I made him jump, at least, he told himself. But now he’s going to be worse.
And, he discovered over the next few days, he was right.
Chapter 7
Gennady had never been scared of the dark.
It was true, he supposed, that anyone who ventured out of his home after dark risked an encounter with the other folk. It was also true there were enough nasty creatures in the forests that slept during the day to make life dangerous for anyone caught outside, if he wasn’t armed to the teeth and ready to fight. The things that lurked in the darkness that gripped the Cairngorms could be very dangerous indeed. But the darkness itself wasn’t dangerous. In many ways, the darkness represented safety.
Gennady felt the shadows moving around as he crept up the stairs towards the library. It was half-term, with half the students on their way back to their homes, but he stayed as quiet as possible as he reached the door. Charlus might have gone home, yet some of his friends had stayed behind. The bastard had probably given them orders to make Gennady’s life miserable. Charlus really did have a talent for being unpleasant. Gennady wouldn’t have thought he could get worse, but after the frog prank he had. Gennady, Simon and Lyndred had been lucky to spend more than a day or two over the last couple of months without being tormented.
He pushed the door open, reaching out with his senses for any spells that might keep him from getting into the library. None of them had been able to study properly over the last few weeks, putting them even further behind. They hadn’t been able to get help, either. The tutors hadn’t cared and the students had either laughed at them or made indecent demands. What they’d asked from Lyndred ... Gennady’s stomach churned at the very thought. Didn’t anyone know how to treat a decent woman right? He hadn’t even known that people did ... he shuddered, swallowing hard. It was filthy! And perverse! And ...
The chamber was empty, as far as he could tell. He muttered another night-vision spell under his breath, jumping slightly as he caught sight of the statue positioned near the returns trolley. There was no shortage of rumours and stories surrounding the statue—some claimed it had once been a student who’d lost an irreplaceable book, some that it was a statue of one of the founders—but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t real. Gennady took another look around, then cast a light globe. A ball of light drifted into the air, casting a shimmering eerie radiance over the scene. The library was empty. Gennady breathed a sigh of relief as he headed for the shelves. There was work to be done.
Simon should be here, Gennady thought. His friends had gone home for the holidays. Simon had promised to visit, but ... so far, he hadn’t kept his word. If he was here, we could have brought Lyndred ...
He took a book off the shelves and sat down, opening the textbook to the very first page. The unnamed author didn’t bother with any introductions, merely launching into a detailed dissection on magical theory and how it applied to more complex spells. Gennady forced himself to work through it, even though he felt as though he was completely out of his depth. The writer never bothered to explain anything, a common problem in magical textbooks. You either understood what he was trying to say or you shouldn’t be reading the book in the first place. Or so he’d been told.
They’re keeping things from us, he thought, as he parsed his way through a detailed spell diagram. And I have to learn.
He sighed, inwardly. He was still at the bottom. Charlus, damn him to all the hells, was right at the top. Gennady knew he was advancing, but not fast enough. He needed to learn more, before Charlus did something that would actually get someone killed. Gennady had no faith in the tutors to protect him, not any longer. They hadn’t said anything when Charlus hexed Gennady in the back, or destroyed his work, or caused life-threatening accidents ...
The book blurred into an impenetrable wodge of text. Gennady stared at it, feeling tears prickling at the corner of his eyes. It was impossible. It didn’t matter how powerful he became, if he lacked the skill to control his powers. Charlus wasn’t that much more powerful, no matter how it seemed. But he was skilled enough to really use his powers. Gennady’s head hurt whenever he thought about it. It just wasn’t fair! He’d moved from a place where the strong dominated the weak to another place that was just the same, only worse. Here, the old would remain magically strong until the end of their lives.
He went back to the textbooks, but the words were just ... words. Gennady glared in frustration, fighting the temptation to simply tear the book to pieces. But that would probably have gotten him expelled. He looked at the shelves, wondering how he was supposed to proceed if he couldn’t read the books. Every time he thought he’d mastered something, life threw him a new complication. How was he meant to be worthy of Primrose if he couldn’t read well enough to do any good?
A hand fell on his shoulder. Gennady jumped, whirling around. He brought up his fist, then stopped himself a moment before he slugged Housemaster Fredrick. The man raised his eyebrows, challengingly. Gennady shrank back into himself. There was a tradition of trying to escape, when one was caught after Lights Out, but trying and failing made one a laughing stock. The entire school would know the story by the end of the following day.
“Gennady.” Housemaster Fredrick was as cold as ever. “What are you doing here?”
Gennady felt an absurd urge to giggle. Charlus and his cronies sneaked down to the kitchens and stole enough grub for midnight feasts. Or so Gennady had been told. Neither he nor Simon had ever been invited. Others sneaked out to meet female students. But ... he’d been caught in the library. Housemaster Fredrick probably wanted to know why before he frogmarched Gennady to the Warden. Gennady supposed it was a bit odd.
“Studying, sir,” he said, shortly. “I ...”
Housemaster Fredrick picked up the book. “And do you understand it?”
Gennady lowered his eyes. He’d learnt the hard way not to make claims he couldn’t back up.
“No, sir,” he said. “I ... I just can’t make head or tail of it.”
“I’m not surprised.” Housemaster Fredrick flicked through the book. “This is a Third Year textbook. You’re in your first year. You’re nowhere near advanced enough to read this book and understand it.”
“Yes, sir.” Gennady swallowed. His mouth was almost painfully dry. “But I need to master magic.”
“There are some students your age who might be able to make use of this book,” Housemaster Fredrick said, dryly. “Hasdrubal and his brothers were certainly supposed to be geniuses. But you’re nowhere near advanced enough to make sense of it. Why were you even looking at it?”
Gennady glared down at his hands. “Because I need to get better.”
“You won’t get better by trying to jump ahead,” Housemaster Fredrick warned. “Magic is a complex subject. If you don’t master the basics, you certainly won’t master the advanced levels. You need two entire years of study to read this book with a hope of understanding it.”
“I need to jump ahead,” Gennady protested. “I need to ...”
“What you need to do is master the basics first,” Housemaster Fredrick told him, as he returned the textbook to the shelves. “You cannot jump ahead. These spells ... yes, you might manage to cast some of them. But if you try without the background knowledge you’ll learn in the next two years, you’ll be unable to do much with them. You certainly won’t be able to alter them to suit yourself. It’s what you need to demonstrate if you want to pass the first set of real exams.”