Misfit Witchcraft (Misfits Book 2) Read online

  10th Day of Snowfall.

  With a little checking and estimation, it was fairly easy to determine roughly when Xanthe and Jesse would be arriving at the school, and Krystal, Trudy, and Felicia were waiting in Xanthe’s room when it happened. In truth, Felicia was waiting for Jesse, but they were all fairly sure that the green dragon would come to Xanthe’s room first if the door was open.

  They were right, and Felicia knew her lover well enough to wait before reintroducing herself. The petite girl with her mass of brown hair dropped a bag in the corridor and made a beeline for the window.

  ‘Is that…’ Ramona asked. The red was sitting on her bed, knees drawn up, watching as she was entirely ignored by the newcomer.

  ‘That’s Jesse,’ Krystal said. ‘Just let her get on with it for a second.’

  Jesse bent at the hips and peered at the young plant in its pot on the windowsill. She sniffed, stroked a leaf, pressed a finger lightly to the soil, and then she nodded and favoured Krystal with a smile. ‘Perfect,’ she said.

  Krystal let out a breath she had not realised she was holding. ‘I think the others are all good too.’

  ‘I’m sure they are.’ Then, with so little warning that it caught Felicia by surprise, Jesse turned and wrapped the taller indigo in a hug. ‘I missed you. You’ve been okay over the holiday? Midwinter Night wasn’t bad, was it?’

  Looking rather pleased, Felicia returned the hug, lifting Jesse until her toes barely met the carpet. ‘I missed you too, darling. I’ve been… fine. Krystal and Charley have kept me going. And Charley sat out Midwinter Night with me. I suppose you spent most of the time in the forest?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Okay,’ said a voice from the doorway. ‘Mass meeting in my room. What’s the occasion?’ Xanthe stood in the doorway, an expression of puzzlement on her rounded face with its amber eyes. As usual, her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she had one bang almost hiding her left eye. As a concession to the colder weather, she was wearing worn, ripped jeans cut off below the knee instead of shorts, and she was carrying a denim jacket, but her top was thin, beige, and had string-straps, not that she had a lot of bust to contain under it.

  ‘Uh,’ Trudy said.

  ‘We thought we’d come over and welcome you back,’ Krystal said.

  ‘B-because there’s a n-new girl here,’ Jesse stammered without taking her face away from Felicia’s shoulder. ‘S-so, I’m g-guessing you’ve got a r-roommate.’ Interestingly, the stammer had returned once Jesse actually had to acknowledge there was someone in the room she did not know.

  Xanthe’s eyes locked onto Ramona, narrowing as they did so.

  ‘Xan,’ Krystal said, ‘this is Ramona Rose, from Scarlin Cantervale. Ramona, this is Xanthe Wild.’

  ‘Hi,’ Ramona said, giving Xanthe a nervous smile.

  ‘Hello,’ Xanthe said back. Her eyes were still narrowed. ‘So, you’re in here with me?’

  ‘Uh, yes. Krys and Trudy, and everyone else, told me you needed your personal space, but I’m sure we can, uh, make this work. Somehow.’

  ‘We’ll have to see.’

  ‘Yeah… Uh, do you need any help with bags or boxes? I’m a red, so…’

  ‘Both of us have a couple of things downstairs,’ Xanthe replied.

  ‘Right,’ Trudy said. ‘Come on, Mona, we’ll go sort out the baggage and let everyone get settled.’

  Ramona raised an eyebrow. ‘No one’s ever called me that.’ She got to her feet and started for the door, Xanthe stepping out into the corridor to let her and Trudy past. ‘I think I might like it.’

  ‘Well, Ramona’s a bit of a mouthful,’ Trudy said as they walked away.

  Xanthe allowed Jesse and Felicia out to go to Jesse’s room, and then she stepped back into the room and put her bag down on her bed. ‘I’m not going to like her.’ It sounded more like a plan than a statement of fact.

  ‘Go easy on her, Xan,’ Krystal said. ‘She transferred up here from Scarlin Cantervale in the middle of winter to join up mid-year, and she’s not exactly been forthcoming about why. I think something happened to her. Something she doesn’t want to talk about. I know it’s not ideal, but I think she’s a misfit, like us.’

