Seventeen Stones (20 page)

Lizzy
sighed.  “You aren’t bad at it Mia.  You are playing simple songs with a few
mistakes in each phrase.  That’s normal for someone who’s only been playing a
few months.  The professor simply can’t understand that.  I’ve noticed that
she’s one of those people who seem to think that if you’re good at what she’s
good at you’re brilliant.  If you aren’t she thinks you’re a waste of perfectly
good oxygen.”  Mia swallowed down a laugh.  Lizzy smiled.  “It’s a rest day;
why don’t we finish our homework and go down to the tea room?” 

Finishing
the homework wasn’t quite as simple as Lizzy had made it sound.  With thirteen
subjects Mia was constantly in danger of overextending herself.  Add in the
preparations for the midwinter party and her continuing education in estate
management, and it could not come as a surprise that she spent most nights
studying until midnight.  Things should ease up after midwinter, at least then
she wouldn’t be spending nearly every rest day either at the estate, planning
the party, or shopping.

Mia
picked up her notes and wearily started writing out another essay for Magical Theory. 
She’d finished a complicated piece of work for Creation the night before. 
Animal Husbandry hadn’t produced much homework since the terribly tricky
working model of the Pegasus; Professor Stoats was still rhapsodizing about the
four legged flying beast.  At least he was only talking about it.  She didn’t
know what she was going to do when he progressed to actual riding lessons. 
Maybe she could fake an injury…

Mia was
also preparing to start some third year Alchemy work, so she’d been doing a lot
of reading in her ‘spare’ time.  She didn’t want to disappoint Professor
Ambrose.   She was thankful that Sight wasn’t the sort of course that required
a lot of study.  Seer Glen encouraged them to keep a dream journal and jot down
any visions that they had during the day, but Mia rarely remembered her dreams
anymore, and her Sight simply wasn’t powerful enough to show her anything in
visions.  At best she had flashes of insight, mostly concerning other people’s
motivations.  She wondered sometimes if Lizzy and Beth spent so much time on
music to get away from the visions.  It was a rare day when one or both of them
didn’t suddenly stop mid-sentence and scribble something into the tiny books
they kept in their pockets.  They didn’t seem to want to talk about it much, so
Mia didn’t press them.

After
the Theory essay she turned to a folio of plants she was painstakingly charming
into a book for Botany.  Professor Cavendish wanted her to have a field guide
that was as up to date and correct as possible, hence the need to make it
themselves.  Mia wasn’t drawing the plants.  She was using a charm to extract
her own memories of the plants she knew best and transferring an image of that
memory into the book.  The charm was expensive in terms of calories; she could
only do it a few times before she was completely drained.  She added one or two
memories to the page on week days and tried to add four or five each rest day. 
Professor Cavendish was slowly doing the same with his vast store of botanical
knowledge, but at one or two plants a day it would be years before he
finished.  That’s why Mia was handling the plants she knew, to save him the
energy.

It
was mid-afternoon when Mia finished adding the last memory to the book.  She
slumped against her chair and saw a cold cup of tea, a plate of cookies, and a
note beside her elbow.  She munched on the cookies and washed them down with
the cold peppermint tea while she quickly read the note.  The others were
waiting for her at the tea room.  She’d have to thank whoever had left the
snack.  Mia put her work away and grabbed her cloak as she hurried out the
door.  She was betting that the tearoom would have warm bread or pastry this
time of day. 

The
wind was so cold when she stepped outside that she would have rushed back into
the dorm if she’d been on an errand of her own.  Sighing, she huddled down into
her cloak as best she could and ran most of the mile to the library.

She
arrived out of breath from the cold air searing her lungs and hopped up the
stairs to the library entrance.  She was panting slightly as she slid into the
warm interior of the building.  She pulled the map of the library out of a pocket
of her cloak, knocked three times on the second of the twelve doors.  It was
marked with a large brass twenty-two today.  She opened the door and walked into
the tea room.

