Madame Rosalinda tapped the table, meaningfully. “Melissa has been disowned from her family. Cabiria is seen as ... as something of a freak. Pandora’s marks are too low to justify promoting her into the Head Girl role. Jacqui and Cerise are ... are too power-hungry to take on the role without causing problems. And The Gorgon is ...”
“The Gorgon,” Gordian finished. What, in the name of all the gods, had Hasdrubal been thinking? Allowing a Gorgon to study at Whitehall? “Are there no promising prospects amongst the boys?”
“None who match Emily,” Sergeant Miles said. “Cirroc and Johan are both working on Martial Magic, while Caleb ... has shown evidence of moral weakness. And those three are the best of the bunch.”
Gordian pressed his fingers together, hiding his irritation. Jacqui had been his choice for Head Pupil, although Cirroc would have been a close second. The Head Pupil would find a multitude of doors opening for her, when she left Whitehall. It would give Emily the skills she needed—and probably keep her out of trouble—but it would also paint an even larger target on her back. Her enemies didn’t need more reasons to step up their plans.
She might decline the nomination, he thought. Does she understand that that would be held against her?
“Let us vote,” he said, instead. In hindsight, maybe he should have raised the issue with a handful of tutors privately. If nothing else, he might have been able to get Jacqui or Cirroc nominated before he held the final meeting. “All those in favor of Lady Emily, raise your hands.”
He counted, slowly. “Ten in favor,” he said. Five tutors hadn’t voted, although that didn’t prove anything. Professor Thande wasn’t known for caring that much about the position—or anything beyond his alchemical experiments. Gordian was surprised he’d even bestirred himself to put Cabiria’s name forward. “The motion passes.”
“As it should,” Sergeant Miles said.
Gordian shot him a sharp look. If he were forced to be honest, one of the reasons he’d allowed Sergeant Miles to take Emily to the war was an unexpressed hope she wouldn’t come back. The war could have lasted months, if not years. She might have been killed or moved straight to a more regular apprenticeship. Instead, she’d bested her third necromancer and returned to Whitehall.
“She’s due to re-sit her exams tomorrow,” Gordian said, calmly. There was one last card to play. “They’ll be marked immediately afterwards. If she passes—if she can enter Sixth Year—I will inform her of her nomination.”
There were no objections. He hadn’t expected any.
“I’ll see you all at the Last Feast,” he added. “Until then ... dismissed.”
He kept his face impassive as his senior tutors filed out of the room, some clearly intending to head down to Dragon’s Den for a drink before the students started arriving to re-sit their exams. When they were gone, he sealed the wards and sat back in his chair, forcing himself to think. He was caught in a knot of conflicting obligations, of promises he’d made and rules he could not break ...
And others are already moving against her, he thought. He’d heard rumors. Some of them had been nightmarish. What will happen when their plans come to term?
Chapter One
EMILY PLACED THE BRACELET ON THE table, closed her eyes and undid the spell.
There was a surge of feeling as Aurelius came to life, a wave of strange animalistic emotions that ran down the familiar link and through her mind. The Death Viper wasn’t hungry—she’d fed him weeks ago, before changing him back to the bracelet—but he was a little confused. Emily steadied her mind, forcing herself to peer through the snake’s eyes. Her head ached as Aurelius looked around, tongue flickering in and out of his mouth. It was hard to reconcile her vision of the room with his. To her, the room was tiny; to him, it was vast and cold.
She shivered, despite the warm air. The Death Viper wanted something warmer. His head moved from side to side, hunting for a warmer part of the room. Emily smiled, wanly, as the Death Viper looked at her, then she reached out and picked up the snake. Aurelius curled into her hands, enjoying the warmth. She looked warm to her familiar’s eyes.
He sees into the infrared, she reminded herself. And he wants to be warm.
She felt an odd flicker of affection as she cradled the snake in her arms. It wasn’t something she could do very often. The familiar bond kept the viper’s poisonous skin—the rotting touch—from harming her, but the poison would be terrifyingly dangerous to anyone else. She’d have to make very sure she cleaned herself—and the room—before she left. Even a drop could do someone a serious injury. The handful of people who knew about Aurelius had been horrified, knowing—all too well—that accidents could happen. She simply didn’t dare take the snake out to play too often.
The snake brushed against her fingertips, another wave of warm sensations washing down the bond. Emily opened her eyes and peered at the snake, admiring the blue-gold scales running along its back. Death Vipers hadn’t evolved to remain unnoticed amongst the greenery. There was certainly no way they could hide from hawks, eagles and other predators. But they were so dangerous, so poisonous, that almost every other living creature gave them a wide berth. A hawk foolish enough to snatch a Death Viper off the ground would be dead before it could claw its way back into the sky.
Emily shook her head, slowly, as Aurelius started to climb into her sleeve and up her arm. It was a shame, really, that she couldn’t keep the snake with her—other magicians had far stronger bonds with their familiars—but the danger was just too great. And besides, Aurelius was a secret weapon. The fewer people who knew about him, the better. She caught the snake as he poked his head out of her collar, then put him back on the table. Aurelius shot her a wave of betrayed emotions, silently pleading for her to pick him back up again. The familiar bond drove him to remain close to her at all times.
“Sorry,” Emily muttered.
She worked the spell quickly, before she could talk herself into spending an hour playing with the snake. Aurelius shimmered, then became a silver bracelet. Emily felt her head spin, just for a second, as the familiar vanished from her mind. She picked it up and played with it for a long moment, then placed it back on the table and closed her eyes for a second, centering herself. It had been a long day.
And it isn’t over yet, she thought, as she turned to the bathroom. Lady Barb said she’d return in an hour.