Nanette's Tale

Chapter 2

It hadn’t been a wasted month, for all the frustrations of having her wrist and hand steadily regrown while she swotted extensively. She’d studied the life and times of Nadine of Hightower, memorised family details that were of little interest to anyone outside the dedicated snob — a type she knew well from Mountaintop — and read the candid reports from servants who’d left Nadine’s household. The girl’s mother seemed incapable of keeping servants for long. The reports made it clear that few experienced servants with good characters wanted to stay in her household. Nanette didn’t blame them.

Cloak really was planning this for a long time, she thought, as she turned and followed the coach into Pendle. Who did he have in mind for the job?

She put the thought out of her mind and walked through the streets. Pendle was a nice town, if a little odd. The vast majority of the businesses were run by women, even the ones that were traditionally male-dominated. The young men appeared nice enough — certainly nicer than the boys she’d known at school — but it seemed most of them moved away as soon as they came of age. And a number had weird little pimples on their faces that suggested they’d been hexed at some point. She found it weird. Anyone powerful enough to hex someone with permanent pimples could certainly do a great deal worse.

The long-stay inn was the largest building in town, the largest she’d seen outside the magical or aristocratic communities. She ambled closer, just in time to see Nadine step out of the coach and walk towards the door with her nose firmly in the air. The girl was twenty, only a year younger than Nanette, but she managed to look much younger. She was classically pretty, with long blonde hair that reminded Nanette of Princess Alassa, yet there was no real character to her face. Her servants looked beaten down, as if the will to live had steadily been sapped from them out of them. The slave collars around their throats made sure of it. Nanette felt a pang of sympathy. If she’d had any qualms about replacing the little brat, they’d long since vanished.

She waited until the coach was driven away before slipping closer to the inn and casually walking through the front door. The building was not heavily protected, despite its importance to the community. Really important guests went to the school’s guesthouse, not the inn. Nadine wanted to keep her servants close, Nanette had been told. It struck her as a waste of money, but what did she know? She wasn’t an aristocratic bitch. She wasn’t someone who had to put on a show of wealth and power even if she didn’t have two coins to rub together. She’d met too many of them too.

The wards buzzed around her as she walked up the stairs, easily deflected with a handful of comforting lies. Nanette was surprised the innkeeper hadn’t asked the school’s mistresses to improve his wards, although she thought she understood the logic. The school was a political force in its own right, one that had vast influence beyond its walls. It would be very tempted to spy on guests, particularly ones who might not be well-disposed towards the school. She’d watched Aurelius play the game long enough to know that simple human decency went out the window when there was power and influence to be won.

She checked her knapsack before wrapping a glamour around herself and stepping onto the upper corridor. The uppermost floor had been entirely reserved for Nadine and her servants, at great expense. It was more space than she’d have at Laughter, certainly more space than Nanette had ever had at Mountaintop. Nadine was showing off her wealth in a manner that Nanette couldn’t help but find tasteless. Her father might be a baron — through marriage — but he wasn’t made of money. His wife would probably be looking for an excuse to cut his unwanted daughter off. It was what Nanette would have done.

The thought made her grimace as she walked down to the door and paused outside. Someone was shouting inside, barking orders in a manner that sent ice down Nanette’s spine. Nadine, she assumed. No one else would dare talk like that in the princess’s suite. Nadine might not be a real princess, but she certainly had the spoilt brat act down pat. Nanette wondered, as she tapped on the door, if Nadine had taken lessons from Princess Alassa. By all accounts, Zangaria’s princess had been a brat until she’d run headlong into Emily and lost. Nanette wondered, idly, how they’d become friends. They seemed to have very little in common. Nanette loathed Emily, but even she had to admit the girl was a powerful and skilled magician. She’d beaten a necromancer in single combat.

She readied herself, preparing a spell. The door rattled, then opened. A maid, her pale face marred with an unsightly bruise, stared at Nanette in confusion. The glamour made Nanette look like Nadine. Nanette didn’t give her time to realise her charge was in two places at once. She cast a freeze spell, locking the maid in place, then pushed her out the way and looked around the room. Three more maids gaped at her before they were frozen too. Nanette pushed the door shut behind her as a loud voice echoed through the air. Nadine had heard the door.

“Who’s that?” Nadine sounded haughty, very much like Alassa. “Tell them to wait for…”

Nanette strode over to the washroom and looked inside. Nadine was standing in front of the mirror, admiring herself. She turned as Nanette entered, one hand raised to deliver a slap… and froze as she came face-to-face with herself. Nanette laughed at her visible confusion, then cast the dominance spell. Nadine’s face went slack, hands falling to her side as she waited for orders. Nanette smiled coldly as she checked the rest of the suite. Nadine had some training in magic, but it clearly hadn’t been as intensive as hers. Aurelius had cast hundreds of mind control spells on her until she’d learnt to fight them off.

