Lessons in Etiquette (Schooled in Magic series) (21 page)

The writer of the book had never even considered the possibility of alternate worlds. As far as Emily knew, Void, the grandmaster and Mistress Irene were the only ones who knew that alternate worlds definitely existed. Even Shadye, who had kidnapped Emily from
her
world, hadn’t seemed to realize what he’d been doing until afterwards. Still, he did have some useful suggestions for blocking any further attempts at control. Emily rubbed the side of her head and concentrated on the mental discipline. It should, at least in theory, sink into her wards and provide additional protection, but it was hard to concentrate.

Giving up, she closed the book–feeling the protective hex slipping back into place–and returned it to her chest. Outside, she heard the sound of birds cawing as darkness fell over the land. She walked over to the window and peered out through the glass, catching sight of a flock of crows landing on one of the castle’s towers. In the distance, she could see lights , almost certainly the nearest city. Most castles seemed to have been constructed in or near cities for ease of control.

The door opened, revealing Alassa. “Prince Hildebrand is a definite gentleman,” she said, as she closed the door behind her and started to disrobe. “Very smart, very soft-spoken–and a trained weapons-master. He might be ideal. King Gama is a pain in the buttocks though. He spent half the evening talking about my dowry. Even Nightingale got tired of it in the end.”

She grinned. “And Prince Slark had his face slapped,” she added. “A perfect end to the day.”

Emily rolled her eyes, then sighed as she started to set up the wards. Seven more kingdoms to go. How would she survive?

“You’ll get used to it,” Alassa assured her, when Emily said that out loud. “Besides, do you really want to go through seven more portals?”

T
HE NEXT SEVEN DAYS FELL INTO
a routine. They would get up early, breakfast with their host in informal surroundings, then travel to the next kingdom on the list. Emily found them all beginning to blur together into a single kingdom, if only because they were so
similar
. The customs were almost identical, the dances all equally formal. She couldn’t help feeling exhausted by the end of each day, to the point where she begged off a second dance at the last castle. By then, they had picked up no less than
fifteen
suitors for Alassa’s hand. It was rather more than likely that all but one of them would be disappointed.

“They call these mountains the Mountains of Mourning,” Alassa explained. “According to legend, there was once a Faerie city on the highest mountain, where humans would be taken by their masters and turned into monsters. It was destroyed during the war, but hardly anyone ever visits. There are just too many ghosts.”

Emily shivered as the mountains came into view. They–and other natural barriers–seemed to serve as borders between the various kingdoms, which made a certain amount of sense. Projecting an army over the mountains would have been difficult for the locals, even without magic to make it harder. The handful of people who lived there generally kept themselves to themselves. If they knew that Alassa was passing through their territory to return to Zangaria, there was no sign of it.

“You spent plenty of time with Prince Hildebrand,” Emily said. The temperature was dropping rapidly as they approached the mountains, even though the carriage was supposed to be spelled to keep it warm. “Do you
like
him?”

Alassa couldn’t blush–for which Emily envied her–but she did look embarrassed. “Have I been spending too much time with him?”

“I’m not sure,” Emily admitted. “You know how little protocol I can be bothered to remember.”

“Lucky you,” Alassa said, without heat. “I just happen to like him.”

Emily wasn’t too surprised. Prince Hildebrand was two years older than Alassa, reasonably handsome, very clever–and fourth in line to his father’s throne. There would be little prospect of White Rose and Zangaria being united permanently by marriage, unless his three older brothers and their children died before Prince Hildebrand. He wasn’t a magician, at least as far as Emily could tell, but he didn’t seem to be intimidated by Alassa’s magic. And he had some practical experience in governing that would serve Alassa very well.

