Seventeen Stones (32 page)

Mia
was surrounded by the girls, on her way to class, when a wadded up sheet of
parchment zoomed around the corner and bopped her on the head.  She smoothed it
in annoyance, wondering where Martin had found the spell to make paper to move
that fast.  She read the message in total surprise.  ‘Come here you troublesome
child…’ was scrawled in Headmistress Villanova’s handwriting.  Mia shouldered
her pack and started walking quickly toward the tower.  “The Headmistress wants
me for something.  Just go on to class without me…”  She was hurrying, so she
didn’t see the anxious looks her friends gave her as she walked away.

The
footman escorted her into the sitting room.  It was largely unchanged from her
first visit with Emma, except this time, Headmistress Villanova was not alone. 
The occupants had the air of sudden silence, as if she’d interrupted a furious
argument.

Professor
Fain stood behind the headmistress with his arms crossed.  Headmistress
Villanova was seated on one of the sofas, her usual stiff posture eclipsed by
her current statue-like pose.  Greatlord Chilton and a stranger were seated on
the sofa and another man was slouching in a wing-back chair.  

Chilton
looked dazed.  He squinted at her, trying to place her face.  She doubted that
he knew what decade it was, much less why he was in the room.  Mia recognized
Greatlord Avery’s symbol of office, from that silly musical of all things.  It
was also on every guard uniform in the City.  He looked like a rodent, despite
the sumptuous red velvet of his clothing and the carefully styled black
ringlets that cascaded down his back.  His eyes kept darting away from the
headmistress’ stern gaze and over to the man in the wingback chair.

He
was the most relaxed of the three, idly playing with his wand, slumped slightly
in the chair.  He wore his hair short, no more than an inch from his scalp. 
The style did nothing to soften his blunt features.  Even more than Chilton, he
looked as if his face had been chiseled from stone.  His garments were cut as
severely as his hair, the same unrelenting black.  A council member’s medal of
office was the only color he wore, a heavy gold medallion worked with dark
green jewels.

“Please
sit down Amelia.”  The headmistress indicated the sofa she was sitting on,
putting herself between Mia and the Greatlords.  Mia felt a little chill go
down her back.  She could guess what they were here for.  She made her way to
the sofa as the headmistress made introductions.  “These are Greatlords Avery,
Strathorne, and Chilton.  They represent the City Guard, the Magus’ personal
Guard, and the College respectively.” 

Greatlord
Strathorne let a very small smile touch his lips “My actual title is Defender
of the City, Headmistress, but it is true that most of my duties involve the
Magus’ personal protection.”  Professor Fain put his hand protectively on Mia’s
shoulder.  “Be that as it may, Greatlord , I do not see why you were involved
with what should be a simple case for Greatlord Chilton as the college’s
representative to council, if the council were involved at all.”  Greatlord
Avery shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  “Unauthorized creation of a new
species is a serious offence…”  He stopped mid-sentence and sat back in his
seat at Strathorne’s glare. 

Professor
Fain snorted.  “Yes, it’s such a dangerous assignment to apprehend a first year
student that it required three Greatlords and not a single guardsman.”  The
headmistress quelled him with a sharp look. 

Greatlord
Chilton stirred himself enough to say “The creation of an unauthorized sentient
life form is prohibited by section 6.23.6 of City code.  It is up to the judge
to decide if the creation was accidental.”  He pulled a hand up to his brow, as
if the effort to speak was too much. 

Headmistress
Villanova leaned forward.  “I think you are forgetting Section three, paragraph
four of the College’s charter.  ‘Students shall not be held responsible under
the normal City codes for magic preformed during their time enrolled in the
college.  Any disciplinary action shall be the sole province of the head of the
college.’  As Headmistress, it is my decision that an accident occurred here at
the college, and the magic was performed by a student.  The council, I’m
afraid, is overstepping its authority in this instance.” 

