(Continued from Ch 65, The Nimbus of Mortaebius)

The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 66, Snowed


Bellany stood at the window brooding. There was something comforting in the landscape outside; perhaps the wind-blasted snow and the numbing cold resonated with the desolation she felt within. Her family was with Mortaebius now. In her grief she cradled her forehead in her left hand and was surprised at the eternity of peace she felt. It was death's peace. She had seen too much of macabre undeath and the unnatural machinations of magic and had lost track of what Mortaebius truly represented. The peace of death was as natural as the cycle of the seasons. In that instant she decided to go see Headmaster Bristol for a brief lesson rather than get caught up in grief for her family. She toyed with the idea of taking the headmaster but decided that since she had bedded him last night it was too soon to have him again tonight. 

As Bellany wandered into Headmaster Bristol's study she tried to cancel her grief as she canceled her cloud of darkness, but she was not entirely successful. It was Sunday night and Bristol was checking his lesson plans for the next morning.

"Hello, Bristol. Are you getting ready for tomorrow?" Bellany asked.

"Yes, I believe I have everything set for senior mathematics."

"Good, I am looking forward to your class. Did you get a chance to find the old version of The Consecration of the Blossom of Death?"

"Yes, I did. I have a number of very old priestly books since priests of Mortaebius have served as the headmasters of the academy since the beginning."

"Very good, let me see it." Bellany read the ritual. She nodded. "This is much better. It is magically sound." Bellany practiced it a few times on several flowers from a greenhouse bouquet that Headmaster Bristol had purchased the day before for her to practice the modern version of the ritual on.

"All right, I think I have got that down. I am ready to learn the next ritual," Bellany said. 

For the next two hours she learned one ritual and observance after another, pausing periodically to practice each of them to make sure she had them down. Headmaster Bristol corrected her when her performance went awry but it seldom did. Even rituals she had never seen seemed unsettlingly easy for her to pick up as if she knew them already and needed only a brief refreshing of her memory.

When she was done, Headmaster Bristol shook his head. "At this pace you'll be ready for ordination in no time."

"I wish I had the luxury of learning slowly, but I don't believe Avengene will wait on me," Bellany sniffled. With an act of will Bellany reined her emotions in. "I am sorry; I have not been happy with Avengene lately. Brianna Barter told Bruhnhilda Daelrath that reverend Evangeline was a lecher of the first degree who preyed upon the young women of Evandell. According to her, she was his last victim but by no means his first. Charles did some research for Bruhnhilda to see if Brianna had been truthful. Charles is a clever young man, and by the time his research was over he realized that he could not tell Bruhnhilda everything that he had found out without seriously offending the Avengenes."

Headmaster Bristol nodded. "Evangeline should have named his god the deceiver, not the Vindicator." He scowled.

"I could not agree more. The truth about Evangeline has been expertly covered up. If Avengene is not stopped everyone will believe whatever he wants them to believe about the Vindicator. This mask of goodness on the face of a god who wishes to usurp the other gods and set himself up as our only choice for religious thought does not sit well with me. Baladus said you had many of his old books on magical theory. Do you know where they are?" Bellany asked.

"Magic?" Headmaster Bristol asked.

"Yes." Bellany nodded.

"To tell you the truth I was a bit down on magic in my younger days. Perhaps I was just rebelling against the mystical air of this place. I think I must have crated those books up and put them in the attic," Headmaster Bristol confessed.

"Are you having trouble dealing with me doing magic around you?" Bellany asked.

Headmaster Bristol smiled. "I am older now. I realize I hated magic because it fascinated me in a kind of backhanded way. It is the same with strong women. I used to be quite against them, but over the years I realized that weak women are just fluff, there is no substance to them. Strong women are far more fascinating. You are an overpowering young woman, Mistress. You seem to tickle all of my fears and obsessions. I have not had this much fun in... ever." Headmaster Bristol grinned.

Bellany's smile pierced her mood of mourning like the sun peeking through dark clouds. "I guess we'd better check in the attic." 

There were many crates in the attic. Bellany did not know which to check first. Nimbus greeted her with a few heart-felt croaks before fluttering up into the air and landing on her shoulder. After searching four crates she was worried that finding the books would take forever.

"Gwork, hok, hok," Nimbus commented as she worked.

Bellany stood up. She looked at Nimbus' nest box. It was empty because Nimbus had decided he would nest on a different crate. Bellany pried the crate under the bird's current nest open and looked into it.

"Oh my goodness," Bellany said.

"What is it?" Bristol asked.

"Nimbus was nesting on top of a box full of books on priestly magic. You take your job as a raven of omen seriously, don't you, Nimbus?"

"Mringlegrungle hork croaak!" Nimbus croaked as if he were grumbling that Bellany even had to ask such a question.

Bellany smiled warmly at Nimbus and then looked back at Headmaster Bristol.

"Have you ever had interest even in priestly magic?"

Nimbus hopped down from Bellany's shoulder onto her left forearm. He hopped down to her wrist and rubbed his head against her left palm. Headmaster Bristol watched Nimbus, amazed at how attached to his mistress the bird was. 

"I have done many priestly rituals in my time but my aversion to magic extended through clerical magic as well. I like to think that I do rituals well, especially since I come from such a long line of priests, but I never tried to develop priestly powers. In fact I avoided them. I busied myself teaching and later running the academy. I had no idea that real magic was so... real and so potent until I met you. That darkness you create is frightening, not to mention the magical Fear. Previously I had convinced myself that magic was such a rarity that it hardly mattered and that what little magic existed grew in the telling. I was always an intellectual, and magic requires something beyond logic and reason. With war brewing I imagine I should reassess my stance and challenge views that will be trounced by the realities of war."

Bellany smiled. "In many cases your opinion is correct. Magicians are extremely rare and most of them cannot do powerful spells. Also accounts do tend to become exaggerated the more often they are retold. Spell-casting priests are less rare than magicians but they are still not common. Yet they are very valuable in war. Lord Avengene is very aggressive about sponsoring priests. Norwit had a tidy cadre of spell-casting priests at one time, but agents of The Shroud wiped them all out in a single night. The only reason Avengene has not gained an enormous advantage is that most priests are little harder to kill than ordinary soldiers."

Bellany and Headmaster Bristol carried the crate of priestly books downstairs and then continued looking for the books on magical theory. As it turned out, the books on magic were in a neighboring stack of crates. When they had all of the boxes they needed, Bellany sat surrounded by crates in the middle of Headmaster Bristol's parlor. While the headmaster slept, Bellany numbered the crates, organized the books and created lists for each reorganized crate. She set aside several works that dealt with conjuration and a few others that dealt with elementary priestly magic. Before she left she placed the books that she had set aside on a shelf in Headmaster Bristol's study. It was the shelf that he had devoted to her priestly lessons. She left him a note to let him know that he might be interested in the books on priestly magic and that the others were works on magic that she would be studying on her own.
-------

Monday morning began the new semester. Bellany had already read most of the books for the semester but she still needed to read the book that was being used for her class in elfish. She started on it just after having breakfast with Mary but then decided to look at her spellbook and study something relatively easy that she had not yet learned. She settled on a curse cantrip called Ice Sickle. It was supposed to loose ice sickles to fall on a victim. She had been shirking her curses and Ice Sickle was one that would not be possible to practice once winter was over. By the time she had to go to the Trivium, Bellany was ready to try casting the spell, but she did not have a handy victim who would not be hurt by falling ice sickles. She forgot about the spell for the moment and put her books for the Trivium and her mathematics course in her book bag and then hurried downstairs.

As she entered the classroom for The Trivium, she saw Bianca Bristol and Glenda Gransward were again in her class. She quietly took a seat near the back of the room but it was obvious that she had been noticed.

"Sniff-sniff, Glenda, is that spiced pork that I smell?" Bristol asked loudly.

"I am afraid so, Bianca. In spite of our wishes pork-wit is back and after a semester at Vargrend's the word is that she is far smarter than the average sow."

"I suppose that stands to reason, Glenda. After all, a whole tribe of orcs squirted their brains out right into her. She has been blessed with the intellect of a legion of ham hocks."

"Indeed, Bianca, they say two heads are better than one, and pork-wit has had countless heads pushed into her. Yet if it is any consolation I have heard that in spite of countless porkings, she caught no porcine plagues."

"How fortunate for the baconetess, I am sure all of the young men are overjoyed to hear that she is as healthy as a whore...se," Bianca crowed.

There was a chorus of titters and giggles from the girls in the classroom in reaction to the conversation between Bianca and Glenda. Bellany deliberately replaced her initial stony expression with a Charles Norwit-style grin but remained silent. The Jordells had no doubt told Bianca and Glenda that they were to stop spreading falsehoods about Bellany's health and intellect. This was probably their clever way to follow the letter of the law while utterly perverting its spirit. 

Bellany was thinking about casting the Tuz cantrip on Bianca during a silent moment of class, but she thought better of it. Bianca Bristol would know she had not passed gas and might suspect that Bellany was somehow responsible for the noise. The last thing she needed was to be accused of being a witch on top of everything else. Getting caught up in a social war with Bianca Bristol would direct far more attention at Bellany than she wished to be subjected to. If she were going to get Bianca back, she would have to be cleverer than to use a crude illusion. If anything did befall Bianca, it would be best if Bellany were not even present when it happened. 

Bellany's thoughts of revenge dissipated as a girl near the door loudly greeted the headmistress as she approached the classroom from the hallway. The giggles of the assembled girls quickly silenced just in time to watch their teacher walk from the door to the front of the classroom.

"Good morning, Ladies, and welcome to the second semester of the Trivium. Last semester we began to learn to apply reason and proper grammar in the support of moral and virtuous dissertation. Our task is by no means complete. Most of you still need a great deal of work to bring polish to your writing and to bring the enlightenment of logic to your discourse..."

The Trivium otherwise passed uneventfully but as Bellany followed Headmistress Vargrend out of the classroom they saw that several girls were pointing out the window at the end of the hall.

"What are you looking at with such excitement, young ladies?"

"Look, Headmistress, it's the man in rags," One of the girls replied.

