Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) (29 page)

“To make sure he’s a suitable husband for you,” Alassa said. She scowled. “I should have anticipated the possibility, even though Caleb is even less threatening to the established order than Jade. I’m sorry, Emily.”

Emily rubbed the side of her head. “I’m sorry it’s taking attention away from you,” she said, sincerely. It was rare, very rare, for Alassa to apologize. “This wedding is meant to be about
you
.”

“It’s never been about
just
me,” Alassa said. She looked up at Emily, suddenly. “You talked about guns as if you’d seen them before, where you come from.”

“I know the theory,” Emily said, carefully. She’d never seen, let alone handled, a gun on Earth. Everything she knew came from history and military fiction books, not military textbooks or genuine practical experience. “And if the general had seen some of Earth’s weapons, he’d faint.”

She thought about nukes - and the nuke-spell - and shuddered. “Alassa, what I was saying about peasant uprisings...that’s what happened on Earth.”

Alassa gave her a sharp look. “And how did they end?”

“A lot of people died,” Emily said. Historically, most peasant revolts had failed, but some had come very close to dethroning the monarch. The rebels in Zangaria were
already
considering what sort of world might follow the end of the Royal Family. “It’s a serious threat.”

“Then tell me,” Alassa said. “What do you propose we do about it?”

“What I suggested to your father,” Emily insisted. “Make some concessions now so you don’t lose the kingdom later.”

“Which would spark off a civil war anyway,” Alassa said. She shook her head. “The problem hasn’t changed, Emily. Go too far in one direction, start a civil war; go too far in the other direction, have a civil war. Stay where we are...”

“And try to build up a force to neutralize one of the enemy factions,” Emily said. “Is
that
what your father is trying to do?”

“I wish I knew,” Alassa said. She glared down at the floor. “He doesn’t tell me everything.”

Alassa sighed. “We need to get back to the dance floor,” she added, as she stood. “I dare say Caleb will be fine. Probably.”

Emily frowned. “Probably?”

“Father can be very intimidating when he feels like it,” Alassa said. “But I think he’d probably approve of Caleb. He wouldn’t have offered Caleb a place in the wedding party if he’d heard only bad things about him.”

Emily rose and followed her towards the door. “But it doesn’t matter to me if he approves of Caleb or not,” she insisted. “I can marry whoever I please.”

Alassa stopped and swung around to face her. “You are a noblewoman - a baroness - of Zangaria,” she said. “Your marriage is a matter of national concern. You are in no danger of being married off to someone you don’t know, someone chosen by your parents, but you have to understand that your marriage will shift the balance of power. At the very least, Caleb will become Baron Consort. My father needs to understand what changes are likely to follow before
anything
happens.”

You too, Alassa
, Emily thought.

Alassa turned back. “Tonight, make sure you get plenty of sleep,” she added. “Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.”

A
LASSA, AS IT TURNED OUT, WAS
right.

The first full-scale wedding rehearsal was a near-complete disaster, despite the best efforts of Imaiqah, Nightingale and Queen Marlena. Emily did her best to stay out of the shouting match that followed, standing next to Caleb and waiting for everyone to settle down for a second try at the rehearsal. Imaiqah finally pushed her into supervising the bridesmaids as they went through a complex dance routine, intended to distract the audience while Alassa changed from one dress into another. The bridesmaids, thankfully, didn’t try to argue with her as they went through the whole routine a second time. It was slightly less terrible, as Queen Marlena said, than the first rehearsal.

“Jade asked me to attend his stag night,” Caleb said, as the rehearsal came to an end. “Are you going to be attending?”

“I thought it was boys only,” Emily teased. She had no idea what a stag night was supposed to be like on Earth, beyond a handful of horror stories she’d read on the Internet, but Alassa had invited her to a private gathering for a handful of friends. “I’ll be with Alassa.”

“It
is
,” Caleb said. “I wish you were coming too.”

Emily nodded. “You try and keep an eye on Jade, all right?”

“I can try,” Caleb said, giving Jade a pointed look. “I think, right now, he needs a stiff drink and a quiet sit-down.”