Greatlord
Chilton gained a little color in his pale cheeks.  “What are you accusing me of
Madam?  My sole concern has always been the students of this school and
upholding the rule of law.” 

“Poppycock!” 
Headmistress Villanova stood up.  “How many of my students have you ‘reassigned’
this year alone?  You knew as well as I did that they were less likely to ever
achieve Greatlord status.  I gave you the numbers on accidents!  You knew they
were more likely to overextend themselves, more likely to die and you did
nothing
!”

He bristled and leaned
forward a bit.  He almost looked alive.  “I knew nothing of the sort.  I act
for the good of the City.” 

Greatlord
Strathorne leaned forward in his chair and put a restraining hand on Greatlord
Chilton’s shoulder.  “We aren’t here to assign blame.  We are here to escort
the girl to a detention center for processing.”  His smile was cruel.  “Being
so young, I’m certain that she will be assigned to special projects rather than
a harsher punishment…but I might be wrong.  The last wand wielder who created a
unauthorized species was transfigured.”

Professor
Fain pulled out his wand.  “The College Charter clearly trumps City Code on
this point.  Even if it didn’t, you’d be taking the girl to detention to await
a hearing.  On what authority are you taking her directly to be sentenced?” 
The Greatlord fingered his dark wand lovingly.  “On my authority if you like. 
As defender of the City it is my duty to expose and remove dangerous wand
wielders.  Anyone who raised all seventeen stones at testing qualifies as
dangerous in my book.”  Mia sat back on the sofa and tried to look harmless.

Professor
Fain laughed.  “Strathorne, you don’t have the authority to piss without the
Magus’ permission, and he wouldn’t agree to this.”  On some unseen signal,
Headmistress Villanova grabbed Greatlord Chilton’s wrist.  Half a second later,
pandemonium broke out.  Professor Fain pushed the sofa with Mia and the
Headmistress over and yelled for them to stay down.

Greatlord
Chilton and Headmistress Villanova were locked in a silent struggle to pierce
each other’s mental defenses.  They were totally oblivious to the battle that
had broken out between Strathorne and Professor Fain.  The curio cabinet and
the Magus’ portrait were some of the first casualties from the spells that were
being tossed about.  The footman appeared out of nowhere to guard the
headmistress’ still form: he crouched behind the upturned sofa performing
amazing feats of levitation, pulling her away from bouncing spells in the nick
of time.

Greatlord
Strathorne grinned as he deflected a magebolt.  “Come now Ethan, surely you can
do better than that?  If I remember you were a talented little apprentice…last
year.”  Professor Fain didn’t respond.  He just raised his wand and fired another
powerful bolt at the Greatlord.  This one knocked his shields aside enough to
graze him.  His black clothing smoked a bit as he hit Ethan with a vicious
magebolt.  Not trusting his shields, Ethan dodged to the left and fired a jet
of acid at Strathorne.  The acid slid down the shield and bubbled as it reached
the carpet.  Ethan struck again with a bolt as the acid reached the
ground.         

Mia
was crouched under the sofa watching the light display and the mental
acrobatics when she felt a wand jab into her side.  “Don’t make a sound.  We’ll
let them sort this while you and I go for a little stroll, shall we?” 
Greatlord Avery’s ferret face was flushed with triumph. 

He
had a bruising grip on her arm.  He was small for a man, but he was still
stronger than she was, and there was a surprising amount of power in his thin fingers. 
He was fumbling around in her pocket, looking for her wand.  She suddenly
realized that she would be much worse off if she let him take her wherever he
wanted her to go without her wand.  So she balanced her weight on her left side
and hit him as hard as she could in the nose with her right elbow.  It was one
of the first tricks in the book Professor Fain had given her.    

He
swore and tried to stop the blood from staining his velvet doublet while she
rolled away from the sofa toward the door.  He gave up trying to save the
clothing and followed as soon as he realized that she was getting away.  He
blocked the door and pulled out his wand.  He opened his mouth, but what he
would have said or done was lost when Professor Fain hit him with a well-placed
magebolt.  Mia kicked his wand away while he twitched uncontrollably.

