Trial By Fire (Schooled in Magic Book 7) (38 page)

“The Grandmaster gave you permission to enter when he took you through the wards,” she said, slowly. “But they should have kept you out...”

“I’m not a Dark Wizard,” the demon sneered. “The wards could not keep me out if I had permission to enter.”

Its face twisted into a leer. “I reached into the dreams of your fellow students, Heir to Shadye,” it said. “I whispered to them at night, touching and twisting their minds until they bowed to me. Many have secret shames they wish to hide; many more have secret desires, desires I brought out into the open. The more I gathered, the easier it became to touch others...”

“Until they started to collapse into comas,” Emily said. How much power did the demon need to maintain itself? It clearly hadn’t been drawing power from the wards, or the nexus point. That would have been noticeable. A thought struck her and she leaned forward. “You were the Nightmare Hex, weren’t you?”

The demon shifted, becoming her stepfather. “It is so much fun to watch people drive themselves to death,” it said. The voice was perfect, sending chills down her spine, but she stood firmly in place. Master Grey was far more terrifying than her stepfather. “Your worst nightmare would have eventually killed you.”

Emily took a long breath. “You’re not really here, are you? I mean, you’re lodged in another dimension, bound to the ring. We can take it out of the school...”

“Too late,” the demon said. It morphed back into its inhuman form. “I’m now lodged in the minds of your fellow students. The only way to banish me would be to kill everyone I touched.”

It threw back its head and cackled. The hell of it, Emily realized, was that it was telling the exact truth. If it had moved from the ring, if it had grabbed hold of several hundred minds, destroying the ring would be pointless. It could keep reaching for more victims until everyone in Whitehall was in its thrall.

“We’ll all die, eventually,” Emily said. “You’ll run out of souls.”

The demon shrugged. “So what?”

She shuddered as it opened its mouth and bared its teeth at her, revealing sharp fangs stained with blood. It didn’t care, she realized; it didn’t have any long-term plans or ambitions of its own. There was no objective beyond twisting the screws as much as possible. It wanted them to suffer, it wanted them to bleed, to rend and tear at their own minds...

...And then it would just fall back into the Darkness, until the next time.

“I’ll fight you,” she swore. “Whatever it takes...”

The demon laughed at her. “You’ll have to kill your own friends,” it said. “Do you have the nerve to
kill
?”

It jangled the puppet at her. Now, it looked like Imaiqah; no, it looked like hundreds of faces, each one visible for a brief moment before vanishing again. It had them all on a string, she thought numbly. Maybe
she
had some immunity, because she’d killed Shadye...or maybe the demon had simply intended to ride her back to Whitehall all along. But no matter what she did, she couldn’t touch the demon directly.

“I’ll drop your ring into a volcano,” she threatened.

“Go right ahead,” the demon said. “What do you think that will do to
me
?”

Nothing
, Emily thought.

“Nothing,” the demon said.

It took her a moment to realize it had read the thought right out of her mind. She was in Alassa’s mind, which was effectively the demon’s territory; it could read her thoughts, if it wished. It snickered unpleasantly, the sound slashing through her very soul, and started to advance towards her. Her skin crawled as its eyes met hers, holding her firmly in place. It was too late to run.

“I can be anyone,” the demon said. It morphed into Caleb, then into Lady Barb. “Or anything. This is
my
domain and I can hold you here indefinitely.”

Emily wanted to run, but her body refused to move. The demon shifted back into its original form, then pressed its hand on her chest, between her breasts. Emily shivered, utterly repulsed by the touch. The demon was so inhuman that even
looking
at it felt as if she was looking at something
wrong
. It spread out its fingers, then pushed hard. Emily felt as though someone had stabbed her in the chest...

...And then she fell backwards, right into her body. Someone was screaming; it took her several seconds to realize that
she
was doing the screaming. Everything felt so
wrong...

“Emily,” Lady Barb said. She sounded as though she was panicking. “Can you
hear
me?”