“Well,” she said. “How many servants do you have?”

“Four maids, three coachmen,” Nadine said. There was no hint of resistance in her dull voice. Her free will had been snuffed out by the spell. “The coachmen are staying in the backhouse.”

Can’t have them sharing a suite with the maids, Nanette thought, dryly. Who knows what they’d get up to?

She ran through a dozen questions, trying to fill in the blanks in her knowledge, before moving to the next stage of the plan. Nadine really was a piece of work. She had about as much self-awareness as a flea. It never seemed to have occurred to her that she was going into a completely new and different environment, where her fellow students would be her equals in magic. Or that her father might have sent her away deliberately. Or that… or that there was something wrong in constantly casting spells on her servants. Nanette rather doubted any of them were loyal enough to stay, if their collars were removed. She would have put a knife in the little brat rather than listen to her voice for a second longer.

And I’m going to have to act like her, Nanette thought. She cringed, inwardly. Nadine would’ve been in real trouble if she’d gone to Mountaintop. Her attitude would make her a pariah, the butt of all the jokes and the targets of all the hexes.People are going to be watching me.

She sighed as she ran through the last few questions, then opened her bag. The charmed fishbowl looked surprisingly plain, for something she was going to leave in an aristocrat’s suite, but it would have to do. Enchantment wasn’t her forte and there was no way she could ask any of the town’s enchanters to do it. This close to a school, they’d assume she intended to play a very nasty prank on one of her fellow students. They’d either report her to the mistresses or tell her to do her own dirty work. She filled the fishbowl with water, checked the spells one final time, then placed it on the ledge and released the dominance spell. Nadine’s eyes went wide, first with confusion and then fear, as she realised she was a prisoner. She might even have remembered being under the spell.

Nadine opened her mouth to scream. Nanette paralysed her vocal cords before she could make a sound.

“Just so you know, the fishbowl is enchanted,” she said. “If you try to break the spell, you’ll find yourself crushed to death. And I suggest” — she looked the aristocratic brat in the eye — “that you spend the next few months reflecting on how awful it is to be the victim.”

She snapped her fingers dramatically as she cast the spell. Nadine shrank, her dress billowing as it dropped to the floor. Nanette picked the dress up, revealing a tiny goldfish flapping its fins desperately. She scooped Nadine up, held her above the fishbowl for a long moment and then dropped her in the water. The experience of being trapped in another form would probably do the brat good. And if it didn’t… Nanette shrugged. It would keep her out of mischief for a few months, which was all she needed it to do.

“And if you manage to break the spell,” she said, “it really will kill you.”

She carried the fishbowl into the next room, weakened the glamour and cast a slight confusion hex before releasing the maids. Their eyes glazed, just for a second. Their memories would be a little confused, but they shouldn’t have any reason to think something was wrong. They’d probably blame the whole thing on their mistress’s pranks and jokes. Nanette was no stranger to cruelty — she was all too aware that children and teenagers could be very cruel indeed — but there were limits. Nadine’s father should have hired a strict governess or done something before sending his daughter school.

“Princess,” one of the maids managed. “I…”

“Lay out my clothes for going to school,” Nanette ordered. She braced herself. She’d done everything in her power to make herself resemble Nadine, but if she couldn’t fool the brat’s maids, she couldn’t fool anyone. “And I want you to take good care of my fish.”

She placed the fishbowl on the mantelpiece and issued strict orders. The maids would feed the fish, but otherwise do nothing. The enchantments on the bowl would clean the water, ensuring there was no need to take the fish out of the bowl. Nanette didn’t think Nadine could break the spell from the inside — she’d used the strongest spell she could cast without making it blindingly obvious — but Aurelius had taught her there was no point in taking chances. Nadine would stay a fish until Nanette saw fit to release her.

Or someone comes to investigate, after I’ve been and gone, she thought, as she changed into her new dress. The maids fussed around her, pinning her hair into an elaborate hairstyle that felt oddly uncomfortable. I wonder if they’ll blame everything on the little brat.

She glanced up as there was a knock on the door, then snapped her fingers. A maid hurried to open it. A young girl stood outside, looking nervous as she dropped an unpractised curtsey. The innkeeper’s daughter, Nanette guessed, wearing a fancy dress that was probably older than she was. Nadine would have sniggered, Nanette was sure. The girl’s dress was so outdated that it would have been passed down from grandmother to mother and then to daughter. But… Nanette decided not to laugh. She didn’t need the girl doing something stupid while she was at the school.

“Yes?”

“Your Ladyship, the school’s carriage has arrived,” the girl said. “They’re waiting for you downstairs.”

“Then it will be my honour to join them,” Nanette said, grandly. She indicated the trunk with one hand, subtly casting a lightening spell. “Take the trunk down to the carriage. I shall join you in a moment.”

