Schooled in Magic Read online

  “Forcing you to split your forces,” Emily said. She’d played enough games with the nerds to know how it worked, even if Command and Conquer logic never worked in the real world. “But I don’t even come from this world. Why me?”

  Void smiled. “Shadye may have asked for a Child of Destiny without specifying that she–or he–had to come from this world,” he said, wryly. “Or the entities might have deliberately misunderstood the instructions. Or...he may have had a reason for summoning one from a different world.”

  His expression darkened. “But right now, a Child of Destiny is far more likely to swing the odds in our favor than against us. Shadye may simply have been intending to ensure that one never appeared, or to remove him from the world before he reached his time.”

  Emily felt her head spinning again. This was too much. Void was talking calmly about matters that hadn’t meant anything to her before she’d arrived in this world, before her life had turned upside down. And Shadye had not only brought her here against her will; he’d marked her for death, long before she could have done anything to him. Her lips cracked into a bitter smile. Shadye should have known that if he’d left her in her world she would never have grown into a threat to him.

  And yet, how could she ever be a threat to him? She’d seen the sorcerer work magic casually, without any effort at all. She had no magic, not even an understanding of modern technology that could be used to alter the balance of power. Her teachers hadn’t taught her anything useful; she had no idea how to produce gunpowder, or steam engines, or even the basics of modern medicine. Shadye had probably targeted her because she would be helpless even if she did manage to escape his grasp.

  “You will be assured of my protection for as long as you are forced to remain in this world,” Void said, when she asked. “This world is not always safe for the unwary, or the weak, and Shadye’s interest in you may attract attention from others.”

  Emily looked down at the floor, watching the strange patterns as they shifted from place to place. She’d read countless fantasy novels where the heroine was a chosen one, picked from all others to save the world, normally wearing a chainmail bikini as she hacked and slashed her way to slay the dark lord, or banish the demon back to hell. Offhand, she couldn’t recall any novel where the chosen one had simply been a case of mistaken identity. And in the books where there was no tinge of destiny, the heroine was almost always supremely competent. What was she going to do? Impress Shadye by her masterful grasp of role-playing games, creative writing, and wasting time browsing the internet and reading web-comics? She didn’t even have a homicidal rabbit with a switchblade on her side.

  “I...” She stopped and swallowed hard. “I think Shadye might have chosen me deliberately.”

  Void lifted an eyebrow, politely. “You think he might have seen something in you that everyone else missed?”

  Emily flushed. She hated it when people tried to be snide. “I mean that he targeted me to force you to waste your time with me,” she said. “He might be doing something else while you’re helping me to fit into this world...”

  “I’d hate to think that Shadye could calculate so precisely the time it took me to slip into the Inverse Shadow,” Void murmured. “Or even that I would have risked my life saving yours. A necromancer would expect me to kill you before you could be sacrificed, not try to save you. Besides, he couldn’t have counted on me realizing what was going on in time to intervene.”

  His face twisted into a manic grin. “But we can easily test that theory. Follow me.”

  He walked across the room and out of the door before Emily could even stand up. Shrugging, she followed him through the door and into a network of corridors that glowed with a pearly white light. Void stepped through another door into a room crammed with old books, a handful scattered on chairs as if their reader had just taken a break to find a bite to eat, and paused outside a second door. When Emily caught up with him, he opened the door and motioned for her to precede him into the room. Inside, there was a small table, with a handful of objects scattered on the wooden surface and little else. The walls were bare stone.

  The moment she stepped inside, she felt a muffling fall over her mind and stopped dead in her tracks. “You have some sensitivity,” Void noted. He didn’t seem to have felt anything. “This room is designed to contain unexpected discharges of magic. I haven’t used it since my last apprentice left me.”

  There was an odd note in his voice that left her feeling it would be unwise to pry too far into his affairs. “Look down at the table,” he instructed, “and take an item.”

  Emily frowned. “Which item?”

  “Use your instincts,” Void said seriously. “Pick up the one that feels right to you.”

  “Oh,” Emily said. It was a test, then. She’d never tested well. “How long do I have?”

  “As long as you feel you need,” Void said. He moved over to the wall and leaned against it, adopting an insolent pose. “Pick the one that feels right to you.”

  Emily nodded, staring down at the objects on the table. One was a large hammer, marked with runes that seemed to have been etched into the metal; a second was a long black cane that appeared to be made of shadow. A third looked to be a magic wand, right out of Harry Potter; a fourth seemed to be a fairy wand, complete with a glowing star on the tip. There was a bracelet with solid metal runes, a green ring that seemed to glow with its own light, a sword that gave off a sense of being incredibly old, a dark statuette of a falcon and a key marked with a Greek letter. The Omega letter, if she recalled correctly. A book that looked almost as old as the sword, with yellowing pages and a brittle cover, marked in dark letters she didn’t recognize...

  Finally, there was a piece of wire that twisted in ways that went outside normal reality. She tried to follow the wire with her eyes and felt the world spinning around her until she tore her gaze away from the object.

