White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (46 page)

“You haven’t heard yet?” Katya replied with a bit of surprise in her voice. It had only happened a short time ago; but to her it had felt long enough ago to have such a story spread throughout the school already. “Mice were sent into the bathhouse to scare the girls and what most people don’t realize is that we had a peeping tom besides.”

A gasp of shock at the accusation made the wizard say, “I thought we had seen the last of such antics. There was another prank only a few years ago that spurred the headmaster to set guards outside the girls’ baths.

“With a guard set, I would have thought something like that nearly impossible; though it is a school for magic, I suppose.”

“He definitely used magic, though I am not sure if there is a spell to prove who it is,” the younger girl replied still hurrying to catch the other wizards gathered by the bathhouse.

Ylena tapped her lips in a thought a moment as she reviewed the spells she knew before stating, “There are a few related to tracking that we could use. It would lead us to the culprit certainly.”

Sniffing at the thought, the younger girl replied, “Well, that I can do for you as well.”

Eyes opening slightly in surprise, the wizard questioned, “Then why don’t you take me to the little villain straight away?”

“Because being caught isn’t enough to teach him a lesson,” Katya stated with a devious smile.

They rounded the last turn to see that many of those involved with the bathhouse incident had already begun to leave. While it had been startling for the girls involved, they were all getting used to strange things and mice were hardly as traumatizing as some of what they had learned along the way. Still, there were several full wizards there to comfort the handful of girls remaining in the hall.

Ylena called to a wizard in red, “Justinia, have you discovered what happened here?”

The woman looked a fraction younger than Ylena, but her grim visage held little beauty. She was definitely angry as most assumed that it had been a prank from one of the boys.

“Someone released mice into the bathhouse, Wizard Ylena,” the brown haired fire wizard replied simply. “We have not ascertained how they did it exactly, but Hubbal and Zurn were trying to figure out if it was magical in nature or if they managed to physically place them in there.”

Katya stated, “It was both. If you want to catch the one involved, you could all follow me to the dining hall.”

Looking perplexed at the young girl, a novice by dress and very young to her eyes, though that was common enough in the school, Justinia frowned rebuffing the girl, “And what is it that you know, girl? Were you involved?”

“I was a victim in this as well, but I saw enough to know who did it. Someone else was witness to it magically as well. At the moment I have a couple friends working on the prankster. If you'll all follow me, I believe that he will crack and give himself up. That way we won’t even need to build the evidence.”

Even Ylena looked surprised by this news and the other girls scared by the mice earlier looked confidently angry. They nodded their heads already moving towards the girl.

“Why would he... or she, give themselves up if they think that they got away with it?” her mentor asked as Katya began to turn back the way they had come. The pack of wizards didn’t resist and simply fell into the young girl’s orbit.

“Because he thought he got away with it, but he locked eyes with me long enough that if my magic was stronger we would already have caught him.”

One of the other girls, an air novice by her dress, asked, “You saw him? I didn’t see any boy. Was he using stealth magic or some other type of invisibility?”

Shaking her head, Katya replied, “He wasn’t invisible at all. He was simply in disguise.

“While he did use magic to sneak into the pool area, apparently there were already mice in the ducts which he startled enough to run amok in the bathhouse. He entered the ducts from the janitor’s closet, if someone knows how to smell to verify someone’s magic use.

“Otherwise we can just hurry to the dining hall and get him to confess without all that work.”

Echoing Ylena’s earlier thoughts, Wizard Justinia questioned, “If no one has officially discovered who did it, young lady, how can you be so sure that he will confess.”

The large group consisting mostly of young women, since the incident involved the girls’ baths, reached the front stairway and began to snake their way to the first floor following Katya as she continued to explain, “He thought that he had been sneaky, but there are a couple flaws to his magic. I felt it on him and spotted him even among the other mice. His magic is also tied to another novice who saw everything he did until I tried to coerce the culprit with my magic. Apparently that broke their contact.”

Wizard Justinia frowned even deeper, if that was possible, Katya thought in surprise. “So there are two of them?”

“Technically, the second boy was hijacked by the other one’s magic, or at least I believe he was telling the truth when I caught him coming towards the bathhouse earlier to double check what had happened.”

Ylena looked less confused and she stated, “I am guessing that cadet who can shape change is at fault. Since his magic is tied to his brother in some way, I can assume his twin was caught up in this prank.”

Nodding with a little disappointment as the younger girl had hoped to keep it a bit of a surprise to make sure that Niklaus wasn’t tipped off in the wrong way for her reversal of his prank, Katya replied, “We checked the janitor’s closet and found the vent he had used to enter the system. As a rat he climbed up the shaft and managed to change to a cat to scare the mice out of the vent into the girls’ area without having to change back to human.

“Unfortunately, victim or not, Piotr saw everything as well.”

A slight blush came to her cheeks at the confession.

One of the girls covered her chest instinctively and complained, “Two boys were spying on us... naked?”

