Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) (6 page)

“I can’t send an invitation I know will be rejected,” Alassa said, patiently. “That would make me look bad. So if Caleb agrees to attend, I can send him an invitation, secure in the knowledge I won’t be embarrassed.”

“Oh,” Emily said. She rolled her eyes. “Does that mean that everyone invited to the wedding was asked before they were actually
invited
?”

Alassa shrugged. “Pretty much,” she said. “But I only have to ask the ones I’ve invited personally. My father’s servants can handle the ones
he
wants to invite.”

She glanced at Caleb. “Are you coming?”

“Please,” Emily added.

“If you will have me, I will come,” Caleb said. “But I don’t know what I can contribute.”

“Just be someone I invited personally,” Alassa said. “And keep Emily company.”

Emily elbowed her, although she knew Alassa had a point.
She
would have to be fitted for her dresses, while Imaiqah was the Maid of Honor. Emily would have much less to do, once she arrived at Alexis; she’d intended to take Frieda and explore more of the city below the castle. If she’d tried to do anything else, she knew she’d just get in the way. But having Caleb there would be fun. They could go to Cockatrice and continue their joint project.

And hope to hell nothing goes wrong
, she thought.

She ate her meal slowly, savoring every bite, while Alassa and Imaiqah continued to discuss the wedding in great detail.
Frieda
might have been insulted on Emily’s behalf, when Alassa had asked Imaiqah to be her Maid of Honor, but Emily was privately relieved. There was just too much to do; seating arrangements had to be made, important egos with big mouths had to be soothed and social catfights handled with careful diplomacy. It wasn’t something she knew she could handle.

“We could go for a walk now,” Caleb muttered, as they finished their meal. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Just be back before Lights Out,” Alassa said. She smiled at Caleb. “You’re invited too, you know.”

Caleb frowned. “Invited to what?”

“Just a small social gathering,” Alassa said. “A chance for Emily to hear all the news before we get back to work. It should be fun.”

“We’ll be back,” Caleb said. He didn’t sound too enthusiastic. “Coming?”

Emily nodded as she rose to her feet. A social gathering sounded like torture to her; she’d never been really comfortable in groups of more than two or three people. Alassa - and Imaiqah - could be comfortable, or fake it;
she’d
never developed the skills to cope with it herself. But she did want to hear all the news...

...And see her other friends again. The Gorgon was missing - she’d been skipping meals even before the Demon had gotten its hooks into her - and some of Alassa’s teammates had clearly decided to spend more time practicing in the Arena than eating dinner. They were going to regret that tomorrow, Emily knew; a starving magician was a weak magician. But it would be their choice.

Lady Barb caught her on the way out. “I assume you’ve seen your timetable?”

“I have,” Emily confirmed. “It’s very full.”

“I’m giving up some of my free time to help you catch up,” Lady Barb said. Her face darkened noticeably as she glanced towards the High Table, where Sergeant Miles was waiting for her. “And so are some of the other tutors.
Don’t
waste it.”

“I understand,” Emily said. “I won’t.”

“You’ll be expected to work like a maniac,” Lady Barb added. “Make sure you get plenty of sleep tonight. You’ll need it.”

“She’s right,” Caleb said. “We’ve been working hard ever since the duel.”

Emily nodded as they walked up to the battlements, where they could chat while waiting for the others to finish dinner. It felt strangely comforting to be standing next to him, without saying a word. Outside, darkness was already falling over the land, sending a chill down her spine as the sun vanished behind the Craggy Mountains. Caleb wrapped his arm around her and she let him.

“It feels good to be back,” she said, seriously. “And thank you for all your letters.”

“I would have come if I could,” Caleb assured her. “But your father said no.”

“You wouldn’t have liked me so much,” Emily admitted. She was still astonished by just how patient Void had been with her, when her magic and emotions had been running rampant. “I had some very bad days just after the duel.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Caleb said. “I like spending time with you.”