Bellany caught only a glimpse of what the girls had sighted before the elusive man in rags disappeared behind some evergreen hedges. Bellany could not imagine any living man going abroad in such cold weather wearing only rags, but she was nowhere near close enough to make a distinction between a costumed man and an actual ghoul. Bellany could not be sure but she thought the man's feet were heavily wrapped with cloth. That was certainly not something a ghoul would have required in spite of the cold. 

After the fact she realized that she should have faced her ghost hand towards the man. At this range and through a window, she was not sure that her hand would have been able to distinguish between the living and the undead. Yet Bellany realized that she now had a means at her disposal to determine if the man in rags were really a ghoul. Since he had been sighted primarily in the half-light of dawn, Bellany would cast her Life Vision spell right before she went to the Trivium each morning. If she cast it well, it would easily last through The Trivium. If she saw the man in rags again, she would know if he were a ghoul or not.

"The nerve of that prankster," Headmistress Vargrend growled. "I cannot see why Constable Herrington is unable to catch that menace. In previous years when errant boys made it to the girls' grounds the constable caught up with them before they could get back over the wall. Come quickly, Lady Norwit, I must dispatch one of the boys that work in the headmaster's office to fetch the constable."

Bellany hustled after the headmistress and was soon following her through the forbidden door into the offices of the Bristol Academy for Boys.
-------

"Headmaster Bristol, I have just caught another glimpse of the man in rags skulking around the shrubbery. I need you to send a boy to fetch the constable," Headmistress Vargrend demanded.

"Timothy, get your cloak on and go fetch the constable for the headmistress, please," Headmaster Bristol said. 

Bellany smiled at Timothy while the headmaster and headmistress were speaking with one another. He smiled back.

"Lady Bellany, are you sure you are ready to knock heads with the brightest boys in senior mathematics?" Headmaster Bristol asked.

"Of course, Headmaster," Bellany replied confidently.

"This crossing over to the Bristol Academy is highly irregular," Headmistress Vargrend complained.

"Don't worry, Headmistress, if Lady Norwit proves unable to cope with senior mathematics I shall send her back to Vargrend's for elementary geometry. On the other hand, if she does well I expect the boys will work thrice as hard in order not to be outdone by a girl." Headmaster Bristol smiled.

"But they will be looking at her. It will be bad for discipline," Headmistress Vargrend objected.

"She sits near boys in church. I assure you they will be as well-behaved in senior mathematics as they are in church."

"If you like, I could sit front and center, that way the boys who were looking at me could not avoid seeing the blackboard."

"That is exactly where you will be sitting, young lady. I need you up front so that I can keep an eye on you to make sure the boys are not tempted to do or say anything untoward."

"Of course, Headmaster." Bellany curtseyed.

"I will confer with you later, Headmistress. Please follow me, Lady Norwit," Headmaster Bristol requested.

Headmaster Bristol led Bellany through the halls of the Bristol Academy for Boys. Groups of boys heading to classes stopped their conversations in mid sentence too shocked to continue as they saw a conservatively dressed but nevertheless breathtaking young woman with flame red hair following the headmaster to his classroom. Conversations turned to conjecture over what "Red" was doing at the Bristol Academy.

Stunned silence followed Bellany as she entered a classroom behind Headmaster Bristol. When they reached the front, Headmaster Bristol turned and tapped a desk at the head of the class.

"You will be sitting here, Lady Norwit, however please remain standing. I need to introduce you once the boys are all here."

Bellany nodded. A few minutes later all of the boys were in the room and the headmaster motioned for one of the boys in the back to close the doors.

"Young Gentlemen, welcome to the second semester of advanced mathematics for seniors. This is Lady Bellany Norwit of Avengene. Baronet Norwit, Lady Norwit's father requested that I instruct her in the science of mathematics so that she could assist with his artillery. Many of you probably know her brother, Lord Charles Norwit, captain of the crossbow team. Some of you may know other things about the Norwits. I know I do not need to remind you that this is a mathematics class and that you are always to be on your best behavior here. Some of you may be intimidated by having a young lady in this classroom. If you think you will be unable to mind your manners or if you believe you cannot possibly compete with a young Lady in regards to your scores in mathematics, then I suggest you leave now and report to my office to request a transfer to the afternoon section of this class.

"Lady Norwit will always sit at this desk right in front of my desk. You will treat her with courtesy. You will make no untoward remarks about her or her presence here, behind her back or to her face. If you speak to her in this classroom it will be about mathematics. Anyone who is unable to comply with these rules will find himself the object of a severe paddling in the dungeon, no exceptions. Is that clear?" the headmaster asked, cupping his hand to his ear.

"Yes, headmaster," the boys said in unison.

"Not all of you young men are cut out to be tournament athletes but many of you are exceptionally intelligent. At the Bristol Academy for Boys, we believe that competition and teamwork transform a boy into a capable man. Throughout the semester you will be ranked in this class in three ways: first by your overall score, second by your scores on tests and homework assignments, and third by your scores on the weekly extra credit mind-bender problems that I will be posting. Doing these problems will help your standing in this class. If you believe women have weak minds than you had better be prepared to prove it. Lady Norwit is an exceptional student or I would never have considered allowing her to take the second half of senior mathematics here at the Bristol Academy for Boys. 

"Remember our motto here at the Bristol Academy for Boys: Victory Through Honor. If you act without honor in our contest of mathematics, you can be assured that neither your classmates nor I will acknowledge you as a winner. A cheater's victory is hollow and fleeting. If you are caught cheating on your tests you will experience defeat. Your homework is to be done by you and you alone. I do not wish to see someone else's work. I can help you with your problem areas only if I can see your individual difficulties in your work. Often in life we encounter problems that require teamwork. That is why half of the mind-bender problems are team problems. If you wish to have Lady Norwit on your team you may invite her. Your group will simply have to meet in the library in order to include her. I have had tables moved next to the wall of bars to enable you to quietly collaborate with her. The first two mind-bender problems will be done solo so that teams of up to four individuals can be assembled based on initial performance. Anyone who is not asked to join a team assembled by students will be assigned one assembled by me from the remaining individuals. If you have a question, raise your hand now."

After seeing no hands the headmaster continued. "Good. Open your books to chapter twelve."

Headmaster Bristol began his lecture on equations with two unknowns. Bellany found it easy to follow since she had already read the book. Nevertheless she took notes because everyone else was and she felt that the headmaster might drop a hint or two concerning his mind-bender problem of the week. She preferred not to explain to the boys how she could remember the details of the headmaster's lecture without notes. Thus if she ever needed to show them a hint from the headmaster's lecture she would have it written down. She tried not to distract the boys by responding to the lust that she sensed from them. At times it was difficult not to give just a little return tug, but she found that concentrating on the headmaster's lecture helped keep her mind off her lust sense.

After class, Headmaster Bristol led her back to his office. She found that walking behind him allowed her to smile at the young men without having to worry about the headmaster seeing.

Once they reached the headmaster's office, the headmaster turned and spoke with Bellany. "Normally the headmaster's passage through the halls commands a certain amount of attention, but the heads moved more snappily this morning and the dropping jaws were an added clue that I was being followed by a captivating young lady. Were you able to follow the lecture, Lady Norwit?" Headmaster Bristol asked.

Bellany nodded. "Yes, I was already familiar with most of the concepts from reading the book."

"Oh, you read ahead a chapter or two? That is very astute. Most of the boys will be catching up with the lecture and hopefully reading the chapter for tomorrow tonight."



"I have too much to do to put the reading off. I read the books for all of my classes but elfish before the semester began," Bellany explained. "I am going to try to get the elfish book finished tonight or tomorrow. Then I can get back to studying the things I really enjoy studying." Bellany lowered her voice to a whisper. "That reminds me, do you own a functional shield that is not some kind of priceless heirloom?"

"I can get one from the academy supply of martial practice equipment," Bristol whispered.

"Good, pick one up and keep it in your quarters. You will need it shortly." Bellany whispered.

The headmaster nodded, "Yes, Mistress," he whispered. Then more loudly he said, "I am glad you were able to follow the lecture, Lady Norwit. I will see you at the same time tomorrow morning." Headmaster Bristol unlocked and opened the door to the Vargrend Academy offices and motioned Bellany through.

"Thank you, Headmaster. I really appreciate your allowing me to take a real mathematics class. Father will be very impressed with you, I am sure," Bellany said as she went through the door. She shared a brief smile with the headmaster as he closed the door and then she walked through the offices and headed back to her room to fetch her lute before going to Miss Galatino for a music lesson.

Her music lesson went by rapidly and Miss Galatino was very impressed with the lute that Lady Jordell had given Bellany and with the improvement in technique that Bellany had made by practicing with Mary. 

After music was over, Bellany reported to her elfish class with Miss Dejan. She had no trouble with the first class as she already knew quite a bit of elfish from Master Leafwhisper. She did have some difficulties with some of the spelling and grammar. She had concentrated on conversational rather than written elfish. She would have to remedy that and pick up grammar from the book.
-------

Bellany returned home from her swordsmanship lesson in time to duck into the library to get her mail before it closed. There was a letter from her mother, a note from Charles and a copy of her report card. She opened her report card, took a look and went on to read the note from Charles. It wished her a good new semester, asked what her grades were, told some of his grades and reiterated his congratulations on her being named to the honor roll.

The tone of the letter from her mother was a little cross. It both praised her for her good marks and scolded her for missing Church the Sunday before finals. It was no wonder that her mother scolded her in the letter. Enclosed within it was a short letter that reverend Leland had sent her mother about how the importance of academic excellence, especially for a girl, paled before the importance of a pure soul and a pious demeanor. Bellany read the letter a few times to admire the false caring and the generous portions of guilt served up by Leland's hand. She would read it to Mary later in an exaggerated voice. With any luck it would become a cult favorite. To start Bellany put the letter from Leland on Mary's desk with another note written on scrap parchment. The note said "Official Bad Girl," on it so that she would be sure to read it to Mary when her roommate found it.
-------

That night after Mary had fallen asleep, Bellany cast her battery of traveling spells and ghosted up to Headmaster Bristol's tower.

