Infinite Regress (36 page)

And once lines start developing to go to the toilet
, she thought,
all hell will break loose
.

“All fifth and sixth year students are to proceed to the dining hall,” Gordian added. “The remaining students are to remain here.”

“Come on,” Caleb said.

He held her hand as they walked through the door, down a corridor that was suddenly four times as long as she remembered, and into the dining hall. It was a mess; hundreds of plates and glasses lay broken on the floor, where they’d been thrown when the entire building shook. The staff clearly hadn’t had time to begin tidying up the mess... hell, she wasn’t even sure what had happened to the kitchens. She peered towards the hatches where food was served and saw nothing but bare walls. The kitchen had been relocated somewhere else.

Crap
, she thought. There were some sandwiches and a bottle of water in her knapsack—she’d kept hold of it, despite everything—but it wouldn’t last very long, even if she refused to share with anyone.
What do we do if we can’t cook food?

“If I could have your attention,” Master Tor said. He stood on one of the tables, using magic to amplify his voice. “The situation is dire.”

He paused as silence fell over the room. “It has been suggested that the doors to the outside world may have been relocated,” he continued, after a long moment. “You students will search the castle for the remainder of the day or until they are found.”

Emily frowned, inwardly, as he detailed how he wanted them to chart the castle’s new dimensions and the precautions he expected them to take. He’d
definitely
put more thought into the whole affair than Professor Locke, but she had the feeling that trying to chart the castle was a waste of time. The corridors could shift at any moment, rendering the charts worse than useless. But at least it would keep the students occupied. They were far from stupid. It wouldn’t be too long before the hopelessness of their situation dawned on them.

And if they knew what I did to Shadye
, Emily thought, as she collected her supplies from Master Tor,
they’d be even more terrified
.

“Good luck,” Master Tor said. He didn’t seem inclined to credit her for the idea of searching for the doors, which she appreciated. She didn’t want to be blamed for the whole crisis—again. “Check in regularly, understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Caleb said, briskly. He’d insisted on accompanying Emily, leaving Cabiria to join Cirroc. “We’ll be very careful.”

“They thought I stole the books,” Emily said, as soon as they were heading up to what had once been the fourth floor. She ran through the whole story from start to finish. “They even made me swear an oath...”

Caleb caught her arm. “They made you
swear an oath?
”

Emily nodded, sullenly. “Yeah.”

“He must be out of his mind,” Caleb said. “Your father... you’re...”

He hesitated. “Asking someone to swear an oath is terrifyingly rude!”

“I know,” Emily said. She shook her head. “I still don’t know how my magical signature turned up down there.”

“Maybe they made a mistake,” Caleb said, doubtfully.

Emily shrugged as they reached the top of the stairwell and walked slowly into the darkened corridor. Normally, the charms classroom would be in front of them, as soon as they left the stairwell, but this time they found themselves peering into an alchemy lab. The faint, but unpleasant, smell emanating from the cupboard in the far corner suggested that a number of containers had shattered or otherwise leaked when everything shifted position. They should have been unbreakable, she knew, yet no one had ever anticipated an earthquake. She’d have to warn Professor Thande to dispose of the chemicals before it was too late.

“I don’t think they would,” she said, glumly. “Professor Lombardi was teaching me how to work magic from day one. Sergeant Miles had me for three years of martial magic. I think they’d know me by now.”

Caleb shook his head. “Could someone have duplicated your signature?”

“I don’t know how,” Emily said, miserably. “It’s supposed to be impossible.”

“So is defeating a necromancer one-on-one,” Caleb pointed out. “You’ve done it twice.”

“I cheated,” Emily said.

She shook her head slowly, then walked on through the bewildering maze Whitehall had become. The corridors twisted and turned in a manner that reminded her of crawling through the tunnels under Mountaintop; the lights brightened and dimmed, seemingly at random. She felt
certain
that some of the shadows acted oddly, as if they had lives and minds of their own. And yet, no matter how she tried to catch them moving, they never moved when she looked straight at them. She found herself holding Caleb’s hand tightly, all the while bracing for a sudden attack. Beside her, Caleb looked—and felt—just as tense.