  Shaking her head, trying to escape the sense of being muffled, she looked from object to object. The hammer glowed with electric power; the cane looked almost translucent, as if it wasn’t really there. Something about the key warned her not to even think of touching it.

  Pick the one that seems right to you, Void had said. Emily tried to think about it logically, and then realized that magic–and she was dealing with magic–might not follow the rules of logic and reason. She might as well assume that she was in a role-playing game and act accordingly. Her hand drifted from item to item, never quite touching anything until it settled on the book. She’d always loved books, right from the day her mother had shoved a kid’s comic under her nose and gone off to drink herself into a stupor. Books had been her companions throughout her entire life.

  Carefully, she picked up the book and held it out to Void. “I choose this,” she said. “Is this the right choice?”

  Void snorted. “Is it the right choice?”

  “Yes,” Emily said, suddenly tired of the game. “It is the right choice.”

  “You have a talent,” Void said. “Every would-be apprentice is offered the chance to choose something from a similar table. Choosing the book...”

  He smiled, thinly. “We shall expect great things from you, I think.” He took the book from her hands and studied it thoughtfully, before passing it back to her. “Far too many take the wands, or the hammer, or the sword. They would make poor magicians.”

  “I can be a magician?” Emily asked, stunned. “But -”

  “You have the talent,” Void confirmed. He turned and led her out of the room. “The book is yours now, although it may be a long time before you know how to use it. My master gave it to me and promised to teach me all of his dangerously-won knowledge if I learned to read it in less than a year. It took me ten years to learn.”

  Emily stared down at the book. Ten years for someone to learn how to read it? The letters seemed to twist and turn in front of her eyes, as if the meaning constantly changed into something else. Emily had never tried to learn a foreign language in her
life, unless one counted the codes they’d invented for their games. How could she even make a start on reading the book?

  “I need to make some arrangements for your future,” Void added. “We shall eat and then you can rest while I speak to the rest of the council. They will need to be informed of your appearance. And then we can decide what to do with you.”

  Chapter Three

  EMILY LAY IN BED, UNWILLING TO open her eyes. It had all been a dream. It had to have been a dream. Because being transported to a land of magic and wonder, so different from the dull mundane world that had given birth to her, was a dream come true. No; it was too good to be true. When she opened her eyes, she knew that she would be back home...

  But the bed felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar - and the air was too hot - and someone was in the room. Someone else?

  Her eyes snapped open. She was lying on her back, staring up at an elaborately crafted ceiling decorated with gold and silver leaf. A young woman stood by the foot of the bed, holding out a robe for Emily to wear. Her original clothes had been taken away to be cleaned - or so she thought. It wasn’t as if she wanted them back.

  It hadn’t been a dream, Emily realized. She found herself smiling brightly as she pulled herself out of the huge bed.

  The serving girl passed her the robe–there was a curious blankness in her eyes that bothered Emily on a very primal level–and stepped back, heading for the door. She was young, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a uniform that managed to combine elegance and practicality. The girl didn’t seem curious about Emily, or what she was doing in her master’s bed, but she worked for a magician. No doubt she was used to all kinds of wonder and magic.

  The robe was long and shapeless, hiding her figure more completely than her own clothes. Emily let out a sigh of relief as she donned the robe - it felt surprisingly soft and warm against her skin–and she headed to the bathroom to splash water on her face. One thing that hadn’t been mentioned in any of the role-playing campaigns she’d fought was that medieval plumbing left a great deal to be desired. There was no hot running water, let alone a device to flush the toilet. Magic clearly didn’t provide a substitute for such basic technology... Maybe, she told herself, she could convince Void to install running water in his tower. It might make the environment healthier.

  Chuckling at herself, she washed then stopped in front of a mirror, studying her face. A moment later, the image rotated around, showing her what she looked like from behind. Emily started backwards in surprise, then realized that the mirror image was due to magic, exactly what she would have created if she’d had the power and the talent. She found herself casting a glance at the book Void had given her, wondering if it would teach her how to create a magic mirror or other useful tricks.

  She couldn’t resist. “Mirror, mirror, on the wall,” she said, “who’s the fairest of them all?”

  “Silly question,” a voice said. Emily nearly jumped out of her skin. “Fairest is a subjective measure. One man’s fairest woman might be another man’s ugly cow.”

  Emily started to laugh. “Don’t you have any opinions on the subject?”

  The mirror’s voice deepened. “I’m just a mirror,” it pointed out, rather snidely. “I am really nothing more than a reflection of yourself.”

  “I see,” Emily said, although she wasn’t sure that she did. Her body image had never been very good. Surely the mirror would have mocked her as comprehensively as her stepfather. “Thank you.”

  She stepped away from the mirror, towards the heavy wooden door. The serving girl had left it open and was waiting outside with an expression that suggested that she was prepared to wait forever.

  Emily stepped out of the door and wasn’t entirely surprised when it closed behind her, slamming shut with a faintly ominous thump. Void had promised that she would be safe in his tower; it was, he’d bragged, protected by countless security spells.