The
tea room wasn’t entirely deserted.  Mia wasn’t certain that there was any
amount of foul weather that could keep some of the students from indulging in a
hot cup of tea and a flirtation on a cold winter’s day.  But much to her relief
it wasn’t the mad crush that it sometimes turned into.

Vivian
was enthroned at one end of the room, gracefully flirting with four attentive
boys, while Ella was talking quietly with a studious looking lad at the same
table.  Lizzy and Beth were discussing musical theory with a group of second
year students in one corner.  Sarah was indulging in a fast-paced game of chess
with a boy who had old blood coloring, each hitting the timer after a move.  A few
young men watched quietly.  Ella gestured for Mia to join her at her table.  Mia
did, after ordering a slice of fresh bread with butter and an oversized cup of
tea.

Vivian
laughed as Mia walked up.  “I thought you’d never get here.  You were so
focused on your work you didn’t even hear us saying that we were leaving, so
Beth wrote you a note.”  Mia should have known.  Beth was probably the most
thoughtful of the girls.  Ella grinned.  “Did you finish all of your work?” 
Mia shrugged.  “No, but I needed a break.  I’ll work for awhile after we go
back.”  One of the boys smirked.  “You should do your homework during the week
so you can enjoy the rest day.”  Vivian rolled her eyes.  “You’d have a bit of
a problem with that too if you were taking thirteen classes.”  The boy huffed
off and Vivian shrugged.  “Serves him right for nattering about things he
doesn’t understand.  Now Mia, we were discussing going to the main City stage
for a theater production in the spring!  These gentlemen say that the
performances are fantastic…” 

She batted
her eyes at a particularly good-looking young man.  He seemed fascinated with Vivian. 
He cleared his throat, but never quite took his eyes off of her.  “Well…we
wanted to invite all of you to the last winter show, but Vivian mentioned that
you were planning to go to a house party over break.  I was hoping to arrange a
trip to the main stage sometime in the spring, once the show starts up again.” 

Mia
grinned and was about to accept for the entire group when a familiar voice said
“You don’t actually intend to take this group anywhere do you Gabriel?  There’s
not a speck of proper breeding in between the three of them.”  Martin Ainsley,
surrounded by a group of smirking old bloods, sneered as he nodded to Mia. 
“Her
mother
might have been a Greatlady, but everyone knows her father
was some dirt farmer or stable hand.  He didn’t even speak up when she was
born.”

Gabriel
turned.  He looked older without the friendly smile, maybe even a little
dangerous.  “I can’t see what business it is of yours, Ainsley, who I take and
where I take them.”  He turned his back on Martin, who turned an ugly shade of
magenta.  “Real old blood doesn’t mix with mongrels Fields.  I suppose this
just proves that you are as common as your last name.”  Martin swept out of the
room, white skin still tinged with pink, lackeys following like puppies on a
leash.    

Gabriel
grinned, revealing perfect teeth and double dimples.  “What an ass.  Someone really
needs to do something about him.”  Vivian grinned.  “He’d make a lovely
houseplant.”

Mia snickered.  “He’d be a
stinkweed. Even transfiguration couldn’t change his personality.”

Gabriel
grinned at the girls and took the opportunity to scoot closer to Vivian, much
to Mia’s amusement. 

Lady
Anne was leading the girls down the sidewalk at a quick pace.  The weather was
bad, with wet sticky snow that stuck to everything and melted.  The gentle lady
wished the nasty weather to the nether regions of the world under her breath. 
There hadn’t been any indication that it would be like this before noon.  The
morning had been bright and sunny, if cold.  Now they were only halfway through
the list of errands and the snowflakes were chilling them all to the bone. 
Worse, the carriage had been ordered for five o’clock, and it was now three-thirty. 
Lady Anne sighed and looked at the red nose of her daughter and the flushed
cheeks on her friends.  “All right!  Change of plans girls.  Let’s step in the
Sweet Shop over there and warm our cold fingers and toes, shall we?”  Sniffles
and sighs of relief greeted the announcement.  Lady Anne made a mental note to
have the girls take an anti-cold concoction.  It simply wasn’t done to attend
one’s first ball with a runny nose and a fever.