"Good evening, Bristol," Bellany said from within her cloud of darkness.

"Good evening, Mistress."

"Did you fetch the shield?" Bellany asked.

"Of course, Mistress, I have it here," Bristol assured her.

"Good, get some warm clothing on and take the shield with you. There is a spell I would like to try on the roof of the keep."

Bristol nodded.

While he put his boots and two cloaks on, Bellany went to the parlor and fetched the lids from four of the crates that she had organized the day before.

Once Bristol was ready, he led the way out onto the flat roof of the keep from a door at the base of his residence tower. Bellany followed but gave him a lead of several feet so that he would not be engulfed in the cloud of darkness that she had not yet cancelled since she would be on a roof where she might be seen from certain windows if there was sufficient moonlight. Bellany laid the crate lids down on the snow to protect the roof and then had Bristol stand on them. She had positioned him just in front of his residence tower on the leeward side. Above him ice sickles hung from the eves of his tower's conical roof.

Bellany concentrated and began casting. In spite of being on the leeward side of the residence tower, the wind still nipped her nose and the cold was not helping any; yet the low howling of the wind somehow seemed appropriate background for the casting of a curse spell.

"Wear the shield like a hat, Bristol," Bellany commanded, her voice sounding like a whisper over the howling of the icy wind.

Once Bristol put the shield on his head Bellany began intoning the words of the Ice Sickle cantrip. After about five attempts, Bristol's arms had grown tired of holding the shield and he was simply balancing it on his head. Obviously the wind was less fierce closer to the tower where the headmaster stood.

On the sixth attempt a small ice sickle loosed itself from above the headmaster and shattered over the shield.

Bristol smiled.

"I think I got something there, but the spell is a mixture of curse and telekinetic magic. I am strong on the telekinesis but I think I need to improve the curse part. I will try casting a few more times to make sure I have the spell down, Bellany shouted, but her voice was only a whisper above the wind.



Bellany tried the spell again but it was a false start. She messed up on one of the somatic components and failed to shape the magic properly. She started again and was able to concentrate on the curse while putting only minimal thought towards the simple telekinetic portion of the spell. As she released the spell she felt that she had woven the magic more expertly than before.

Bristol started as an errant gust of wind came in from his right and snatched the shield from his head. He heard the snap of multiple ice sickles breaking off above him.

"Run!" Bellany barked.

Bristol lurched forward just as a shower of ice sickles dropped from above. He avoided most of them through his quick movement and the smaller ones that hit him did not have the mass to penetrate his cloaks. One large ice sickle connected. It nailed him in the small of his back at the base of the spine. He groaned in pain and went down like a stag felled by a bolt from Charles Norwit's crossbow. Bellany grabbed the ice sickle and pulled it from his back. She pulled up his cloaks and immediately applied her Bestow Life Force spell. She then dragged him indoors where she could cancel her darkness and get a better look at the wound. The wound was deep but no wider than the breadth of her pinky. She cast a second Bestow Life Force spell on it just to be safe.

"I am so sorry, Bristol. That cantrip is only supposed to release an ice sickle or two per casting. Don't even ask me how the wind conspired to relieve you of your shield, because I have no idea."

"It was probably just bad luck, on the other hand ill fortune and curses go together." Bristol grimaced. "Perhaps you are a better caster than you give yourself credit for."

"You have a point there," Bellany said as she watched Bristol's wound healing. Bellany squeezed Bristol's leg.

"Can you feel this?" She asked.

"When that Ice Sickle first hit, I lost my legs. I could not feel anything below the wound. Now I can feel your touch like a fish in a sea of tingling. What is that spell you have been using on my wound?" Bristol asked.

"It is a necromantic spell called Bestow Life Force. I suppose I could have waited to see if you really needed it, but I felt it better to err on the side of caution with a spinal injury. Nerves do not heal right without magic, and if they are given time to heal wrongly a person would have to cut out the bad parts before magical healing could again be applied to fix the problem," Bellany explained.

"I think that was prudent. How long does the magic take to do its work?" Bristol asked.

"I am watching the wound heal now. Thanks to your cloaks the ice sickle only penetrated about an inch into your flesh, but the location was murderous considering how rapidly you got your head out of the way."

"I ran forward. I suppose if I had not it would have hit me in the head or neck."

"Yes, I am sure you are right. I saw the sickles falling. Rest here, Bristol. I will check the wound again in a minute but I need to fetch a quill so that I can write the casting notes while the technique is still fresh in my mind."

Bellany returned and wrote the notes as Bristol recovered. By the time she was finished there was a pink spot on his back where the wound had been.

"How is your back now?" Bellany asked.

"Tender but functional; the tingling has largely passed. Thanks to your timely intervention I think I have come through your curse relatively unscathed. You certainly are a dangerous lady," Bristol mused.

"That was one of those times that I was more dangerous than I had intended to be. If I practice any other curses on you, we had better take extra care with the safety precautions. I wish it were not necessary that I learn such magics." Bellany shook her head.

"With war brewing I understand why you must learn them. I have no desire to be crippled, but I am a priest of Mortaebius. I have endured fear and pain at your hands and I will gladly endure more if it will help preserve my faith."
-------

The next two weeks of school went by uneventfully. Bellany had established a rigorous schedule supported by the energy of Cooyman and his friends. Each morning she did a few physical exercises and practiced spells she had already learned. During the first part of the day, she attended classes. When classes were over she went to Jamie's for swordsmanship. Master Leafwhisper continued to teach her swordsmanship exclusively in elfish and he taught her about the elfish language as he taught her the art of the sword. Each day when she was through with her swordsmanship lesson and the bath that followed it, she returned to Vargrend's for a little homework and sometimes an art enrichment class. At the end of the evening she usually had fun with Mary. After Mary fell asleep she went upstairs to Headmaster Bristol's residence tower to study magic and Mortaebius. She usually slept one to three hours in the early morning before Mary woke up and then started her routine all over again.

During the course of the first two weeks of the semester Bellany continued with her studies. The temperatures outdoors remained very low and it seemed that whenever it warmed up to some small degree heavy snowfall would accompany the break. She finished reading her elfish book. She scribed the second tier Bestow Life Force spell and a curse cantrip called Throat Frog into her spellbook. She also transcribed all of the spells she did not yet have in her backup spellbook into it from her primary spellbook. Her magical studies progressed as well. She learned Illusion of the Mind I, the ranged version of the fear spell that she knew, the Throat Frog cantrip, the Slip cantrip and finally at the end of the second week she learned the Telempathy spell. She still had more work to do before she would be able to apply the addendum that would allow her to send thoughts and emotions, however.

She found that learning cantrips was actually starting to become easy. She worried that the reason the cantrips she had recently learned were easy was that both were curses and the High Shaman of the Orcs had been a master of curses. She hoped that the real reason cantrips were becoming easy was that she now knew a broader variety of more difficult spells.

Her research on conjuration was going well. She had the Slip cantrip but it was actually a curse spell that depended on the victim walking on a surface that was at least somewhat slippery. Thus as Baladus had said, his spellbook did not contain the spell that she needed to assist her with difficult locks. She found a spell called Grease within a book on minor utilitarian spells from Headmaster Bristol's crates. It was a conjuration spell somewhat more advanced than her Globe of Fog Cantrip. She had encoded it onto a few pieces of parchment because she did not want to put it into her spellbook until she had written complete casting notes. Baladus' book always contained fairly extensive casting notes to which Bellany simply added her own observations. The Grease spell was a different story.

Bellany tried to perfect her Remove Fear spell after learning the mental Illusion spell and again after learning the Telempathy spell. Success eluded her. In exasperation she decided that if her Fear spell was so potent, she might as well learn its ranged version. She also realized that learning ranged fear would provide her with good practice that could be applied to learning the ranged versions of other spells such as Draining Touch. Memorizing the ranged fear spell proved easy enough but she still needed to successfully cast it on Headmaster Bristol before she could add her observations to the casting notes.

Thus on Friday night not quite two weeks into the semester Bellany put on a robe over the scarlet lingerie James had provided for wear beneath a red dress. She crept out of her room, through the library and down into the dungeon. She collected some shackles and then crept back upstairs past the library and the stacks and up to Headmaster Bristol's quarters.

He was in his study as usual. Her cloud of darkness blinded him as she neared him and she abruptly started undressing him. Once he was naked she dragged him to his bedroom and shackled him to the head and foot boards and put a pillow over his mouth. She stood in the doorway to his bedchamber mumbling arcane syllables. On the third attempt, Bristol was overcome with fear. He screamed hoarsely and tried desperately to run but he could not. Bellany made a few mental casting notes as she tossed her robe aside, crossed the room and mounted the headmaster. Because of his personal quirks, the fear made him extra hard. He was a delicious ride as he writhed and quaked beneath her. As the fear wore off he came explosively feeding his power into her lusty depths.
-------

On Monday evening a little over two weeks into the semester, Bellany sat in the library reading, but not reading like everyone else. She was reading minds practicing the Telempathy spell. Bellany had got in on the thoughts a classmate had while reading a storybook. It was odd, she could now let others read books for her and just listen in to their thoughts. On the other hand it was faster just to read a book herself. She had overheard other girls thinking about sources for papers they were writing and she had even overheard a scornful young woman's silent treatise on why Bellany Norwit did not belong at Vargrend's. Since she had to cast the spell on each person she wished to hear thoughts from it was not just a matter of flitting from mind to mind. She thought about casting the spell on another girl but her mind came back to her real purpose for being in the library.

In truth she was keeping herself occupied by practicing the Telempathy spell while waiting for members of her mind-bender group to arrive. In spite of the many long looks she had received from the boys in her mathematics class at The Bristol Academy, the boys had been uncomfortable about inviting her onto a mind-bender team; thus she had been assigned to a team along with three other misfits who had not been invited onto one of the more popular teams. Her group consisted of Brennon Stark, the class goof-off, Ed Marvik, a young man who was too homely, unkempt and awkward to be invited onto a team and Ben Arvis, the class braggart.

