Chapter Sixteen

True to her word, Elaine gave Johan an hour to read the book. It shouldn’t really have taken that long – it was a short book – but it would give them both time to think. Johan should not enter into an apprenticeship without knowing the possible dangers, while she needed to think about his latest display of accidental magic. It was more interesting, she knew, to note what hadn’t happened as well as what had.

He hadn’t damaged the wards, or the table, or anything else. The only thing that had been destroyed had been the letter, while the rest of the room had been completely unharmed. It suggested that he was definitely better off visualising the outcome of what he wanted, rather than trying to guide his magic through the words and gestures used by other magicians. But what did it really mean?

Taking a breath, she tapped on the door and waited for him to call her inside. When he did, she was surprised to see Jayne there too, unloading a trolley of books. They were all on apprenticeships, she noted, as Jayne saw her and gave a hasty bow. Evidently, Johan had worked out how to request books and other materials from the library staff.

“Thank you, Jayne,” Johan said, flushing slightly. “I’ll call you when the books need to be returned.”

Elaine watched the younger girl go, then looked at Johan. He was clearly attracted to Jayne, unsurprisingly. She was attractive ... and she wasn’t as much of a brat as many of the other girls from various Great Houses. And she had something apart from fluff between her ears.

“The staff aren’t there for you to bother,” she said in mild reproof. She smiled as he blushed bright red. “If you want to flirt with her, you can do it when she’s off-duty.”

Johan’s face turned even redder. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just ...”

Elaine understood. He wouldn’t have met many girls, given his effective imprisonment, and those he had met would have shunned him; Jayne might have been the first girl who had responded to him as a person, rather than a horror to be ignored or even killed for daring to exist. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to try his luck ... after all, magicians had a degree of sexual freedom unthinkable to mundanes.

“Flirt with her when she’s off-duty, or even invite her here,” Elaine said, remembering days when she’d thought that she would go through life alone. She still did, even though she was no longer a maiden. “But for the moment ...”

She settled back on a comfortable chair and met his eyes. “Did you read the book?”

“I did,” Johan said. He frowned, breaking eye contact. “It wasn’t always pleasant reading.”

Elaine nodded. One advantage of the Peerless School was that it was hard for tutors to take advantage of their pupils. An apprenticeship bond, on the other hand, allowed an unscrupulous teacher to take merciless advantage of his apprentice. The apprentice could become an unpaid servant, a criminal accomplice or even a sexual partner, and it would be completely legal. She couldn’t blame Johan for hesitating. There was a good reason why apprenticeship bonds were rare.

“The choice is yours,” she said, flatly. “I won’t force it on you.”

“My father might,” Johan said. “Did you read the letter?”

Elaine quirked her eyebrows. “And how was I supposed to read the letter?”

Johan nodded, ruefully.

“My father said that he wanted me home because of my magic,” he said. “And that Charity forgave me. And that we could work together to save the family. And that he would sponsor me to enter the Peerless School ...”

“So he doesn’t know everything,” Elaine said, thoughtfully. Light Spinner and Dread wouldn’t have said a word to anyone, but she knew just how easy it was for rumours to spread. Clearly, Charity’s report of her accidental transformation hadn’t allowed her father to deduce that there was something weird about Johan’s magic. But it should have done. “Or maybe he’s hoping that you don’t know everything.”

Johan slapped the table. “Will I ever be free of him?”

“My father is dead,” Elaine said, although she understood what he meant. Whatever his faults, Johan’s father hadn’t knocked up a random woman just to ensure that his abandoned daughter eventually became a Bookworm. “As you grow older, he will have less and less influence over you.”

“I can’t enter the Peerless School,” Johan protested. “Doesn’t he know that?”

“Not yet,” Elaine said. It was a problem. Any normal magician would jump at the chance to enter the Peerless School. It would puzzle anyone who realised that Johan wasn’t going to go there. Combined with what had happened to Charity, she knew, it would be far too informative. “But you couldn’t go there until the start of next term anyway, which is four months off. There will be time enough for us to work out a solution by then.”

She smiled, then stood up. “I have some other experiments I would like to try,” she said. “Coming?”

Johan stood up, eying her nervously. “Do you have any ... advice to offer about Jayne?”

Elaine almost giggled. What sort of person would view her as an expert on relationships? The sole relationship she’d had had been destroyed by a pair of bright red eyes ... and besides, she knew almost nothing about Jayne. She was just a student who was looking for extra money by working in the library when she wasn’t in classes.

“Just be careful,” she said, finally. “Men and women often see things differently. She may not realise that you’re interested in her; she might even have a boyfriend already. And she might be put off if you come on too hard. So be careful.”

