White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (44 page)

The morning session had been a lot of work as they followed their mentors casting new spells to add into their steadily growing arsenal. For Piotr, working with air magic wasn’t as much of a challenge as fire had been, though earth and water were certainly easier than those two. As a future nature wizard, it wasn’t unheard of for them to use all the elements to a degree; or so he had been told by Wizard Zieran and some of the other nature wizards who were often around the zoo and nature courtyard while he studied.

He had watched Katya struggle; though the girl often made it look harder than he thought it truly was for her. When Piotr watched her perform a quicker version like he had seen from the battle mages, his brother included; the boy wondered if it was more that wizard designed spells seemed to bog her down in their process. After using a mage version, Katya appeared to figure out the other way to cast the magic after only one try.

While Piotr knew of the fear of wilders, since he was lumped into that category as well; Katya seemed like more of a fit for battle mage magic than that of a wizard. He had heard Ylena complain to her to do it ‘right’, but what was right if the girl could do it more naturally in a simpler fashion.

“Gust,” the novice called flicking his hand and tried to make the air move as he had with the more involved version of the spell.

“Don’t tell me you want to train like a battle mage too,” Job complained jokingly. He had seen the same use of magic from the girl, and it wasn’t just from Katya that the bug to fast cast was derived from among the new wizards. Too many had seen Magnus’ use of mage magic that night against the older apprentice. A former friend, who was only slightly younger than the champion of Winter’s Edge; Arrimus had been humiliated and made to look a fool. The problem was, it was obvious to them all that if used by the more powerful wizards, mage spells were even more overwhelming in a duel and would be better in a tight fight as well.

The gust spell didn’t work for him, but if Piotr was honest with himself, he hadn’t felt for the magic in the same way as he had in the courtyard. The novice just wasn’t trying, though his mind wondered if he should be looking into trading notes with his brother to learn more of the spells.

“No, but you saw how Katya managed the spell in the other form first. It even unlocked the harder, longer version for her,” he mused.

“Yeah, but Ylena didn’t appreciate it one bit. She said it was cheating basically and that learning the wrong way would end up limiting her abilities. Do you think Katya believed her?” the younger boy asked his friend.

While they hadn’t known each other well in Delanne, the two boys had discovered that they had a lot in common and had become fast friends. Being able to talk to someone, when he couldn’t see Niklaus as often, had been a wonderful bit of luck. All of the wizards who had started orientation together managed to get along in fact, but Job was his closest confidante outside of his brother.

“I think if Magnus and Katya’s brother have anything to do with it, there will be more of us turning to mage casting. We can learn both and the simpler spells will save us time and energy if we have to face the Dark One’s armies. Still, I can see Ylena’s point. My brother can do something that I haven’t figured out, but I have my own way of doing certain spells that came from needing to focus my new magic.

“Maybe that time on my own will work against me also in the end?”

Job smiled and shook his head, before replying, “You’re doing as well as any of us. Well, maybe Smart Alec is ahead of the curve, but other than him anyway.”

The boy spoke of the novice who had come from Windmeer. A wizard with an air tendency; Alec had done well with fire and air so far. When most struggled; the boy who was a few months younger than Piotr, like Job was, had figured out the spells either first or very nearly. At the ongoing skill the boy possessed, Katya had taken to calling him Smart Alec as a joke. He seemed to take it good naturedly, and it was definitely better to be known as smart than as incompetent.

He was about to answer when a strange flash ran across his vision. A room and a vent already opened fluttered like an after image for a moment before making the novice appear to fall asleep.

Job called out his name, but his mind was preoccupied with the sight and sound from hundreds of feet away; if he had to guess the distance.

Entering the darkness and trying to scale the duct changed as something different took over and Piotr knew that the animal had changed. Unable to force his brother’s mind out of his own, the boy was dragged along through the ducts until he could see a changing room and a single female there. More darkness led to a sight through vent slats of several naked girls bathing. Some were social and talking as if they were intentionally hanging out together in the larger pools, which could easily hold four or more girls without crowding. The communal aspect was perfectly natural, though Piotr hadn't been to the men's version.

His own body blushed as he spotted Katya through his brother’s eyes, or more to the point Niklaus directed their sight to the pretty girl.

He was quite relieved when his brother stopped gawking at the girls returning his attention to the darkness. They were on the move passing over a couple more vents along the way to a drop off. He could sense, as his brother could as well, that something was below the cat roaming the ductwork.

When he drove the mice out of the ducts into the bath area, Piotr frowned as his brother joined the rush as a mouse. His thoughts of how idiotic Niklaus was being didn’t need to be voiced when Katya turned her magic on the other mice catching them in the gust of wind. It was the very spell he had considered earlier, and now they were seeing it from the wrong end of the spell.

The mouse retreated to become a cat and tried to escape through the ducts once more, but his brother was too brazen and dared look down on Katya in her glory. She looked confident and her beauty was revealed; but her eyes locked on the interloper and Piotr wanted to yell at Niklaus to run.

His vision returned as her magic locked Niklaus in place. Her coercion broke the boys’ link letting Piotr return to himself to see Job looking at him worriedly. Sitting up, the nature novice frowned making the younger novice ask, “What happened? We were talking and you just suddenly closed your eyes and lay back on the bed.”

His frown still on his lips, Piotr stated, “Niklaus decided to use his shape changing skills to pull a prank on the girls and dragged me along to watch apparently.”

“He can do that? You’re the wizard and yet he forced your mind to follow him?”

“I doubt that he even considered we might be tied together. Usually I don’t flash through his eyes to see what he does, but maybe because he was more excited I was pulled with him.”

