teleportation,” Emily said. “Do I have the power reserves now?”

Void considered it. “You should,” he said. “I understand you know the theory?”

“The basics, yes,” Emily said. She’d been taught at Mountaintop; her tutor, who hadn’t been best pleased to be teaching her, had warned her not to actually
try
the spell until she had the power to handle it. “But I’ve never tried to cast it.”

“Pity you didn’t mention that earlier,” Void said. “It would have saved you casting so many high-power spells each morning.”

Emily frowned. “I’m sorry...”

“Not your fault,” Void said. He sounded more annoyed than she’d expected. “It didn’t occur to me that you might be able to teleport now.”

He pointed a finger at her. “But we
will
go through the calculations first, piece by piece,” he added. “And you will
not
try to cast the spell until I’m satisfied that you know what you’re doing.”

Charms Tutors, in Emily’s experience, were always strict. Too many things could go wrong with a badly-written spell for them to be anything but precise. Void, however, made her go through everything with an attention to detail that made her eyes ache after four hours of working her way through the calculations. The math she’d learned on Earth, at least, gave her an advantage. She was used to thinking in terms of multiple dimensions.

But they know the world is round
, she thought, sourly. The more she looked at the spell, the more she was convinced she could use it to jump to the moon...if she had the power to cast the spell and the precision to ensure it didn’t mean her immediate death.
Why don’t they know more
?

She felt the wards shimmer around her and blinked. “We have a visitor.”

“Don’t try the spell until after your exams,” Void said, as he rose to his feet. “Lady Barb is here early, I’m afraid.”

“I’ve already packed,” Emily said. She rose and headed for the door. “And thank you for everything.”

Void smiled. “Just make sure you do well on your exams,” he said. “You have a reputation to keep.”

Emily opened the door. Lady Barb stood outside, wearing black robes that contrasted neatly with her long blonde hair. She carried a staff in one hand; beyond her, Emily could see a horse-drawn coach waiting for them. Emily gave Lady Barb a tight hug - she’d missed her badly - and then stepped back, welcoming Lady Barb into her house.

“I pledge to hold my hand in your house,” Lady Barb said, tightly. Her lips thinned when she caught sight of the ring on Emily’s finger. “I trust you are ready to depart?”

“I am,” Emily said. There was bad blood between Lady Barb and Void. She’d wondered about trying to get her parental figures to talk, but she had the feeling it would merely get her hexed by one or both of them. “I’ll just fetch my trunk.”

She hurried up the stairs to her bedroom, grabbed the trunk from where she’d left it at the foot of the bed and hurried back downstairs. Void already stood at the door, holding his own trunk in one hand and quietly ignoring Lady Barb. Emily put her trunk down, hurried to place spells on everything that needed preserving and then started to close the wards. The house would remain sealed until she returned. She bid a silent farewell to the Grandmaster as they stepped outside, the final wards falling into place. Anyone who tried to break in would be held in stasis, if they managed to break through the first three protective wards.

“I thank you,” she said to Void. “I’ll see you soon?”

“Soon,” Void confirmed.

He stepped backwards, nodded to her and vanished. Emily stared at where he’d stood, feeling a flicker of envy. His teleportation spell had been so perfectly controlled that he hadn’t even caused a flash of light. Lady Barb caught her arm and tugged her gently towards the carriage, leaving the house behind. Oddly, Emily felt as if she was leaving home. She hadn’t felt like that since she’d gone to Zangaria after her first year at Whitehall.

“I trust you have been preparing for your exams,” Lady Barb said, curtly. “You have a great deal of work to do.”

“I know,” Emily said. The older woman looked stern, too stern. “I did my best to keep up with my reading and practical spells.”

“You still have a great deal of work to do,” Lady Barb said, as they climbed into the carriage and sat down. She tapped on the headboard, ordering the driver to start moving, and then looked back at Emily as she pulled the curtains closed and cast a handful of privacy wards into the air. “Are you all right?”

“He didn’t hurt me, if that’s what you’re asking,” Emily protested. She knew why Lady Barb disliked Void, but the Lone Power hadn’t done anything to her. “He helped me learn how to cope with my new power reserves.”

“I’d keep that to yourself if I were you,” Lady Barb said, flatly. “Your masking is good, but it isn’t perfect. Your fellow students will be quite jealous.”

Emily swallowed. “What...what happened at the school?”

“Mistress Irene is still doing the Grandmaster’s job without the pay,” Lady Barb said. “So far, the White Council has yet to decide on a successor. There are so many deals being struck in the White City that no one can keep track of who’s in the lead. I imagine they will come to an agreement by the start of next year.”

“Oh,” Emily said. “Why don’t they just give the position to Mistress Irene?”

“Because she doesn’t have the political capital the Grandmaster had,” Lady Barb pointed out, directly. “The Grandmaster of Whitehall is more than just the ruler of the school, Emily; he or she has a great deal of influence over magical policy. It isn’t a post that is given to just
anyone
. And...after what happened over the last four years, I think they’ll want someone capable of taking the school and keeping it in line.”

“There isn’t anyone who dares to cross Mistress Irene,” Emily said. “If she isn’t the strictest tutor in Whitehall, she’s certainly the second or third.”

“That’s not what they care about,” Lady Barb said. She leaned back in her seat as the carriage shook, vigorously. “Master Grey was just the latest in a stream of...incidents.”

Emily nodded. Shadye’s invasion, the Mimic, the Demon...

Lady Barb frowned. “Did you inspect Master Grey’s property before time ran out?”

“I wasn’t in any state to go,” Emily said. “Void arranged for me to get an extension.”

“No other claimants, then,” Lady Barb mused.

She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it right now, though,” she added. She fixed Emily with a gimlet eye. “You’ll be back to classes tomorrow, so make sure you have a good night’s sleep.
No
wandering out of your room after Lights Out.”

“I won’t,” Emily promised. She took a breath. “What...what do they think of me now?”

“A great deal of respect, seeing you managed to kill a combat sorcerer with far more experience than you,” Lady Barb said, curtly. Emily wondered what
she
thought of Emily now, but didn’t dare ask. Being in proximity to Void always put Lady Barb on edge. “And also a considerable amount of fear. I’d tell you to watch your back, but I doubt anyone would take a shot at you. Just concentrate on your exams and leave the future to worry about itself.”

She sighed. “And I would take a very careful look at anything Void gave you,” she added, darkly. “It might well have a sting in the tail.”

“E
MILY,” IMAIQAH CALLED, AS EMILY ENTERED
the bedroom. “Welcome back!”

Emily felt a lump in her throat as she hugged her very first friend. “I’ve missed you. Thank you for writing to me.”

“Ah, it’s a great deal easier with the parchments,” Imaiqah said. “We were too busy to write longer letters.”

She sat back on her bed and watched as Emily unpacked her trunk. “I’m afraid you’ll have to stand still for measurements soon,” she warned. “Queen Marlena dispatched two tailors to measure me for dresses and they’ll want to do the same for you.”