Lady Barb had finally obtained a reply to the message she’d sent to Whitehall, which she’d shared with both girls. Prince Hedrick had majored in hierology, the study of how magic interacted with the gods and the faerie. It was very much a theoretical subject, which indicated a lack of great power or application. His other marks had been reasonable, but very far from brilliant–and he hadn’t stayed any longer than fourth-year. There was no suggestion that he’d taken Martial Magic, or knew any killing spells.

That proves nothing
, Emily reminded herself, once again.

Hedrick bothered her. He didn’t seem interested in
anything
. Alassa had danced with him–by custom, she had to spend at least one dance with each suitor–and he had shown no interest in her at all. Nor did he seem to be interested in other girls–including court ladies who wore clothing that barely covered their private parts–or boys. Emily had danced with him once and realized that he seemed to be going through the motions. He didn’t even seem to be involved enough to be
bored
.

She’d wondered if someone had enchanted him and raised the issue with Lady Barb, but Lady Barb dismissed the thought. Anyone who showed signs of enchantment would be checked at once by the Court Wizard–and besides, Hedrick just seemed uninterested in the world, rather than someone who might be under outside control. Emily had then wondered if he had a mental problem, but she knew too little to even take a stab at guessing what he might have. And besides, how could she begin to help him? Magic seemed helpless to deal with mental trauma.

“Well, make sure you read the contract carefully,” Emily warned. She’d shown Alassa her notes during the journey from White Rose to Hallow. “And make sure your father knows that you like him–if you like him.”

Alassa flushed. “It also makes the others more attentive,” she added. “They all cluster around me–except Hedrick.”

Emily snorted. The various princes behaved themselves when under the stern gazes of their chaperones–apart from Prince Slark, who seemed not to learn from experience–but their whispers could be very crude. Emily had overhead enough comments to know that Alassa was practically being propositioned, something that she clearly found exciting even though she knew better than to allow it to go too far. What would happen, she wondered, if it
did
go too far? Would they forgive her for turning a prince into a frog?

They might just ignore it
, she thought, dryly. Diplomacy in the Allied Lands seemed to largely consist of ignoring things.
And besides, she would have to kiss the prince to turn him back
.

“Well, be careful,” Emily advised. “A boy may be nice when he’s wooing, but turn into the devil when married.”

Alassa gave her a sharp look. “And you know this
how
?”

The honest answer to that was that Emily’s stepmother had married a man who had seemed decent, who seemed to be able to provide for her and her young daughter–and who had turned into a demon after the wedding. He’d driven Emily’s mother to drink and made her feel utterly unwelcome in her own home. If Shadye hadn’t kidnapped her, Emily doubted that she would have lasted very long on Earth. But it wasn’t something she could tell Alassa, at least not yet.

“Common sense,” she said, instead. “They all want something from you. See how they act when they have it.”

She looked out the window as the landscape slowly became more and more rocky. According to the map, there was a pass through the mountains wide enough to accommodate the carriages, but it wasn’t an easy passage. By comparing it to some of the comments made by the History Monks, Emily guessed that the pass had been carved out by the Empire–and the successor states hadn’t bothered to maintain it. Rain, snow and rock falls would have taken their toll on the road. It started to grow thinner too as they inched further upwards, with a river on one side. Given enough time, Emily realized, erosion would complete the destruction of the road.

The Romans had built their monuments all over Europe. Their roads had lasted for hundreds of years, as had some of their buildings. But their engineering skills had been better than the Empire’s engineering skills; besides, the Empire had built the road in a very dangerous place. Emily couldn’t help wondering, as the wind started to shake the carriage, just how long it would be before someone had a serious accident and plunged down into the river. Judging by the speed, anyone who fell in wouldn’t be coming out again.

“Birds,” Alassa said, suddenly. “Lots of birds.”

Emily followed her gaze. There were suddenly
hundreds
of birds in the sky, flying over the carriages and heading away from where they’d been resting. She’d been told by the sergeants that if the birds appeared disturbed, something had disturbed them–and
that
suggested there was someone lying in wait. The carriages stopped–Lady Barb had evidently had the same thought–and guardsmen rushed past to take up defensive positions. And then a thunderous noise split the air.