“What was he doing that your brother was getting so excited?”

Unable to contain a growl of annoyance completely, Piotr revealed, “The idiot decided to go through the ducts to the girls’ bathhouse to sneak a peak, and then he found some mice to startle into the pool area making most of the girls panic. He got a good view of several more when they ran out naked, but Katya was there.”

“Katya?” the other boy questioned with a little smile. While Briahnna and Job were certainly close, and unofficially were boyfriend and girlfriend; all the boys thought that Katya was one of the prettier girls in school. If not for the irreprehensible way he wound up seeing her naked, he would have admitted that his memory of that night at the inn and the sight of her beautiful body hadn't dulled slightly.

“He didn’t get to look at her for long. She used the new spell the mage way and blew the mice away. Niklaus was lucky that he didn’t land in one of the other pools. If he had to change to human, he’d probably be naked as well. The magic can only make the smaller animals from just his body. Clothing only stays with him on larger animals.

“Niklaus was a cat and a mouse, I think; but how he was managing the changes without returning to human is beyond me though.”

Job looked at his friend as if he was confused. “Your brother has been practicing changing forms. My guess is he figured out how to go from one animal to the next, but what happened after she threw the mice back?”

“He climbed back into the ducts and started to make his escape until he was dumb enough to look through a vent and met Katya’s eyes. I think she used her magic on him, but whatever she did threw me out of his mind,” Piotr stated as he turned to place his feet on the floor.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see if her magic helped to catch him,” the boy said pulling his boots back onto his feet.

Job joined him and the two boys headed towards the girls’ bathhouse where they discovered a crowd had gathered. Girls were talking excitedly at the disturbance and a few of them were still shaky from being startled.

When Katya spotted the two boys, she slipped through the crowd to confront them and ask, “Where’s your stupid brother? I know he was behind it. I could feel it when I looked at that mouse and the way he snuck back up through the ducts so quickly required a human mind. Mice would just hide for a bit until the danger to them passed.

“He actually looked down from the vent to get another look! I thought I got him with my magic, but he’s disappeared,” the girl finished still appearing angry. Her hair was still wet and in a twist as if she had merely wrung out what she could of the water from her interrupted bath, but the girl was dressed and ready to catch the culprit involved.

Unsure of what to say to avoid incriminating himself, though he had simply been an unwilling passenger, Piotr shook his head and said, “I haven’t seen him. We came looking for him because I sensed him using magic.”

The girl’s eyes narrowed slightly looking between the two boys. While Piotr thought he had told enough of the truth to avoid looking guilty, Katya’s eyes lingered on Job for a moment before she frowned and asked, “And how much did you see?”

Looking confused, he hoped, Piotr countered, “What do you mean?”

Stabbing him with her finger at the left side of his chest, Katya didn’t let him off so easily, “When you two looked through a bird’s eyes to see us changing, you lost your ability to hide behind a fake look of innocence with me.

“You know that I have diplomatic tendencies, now spill it. I am tired of you two seeing me naked. It isn’t like either of you volunteered to be my boyfriend, you know.”

He wasn’t sure if Katya was necessarily offering to be their girlfriend at the moment and was pretty sure that it wasn’t the time to ask. Even in the single month of working with her mentor, the girl’s magic had strengthened greatly and the boy feared how well she could use her coercion magic now. Whether he fought to keep himself out of the mix or not, Piotr was pretty sure the girl could make him spill everything he knew in an instant, if he didn’t just come out and say it.

“I honestly had nothing to do with it this time, really. Niklaus did this on his own, probably as a prank knowing him. He caught some of the Delanne girls skinny dipping in Turtle Lake between our house and the town once and stole their clothes as a joke. It is just his sense of humor.”

Folding her arms, Katya began to tap her right foot impatiently.

“Anyway, he opened the vent in the janitor’s closet and transformed hijacking my mind in the process. I couldn’t do anything, honest. Job was there when it happened. We were just in our room studying.”

“He looked like he fell asleep midsentence,” Job nodded quickly looking glad that he had no involvement in the stunt.

Piotr echoed the nod and continued, “He climbed the duct shaft as a mouse or rat or something like that, then moved across as a cat to scare some mice into the bathhouse.”

“He was one of those mice too, wasn’t he?” Katya demanded as she revealed her talent in seeing through Niklaus’ attempt at deception.

Piotr nodded.

“I knew it. So you two were trying to ogle naked girls again? I know you’re boys; but grow up already,” the girl complained with a sigh.

“He definitely looked, but it wasn’t a long look since you used that air spell so quickly. You looked... good... though,” he finished meekly.

“Shut up!” she retorted blushing with embarrassment. “Since you know your brother so well, where do you think he went?”

“I was only connected until you hit him with your magic in the vent when he was stupid enough to try to get a last look. Since he isn’t here, I am guessing your spell didn’t last long enough to make him turn himself in. He probably retreated back to the battle mage side or went to lunch.”

Katya looked a little surprised that her magic had managed to split the boys’ minds from each other, but kept her mind on track and said, “Ok, you two, we’re going to find that delinquent brother of yours and I’ll make him tell a teacher what he did. I’ll figure out a better way to get back at him one of these days, but at least we can get him to serve some time for that prank.”

The two boys looked to balk at the order, but her stern green eyes revealed that she would brook nothing less than their obedience in this.

Heading down the hall towards the front staircases, the trio came upon the janitor’s closet and looked for evidence of the crime. Everything in the room was as they expected it. The vent was replaced and nothing else seemed unusual, though none of them had any real familiarity with the contents of the closet.