  ‘No one else in the school is like us,’ Xanthe snapped. ‘No one else went through what we went through last term. Glinda and the ball… No one knows what that was like except for us. You haven’t told her about… you, have you?’

  ‘Of course not, but I think Ramona’s been through something. Maybe you could just try to get on with her. I know it’s not ideal, but Dean Scintilla Rainshadow wouldn’t have let them put her in with you if she didn’t think you could cope.’

  ‘I guess we’ll find out whether I can,’ Xanthe grumbled.

  ‘And you’ll try?’

  ‘I guess I don’t have much choice.’

  ~~~

  ‘The seas can get pretty rough this time of year,’ Charlotte said as the seven girls sat down around one of the tables at Patty Royal. Everyone had a patty wrapped in paper they were opening up, except for Charlotte, who had two.

  ‘Yeah…’ Ramona replied. ‘I spent the first three days in my cabin hugging a bucket. I felt miserable.’ Not seeming to be miserable at all right now, she sank her fangs into her bun.

  ‘I’ve never been on a sea voyage,’ Krystal said.

  ‘I doubt any of us have, darling,’ Felicia said, eyeing her patty with some distaste before shrugging and biting into it.

  ‘I’d recommend leaving it for the summer months,’ Ramona said.

  Charlotte shook her head. ‘Spring and autumn. Summer can be good, but you get some pretty nasty storms in summer when the water heats up. The Weather Bureau keeps them away from land where possible, but they can’t dissipate them entirely. It’s just too much energy to push somewhere else.’

  ‘You’re doing weather magic, Charley?’

  ‘That’s what I’m here for.’ Charley bit a chunk out of her patty and chewed for a couple of seconds before adding, ‘This term, I actually get to study air corpus.’

  ‘More chewing, less spitting,’ Felicia suggested. ‘I must say, these are nicer than the ones I’ve had before.’

  ‘That’s because you didn’t know where to get them,’ Trudy replied. ‘You know restaurants with posh names, but I know patty joints.’

  ‘Yes, well, I’m quite sure I’ll become more intimate with such forms of cuisine quite soon. Perhaps you could direct me to the better establishments?’

  Trudy flashed the indigo a grin. ‘I can probably keep you away from the worse ones anyway. You’re not exactly poor, Flis. I’m sure you won’t be digging food out of rubbish bins any time soon.’

  ‘No… No, Mama has ensured that I can survive well enough, but I need to watch my budget now.’

  ‘Uh, is this a bad topic?’ Ramona asked. ‘What happened?’

  ‘It is something of a sore subject, but I’d rather you heard it from me than the rumour mill. There was a scandal involving my mother. A… sexual scandal, which all the gossip columns reported with glee, of course. Papa was forced to resign his position at the palace and he divorced my mother, though the latter appears to be a choice he found easier to make I’m sad to say. Mama has joined the Sisters of Perpetual Harmony in Appleyard, but she ensured that I have money in trust to continue my education. Papa is… less than pleased about that. He will be leaving to move to Umbral Crown, where my brother lives, as soon as our house has been sold.’

  ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’

  Felicia smiled. ‘We all have our burdens, darling. The school has been very accommodating regarding my living arrangements and, frankly, I believe I’ve come out of it better than I could’ve hoped.’

  ‘It helps that you helped save the school last term,’ Trudy pointed out.

  ‘There is that…’

  Ramona gave Trudy a confused grin and the grey shrugged. ‘There was this whole thing with a mad ancestral spirit possessing one of the girls and trying to g
et everyone else possessed with the spirits of dead magi so they could destroy the city.’

  ‘Uh, right,’ Ramona said.

  ‘So, we kind of disrupted the ritual and stopped it. That’s why Celestina lets us use her first name.’