The corridors moved when Shadye attacked
, she thought, grimly.
Maybe he damaged them in some way...

“They might have been able to duplicate your signature if they had some of your blood,” Caleb said, slowly. “I’ve never heard of it actually being done, but it should be possible.”

Emily looked up at him. “How do you mean?”

“Your blood is intimately linked to you,” Caleb reminded her. “You could be cursed from halfway across the Allied Lands if someone had a sample of your blood. Perhaps, if they used the blood to taint their magic, it would
feel
like your magic.”

“I don’t think there are any samples of my blood left around,” Emily said, slowly. She
had
been asleep in the infirmary, but Healers were under oath not to allow their patients to be bled. And when she’d slept in her bedroom, she’d been surrounded by her own protections. “I...”

She broke off as a nasty thought occurred to her. “I wonder...”

Caleb frowned. “Emily?”

Emily shook her head, slowly. “Can I tell you another secret?”

“
Another
secret?”

“You were here when Shadye invaded,” Emily said. “I...”

“I came afterwards,” Caleb corrected. “I
was
here for the Mimic.”

Emily squeezed his hand, tightly. “Shadye took some of my blood,” she said, bitterly. It had simply never occurred to her that
she
, rather than Alassa, had been the kidnapper’s target, rather than the innocent bystander. Since then, she’d studied blood magics, but it was hard—very hard—to defend against them. “He used it to make me lower the school’s defenses.”

“Everyone wondered about that,” Caleb said, softly. “No one worked out how the bastard managed to get into the school.”

“Through me,” Emily confessed. “Caleb, everything went blurry. It wasn’t direct compulsion, not really. He had me so confused about what was going on that I felt as if I were in a dream. I didn’t really grasp that something was wrong until it was far too late.”

“You were being attacked on a very intimate level,” Caleb said. “Stronger and more experienced magicians have been beaten when their own blood was turned against them.”

“I know,” Emily said. She shuddered, feeling sick. “What if someone’s using blood magic against me now?”

Caleb stared at her. “Who?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said. “But... what if I
did
steal the books? I just don’t know I
did
it.”

“That... would be awkward,” Caleb said, after a moment. “Did you have
time
to steal the books?”

Emily hesitated, considering it. “I don’t think so,” she said. “But what if someone used blood magic to make me
think
I didn’t have time?”

“If someone did,” Caleb said slowly, “how would he have gotten his hands on your blood?”

“I don’t know,” Emily confessed.

She shook her head slowly. Shadye had made sure she understood the dangers of leaving samples of her blood lying around. She’d always been careful, afterwards, to clean up any bloodstains and dispose of the remnants. But if she’d been stunned, somehow, and her memory wiped... she might never know what had happened. Hell, she’d never realized that
Shadye
had stolen a sample of her blood until it was far too late.

“They’d have to control—or at least influence—Professor Locke and Cabiria too,” Caleb pointed out, holding her as she began to shake. “They would need samples of blood from both of them too.”

Emily sighed, fighting down the urge to just bury her head in his shirt. Caleb made sense, she knew, but a nagging doubt lingered at the back of her mind. And she knew, from bitter experience, that she should
listen
to those feelings. They were often warnings from her subconscious mind.

She pulled back from him, gently. “Is there a way to check?”

“I’m not sure,” Caleb said, thoughtfully. “Blood magics aren’t really covered until you reach Sixth Year. My mother exploded with rage when Casper asked her about some of the more... interesting uses for blood, so I never dared ask her myself. You’d really have to check with Sergeant Miles or the Grandmaster.”

He sighed. “Do you have any reason at all to think that you might have lost some blood without noticing?”

Emily shook her head as she started to walk down the corridor, still holding his hand. “No
proof
,” she said. “But... I could have scratched myself and not noticed.”