  Emily could feel something in the air as the serving girl bowed to her and led the way down the stone corridor, past a giant window looking out over the forest. Something huge hung in the air, something with giant bat-shaped wings ... Emily stopped and stared. It couldn’t really be a live dragon, could it? How could something that big even fly?

  Magic, she reminded herself. She had to remember that magic really worked here.

  The dragon flapped its wings slowly; the next moment, it was gone. Emily felt a sense of loss, as if all the magic in the world had drained away into nothingness. Tears prickled at her eyes, but she wiped them away impatiently. There would be more wonders to come.

  The serving girl led her the rest of the way into the dining hall. Void’s hall was large enough to seat a small army, but there was only one table, set up in front of a roaring fire that flickered with eerie green and blue lights. The sorcerer himself was seated at one end of the table, devouring a plate of sausages and bread. A pair of serving girls stood behind him, silently waiting for his orders. There was only one other seat at the table.

  “Come in,” Void called.

  Emily hesitated. Something about the sheer size of the hall stuck her as faintly ridiculous. She’d certainly never had the impression that Void liked to entertain outsiders in his hall ... she stopped and laughed inwardly at herself. Since she had only known Void for less than a day, how could she claim to be an authority on him?

  She walked over to the table and sat down facing him. “The kitchen staff was quite pleased to hear that you were staying with us,” Void said. “They want to cook something a little different from time to time, but I’m rather set in my ways. I don’t want anything more than meat and bread for breakfast.”

  He smiled, as if he expected her to share in a joke. Emily, who normally ate only corn flakes and coffee for breakfast, didn’t understand it. Her parents might like the thought of devouring eggs and bacon for breakfast, but she had never been able to endure eating a large breakfast–it always left her feeling slightly unwell.

  One of the serving girls placed a jug of water beside Emily, while another gave her a mug of hot black liquid that smelled faintly of ground earth and sand. Emily hesitated, before picking it up and taking a sip. It managed to taste almost, but not completely unlike coffee. On the other hand, it seemed to contain enough caffeine to give her system a morning jolt.

  “The water was safely boiled by my staff,” Void assured her, as she eyed the jug doubtfully. “Anywhere else, ask them if the water has been boiled. Some of the common folk don’t believe in the invisible devils in the liquid.”

  Of course, Emily told herself; humans hadn’t always known that water had to be boiled to ensure that it was safe to drink. Her reading had told her that unsafe water had been the cause of countless epidemics throughout history. Invisible devils was as good a way as any to describe germs, even if it wasn’t very scientific. But to a world built on magic rather than science, it might make perfect sense. Hell, the germs might be real devils.

  “Thank you,” she said, as she poured a glass and took a sip. The water tasted sweet to her lips. “What are we going to do today?”

  Void lifted a hand. “Wait until you’ve eaten,” he said, firmly. The serving girl returned and placed a platter of meat, eggs and bread in front of Emily. “A good meal will make it much easier for us to talk properly.”

  Emily had no idea how he expected her to eat so much, but as she dug into the meal she found that she was far hungrier than she had realized. The meat tasted a little like beef, yet there was something in the taste that she didn’t recognize. And, of course, she had no idea what kind of creature had laid the eggs. Only the bread tasted remotely familiar, rather like the bread they had cooked in home economics class. But it tasted much better than the bread thirty schoolchildren had produced while they were watched by a nervous teacher worried about what might happen to her career if her students poisoned themselves. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the food seemed healthier than anything she’d eaten back home.

  “I have been summoni
ng Beings and making enquiries,” Void informed her as the serving girl removed the platter after Emily had finished. “It seems that you have been the victim of ... imprecise specifications.”

  He’d said much the same thing yesterday, Emily knew. “Shadye was very specific in his demands,” Void continued. “He ordered certain entities to bring him a Child of Destiny, with great magical powers, yet no real awareness of those powers. Unfortunately for him, he failed to specify what a Child of Destiny actually was, or where he or she should actually come from. Had he specified that the entities should concentrate their search on this world, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  Emily nodded thoughtfully. She hadn’t known that she had magical powers, but then there was no such thing as magic in her world. Unless, of course, Arthur C. Clarke had been right when he pointed out that a sufficiently advanced technology was no different from magic. Or perhaps mental powers–assuming that they existed–were really no different from magic, either.

  Or maybe you should just go with whatever Void says, a voice at the back of her head said. The laws governing magic in this place might be very different from anything you’ve ever read about.

  Void’s eyes twinkled. “Necromancers rarely bother to consult with others, if they can even bring themselves to recognize that outsiders might bring a new perspective to their problem. No doubt he believed that the entities would obey orders...which, to be fair, they did. He just wasn’t specific enough to get them to do what he wanted.”

  “And so they picked me up instead,” Emily mused.

  “If nothing else,” Void added, “think of it as a lesson in the requirement for absolute precision when dealing with magic and magical entities.”

  He shook his head. “But that leaves the problem of deciding what to do with you. Shadye may not have realized that his summoning failed–indeed, given that I plucked you out of his grasp before he could sacrifice you, he may believe that he succeeded, only to lose you to me. He will certainly be looking for you; he may even try to remove you from my Tower and take you back to his territory.”