Work Experience (Schooled in Magic Book 4) (48 page)

Lady Barb caught her arm. “Emily,” she snapped. “What did you do?”

Emily swallowed. “I can’t tell you,” she said. She wasn’t sure she wanted to discuss
anything
relating to splitting atoms with Lady Barb, no matter what oaths she’d sworn. “It’s not something to talk about, really.”

“Really,” Lady Barb repeated. She looked around the remains of the valley. “Did you kill her?”

Emily hoped so. The blast would have shattered Mother Holly’s body and broken down the energy holding it together. But there was no way to be sure. She looked around, wondering if she would see Mother Holly slowly reassembling herself, but saw nothing. The necromancer was dead, she told herself. Any other outcome was unthinkable.

Lady Barb had another question. “How long were we in the pocket dimension?”

“It should have been a few hours,” Emily said. It had been near midnight when they’d fought Mother Holly, which suggested they’d stayed in the bubble for over ten hours. “But I don’t know.”

She hesitated, then swore inwardly. There was one danger from a nuclear blast – or something akin to it – that was utterly beyond this world’s comprehension. Radiation. They were standing at ground zero. Radiation might be a very real threat. She cast the ward she had designed, back when she’d first contemplated the possibility, but they’d already been dosed. If, of course, there was a danger in the first place.

“We have to get out of here,” she said. The ward was showing no reaction, but that proved nothing. “And we need to seal this valley off completely.”

Lady Barb didn’t argue, merely led her back towards the edge of the valley and a treacherous climb up and outwards. Fire had scorched the rocks, blackening them and sweeping away all traces of plants, bushes and soil. The ground below their feet had been turned to glass. Emily remembered, as her thoughts searched for hope, a story about a girl who had lived in a valley after a nuclear war and shuddered, then dismissed the thought. No one in the Allied Lands knew anything about splitting atoms, apart from her. It would remain that way, she hoped, for a very long time.

But the Blighted Lands are dead
, she recalled.
They don’t need nukes to destroy whole countries
.

Outside the valley, the devastation had been channeled by the mouth of the valley. Countless trees were burning brightly, or had been knocked down by the force of the blast and left lying on the ground. Emily hastily cast a spell to protect them from smoke and fumes, then led Lady Barb onwards, back towards the town.

She let out a long breath when they finally reached the outskirts and saw hundreds of people fighting the fires, hastily erecting firebreaks to prevent the flames from reaching the town. They included soldiers from two different kingdoms. Rudolf’s father had come to find his son.

“He must have worked out where Rudolf was going,” Lady Barb said, when Emily commented on it. “I need to speak with him and Lady Easter.”

Emily shook her head. “Wash first,” she said. Even if the radiation had faded away in the hours between the nuclear blast and the pocket dimension unlocking itself, there was still a risk of fallout. She shuddered, wondering just how much damage she’d done to the mountainfolk. There had been birth defects and other problems at Hiroshima for years after the city had been destroyed. “We need to be
clean
.”

Lady Barb gave her a sidelong look, which only got worse as they entered the guesthouse and Emily forgot her usual reluctance to undress in front of anyone. Her eyes followed Emily, concerned, as Emily stripped naked and washed herself with warm water, then used magic to compress the clothes she’d worn down to a small block, which could be buried somewhere safe. After Emily was finished, Lady Barb washed herself and reluctantly destroyed her own clothes. The look in her eyes bothered Emily more than she cared to admit.

She wracked her brains for some way to test for radiation and came up blank. There was a way to do it without modern technology or magic, she was sure, but she had no idea how the trick was actually done. She’d read about it in a book set in a post-atomic war hellhole, yet the author had concentrated more on the horrors of the aftermath than any useful details. The best she could think of, eventually, was to have Lady Barb scan her body for anything that might be caused by radiation. If there was damage, perhaps magic could heal it.

Or perhaps there wasn’t any radiation at all
, Emily thought, grimly.

