Lessons in Etiquette (Schooled in Magic series) (32 page)

“Oh,” she said, finally. “How many more are they going to kill?”

“All of them will want a turn,” Lady Barb said. “Right now, they’re trying to decide who gets to go next. Then they will split up into smaller groups and start charging through the forest.”

“Alassa said that there would be a reward for the prince who kills the most,” Emily muttered, resentfully. It was stupid–and yet she couldn’t help it. “Why don’t they just flip a coin to determine who gets to sit next to her every day?”

Lady Barb shrugged as the horns blew again, in the distance. “Protocol,” she said. “Besides, this keeps them out of mischief.”

Emily scowled as the horse started to move again, following Alassa and the princes. Lady Barb was probably right; if they were hunting, they weren’t trying to make agreements with King Randor’s nobility. It would be easier for the king to decide who his daughter should marry if the aristocrats weren’t trying to bring pressure to bear on him.

This time, the creature they were hunting looked nastier than the deer. Emily caught glimpses of a large black shape crashing through the forest; for a moment, she thought she was looking at a panther. Were there panthers in Zangaria? It didn’t seem too likely. And then the creature turned and threw itself at one of the horses, knocking Prince Jean off the back of his mount. The other princes laughed as Jean hit the ground with a thump. He didn’t seem to be badly hurt, but his dignity had been bruised.

A mortal wound
, Emily thought, and smiled.

Alassa kept her face under control, but Emily could tell that she was amused. “The black boar is a cunning foe,” she said, deadpan. “He’s slipped off while we were laughing.”

Prince Jean got to his feet, muttering in a language Emily didn’t recognize. It had to be old, Emily guessed, old enough to be unrelated to the Empire’s official language. Or maybe it was something from his kingdom. It was quite possible that the various kings would encourage their people to start speaking in a different dialect, even though it struck Emily as absurd. Unless, of course, they didn’t
want
their people talking to people from neighboring countries.

Alassa didn’t bother to enquire after the prince’s health. “We split up,” she ordered, imperiously. The princes didn’t try to argue. “I’ll lead one party that will give chase; I want two more parties to try to outflank the boar. The creature is too fast to be caught easily.
Then
Prince Hildebrand can take his shot at him.”

The sergeant would probably have approved of her manner, Emily decided. They’d had lectures on command presence, but it wasn’t easy to learn, particularly for her. There was no easy way to avoid the simple fact that she was the youngest and least experienced student in Martial Magic–and would remain so for at least two years, unless someone else from her age decided to try to join in second-year. Jade had been able to command with ease; Emily had been morbidly convinced that her teammates were laughing at her when she took command. It had always seemed harder for her to get them to do what she told them to do.

She sighed as her horse started to follow Alassa’s horse when the hunting party broke into a gallop. The black boar was definitely a wily foe, even though the creature should have been easy to see against the greenery. It
was
black, Emily realized, as black as the night–and very fast. It rounded on Alassa, ran between her horse’s legs and past Emily before she could do anything. Alassa winked at her as she pulled her horse around and gave chase again. The princes thundered past Emily in hot pursuit, ignoring her completely.

Two more of the princes had suffered small, but humiliating accidents by the time the black boar was finally cornered. Up close, it looked fearsome, with nasty tusks ready to leave their mark on its tormentors. Its eyes were disturbingly humanlike; mouth lolled open, revealing very sharp teeth. The creature snarled, a long sound that made Emily’s blood run cold. If it hadn’t been for the dogs, Emily realized, it might have been able to nip past the hunters again and vanish into the undergrowth.

But it was cornered.

Prince Hildebrand dismounted, sword in hand. The boar eyed him maliciously as he stepped forward, the growling dogs shifting aside to let him pass. Emily stared, unable to look away, as he lifted his sword…and the boar moved backwards at terrifying speed. The other princes tittered as Prince Hildebrand’s first swing missed the boar completely. Behind him, the dogs started to bark. And then the boar lunged forward.