She turned away so he wouldn’t see her smile, then led the way back to the experimental chamber. The wards Johan had damaged had regenerated themselves completely, she was relieved to discover; rebuilding them would have been a nightmarish task if they’d been shattered beyond hope of repair. In the long run, they would definitely have to move out of the Great Library. An accident here could have disastrous consequences for the entire Empire.

“The first piece of magic you did was to break your brother’s spell,” she said, once the door was shut and the analysis spells were running properly. “What did you do to do it?”

“I don’t know,” Johan admitted. He sounded rather frustrated by the question. “I just did it.”

“Two-thirds of the entire magical population of the world would be unable to do it,” Elaine said, calmly. “Cancelling spells can require gestures ... and it’s hard to move if one is frozen in place. Even I would have great difficulty in breaking free. But enough magicians can do it to convince duellists that the only way to win is to kill their opponents while frozen, before they can break free.”

She shivered as memories ran through her head, memories that weren’t really hers. Duelling as practiced today was a pale shadow of the past, when magicians had fought at the drop of a hat and done truly terrifying things to their enemies. A magician who froze his opponent could do anything to him ... and many had, while their enemies were helpless.

Johan’s voice penetrated her thoughts. “Are you all right?”

Elaine nodded, pulling herself back to the present. “I think so,” she said, numbly. “I want to cast another such spell on you and see if you can break free.”

***

Johan swallowed, hard. His mouth felt so dry it hurt.

He trusted Elaine, insofar as he trusted anyone. She certainly didn’t have the malice that Jamal and the rest of his siblings, even Charity, had shown from time to time. And she talked to him as though he were an equal. But the thought of being helpless again scared him so deeply he could hardly speak.

“All right,” he managed, finally. He tried to stop his body shaking, but it only made it worse. “Do it.”

Elaine frowned, then waved her wand. Johan felt his body simply ... stop. The spell prevented all voluntary movement; indeed, he wasn’t even sure if he was still breathing. He could hear his heartbeat pounding inside his chest, hammering faster and faster as panic threatened to set in and ... he wanted to be free, he needed to be free, he ...

He fell towards the floor, landing in a heap. The pain helped focus his mind, but his head was still spinning madly as he fought to control himself. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and looked up to see Elaine’s concerned eyes staring down at him. But there was something wrong with her eyes ...

“What ...” He stopped, swallowed, and tried again. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”

“Long story,” Elaine said. She held out a hand, helping him to his feet. As his thoughts settled, the strange blur he’d seen over Elaine’s eyes faded away. Soft brown eyes held his, looking sad and guilty. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to panic you.”

Johan grinned, pushing the mystery of her eyes to one side. “I broke the spell, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Elaine confirmed. “Well done.”

“Jamal is in for one hell of a surprise,” Johan said, fighting down the urge to start laughing hysterically. Who would have thought that the way to deal with his brother’s torments was to tell them to stop. “Do it again!”

Elaine’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” she said. “You’re clearly not in a good state.”

“Please,” Johan begged. The sheer absurdity of the scene struck him and he started to giggle helplessly. He was begging for a spell he’d always considered a tool Jamal used to torment him. “Do it, please!”

“Fine,” Elaine said. She waved her wand. Johan froze. “Break free, now.”

Johan staggered as the spell snapped. This time, he had balanced himself before Elaine used the spell, ensuring that he wouldn’t fall over. But there was still some effect when the spell snapped ...

“Tell me,” Elaine said, as Johan sat down on the cold floor. “Did you feel anything when the spell struck you?”

“I froze,” Johan said, dryly. But he thought he knew what she meant. “I didn’t sense any magic before then.”

“Interesting,” Elaine said. “A normal magician would have sensed me casting the charm, giving him a chance to block it. You ... do not.”

She frowned, stroking her chin. “I want you to try to block the charm this time,” she said, as she motioned him back to his feet. “Start walking, but concentrate on wanting to keep walking.”

Johan started to pace around the room. Twelve seconds later, the spell struck him and he froze. He broke out a moment later and started to walk again; the next time, he froze again.

“Interesting,” Elaine said, again. “You have to actually be affected by the spell to counter it.”

“Not good,” Johan said. If it took him a few seconds to break the spell every time it caught him, it gave his enemy a chance to hit him with something more lethal. “Do I have to think about a defence all the time?”

“Maybe,” Elaine said. “This time, I want you to imagine that there is a shield protecting you from all attacks. It protects you completely – you have to keep that in mind.”

“While walking,” Johan commented. “Do I have to keep both things in my mind at the same time?”

“Yes,” Elaine said. “Or else it may not work.”

Concentrating, imagining a protective bubble centred on him, Johan started to walk.

