Work Experience (Schooled in Magic Book 4) (39 page)

Emily wanted to insist on coming with her, but bit her tongue and walked over to the kitchen, where oats and milk had been stored in preservation cabinets. She made oatmeal, then waited until Lady Barb returned to eat.

“Eat at once, next time,” Lady Barb said. Her voice was stern, but her eyes looked distracted, preoccupied by a greater thought. “There’s no point in waiting for me.”

“It’s rude to eat without you,” Emily said. The older woman seemed caught between two different priorities. “What’s wrong?”

“A baby was taken from his mother last night,” Lady Barb said, once she finished eating. “There were strange traces of magic around the house.”

Emily sucked in her breath. “Can you follow them?”

“I think so,” Lady Barb said. “Stay here. Do your brewing, then see patients. Can you handle it?”

“Yes,” Emily said, stung. “I’ll wait for you.”

She left Lady Barb to put the dishes in the sink, then walked into the potions lab and started to brew, one after the other. Her irritation caused two potions to spoil before she managed to calm herself enough to brew properly. If nothing else, she told herself, the remaining potions could be bottled and handed over to the headman for later distribution. There would be no need to waste anything. She had worked her way through five potions when there was a sharp knock at the door.

Shaking her head, Emily walked over – readying a spell in her mind, just in case – and opened the door. A young man was standing there, resting on a cane. Emily listened to a story of accidentally damaging his leg while climbing a tree, then motioned for him to sit down while she worked on the wound. It had been treated by a mundane doctor, she realized, who had bound up the wound, but done nothing else.

“This may hurt a little,” she said. “Do you want something to dampen the pain?”

The man shook his head. Emily rolled her eyes – some of the male students in classes were just the same, showing off how much pain they could endure – and cast the spell without any further hesitation. There was a faint crunching sound as the bones were knit back together; the man let out a strangled gasp, then went very pale. Emily concealed her amusement as she concentrated on completing the job. Thankfully, he managed to remain still long enough for her to do it without complications.

“Take it easy for a few days,” she said, knowing that it wouldn’t be easy for him. The town was bigger than any of the villages, but it wouldn’t have much room for freeloaders. “If you put too much weight on that leg, it will probably break again.”

She rolled her eyes again as the young man stood up, clearly resting his weight on the repaired leg. “You’re much nicer than Mother Holly,” he said. “And you did a better job.”

“Thank you,” Emily said, puzzled. “Who’s Mother Holly?”

“A witch,” the man said. “She lives some distance from town. If someone is badly injured, they will go to see her. Sometimes she helps.”

A shadow crossed his face. “They also say she’s the one stealing the children.”

Emily frowned. A hedge witch? She didn’t know much about them, save for the fact that most magicians looked down on them as untrained amateurs. They were sometimes related to the Travellers, sometimes completely isolated from the magical mainstream. But she was the first magician Emily had heard of since beginning her time with Lady Barb.

“Tell me,” she said. “Why didn’t
you
go there?”

“She can be very unpleasant if she doesn’t think you’re worth her time,” the young man said. “Or so I have been told.”

Resolving to discuss the matter with Lady Barb, Emily chased the young man out just in time to see a child with a problematic tooth. Her mother and father insisted on staying with her at all times, watching Emily as if they expected her to snatch the child and run. Emily tried not to keep one eye on the scythe the man was carrying as she gave the child some healing potion, then inspected the rotting tooth. She wasn’t an expert dentist, insofar as the Allied Lands
had
dentists. The only thing she could do was pluck the tooth out of the child’s mouth and reassure the parents that a new tooth would grow in time.

She watched them go, then started working her way through the other patients. It amazed her just how quiet and orderly the waiting townspeople were, not even chattering amongst themselves as they waited in a meek little line outside the building. The handful of times she’d been to a clinic on Earth, the waiting room had been noisy and the doctor’s staff had been driven almost to distraction. But here...she could turn them away, if they annoyed her. Lady Barb would understand.