The
attentive wait staff seated their party in the private parlor and quickly
brought tea and hot chocolate.  Lady Anne ordered a large slice of fresh
gingerbread and encouraged the girls to order their favorite sweets.  Platters
were brought in, along with another pot of tea.  One of the waiters quietly
asked Lady Anne a question that obviously vexed the good lady to no end.  Then,
seeing no way around it, she tried to look like she was acquiescing
gracefully. 

She whispered to the girls: 
“We are about to be joined by another lady of rank here in the City, apparently
she was out doing her shopping as well.”  Sarah’s brow creased.  “Who is it
mother?”  Lady Anne
did not
sigh.  “Helena Ainsley”.  Sarah groaned and
turned to Mia.  “This is Martin’s mother.”  She whispered the warning just as
the fine-boned lady swept into the room. 

Helena
Ainsley was pale and petite, barely five feet tall.  Her coal black hair was
smoothly arranged in the popular triple bun style, standing a good foot above
her head.    She smiled at Lady Anne as she sat in an empty chair, but the
smile did not touch the cool blue eyes.  “Lady Anne.  How good of you to share
the private parlor.  I declare, I’m not sure what I would have done if the room
had been in use.”  Lady Anne’s smile didn’t
look
forced but Mia had the strangest
feeling that it was.  “I would never be so ungracious as to allow another lady
to sit in the common room when we have the private parlor.” 

Helena
Ainsley’s icy-blue eyes sparkled.  “And such a…varied group you are escorting
today!”  She turned to Sarah.  “How
are
you doing in school?  I hope you
haven’t loaded yourself down with unnecessary class work, but I know you well
enough to know my hopes are entirely unfounded.”  She heaved a sigh and
directed her conversation back to Lady Anne without giving Sarah a chance to
speak.  “You really must put your foot down Lady Anne.  How will the child ever
marry decently if she spends all of her time at college cooped up doing
lessons?”  Lady Anne arched a blond eyebrow.  “I imagine that we disagree about
education as much as we did during our own stay at college.”  Lady Anne laughed
lightly, as if she considered this subject a bit of a joke.    

Helena
Ainsley chose that moment to notice the rest of the party.  “How rude of me,
Lady Anne!”  Somehow, her tone implied that it was Lady Anne who had been
rude.   “I haven’t been introduced to your daughters…friends?”  She made it a
question.  Sarah was beginning to show the slightest tinge of pink in her pale
cheeks, a sure sign that she was holding on to her temper with effort.    

Lady
Anne smiled.  “Oh yes, these are Sarah’s dorm mates:  Amelia Rusticov,
Greatlady Alexandria Rusticov’s daughter, you remember her…”  Helena jerked her
head as if remembering something unpleasant.  “She was a year or two ahead of
us if I recall correctly.”  Lady Anne nodded. 

“The
twins are Lizzy and Beth Fairchild, Granddaughters of Greatlady Imogene
Fairchild.”  Mrs. Ainsley nodded politely enough to Lizzy and Beth and the
introductions continued.  “This is Vivian Martin, one of the Merchant
Martins.”  Vivian nodded pleasantly but Mrs. Ainsley barely gave a jerk of her
head in acknowledgement.  “And last but not least is Ella Ward, one of the top
students in Creation this semester.”  Helena Ainsley’s glance took in the
flaming red hair, hand-me-down clothes, and the obvious lack of pedigree. She
smirked slightly.

