Bookworm III (16 page)

The antechamber was crammed with children and their guardians, mostly weeping mothers and a handful of older sisters. They knew, of course, that swapping hostages wasn’t uncommon, but it
was
rare not to have someone in exchange. The Emperor could kill the hostages and their families would have no one to retaliate against. Forcing the Great Houses to give up hostages was a way of forcing them to submit, although – she noted as her cynical eye matched names to faces – none of the hostages were first or second-born children. Their families could lose them without seriously risking their power and influence.

And how long would it be
, she asked herself,
before the Emperor demands more hostages
?

She shrugged, then tapped her lips, using a spell to boost her words. “The hostages are to prepare themselves to go to their chambers,” she said. Thankfully, the building’s staff had already prepared a series of rooms for the children. “Everyone else is to leave as soon as possible.”

The mothers surrounded Charity, bombarding her with questions about what their children could expect and shoving pieces of paper at her, marked with their dietary requirements, demands for various forms of special treatment and far too much else. She winced at the thought of tending to all of the demands – one child apparently refused to eat mushrooms, while another expected to have a bedtime story read to her every night – and then passed them on to the staff. It had been centuries since the palace staff had catered for children – very few Grand Sorcerers had had young children – but she was sure they could handle it. If not, more help could be drafted in from the outside.

“Sonia needs to have a special potion each night,” one of the women said, pushing a bottle into Charity’s hand. “Make sure she takes it with her food.”

Charity eyed the bottle suspiciously, then nodded and passed it to one of the staff. There would be time to sort out who Sonia was later, when the parents were gone and the hostages were on their way to their rooms. She collected four more bottles, several food parcels and a small pile of books, almost all designed to entertain and educate young magical children. She found herself praying that the children wouldn’t torment the staff as she chased the parents out of the chamber, then turned to look at the hostages. They looked ... scared, apart from a couple of boys who looked excited. No doubt they’d heard tales of how great it was to be a hostage ...

... And it could be great, if they weren’t killed.

“All right,” she said. “You will be shown to your rooms now. You will stay in your rooms until we come to fetch you tomorrow morning, so get as much sleep as you can.”

She sighed, wondering why the Emperor had been so insistent on getting the hostages as soon as possible. The palace was nowhere near ready for thirty small children – the oldest was twelve – and entire levels would have to be warded against them, if only to keep the children from poking their noses into places where they didn’t belong. If they were anything like she’d been at that age – she still cringed at the memory of the hundreds of times she’d tried to sneak into her father’s study – they were going to be
everywhere
. Her father’s wards had kept her out without hurting her, but she knew that wouldn’t be true of the Emperor’s wards ...

“This building isn’t safe,” she added. “You could get seriously hurt if you go into the wrong building or touch the wrong object. Stay in your rooms until we have parts of the building cleared for your use.”

Two of the boys exchanged grins at her words, causing her to swear under her breath and resolve to cast sleep spells on them as soon as they were in their beds. Her mother had admitted she’d done that once or twice with her own children, back when they’d been screaming half the night. It wasn’t advised to make a habit of it, though. The children soon developed a resistance to the spell that would haunt them in later life.

“Follow me,” she ordered, and led the way down the corridor until they reached the holding chambers. She glanced at the one she knew to hold the Head Librarian, guarded by a single soldier wearing armour, then walked past it and opened the first door. “These rooms are all the same, so take any room you like.”

She heard the soldier yelp as one of the little monsters cast a hex on him. Charity cancelled it, then plucked the boy out of the group and pushed him into his room, closing the door as soon as he was inside. The boy started to shout childish insults at her through the door, which she ignored. He didn’t know how lucky he was, she told herself, as she resisted the urge to do something unpleasant to him.
Her
parents would have turned her into a toad for such insolence.

Once the rest of the children were in their rooms, Charity closed and warded the doors, then headed back to her own quarters. The Emperor had been right about one thing – she would need her sleep. She stood in front of the guarded door for a long moment, wondering if she should talk to the Head Librarian, then stopped herself. There was no point. What could they possibly say to one another?

Instead, she turned and kept walking back to her rooms.

Chapter Thirteen

Elaine held herself together by sheer force of will as the spell howled and reached for her, attempting to overwhelm her mind. She already knew it was more than just a simple compulsion spell, but she hadn’t realised just how powerful it was until she dropped her defences and embraced the maelstrom. It had absorbed her own defences, her first set of protections, and turned them into weapons against her mind. In a very real sense, she was grimly aware she was fighting herself.

The chain of incantations unravelled themselves under her mental gaze, even as the spell tried to embrace the core of her mind. It had already mutated, adapting itself to her mind with terrifying speed, sending tendrils deep into her thoughts. Normally, mental influence could be countered by a mind-healer, but few healers would know her mind so intimately that they could remove the contamination without doing colossal damage. The fragments of the spell were practically part of her, impossible for an outsider to separate from her true thoughts. And given enough time, they
would
be her true thoughts.

SURRENDER
, the spell thundered, as it raged against her thoughts.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. SURRENDER AND SUBMIT
.

Elaine wanted to cover her ears, but it was pointless. The sound was inside her head. Instead, she gathered her thoughts and plunged down until she was slamming right into the spell, examining the mutating incantations that swarmed and multiplied until they threatened to push her true thoughts out of her own mind. It was an impressive piece of work, part of her mind noted, a thing of deadly beauty. And it was so dangerous that she understood
precisely
why successive Grand Sorcerers had banned knowledge of the spell, at least outside the Inquisition. The only real question was why they had thought the Inquisitors needed to know how to use it.

They would have found it an effective weapon against a Dark Wizard
, she thought, as the howling grew louder. The spell twisted uncomfortably under her gaze, then tried to fade away into the background.
No normal wizard could have held it off for more than a few minutes
...