The creature crashed down in front of the guards, beady eyes fixed on the puny humans confronting it. Emily couldn’t believe her eyes. At first, she thought she was looking at a baby dragon, and then she saw the rooster’s head grafted to the lizard-like body. A cockatrice
,
she realized, remembering the magical creatures she’d seen in the zoo surrounding Whitehall. It was a hybrid created by the Faerie, just because they could; they’d
lived
to make the mortal world suffer. The creature had to be in terrible pain every moment of its existence.

“Get out,” she snapped. She’d
ridden
on a dragon–and if the cockatrice was even a quarter as powerful as the dragon she’d met, it would be devastating. There were close to a hundred armed men facing the monster and Emily knew with a cold sinking certainty that it wouldn’t be enough. “Now!”

She jumped down from the carriage, then moved away to allow Alassa to jump down and join her. The various princes were drawing their own swords, although none of them looked very enthusiastic about trying to fight the cockatrice. Emily found it hard to blame them; even at a distance, the monster was daunting. Maybe it could be reasoned with…dragons were intelligent, even though they rarely took interest in human affairs. But what could they offer the creature?

Lunch
, Emily thought, sourly.

The cockatrice threw back its head and produced a horrible crowing noise–almost as if it were trying to roar, but didn’t quite know how–then lunged forward, blowing fire towards the guardsmen. They stumbled backwards as the archers opened fire, hitting the creature with a dozen arrows, all of which bounced off the scales. Part of Emily’s mind noted that it didn’t seem to have the fire-blowing powers of a full dragon, or the guardsmen would have been incinerated in the first seconds of combat. But it’s natural armor more than made up for the lack.

It half-hopped, half-crawled forward and lashed out at the guards. Powerful claws sliced through their armor as though it was made of paper, tearing them into bloody chunks. The creature’s beak snapped down on a guardsman who was trying to escape, biting him in half, only to spit out his upper body seconds later. It didn’t seem to be bothered by a second flight of arrows, even one that barely missed its evil eyes. A guardsman struck it with a sword, only to see the sword glance off the creature in a shower of sparks. Seconds later, the cockatrice ripped him apart and tossed the remains in the river.

“Get back to the end of the convoy,” Emily snapped at Alassa. The princes seemed eager to escort her to the rear. “Hurry!”

She took a step forward as Lady Barb threw a powerful hex at the monster. It crowed again and lashed out at her. She barely managed to save herself as its claws ripped the first carriage apart, scattering luggage trunks into the air. Two of them splashed down in the river to be lost forever. The creature advanced on Lady Barb, who somehow managed to hold her ground, firing off a second hex. Bright red balefire flared to life around the creature, making it howl in outrage, but it kept coming.

Everything has a weakness
, Sergeant Harkin had said.
Everything and everyone
.
Sometimes you just have to find it. And then hit the weak places with your hand and the harder places with a utensil.

Emily gathered herself and threw a cutting spell right at the creature’s eye. Arrows hadn’t managed to discourage it, but maybe a direct hit…the creature crowed so loudly that Emily’s ears hurt, rearing up in pain. For a moment, Emily thought it would retreat, before it came forward with deadly intent. The look in its eyes held her frozen until a second blast of balefire raged over them. Lady Barb yanked Emily back as the cockatrice thrashed around, breathing puffs of fire into the air. The best they could do was injure it.

Mistress Kirdáne hadn’t told them anything about killing cockatrices, or dragons. Hell, everyone believed dragons to be damn near invincible, at least while they were on their guard. Most of the dragons who had been killed by humans had been asleep at the time, according to Mistress Kirdáne, and the other dragons hadn’t taken their deaths lightly. But then, they’d also operated on a completely different timescale to humanity. One town had been devastated seventy
years
after a dragon had been killed nearby.