It took Emily a moment to gather herself. Her chest hurt so badly she was
sure
she was bleeding, that the demon had reached into her flesh and crushed her heart, but when she looked down it became clear she was unharmed. Alassa, on the other hand, was shaking violently, her hands flailing at random. Lady Barb cast a pair of spells to hold her still, but neither seemed to work. In the distance, Emily heard the demon snicker.

I won’t kill my friends
, she thought.

“Emily,” the Grandmaster said. His voice was so calm she knew he was trying hard to keep himself under control. “What did you see?”

“Tell me what you saw, you stupid girl,” Master Grey added.

Emily flushed with anger. “I saw a demon,” she said. It was hard to talk; her mouth felt sore, as if she’d been slapped. “There’s a demon loose in Whitehall.”

T
HE GRANDMASTER STAGGERED AS IF HE’D
been hit. Lady Barb stared at her with open horror; Master Grey eyed her with cool calculation.

“A demon,” the Grandmaster said. “Are you
sure
?”

“I think so,” Emily said. Had the demon actually
called
itself a demon? “It said Shadye dragged it out of the Darkness and bound it to his service.”

The Grandmaster groaned, one hand rubbing his hidden eyes. Emily watched, concerned; the demon had claimed the Grandmaster was blind, particularly to demons. What had he done, in the past, that had blinded him? Aurelius hadn’t been blind and
he’d
raised several demons before his untimely death.

“And we brought it back with us,” he said, bitterly. “You wouldn’t have known what you were seeing, and I
couldn’t
see it.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Emily said. She’d watched as he’d checked Shadye’s small hoard of objects, one by one. “There was nothing to suggest we were carrying a demon with us.”

“Of
course
there wasn’t,” Master Grey snapped. His face was paler than normal, but he seemed otherwise composed. “Just another case of you making a mistake that has disastrous consequences. Didn’t you think you’d run out of luck eventually?”

Emily opened her mouth to retort, but the Grandmaster spoke first.

“Tell me what happened,” he said. “I need to know in as much detail as possible.”

“I’ll do my best,” Emily said. She gathered herself, then carefully went through the entire story, starting with the mist and ending with the demon shoving her out of Alassa’s mind and back into her body. Her chest still hurt, although she knew there was no real injury. But it had felt so
real
! “It said it had woven its way into their thoughts.”

“That’s what demons do,” the Grandmaster said. “It didn’t make an overt deal with them, I suspect; it just touched their sleeping minds and laid their traps.”

“Shadye would have bound it to the ring,” Master Grey sneered. “It didn’t
need
to make a deal to remain on this plane.”

“It said as much,” Emily said. She looked at the Grandmaster. “Can’t you take the ring out and deny permission for the demon to enter? Or simply destroy the ring?”

“It’s firmly lodged in their minds now,” the Grandmaster said. He looked down at Alassa, clearly choosing his next words carefully. “They effectively gave it permission to remain anyway.”

“But you rule Whitehall,” Emily protested. “If you could accidentally allow the demon entry...”

“I don’t rule the students,” the Grandmaster said. “They would have to forsake the demon on their own, which will be hard while they’re in comas. It laid its plans very well.”

“You brought the demon here,” Master Grey said, looking at Emily. “If it wasn’t for you, it would never have gained access to the school.”

Emily looked down at the floor. Cold logic told her he was wrong...but emotion told her something else. If she hadn’t insisted on going to the Dark Fortress after defeating Shadye, the demon might have simply remained where it was, destroying the lives of anyone stupid enough to visit the fortress. Whatever Shadye had left there would be safe enough as long as the demon stood on guard. But she’d gone to the Dark Fortress...

The Grandmaster didn’t escape the Nightmare Hex
, she thought, numbly.
I broke free and that snapped him out too
.

“She didn’t know what she - what
they
- were doing,” Lady Barb said. “You can’t blame her for ignorance.”

“She
should
have known,” Master Grey insisted. “Is ignorance a defense when hundreds of students are trapped in thrall to a
demon
? Is ignorance a defense when those innocent students will have to be killed to dislodge the demon from our world?”

“We’re not killing anyone,” Emily said. “There has to be a way to free them.”