As Marvik came into the library, Bellany had an idea. She briefly waved at him and then got up and went over to a bookshelf where she would be mostly hidden from the table. One could not flit from mind to mind using the Telempathy spell, but there was nothing keeping her from attempting to keep three instances of the spell going at once, much as she could keep three balls of light floating at once. She had only had a couple of days to practice after learning the Telempathy spell, but she felt she still had a reasonable chance to make it work, at least for a while. 

She cast the spell on Marvik, and then shortly afterwards Ben Arvis strutted in and she cast the spell on him while keeping the first casting idling in a back corner of her mind. As Stark entered the library, she cast the Telempathy spell on him and then made her way to the table to greet the boys. She was very happy she had recently done some reading under the illumination of six tiny globes of conjured light because maintaining three Telempathy spells was similar but more difficult. She was happy that the boys were going to be staying in set locations and that it would be normal for her to give all of them a portion of her attention.

"Hi guys," Bellany whispered cheerfully. She could not afford long, complex sentences if she was going to maintain three thought-reading spells.

"Uh... Hi," Marvik whispered bashfully.

"Aye, (orc whore)" Stark greeted her.

Bellany had never used the Telempathy spell during a conversation before and thought it was interesting that Stark's thoughts were more extensive and less flattering than his words, whereas Marvik seemed to be having trouble thinking coherent thoughts due to a tangle of nerves and lust. She suspected that Timothy's mind would have read similarly back when she had first met him.

"Well it looks like I got all the misfits in my group," Arvis said. "Don't worry; I have us covered. Headmaster Bristol can't come up with a problem that I cannot solve."

Bellany was a little amazed that Arvis' thoughts had not yet contradicted his bragging. He certainly believed in himself.

"Then you've solved it?" Bellany asked.

"I haven't had a chance to look at it since copying it down this morning, but I am sure it will be a snap. (Of course she looks to me for leadership. They all do. Once Belle pepper gets a load of my superior brainpower she will want me badly.)" Arvis said and thought as he took the problem out of his folder. "It is a boat problem. Let me read it out loud. 'Tom and Ted can row their boat 3 leagues upstream in 3 hours. The same team rows 6 leagues downstream in 2 hours. What is the boat's speed and what is the speed of the stream?'"

"Two and one," Bellany said succinctly.

"Hey, we are supposed to do this as a team," Arvis complained. "When did you work it out?" Arvis asked.

"While copying it," Bellany replied.

Arvis squinted at Bellany. ("She worked on this during the day. She is just putting us on," Arvis thought.) "We can't just give Headmaster Bristol the answer. We have to show our work."

("Enough of the brain, let's see the boobies," Stark thought.)

("She's smart, and pretty, pretty smart, heh heh," Marvik thought.")

"Translate the words into equations," Bellany suggested.

"It wants the boat's speed. That could be B," Arvis said.

"Th-the stream's s-speed could be S," Marvik stuttered.

"It all sounds like a bunch of B.S. to me," Stark quipped.

"That means B is three leagues in three hours upstream. B equals three L divided by three," Arvis said.

"The upstream speed is one league per hour, birdbrain." Stark snorted.

"I was getting to that," Arvis countered.

"Then the downstream speed is three leagues per hour," Marvik calculated.

"B minus S equals 1... And B plus S equals three," Bellany blurted. She tried not to grimace as she lost the Telempathy spell on Marvik. She struggled to maintain her mental juggling of the two remaining spells.

"Damn straight (bacon buns)," Stark said.

"But we can't solve either of those for B and get a number," Arvis said looking at the equations he had written down. (They think they are so smart but the real brain knows a dead end when he sees one.)

"Solve the first one for S," Bellany prodded.

Marvis scratched his way to a solution on a piece of scrap parchment "S equals B minus one," 

"Substitute that for S in the other equation," Bellany continued.

"Okay that gives us B plus the quantity B minus one equals three," Arvis said as he narrowly beat the other boys to a solution. (Got to solve this fast or be outdone by a dork and a clown.) "That is the same as two B minus one equals three or two B equals four."

B equals two, just like Lady Norwit said, bore brain," Stark chided. 

"There, we have the solution and the work to back it up." Arvis concluded.

Bellany nodded. "Headmaster Bristol probably made the first one easy... to build our confidence." 

("I wonder if sounding the Belle is easy too? I'll bet those piggies kept her pealing day and night. There can't be a single tone of virtue left in her, but that could work to a man's advantage," Stark thought.)

"Well it worked. Even Stark chipped in. You are slipping, you slacker." Arvis smiled. (Maybe if I throw him a bone he will pull his weight on this team. No, that's wishful thinking for sure.)

Stark shrugged. "Only if you count stating the obvious as chipping in. Lady Norwit already had it solved anyway. We were just riding her skirts. (I want a ride under them too.) Anyhow, I have to get going. I will see you all in class." Stark got up and strode out of the library.

"I had it solved all along in my head, but we still had to do the work. It was a piece of cake. See you in class, Lady Norwit." Arvis nodded.

"Of course, see you later, Mister Arvis," Bellany said and then watched as Arvis picked up his books and left the library.

"Thank you, Lady Norwit. Headmaster Bristol was right about you being an exceptional wit," Marvik stammered.

"Thank you Ed. You are a quiet one but I get the impression that you are more truthful than Mister Arvis and more genuine than Mister Stark. You may call me Bellany if you wish."

"Uh yes, I would like that, Bellany. I will look forward to seeing you in class," Marvik said.

Bellany nodded and smiled. "It is nice to know someone will, thank you, Ed. I will see you tomorrow morning."

Ed nodded a few too many times and then practically floated out of the library, although he did trip over his own foot about midway to the exit.

Bellany smiled and shook her head. She decided she had practiced the Telempathy spell enough and should go back to her room and study the addendum that would allow her to send thoughts as well as receive them.
-------

The next morning after the Trivium, Headmistress Vargrend let Bellany into the boys' academy and Timothy, who was working as the Headmaster's office assistant, directed her into the headmaster's office. As she entered the headmaster clandestinely motioned her to shut the door.

"Good morning, Lady Norwit," the headmaster greeted her loudly and cheerfully. "I have just one thing to finish up here and we will be on our way." Headmaster Bristol put his finger to his mouth to indicate stealth and motioned Bellany to his desk. When she arrived he whispered into her ear. "The constable stopped by Sunday morning before church. He said that one of his men had followed a man's trail just past the school but that the trail had ended abruptly. The tracker believed that the individual in question might have backtracked and then made his way through the gate and into the school courtyard. He asked if anything was missing from the school or stables. Herrington takes our security very seriously, especially since he has been unable to corner the man in rags. It occurred to me yesterday that since you might go abroad at night, I had better warn you that you may encounter a prowler or Herrington's men searching for one."

Bellany nodded and whispered in the headmaster's ear, "Thank you. I may be the prowler. I sometimes go abroad at night and it would not do to have Herrington catch me and mistake me for an errant schoolgirl."

Headmaster Bristol stifled a chuckle and then got up from his desk and spoke loudly. "That's got it. Let us hustle to class so that we are not late."

Bellany followed the headmaster out and then lapsed into thought. _Herrington is such a pain. In spite of my magic he has really been dogging the Medusa Club. Perhaps it was too much to ask that so many men keep their mouths closed so tightly that no rumors would reach the ear of the constable. He must have some clue or maybe he has nothing better to do. Yet he does have something better to do. He could find the man in rags. Why has he not been able to do so? He seems so thorough. If he posts a man near the school gate at night it might be impossible to get in or out without being seen. Even if I were shrouded in darkness he would still be able to see the gate move, not to mention any light source that he had being swallowed up. Herrington could ruin my life if he is able to keep me away from men. I need a better way out of school. Tonight I will ask Baladus if there are any passages that I do not know about._



Bellany smiled at a few of the boys she passed in the hallway. She could not help subtly drawing on their lusts as she passed. She allowed herself a little latitude with the boys she saw that were not in her mathematics class. Over the past couple of weeks she had noticed a small but steady increase in the population of boys that lined the halls on the way to her mathematics class each morning. Bellany smiled to herself. She regretted not being able to give each of them her personal attention. The buzz that followed her through the hallways suggested a growing interest in her. It was a pity school was so strict.
-------

That night Bellany sneaked down into the crypts to see Baladus. Lady Elaine met her on the stairs and accompanied her below the crypts. When she arrived, both Baladus and Alistair Vargrend were in the ancient classroom below the crypts. 

"Good evening, Baladus and Alistair. I did not expect to see you both up and around."

Both ghosts smiled.

"Our energy has been better since you began to attend the boys' mathematics class."

"Really? I suppose it makes sense that the boys are not behaving behind my back as well as they are behaving to my face. We have team mathematics problems and I listened in on the thoughts of the three young men on my mathematics team as we did a problem together. If their thoughts were any indication, a few of the boys could be making comments behind my back that the headmaster would not approve of." Bellany smiled.



"The way you said that it sounded as if you were listening to the thoughts of all three boys at once," Baladus observed.

"I was. I cast three instances of the spell. It was very taxing and I lost one of the spells towards the end of our short session but it was fascinating to know the difference between thoughts and words in a conversation. Some people say basically what they think while others think many things that they do not say. I am afraid I barely held up my end of the conversation. I had to speak in clipped sentences in order to maintain my spells. I wonder how Headmaster Bristol managed to overhear boys talking about me? I don't imagine they speak freely around him," Bellany conjectured.

"Headmaster Bristol has the other teachers and monitors acting as his ears. The boys talk about you. They are learning that there are certain ways they must not talk about you. The slow learners have proven very beneficial to us and this has been an exceptional week for them. Headmaster Bristol has been using corporal punishment more frequently but equally important is his ability to speak and act in such a way as to intensify the emotional state of the boys that he punishes."

"I am happy it is working out for you, at least when there is a good week. I am working on the telempathy addendum that allows the sending of thoughts but that is not why I came down. I came down because I need to see men in order to absorb enough energy to keep up my inhuman learning schedule. I attend a special party in town on Saturday nights for that purpose and the constable apparently tracked me and suspects that someone from the party may have stopped here at the school. I need a way to come and go without having to go through the front gate. Historically the keep has been taken by stealth. Does that mean there are secret passages?"