  ‘We had a kind of eventful term,’ Charlotte said, nodding.

  ‘But this one is going to be quiet,’ Krystal said. ‘No more necromancers, or possessions, or scandals, or…’

  ‘Exams,’ Xanthe said. ‘No more exams until the end of next year. Which I’d drink to if they served alcohol in these places.’

  ‘Oh, I’d happily drink to that anyway,’ Krystal said.

  ‘Says the girl who came top in her class,’ Trudy said, grinning. ‘Both her classes.’

  ‘You did?’ Ramona said.

  ‘I guess I did, yes,’ Krystal replied. ‘I got lucky with the questions.’

  ‘She’s being modest,’ Trudy stated flatly. ‘She’s a magical prodigy or something. I’d imagine what you learned in Scarlin Cantervale won’t meet up quite right with the classes here, and Krys is just the girl to fill in the holes.’

  ‘Misfits club,’ Charlotte said. ‘We’ll be starting it again next Yellowday, right?’

  ‘Just don’t expect much help with the air corpus,’ Krystal said. ‘I know light and meta-magic. I haven’t studied any of the other specialities.’

  ‘Yeah…’ Trudy said, smirking. ‘That’s true, but you’re better with fire corpus than I am, and I’ve studied a little fire corpus. You’re better at most practical magic than we are, even when you’re just working from theory.’ She looked across at Ramona. ‘She’s a genius.’

  ‘I am not a genius!’

  ‘Sorry, darling, but you are,’ Felicia said. ‘I’ve seen you work through mind corpus spells as well as I can.’

  ‘Your p-plant magic is almost as good as mine,’ Jesse put in.

  Blushing furiously, Krystal picked up her paper cup of soda and sucked on the straw. ‘Stop it. You’re making me sound like–’

  ‘A genius?’ Trudy suggested.

  ‘A prodigy of amazing proportions?’ Charlotte supplied.

  ‘Someone really useful to know,’ Ramona said, grinning. ‘I, uh, know that Xan doesn’t really want a roommate and all, but I get the feeling I lucked out meeting you six. All of you, but especially the magical prodigy genius girl.’

  11th Day of Snowfall.

  ‘The docks,’ Trudy said, waving an arm at the general area of town they were in, ‘but you’ve probably already seen these.’

  ‘No,’ Ramona said, looking around with interest. The docks were the oldest part of Concord City and fairly industrial in nature. At this time of year, they were less busy since few fishing boats braved the southern seas during Snowfall. ‘Uh, I mean, yes, but I didn’t really get to see much of them when I got here.’

  ‘I guess you wanted to be under a real roof fairly quickly.’

  ‘Uh-huh. And there were some people waiting for me. Friends of the family.’

  ‘Useful,’ Trudy said. ‘What does your family do?’

  Ramona did not immediately answer and Trudy looked around at whatever she was looking at, but there just seemed to be people there, travellers or dockworkers. Then Ramona shook her head and gave Trudy a smile. ‘Uh, they’re farmers. Cattle, mostly. What about yours?’

  Trudy gave a shrug. ‘Family of greys, Mona, we do whatever we can. Dad has a pretty steady job at one of the tanneries. Not in the disgustingly smelly part. He packs finished skins, handles outbound shipments. It doesn’t pay much, but it pays.’

  ‘Oh. We employ a few greys on the farm. Heavy lifting and, uh… Do you think it’s kind of chilly down here? I think it’s kind of chilly.’ Ramona pulled her jacket around her as though cold.

  ‘The breeze is a little cool. Of course, if you didn’t insist on wearing a skirt in this weather…’

  ‘I like skirts.’

  Trudy grinned. ‘Okay, we’ll head through to the palace wall and then go around to Westlook. I told Krys I’d take you through to Cragscales’ place and that’s the way to go.’

  ‘Cragscales’ place?’

  ‘Your best stop for magical paraphernalia and books. Especially books, if you go on a Silverday, because Krys works there then and she knows the place like the back of her hand. Which is good, believe me.’

  ‘I, uh, can’t wait to see the place.’

