Infinite Regress (15 page)

“Pair up,” Professor Lombardi repeated, impatiently. “And then follow me.”

He nodded towards the nearest wall, which lifted up to reveal a giant spellchamber. Emily could sense dozens—hundreds—of protective spells crawling through the air as Professor Lombardi led them into the chamber. There were chalk drawings on the stone floor, all identical: a circle, surrounded by a dozen carefully-drawn runes. Emily had memorized enough runes, over the last few years, to pick out the ones for generating light. The ritual, it seemed, was meant to light up the room.

You need to learn to walk before you can run,
she thought.
And no one here knows I’ve done this before
.

“This chamber is specifically designed to cope with accidental discharges,” Professor Lombardi informed them. “However, there are still a number of basic precautions you need to remember. In particular, do not enter a circle once the ritual is underway and do not
leave
a circle until the ritual is completed. You would be stepping out into a maelstrom and quite probably killed or warped. If matters go wrong, here, just stop the ritual and allow the wards to cope with the excess magic. Any questions?”

Melissa stuck up a hand. “What happens if we’re using a ritual outside this chamber?”

Professor Lombardi eyed her suspiciously. “You cast a spell and pray to all the gods that the spell will soak up the magic before it goes wild,” he said. “And I should tell you that it only works about a third of the time. Losing control of a ritual can be disastrous.”

He jabbed a finger at the first circle. “This is perhaps the most simplistic ritual working there is,” he added. “All you really have to do is extrude a little magic and let the runes shape and direct it for you. There’s nothing too complex in the runic pattern, but you need to check and recheck it before you step into the circle. A mistake now would be unpleasant, to say the least; a mistake with a more dangerous ritual would be catastrophic. Choose a circle, then check the runes.”

Emily glanced at Prunella, then picked a chalk circle at random and walked over to check the runes. They looked correct, from what she’d been taught; indeed, there was a neatness about them that Lady Barb’s work had lacked. She forced herself to check everything, nodding at Prunella to do the same, and smiled in relief when she found nothing wrong...

“Professor,” Cirroc said, carefully. “This rune is reversed.”

“Correct,” Professor Lombardi said. He sounded pleased. “Well spotted.”

He held out a piece of chalk. A trap, Emily realized as Cirroc rubbed out the reversed rune, carefully wiped away the dust and redrew it in the correct orientation. Professor Lombardi had
deliberately
left a mistake in the runic pattern, just to see who was careful enough to check every rune—and brave enough to tell the tutor that he’d made a mistake. She looked back at
her
circle and rechecked it, but found nothing wrong. Professor Lombardi stalked over to them, nodded curtly and then strode away. Clearly, only
one
circle had been drawn incorrectly.

“We’d better make a habit of checking the circles every time,” Emily said. She was sure Professor Lombardi wouldn’t stop with just
one
test of their reasoning skills. “The next one to get a dummy might be us.”

Prunella nodded. She looked nervous, Emily noted, even though she’d never seen Prunella nervous before. But then,
Emily
had been nervous too, the first time she’d used a ritual—and
she’d
had Lady Barb helping her. Professor Lombardi was responsible for twelve students, divided out into six pairings. She wished, again, that someone closer to her had returned to Whitehall for the final two years.

“Step into the circles and sit down,” Professor Lombardi ordered. “Do
not
attempt to start the working until I tell you to begin.”

Emily felt a tingle in the air as she stepped over the chalk circle, careful not to step on the markings or smudge the runes, then sat down and crossed her legs. Touching the chalk, even the inner circle, could be dangerous. It would, at the very least, make the ritual unworkable; she sighed, then inched forward until there was a space between her and the chalk. If she had to move backwards suddenly, she told herself, she wouldn’t thrust her head into the wild magic.

Prunella sat right at the edge, seemingly unwilling to move. Emily hesitated, then waved her forward until their knees were practically touching as Professor Lombardi stalked from circle to circle, examining their pose and positions. She couldn’t help feeling nervous too, even though she
had
taken part in a ritual once before. Lady Barb and she had been alone, after all, and she’d allowed the older woman to lead her through the working. Here,
she
was the more experienced magician. It was a worrying thought.