Greatlord
Strathorne took Professor Fain’s momentary distraction as a signal to add a new
level of viciousness to his attack.  Professor Fain dodged a nasty hex and shot
another magebolt at the sweating Greatlord.  “Mia!  Go!”  She glanced at the
door, then back at Professor Fain.  He couldn’t spare her another glance.  He
was fighting for his life.  Avery had stopped twitching, but he wouldn’t be
down much longer. 

She
couldn’t make a magebolt, or use any of the complicated hexes that Professor
Fain and Greatlord Strathorne were shooting at each other.  But she had to do
something… Even the footman was doing what he could…

The
thought was the mother of the act.  Mia summoned the snake vines from greenhouse
one and dumped the pot right on top of Strathorne.  He blasted the plant away
with a single bolt, but it cost him a few seconds.  She ran behind the desk as
he shot a spell at her and she transfigured the stone floor under his feet into
mud.  Once he’d sunk ankle deep, she changed it back to stone.  He turned his
attention to fighting off Professor Fain’s attack and Mia struck again.  This
time she levitated broken china at his face as he tried to duel.  The instinct
to protect his eyes kicked in and he ducked, allowing Professor Fain time to
set a nice sleeping spell on him.

Greatlord
Chilton lay crumpled in one corner, with no outward sign of damage. 
Headmistress Villanova was in a trance, with the footman standing protectively over
her still form.  The man eyed Greatlord Avery with great dislike. 

Avery
was presumably searching for his wand in the wreckage.  His velvet doublet was
singed and dirty, with rusty blood stains down the front.  The elaborate
ringlets had fallen out of his hair, and the scent of singed pompadour oil hung
around him.

Professor
Fain looked at him in disgust.  “Get up Avery.”  The Greatlord glowered at the
absence of his title, but he did as the Professor asked.  “Mia, keep your wand
on him.  If he moves, drop one of the statues from the grounds on his head.” 
Mia pointed her wand on the startled Greatlord as Professor Fain moved to wake
Headmistress Villanova out of her trance.

Mia
was focusing on Avery’s sullen face, but she saw something out of the corner of
her eye.  She turned a little, really planning to summon a statue to drop on
Strathorne if he’d moved.  Instead she saw something entirely unexpected.  A
shadow hovered over the Greatlord’s still form.  It seemed to sense Mia’s gaze
and quickly blended in with the shadows on the wall.  Mia shook her head and
turned her full attention back to Avery who was searching the room with his
little rat eyes, searching for his wand.  She poked Avery with her wand a
little harder than she meant to.  “He meant it when he said to drop a statue on
you if you moved.”  The Greatlord squeaked and her low tone attracted Professor
Fain’s attention.  Mia nodded and he continued his efforts to rouse the head of
the college.  

A
few minutes later the Headmistress was awake and complaining about her
furniture.  “Really Ethan!  That curio cabinet has been in my family for
years!  If you
had
to pick a fight with a Greatlord, couldn’t you have
done it outside?”  Professor Fain laughed.  “The next time I fight an illegal duel
in your sitting room, I’ll keep that under advisement.  What did you find out
from Chilton?”

The
headmistress lost her playful pretense.  The footman helpfully levitated in a
cup of hot strong tea.  She looked up at him gratefully, then frowned as much
as her face would allow as she considered the information she’d gleaned. 
“Chilton’s mind was protected by shields.  They
looked
like they were
set by someone from the Oracle.  He has large gaps in his memory where someone
has gone in and erased his mind.  It’s a difficult thing to do, especially since
one of his strongest gifts was always mental defense.  It should have been impossible
with the shields he had.  That makes me think that whoever set the shields was
also responsible for the memory loss.  The only question is, who set his
shields and why?”