She crafted the spell carefully — very carefully — and triggered it. Penny smiled, warmly, as Nanette’s magic shimmered against hers. Nanette smiled back as they moved around the room, gently widening the spell until it lightly brushed against Penny’s magic. The technique was very simple, but extremely difficult to use unless the caster was touching the victim. It was a kind of intimacy. And one that could easily be abused.
“That feels good,” Penny said. She looked… happy, relaxed. “What did you do?”
“A trick my mother taught me,” Nanette lied, smoothly. She massaged Penny’s back, drawing back the magic. She’d implant suggestions later. “It can make a man become putty in your hands.”
“You’ll have to teach me,” Penny said. She stepped back, letting go of Nanette. “It seems to work pretty well on women too.”
“Yes,” Nanette agreed. “But you have to dance with the men, I’m afraid.”
Penny laughed, humourlessly. “Next time, we’d better use proper music.”
“The music tells you how to move,” Nanette agreed. She glanced up as the bell rang. “Dinnertime?”
“Yeah.” Penny let out a long sigh. “And you know what comes after dinner?”
Nanette smiled. “Pudding?”
Penny gave her a thin smile. “Homework,” she said. “There’s no getting away from it, not here.”
“At least we’re doing something useful,” Nanette said. “What do you want us to do?”
“Flying charms,” Penny said. She changed into a dress and headed for the door. “And I’m pretty sure you know more than you’re telling.”
“It’s the first time I’ve ever worked with flying charms,” Nanette said. Technically, she hadn’t even done it once. “But I’m a quick study.”
Chapter 6
Nanette was surprised to discover, as she started to settle in, that she rather liked Laughter. There were downsides — she had to pretend to be ignorant, when she wasn’t trying to be stupid — and she found herself more isolated than she would have preferred, but she had to admit it had its advantages. The classes were smaller, allowing the tutors to give each student more individual attention, and some of the magics were new and different even for her. She was tempted, more than once, to see if she could wrangle herself a permanent place at the school. Only the grim certainty she had to keep her word to Cloak kept her from trying to find a way to stay.
It wasn’t easy to pretend to be ignorant, not when it brought all kinds of unwanted attention from the cliques. Nanette had expected it — the person at the bottom of the social ladder was dumped on by everyone above her — but it was still disconcerting to be so alone. Penny was the closest thing to a friend she had at Laughter, a friendship aided by subtle suggestions that Penny should be well-disposed towards her, yet even she was little more than formal outside their shared bedroom. Nanette understood that too — Penny’s friends would judge her harshly if she appeared too friendly with the school’s loser — but she hated it. The feeling spurred her on, driving her to lay her plans. And, finally, she convinced Penny to show her the library.
“There are two levels to the library,” Penny explained. “The first level is open to everyone, even you. You can use the books to practice your reading.”
“Or learn a dictation charm,” Nanette said, flushing. She knew how to read perfectly, damn it! But pretending otherwise was an excellent way to look dumb. People might make excuses for a commoner who couldn’t read, but an aristo? She should be able to read if she wanted to go to school. “What about the second level?”
“That’s the restricted section,” Penny said. “You’re not allowed to read those books unless you have special permission or perks.”
“Like being Head Girl,” Nanette guessed. “Are you allowed to read them?”
“Some of them,” Penny said. “But not all.”
Nanette nodded as she peered around the library. Emily would have loved it. There were bookshelves everywhere, some positioned against the walls and others standing in the middle of the room. The chamber felt like a giant maze, bigger on the inside than the outside. She allowed Penny to lead her through the stacks, pointing out the more interesting tomes — and joking that books on reproduction were always on loan — before she indicated the restricted section. The books were sealed in a cage, surrounded by nasty wards. Nanette wondered, idly, just who the wards were protecting. It was quite possible they were protecting the readers rather than the books themselves.
And they’re an order of magnitude more complex than anything I’ve seen elsewhere, she thought. She half-listened to Penny’s prattle while she studied the wards. The staff offices aren’t as heavily protected as the library books.
“If you get permission to read them, you can’t take them out of the library,” Penny said, as she opened the cage. “The librarians will hex first and ask questions later.”
Nanette nodded. The restricted section was remarkably light on the truly dangerous tomes — she’d seen darker books in Aurelius’s private collection — but each volume was carefully secured in place and tagged with a complex and deadly charm. She shivered as her gaze wandered the shelves, passing over Advanced Alchemy and Curse-Breaking Wards before coming to rest on Lamplighter’s Lines. It looked identical to the copy in her trunk, heavily secured behind wards and obscurification charms. She had the nasty feeling she wouldn’t have time to so much as read the text, let alone copy the notes. There was nothing for it. She’d have to perform the swap as quickly as possible and then vanish.
“Some students work their detentions off here,” Penny said, waving a hand at the book trolley. “You’d hate that, wouldn’t you?”
“I guess so,” Nanette said. She’d continued to pretend she had difficulty reading the older books. “Do you think the librarians would let me have time to read?”
“Not when you’re meant to be working,” Penny said. “But I’ve heard that some helpers manage to hide books in the stacks for later reading.”
Which seems to be common everywhere, Nanette thought. Whitehall and Mountaintop had the same problem. There are too few books and too many people who want to read them.
“I’ll bear it in mind,” she said. “What do we do now?”
“Well, I have to go help plan the flying display,” Penny said. “You can stay here and pretend to read.”
Nanette pouted after Penny as she departed. The Young Head Girl might be happy to take etiquette and dancing lessons from her, but she had made no move to induct Nanette into her wider circle of friends. Nanette understood — she was quite happy to take advantage of it — yet it gnawed at her. Penny might have been a friend, if things had been different. And yet… she shook her head as she surveyed the trolley, noting the presence of new printed books amongst the tomes. She was mildly surprised to see a handful of blue books in plain view, even though they were technically forbidden. They weren’t even in the restricted section.
She picked up a textbook, sat down on a comfortable chair and pretended to read while opening her mind to study the wards. They were complex, too complex to take down or spoof without setting off alarms. Only a handful of people were allowed to enter the section without permission, she guessed, and it would be difficult to pose as one of them. The wards might just be smart enough to spot someone who appeared to be in two places at once and alert their wardmaster. And then… Nanette shook her head. The restricted section was a lure to anyone with even the slightest hint of ambition. All the easy ways to get into the cage would have been tried long ago.