"It does indeed. Did you find a lubrication spell? You will need it to have any chance at making the old doors work," Baladus explained.

"I have found one, but I have not had a chance to get the hang of casting it yet," Bellany admitted.

"Lady Elaine and I shall tour the passages and inspect their condition. When you return with the ability to cast the lubrication spell, one of us will show you how to get into the secret tunnels. A segment of the riverside passage suffered a cave-in a few years back but there is another passage that will be more advantageous for your purposes. Return when you are prepared to deal with ancient mechanisms. There is also another spell that is used for mending. It might come in handy for making repairs if any are needed. Our skeleton guards could help you practice it. There is a Mend Bones spell in my book that is more advanced in that it replaces lost bone from a held reserve rather than acting essentially as glue. Yet in cases where there is a clean break, the Mend spell will work just as well as the Mend Bones spell."

Bellany nodded. "I have long wanted to repair your cadre of skeletons. I wish I had more time. Having the appropriate magic would certainly beat mundane glue. I wish I could create the resins of Mortaebius for you but I lack the priestly training. I will see if I can find the mending spell and learn it."

"Good. It will be a fine prelude to the learning of the Mend Bones spell. It should be in the same book as the lubrication spell if I recall correctly. That particular volume was written by a brilliant yet practical tinker. Magic was a diversion from his tasks as a craftsman."

"I suppose I had better get upstairs and to work on these spells if I am going to be ready for Saturday night," Bellany said.

"Before you go, I would like to hear what else you have been working on," Baladus requested.

"Yes of course, other than school work and swordsmanship I have finally forced myself to try some curses. I nearly killed Headmaster Bristol learning the Ice Sickle cantrip the other night. On my second successful casting the shield he was wearing on his head was removed by a gust of wind and then a rain of ice sickles fell on him. He was wearing two cloaks but one of the ice sickles nailed him in the spine as he tried to dart forward heeding a quick warning from me. He is okay though, I cast Bestow Life Force on the site of the wound a couple of times right after the incident. Otherwise I am pretty sure he would have lost control of his lower half."

Baladus smiled. "As usual you are my star pupil."

"But how can I be your star pupil if I am your only pupil?" Bellany demurred.

"I can compare you to all of the pupils I have trained in the past."

"I guess that makes sense. I also learned the Throat Frog cantrip but I have only cast it once on Headmaster Bristol. I need more practice."

"See that you get it. You might also try the Fumble spell. It is a step up from the Twitch cantrip that you already know. In the past I had to outlaw its use below the crypts to prevent my students from breaking things while using it to embarrass one another."

Bellany nodded. "I will scribe that now, and then I will go up and get the Mend spell scribed on some parchment. I need to get the Grease and Mend spells perfected by the middle of the week so that I can be sure to have the passage working before Saturday evening. If I miss my Saturday night I will be in big trouble. The inhuman pace of my sword lessons and everything else will come crashing down upon me."

"Then you had best get busy. I know what it is to depend on the life force of others to make you more than you would otherwise be. As a battle necromancer I was not a humane person in life. Many men thought of me as a despicable conqueror whose soul was corrupted by the exercise of black magic. Their assessment was not without merit. Your method of extracting energy is a great deal more humane than mine was. I imagine it is as addictive to your donors as it is to you."

"Yes, I worry about that sometimes. The irony is that when I pull a great deal of energy from a man at one time it is more addictive to him than a more sensible use of my talent," Bellany observed.

"How cunning your talent is to make a man want to destroy himself for your benefit. My former powers seem so much less poetic by comparison," Baladus chuckled.

"I suppose I had better get to work," Bellany said uneasily.

"Indeed. Saturday is not so far off. I will inspect the southeast passage now while I am feeling energetic."

"Thank you, Baladus,"

After scribing the Fumble spell Bellany decided to scribe the Mend Bones spell in her book simply so that she would have the casting notes to help her with the less difficult mending spell she would be scribing from Headmaster Bristol's book. Once she had scribed the two spells she needed from Baladus' spellbook Bellany went up to Headmaster Bristol's quarters. There she found the book on utilitarian magic and scribed the mending spell. Just as with the Grease spell she encoded the spell on some parchment rather than in her book. She did not want to scribe the spell into her book until she had created a full set of casting notes after a successful casting of the spell. Once she was finished scribing, Bellany spent the rest of the night working on the Grease spell. She was surprised to get the spell working near dawn. It was a fairly elementary spell and she had mastered a conjuration cantrip but she still felt lucky. There was nothing like her desperate need for Saturday night recreation to motivate rapid learning.

The following night she successfully learned to cast the mending spell. Thus on Wednesday night she donned warm clothing, her rapier and her bandolier of throwing knives and went down to see Baladus about the passages. Lady Elaine met her in the library and accompanied her down the stairs. Baladus awaited them in the crypts.

"Good evening, milady. What you are about to learn has been kept in the strictest confidence for generations. In the past only Barons and later certain headmasters knew of the existence of the tunnels. Needless to say, you should tell no one of their existence. Headmaster Bristol could be shown someday but he is the only other person who should know. It is important that you do not use the passages when others can see you enter. They must remain secret.

"The southeast passage is the one that will serve you. There is also a northwest passage that once went to the river's edge and then later to the miller's dam but a cave-in about ten years ago severed it and rendered it useless to the living." Baladus guided Bellany through the corridor that ringed the outside of the wall around the spiral staircase that led down from the library. The walls on both sides were lined with shelves filled with the bones of casualties of ancient wars. Once they were facing the east wall Baladus asked Bellany to repeat a prayer. She did so.

"The stormy waters of battle have sent waves of our courageous soldiers crashing upon death's shores. Here we mourn their passing. Let their sacrifice be not in vain. Let them rise and serve again."

The bones in front of Bellany and Baladus rose as skeletons and cleared a path to the east wall. The skeletons on the second and third shelves rolled aside and pulled the slabs they had formerly rested upon with them. At least that was the plan. The arm bones of two of the skeletons on the third shelf snapped as they attempted to pull aside the slab they had rested on.

"Here is where you get practice with the Mend spell. First tug the slab up in case it is stuck," Baladus instructed.

The slab was stuck. Bellany wrestled it free and applied a Grease spell to the neighboring stonework. She then touched the palm of her hand to the skull of one of the broken skeletons. It was the skeleton of Rex Bayne, who had died in a small naval battle on the Augustana River. 

"Rex, just relax a moment while I repair your arms and then you will resume following your orders," Bellany directed.

It was obvious that the caster who had developed the Mend spell was a craftsman. It was formulated so that one cast the body of the spell first then followed that by sweeping one's fingers across the areas to be mended. The last part of the spell was entirely verbal so that the item to be mended could be pressed together to form the bond. Bellany repaired the arms of both skeletons and then bid them resume following their orders. She had to repeat the prayer but once she did they successfully performed their duties to open the way to the secret door.

Baladus motioned Bellany forward through the area vacated by the skeletons and showed her a chink in the mortar between two of the stone blocks making up the wall. Behind it was an ancient keyhole.

She cancelled her Clinging Darkness and conjured a globe of light. She sent the light into the lock to get a look at as much of the mechanism as she could see through the keyhole. She then cast her Grease spell into the lock. Following that she cast her Floating Dagger telekinesis spell. The lock would not budge. Three castings of Grease and several telekinetic attempts later, Bellany cast her Dancing Sword Telekinesis spell. The lock gave after a brief struggle. Bellany gasped and let the Dancing Sword spell drop. She recast Floating Dagger and worked the lock, adding another casting of the Grease spell.

"There that's got it. It is working much more easily now."

"Good. It has been a long time since this door was opened." Baladus pointed to a stone block. "Push on that block."

Bellany pushed and the secret door she had been working on groaned open. She cast her Grease spell on all three hinges and then followed Baladus into a dank stone-lined tunnel.

"This passage is actually a side passage hidden by secret doors on both ends. Just after it comes out into the main passage there is a double bend to prevent enemies with long battering rams from making it any further, the main passage then leads to a blank wall with a dummy door. There is a pressure plate about two feet wide across the width of the passage just before the door. When you step on it a pit trap will open. If you grab the door hardware and keep your feet against the door you will be able to stand on a narrow ledge while everyone behind you falls into a pit trap. The design allows a nobleman in duress to lead an armed party of enemies down the passage to trap them. If a person did not know about the ledge in advance, chances are good that they would not grab it quickly enough to save themselves from the twenty foot drop. 

"Clever, I will remember that just in case. If the trap is in the same shape as the one near your chambers it could probably use some work."

"It was constructed later and more solidly than the one in my chambers. I did not see any bowing of the stone work when I checked it yesterday. In any case we will be coming out just beyond the double bend. If you encounter the double bend while coming back from the outdoors you will know that you have gone too far."

"Good, thank you. Are there any other traps I should know about?" Bellany asked.

"There are none past this point. We will pass an area of the tunnel where the walls appear to be lined with mud. Long ago that mud was packed with skeletons that erupted upon passers by, but the skeletons became too rotted for battle. Nearly a century ago I had one of my students dispel them."

"That's comforting." 


The door out of the side passage that they were in proved just as taxing to open as the first door had. After several castings of Grease and one more casting of Dancing Sword, Bellany was nearly exhausted but the door was open. Baladus showed her the location of the hidden keyhole on the other side and then led her down a long, narrow tunnel. 

She had walked perhaps a hundred paces when a ball of life force about the size of her fist jumped towards her. She narrowly dodged the creature and then sent a throwing knife after it. The knife missed and the creature sprang at her once again. She did a back flip to avoid its jump and drew her rapier as she was landing. She spun just in time to cleave the jumper in two as she reflexively parried it with her rapier. Bellany conjured a ball of blue light and looked at the creature more closely. It was a jumping spider, the largest she had ever seen. 

"Are there any more of these down here?" Bellany asked as her racing heart began to slow.

"I am sorry; I failed to see that one during my earlier inspection of the passages. It must have been holed up. Wait a moment, I will scout ahead."

A few minutes later Baladus returned. "It is all clear ahead. Follow me."

