Mildred glared. I tried to see the world through her eyes. She was unpopular and isolated and didn’t have any friends, at least as far as I knew. She lacked the skills to make her peers like her, which meant she was the butt of far too many jokes and pranks, ranging from the nasty to the
“I’m useless to you,” she said. “I can’t cast spells fast enough …”
“You’re not useless,” I said. An idea was starting to blossom. “You just need practice. A lot of practice.”
Mildred’s glare managed to grow worse. Somehow. “You think I don’t know it?”
“You also need people to practice with,” I said. I tried to ignore the flicker of bitter yearning that crossed her face. I’d had friends my entire life. Mildred … she’d had none. It was sheer luck she hadn’t found herself doing someone’s homework, just for a hint of the social contact she wanted and needed. We all needed it. “You could practice with us.”
Mildred opened her mouth, then stopped. I waited, unsure what she was thinking. She couldn’t have any illusions, not about why I was doing this. I wanted something from her as much as she wanted something from me. But … it would work out in her favour, if we helped her develop her spellcasting. She wouldn’t have to come with us to the international tournament. Even if the team lost, she would still come out ahead …
… but would she see it like that?
“The last time I was invited to something, it was a joke,” Mildred said, finally. The bitterness in her voice made me wince. I’d heard rumours … not that I’d ever paid much attention to them. Or Mildred herself, for that matter. She just hadn’t been important. “If this is a joke, I swear I’ll … I’ll do something horrible to you.”
“It isn’t a joke,” I said, crossing my heart. The threat was negligible … but I wasn’t going to laugh. If Mildred ever mastered spellcasting under pressure, she would be a dangerous opponent. “I think we could both help each other.”
Mildred gave me a sharp look. “I hope you’re not expecting me to turn into Juliet?”
I blinked. Mildred hadn’t heard? Or … did she even care? It wasn’t as if Juliet had ever impinged on
“No,” I said. “I’m expecting you to turn into a fine spellcaster.”
She snorted, but there was less conviction in it than I’d expected. She had hope.
“Meet us in the training hall after dinner,” I told her, as I stepped back. “We’ll run through a few basic exercises and then start training properly.”
Mildred swallowed. “I’m really not very good at defensive magic.”
“We all have to start somewhere,” I told her. “And practicing anything, anything at all, will make you better.”
“We have two weeks,” Mildred said. “Is that enough?”
“Yeah,” I told her. I pushed as much conviction as I could into my voice. “Half of us are really very good. The other half can be brought up to speed quickly and efficiently. And then we’ll be ready to put on a show.”
And I hoped, as I made my way back downstairs, that I was right.
“Well,” Jane said. “Are you confident of victory?”
I pasted a big and bright smile on my face. I doubted Jane was fooled for a moment. Her father had been the original muckraker and his daughter had followed in his footsteps, setting up a school newspaper and breaking
“We have a good team,” I said, trying not to think of her naked body. “And we have practiced hard for the match.”
Jane looked unimpressed. I understood. Three of us were old hands, three were young and inexperienced; one had literally never played before now. Mildred was the one who worried me the most, no matter how much I pretended to be confident in her skills. Her practical applications were somewhat lacking and it was going to bite us, hard, if we got caught by surprise.
Sergeant Wills strode past and stopped in front of us. “Are you ready?”
I didn’t look at my team. I didn’t need to be any more nervous than I already was.
“Yes, Sarge,” I said. The sergeant had taken over the task of coordinating the tournaments. I didn’t envy him. It required tact and diplomacy and a willingness to call someone out for shitty behaviour, even when the behaviour didn’t technically break the rules. The sergeant could do the latter, but tact and diplomacy weren’t in his lexicon. He’d been openly sceptical of our chances when we’d entered the tournament. “We’re ready.”