For a heartbeat, Emily was
convinced
that Prince Hildebrand was dead. Who knew
what
would happen if a prince happened to be killed while hunting? And then he stepped to one side, lashing out at the boar as it crashed past him, through the dogs and into the forest. Emily saw a trail of red blood from where Prince Hildebrand had managed to wound the creature, although it wasn’t immediately fatal. The dogs yapped, scenting blood, and gave chase. Alassa and the princes followed in its wake.

This time, following the boar was easy. There was a trail of blood leading right towards its final resting place. Emily was tempted to ask if they could let the beast go to die in peace, but she knew it wouldn’t happen. They’d eaten roast boar at two of the kingdoms they’d visited and it had presumably come from the hunting parties. Besides, Prince Hildebrand wanted to have a trophy, his first kill of the day. There was no way he was just going to let it go.

The boar had come to rest in a hollow, turning to face its tormentors one last time. There was a desperation on his face that made Emily’s heart wince in pain. Prince Hildebrand dismounted again and advanced forward, not bothering to be careful. It was clear that the beast was weakening fast; he would only be able to claim a kill if he actually killed it directly. A wound that caused the beast to bleed to death might not count, although the logic escaped Emily. Maybe it just wasn’t as heroic as killing the beast with a swing of the blade.

Prince Hildebrand lifted his sword and the beast stopped, almost as if it welcomed the final swing. Emily stared, unsure of what she was seeing, as the sword swung down and bit into the beast’s head. It emitted a long growling sigh and then lay still. A moment later, Emily felt a burst of magic twisting through the air. It seemed to be coming from the boar…

Her eyes went wide with horror as she saw the boar
change
. She’d seen enough animal transfigurations to know what they looked like, but somehow this was different. The magic that trapped someone in beast form snapped the moment they died. She stared, realizing just why the boar’s eyes had been disturbingly human. There was a shimmer, then a middle-aged man was lying on the ground where the boar had been. And he was very definitely dead.

One of the huntsmen dismounted and stepped up to the body. “Black Andrew,” he said, after a cursory look at the dead man’s face. “He deserved his fate.”

Emily stared at Alassa, unable to speak. What the hell had they done?

The huntsman didn’t seem to notice her shock. “I will record you as his killer,” he said, to Prince Hildebrand. He sounded businesslike, as if it were all in a day’s work. Perhaps it was, to him, but it was still horrific. “There will be many people who will wish to thank you.”

Emily made a strangled sound. Alassa’s head whipped around to stare at her. Had she known? Of course she’d known, Emily realized; Alassa had been hunting since she had been a little girl, barely tall enough to carry a small knife. She had to have known that they were hunting humans…after months, perhaps years, as a boar, the humanity would be almost gone, but the beast would still be intelligent. It would have proven–it
had
proven–challenging prey.

“How…how could you?” Emily asked. She barely recognized her own voice. “That was
human
.”

There was a snicker from one of the princes. Emily felt her magic start to boil up within her, ready to lash out at him. A single thought would be all that was required to blast him into fire, to wipe him completely out of existence…she’d thought that Alassa was her friend, but how could she do that to
anyone
? How many others had died in the hunting grounds, killed by noblemen for their sport?

She had known that permanent transfigurations were possible, certainly when the victim had no protections, but…she’d never realized where it could lead. How could she? It had been unthinkable. How could anyone be so evil?

Fighting her rage, she wheeled the horse around and dug in her spurs. The horse broke into a gallop, taking Emily away from the hunters, even though she had no idea where she was going. But it didn’t seem to matter.

All that mattered was getting away.

S
OMEONE WAS FOLLOWING HER. EMILY HEARD
the second horse coming after her, even over the noise her own horse was making. One person, as far as she could tell…Alassa? Or one of the princes, coming to laugh at her. Raw magic crackled around her hand and she forced it back into her wards, trying hard to calm down. But it was so hard to think. She just couldn’t escape the final horrific view of the dead man.