Emily nodded and relaxed into his arms for a long moment, then pulled herself free. “The others should be finished by now,” she said. She wanted to be with him, but at the same time she wanted to catch up with her friends before she plunged back into schoolwork. “We can go spend some time with them.”

Caleb looked doubtful. “If they’ll allow me in the room.”

“They will,” Emily assured him. She took his hand and led him towards the door. “They invited all of our friends.”

L
ADY BARB WAS RIGHT, EMILY DISCOVERED
as she returned to classes; she
was
expected to work like a maniac. When she wasn’t in the classrooms, having facts hammered into her head, she was working her way through a list of practical exercises at twice the recommended speed or writing essays to prove she’d mastered the source material. She wasn’t the only one spending most of her evenings in the library, too; by the time the tailors arrived to measure her for her dresses, she simultaneously welcomed the break and cursed them for taking her away from her studies. She was so busy that she had hardly any time to spend with Caleb or her friends, outside classes. The only advantage was that she was kept so busy with the practical work that she didn’t have to worry about taking time to expend
mana
.

“You’ll be entering the exam protocols tomorrow,” Lady Barb told her, one evening. “This is pretty much your last chance to apply to restart Fourth Year.”

Emily shook her head. “I don’t think I want to do it all again,” she said, after a moment. Besides, she had the feeling she’d be expected to restart from Third Year, unless their joint project was credited to her anyway. They’d handed in the final version two days ago. “I just want to get it over with.”

“You’re doing better than I expected,” Lady Barb said. “Do
you
feel confident?”

“I’m not sure,” Emily admitted.

She sighed, inwardly. Exams on Earth had been useless; the ones she’d taken had involved nothing more than memorizing facts, none of which were any use outside the examination room. But at Whitehall, a good two-thirds of her mark would be based on her practical work and her results would follow her for the rest of her life. If she failed her exams, she would have to redo Fourth Year or simply be denied permission to advance to Fifth Year. In some ways, conceding defeat now would save her from being branded as a failure.

“I have to try,” she said, firmly. “If I fail...I can go back to Third Year and start again.”

“Very well,” Lady Barb said. She smiled, rather dryly. “Tomorrow morning, make sure you have a good breakfast before you assemble in the Great Hall. And I suggest that you listen, very carefully, to what you’re told. It could make the difference between success and failure.”

Emily nodded, thanked the older woman and hurried back to her bedroom. Both of her friends were already there, Imaiqah working her way through a large volume she’d borrowed from the library while Alassa wrote a long letter to her father. She, at least, wouldn’t have her results made public. The only reason Alassa was still taking the exams, Emily knew, was so
she
knew just how good she was. Everyone else thought she was being punished for abusing her position.

“There’s a note from Mistress Irene,” Imaiqah said, looking up from her book. “We’re to assemble in the Great Hall at nine bells.”

“And we’re
not
to be late,” Alassa said. She yawned and stretched - somehow, she managed to make even that look beautiful - as she rose. “Or there will be the dire punishment of being barred from the examination chamber.”

“Easy for you to say,” Imaiqah snapped. “My dad will kill me if I don’t get good results.”

“You’re a noblewoman now,” Alassa said. “You have a wonderful career ahead of you if you can’t do magic...”

“It isn’t the same,” Imaiqah retorted. “And you know it.”

“Calm down, both of you,” Emily said. It wasn’t the first fight or near-fight she’d seen as exams loomed nearer. Caleb had told her about a fight between five boys that had sent three of them to the infirmary and the remaining two to the Warden. Other students had snapped and snarled at one another as they’d struggled to finish their papers. “You
both
need some sleep.”

“This book won’t read itself,” Imaiqah said. She paused. “Well, it
could
, if I charmed it properly, but it would be useless for
me
.”

“You’re not going to be taking much of anything in,” Emily pointed out. “Leave it now, have a shower and relax. That will help you sleep better.”

She paused. “Are we actually starting the exams tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so,” Alassa said. “Mistress Irene is going to talk to us, it seems. You should have tried asking Aloha.”