Bellany followed Baladus for another seventy paces or so until they reached a stone door with bronze hardware. 

"This door leads into a small cave beneath an overhanging rock formation. You must leave the three bolts on the inside of the door drawn back when you intend to enter the passage from the outdoors later. Otherwise having the ability to open the lock will still get you nowhere."

The bolts were frozen in place with corrosion but succumbed to Bellany's Grease spell and some energetic kicking on her part. As she worked she released energy from her reserves into her mind. The alertness the energy brought was no replacement for actual magical resources but it would help her regenerate her dangerously depleted stores of magical power more quickly. She cast her Grease spell thrice into the lock and then she made several attempts to open the lock with the Floating Dagger telekinesis spell. Finally she was able to get the lock to turn. 

"Thank goodness. I was thinking my Grease spell was worthless but now that I have got to know these locks a little bit better I finally managed to open one without resorting to Dancing Sword." Bellany collapsed to sit on the floor while she recovered.

"The magical lubricant is anything but useless. The man who invented those utilitarian spells was as clever as he was meticulous. The grease stands up to water and extremes of temperature and does its job very well. It can even be used on skin without ill effects. These mechanisms were frozen with age. You will find that now that you have worked the grease into them that they will serve you well. The door to the cave is counterweighted so that it closes automatically, but you must always make sure it is closed just the same. As a safety precaution you must never wedge anything in it to keep it opened. Opening the door from the cave takes a bit of muscle even when it is unlocked," Balladus explained." 

"That goes for opening it from this side as well," Bellany said as she gripped the bronze door handle and pulled. She had to brace her foot on the doorjamb in order to get it opened. Once opened, the door tried to close of its own accord. Once she had it open a bit she cast about with her lust sense but found nothing within the cave.

Bellany made her way through the door and through the small cave beyond it to the outdoors. She came out in a stand of pines. She began to scout the area but thought better of it. She had no Clinging Darkness running and her magical reserves were exhausted. If she were to run into any of Herrington's men she would be in big trouble. After returning to the cave, it took several minutes for her to push the secret door in the back of the cave open enough to slide through. She wedged herself in the door, inspected the floor of the cave for tracks and used her telekinesis to touch up tracks in telltale dusty areas. Once finished she withdrew into the passage, threw the bolts home and went back to the keep with Baladus.
-------

The next evening Bellany returned to her room at Vargrend's from Jordell manor to find Mary in tears.

Bellany closed the door and went to her roommate.

"What's wrong, Mary?"

"I was trying to defend you while with the other girls and then Bianca and Glenda said I was your sick and sinful slut slave slathering with lust over your body."

Bellany held Mary and whispered softly into her ear. "I am so sorry, Mary. I had hoped Bianca and Glenda would stick to picking on me. I wish it surprised me that any vindicator girl or any friend of mine is also fair game for them and their clique."

"But Bellany, it's true!" Mary bawled. "Every night I yearn for you!"

"Mary, I am flattered that you yearn. You know you are very special to me even though it is my inescapable nature to yearn for nearly everyone nearly all of the time. Yet I will not give Bianca the satisfaction of letting her crush me with guilt over my lustful nature. Actually I like my lustful nature and I enjoy sharing it with people who also enjoy it. Bianca will use whatever she can think of to get to me including you. Please don't fall for her tricks. Her goal is to make us as miserable as she can. We must defy her or we are nothing."

Bellany might have added something but Mary grabbed her and started kissing her in spite of her tears.
-------

Bellany smiled down at Mary's peacefully sleeping form. Mary had been very upset but she had somehow transformed the emotional trauma that Bianca had put her through into pure lust. The extra emotional energy Bianca's machinations had brought up now resided in Bellany's reserves and the fun she had with her roommate resided on her face as a wistful smile.

Bellany carefully got out of bed and made her way to the closet. She was glad things went as well as they had with Mary but she was not happy that Bianca was now attacking her friends. Bellany cast her traveling spells and put on a great deal of warm clothing. She waited until the hall monitor was elsewhere and then left. She went through the library and down to the crypts. As she headed for the secret passage Lady Elaine joined her.

"Good evening, milady Elaine," Bellany said pleasantly. 

"Good evening Lady Lust. Have you come to use the secret passage in order to feed?" the ghost whispered.

Bellany smiled. "I will be getting to that on Saturday night but tonight I have exploration to do. Baladus and I opened the passage up last night but I did not have the time or the magical resources to go abroad from the exit and get to know the area around it." 

Bellany arrived at the east wall and intoned the pass phrase for the skeletons. 

"The stormy waters of battle have sent waves of our courageous soldiers crashing upon death's shores. Here we mourn their passing. Let their sacrifice be not in vain. Let them rise and serve again."

This time the skeletons opened the way without mishap.

"Baladus said that he was impressed by your battle skills last night when you faced a jumping spider," Lady Elaine said.

"That was kind of him. I need more practice with throwing knives but I did manage to split the spider with my rapier before it bit me. With all the danger lately, I took some time to study the second Bestow Life Force spell. It is a lot like the first tier spell but requires more power. I will try to learn it soon. I will not always have the luxury of having the time to cast the first spell several times."

Bellany unlocked the secret door at the end of the passage and walked into the main passage beyond it. For a moment she got turned around and started going through a double bend. She thought better of her course and reversed direction.

"Oops, wrong way. If it is true that ghosts do not do well in areas that were not familiar to them in life, I fear for your safety, Lady Elaine. You cannot have spent much time in this tunnel while you were alive. Does it still count as part of the keep you knew?"

"It existed during my life but it is true that I never saw it. Baladus was the only one of us who used it. I am surprised the disorientation and worse that comes with unfamiliar places has not yet crept up on me." 

Bellany passed the secret door she had so recently emerged from and then headed down the long tunnel towards the cave. Suddenly Lady Elaine squealed and Bellany felt mild chills as her ghostly friend grabbed onto her.

"What is wrong, Lady Elaine? Have you run out of tunnel?" Bellany exclaimed.

"Goodness, sometime ago by the look of it."

"Why is it that you did not notice?"

Bellany could feel Lady Elaine ease out of the space that Bellany's body occupied. 

"There was no vista. I was distracted by our conversation and the confines of the turns in the tunnel, but now that I look down a longer length of tunnel my attention is not so focused on you. Beyond us I see the boiling and shifting of the ethers and denizens of shadow bleeding through. Surrounding you is a bubble of safety. I have heard that such is the case with powerful necromancers and saints of Mortaebius but I have never had the opportunity to put it to a test. Such individuals are so attuned to the land of the dead that ghosts can travel with them anywhere as long as they remain in close quarters. Such individuals can accumulate hordes of ghosts that serve as a protective aura. Once a ghost is separated from her home I can see why she would be stuck serving such a necromancer. Short of using the necromancer's connection to go to the land of the dead, there would be no escape save into the perilous nexus of the ethers where she might be lost forever or consumed by unknown denizens."

"Would you like me to take you back to the keep?" Bellany offered.

"And miss my first excursion away from home in ages? Heavens no!" Lady Elaine exclaimed. "As long as I don't have to share your bubble with a thousand other spirits I am content to explore with you. I can see the land of the living and as long as I do not leave your side I can ignore the other things that I can see."

"I am hardly a powerful necromancer but I am glad to have you along. Two sets of eyes are better than one. We need to keep an eye out for Constable Herrington's men."

When they reached the end of the tunnel, Bellany pulled back the three bolts and used her telekinesis as a key to open the lock. She entered the cave and locked the door behind her. She crossed the cave and went outdoors. Once outside the cave, Bellany tried to get her bearings but the pine forest around her made it difficult to see the night sky.

"I don't want to get lost so I will try to head towards the road. The tunnel heads off that way. That should be northwest. The tunnel itself is little more than two hundred paces long. That is as far as I shall go in any given direction."

Bellany trudged through the snow counting her paces as she went. She had counted nearly two hundred paces when she heard the faint sound of horses and froze for an instant before creeping towards the sound.

"That wind sure bites," a faint voice carried from the road.

"Aye, get yerself a couple more sweaters an' long johns and ye won't feel it no more. I used ta feel it same as you but now I got me enough wool on ta be counted a sheep."

"Hah! You a sheep? Ye're more like a lion in sheep's clothing I'll wager."

"Maybe, but I gave up drinkin' an' whorin' an' now being as how I am a member of a flock o' the th' faithful I feel like more of a sheep than the soldier I was a few years back before milord Avengene got religion."

"Well there ye go then. Ye should stop tryin' ta convert me and join me faith. Th' god o' th' dead's not against a little drinkin' and whorin'. It's what reminds us we're alive."

"Heh, I am th' one that's supposed ta be convertin' ye. Even if ye don't give a twat about th' Vindicator ye ought ta convert 'cause Herrington'll like ye better and that means opportunity fer promotions."

"Ye got a point there, but I got no family up north ta go to 'case war breaks out 'tween Bristol and Avengene. I'd like ta keep me head where it is, thank ye very much."

"Ye sure on that?" 

"Well there is one 'ead I'd rather 'ave 'twixt a wench's thighs. Vindicator won't be gettin' me that."

"Sure 'e could. Plenty o' women in th' fold. Ye could git hitched with a good wife and raise yerself a peck o' kids."

Bellany cupped her hand by her ear, but the voices had grown too faint to be intelligible as the men's horses walked further up the road. 

"That must have been one of Herrington's patrols," Bellany whispered to Elaine as she headed towards the road.

"No doubt you are right," Lady Elaine agreed in her usual ghostly whisper.

"My sense of direction may have been a bit off after being underground. I will get my bearings on the road."

Bellany left the confines of the forest and looked up at the sky from the road. There were a few clouds but thanks to Red Jack, she had no trouble locating the North Star.

"I think I headed southwest instead of northwest. I am going to head back to the rock formation the way I came so that I can cover my tracks using telekinesis and then I will try again." 