She gritted her teeth as she reached out and pulled the spell back into view, then lashed out with all the force she could gather at the incantations holding it together. Pain seared through her head as the spell fought back, trying to escape her wrath; it mutated again and again, trying to evolve defences against her. It was like playing chess against herself, Elaine realised; white knew what black was planning and vice versa. But the battle wouldn’t stalemate, she knew, or at least not for very long. Eventually, she would run out of magic ...

... Angrily, she pushed the thought aside. Even considering the possibility of defeat would bring defeat closer. The spell howled, then whispered, alternatively gloating over her certain failure and then promising joy in submission. Elaine gritted her teeth and held on desperately, even when the spell started to dig up her old memories and throw them at her, one by one. It knew precisely which memories to use, but how could it
not
? The spell was effectively part of her mind.

...
She is sitting on a chair at the back of a meeting room, while two parents are explaining to the Orphan Mother that no, they do not want to take Elaine home with them. The Orphan Mother is angry, all the more so because they cannot put their reasons into words. When the parents are gone, she pulls Elaine’s ears and sends her to the punishment room ...

... She is staring at the Orphan Mother as Rose explains, untruthfully, that Elaine stole some candy from her drawer. Elaine tries to tell the older woman that it wasn’t her, that Rose is lying through her teeth, but the Orphan Mother doesn’t listen. Rose is young and pretty and someone will take her home the very next week. Elaine ... is just a plain girl with an introverted nature. It isn’t hard for the Orphan Mother to believe Rose and send Elaine to the punishment room ...

... She is standing in the punishment room, trying not to cry. They don’t shout at her or beat her, even though either one would be preferable. Instead, they just make her stand up for hours on end, waiting in the darkness. By the time she is finally released, she is a nervous wreck ...

... She is entering the Peerless School for the first time, awed at the opportunity that has been dropped into her lap, when she sees Millicent for the first time. The girl takes an instant dislike to Elaine, turning her into a toad on her very first day ...

... She is walking up to one of the form mistresses, obeying a compulsion she knows she should be able to resist. As soon as she is in front of the older woman, she opens her mouth and emits a stream of horrific insults. She knows she is lucky, when the enchantment lets her go, that she isn’t expelled on the spot ...

... She is leaving the Peerless School as a graduated magician when the ink on the scroll starts to run and fade. It isn’t real ...

“It didn’t happen like that,” she said, out loud. “That’s one of my nightmares.”

She heard the spell laughing at her, as if it was an intelligent being. It had dragged up her memories, then started to improvise newer and darker thoughts to wear down her resolve to fight. Elaine braced herself, then shoved hard against the spell. It recoiled from her touch, then returned to the fight. It was drawing on her magic, her memories and everything else just to grind her down. But she felt a wave of cold anger that suddenly made it easier to focus her mind.

“It didn’t happen like that,” she said, forcing herself to remember the good days in her life. Meeting Daria for the first time, entering the Great Library as a staff member, meeting Johan ... she might have been a weak magician, but she was far from powerless. “And I will be rid of you.”

She plunged into the fight with renewed determination. This time, the spell seemed to cower back from her touch, then started to shatter under her pressure. It mutated, again and again, each fragment growing into something new, but it could no longer draw on her power. She probed at its innermost structure, located the weak spots and pushed, hard. Piece by piece, the spell started to come apart ...

... And then it lashed back at her, a final desperate attempt to overwhelm her mind. She staggered mentally, realising just how deeply it had embedded itself in her very soul, but she held herself together and
pushed
. The spell fell backwards, into a locked corner of her mind, and held itself there. Elaine staggered, then opened her eyes and stood. Her limbs felt wobbly, and she could hear the spell howling in her mind, but she could walk to the door without impediment. She was
free
!

And drained, she realised, slowly. She was used to running out of power, used to watching as more powerful witches and wizards cast spells while she caught her breath, but she had never truly felt so drained in her life. What remained of her power was being used to hold the spell in check ... and when she lost it, the spell would flower through her mind and overwhelm her once and for all. It didn’t seem
fair
, part of her mind told her, that she should have to keep using her magic to keep her body free. But the spell was nothing if not persistent.

You need to get rid of it
, she told herself,
but how
?

Holding it at bay with her mind, she considered what she knew. The spell was dangerous because it fed on people, real people. It wasn’t just powered by magic, like every other spell she knew. In some ways, it was as much an oddity as Johan’s magic. But ... she gritted her teeth, then stumbled towards the door. There had been a guard outside, if she recalled correctly, hopefully not an Inquisitor in civilian clothes. She banged on the door as hard as she could, then leant against the wall. Moments later, the door opened and a man wearing a bright red uniform looked in at her.

“Please,” Elaine said. She made a show of stumbling to the floor. “I need help.”

The guard caught her, instinctively. Elaine gathered herself, clutching his hand as though it was holding her back from falling, then concentrated on the spell and shoved it into his hand, knowing it would rapidly infest the rest of his body. The guard let out a yelp and shoved her to the floor, but it was already too late. His face went blank and his arms dropped to his side, leaving him helpless. Elaine pulled herself to her feet, then closed the door. Hopefully, no one would notice that the guard was missing for a few hours.

“All right,” she said, studying the guard through tired eyes. “What’s your name?”

“Talbot,” the guard said.

Elaine frowned. It was a typical name from Vlad Deferens’ homeland, although
that
shouldn’t have been a surprise. Very little remained secret in the Golden City; no one, not even a Privy Councillor, would have been able to recruit more than a few personal guardsmen without hard questions being asked. On the other hand, Deferens was a powerful figure in his homeland. He could muster an army without having to worry about someone noticing what he was doing, then smuggle it into the Golden City.