Caleb reddened. “I suppose there are other possibilities,” he said, quietly. “But I don’t see how anyone could make it work without controlling all three of you. Frankly, it’s a great deal more likely that they used your blood to fake your magical signature and even
that’s
a stretch.”

He squeezed her arm lightly. “Take it to Sergeant Miles,” he advised. “The worst he can do is give you a million push-ups for wasting his time.”

Emily snorted. The sergeants never sent anyone to be caned. They had plenty of other ways to punish their students, all of which helped prepare them for a military life. Endless push-ups, races from one end of the field to the other... hair-raising climbs up trees she would have sworn were impossible to climb... the list went on and on. But she had a feeling that Sergeant Miles would take her concerns seriously. He’d known her for over four years.

“I suppose,” she said. She peered into the next darkened classroom and frowned, unable to place it. The desks and chairs looked clean, but utterly unused. A large statue of a man in a Roman-style toga dominated the room. “Where is this?”

“I think it’s one of the disused classrooms,” Caleb said. He stroked his chin as he studied the statue. “I’ve no idea what it taught.”

Emily made a note on the piece of paper and led the way further down the corridor. The shadows drew closer as the lights dimmed, then blinked out completely. Emily shivered as darkness suddenly enveloped them, a darkness so complete that it was almost a living thing. She wouldn’t even have known Caleb was there if he hadn’t been holding her hand...

Something poked her side, hard. “Ouch!”

“Emily?” Caleb said. “What happened?”

“Something just poked me,” Emily said. She tried to cast a light globe, but nothing happened. The darkness seemed to soak up the magic before it could take form. “I...”

Caleb swore. “It poked me too,” he said. He sounded disturbed. “I...”

Emily shuddered as she felt invisible fingers poking and prodding at her, jabbing into her side and crawling over her face.
Something
passed through her hair, caressing it in a mockery of intimacy, then ran down her back and stroked the back of her legs. She lashed out with her free hand, but hit nothing. The touches seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere...

“Walk backwards,” Caleb urged. “We...”

He started to walk, pulling Emily with him. Moments later, Emily heard a
thud
as he walked into a wall that hadn’t been there before the lights had failed. Panic echoed at the back of her mind as she tried to cast another spell, wondering if she would need to teleport them out for a second time. But the magic refused to take shape and form...

“Try forward,” she said, as a pair of icy fingers pinched her bottom. She gasped in pain as she pulled him forward. “I...”

She walked straight into another person, sending them both tumbling to the ground as the lights came back on. The Gorgon stared up at her, the snakes on her head hissing ominously. Emily hastily closed her eyes and rolled off the Gorgon, then looked around in surprise. Hadn’t they been on a different level? But then, everything had been rearranged...

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Me too,” the Gorgon said. She pulled herself to her feet, her snakes hissing in distress. A nasty bruise marred her greenish cheeks. Pandora lay on the ground beyond her, moaning in pain. “I was caught in darkness and
pinched
.”

“Us too,” Caleb said. He helped Emily up, then smiled at the Gorgon. “If the castle keeps rearranging itself, who knows what will happen next?”

“Not me,” the Gorgon said. She rubbed her cheek gingerly. “We’re running around like rats in a maze.”

Emily nodded, wordlessly.

“We’d better report to Master Tor,” Caleb said. He glanced at Emily. “And after that, you can discuss your... other concerns.”

E
MILY HAD HOPED TO SPEAK TO
Sergeant Miles alone, but when they reached the classroom nearest the dining hall she discovered that he was in consultations with Professor Lombardi, Master Tor and Grandmaster Gordian. Master Tor was reading from a large sheaf of notes, while Professor Lombardi looked bored and Sergeant Miles seemed concerned. Only the Grandmaster showed no trace of his innermost feelings.

“We have enough food for nearly two months, assuming we start strict rationing,” Master Tor said as she entered the room. “The staff believe they can stretch it out for longer, but we won’t have the energy to cast spells if they do.”

He paused. “Water is a more urgent problem,” he added, “but we can use spells to filter it before drinking.”

“Our students are too used to
not
filtering it,” Sergeant Miles warned.