“There isn’t,” Master Grey said. “The only way to convince a demon to let go would be to find something it wanted and make a trade, but what would it want? Demons enjoy suffering! They like watching us scream!”

“We will go through the older books,” the Grandmaster said, coolly. “It may be that there is a solution. Lord Whitehall was known for banishing demons in his time.”

Lady Barb frowned. “Can you read the books?”

“You can,” the Grandmaster said. “And there are other collections elsewhere.”

Mountaintop
, Emily thought.

“None of that changes the fact that the White Council will order us to do something drastic,” Master Grey snapped. “We’ll have to
kill
everyone touched by the demon!”

“We can keep the demon from spreading its wings further,” the Grandmaster said. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, we can keep it in check.”

Master Grey glowered at Emily. “How many students are on the verge of falling prey to its influence?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said.

She gritted her teeth. Her body hurt, a dull ache that seemed to pervade every last cell and even her soul. She wanted bed, desperately; she knew she didn’t dare sleep, not with a demon spreading its influence through the school. And Master Grey just wouldn’t shut up! She had to fight to keep her temper in check, after she’d been forced to watch Frieda die. He’d made it seem real...

“I don’t know,” Master Grey mocked. “I don’t know! That could almost be your refrain!”

He glared at her, savagely. “Several hundred students are about to die at our hands,” he snapped. “Several
hundred
students! And it’s all your fault.”

“Quiet,” the Grandmaster ordered. “I was with her. The responsibility is mine.”

“Everyone knows there are things you can’t see,” Master Grey said. He sneered at Emily. “But
she
should have been able to see them.”

Emily forced herself to ignore him. “There’s a library in Mountaintop,” she said. “Zed said I could go there, if I wanted. There are books on demons there.”

“You
wrecked
Mountaintop,” Master Grey thundered. His voice turned accusing. “And now you’ve wrecked Whitehall! Do you think the school will remain open when we know there’s a demon on the prowl?”

The Grandmaster sagged, resting on his staff. Lady Barb gave Emily a warning look, then hurried to his side. Emily felt another stab of bitter guilt. She liked the Grandmaster, she’d enjoyed the walk through the Blighted Lands...everything that had happened, since then, felt like her fault. And Master Grey’s words, his harsh words, cut into her very soul. They made her want to throw caution to the winds.

“Mountaintop was killing its students to sustain the wards,” Emily shouted, feeling her temper fray. It was hard, so hard, to believe he was wrong. If she hadn’t gone to the Dark Fortress, the demon would never have come to Whitehall. Alassa, Imaiqah, the Gorgon, Aloha, and everyone else would be working on their coursework, not resting in demon-induced comas. “Did you
know
that, when you left? How many of your friends died to keep the school running?”

“Hard choices have to be made,” Master Grey shouted back at her. “Do you think you can just pick matters up and then drop them again? Be committed, or don’t commit yourself at all!”

He took a breath. “And don’t waste my time babbling about things you don’t understand, you ignorant child,” he snapped. “Just shut up!”

Emily’s temper snapped. “If you think you can shut me up,” she shouted, caught between rage and exhaustion, “shut me up!”

Master Grey, just for a second, showed a flicker of triumph. “I accept your challenge,” he said, in a voice so polite that it was shockingly clear he’d faked his earlier rage. “My second will discuss the details of the duel later today. To the death, of course.”

“No, he won’t,” the Grandmaster growled. He pulled himself upright and fixed Master Grey with a stern look. “I do not permit dueling in my school.”

Master Grey stared back at him evenly. “She issued the challenge,” he said. It dawned on Emily that she might have made a horrific mistake. “It is my right to settle it as I see fit.”

“Then you can wait until after the exams,” the Grandmaster told him, flatly. “Or are you disputing
my
right to issue orders in
my
school?”

“Very well,” Master Grey said. “The duel can wait.”

He bowed politely to the Grandmaster, then strode out of the room, closing the door loudly behind him. The Grandmaster took a moment to center himself before he opened the door and followed Master Grey. Emily turned, wincing as Lady Barb caught her arm in a vice-like grip. A wave of her hand closed the door, then established a privacy ward.