***

Elaine had been told, once, that when a student wanted to learn it was a bad idea to discourage them. It was the principle the Peerless School followed, although half the time the students wanted to learn magic they could use on their fellow classmates rather than anything useful. But she was deeply worried about Johan. No matter what sort of brave face he tried to project, it was far too clear that the paralysis spell brought back bad memories, if not outright trauma. Traumatising a magician was far from a good idea even at the best of times.

“Last time,” she said, and raised her wand. “Here we go.”

She cast the spell. Magic flared around Johan – for a moment, she saw a translucent bubble protecting him – and then it flashed back at her. There was no time to react before it caught her and her entire body locked solid, caught in a ridiculous pose. She’d been trapped by her own spell.

It shouldn’t have done that, she thought, trying to summon the discipline to cancel the spell without needing to move her hands. The spell shouldn’t have had the energy to reflect all the way back to me ...

Johan turned and stared. His face was etched with horror, much to Elaine’s relief. He’d shown similar horror when he’d accidentally turned Charity into a rat. At least he wasn’t likely to go seek revenge on everyone who had abused him, even if he was turning his back on his family.

“I didn’t mean to,” he protested, as he stepped towards her. “I ...”

Elaine would have smiled as reassuringly as she could if she had been able to move a muscle. Instead, she concentrated ... but nothing happened. Had Johan’s bubble altered the spell or was she too agitated to think properly? It was hard to be sure. She tried again, and again, yet her body refused to move. Johan touched her, lightly, as if he wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“Move again,” he said, desperately. “Please ...”

Elaine toppled forward. She would have hit the ground if Johan hadn’t caught her and broken her fall. Carefully, she returned her wand to her belt and stood upright, leaning on him for a long moment. The attempts to free herself had failed, but they had still cost her a great deal of energy. She really needed a rest and some time to think.

“I didn’t mean to do that to you,” Johan said. “I just imagined a mirror.”

“I know,” Elaine said, unable to keep an edge out of her voice. “Be careful what you imagine in future.”

“That can’t be the answer,” Johan said. “If that were true ...”

His voice trailed off. Elaine could guess what he was thinking. If that were true, wouldn’t poor Jayne have been stripped naked as soon as he looked at her? There were no shortage of spells that did just that, spells that were often used in the Peerless School as pranks. But Johan hadn’t stripped anyone naked.

“I think you probably have to actually want something to happen,” Elaine said. It might explain his poor results with actual spellwork. He wanted the spell to work so desperately that it was colossally overpowered. “I think you really wanted to destroy your father’s letter.”

Johan nodded. “I did,” he said.

He reached into his pocket and produced a sheet of paper. “That’s the reply I wrote,” he explained. “If you’re going to take me on as an apprentice, you might as well read it.”

Elaine skimmed it. Johan didn’t mince words; after giving his father a piece of his mind, he told him in no uncertain terms that he would not be coming home. The letter fairly dripped with anger and hatred. Elaine barely knew Johan’s father, but she would have bet good money that he would lose control of his own magic after reading the letter.

“I think you shouldn’t be so rude,” she said, softly. She disliked confrontation, as a rule, and pointlessly irritating Johan’s father would do no good for future relationships between them. “He is still your father.”

Johan glared at her, his face twisted into a stubborn pose. “And I don’t want anything to do with him, ever again,” he said. “I’d sooner be a Nancy-Boy in Red Street than speak to him again.”

Elaine lifted her eyebrows. “Where did you hear of them?”

“Jamal mentioned them once,” Johan admitted. He frowned, curiosity winning over anger. “What do they actually do?”

“You don’t want to know,” Elaine said, reluctant to allow him to change the subject. “But you shouldn’t send this to your father. He could make life very difficult for you.”

Johan’s glare returned. “How?”

“He is the head of a magical house and master of a patronage network that stretches over the entire Empire,” Elaine pointed out, ruthlessly. “Even if he doesn’t try to have you brought home as a runaway child, he can still ensure that you have no hope of getting a job. Your magic might be new and interesting, but not many people will gamble on taking you on when your father is badmouthing you to everyone.”

Johan scowled, then bowed his head.

“I won’t let him think that I am going back to him,” he said, firmly.

“Then don’t,” Elaine said. “But think carefully about what you want to say.”

“He’ll think I’m showing weakness,” Johan muttered. “I know him.”

Elaine smiled. “Write it out, then we will have lunch and go to the zoo,” she said. “It’s been too long since I’ve been there and you might like it.”

“No one ever took me,” Johan said, softly. Elaine felt a matching wince as she remembered how few outings she’d been able to take from the orphanage. Only a handful of wealthy benefactors had paid for them ... and they had never met the hidden costs. “Thank you.”

He looked up at her, suddenly. “Do I scare you?”

The sudden change in subject surprised Elaine, as – she realised – it had been meant to do.

“No,” she said, after a long moment. “Not you personally. But the potential you represent worries me greatly. It could turn the world upside down.”