It was possible, she conceded, but it sounded like wishful thinking. They didn’t dare take it for granted. She looked down at the snake-bracelet and shivered, again. Had she poisoned the snake as well as herself? Her lips twitched in bitter amusement. She was perhaps the only person in the Allied Lands who would regard that as a bad outcome.

A knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts. She glanced over to make sure that Lady Barb was decent, then pulled one of her robes over her head and then opened the door. Rudolf was standing there, looking tired but happy. Behind him, there were a handful of soldiers, wearing the colors of both families. She couldn’t tell if they were his bodyguards or his escorts.

“Come in,” she said, feeling genuinely pleased to see him. “What happened last night?”

Rudolf gave her an odd look as he stepped inside and closed the door, leaving the soldiers on the other side. “I was going to ask you the same question,” he said. His voice was awestruck. “There were flashes of light and the sound of thunder, then there was a light as bright as the sun and a roaring sound that shook the ground. And there was a fiery cloud shaped like a mushroom...some of the peasants even say they saw a god in the flames.”

Emily was uncomfortably aware of Lady Barb’s gaze boring into her back.

Rudolf shook his head. “And then the castle came tumbling down,” he added. “If we hadn’t been here, we would have died.”

Emily shuddered. The castle had been built of heavy stone. Her blast might easily have sent pieces flying through the air and slamming down into the town like bombs from high overhead. How many people had died, directly or indirectly, because of the spell she’d unleashed? She suspected that she would never know.

“I’m sorry,” Emily said. It seemed so inadequate. “Was anyone hurt?”

“Several people who looked at the flash went blind for a few hours,” Rudolf said. “Others were scorched fighting the flames. What
happened
?”

“We battled Mother Holly,” Emily said, shortly. “We killed her.”

“And that’s all we can say,” Lady Barb said. “I think we need to talk to your father.”

Rudolf nodded, rather shamefaced. “I did talk to my father,” he said. “And...well, let’s just say he had the same problem.”

Emily laughed. Talking to his father about his sexuality had to have taken considerable courage, more than Emily had ever shown when talking to her relatives. Lady Barb gave her an odd look, then shrugged, clearly deciding it wasn’t important.

“We’ll be on our way,” she said. “You go tell them that we’re coming.”

The atmosphere of fear seemed to have faded away, Emily decided, as they made their way through the town to the temple. Lady Easter and her daughters had moved in, billeting their soldiers and servants in a number of smaller houses, but everything seemed to be remarkably peaceful. Perhaps she’d realized that losing the castle made her vulnerable, Emily wondered, or perhaps everyone was just relieved that the threat was over. Maybe it wouldn’t last...

Lord Gorham seemed stronger than Emily remembered, sitting next to Lady Easter and sharing a joke with her. He rose to his feet as Lady Barb entered the temple, then bowed sweepingly to both magicians. Emily dropped back and curtseyed as Lady Barb nodded. She didn’t really want their attention, no matter the situation. It was better they just thought of her as “Millie.”

“Mother Holly was a necromancer,” Lady Barb said, without bothering with the formalities. “She lost control of her powers and released her stolen magic, causing a massive explosion.”

Emily blinked in surprise, then understood. There had to be
some
kind of cover story, even if it wasn’t entirely believable. But anyone who might recognize the holes in the tale wouldn’t believe what they heard, at least unless they walked into the mountains and inspected the blast site for themselves. For the locals, people largely ignorant of magic, there was no reason to doubt Lady Barb’s explanation.

“That is understandable,” Lady Easter said. “She was always known to be unstable.”

You weren’t that brave when she was a real threat
, Emily thought, vindictively.
You were under her control from start to finish
.

She scowled. In her own twisted way, Mother Holly had been an idealist – not too different from Emily herself. Like Emily, she’d discovered the tools to change things...and put them to use, without any of the scruples Emily liked to think she would show. But the real world didn’t respond well to idealism, let alone attempts to force it to go in a specific direction. If Emily tried to force things forward too fast...

