Work Experience (Schooled in Magic Book 4) (19 page)

He gave Lady Barb a nasty look. “I believe the children were stolen by dark sorcerers.”

“You’d better pray that they weren’t,” Lady Barb said, evenly. “A single child’s life could be used to raise hell.”

Probably literally
, Emily thought. She’d come across references to spells that demanded a human life in payment, but none of the books had been too clear on what the spells actually
did
. Shadye had presumably expected
something
from the Harrowing in exchange for Emily’s life. She wondered, absently, what a powerful and none-too-stable necromancer might have wanted. Hadn’t it been the Joker who had traded his soul for cigars?

Hodge pulled at her arm. “Come onto the dance floor?”

Emily shook her head. Even if she’d liked him – and she didn’t – she wouldn’t have wanted to join the dancers. They seemed to be cavorting around the dance floor, making up their own steps as they went along. She couldn’t endure it, she knew, not when some of the couples were practically making out in public. No wonder the kids were hiding in the rear of the room, even though they probably knew more about the practicalities than Emily had at their age. She doubted the parents had kept their children ignorant of sex.

“Taxes are being raised again,” another man said. “The lord wants his tribute” – he spat – “in rare animals.”

Emily frowned. Taxes weren’t only collected in money, not when the peasants rarely
had
any money. The lords took food, meat and service, little else. But rare animals? What sort of animal was rare?

“Last week, he even sent his huntsmen out after a centaur,” the man continued. “I think he wanted the beast for entertainment.”

“And he wanted us to serve in his army,” the headman added. “His recruiters took five boys only two weeks ago.”

That
was odd, Emily knew. The mountain lords didn’t have large armies, they just didn’t have the manpower base to support them. Besides, the terrain made it harder for them to fight their fellows. The book she’d read had suggested that each lord kept a small army of retainers and little else. Why would they want more soldiers? The only major threat were the necromancers, and soldiers wouldn’t be much help if one of them came calling.

Unless one of the nearby Allied Lands is considering an invasion
, she thought. But it seemed unlikely. Even without the looming threat of the necromancers, there was nothing in the mountains worth taking. The only thing the mountains had, as far as she could tell, was timber, and the lords made a tidy profit selling it down the river to shipbuilders. They didn’t need to launch an invasion to take it...

The night wore on, leaving her feeling tired and worn. Lady Barb drank enough to keep up with the men, but showed no signs of drunkenness. The men, on the other hand, started to act badly; one started to thrash his wife, in public. Not, Emily had to admit, that the men were the only ones behaving badly. One thick-set woman knocked her husband down and started to pound heavily on his chest. Another threw a mug at her husband, then fled out the door. The dancers scattered as several men rolled onto the dance floor and started to wrestle, their fellows cheering loudly and placing bets. Emily couldn’t help overhearing some of the bets; they were unspeakably rude.

“They don’t have much else to do with their time,” Lady Barb pointed out, as Emily slipped closer to her. The headman was watching the fight with a gleam in his eye. “Fighting is one of their pastimes.”

Emily shuddered. The sergeants had introduced her to the concept of controlled violence, but this was different. They weren’t really trying to
win
, she realized, merely beat on each other. It seemed pointlessly sadistic to her – and it would be hellish for anyone who wasn’t strong enough to fight. But then, the more intellectually-minded children would probably have had it beaten out of them. Or they would escape down the mountain to find somewhere they actually fit in.

“I want to go home,” she said, miserably.

“You can go back to the guesthouse,” Lady Barb said, shortly. “You remember the way?”

“Yes,” Emily said. The village wasn’t very big, nothing more than a handful of houses and shacks gathered together. It would have looked idyllic, if it wasn’t for the people. “I won’t get lost.”

“We’re leaving tomorrow morning,” Lady Barb told her. “Go straight to sleep – take a potion if you want. We have a long walk ahead of us.”

