White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (43 page)

“I was told by my mentor to take a break actually,” Katya replied thinking that she could certainly put in more time, but the spells always seemed to come into focus when they wanted. Sometimes it was while she was resting that they clicked for her in fact. “You can’t force a spell into your mind as far as I can tell. It comes with practice, sure; but if you overload your mind trying, it probably won’t come any sooner.

“You should take a little time to relax before lunch; that is if you plan to eat in the dining hall?”

Neira’s eyes narrowed slightly in the face of the advice. Even coming from a wizard, it came from the lips of a younger girl with less experience. “I will take it on advisement, especially if a wizard said so; but I think that I will stay here and study instead. You should still go and relax if that is how you think you will learn more.”

Moving to her armoire, which she shared with Cheleya and was stuffed between the two of them; Katya removed a white blouse with the silver stripe without responding immediately to the girl. Her training as a diplomat wizard had already covered working with difficult people. While her studies were, in theory, for dealing with foreign dignitaries or nobles; working with her fellow wizards was also part of what she studied. Diplomacy didn’t always mean dealing with strangers after all, so Katya used what she knew so far and followed her instincts as she removed a skirt and a change of underwear. With the laundry available to serve them, the girl could keep up even if she changed two or three times a day as long as she brought her clothes down regularly.

With her hands full of white cloth, a bland thing to see as it became her life; Katya tilted her head to the side slightly as if contemplating Neira. The book dipped slightly as the older girl stared back and snapped, “What?”

“I think when summer makes it warmer, unless the end of spring is nicer than it has been; we should get your friends together with mine and all go to the river. I hear that is what the locals do. Maybe we can even have a picnic with all the girls around our age and get to know each other.

“We study so much, I am sure there are a lot of people I haven’t had a chance to get to know outside of my year’s novices and the few mage girls as well. If we all took time to get to know each other, I bet we would find a lot of friends; even if you never really like me much.

“I’m still not sure what I’ve done to make you dislike me; but maybe spending a nice summer’s day without all the stress of the school going on will help at least make us a little closer.”

Neira’s eyes betrayed something, but not enough for Katya to read what it was. Whether the other girl felt remorse for being unkind or it was something else, the younger novice wasn’t sure.

“Maybe when it is nicer, we can make it into a party or something; but for now I need to study and you need a bath. You actually look sweaty. What did you do that would make you that way?”

“Just struggling with a couple new spells,” Katya said acknowledging her assessment with a nod and a look that said she could believe that she looked a mess despite just using magic all morning.

Leaving Neira to her studies after a polite exchange of pleasantries, Katya entered the hall headed for a bathhouse to soak some of her cares and aches away. It was amazing that she could become worn out from using magic while doing nothing particularly athletic the whole morning.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of someone with a gray shirt ducking into a janitor’s closet. Even a school run by and for wizards required maintenance. Locals from the town could be seen working in the school from time to time, so Katya shrugged the curiosity from her mind. Even if it had been some cadet, it wouldn’t be the first one made to do clean up or some other chore that no one wanted to do. If they were in trouble, punishment could certainly include being a janitor for the day or an hour.

A quick greeting of the woman sitting on a chair beside the door preceded Katya moving into the bathhouse where she proceeded to remove her clothes that already smelled a bit musty from her surprising amount of sweat. The girl was glad she had brought a change of clothes, if that was the case.

With a big sigh, the novice went to soak in the warm pools of the bathhouse.

Chapter 22- Smelling a Rat

Niklaus slipped into the janitor’s closet ready to try his next prank. They had been released from weapon’s training to rest and eat lunch, but the warm meals wouldn’t be ready to be served for nearly an hour yet. It was a school of snacking wizards and mages, but the best food was regulated to breakfast, lunch and supper.

While he had made a quick sandwich for himself before going into the school with its classrooms and wizards, Niklaus had mainly done so because of the magic he planned on using. Mages were limited in magical power, so eating a little before using spells of greater than average strength was usually a wise thing to do.

He had been practicing not only the regular battle mage training, but his shape shifting magic as well as trying other spells his brother already knew, though those remained beyond him for the most part. One thing no one had seen him try was perhaps the best thing he had discovered on his own.

There was a vent cover which led into the duct work run throughout the school. It had been created by wizards for distributing air throughout the school, since many of the rooms were otherwise sealed in so deep inside the walls that they would suffer from heat or cold without a fireplace or oven to at least heat them. From what he knew, one of the duties of apprentice wizards was to work with the machines which served the process. Magic could be added to increase the power of the furnaces or the strange bellows like devices which could send cooling air throughout the vast complex.

While he didn’t understand everything about them, the cadet had learned enough to know that until he learned how to turn invisible, this was the best way to get around unseen. Of course, humans couldn’t use the network because they couldn’t fit; but a wizard or cadet who could change shape and the size of his body could.

“Become a cat,” Niklaus said after removing his clothing to place the pieces in a pile to one side. He had been working on a shorter way to use his spell. While just calling out the name of the animal wasn’t quite enough, the cadet had managed this new version.

Becoming a gray cat, the cadet ducked into the vent. His improved night vision looked up to see roughly eight feet of a vertical shaft. It wasn’t completely smooth, but Niklaus was unsure if his claws would find enough purchase until he tried. A couple failed attempts later, the cat seemed unable to climb inside such a tight manmade area.