The thought chilled her. She’d seen, in Zangaria and elsewhere, the effects of comparatively minor innovations she’d introduced. And she’d seen how far the old order was prepared to go to resist change. What would happen, she asked herself, when old and new clashed openly again? And how much of that would be her fault? Maybe King Randor was right in trying to co-opt those who had benefited from the changes, but he was riding a tiger. What would happen when he fell off?

Mother Holly only knew the bad
, she thought, remembering what she’d been told. No one had visited the hedge witch unless they were desperate. Mother Holly had never had any balance, let alone a detached view...but then, it was hard to have a detached view when one was directly involved. And then there had been her simplistic attempt to steer the course of the mountains...

“We will gladly forbid anyone from entering the valley,” Lady Easter said. “And we thank you for your assistance.”

Emily frantically dragged her attention back to the here and now, silently relieved that Lady Barb hadn’t been looking at her. Not paying attention in her classes could be unfortunate.

“You’re welcome,” Lady Barb said, dryly. “But you might want to consider how much blame
you
bear for this disaster.”

Lord Gorham gaped in surprise. “Blame
we
bear?”

Emily was equally surprised. She looked at Lady Barb’s back, wondering just what she was thinking – and why? It wasn’t like Lady Barb to bend the rules on limiting interference with local politics...although, with a necromancer involved, the rules had probably gone out of the window long ago.

“Your families – you aristocrats – have been exploiting your people since you killed your former monarch,” Lady Barb said, sharply. “Even without Mother Holly, the resentment and rage was staggeringly powerful. I would have expected an explosion, sooner or later, even without a necromancer becoming involved. And now you have been proven to be vulnerable.”

Lord Gorham didn’t understand, Emily saw, and Lady Easter didn’t seem to agree with Lady Barb. But Rudolf was nodding his head in quiet understanding, while Lady Easter’s daughters seemed to be mulling it over. A few months of being slaves in all but name had taught them a few lessons. They’d just have to see if they remembered the lessons now they were free.

She felt a moment of hope. The next generation of aristocracy would have a chance to reshape their country without a violent revolution. But only time would tell.

“But...they are
ours
,” Lord Gorham said, finally. He didn’t understand at all. Emily remembered that he’d lined up extra-pretty maids for his son, expecting Rudolf to make love to them, and shuddered. “We are their masters.”

“
They
don’t see it that way,” Lady Barb said. She sighed. “Not that I really expected you to understand.”

She stood straighter, then bowed to the aristocrats. “My apprentice and I will return to Whitehall,” she added. “I would request that you prepare reports of your own for the White Council. They will want an explanation of what took place here.”

“It will be done,” Lord Gorham said.

Lady Barb turned and strode out of the temple. Emily followed her, unwilling to spend any more time looking at the aristocrats. Rudolf followed her, then called out as he left the temple. Emily hesitated, then turned back to speak with him.

“I wanted to thank you,” he said. “You saved more than just my life and...”

Emily understood. Rudolf had at least a
chance
at a happy life, which was more than he’d had before Mother Holly started playing games. She doubted it would be easy, but it would be possible to make it work.

“You’re welcome,” she said, toying with the bracelet at her wrist. “And thank you for coming with me. I might not have made it without you.”

Rudolf beamed. Emily remembered Imaiqah’s advice for talking to young men – praise them endlessly – and smiled, inwardly. Imaiqah had definitely had a point. Maybe, just maybe, Emily would risk a date with someone at Whitehall. Or maybe it would take longer to overcome her fears.

“The offer...well...the offer has to be closed,” Rudolf said. He looked as though he expected her to blast him on the spot – or turn him back into a slug and stamp on him. “I’m sorry.”

It took Emily a moment to realize what he was talking about – and then she started to giggle helplessly. Rudolf had asked her to marry him, partly in jest...and even though she’d declined, the offer was technically still open. But he’d had second thoughts when he’d seen just how much she could do, just like Jade. She shook her head, feeling amusement rather than rejection. It helped that she’d never seriously considered his offer.

“I hope you find someone suitable,” she said. The thought of her giving relationship advice to
anyone
was ludicrous, yet there was no one else who could say what had to be said. His father certainly wouldn’t. “But remember what I said and be
honest
with her.”