Emily nodded, put the mug of beer on the table and walked out of the barn. Outside, it was pitch black. There was no trace of light anywhere, even in the larger houses. But then, most peasants didn’t have the option of making magic lights or even simple lanterns. They went to bed when the sun went down and awoke when it returned to the sky. She hesitated, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, then cursed her own hesitation. Sergeant Miles might have warned her of the dangers of using light globes in the countryside, but they weren’t a danger here.

She cast the spell, then followed the globe back towards the guesthouse. It was strange – almost eerie – just how quickly silence had fallen over the village. The sound of music from the barn faded away into nothingness. She couldn’t hear anything, not even the tiny river on the far side of the village. It seemed as cold and silent as the grave.

They must all be in the barn
, she thought. It hadn’t seemed large enough for everyone, but perhaps it was.
The rest of the village is empty.

She paused as she passed the headman’s house, then walked towards the guesthouse, looking at the smaller houses in between. There was a social structure within the village, even if she didn’t fully understand it. But she suspected she didn’t really
want
to understand it. She caught sight of the moon, rising slowly above the horizon, casting rays of silver light towards the village. It was far brighter than she’d ever seen it on Earth.

Was it the same moon? She had no way of knowing. The arrangement of the continents were different, but what did that prove? Maybe, just maybe, the continents had taken on a different form in this world. Or perhaps she was on another planet as well as another dimension. There was no way to know.

She heard something behind her and spun around. Hodge appeared, staring at the light globe as if he were hypnotized. Emily started, feeling alarm flashing through her mind. Had he followed her? What did he want? She hadn’t heard him before, but that meant nothing. The sergeants had tracked her through the forest at Whitehall effortlessly, never betraying their presence until they were ready to show themselves. A boy who’d grown up in the countryside would know how to move with stealth.

Hodge shook himself and looked directly at Emily. Up close, it was clear that he was more than a little drunk. The look in his face, lecherous and predatory, reminded her far too much of the boys at her old school...she took a step backwards, feeling a very old fear crawling up her spine. She wanted to run, yet could barely move. It felt like a very bad dream.

“Come with me,” Hodge said. He was far too drunk to realize just how stupid he was being, she realized in horror. “There’s a nearby haystack...”

“No,” Emily said, fighting to remain calm. The memories of her stepfather held her firmly in place. She felt terrifyingly helpless, as if there was nothing she could do to ward off her inevitable fate. “You don’t want to do this...”

He reached for her and caught her shoulder. Emily shuddered, snapping out of her trance, and batted his hand away. He growled, pulled back his fist and threw a punch at her face. Emily blocked it automatically...

Hodge stared at her in numb surprise. Emily felt equally surprised.

But she shouldn’t have been, she realized, as the pain from the impact jerked her awake. She’d had Sergeant Miles and Lady Barb teaching her how to fight, battering lessons into her through pain and hardship...and none of the boys in Martial Magic had gone easy on her, just because she was a girl. Hodge had no formal training at all. He looked almost as if he didn’t quite grasp what had happened.

“The average man is stronger than the average woman,” Lady Barb had told her. “If you try to grapple with one, chances are he will beat you. You have to be sneaky, determined and, above all, you have to keep your wits about you.”

Hodge growled and threw himself at her. Emily stepped to the side, then threw a punch at the back of his neck. She hit him, but he was tough enough to shake it off.

Even so, a strange glow of pleasure ran through her mind as she realized she could
win
. She didn’t have to be helpless...and the memories of her stepfather didn’t have to hurt her.

Hodge pulled himself around, then glared at her. “Bitch,” he growled. “They say magical sluts can do anything.”

Emily felt cold hatred raging through her soul. He thought he could just...
take
her? He thought that his position as the headman’s son gave him the right to have any girl he wanted? He thought that she would agree to it just because she was magical? Outrage blazed through her mind, pushing away fear and hatred. She wasn’t frozen by her own fears any longer. How dare he? How
dare
he?