“And
I thought your mother-in-law was the one with all the good causes!  Here you
are, treating these poor creatures to a feast in the private parlor of the City’s
most exclusive bake shop, and no one even knows!  You hide your light too well
Lady Anne!”  Lady Anne drawled her response “Not at all.  I was merely
intruding on the girl’s rest day, and taking the opportunity to do a bit of
shopping before the Holiday rush starts.”  She flipped her fan open with an
audible
snap
.  “You know how it is this time of year.  These large house
parties are nearly impossible to put together, but one must endeavor.”  Helena
had a strange stiff smile pasted on her face.  “I’m rather unencumbered by such
things.  Augustus and I normally attend the Magus’ festivities during
Mid-winter.” 

Lady
Anne moved in for the kill.  “As well you should!  It is so much effort to put
on one of these parties!  The guest list alone is a major undertaking.”  She
took a small sip out of her china cup, and still fanning slightly.  “I do wish
I had the option of simply attending one of the invitations that we receive. 
But my little gatherings are always a modest success, so I couldn’t really in
good conscience stop having them.”  Lady Anne took a large bite of her
gingerbread as Helena Ainsley pulled out the tiny silver timepiece nestled into
the pocket of her jacket.  “Oh my, just look at the time!  My carriage will be
picking me up at the milliner’s in a few minutes!” 

Lady
Anne made a small moue of disappointment.  “Already?  It seems as if we never
have time to catch up!”  Helena Ainsley smiled, but Mia didn’t think it was a
very nice one.  “Alas, such is the way of the world, I fear.  Never mind!  We’ll
meet, I’m sure, at Lady Viola’s benefit for wandless orphans just before
mid-winter and we can catch up then!”  Mia wondered why that last statement
sounded like a threat.  Mrs. Ainsley clicked her handbag and carelessly threw a
handful of coins on the table.  Helena air kissed in the general vicinity of
Lady Anne’s cheek and didn’t even nod to the girls as she swept out of the
room.

Sarah
made a noise like a strangled goose.  “I hate that woman.”  Lady Anne pinned
her with a hard look.  “Shush.”  Lady Anne twitched her wand at the door.  “Now
girls, we won’t be overheard by the staff.  A word of caution.  Helena Ainsley
is a vindictive harpy who would gladly roast any and all of you if she can do
so without
looking
like a harpy.  She’s particularly vicious to anyone
who’s a first generation wand wielder.  She’s absurdly proud of her own social
prominence and obsessed with being in all the right places with all the right
people.” 

Lady
Anne smiled serenely.  “She’s actually relatively harmless as long as you know
that she’s a shrew.  Stay away from her when you can, and be polite when you
can’t.  That’s the best you can hope from someone like that.  Eat your cake
girls!  It’s too good to waste good cake and good company on someone you don’t
care for.”

***

Two
weeks before the break began Mia was sitting at the desk, desperately trying
not to yell at Lizzy, who was humming under her breath as she worked on her end
of semester composition.  Sarah was hidden behind a stack of books, seemingly
oblivious to Lizzy’s faux pas.  Mia’s temper was made more uncertain by lack of
sleep and enforced inactivity.  She’d had a bad head cold for a week before she
consented to see Mrs. Bennett.  The healer rightly chided her for waiting so
long.

Mia
didn’t tell anyone why she hadn’t wanted to face the infirmary again.  She
hadn’t mentioned all those still forms she’d seen on the day she delivered the
potions to anyone.  She felt a great unease when she even thought about it. 
But she eventually (when Vivian and Sarah threatened to drug her and drag her
to the healer) she went back to the infirmary.  The large building was quiet,
empty…rather disturbingly calm.  They seemed to have plenty of time to deal
with Mia’s cold.

Mrs.
Bennett was in a terrible mood.  The healer ordered Mia to stay out of the
freezing rain and snow except when she was going to class.  To prove that she
meant it, she pulled out her wand and placed a compulsion spell on her.  Mrs.
Bennett growled “There, now I know you won’t be running around, making it worse
and giving me more work.  As if I didn’t have enough to do!  The compulsion
will end when the cold does.”  She shoved a bottle of the vilest potion Mia had
ever encountered into her hands.  She was certain that the old biddy had done
it out of spite. 