One girl was having problems with cramps. Emily gave her a bottle of potion – the same she used at Whitehall – and told her to take one sip the day her cycle began. An older man worried over a nasty cough, which Emily handled, telling him to stop smoking home-grown tobacco. She had no way to be sure, but she suspected that it was stronger than anything she’d seen on Earth. The man didn’t seem too happy with her suggestion. Tobacco, like alcohol, helped relieve boredom and calm the nerves.

Emily sighed, then went on to the next patient. A red-faced boy confessed to having problems with his penis, which Emily noted down before telling him to come back and see Lady Barb later. She wouldn’t be happy about that, Emily knew, but she couldn’t force herself to be clinical. It had been hard enough practicing on the training homunculus. By the time she had worked her way through the entire line, it was early afternoon and she was exhausted.

There was a knock on the door. Cursing under her breath, Emily stood and opened the door to reveal another young man who seemed oddly familiar. It still took her a moment to place him. He’d changed his clothes – he looked like a merchant now, rather than a peasant – but his hands were still dead giveaways.

“Rudolf?”

“The same,” Rudolf said. He gave her an oddly hopeful smile. “Can I come in?”

R
UDOLF LOOKED FAINTLY...ODD TO EMILY
as he stepped past her and took a seat at the table. It was impossible to place her finger on it, even though he carried himself like an aristocrat while wearing clothes belonging to one of the lower orders. She wondered, suddenly, if Rudolf could be the mystery magician, but there was no scent of magic around him. Unless he was masking very well, he didn’t have the potential for magic, let alone actual access to his powers. He was just a mundane.

She closed the door, cursing herself for forgetting Sergeant Harkin so quickly.
He’d
been a mundane, and yet he’d taught at a school for magicians. Rudolf might have no magic, but she shouldn’t dismiss him out of hand. He might still be very dangerous, even though his servants all agreed that he was a good person, for an aristocrat.

She mentally prepared a spell before sitting down at the table, facing him. This time, she didn’t want to let him get away.

“Your father was under outside control,” she said, placing her hands on the table. “He wasn’t in his right mind.”

Rudolf looked relieved. “I knew he must have been under
someone’s
influence,” he said, once Emily had finished explaining. “But I thought it was Lady Easter.”

Emily quirked an eyebrow, so he hastened to explain.

“She needs to marry off her daughters as soon as possible,” Rudolf told her. “To someone who could protect them when the old lady finally died. I would be one of the few acceptable sons-in-law for her.”

“Oh,” Emily said. She knew how snobbish aristocrats could be when it came to marriage, but there were strong reasons why Rudolf
wouldn’t
make a good match for Lady Easter’s daughter, starting with the simple fact that he would take power from his wife’s mother. “Why you?”

“Lady Easter cannot rule forever,” Rudolf pointed out. “Sooner or later, she is going to need a successor.”

Emily had to admit he had a point. Aristocrats might cling greedily to their power, but they knew that they had to make provision for the succession. King Randor had had good reason to worry about handing power to Alassa – or at least the royal brat she’d been prior to Whitehall – yet he was now training her in proper governance, intending to share his power as soon as Alassa left school. Barring accidents or war, Alassa would outlive her father and then have a son of her own to take her place. Still, there were always problems when one generation took over from the next.

“You’d think they’d accept a woman could rule,” Emily said, curious to see how Rudolf would react. “Lady Easter seems to do it well enough.”

“She’s also old,” Rudolf pointed out. “She isn’t distracted by female issues.”

Emily rolled her eyes.
That
was a common excuse for denying women power and place, although men could be just as emotional as women with far less cause. But then, people often came up with the prejudice first and then invented reasons to justify it later. And it wasn’t as if Lady Easter couldn’t or wouldn’t have children. She had three daughters.

“Tell me something,” she said. “Why don’t you want to marry her daughter?”

“She’s ugly,” Rudolf said, at once. “I couldn’t abide the thought of touching her.”

Emily felt a hot flash of anger. How
dare
someone just dismiss his prospective bride like that? She’d been mocked enough to know just how badly it would sting the girl, if she ever heard Rudolf say it. And besides, Rudolf could spend time with a mistress, if he liked, once he’d impregnated his wife. He had a freedom his wife would probably lack.