Emily followed his gaze. Jade seemed as tired and ill as she felt, with her magic reserves threatening to break loose. It looked as though he was reaching the ends of his endurance. Beside him, Alassa didn’t look much better. She’d had to change her dresses twice for each rehearsal, something that wouldn’t have been particularly easy even with a dozen maids. Emily couldn’t help wondering if the best thing she could do for Alassa was to take her to bed, feed her some sleeping potion and then stand guard until she woke up by herself. But she knew it would only complicate the day.

“Don’t let him drink too much,” she warned. “Who else is coming?”

“A handful of his friends from Whitehall and a bunch of young noblemen,” Caleb said. “I think they were talking about going down into the city.”

“Joy,” Emily said. Jade was a decent person, but she wouldn’t have bet money on the bartenders being pleased to see them. A handful of drunken noblemen could smash up the bar and escape with only a slap on the wrist, if that. King Randor wasn’t likely to order them flogged, not when it would annoy their parents. “Try and keep things under control, please.”

Caleb gave her a look that suggested it might be beyond his considerable powers, and followed her over to Alassa as the gathering slowly broke up. Imaiqah had said there would be at least one more big rehearsal, the day before the wedding itself, once she and the others had a chance to identify the weaknesses in the performance. Emily had never been so glad to be undervalued in her life. She had a feeling that Imaiqah was going to need a long holiday after the wedding was over, before she returned to the kingdom to do...what?

She’s Alassa’s friend
, she thought, feeling a hint of bitter jealousy.
She’ll be one of her closest advisors. There’ll always be something for her to do
.

“Emily,” Alassa said. “Are you ready for tonight?”

“Just about,” Emily said, carefully. Alassa was entitled to two hen nights, apparently, but she hadn’t gone into details about what they’d be doing. “You?”

“I want to let my hair down, just for a while,” Alassa said. She rubbed her forehead as her mother approached. “Don’t you?”

“I don’t know how,” Emily admitted.

“Everything has been prepared,” Queen Marlena said. She looked at Emily. “Don’t let her get
too
silly, please.”

Emily frowned. “I’ll try,” she said.
Too
silly? “When do we start?”

“Two hours,” Alassa said, after a glance at her watch. “Get changed into something more comfortable - have a nap if you want - and we’ll meet up in my rooms.”

“Jade wants me to meet him in the courtyard,” Caleb said. “What about dinner?”

“You’ll be eating with him,” Alassa said. She smiled, rather unpleasantly. “Do try and have the kind of evening Emily can ask you about.”

Emily glanced at Caleb, feeling a flicker of concern. She knew he could take care of himself - he was a magician who’d spent two years at Stronghold - but she couldn’t help being worried. A night on the town hadn’t been her idea of fun on Earth, let alone on the Nameless World. It was unlikely that supernatural vermin would dare sneak into Alexis - the city was crammed with humans - but some of the most dangerous predators in the world walked on two legs. And Jade was being accompanied by a gaggle of noblemen...

This isn’t going to end well
, she thought.

She walked back to Caleb’s room, kissed him goodbye and hurried up to her own suite. A maid waited outside, holding a box. Emily took it, tipped the maid with a silver coin from her pocket and slipped into her room. The box proved to contain a folded black dress, a silver necklace and a note. She ran through a handful of spells, testing to make sure someone hadn’t hexed or cursed the box’s contents, then took the note. It told her to make sure she wore the dress, and the necklace, when she went to Alassa’s room. She checked the dress again, just to be sure, before pulling it out of the box. It looked more like an elaborate nightgown than anything she’d wear in public. Gritting her teeth, she removed her dress and pulled the new one over her head. It was so tight in all the wrong places that she had to use a glamor to hide her curves.

Caleb would love it
, the treacherous part of her mind said.

Shut up
, her own thoughts answered.
Does Alassa really expect me to wear this
?

She picked up Master Grey’s book and resumed her reading, careful to keep one eye on her watch at all times. Alassa wouldn’t thank her if she was late. The book was engrossing, but when the time came she forced herself to put it down and walked out the door, cursing the dress under her breath. If Caleb saw her in it - or any other guy she knew - she’d probably die of embarrassment.

“Emily,” Alassa said, when Emily stepped through the door. “You look good.”