“Isn’t
it against the law to put a compulsion spell on a person without a court
order?”  Mia was pacing in the dorm room, itching to be away for a bit.  Beth
sighed and put down her pen, sensing that this was going to take a while. 
“Healers are exempt under the Guild regulations.  The only thing you can do is
report her to the Guild for abusing the spell, and I doubt they would rule in
your favor, since they
always
side with the healer.”  Mia continued to
pace.  “It seems pretty stupid to waste a powerful spell like that on me…I
didn’t even know that Mrs. Bennett could do a compulsion spell.”  Beth
giggled.  “It obviously wasn’t wasted.  If she hadn’t set a compulsion on you,
you’d be out in the snow right now, making your cold worse.  You don’t want to
have northern pneumonia or wyvern flu during your winter break, do you?”

She
had been inside (except for classes and piano practice) for five days.  If she
tried to leave to go somewhere (like the library) she found her feet taking her
back into her dorm.  It was incredibly irritating.  Last night she was
grumbling that the cold might have ended by now if she hadn’t taken the
antidote.  Sarah looked up from her book long enough to remark “If you don’t
stop complaining I’m going to call on Mrs. Bennett and tell her you’ve been out
in the snow.  She’ll transfigure you into a tadpole and I’ll be able to study.” 
Mia took the subtle hint to open a book of her own.

Today
she finished pacing, flopped into the window seat and stared moodily out of the
window.  Beth was right.  She needed to stay inside.  But there was something
annoying about being forced to do it.  It made her want to go play in the snow,
even if she didn’t really feel like doing anything but lying in bed.  Emma’s
last letter was marking the place in her book.  She knew what her guardian
would say about her behavior.  She didn’t hold with feeling sorry for one’s
self, or with putting off medical treatment that you knew you needed. 

If
Mia had simply taken the anti-cold concoction she would have been fine like the
rest of the girls…but no, she’d gotten involved with piano practice when they
returned from their shopping expedition with Lady Anne.  She was feeling
terrible, and it was her own fault.  That just made it harder to deal with.     

She
shut her book and trudged downstairs to the kitchens.   A pitcher of Maggie’s
chicken soup was a better cold remedy than the foul-smelling green liquid Mrs.
Bennett had prescribed.  The cook was just pulling cinnamon buns out of the
oven when Mia snuck into the main kitchen.  “How many times do I have to tell
you kids to use the…Oh, hello Mia.”  She had ingratiated herself with the cook
on the first day, after succumbing to the delicate aromas and later the
delicious tastes that wafted out of the ovens. 

“Do
you still have the head cold ducky?”  Maggie called everyone ducks, ducky, or
love.  Mia had heard that if she ever called you pumpkin that you should start
running, but she’d never personally seen the cook knock anyone down with a
half-stuffed turkey. 

Mia
nodded in the most despondent way she could manage, hoping to acquire a few of
those mouthwatering cinnamon buns.  Apparently Maggie was as susceptible to
miserable puppy dog face as everyone else, because Mia was quickly the proud
bearer of a pitcher of chicken soup, a pot of piping hot tea, a pile cinnamon
buns, three different kinds of nuts, and enough strawberries and cream to feed
any five people.  Mia grinned at the loaded platter, gave Maggie a quick hug,
and levitated the whole thing upstairs.

She
slid the loaded tray onto the empty desk where Vivian should have been
studying.  The other girl was sprawled in the floor beside the fire instead,
idly twirling her wand, pretending to work on some charm or another.  The scent
of food alerted all of them except for Sarah, who had to be physically pulled
away from her frantic notes to take a break.

The
cinnamon buns were just as good as they smelled.  And at that moment, Mia
realized that she must be getting better.  She hadn’t been able to smell any of
the wonderful cooking for nearly two weeks.