She shaped a spell in her mind, just as he threw himself at her again. This time, he crashed right into her and sent her falling backwards to the muddy ground, pressing down hard on her body. His hand clawed at her breast. Emily gasped in pain, then unleashed the spell. There was a blinding flash of light and Hodge’s weight shifted, then fell off her altogether. Emily looked to the side, dazed. A pig sat there, staring in incomprehension. Its eyes were disturbingly human.

Hodge
, she thought. She sat upright, then pulled herself to her feet. The pig emitted a sound, almost as if it was trying to talk. Emily knew it wouldn’t work. Even if Hodge had been used to regular transformations, the pig’s snout wasn’t really designed for human speech. It was quite possible that he wasn’t even sure what had happened. The spell would ease the transition from human to pig. A nasty thought occurred to her and she cast a reflective spell before she could think better of it. Hodge saw himself, turned and fled.

Emily stared after him, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. Pride, delight, triumph...and a strange kind of bitter regret. What would this do, she asked herself, to relationships between magicians and villagers? She’d turned the headman’s son into a pig! But her breast still hurt...he’d deserved it, she knew. Whatever his father said, whatever
Lady Barb
said, he’d deserved it. She hadn’t asked him to attempt to rape her.

And he would have raped her, she knew. She had no doubt of it.

She swallowed hard, then opened the door to the guesthouse and stepped inside. As soon as she had closed the door, she started to cast new protective wards. None of them would last very long, but the only person in the village who could dismantle them was Lady Barb. She would know that something was wrong...Emily hesitated, wondering if she should summon her teacher, then shook her head. She needed time to sort herself out. Casting another light spell, she started to undress. Her tunic was muddy from where she’d fallen, but otherwise unmarked. Her body, on the other hand, was bruised.

Gritting her teeth, she touched her breast lightly. It felt...dirty, unclean...and yet she knew it could be much worse. How many girls had Hodge forced into bed? But if there was so little privacy in the village, surely his father and their parents knew? Didn’t they care? Or was there some reason Hodge was allowed to roam free? Did he have enough sense not to pick on his fellow villagers?

She reached for the cloth and washed herself, thoroughly, then pulled on her spare set of walking clothes. The nightgown wouldn’t be enough for the night, she knew; she wanted to wear something more covering. Lady Barb wouldn’t care; Emily had seen her sleeping in a full suit of armor before, back at Whitehall. She finished pulling on her clothes and walked over to the bed, picking up the potions bottle on the way. Before she could take a swig, she felt Lady Barb starting to dismantle the wards.

Emily hesitated. She could drink the potion and fall asleep, evading the older woman’s questions that way, but it wouldn’t last. And it would be cowardly. Part of her didn’t want to talk, part of her knew she had no choice. If nothing else, Lady Barb would have to say
something
to the headman. Emily knew what
she
wanted to say to him.

The door opened. Lady Barb stood there, staff in hand. Her face was pinched and worried.

“Emily,” she said, as she closed the door. “What happened?”

Emily hesitated. She’d won...but part of her felt as though she had lost. It would have been easy to end the fight almost before it had begun, yet she’d been too startled to try. Lady Barb would have understood, she knew that now. But her fears ran deeper than the older woman’s anger...

Or they had. Somehow, she wasn’t afraid any more.

Slowly, leaving nothing out, she started to explain.

T
HEY LEFT THE VILLAGE THE FOLLOWING
morning, after Lady Barb had a brief talk with the headman. Emily didn’t know what she said to him, but no one turned out to wave goodbye as they walked out of the village and headed down a track that ran beside the river towards their next destination. Lady Barb walked in silence for nearly an hour, which was fine with Emily. She wanted time to think for herself.

“Emily,” Lady Barb said, finally. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Emily hesitated, then shook her head.

“I think you should, this time,” Lady Barb said. “What happened...could easily have been a great deal worse.”

Emily nodded, mutely. Hodge could have knocked her out before she even knew he was there...or she might have hesitated long enough for him to do real harm. Or...her imagination provided too many possibilities. She didn’t want to think about any of them.

“He thought he could just...take me,” she said, softly. “I didn’t do anything to suggest I might be interested.”