Seventeen Stones (16 page)

Professor
Fain was a perfectly adequate charms teacher.  If Mia had the impression that
he held charms as the less valuable skill set, she couldn’t blame him for that. 
After all, hadn’t the headmistress herself said that transfiguration and
creation were the most important to the City?  “…and that is how you turn bread
and water into tea and cakes.  Now if all of you would try it…”  It was a
simple charm and Mia managed a spice cake with chocolate frosting.  She’d been
trying for cream cheese icing, but the chocolate was surprisingly good.  The
cake was consumed and the rest of the class was spent chatting while they
cleaned up.

Professor
Fain was debating Mia’s interpretation of the ‘cleansing’ riots four hundred
years before.  “I’m not saying it wasn’t barbaric, but you can understand why
the wand wielders didn’t want anyone without magic to be allowed into society. 
Can you imagine your daughter marrying someone like that?”  

Mia nodded.  “Yes I can, if
he were a good man.  Money and position are very nice, but they aren’t
everything.”  He laughed.  “There speaks someone who has always had money.” 
She knew there was a valid argument, but she couldn’t find it before the chimes
rang to end the day. 

“I
want a sheet of parchment about how transfigurative charms differ from plain
transfiguration by next class!”  Mia groaned as she gathered up her books. 
“How about one sentence?  Transfiguration has more flexibility but takes more
power.”  Vivian wrapped her arm around Mia’s waist and beamed.  “Have I
mentioned today how glad I am that you are my friend?”  The professor laughed
and shooed them toward the dorm.

Mia
had never acquired a taste for the library tearoom, so she spent less time in
the library than she would have imagined.  She normally checked the books out
and left, since the study in the dorm room was so cozy and comfortable, and the
kitchens were always willing to make the girls a tea tray.

Lizzy
and Beth were writing a piece of music for Composition, an advanced music class
that Mia would probably never take.  Sarah seemed to be researching at least
six papers at once, picking up first one book, then another, making notes on
three different pads of parchment and muttering to herself.  Her advanced
Research class was fascinating, but it entailed more work than Mia’s class. 
She hadn’t had time to take it.  She almost regretted it.  She wished that she
could trade music and transfiguration for Advanced History.  

Mia
and Ella were putting together a working model of a pegasus for Animal Husbandry. 
Mia had just finished transfiguring the last of the bones when Vivian returned
with the tea tray. 

“All
right.  It’s time for a break.  This tray is loaded down with a special
surprise.  Maggie sent us a pile of jam tarts that she’s making for tomorrow’s
dinner, and they’re still warm!”  Even Sarah (who could ignore her body’s basic
needs when wrapped up in a project) jumped up and grabbed a warm tart and a hot
cup of tea. 

“Oh!” 
Mia said with delight.  “I can’t imagine why cooking isn’t an acknowledged area
of magical power!  If these were any better we wouldn’t be able to eat them,
they’d be art!”  Vivian grinned.  “Speak for yourself, I could eat them.”  She
bit into the flaky crust and threw herself onto the sofa.  “Mmmm.” 

The tarts
were quickly decimated, leaving only a few lonely crumbs and an empty plate to
testify that they had once been a mighty pile of pastry.  The teapot was
emptied, and Mia went downstairs to refill it, but she couldn’t wrangle any
more tarts out of the cook.  “Nah, ya shouldn’t have so much sugar before bed. 
How about a nice bowl of roasted almonds instead?”  Mia was forced to agree. 

Vivian
grinned when she returned without another plate of tarts.  “You know the only
reason she let me have the first pile is that she was so pleased with how they
had turned out and she wanted someone else to taste them.  I just happened by
at the right moment.”  Vivian had a tendency to do that.

Ella
had glued all the bones together by the time Mia returned and they decided to
work on other homework while the glue dried.  “I’d hate to mess it up” Ella
said with a frown. “I never want to try to put together all those little bones
ever again.”  Mia grinned.  “At least they don’t have 26 bones in their hooves,
the way we do with each hand.”  Ella threw a pillow and hit her in the back of
the head.

Mia
began yet another tricky essay for Theory, showing the practical application
for the formula that proved that spells loose potency the further they move
from the caster.  She was citing a project she would have loved to have done
with magic instead of math, measuring the angles of the planets for Astronomy.