“Not as good as you,” Emily said. Alassa wore the same kind of dress, showing off her long blonde hair. It was so tight around her chest that Emily had to look away, embarrassed. “The dress suits you.”

“They’re traditional,” Alassa said, as she waved Emily into the room. Inside, Imaiqah and Frieda sat on cushions. They both wore similar dresses. “The Crown Princess gets a couple of nights where she can let her hair down” - her hand toyed with one long blonde strand for a second - “and be something different. A
boy
, of course, would get to go out on the town, but it isn’t
safe
for me.”

“There
are
rebels out there,” Emily pointed out. The thought of Alassa, the sole heir to the throne, being kidnapped or killed was terrifying. If she died, civil war would break out almost at once. “You wouldn’t be safe at all.”

“I know that,” Alassa said, crossly. “But that isn’t the real reason these sessions are always private, you know. They don’t want to spark off any more rumors.”

Emily glanced around. “Is anyone else coming?”

“I hoped a couple of others from Whitehall could make it, but they won’t be here until the day before the wedding,” Alassa said. “Aloha declined, unfortunately; the Gorgon wasn’t sure if she’d be able to attend or not.”

She settled down next to Imaiqah and waved for Emily to sit too. “And there aren’t many others I really wanted to invite,” she added, after a moment. “Lady Regina was pushing for an invitation, but I didn’t want to invite
her
. She doesn’t seem to have changed a
bit
since I knew her as a little girl. Alicia...didn’t show any interest in coming.”

“She still wants to talk to you,” Frieda said, addressing Emily. “But she’s nervous about it too.”

Emily frowned. “Are you sure?”

“She keeps casting glances at you,” Frieda said. There was a quiet earnestness in her tone that made it impossible to disbelieve her. “And I’ve seen her watching when you’re surrounded by others. She even gave Caleb a dirty look on the dance floor. But she’s never been to your room, has she?”

“She’d need an appointment,” Alassa said. She waved a hand at the walls. “The wards keep out everyone who hasn’t been cleared to enter the Royal Apartments.”

And what does it mean
, Emily thought,
that Randor saw fit to grant that permission to Caleb?

“I’ll see if I can speak to her alone,” she promised, putting the thought aside for later. She had no idea where she would find the time. When she wasn’t being fitted for dresses or taking part in rehearsals, she was helping elsewhere or burning off magic in the spellchambers. “But why?”

“I don’t know,” Frieda said. “Whatever it is, however, weighs quite heavily on her mind.”

“She probably wants to recruit your support for her title,” Alassa said, briskly. She rose to her feet and padded over to the table. “Does anyone want a drink?”

Emily frowned as Alassa picked a couple of bottles off the table and carried them back to the group. “What
is
that?”

“SummerFlower Wine,” Alassa said. She placed the bottles in the center of the circle, then went back for snacks and glasses. “Each of these bottles is worth a knight’s ransom - I believe these date all the way back to the
first
king. They wouldn’t have been released from the wine cellar if it hadn’t been
my
day.”

Emily stared at the bottles as Alassa started to pour glasses. She didn’t
like
alcohol; her mother had been trying to drink herself to death when Shadye had kidnapped Emily from Earth. She’d flatly refused to drink alcohol outside Whitehall - it was banned in the school, with good reason - but how could she object without sounding like a spoilsport? She took the glass, sniffed the liquid and cursed as the scent of berries rose to her nostrils. She’d expected the repulsive stink of the cheap wine her mother had enjoyed, not something she actually
wanted
to taste.

“To Zangaria,” Alassa said, and drank. “And life!”

Emily took a very careful sip. It tasted heavenly, as if it were a mixture of fruit and sunshine. She wanted to finish the glass, then have another; somehow, she forced herself to put the glass down and push it away from her. The others had already finished their glasses, she noted; Alassa seemed surprised, and offended, that she
hadn’t
finished hers.

“It’s nice,” Alassa said, gently.

“I don’t want to get drunk,” Emily admitted. She hesitated, unsure what she could tell them about her past. Alassa knew about Earth, but she didn’t know much about Emily’s
true
parents. Emily hadn’t wanted to talk about them to anyone. “I hate giving up control.”