“Yes, Your Ladyship,” the girl said.

Nanette watched her go, then gave the maids their final orders before wrapping her cloak around her dress and promenaded down the stairs. Nadine wasn’t as important as Nadine had thought, she noted absently; Nadine only had a handful of servants, rather than the small army a real princess would have. She smiled inwardly as she reached the bottom of the stairs, waving grandly to the innkeeper before stepping into the open air. The carriage — it was more of a gig cart — was waiting for her, a grim-faced woman holding the reins. The innkeeper’s daughter stood beside it. Nanette made sure to tip the girl before she clambered into the carriage. Nadine probably wouldn’t have bothered, but Nanette knew what it was like to serve. She just hoped the girl was smart enough to make the money vanish before her father or siblings saw it.

She leaned back in her chair as the cart rattled into life, the driver steering through the streets and up a narrow road that led up to the castle. Magic flickered through the air, traces of wild magic mingled with more controlled spells… she frowned as she saw another castle on a further peak, clearly in ruins. She wondered, idly, who’d built the twin castles… and who’d destroyed the second one. The records didn’t say, not with any certainty. There was no shortage of stories, from the believable to the absurd, but nothing was known. She tensed as the cart passed through a ward, one that sent odd little tingles down her spine. It reminded her of something, something she’d seen before, but she couldn’t place it.

The driver glanced back at her. “If you happen to be smuggling any boys into the castle,” she said in a disdainful tone, “now’s the time to let them go.”

Nanette blinked. Now she knew why the ward felt familiar. It was a sex-detection ward, akin to the spells protecting the female dorms at Mountaintop. And yet… she’d never encountered a ward so sensitive. It might not stop any boys from continuing up the road, but it would alert the castle’s wardmasters they were coming.

“I’m not carrying any boys,” she managed. The thought was absurd. “Does that happen often?”

“You might be surprised,” the driver said. “There’s always someone who thinks they can break the rules.”

She lapsed back into silence. Nanette stared at the back of her head for a moment, then lifted her gaze and stared at the school. The castle looked vaguely ominous, as if it were wrapped in darkness and shadow even though it was late afternoon. She could sense magic pulsing around the building, feel flickering spells dancing through the air. They didn’t seem hostile, but she had a feeling that could change at any moment. The school had enemies. Some of them were powerful enough to do real harm.

Yeah, she reminded herself. And I’m one of them.

The wrought-iron gates, runes and sigils carved into the metal, swung open as they approached. The courtyard within was empty. There were no students, no staff… not even any other horses. Nanette wondered, just for a moment, if they’d come to the wrong castle. A shiver ran down her spine. The magic was strong, but…

“Down you get,” the driver ordered. She waved a hand at an open door. “Penny will take you to the Deputy Headmistress.”

Nanette’s eyes narrowed as she saw a young woman — the same age as herself, she thought — step out of the door. The woman — Penny, she assumed — held herself like an aristocrat, but so rigidly that Nanette knew she wasn’t that highborn. Her blonde hair was tied in a tight bun, her face schooled into an expression of such bland unconcern that it had to be an act. She kept her hands clasped behind her back, probably to keep them from shaking. Nanette hid her amusement with an effort. She knew the type. They were easily manipulated.

“Nadine?” Penny’s voice was aristocratic enough to put the other aristocrats to shame. “I bid you…”

“That’s Your Ladyship to you,” Nanette said. It was what Nadine would have said. “I…”

Penny glowered. “The Deputy Headmistress wishes to speak with you,” she said. “And then I’ll show you to your room.”

“I want to speak to the Headmistress,” Nanette said. “My father…”

“The Deputy Headmistress wishes to speak with you,” Penny repeated, a hint of impatience entering her tone. “Come with me.”

She turned and strode into the castle. Nanette shrugged and followed. Wards crackled around her as she stepped through the door, each one accessing her and her outfit before allowing her to proceed. It wouldn’t be easy to smuggle someone into the castle, particularly if that person happened to be a man. Nanette had met a couple of girls who’d tried to smuggle their boyfriends into the dorms, but it was rare. Mountaintop had plenty of room for young lovers to find privacy, without disturbing anyone else. She was fairly sure a girl could hire a room in the town, if she wished. No one had raised any objection to her hiring a room.

Her eyes looked from side to side, spotting no one. “Where is everyone?”

“Flying lessons.” Penny didn’t unbend, even slightly. “Everyone attends. You’ll be there too, once you master the charms.”

“Flying lessons?” Nanette allowed herself a laugh. “You mean you really ride pitchforks and broomsticks?”

Penny shot her a disgusted look. “You’ll see,” she said, as she stopped in front of a door and tapped loudly. It opened, silently. “Believe me, you’ll see.”