“Join hands,” Professor Lombardi ordered. “And
feel
the magic within you.”

Emily blinked in shock.
This
was nothing like the ritual Lady Barb had shown her. Had she been taught a more advanced ritual? Or had she merely been shown how to extrude magic and little else? God knew she used the spell for her batteries, draining magic into them for later use. She forced herself to reach out to Prunella and blinked in surprise as Prunella drew back, seemingly reluctant to touch Emily’s hands.

“Join hands,” Professor Lombardi repeated, tartly. “Reach inside and
feel
the magic within you.”

Prunella eyes were wide with fear as she touched Emily’s hand. Emily recalled Lady Barb’s warnings—that there were some magicians who could never commit themselves to rituals—and forced herself to relax, even though she’d never known Prunella to be scared of anything. But then, she barely
knew
the girl. It wasn’t as if they’d ever had past disagreements or misunderstandings.

She closed her eyes, feeling the magic pulsing within her. It seemed to ebb and flow with her heartbeats, each one sending a surge of magic though her body that slowly faded back into her reserves. She’d been careful to expend some of her magic in the spellchamber before breakfast, but her reserves had already regenerated themselves. Master Grey would have hated knowing that he’d accidentally made her
more
powerful, yet that was exactly what he’d done.

“You should also be able to feel your partner’s magic,” Professor Lombardi said. “Do not try to reach for it, just sense its presence.”

Emily heard Prunella gasp in shock, but ignored her. Her eyes were still closed, yet she could sense Prunella’s magic boiling through the air. It was strong, alright, but far weaker than hers. Or was that just her imagination? Her magic pulsed so loudly that it was hard to hear anything beyond it. Even touching Prunella’s fingertips, Emily had trouble sensing where her magic ended and Prunella’s began.

“Concentrate a little magic in your fingertips, then thrust it up to merge with your partner’s magic,” Professor Lombardi ordered. “Count down from five before, just so you know when to extrude the magic.”

Emily nodded. She focused her mind—now, extruding magic was almost second nature—and counted down from five. Magic flared in her fingertips as she pushed it forward, then swore out loud as Prunella jerked her fingers back. She tried to get a grip on the magic before it surged upwards, but it was too late. Moments later, the room turned white, even though her eyes were firmly closed. The magic had found the runes and triggered the working...

Prunella groaned as the light faded. Emily’s eyes snapped open. Prunella was leaning away from her, sweat staining her forehead and her eyes flickering madly. Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish; Emily started forward, only to realize that her presence was making matters worse. Prunella... no one, not even Hodge, had stared at her with so much horror.

“Interesting,” Professor Lombardi said, striding over. “Get a grip on yourself, young lady.”

“She’s upset,” Emily protested. “She...”

“Of course she’s upset,” Professor Lombardi said. His voice was icy cold. “But do you really imagine it gets any easier from here?”

“I’m sorry,” Prunella said. Her entire body shook like a leaf. “I just... I just couldn’t do it.”

“Not an uncommon reaction,” Professor Lombardi said. “Was there any
reason
you couldn’t do it?”

Prunella shook her head, desperately. Emily watched, unsure what to say or do. Had she somehow scared the older girl? If Prunella had sensed Emily’s power reserves, would it have frightened her? Perhaps it would. Lady Barb had warned her not to talk about her enhanced reserves, pointing out that it would make her fellow students jealous. She hadn’t suggested that it would also scare people, but in hindsight it was far too clear.

“The circle has been broken,” Professor Lombardi said. He jabbed a finger at where Prunella was sitting. “And you backed into it. That could have hurt you badly.”

Emily swallowed. The chalk had turned to ash. If it had been charged when Prunella had inched away, she might have been killed...

“Remain behind, after class,” Professor Lombardi ordered. He brushed the ash away with a simple spell. “You were not the only person to have problems.”

But the only one to have such a bad reaction
, Emily thought. Melissa looked starkly pale and the Gorgon had gone a sickly yellow color, but neither of them had reacted as badly as Prunella.
Why
?