Emily nodded, ruefully. Her older friend hadn’t spoken to her since Master Grey’s death. Aloha had practically had a crush on the combat sorcerer; she’d certainly learned a great deal from his harsh lessons. And now he was dead...Emily had a feeling that Aloha understood, but couldn’t really forgive. Master Grey had been precisely the sort of tutor Aloha liked.

“I don’t think she’s talking to me at the moment,” Emily said. She undressed, showered and headed for bed. “Get some sleep, really. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated on her meditations. It must have worked, because the next thing she knew, the bed was shivering, threatening to throw her onto the floor. She jumped up hastily, checked the time and showered while Alassa and Imaiqah struggled out of bed. When they were all dressed, they headed down to the Dining Hall for breakfast and then made their way to the Great Hall. Caleb sat next to her as they waited for the stragglers to enter, just before the doors closed with an audible
boom
. Emily had a feeling that anyone who was late would be in deep trouble.

“Good morning,” Mistress Irene said. She marched into the room from a hidden door and stood on a podium, her cool voice carried across the room by a spell. “You stand at the cusp of taking your first set of major exams. If any of you have chosen to take a step back and repeat the year, please leave now.”

There was a long pause. No one left.

“Very good,” Mistress Irene said. “For those of you who are leaving us this year, these will be the most important qualifications in your life. You will find that they allow you to enter careers that would otherwise be firmly closed. For those of you who intend to continue your studies at this school, your results will hopefully convince your future tutors that you’re worth teaching. I advise you all to make sure you put forward your very best effort during the exams.”

There was a long, chilling pause. “You should have read the official guidelines by now, but I will go through them just to make sure you
all
know what you need to know,” she continued. “You will be escorted from here to the examination section, where you will be completely isolated from the rest of the school until you have completed your exams. There is no barrier preventing you from leaving, but if you leave without completing all of your exams, the ones you miss will be marked as failed. You may take
nothing
into the examination section without special permission. If you feel you need to have something with you, speak to one of the tutors during the passage through the entrance corridor. Bear in mind that they will err on the side of caution, so I suggest you make your arguments convincing.”

Emily fondled the snake-bracelet on her wrist and scowled. Lady Barb knew what it was, but no other tutors knew. The snake would have to stay with her or she’d have to tighten the spells and hope she could recover the bracelet before it reverted to its normal form. A magician’s familiar wouldn’t try to hurt someone who found it, but a Death Viper would certainly be
seen
as a threat. She’d probably be able to hear the screaming through several layers of silencing wards.

Someone coughed, loudly. “But what about our revision notes?”

“It’s a bad idea to cram right up until the final moment,” Mistress Irene said, coolly. “You’ll have the information you need provided on the exam papers, if necessary.”

She cleared her throat and continued. “You will be separated into two groups, male and female. Once you reach the entrance corridors, you will undress and don examination robes. You will be scanned by protective spells as you pass through the doors; again, if you are caught with anything, you will have to explain its presence.
Everything
you need will be provided. If we catch any of you trying to slip notes through the doors, you will be barred from taking the exams and quite possibly expelled. These exams are
serious
.

“Inside, you will be given your examination timetables. You will sleep in the dorms provided, be escorted to the examination rooms when the time comes and - when all of your exams are completed - you will be allowed to leave. Until then, remember that your fellow students are trying to rest when they’re not in the examination rooms. Any of you who make a noise, or a disturbance, will be frozen until the start of their next exam. There will be no further warnings.”

Emily shivered. Mistress Irene meant it.

“If there are no
further
questions,” Mistress Irene concluded, “we shall begin.”

No one asked anything, not entirely to Emily’s surprise, but there were dozens of pale faces surrounding her. They’d known the exams were about to begin, yet they hadn’t truly comprehended that they’d be separated from their revision papers. Emily sighed inwardly as Lady Barb started calling for the female students to follow her, then fell into line behind Alassa. She waved goodbye to Caleb as they made their way through a hidden door and down a long corridor into a changing room. There were so many wards buzzing over the compartment that her hair threatened to stand on end.