Without changing back to human, Niklaus concentrated on becoming a rat. Unlike the cat, the rat seemed able to find better purchase and in moments’ the shape changer had managed to climb up to the horizontal duct which could give him access to the entire floor and its rooms. Changing back into a cat with just a thought, the cadet moved quickly while watching out for other vertical shafts that would be pitfalls for his progress. Even with a cat’s eyes to help him, it was dark; still he found the bend and smelled the water on the air after a time. Following his keen senses, Niklaus found the bathhouse. Looking through a vent with a view below him, the cat found the changing room; but it was nearly empty. Only a single wizard dressed in her red robes remained at the moment.

She was too old for him and nearly completely dressed by the time he had arrived. With nothing of interest there for him, Niklaus tested his luck and moved towards the heavier humidity. A breeze suddenly pushed past him as the wizards’ system worked to keep the school at an even temperature. He wasn’t sure of the controls used to monitor it and had to assume there was some form of thermal control for the different areas like the bathhouses.

It was unimportant to the boy and as he found a new vent he looked down to see several girls soaking in a half dozen tubs. They were raised above the stone floor and steam could be seen rising from each one even from his vantage point. The current occupants were most likely novice or apprentice wizards relaxing after their morning’s trials. Niklaus smiled and even as a cat it translated into the wickedness of what the boy intended to do.

Sniffing with his feline nose, he found what he was looking for. There had been pranks from boys on the girls played over the decades since the first students had arrived making White Hall a wizard’s school. The problem with boys, who also could use magic, was that their ability to create havoc was that much greater than boys without the spells at their disposal. Niklaus had the power and skills to try a prank that would be told for decades, if he could pull it off correctly.

Invisibility, known as stealth to battle mages, had been one of the greatest spells used, but Niklaus didn’t know that magic yet. One of the reasons it wasn’t among the first taught to young cadets was the trouble the spell could make. Still, the boy had discovered the ability to become an animal, and there were ways to be almost invisible using such a spell.

Moving to the far side of the shaft, he smelled the mice. While magic wards were used to keep such creatures out of the school, even magic wasn’t fully proof against the tenacious little beasts. Sliding down the vent with the knowledge of a human, the mice noticed the predator as the sound of his claws scratching the inner ductwork announced his arrival.

Scattering before their enemy meant fleeing in the most obvious direction, that of the vent along the floor, though a few disappeared into a couple small holes in the stone. One day he would have to warn those in charge of the weakness in the stone, but it would be no time soon if he hoped to avoid being discovered and punished.

Screams as the girls discovered the mice entering the bathhouse made it clear that his prank was working.

Joining the exodus of about a dozen mice, Niklaus became a mouse as well to watch as the pretty girls leaped out of their baths. As if driven by his feline form, the mice ran from one tub to another rushing towards the far wall and the other vent there. They knew their environment and went against their instinct to stay near the walls to avoid notice. It was pure flight as the creatures panicked making the young, female wizards respond equally.

Naked girls screamed or ran for the changing room. One fell and the mouse winced at the sight. He hadn’t thought about the slippery floor made worse by their wet skin. Still it was a prank and he supposed as long as no one was injured beyond magical healing all would be fine.

“Gust,” he heard the familiar mage spell and noted the bare beauty casting just before a wind drove the mice back including Niklaus himself.

Katya stood in the water of her tub as she flicked her hand at the mice heading her way. Fully half were driven back by the swiftly cast wind. Niklaus was lucky that he wasn’t knocked into one of the pools though other mice weren’t so lucky.

He gazed at Katya looking both gloriously bare and dangerous as her mind didn’t scare like the other girls. She was a farm girl and had dealt with them for her mother and sister before. They didn’t scare her at all and now she was a novice with more than twenty magic spells at her command.

Trying to commit the beautiful view to his memory, the mouse retreated to the vent behind him and quickly changed to a rat to scurry back up the ductwork. Slower than a cat, he transformed once again into a feline and moved to look through the vent above the pools to check his handiwork as well as sneak a last peek at any remaining naked girls.

Katya spotted the movement and barely had to move her head to see the eyes glittering through the vent at her. Hands on her hips, the girl was too angry to remember that he could see all of her. Instead she cried out angrily, “If that is you who did that, Niklaus, you will go back where you came from before going to Carice who is guarding the bathhouse and turn yourself in for punishment!”

At first the boy looked at her as if she was crazy, but his feline eyes noticed a glow to her eyes even as Katya’s coercion locked onto his mind. Wanting to cry out in surprise, not even a peep escaped his cat mouth. The power was overwhelming and the boy turned away from the impressive sight of the naked, beautiful coercer to make his way back to the janitor’s closet.

Turning back to human, he replaced the vent and dressed. Opening the door, Niklaus began to walk towards the girls’ bathhouse to do as Katya had commanded. His mind wanted to fight the order, but his feet continued towards the guard. As he rounded the bend he noted several girls hysterically holding towels trying to cover themselves gesturing to the woman at the door to go inside and slay the mice.

Niklaus didn’t see Katya yet and the thought of her suddenly caused his feet to stop. Shaking his head, the boy stepped back around the corner even as a cloud seemed to lift from his mind. The power of Katya’s magic had been overwhelming for sure, but she was virtually untrained in the spells of her guild and only that meant her magic failed to hold him to his purpose.

Letting out a breath of relief, Niklaus took one more glance at the nearly naked girls in their continued panic before turning to disappear back down the corridor. Without hurrying his steps, the boy descended the tower stairs starting to whistle a tune he had learned as a child.

Niklaus walked to the dining hall and even after several of the apprentice and novices involved in his prank began telling their wild tales of an attack of mice from the walls, the mage said nothing. It wasn’t until Jeraan arrived along with some of their other friends that the cadet felt satisfied that he would get away with his prank in spite of Katya’s magic.