Bellany did a thorough job covering her tracks close to the road but used a more rapid approach within the forest. Once she arrived back at the rock formation she circled it and then started back towards the road on a less southerly heading. This time she found the road after about eighty paces but she came out essentially across the street from the gate to Vargrend's. She backtracked and tried it again. On her third attempt she encountered the road a bit south of the gate to her school after around sixty paces. She memorized the trees and headed back to cover up her trail. Once she was satisfied she had found the most direct route to the road as well as the most direct route to the gate, she spent some time getting to know the forest between the road and the rock formation for times when she missed the mark. She had no desire to walk right past the rock formation if visibility were impaired by snow or fog. The pine forest would help in regard to snow but she was not about to leave things to chance. 

"Wish I could ride Starstruck at night. I miss riding," Bellany said.

"There is no reason why you cannot if you are careful. The school watchman is nothing if not predictable. He locks the stables up just after dark and opens them again at dawn. I don't think I have ever seen him go inside and check the horses. If he is outside after dark checking the buildings he checks the stable doors to make sure that they are locked. I have never seen him go into the stables after he has locked up. When it is this cold he does not go out of his way to be thorough and may not even go outdoors. The only thing you would have to worry about is leaving tracks in fresh snow. Once the road has been used for a day or two it would be unlikely for anyone to tell the tracks of your horse from any other. You would have to avoid Herrington's patrols but if you use a large enough spell of darkness you could hide as long as there is not so much light on a given night that you would stick out," Lady Elaine suggested.

"Do you think on an overcast night with Clinging Darkness II or III running I would be just fine?" Bellany asked hopefully.

"I am sure of it as long as you came back immediately if it started to snow," Lady Elaine advised.

As they circled back to the rock formation once again Bellany spoke: "I would like to continue wandering around in this forest but I have used too much telekinetic power erasing tracks and I can hardly feel my feet due to the cold."

"Then we had better call an end to our excursion," Lady Elaine advised.

Bellany nodded and ducked into the cave. She picked her way across the floor, mindful to erase any tracks in the dust and snow and then she unlocked the secret door in the back of the cave using her telekinesis. Once back inside the tunnel she shot all three bolts home manually and then telekinetically relocked the door.

For a few moments Bellany walked in silence, and then she spoke softly to Elaine. "There, now I should be able to use the tunnel to facilitate my Saturday bacchanal. I am glad Headmaster Bristol gave me the heads-up about Herrington thinking that someone from the Medusa Club had come to the academy. The secret passages are so historical. We read about the keep being taken by stealth and by storm but seeing the tunnels is so much more exciting than the book version. I wonder how Bristol's men found out about the passages? Was the entrance to the west passage hidden by bones as well?"

"I wish I knew who betrayed the knowledge of the passages to Warlord Bristol. I have always assumed it was one of the builders of the keep, but it might have been one of my family members. I will probably never know. As for the west entrance it was the first and least creative of the two secret byways to the crypt. The facing stone on Hyrum Turner's grave hinges open and within is a keyhole. If you turn the lock the entire end of the hallway that passes by his grave can be slid aside revealing a tunnel."

"Was there no protection for the door?"

"Hyrum was protection enough. His skeleton was as sturdy as his sword was swift."

"What about protection from the outside?" Bellany asked.

"That was an older tunnel. There was no elaborate pit such as Baladus installed on the Southeast tunnel. There were some skeletons concealed in the walls near the door to the crypt. By now they are probably in worse shape than the ones in Baladus' lair."

"I am going to spend some time on Baladus' skeletons tonight. There are a few I can repair with my mending spell. Others will require the more difficult mend bones spell that I have not yet learned, but at least I can get a start on some of them," Bellany said.
-------

It was Saturday night and Bellany could not wait to get to the Medusa Club. She planted a soft kiss on Mary's sleeping lips and then quietly rushed out of the room. She went down to the crypts and used the secret passage to leave Vargrend's. She walked to the road south of the gate to Vargrend's and saw that Herrington had posted sentries in the woods just across the road from the gate to the academy. They were meant to be hidden but their life force made them stand out like beacons to her Life Vision spell. She no longer needed to go near the gate, thus the sentries were not a problem. Headmaster Bristol and Baladus had saved her from being trapped within the school. She was delighted that her friends were able to help her elude Herrington and his men. For a change she saw no members of the constabulary lurking around Cooyman's cabin. She circled around the area to be sure but found nothing. Evidently after two unsuccessful attempts at finding a woman, Herrington was satisfied for the moment.

When Bellany arrived, Dempsy let her into the bedroom through the window and did her mask and hair. When she was ready she went out into the main room where the men had arranged a midnight meal of roast beef for the score of men who counted themselves members of the Medusa Club. As she entered the main room of Cooyman's cabin delicious lust tingled up her spine. Each man she passed had a kiss for her and hands that wandered over her body. 

After she had a light snack of roast beef with her fellow club members, the musicians began to play and she danced before the men. It was not long before she began to bed one after another. They made her feel marvelous, pumping their lustful energy into her, boosting her reserves and making her tingle with power. She noticed that a growing number of the men drank less at the beginning of the evening until after they had been with her. She also noticed a few of them dozed off after they had seen her and then returned to bed her again in the hours just before dawn. 

It was a delightful time as usual and when it was all over Bellany's vulva was drooling cum. Her legs and the bedclothes were slick with it. She found the sensation very pleasant.

Late that night after she had seen all of the men at least once, Dempsy ducked into the bedroom. "It is snowing very heavily, milady. Mayhap you would like to get an early start back to your lair. If it gets any worse you will not be able to see to travel."

Bellany frowned. "Then I had better get cleaned up. Sorry for the sour mood. I was just getting my second wind but the world intrudes. Thank you, Dempsy."

Dempsy smiled. "Ye've got quiet the appetite for snake, Medusa."

Bellany lifted one of her snake-like braids while fingering her clit. "You are what you eat," Bellany grinned.
-------

Once outside she found that it was snowing furiously. The persistent gusting wind whipped up and began to howl. By the time she had ducked behind some bushes and recast her darkness spell she hardly needed a darkness spell. Visibility got worse every minute as she made her way down the road out of town. Suddenly the realization hit her. _How am I going to find the entrance to the tunnel in this? I am blind._ Bellany stopped a moment and thought. She could not see more than ten feet in front of her. Her life vision was not helping her since people were not out in this weather to serve as beacons in the night. She did not even see any of Herrington's men. She knew she was on the outskirts of town and was headed towards the academy. 

She looked at the ground. It was the one feature of the terrain that she could see. It was covered with drifting snow but she could nevertheless see that it was relatively flat beneath the drifts. She knew there would soon be trees on her right but for now there were farmer's fields that surrounded the town of Vargrend. On her left the terrain would drop away towards the river valley, yet it would drop somewhat on the other side of the road as well since the road ran along the crest of a hill. She decided that the only safe way to ensure that she reached her destination was to err on the side of going left. The declination of the terrain would tell her that she was on the edge of the river valley and keep her on track.

For many long, tense moments Bellany kept a watchful eye on the terrain below her while trudging blindly through the snow. The wind had increased to a banshee howl that blew volumes of snow into air that was already teeming with it. It was about twenty minutes later that Bellany threw up her hands to avoid cracking her skull against a stone wall. Visibility was indeed poor. She could hardly see more than an arm's length away. She carefully looked at the wall and then breathed a sigh of relief. It was the wall around the Academy. Since the wall ran east and west it was obvious that she had indeed erred on the side of going left or west. 

It was lucky that the academy was such a big target. Otherwise she might have stayed hopelessly lost. She kept one hand on the wall and followed it east and then north until she neared the gate. Even with her life vision she could not see any sentries. It was likely they had left sometime before the weather got too bad. Bellany thought about making her way through the gate and into the offices but worried that it might be too close to morning. To make matters worse, there would be no way she could avoid dropping a considerable amount of snow on the floors of the office while making her way to the spiral stairs. On the other hand if she went back out into the snow she could easily go right by the rock formation that marked the end of the secret tunnel. Thankfully she knew how many paces the rock formation was from the gate.

Bellany turned toward the rock formation and took several steps. She kept her gaze trained at the ground and walked eighty paces to the southeast as rapidly as possible. She did not see the rock formation. The pines slowed the wind and sheltered her from the snow to some degree, but she could still not see more than ten feet in front of her. She dug the snow up with her boots knowing that the hole she made would only last a few minutes. She went forty paces in what she thought was a southeasterly direction and then retraced her steps. Had she put any more distance between her starting point and the end of her forty paces, her trail would have vanished before she could retrace it. She re-dug her starting hole and headed out in a slightly different direction.

She made six rushed forays due east yet found nothing. When she returned from the sixth foray she sat where she had made the hole in the snow to catch her breath. Thanks to the energy buzzing through her from the Medusa Club she had not been thinking about the possibility of freezing to death less than a hundred yards from Vargrend's but she knew it could happen. Suddenly she realized that she had started counting, not from the gate but from the far side of the road. After the eighty paces she should have walked right through the rock formation but her sense of direction must have been slightly off. She looked around trying to pick out land marks but the snow had changed the appearance of everything. She made four rapid forays to what she believed was the southwest and northwest. 

By the fourth she was feeling frantic but she noticed the trunks of two trees that had grown together and instantly knew where she was. She ran to the southeast and skirted her way around the rock formation that housed the entrance to the tunnel and then burst into the cave. She opened the secret door and cast her telekinesis spell once inside so that she could turn back to confuse her trail within the cave. Outdoors the weather would erase her tracks for her in no time at all. Once finished she locked and bolted the secret door and ran down the tunnel. As she entered the crypt she saw Lady Elaine and quickly cast her Ghostly Whispers spell.

"I am so glad to see you, Lady Elaine. I was caught in a horrible blizzard outside. Bellany beat snow off her cloak and stamped her feet. She felt a dribble of cum start down her leg from her greedy nether lips and briefly smiled. 

"I need you to run ahead and see if Mary is already awake."

"I can stick my head through the door out of the library and inspect the hallway, but Mary is out of my reach unless I ride your aura. I will meet you up there," Lady Elaine said before disappearing right through the ceiling. 
Bellany took the stairs up in twos and threes and then stopped abruptly and took off her boots when she reached the entrance to the library.

"Hurry, you haven't a moment to spare. The hallway is clear at this instant."