Vivian
was working on an essay that Professor Ambrose had assigned.  Everyone else had
finished it two days ago.  Vivian had taken out the assignment each day, looked
at it faithfully, and then found something else to do.  She wasn’t exactly bad
at Alchemy, but it wasn’t a subject where one could let their mind wander.  Vivian
was quite capable of juggling all of the gossip at the college and most of what
was going on down n the City without ever mixing up the facts, but her penchant
for nosing around left her too distracted to worry about little things like the
subjects she was supposed to be at college learning. 

The
chimes rang out eleven o’clock, and the girls put away their homework and
rushed to get ready for bed.  Sarah was walking around, trying to get ready
with her book in front of her nose, bumping heedlessly into things without
seeming to notice.  She finally finished the book, sighed, and rubbed her eyes,
as if only just noticing that she was tired and her eyes were bloodshot.  Mia handed
her the bottle of potion that took the red out, and she used it before she sat
down on the bed and fell asleep with her shoes on.

Beth
looked over at the snoozing girl.  “She’s working too hard.  Even on rest days
she spends a few hours with her parents and then comes back up here and hits
the books.”  Lizzy walked over and pulled off Sarah’s slippers.  “It looks like
they’re hitting back.”  She pulled out her wand and tucked Sarah into to bed
with an annoyed flick. 

Mia was braiding her damp hair.  “We’re all working
hard, but we’ll be able to rest during Mid-Winter break.  Then we won’t do
anything all day except have fun, and dance away the nights!”  She began to
dance around the room in her voluminous night dress.  Ella, Lizzy and Beth
giggled while Vivian joined her.  She spun until she was dizzy, and fell into
bed.  Mia yawned and pulled the covers over her, not bothering with the
curtains.

Sarah,
Ella, Vivian and Mia trudged to Transfiguration the next morning.  The work at
this level wasn’t that hard.  Transfiguration was a standard class for even the
least talented wand wielder.  It didn’t get really tricky until the class moved
into animals.  Human transfiguration was the most difficult type taught at the
college.  You wanted to be very certain that that if you transfigured a person
that the spell was perfect.  There were two types of human transfiguration: 
unbreakable and time-sensitive. 

 Unbreakable
transfiguration was the punishment for any violent crime.  Eighty wand wielders
worked in the judiciary system, doing nothing but turning those judged guilty
into their sentenced forms.  A murderer would spend the rest of his life as a
rabbit or squirrel; a man who seriously injured another might end up as a
turtle.  The offenders were never turned into an animal that could harm humans,
and never transfigured into meat animals.  The only punishment more feared was
banishment.  Lesser crimes were normally sentenced to reparations: judges
decided how much was owed to whom in those cases.

Time-sensitive
transfiguration allowed a person to transfigure themselves or someone else for
a job.  Forms gained potency over time so a person was never allowed to stay in
a form for over a few hours.  Automatic reversals were built into the spells as
a safe guard.  Transfiguring yourself into another human was punishable by
banishment.  Transfiguration would fool the illusion-breaking charms that were
standard on important documents, allowing a person to access the property of
the victim.

Mia
had seen workers transfigured into apes while they were building the steel
framework of a building as the girls passed toward the marketplace.  It was
absolutely frightening to watch the men swing from bar to bar, lifting and
standing on one foot while they held the beams in place.  Other men used
welding charms to secure the beams.  The girls had watched in fascinated awe,
but Mia didn’t feel any inclination to watch it again…ever. 

They
hadn’t covered any of that in Marshal’s class of course.  He still had them
plodding along, changing apples to oranges.  Ten minutes into class one of the
seven remaining girls ran out of the room, stifling sobs.  Marshall had savaged
her homework in front of the class, ridiculing a single poor phrase in the
paper.  Mia was seething.  He was stomping up and down the room, frothing at
the mouth and looking a bit mad.

His
rant was reaching a crescendo and everyone was looking determinedly at their
desks when Mia accidentally caught his eye.  She was so angry at his illogical
attitude that she didn’t look down.  She stared at him and let him see on her
face exactly what she thought of him.  He looked away and she picked up her
book in disgust.     

He
continued his vitriolic rant until the class stopped paying attention.  Most of
them were staring blankly into space, obviously not taking in a word he was
sputtering.  Sarah caught Mia’s eye.  She nodded to the dark cup that lived on
the professor’s desk.  A muttered spell, a quick wand movement and Sarah
slipped her wand into the special pocket in her skirt without anyone but Mia
being any wiser.  She tried to catch Sarah’s attention, but she was looking
ahead with a blank, innocent expression on her face.  The professor ended his
rant and thundered to his desk.  He picked up the cup and took a long swig
without even glancing at it.  Marshal sputtered and hacked and spewed green
slime all over the first row of students.  Mia, who was three rows back, breathed
a sigh of relief.  She’d been afraid that Sarah was going to poison him. 

