Chapter 27
Ambrose Portaled them, and an insistent Abraxas, directly into the Entrance Hall at Vaukore. Maeve and Mal stepped into the warm castle with their new Head Girl and Head Boy badges pinned proudly to their uniforms.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, vibrating the floors beneath them. Ambrose shook Mal’s hand and kissed Maeve on the cheek. He wished them a good term at school.
At the foot of the Grand Staircase, The Headmasters stood. Rowan looked at Ambrose in disapproval.
“Milites!” Ambrose shouted, never breaking his gaze with Rowan.
The soldiers of the Magical Militia in the Entrance Hall all slammed their fist to their chests at once.
“Mundi!” They called out in unison.
“Memento,” said Ambrose softly, and the soldiers relaxed once more.
The Headmaster’s received his message fully. They eyed one another briefly. Elgin gave Rowan, Ambrose’s ex-spy, a look of subtle judgement.
Ambrose turned on his heel. The Portal vanished behind him.
“Well, no surprise there,” said Hendrix Fawley, gesturing to their badges as they entered the Dining Hall.
“Suppose everything will be terribly different now,” said Abraxas dramatically as Spinel rubbed against his legs.
Abraxas reached for him, but he took off into the castle.
Maeve laughed. “As if you’ve ever gotten in trouble for anything.”
After the traditional back to school feast and Cauldron Ceremony, Maeve and Mal made their way up the stairs, assisting new students in finding their way to their Court Paragons and Dorms.
The castle was quiet just before curfew. Mal and Maeve strolled the darkened corridors in solitude. Head Boy and Head Girl had no curfew.
As they reached the third-floor landing, a Draconem Paragon ran towards them. Her face was flushed and her mouth was pulled in a thin line.
“Hi,” she said, winded. “I’m Grace. I’m a-”
“What’s happened?” Maeve interrupted her.
She sighed loudly, “Well, there’s was a party in the Draconem Dorms. I came to find you two, and something’s got out of hand and-”
Maeve and Mal listened to Grace no further, and they flanked her on either side and quickly made their way to the seventh floor.
“Surely Harquinton is already there,” said Maeve.
Professor Harquinton was the Head of Draconem Court.
“Let’s take the passage off the fourth floor,” said Mal. “It’ll be quicker.”
They rounded the corner and slipped behind a tapestry of Merlin, where there was a narrow spiral staircase.
Wordlessly, light flickered into existence before them, guiding them in the darkness.
The stairs led straight to a secret door on the seventh floor, which appeared to be a painting.
It was much quicker than taking the grand staircase of the castle.
They hastily pushed through the painting and rounded the corner. There were several new students outside in the corridor crying.
Mal strode towards the door and demanded entry.
Maeve asked the girls if they were alright. They nodded and wiped their tears. One of them hiccuped. Maeve surveyed them all one by one. They were drunk.
The bronze statue of a dragon hunter from centuries ago would normally refuse them entry to the Draconem Common Room and Dorms and attempt to sword fight with them, but Maeve and Mal’s positions granted them entry to all the Common Rooms and Dorms at Vaukore.
As soon as the door swung open, yelling and screaming from inside the Common Room filled the corridor behind them. Mal emerged ahead of her, and they immediately spotted the issue.
There was a boy on the ground, unconscious. Another, named Henry Rowle, was screaming with his fingers drawn, pointing it at various students. He was shaking.
Mal stalked over to him and placed one hand over his fingers, curling them into a closed fist. He placed his other hand on the back of his neck.
“Stop,” was all Mal said.
Shock rang across Henry’s face. He relaxed, and Mal grabbed one of his shoulders and forced him to his knees.
Maeve kneeled beside the one unconscious student on the carpet and felt for a heartbeat at his throat. The boy was, at least, alive.
“What happened here?” Mal asked quietly.
A few around them fell silent. Those farther away hadn’t heard him.
“I asked what happened here?” He repeated louder.
The room went silent. Maeve stood up and walked over to Henry. He was a Pureblood boy she had known her entire life. He had only been at Vaukore for a year, but he was considered one of Mal’s Sepentine boys.
“He’s drunk,” Maeve whispered to Mal.
“He used an illegal curse on Simon,” said a voice from the crowd.
Maeve and Mal turned their heads towards the source. It was a small, blonde-haired girl Maeve recognized from the Sorting Ceremony earlier that evening. She was freshly eighteen and held her composure with grace. An emerald green and silver tie hung loosely at her neck. Her accent was Russian.
“Is that true?” Asked Mal.
She nodded. Some of the others in the room murmured in agreement.
“And. . . broke her nose.” The girl’s gaze traveled to a brunette-haired girl sitting in a chair with her head bowed, and another girl rubbed her back soothingly.
“What provoked him?”
“Henry said something nasty about. . . her. . .” The girl referred to the brunette, who still didn’t lookup. “He said she didn’t deserve to be here. He said she had dirty blood. And that Kietel was killing dirty blooded Magicals like her every day.”
Maeve looked at the brunette with the broken nose. Human born.
The Serpentine girl continued, her voice unwavering. “And then pointed right at Leela, saying he’d just do it himself.”
Leela, the human born girl with a broken nose, looked up at Maeve for the first time. Her face was stained with blood, and her eyes were red to match. She looked horrified.
Her first night at Vaukore and this is what she was greeted with. Maeve turned quickly back towards Henry and opened her mouth. Mal’s eyes stopped her. The girl continued.
“He attacked her, and then Simon jumped between them, and the two started dueling one another.”
Maeve realized behind them was a long table full of contraband. Immortally Brewed Bourban, Dragon Wiskey, and Bubbling Brandy. The brandy was expensive, as she recognized a bottle from her father’s top-shelf.
“Where did you lot even get all this?” Asked Maeve.
No one answered.
Mal looked down at Henry Rowle with perfect composure, but Maeve was certain his insides were burning.
There was a loud commotion at the entrance to the Common Room, and all heads turned in that direction.
Professor Larliesl, Harquinton, Madam Kimmerance, and Headmaster Elgin stepped into the room.
Madam Kimmerance gasped upon seeing Leela’s blood-stained face and rushed towards the girl. Maeve averted her attention to the unconscious boy on the floor, which caused her to yelp and instruct two others to help her get Simon to the Healing Wing. Leela’s friend walked her behind them.
“You stay put,” Mal muttered to Rowle before he strolled over to the Headmaster. Mal explained the situation to them in a hushed voice.
Headmaster Elgin sent everyone to their dormitories, save for Rowle. She and Larliesl escorted Rowle gravely out of the common room.
Maeve and Mal walked silently down the grand staircase, heading back towards their dorms.
“What an idiot,” said Maeve.
Mal’s face was stoic. “I have taught him better than that. To use Dread Magic I gave him the privilege of learning. . .”
“I wonder if he’ll be expelled?”
Mal raised his eyebrows as they reached the sixth-floor landing and continued down. “Why wouldn’t he be?”
“His money. His parents give so much money to the school. To the Committee. The Orator’s Office.”
Mal scoffed.
“Merlin,” said Maeve. “His parents are going to lose it.”
They reached the fifth floor, where Maeve would be heading to her dormitory to check on things there and get to bed herself.
“What an eventful first night as Head Boy and Head Girl,” said Maeve, turning towards Mal.
He gave her a small smile, one that didn’t meet his eyes. “Goodnight, Miss Sinclair.”
He departed and didn’t look back at her. Maeve resisted the urge to slip into his mind and see what was really eating at him. It didn’t take her long to speculate it was Henry’s loyalty to Kietel that cause that occupied Mal’s mind.