She reined in her horse and pulled it around. Lady Barb was cantering after her, her face twisted with concern. She slowed to a halt as she realized that Emily had stopped and looked over at her. Oddly, Emily had the sense that the concern was genuine. Maybe Lady Barb wasn’t as bad as Void had hinted. Or maybe she knew better than to allow her dislike for Void to contaminate her relationship with the princess’s best friend. If she still
was
the princess’s best friend…

“Are you all right?” Lady Barb asked, finally. “You gave everyone a scare.”

Emily stared at her. “I…no,” she admitted. Fresh tears welled up as she realized that she was on the verge of crying. She
never
cried. “How can anyone
do
that?”

Lady Barb studied her for a long moment. “Would it help if I told you about his crimes?”

“
No
,” Emily said. She slipped off the horse and leaned against its flank. “It would have been kinder to kill him outright.”

“He robbed and murdered travelers leaving the city,” Lady Barb said, ignoring her. “One of them was a young girl, about the same age as yourself. The guardsmen who found her were hardened men, but they all felt sick when they saw what he had left of her. And when he was dragged in front of the judge, the judge felt that hanging was too good for him.”

Emily felt her entire body shaking. How could
anyone
, even the brat Alassa had been, do that to a human being? But it should have been obvious; if transfiguration was common, why
not
use it as a punishment? Why
not
create new game to hunt by transforming criminals into animals? And with truth spells, they’d know who was guilty and who was innocent. The innocent had nothing to fear.

And yet it was still horrifying.

The horse shifted as she shivered against its bulk. She heard Lady Barb climbing off her mount, then felt her wrapping her in a hug. Something broke inside her and she started to cry openly, great heaving sobs that tore through her as tears fell from her eyes. Lady Barb patted her on the back, holding Emily until she finally regained some control. And then she reached into her pouch and produced a small gourd of water.

“Drink this,” she ordered, flatly. “Water helps calm people down.”

Emily scowled at her, but obeyed. The water tasted oddly flat, as always. It would have been boiled, along with the gourd itself, just to kill all the germs.

She wiped her eyes, suddenly aware that she’d broken down in front of Void’s enemy. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lady Barb said, briskly. She loosened her grip and stepped back, leaving one hand resting on Emily’s shoulder. “You’re a teenage girl. No teenage girl is ever stable.”

Emily flushed, angrily. “I’ve messed up Alassa’s wedding plans, haven’t I?”

“I don’t think so,” Lady Barb assured her. “Prince Jean made a snide remark, which made Alassa give him a piece of her mind. But he didn’t have a very good chance of winning her anyway. They cantered off in the other direction while I went after you.”

“They’re all going to be laughing at me,” Emily said. She’d made a mistake…simply by not bothering to think through all of the implications. The princes might not say anything out loud to Alassa, but they would certainly snigger amongst themselves. “I…”

“The world doesn’t revolve around you, Child of Destiny or no,” Lady Barb pointed out. “What makes you think they
care
?”

She was right, Emily realized. If Alassa could ignore the presence of a lower-ranked man in her bedroom while she was dressing, the princes certainly wouldn’t consider
Emily
to be very important, even if she was Void’s daughter. And even though they had seen her trap a cockatrice, they might still not take her seriously when they were here to court a princess.

“You’ve upset enough kingdoms already,” Lady Barn added, a moment later. “Give them a chance to get used to the last set of changes, hey?”

Emily found herself giggling helplessly. They thought the changes she’d introduced so far were upsetting? She couldn’t wait to see their faces when they saw the steam engine. Maybe it would take years to produce a working locomotive, but the basic theory was easy to describe and spread around the Allied Lands. And steam power led to all kinds of useful applications, from steamboats to railroads. What would happen to the Allied Lands once there was a network of rails binding them together?