Schooled in Magic (49 page)

“Take the parchment and store it carefully,” Mistress Irene said. “If it should happen to be lost, there is a fine of ten gold coins for a replacement.”

“Thank you,” Emily said as she pocketed the parchment. “Is there anything I should know about how well I performed in the exam?”

“You passed?” Lombardi replied, dryly.

Emily flushed bright red.

“Mistress Sun will go over what you did right–and what you did wrong - later. Until then, enjoy a few days without studying Charms. Advanced Charms will push you a great deal harder.”

Emily stood up, then paused. “Can I ask a question?” She asked, then plunged ahead anyway. “Did
Alassa
pass?”

The tutors exchanged glances. They’d told Emily that
her
grade would depend upon
Alassa’s
grade–and even though they’d decided that she deserved to move ahead in classes, the original punishment might still hold. What would she do if Alassa failed again? Would she have to retake Basic Charms again and again?

“She passed,” Lombardi said, after a long beat.

Emily relaxed in relief.

“We have asked her to visit the office after you so we can discuss her results, and her entry into Advanced Charms. Your assistance might have made the difference between success and failure for her.”

Except that everyone is supposed to be able to pass Basic Charms on their first try
, Emily thought sourly. If you couldn’t progress without grasping the basics, it stood to reason that you would try to grasp them as quickly as possible. Alassa hadn’t seemed to recognize that they were even
there
before Emily had walked her through them, as carefully as possible. But then, Alassa had definitely had a very poor tutor before attending Whitehall.

“Do not speak to anyone as you leave the room,” Mistress Irene added. “You can talk to your friends after they have all been told their results.”

Emily nodded, thanked them again and left the room. Three other students, including Alassa, were outside, waiting impatiently to hear the results of their exam. Emily winked at Alassa before she left the room and headed up towards her bedroom, where she opened her chest, stowed away her parchment and retrieved the list of supplies Sergeant Harkin had ordered her to prepare for the camping trip. It was surprisingly long and, in truth, she wasn’t sure
how
she could hope to carry all of them in a single rucksack. She’d looked into various spells that should have made it easier before the Sergeant had informed the team that they weren’t allowed to use magic to make their rucksacks weightless. They were intended to carry everything under their own power.

The door opened, revealing Aloha. “Hey,” she said. “I wanted to show you this.”

Aloha produced a wooden box and placed it on the bed, opening it up to reveal a makeshift keyboard attached to a metal wand. When she pressed one of the keys, a glowing letter appeared above the box, causing Emily to giggle out loud. It was a very primitive word processor, powered by magic. Maybe she couldn’t remember–if she’d ever known–anything about producing a computer, but she had been able to give them the general idea behind word processors.

“Watch,” Aloha said in some delight. She pushed several keys at once, writing out a whole word. “See? It works!”

Emily felt an odd pang of something that she eventually recognized as homesickness. She had never really regretted leaving Earth for this magical world, even though this world had poor plumbing, a decidedly sexist attitude, medieval systems of government and a necromancer who wanted her dead because he’d bungled the spell that had summoned her in the first place. But now, looking at the weird word processor, she remembered the hours of fun she’d had on the computer back home. She’d had Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and all the other internet games that simply couldn’t exist in the magical world.

Yet
, she told herself, firmly. There didn’t seem to be any fundamental reason why high technology would not work in her new universe. The technology had simply never been developed. Given enough time, they would probably come up with computers that didn’t need
mana
to function, maybe sooner if Emily could give them enough pointers to start them down the right track. If ... she’d written down everything she could remember about the concept of printing presses, but she hadn’t heard back from Imaiqah’s father regarding them. The craftsman he’d hired might not be able to duplicate the printing press from Emily’s instructions.

“So it does,” Emily said, finally. She reached over and pushed a key, watching the letter flare into existence in front of her. “How do you transfer what you’ve written to parchment?”

“It gets burned into the parchment when you’re ready to copy it,” Aloha explained. “My friend, the one who made it work, says he doesn’t know how useful it will be in the long run.”

“What use is a newborn baby?” Emily asked seriously. The first computers in her world had seemed useless, right up to the point where brilliant scientists had predicted, in all honesty, that the world would never need more than a handful of computers. But when she’d been taken, there had been more computers in the world than people. “This is just the start of something brilliant.”

She looked down at the machine and wondered, inwardly, where
this
innovation would lead. Everyone knew that necromancers went insane because they tried to channel vast amounts of magic through their brains. Even if they didn’t kill themselves outright, their minds were warped–and they had no way of knowing just how badly they’d been damaged before it was too late. But what if someone could eventually channel such vast streams of power through a magical computer? Computers had made so many things easier back home. Here, those things might eventually include mass murder and genocide.

Alassa’s parents had worried about the impact of something as tiny as Arabic numbers on their Kingdom. God alone knew what they would think of a magical computer, or the printing press, or ...

“I’ll take your word for it,” Aloha said, breaking into Emily’s train of thought. “He actually wants to talk to you and see what else you can suggest for his device. The idea of producing a counting spell for the device...”

Something
clicked
in Emily’s mind. She’d heard of abacuses, even seen one ... but it hadn’t occurred to her that they might be missing from her new world. The concept was so simple that it was hard to understand how it had been missed,
if
it had been missed. She scribbled down a reminder to herself–she would have to ask Imaiqah,
before
spending hours reinventing the wheel–and then looked down at the makeshift computer. The designer was already thinking about magical calculators. Where else would his mind take him?