While Katya had gone skinny dipping as a child, she was no longer a child, or at least physically her body was certainly that of a young woman. It was embarrassing, but she was still young enough not to be exactly uncomfortable in her skin. Still boys should not be allowed to get away with seeing girls in such a way, and the novice wanted to make sure Niklaus paid for his crime.

“While I’m sure they didn’t close their eyes, I think it was more about the prank. Either way, if my plan works we’ll get him back and better yet I think I can get him to do it to himself,” she finished with a smile downplaying Niklaus and the boy’s sometimes perverted mind. While he had gotten off lightly for the prank back at the inn, the girl wasn’t going to go so easy on him this time. Obviously being nice simply didn’t help Niklaus learn.

Katya reached the multiple door opening leading into the cafeteria dining hall. Pausing to look for Niklaus, it was made easy by her agents crouched beside the little criminal. Piotr and Job still looked worried from her use of magic and Niklaus’ face was beginning to show a similar look which escalated as he spotted the girl and her assembled mob including some angry teachers.

She hadn’t pointed to him yet fearing that the more agitated of the girls might rush the table ruining the plot Katya had engineered to make Niklaus hopefully humiliate himself in front of the large crowd of people eating their lunches.

Turning to look at Ylena and Justinia, the girl stated, “I think if you just look stern here a moment, he will break.”

Ylena and most of the others frowned, less from being angry than wondering at the young girl’s game. Her mentor asked, “If you are certain that the cadet did it, and his brother can corroborate your story since his mind was pulled along; then why are we waiting here? We can just go grab him now and arrange his punishment.”

“We can’t just punish him. Niklaus doesn’t seem to learn that way. No, he knows that there is nowhere to run or hide. We will wait for him to break while Piotr and Job act as little birds in his ear to push him to us.”

Gesturing towards the cadet’s table, Justinia stated, “Your little birds are taking flight.”

Katya held a stern look as she turned to see Piotr and Job exchange glances a couple times as they retreated towards the outside doors as if to get as much distance from the criminal to avoid any possible flak from the situation.

“Even better,” she stated seeing Niklaus lift his hand trying to call the other boys back, Katya was pretty sure that the sweat on his forehead wasn’t just from the heat of the kitchen. Glaring at him as Niklaus made the mistake of looking her way again, the cadet started glancing quickly from side to side with guilt and worry. His fellow cadets sitting near him began to look her way as well and suddenly a space began to grow between them as they realized that their friend and leader was about to get in big trouble.

A few of them quickly wolfed down their meals and excused themselves disappearing in the direction of the far door leading to the battle mage dorms and training areas.

His fork sat in his hand idly for several more moments as he tried to ignore the eyes staring at him from all directions. Nervously he tapped his food with the tines before he finally gave in with a big sigh.

Niklaus stood and loudly proclaimed, “Fine, I did it, Katya! Sheesh, it was just a joke.”

Playing it off, the girl finally stepped into the dining hall from the doors leading the pack of wizards behind her. “What is it exactly that you are confessing now, Niklaus?”

He took a couple steps towards the girl noting all the eyes on them. Patting the air, the boy replied a little more restrained, “You know... the prank.”

Shaking her head trying to look confused, Katya asked again as she slowly walked closer, “Which prank was that? You seem to be part of too many for me to keep track of these days, Niklaus.”

Unlike the girl, the cadet hurried to close the distance to keep his shame between them if possible. With all the other eyes on him, he knew that was probably already too late; but Niklaus hoped to contain the fall out as much as possible.

Again he lowered his voice closing quickly to only about ten feet between him and the girl as if that distance could keep him safe. Niklaus already knew that running within White Hall was impossible. There were stories about cadets and novices trying to run from the school dragged back in humiliation to be forced to continue their studies whether they liked it or not. Krevahs was a good example of someone who had tried to run and lost.

The other problem was that he was finding he actually enjoyed being at White Hall. Learning magic and training to fight was fun. In some ways, as a boy he had actually dreamed of similar things, of dueling and even being able to throw fire like some wizard. Niklaus didn’t want to leave, which meant he had to face the music for what he had done.

“You know... I caused the mice to escape the vent into the bathhouse. I even... saw you and some of the other girls... um... naked,” his voice finished as a whisper while his eyes could no longer look her in the face. Lifting his gaze to the sky for help from the gods before dropping to the floor in shame, Niklaus eyes betrayed his contriteness if only driven to it by being caught.

It was hard to believe that he had truly learned his lesson yet, however, so Katya pushed his buttons a little more even as she felt the others behind her bristle in anger. Placing her hand behind her ear, the girl asked, “I’m sorry, could you speak up? I didn’t hear you. You did what now?”

Her voice was still raised enough to carry through most of the room. Everyone from the kitchen staff and those in line on the far side of the hall to the diners at their tables were all watching the odd exchange, listening for every word they spoke intently. It wasn’t every day that a cadet confronted a mass of wizards, novices and apprentices in front of nearly two hundred people, especially when most of those he faced were furious women and girls.