Marshall
started screaming, the green slime mixing with white foam at the corner of his
mouth in the most unappealing way.  “When I find who did this, you’ll wish
you’d never been born you little…”  The whites of his eyes were bloodshot and
his face was snarling.  “You!”  Mia looked up and saw a long, grimy fingernail
pointing at her.  “You come with me.”  He grabbed her arm and frog marched her
out towards the headmistress’ office.  The trip was short, and Mia was
profoundly glad of it.  Not only was he spewing an endless stream of vitriol
the entire time they were walking, he also smelled like something that had been
dead for three days during the middle of summer.  Not even the brisk fall
breeze eliminated the smell entirely. 

They
approached the tower.  Marshall knocked impatiently, was rude to the footman,
and pushed his way into the headmistress’ private study.  During all that time
he’d never let go of the bruising grip on Mia’s arm.  Headmistress Villanova
raised a delicate brow at the intrusion.  She was sitting at her desk,
surrounded by three communication mirrors and a crystal bowl filled with
water.  There were piles of parchment all over the desk, each at least a foot
high. 

“Headmistress.” 
Marshal spat the word.  “One of the students transfigured the tea in my mug
into slime.  This” he said as he pushed Mia forward “is the most likely
culprit.  I insist that you scan her mind immediately so that we can punish the
little brat before dinner.”  The headmistress pulled out a golden pocket watch
and sighed.  “Very well professor, I will scan the student.  But we have very
little time.  I’m expecting several members of council on the mirrors in less
than three minutes, and one of them is Greatlord Strathorne.”  Marshall paled
at the mention of the Greatlord’s name and Mia wondered what the other man had
done to get that sort of reaction out of the professor.  The headmistress
clicked her watch shut and walked toward Mia.  

She
stood her ground, unsure of what the headmistress meant by scanning, but pretty
certain that she would not enjoy the process.  The headmistress pulled off a
black kid glove and took Mia’s bare fingers in her own.  Then she looked deeply
into Mia’s eyes.  “Did you transfigure the tea?”  She shook her head, not
trusting her voice.  The headmistress dropped her hand and pulled on the
glove.  “The child didn’t do it Professor.”  Mia glanced at the headmistress; she
was sure that she saw a glint of humor in her eye.  She was suddenly convinced
that the headmistress
knew
that Mia could tell them who had turned
Marshall’s tea to slime.  She was also positive that the headmistress wasn’t
going to mention that fact to the irate Professor. 

He
glared at them both.  “Very well.  Someone in the class did transfigure my
tea.  I’ll hold the whole lot of them until after your meeting and you can…” 
But the headmistress was holding up her hand.  “I’m afraid not Professor.  I
have a meeting with the Magus this evening after this mirror call.  I’ll be
gone for two days to discuss a special project he has in mind for some of the
students.  I could scan the class when I return, but you know as well as I do
that by then the guilty party will have undoubtedly taken ooris root to prevent
mind reading.  I’m afraid that you will simply have to handle this yourself.” 

She
walked back to her desk.  Her voice was crisp to the point of cold when she
added “Oh and by the way, you might have the urge to punish the entire class to
find the culprit, but I would advise against that.  More than one of your
students are related to Greatlords and Ladies, and I do not wish to deal with
the pressure that they could and would apply if you did something of the
sort.”  He fumed, but took her nod for the dismissal it was.

Mia
quickly disengaged herself from the seething professor.  The chimes sounded and
her friends poured out of the building.  Sarah was carrying Mia’s bag.  “Oh
Mia!  I’m so sorry!  I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do until he left. 
Did you tell the headmistress the whole story?”  Sarah, to her credit, seemed
very ready to just admit to the whole thing, but Mia talked her out of it. 
“No, no.  It’s fine.  I have a plan.  I just need to get over to the library
tonight.”

After
dinner, the girls rushed to the library.  “Here we are, ooris root.  It’s a
perennial flower used mostly for decorative purposes.  The root is used in
liquid or powdered form to prevent penetration of the mind.”  Mia frowned.  “A
tablespoon of it will keep the mind free from penetration for a week.  The side
effects of a single dose are minimal: excessive giggling and a reaction to
mince pies.  Well, mid-winter is months off so we should be safe enough on that
point…I just don’t know two things.” 