She shook her head. What use was a newborn baby, indeed?

“Later,” Emily said, feeling unsure of what to do. “I have to sort out the gear for our camping trip.”

“You’re going before us,” Aloha said. She grinned mischievously. “Be sure and tell me all about it, all right?”

Emily snorted as she skimmed down the list of supplies. “I thought we weren’t allowed to share notes,” she said as she stood up. “Or do you want to spend the next few hours doing push-ups while the Sergeant questions your ancestry?”

“I want to succeed,” Aloha said. She stood up and headed over to her cabinet. “I’ll come with you. We may as well get our supplies together.”

The commissary was situated on the ground floor, open only to students who were studying Martial Magic. They had been warned in no uncertain terms that students who were
not
part of the class were forbidden to enter, whatever the excuse. It was easy to see why as soon as Emily stepped inside; there were mountains of supplies, weapons and tools, all seemingly unguarded. Emily suspected the vast chamber was actually protected by wards that only allowed them to pass because they were both in Martial Magic. It was hard to be sure. Whitehall’s strange interior made it difficult to sense additional magic near the commissary.

“Make sure you account for everything you take,” Aloha reminded her. The Sergeant had told them that too, when he’d been lecturing them on logistics. Everything had to be accounted for, even if it was just the simplest little thing. “And don’t forget your special supplies.”

Emily flushed as she started working through the list. The first section covered clothing suitable for a field trip, including a heavy, quilted leather shirt and thick trousers. This world had clearly never heard of shorts, or miniskirts. The thought made her smile. She wouldn’t want to wear anything of the sort on a field trip with five teenage boys and a pair of male Sergeants.

The next section covered camping supplies and weapons. She was expected to carry a knife, a dagger, a short sword, a bow and ten arrows, a set of tools ... the list seemed endless. Emily looked down at the pile of supplies and blanched. How could
anyone
carry so much without help? The Sergeants had told her that infantrymen regularly carried their own weight in supplies, but Emily found it hard to believe. How could anyone be that strong?

“At least you know how to use the sword,” Aloha said lightly. “The bow and arrows might be more dangerous to the Redshirts than anyone else.”

Emily flushed. For a class that claimed to be about Martial Magic, they spent a surprising amount of time practicing with conventional weapons. Basic swordplay had been tricky, to say the least; there had been so much to unlearn before she could start using a sword properly. She’d expected archery to be easier, but it had been even harder. A single slip while drawing back the string and the arrow would go flying off in the wrong direction. The Sergeants had pointed out that advancing armies had been slaughtered by archers, describing battles that reminded Emily of the Battle of Agincourt. It wasn’t a reassuring thought.

The final section of the list included a tent, a set of blankets and several potions that Emily didn’t recognize. One glance at the tent told her that it was large enough to take all eight of them comfortably. There seemed to be no such thing as a private tent, nor would there be on campaign, she realized. All the books she’d read about female warriors had glossed over
that
part.

Shuddering at the thought, she piled up the tent and the rest of the supplies, then stared at them in disbelief. She’d thought it was bad, but now ...? How could she hope to carry even
half
of the supplies?

“Maybe it’s a test of some kind,” Aloha said. “How would you do it if you had a choice?”

A camper van
, Emily thought. Useless, of course; there were no vehicles here. Maybe they’d be allowed to take horses ... no, the Sergeant had specifically stated that they would be walking. They had to carry everything with them at all times...

“I’m an idiot,” she said out loud. The answer had been right in front of her face and she hadn’t seen it. “It’s definitely another test.”

She laughed at herself in some irritation. “We don’t need
six
tents, do we? And that’s what we’ll get if we all do this separately.”

S
ERGEANT HARKIN STARED AT THE REDSHIRTS.
He didn’t look happy.

“I presume,” he said finally, “that you have an explanation for this?”

Jade, as spokesman, stepped forward. “Yes, Sergeant. Your list gave us plenty of duplicates. We discussed the matter and decided to trim it down.”

The Sergeant eyed him nastily. “And exactly when did I give you the authority to decide what you could and could not carry?”

Jade held up the briefing note they’d been given on the camping trip. “It says here that the team may be required to reinterpret orders to produce something practical,” he said. “That is exactly what we have done.”

There was a long pause, just long enough for Emily to wonder if she’d ruined
all
of their chances of passing. “Very good,” Harkin said, finally. “And what, exactly, have you decided?”

Jade didn’t relax at all. “One tent for the eight of us. Only one set of cooking tools, because we don’t need more than one. Rucksacks repacked with the supplies and then passed around in a rota so we all have a chance to carry the heavy bags ...”

He went on until he reached the end of his list.

“Not too bad,” Harkin sneered. “And do you think that you are
ready
for the walk?”

“Yes,” Jade said. “We’re ready.”

Emily shifted uncomfortably as Harkin’s gaze passed over her. Like the boys, she was dressed in shirt and trousers, rather than the loose and comfortable robes she’d worn ever since coming to Whitehall. The clothes itched and she had the unpleasant thought that she was going to sweat like a pig while wearing them.

One thing they hadn’t been able to reduce had been the canteens of water. They’d been warned to drink whenever they felt thirsty.

“We shall see,” Harkin said. He raised his voice. “We will be travelling through the desolation towards the ruins of the Dark City. There may be dangerous creatures on the hunt for anyone foolish enough to enter their territory. Keep a watchful eye on your surroundings and be careful where you lay your head. Are there any questions?”