“I snuck through the ducts as a cat and made the mice I found run into the bathhouse to scare all the naked girls, because I thought it would be funny. There was a story of someone releasing frogs making the girls run out of the bathhouse a few years ago and I thought that I could do better using my magic.

“There are you happy?” Niklaus complained at the last revealing to Katya that he wasn’t as sorry that he had pulled his prank as much as he was sorry that he had been caught.

“Do I look happy? You turned into one of those mice too and got a better look than you are trying to admit, so no, I am not happy,” Katya retorted calmly.

“We ought to make him strip and run through the courtyard naked just to see if he likes being ogled and ridiculed,” the air apprentice behind her complained echoing Job's thought for punishment.

The other girls started to nod agreement, but Katya countered, “Well, Belina, that would be easy enough to do. My magic nearly had him come and confess, I think. All I would have to do is push him to change into something small like a mouse again. He can’t take his clothes with him if he’s too small.

“What do you think, Niklaus? Should I make you change into a mouse and back again here in the dining hall?’

Ylena sighed and said, “We don’t want rodents in the dining hall, Katya.”

Nodding quickly, Katya added, “And unlike him, I think I would rather not see... that,” she finished with a sickened look and gesturing with the fingers on both hands spread out as if warding off an attack with her arms extended before her. “In fact, I bet there won’t be very many girls around here that ever will. Once the fact that you are a pervert runs through the school, I doubt there will be too many girls willing to talk to you let alone date you.”

Niklaus ground his teeth angrily before embarrassment made him look back at the dining hall. The furious looks of the girls in attendance especially made her assessment a bigger worry.

“Whatever,” the boy complained in frustration.

Ylena and Justinia stepped forward each grabbing an arm. Her mentor stated, “Well, since you just admitted that you were at fault, I guess we don’t need to do any more investigating into the incident. You can come with us to Falconi Garrett. I’m sure he will want to know the deplorable acts one of his students did today.

“He and High Wizard Herrol should have some adequate punishments for you, young man,” Ylena finished even as her wince at her final words made the wizard feel older than she wanted to admit.

Katya watched the trio head back into the classroom area of the school heading in the direction of the administration tower of the ravens. Falconi Garrett would get first crack at him despite the fact that most of those who had been offended had been from the population of female wizards  apparently.

“I still say we should have humiliated him in turn,” the taller apprentice stated as her eyes followed the three leaving the hall as well.

Looking at the brown haired girl, Katya tried to recall where the apprentice had been located at the time and thought that she was nearly across the room from where the mice had entered the pool area. “Don’t worry, Belina. I doubt that he actually saw you at all and humiliating him like that would likely only make him want to get some sort of revenge.

“I wanted to teach him a lesson that would make him stop these pranks, but not give him a reason to continue in more devious ways.”

Appraising the younger girl, the apprentice Belina said, “I’ve seen you around before, but I don’t know your name.”

It was an interesting point that Katya knew the apprentice’s name, but not the other way around. “I am Katya Trillon. I am just a novice, so I suppose it would be unlikely we would meet very often, since you are being taught mostly air magic.”

The apprentice looked surprised and then Katya realized that she was coming off like a bit of a stalker knowing as much about the other girl and clarified, “We met once officially and I tried to commit your name and class to memory. My mentor says that is something that my type of wizard is usually good at and helps once we are full wizards.”

Belina’s blue eyes narrowed slightly as she thought a moment before pointing towards Katya’s chest remarking, “You must be working on becoming a diplomat wizard. There aren’t a lot of your type, even around here are there?”

Shrugging the question off, Katya looked at the sea of tables with people once more going about the business of eating their lunches. She spotted Neira eating with a pair of girls, who Katya knew to be from her season of novice recruits. Neither of them were diplomat wizards, however, and she wondered how many students of her kind of magic there truly were in White Hall.

“I’m not sure of more than a handful actually. So many move into other fields like fire and air that it is a little hard for me to be certain,” the younger girl acknowledged with a polite smile. “Some other wizards don’t like diplomat magic at all and actually tend to call it coercion magic or something more negative.”

Belina frowned at the notion and said, “I’ve heard that it is rather effective magic, though perhaps not as great in a battle; but then again most wizards barely learn to fight without using their magic, so maybe someone might figure out a way to use it that way as well. I would think you would have to be pretty close to an enemy for that though.”

She looked at the line of people on the far side of the room working to get some food and the apprentice asked, “Why don’t we get some food and we can talk more? I don’t usually talk with the novice wizards outside of helping in classes, but you act a little older than most.”

The two girls crossed the dining hall finding that they were the last two to linger from the group which had come to capture the prankster. With Niklaus in wizards’ hands, the rest of the girls had either returned to what they had planned to do or wound up in the food line for lunch.