“We will be spending the next two weeks mastering the art of sharing
mana
,” Professor Lombardi informed them. “You will be unable to progress, ritually, until you master the secret. I’m afraid it can take quite some time to master.”

He glanced at the clock. “Class dismissed.”

Emily glanced at Prunella, who had barely moved from where she’d been sitting, then rose and headed for the door. The others followed her, all looking tired and worn. No wonder Professor Lombardi’s class was the last, Emily thought, recalling just how weak she’d felt after her first ritual. She doubted any of them were in a mood to enjoy being released from class twenty minutes early.

“That was interesting,” the Gorgon said, falling into step beside Emily. Her face was slowly returning to normal. “But what happened to Prunella?”

Melissa snorted as she walked up behind them. “Isn’t it obvious,” she said. “She’s
scared
.”

“I was nervous too,” Emily said. “Professor Lombardi said it was common.”

“You misunderstand,” Melissa said, bluntly. She frowned as Emily stopped and turned to face her. “She’s scared of
you
. I dare say there aren’t many students who would willingly agree to render themselves defenseless in front of you.”

Emily stared at her. Prunella had always struck her as tough. “She’s scared of me?”

“Of course she is,” the Gorgon said. She sounded oddly amused. “You’re the one who killed a tutor.”

And that, Emily realized numbly, must be how the Gorgon felt, all the time.

M
ELISSA HAD BEEN RIGHT,
E
MILY DISCOVERED
over the next two days. Apart from Caleb, who didn’t treat her any differently from when they’d started dating, most of the students gave her a wide berth. Even the Gorgon preferred to sit next to Melissa, although Emily found it hard to begrudge two outcasts their friendship. It wasn’t just that they weren’t speaking to her—she hadn’t really spoken to many students apart from Alassa and Imaiqah—it was that they were treating her as a bomb that might explode at any second. She might have liked such a reputation on Earth, but at Whitehall she merely found it depressing. Teamwork was going to be impossible if everyone was too scared to work with her.

“People are idiots,” Cabiria said, when Emily complained to her. She didn’t seem inclined to treat Emily any differently either. But then, they’d had no dealings before beginning Fifth Year. “You’re not actually a monster.”

“I know that,” Emily muttered.

She scowled down at her hands, feeling helpless and frustrated. How many of the students at Whitehall owed her their lives? It had been
her
who’d killed Shadye,
her
who had deduced the nature of the Mimic,
her
who had identified the true cause of the problems plaguing Whitehall... and
her
who had been willing to sacrifice everything to save the school. She’d been in trouble before, of course, but this was worse. Instead of spells being hurled in her direction every time she turned her back, the students scuttled away from her as soon as she wasn’t looking. It was... it was
infuriating
.

A sharp knock on the door made her look up. “Come in!”

Madame Rosalinda opened the door and peered inside. “Emily,” she said. “Professor Locke would like to see you in his classroom.”

Emily resisted the urge to pretend it wasn’t an order, no matter how it was phrased. She was a probationary student. Professor Locke could demand her presence at midnight, if he wished, or insist on her dancing attendance on him at all hours. It could have been a great deal worse. Shaking her head, she stood and grabbed a pair of books she wanted to return to the library. If nothing else, she could return them after seeing what Professor Locke wanted.

“He didn’t summon me,” Cabiria said. “Maybe it’s nothing to do with us.”

“Maybe it isn’t,” Emily said. “But I’d better go find out.”

Classes were just coming to an end as she made her way to Professor Locke’s classroom; younger students headed back to their dorms while older students hurried down to the gates, hoping to catch a carriage down to Dragon’s Den. Emily rather doubted they’d
keep
doing that, as their workload grew heavier and heavier; indeed, she didn’t have the time to go herself until Friday. She hadn’t heard anything back from Mistress Danielle, yet, but she was looking forward to dinner with Caleb...

Students were spilling out of the history classroom as she approached, including several she recognized from her group. Jasmine waved shyly at her; Lillian, beside Jasmine, looked as if she desperately wanted to hide behind her friend. Emily hoped they
were
friends, that they would
stay
friends. Jasmine could use someone to introduce her to the magical community and Lillian needed someone to help her get out of her shell.