But then she took a closer look, controlling her anger. Rudolf didn’t seem to quite believe his own words. Like Alassa, he had been raised to know that his marriage would be arranged for matters of state – and to accept it, as the price for being the aristocrat he was. He shouldn’t have any problem marrying the girl, even if she was a one-legged hunchback who kept her face hidden under a bag. And...

And he should have just accepted it
, Emily thought, puzzled.
The runes would have seen to that, wouldn’t they
?

Rudolf hadn’t known the runes were there or he would have alerted his father – and no amount of subtle magic could hide something, once people were actually
looking
. In that case, the runes should have affected him. Even powerful magicians could be affected, without ever knowing that they were being influenced. So why had Rudolf turned so sharply against the idea of marrying the poor girl?

“I have never observed men having problems with touching girls,” Emily observed, tartly. “What other reasons did you have?”

Rudolf eyed her, sharply. “Why do you care?”

“Because your planned marriage was organized by a magician who might well be a necromancer,” Emily said, bluntly. “And you’re changing the subject. What reasons do you have to resist the marriage?”

“A necromancer?” Rudolf repeated. “But why...?”

“A very good question,” Emily agreed. Shadye hadn’t given a damn about the politics of the Allied Lands, as far as she could tell. “And you’re
still
changing the subject.”

“I should have known not to argue with a woman,” Rudolf said, giving her a sly grin. “They always notice the unanswered questions.”

“It’s a gift,” Emily said. She was tempted to point out that being snide in front of a magician wasn’t a good idea, but kept it to herself. “And you have yet to answer my question.”

Rudolf sat upright. “I am the heir to Gorham,” he snapped. “I do not have to answer you.”

Emily gave him a long look as the pieces fell into place. A young man who hadn’t tried to lure any of the serving girls into his bed, let alone molest them. It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t have found a willing girl, either. A young man who had been so vigorously against marriage that he’d fled his father’s castle, rather than try to reason his way out of it. And a young man who had been so intensely defensive that he’d been prepared to snap at a magician, even knowing that it could get him turned into a toad.

And he hadn’t shown any real awareness of
her
femininity either.

“You’re not interested in women,” she said. “Are you?”

Rudolf turned bright red and looked down at the table, answering her question without saying a word. Emily felt a wave of pity for him, understanding just how he must feel. The Cairngorms were not kind to homosexuals, even when the homosexual didn’t have a duty to provide his tiny kingdom with an heir. Given Rudolf’s position, the secret could have undone his father’s lands. Hell, given how homosexuality was often equated with weakness in the mountains, he’d be challenged by almost everyone as soon as he took his father’s place.

“I understand that there are oaths healers take,” Rudolf said, when he could speak again. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on the table. “You cannot talk about this to anyone, can you?”

Emily hesitated. It was true that healers swore such oaths – but she’d never taken the oaths herself. Lady Barb had just told her never to discuss anyone’s condition with anyone else unless there was no alternative. Parents had a right to know what was wrong with their young children, she knew, but no one else had any right to know. A careless word on her part, she’d been warned, could cause years of gossip for the villagers.

“I won’t talk about it with anyone, apart from my mistress,” Emily said. Lady Barb
had
sworn such oaths. “Is that acceptable?”

“Yes,” he said.

She hated asking blunt questions, but it needed to be asked. “When did you realize you didn’t like girls?”

“I didn’t notice any difference between me and other boys, at first,” Rudolf said. He still didn’t look up at her. “But father...father used to say that a young man should be experienced with women. He picked the prettiest chambermaids for me, even dressed them in revealing clothes. But I felt nothing for them, even when” – his face grew even redder – “he explained the mechanics to me.”

Emily felt her own face heat. No one had ever explained the mechanics to her – she’d had to learn the facts of life from books and the Internet– but she could appreciate just how agonizingly embarrassing the talk must have been for Rudolf. Men didn’t mature at a specific age any more than women. There would have been times when Rudolf was still trapped in the mindset of a child...and afterwards, when he did mature, he would still have been horrified at talking over such matters with his father.