  ~~~

  Cragscales’ Magic Supplies was a nondescript building on Silverlight Street, in need of some new paint on its exterior walls and barely noticeable among the street’s more normal establishments, which were strip clubs, brothels, lingerie shops, and other places that sold other things to assist in whatever acts one might wish to engage in behind closed doors.

  Ramona was both surprised and relieved to discover that ‘magic supplies’ was not some form of euphemism, and that what was sold inside did seem capable of meeting the needs of any professional magus. Trudy decided to leave her to browse, saying that they would meet on the top floor, and then Trudy went looking for Krystal.

  ‘How’d the tour go?’ Krystal asked when Trudy located her in the maze of stacks on the top floor.

  ‘Well, fine, I guess,’ Trudy replied.

  ‘You guess?’

  ‘There’s something up with that girl, Krys. She kept stopping and looking at people. She didn’t seem to know them, but it was like she was trying to work out whether she did. I caught her doing it once and she was pale as a sheet.’

  Krystal raised an eyebrow. ‘Our sheets need changing.’

  ‘Yeah, well, she’s got a tan. She was scared. Then she seemed to shake it off, and she was all happy thoughts and can we get a sausage-in-a-bun. I did warn her about the street vendors, by the way.’

  ‘Well, it’s weird, I grant you. We should head out to the stairs. If she tries hunting for us in here, we may have to use a seeker spell to find her.’

  They arrived at the staircase down to find Ramona talking to Cragscales. Or, to be precise, Cragscales was talking and Ramona was standing there like a frightened rabbit as the old man pointed out the shelves of student texts. She brightened noticeably when she saw Krystal and Trudy appearing from the rows of shelves, but did not move until they got closer.

  ‘Ramona’s a little beyond most of the books in this section, Cragscales,’ Krystal said when she was close enough. Ramona took a small step toward her two friends.

  ‘She is?’ Cragscales said. ‘You should have said, young lady. You know these two?’

  ‘Uh, yes,’ Ramona said.

  ‘She’s rooming with Xanthe,’ Trudy supplied. ‘We’ll take care of her.’

  ‘Excellent.’ And the old dragon wandered off down the stairs, but he flashed a slightly quizzical look at Krystal as he went.

  ‘He’s nice once you get to know him,’ Trudy went on. ‘Well, nice might not be quite right.’

  ‘I think he’s nice,’ Krystal said.

  ‘He pays you to wander around a bookshop.’

  ‘That… might have something to do with it. Come on, Mona, I’ll show you where to find the interesting stuff.’

  ‘Interesting?’ Ramona asked.

  ‘Well, pertinent to your courses.’

  ‘Ah, right. You’re right about the books in this part. They’re a little basic for the stuff I was learning at home.’

  ~~~

  On the way back out, after looking over the section on magic corpus spells, Ramona stopped suddenly and looked up at the shelves on her left. Krystal almost did not notice, having to turn back from the end of the row, directing Trudy back as she turned.

  Ramona was peering at a section Krystal knew was there but had never really examined in much detail. These were books on illusion and stage magic, and a few texts on using magic for entertainment. Visual illusions fell under the light corpus and Krystal had tried a few simple tricks in her time, but you needed to combine those with the air corpus to give an auditory component, and earth was needed for someth
ing solid, or you could add mind magic to trick someone into believing they felt something or to give purely mental illusions. Getting that kind of thing right was something Krystal had never felt she really needed to bother with.

  ‘This is what I really want to learn,’ Ramona said. ‘I love entertaining people. I want to learn illusions and stage magic. I want to learn how to amplify sounds for music concerts.’ She grinned. ‘I want to learn how to pull a rabbit out of a hat.’

  ‘Well, why don’t you?’ Krystal asked. ‘Draconia can always use more magi to entertain people.’

  ‘My family are farmers and red dragons are warriors. I know how to throw fire around, and I can get away with the meta-magic because it’s useful for charms and stuff. I’m supposed to learn how to cure animals or support troops.’

  ‘Soldiers don’t like to laugh?’ Trudy asked, raising her eyebrows. ‘Anyway, your family is on Greenland and you’re here. You can learn what you want. I bet Krys could come up with a way of justifying any of the corpuses as either farming or troop support.’

  Krystal frowned. ‘I’m not sure about any corpus. Though, if you want to pull a rabbit out of a hat, learning animal magic seems like a good idea.’

  ‘And my family does run a lot of cattle,’ Ramona said.

  ‘Fire is good for pyrotechnics. Light does illusions, but it’s also good for light bursts. I keep a simple flash spell bound into a cantrip so I can just blind someone if they try to mug me or something.’

  ‘That’s how you did that?’ Trudy asked. Then she glanced at Ramona and gave a little facial shrug. ‘We ran into some boys in a club one night and they didn’t want to take no for an answer. Krys blinded them for a few seconds so we could leave while they floundered around. I never did ask how she pulled the spell off so fast.’

  Ramona had gone a little pale. ‘I know how it can be with boys not wanting to accept a rejection. Maybe I’ll come back here and pick up a couple of books, when I’ve settled in. I think I’ll head back to the school now though.’