Trial By Fire (Schooled in Magic Book 7) Read Online Free Page B

to make sure she had the right reaction to them. She pushed the thought aside and clutched the snake tighter, promising herself she wouldn’t be either of the doppelgangers. Aurelius shifted around her neck, then relaxed.
    The Dark Fortress loomed up in front of them, a brooding mass that dominated the landscape...and yet seemed petty, somehow, compared to the Inverse Shadow. Emily felt the rune on her chest grow warm, warning of the presence of subtle magic, as they walked closer, studying the exterior of the building for a way in. She couldn’t help comparing it to a palace, rather than a fortress; it didn’t look very secure. Indeed, some of the upper levels were clearly crumbling into ruins. But with a necromancer in residence, very few would dare to enter without permission.
    And who in their right mind would want to visit ? she asked herself, as the warmth in her chest grew stronger. Shadye would use anyone who visited as a source of power .
    “There,” the Grandmaster said, pointing at a blank stone wall. “Can you see the doorway?”
    Emily peered at the wall, gritting her teeth as the rune grew warmer. Her chest hurt as she forced her eyes to look past the magic, past the aversion wards designed to keep her from seeing something right in front of her, but she kept going. The world seemed to shimmer, then snap back into place, revealing an open door right in front of them. There was a final burst of heat from the rune before it faded so quickly, it almost felt cold .
    “I can see it,” she said. She rubbed her chest, feeling somewhat frostbitten, then took a step forward. Nothing moved to block her. “Is it safe to enter?”
    “Good question,” the Grandmaster said. He drew a wand from his belt, and held it in front of him like a divining rod as he walked through the door. “There are a handful of odd wards here, none of them interlocked. I’m surprised they’ve lasted this long.”
    Emily nodded as she followed him through the door and into the darkened chamber beyond. Wards could be lodged within stone, but they rarely lasted more than a year without the sorcerer renewing and replenishing them. Shadye had been powerful, staggeringly so, yet he’d lacked the skill and experience of the Grandmaster or Void. His wards might have been crude, rather than subtle. They might well not have lasted long after his death.
    She looked at the Grandmaster’s back as a thought struck her. “Could someone else have put up the wards?”
    “It’s possible,” the Grandmaster said. “Void might have returned to the Dark Fortress, after Shadye’s death. Few others would have dared.”
    Emily felt a twinge of... something . She hadn’t seen Void for over a year; she’d written to him, after the events in Cockatrice, but received no reply. Had he been busy searching Shadye’s fortress now he knew she would be visiting, or had he been preoccupied with something else? Or...had he decided she was no longer worthy of his attention? He might have saved her life, but everyone she’d met had warned her, in no uncertain terms, that he couldn’t really be trusted. It wasn’t something she wanted to consider.
    “Cast a light globe,” the Grandmaster ordered. “Let’s see what we find.”
    Emily obeyed, casting the spell into the air. The globe took shape and form, casting an eerie light into the chamber, but dimmed rapidly, as if something was draining the magic from the spell. Emily blinked in surprise as the globe started to die, then hastily pushed more magic into her spell. The light brightened, but started to dim again. And then it flickered before it went out completely.
    “Unfortunate,” the Grandmaster observed. He dug into his pockets and produced a Hand of Glory, which he lit with a spell. Emily shuddered; the severed human hand had had the fingertips removed and replaced with charmed candles, which glowed with an eerie - but stable - light. “Take this and hold it in front of you.”
    The Hand of Glory