Vivian
leaned across the table, with her cheek resting in one hand, as if she was
bored.  “You’re doing better than me.  I don’t have the dizziest notion of what
you’re babbling about.”  Mia laughed.  “I want to dose the entire school with
the ooris root tomorrow at breakfast.  When Marshal checks, not only will he
not be able to read our minds, he won’t be able to read anyone’s mind.”  The
brilliance of the plan dawned on the other girls quickly.  “So what part of the
plan are you having problems with?” Lizzy asked with a significant look at her
sister. 

Mia
shut the book.  “I don’t know how to get roughly a thousand tablespoons of the
liquid before breakfast and I don’t know how to sneak it into the food.”  Vivian
grinned and hopped out of her seat.  “Oh, is that all?”

***

Sarah’s mother was perhaps surprised the next morning
when three hundred potted flowers were delivered to her town-home, especially
since they were rather wilted specimens.  That was probably due to the fact
that about half the root was missing from each plant.  Then again, Lady Anne
was a talented wand wielder who was extremely well connected about town.  She
kept a close eye on everything concerning the college since they were the
current guardians of her precious child.  She also knew Sarah (and Sarah’s
temper) very well.  She might have known exactly why so much ooris root was
suddenly necessary.  Whatever the case, she sighed and quietly had the plants
sent to the family estate.               

Vivian
returned from an early morning foray into the boy’s kitchens.  “Done” she said
with an impish grin.  “One of the nicer boys poured the whole vial into the tea
for me.”  Beth ran upstairs about the same time.  “The ooris root mixture is in
the cinnamon bun icing.  Make sure you grab one.”  The ooris root did not add
to the taste of either the beverage or the buns, thus guaranteeing that no one
overdosed on the extract. 

Marshal
stalked around the school the next day with a harried-looking wand wielder
trailing behind him, randomly stopping students and demanding they allow their
minds to be read.  Marshal himself had no talent for piercing the minds of
others, so he had to rely on someone else for the task.  He also had no memory
for faces so he was accosting students who weren’t even taking his classes.  Several
mischievous second year boys were casually passing by the pair every few
minutes and allowing the overworked wand wielder to try (without success) to
read their minds.

Most
of the other students weren’t taking the proposed invasion of their privacy
with as sanguine an attitude.  Martin Ainsley was leaning against an oak tree
and making dire predictions about what his mother would say about this
imposition when he told her.  A group of third year girls had flatly refused
his attempts to read their minds.  They had taken Mental Defense the year
before, so it wasn’t hard to keep the other wand wielder from accessing their
minds.  Sarah walked by and casually submitted to the wand wielder’s attempt to
read her mind.  “The look on his face was priceless!  I almost couldn’t keep
from laughing.  I was holding my breath, so I wouldn’t have to smell Marshall. 
I feel terrible for the poor wand wielder who had to help him.”

Vivian laughed.  “Don’t. 
He’s Marshall’s nephew.”          

When
the headmistress returned the next day, she put a screeching halt to it.  “What
were you thinking?  I have a pile of complaints six feet tall on my desk!  Drop
this.  Drop it now.  If you haven’t discovered the culprit by now you never
will.  If I hear another whisper about this I will haul you up in front of our
council representative so fast your dandruff will wonder where you went.  Now
if you’ll excuse me, I have to fix this mess that you made.  Good day!”

The
girls were relived once the pronouncement became generally known (though how it
became known was a matter of doubt since they were reasonably sure that the
professor would have died rather than to admit it…if the Headmistress’ footman
knew how the information got out…he wasn’t saying anything but he looked smug
as he adjusted his powdered wig).  Marshall’s classes were unbearable: he
glared, stomped, and shouted constantly, but as that was what he’d done before
the slime incident, it made very little difference to the students. 

***

“No, Mia.  Like this” Beth’s fingers flew across the
keys, drawing crisp clear notes from the instrument.  Mia sighed.  “I think I
should drop music.  Professor Petrov is right.  I’d be acceptable if I could
practice more, but I can’t!  I’d be fine if I’d been playing since I was six,
but I haven’t.  I’d be ok if I was a musical prodigy, but I’m not.”  Beth
looked at her patiently and played the notes again.  “You’re giving up too quickly. 
Professor Petrov is an amazing musician, and she has a gift for bringing out
the best in a seasoned performer, but she’s not good with beginners.  She gets
angry, then you get nervous, and that makes you mess up and then she gets angry
all over again.  Most people don’t sit down at a piano and just start playing. 
Most of us have to practice.  Try again.”