"Thank you, Elaine," Bellany whispered as she rushed across the floor.

Bellany crossed the library, unlocked the door, closed and locked it behind her. She froze an instant at the door to her room as she saw Mrs. Perkins, the hallway monitor enter at the far end of the hallway from the stairs. It was hard to say if the monitor noticed anything amiss so far down the shadowy hallway. Bellany stiffened as she felt a chill as Lady Elaine evidently jumped the gap between the door to the library and Bellany's current location.

"Hurry, slip inside," Lady Elaine urged, breaking Bellany out of her instant of paralysis.

Bellany slipped into her room and re-locked the door behind her. Lady Elaine was horizontal with her feet anchored in Bellany's aura and her head sticking through the door that the monitor would soon be opening. Bellany needed to change clothes but she could not imagine how she was going to change in time. She smiled and began casting her Visual Illusion spell.

She heard the monitor squeal outside as Lady Elaine delayed her with a well-timed chill. After a few moments of recovery the hall monitor turned the key in the lock and as the door creaked open Bellany completed her casting within the room and dropped her darkness spell. Lady Elaine joined her as she finished.

"Good morning, Lady Norwit," Mrs Perkins said.

"Good morning, Mrs. Perkins," Bellany replied politely.

"The ghosts are active again. I've just seen one outside your door."

"Vindicator protect us," Bellany said breathily. "Thank you for waking us, Mrs. Perkins."

"It is no problem at all, Lady Norwit. I do not know what you girls will be doing today but I am sure Mary will be needed. There is a howling storm outside. I am afraid I am stranded here and I doubt anyone, not even Headmistress Vargrend will be able to make it to the academy until the blizzard lets up."

Bellany nodded. "Mary and I will be ready to help what staff there is in twenty minutes."

Mrs. Perkins smiled. "Thank you, Lady Norwit. I know the girls have demonized you for being held prisoner by the orcs, but socially you outrank all of the other young women who live in the dormitory here at Vargrend's. I am glad you are ready to help. It speaks well of you, Lady Norwit. I will speak with you again shortly." 

"Thank you, Mrs. Perkins. I will be with you in a few minutes," Bellany promised as Mrs. Perkins closed the door.

Mary was already stirring. Bellany raced to the closet to get out of her cloak before her illusionary nightgown lapsed.

Mary blinked blearily as Bellany breezed back into the room and began building a fire in the heater. "You sure changed quickly."

"Did you hear Mrs. Perkins? Never mind, just listen to the wind howl! There is a wild blizzard outside. We have our work cut out for us today. Who do you suppose is going to get breakfast for everyone in the academy when the cooks will not be able to make it in from town?"

Mary groaned. "If that is true then we have a couple of hallway monitors, no teachers, no cafeteria staff and no way to get supplies from town."

"Yes on every count. Now hurry and get dressed."


Once Mary had thrown on a dress the two young women raced out of their room to find Mrs. Perkins. They located her patrolling the hallway on the second floor.

"We are ready to help, Mrs. Perkins. What staff do we have on the premises?"

"There is only Jessa, the cleaning lady, and me."

"Can either of you cook?" Bellany asked.

"I see what you are getting at. Jessa is a little simple but I am sure she can cook. I can as well, although neither of us is accomplished at cooking for large groups." 

Bellany nodded. "Have you awakened Headmaster Bristol?"

Mrs. Perkins blushed. "I had hoped the storm would blow over by now."


"I am in the headmaster's mathematics class. He is an organized man. I am sure he will want to know about this before everyone starts waking up. Have you got the key to the library?"

"Yes, of course."

"Good. Let's get going," Bellany said as she started walking towards the stairs.

Mrs. Perkins blinked. "You certainly have a take-charge attitude, young lady."

Bellany nodded. "I looked out the window while Mary was getting dressed. The weather shows no sign of letting up. We can act now or we can wait and let this day turn into a disaster."

"But should we wake the headmaster this early?"

"Yes, we must," Bellany said succinctly.

Bellany stopped at the library door and looked firmly into Mrs. Perkins' eyes until she unlocked the door. Bellany hurried through the library with Mrs. Perkins in pursuit. After Mrs. Perkins opened the librarian's cage, Bellany went right in and opened the door to the spiral staircase with the librarian's key. She wasted no time rushing up the stairs to Headmaster Bristol's door. Before Mrs. Perkins arrived, Bellany was already pounding on the headmaster's door. It took nearly ten minutes but at last the door opened and Headmaster Bristol stuck his head out.

Before he could speak, Bellany explained. "Mrs. Perkins is here with me. We need your leadership, Headmaster Bristol. We are under siege by a blizzard. Our morning staff including the kitchen staff has not arrived and we cannot expect them to. We need to get something organized before the students start waking up."

Headmaster Bristol nodded.

"I need a few minutes to dress. Give Mrs. Perkins these keys. Have her go through the offices to the boys' side and get the hall monitor, the watchman and the custodian while you fetch the girls' custodian. Bring them all back and I will join you all in the parlor for an emergency meeting."

Twenty minutes later Mary, Bellany and the few staff members present at the academy were sitting in Headmaster Bristol's parlor.

"I am hoping the blizzard will let up by midday. That is how these things usually go," Headmaster Bristol said. That means we will have to take care of breakfast for the entire academy and maintain order and morale among the students."

Everyone looked at Bellany as she cleared her throat loudly.

"Excuse me, Headmaster. I would be useless at trying to maintain order as the young women have demonized me but I do have experience cooking for large groups. Keep Norwit is a garrisoned fortress. My specialty is breads and biscuits and I do have experience managing kitchen staff. My roommate Mary is also a good cook. As you know she won a pie bake-off earlier this year."

Headmaster Bristol nodded. "Mrs. Perkins do you or Jessa have experience cooking for large groups?"

"I am afraid not, Headmaster. I have children but my home is hardly a garrisoned fortress. I do believe I can keep the young ladies disciplined, however. They are used to me serving that function."

"Oh goodness, I am just a tired old cleaning lady. I should be in bed in a few hours but I am willing to make the best of it. There is no getting home with the weather the way it is," Jessa blurted.

"Indeed we must all make the best of it until this storm lets up. I am sure it will blow over by midday. Lady Norwit, I would like you to organize a volunteer student staff for the kitchen. The hallway monitors are to continue to maintain student discipline along with the custodial staff. I will travel throughout the academy and make sure that our efforts remain coordinated and that no one panics.

"We had better get started. Monitors you will inform the students that classes before midday break have been cancelled pending the return of our teaching staff. The exception for the boys and Lady Norwit will be that I will continue to teach senior mathematics at the usual time. Otherwise, students should stay in their rooms or congregate in the student family rooms. Custodians open the student family rooms; build fires in the fire places. We want the students to be able to congregate and reassure one another. Make sure the rooms are warm and hospitable. Take what fuel you need from the stock for the classrooms. We shall not be opening the classrooms until this storm blows over anyway. Monitors, inform the students that volunteers from Vargrend's will be preparing breakfast with what supplies we have on hand. Breakfast may be delayed and it may be simpler fare than they are used to but no one will starve."

After the meeting was over Bellany sent Mary to see one of the girls that Mary knew helped the kitchen staff as part of her scholarship. Mary was to round up all of the other student kitchen help and a few other young women that she knew could cook. By the time they arrived at the kitchen, Bellany had already explored the kitchen, made a mental list of available supplies, and formulated a breakfast menu based on supplies on hand and foods she had seen prepared at the school breakfast in the past. Once the volunteer staff arrived, Mary assembled them in the kitchen.

"Good morning, everyone," Bellany said.

"Good morning, Lady Norwit," the girls said, some of them rather reluctantly.

"I know that many of you have been schooled not to like me or to think that I am diseased or something. Let me assure you that according to Count Jordell's personal physician, I am perfectly healthy. None of the rest of what you may believe about me is important today. At least for the duration of this emergency I would like you to drop all of that. The blizzard outside has prevented our kitchen staff from arriving. We are the only people standing between this school and hunger. Because of my social rank and my experience with cooking and working with kitchen staff, including orc slaves with very limited supplies, Headmaster Bristol has asked me to assemble a team to prepare breakfast for the academy. 

"I asked Mary to recruit those of you who normally help the kitchen staff because you know this kitchen better than anyone else currently here at the academy. As most of you know I am Lady Bellany Norwit. You can call me Bellany or Lady Norwit as you see fit. I have been through far too much to dwell on formalities. I would like each of you to introduce yourself so that I know what to call you and then we can get started." Bellany looked at the girl nearest to her and inclined her head.

"I am Linda Heckard, one of Mary's friends. I have seen you at church, Lady Norwit. I am glad you came here to Vargrend's rather than going off to Li' yieraun."

"I am Judy Dunstable, Mary knows me from the cooking events because last year it usually came down to a competition between the ladies of Nurtriste against the ladies of the Vindicator." 

"Uh, I am Lisa Craft, Lady Norwit. I help the staff here and this is Heather George my friend and coworker."

"Hello, ah, um... I am Donna Hendges. I am a cook's assistant as well."

Thank you all for coming. We had better get to work. I have looked through the drawers and pantries to get a feel for the supplies and equipment we have at our disposal. It looks like we have plenty of oatmeal and a fair amount of flour. Those staples will be very important if the storm does not let up by noon as everyone hopes. Since we have flour I will be making biscuits. Who has done oatmeal before?"
-------

After organizing the young women, Bellany got to work on the biscuits. Although they had to rush, breakfast was delayed only ten minutes past the usual time. They continued to cook after the girls were already eating in preparation for the boys' breakfast.

"Are you sure you want to make more biscuits, Lady Norwit? They are stacking up." 

Bellany took a bite from one of her biscuits. It was delicious.

"Lisa, did you tell the girls that I was making the biscuits?"

Lisa blushed. "I have been far too busy for socializing."

"My guess is that someone let it slip and that the girls are avoiding the biscuits because I made them. It seems to be worse now that the girls' breakfast is nearly over. I guess word has got around. If they knew I had stirred and checked most every dish we made for breakfast perhaps they would all starve. For their sakes, Lisa, let them believe that I have just been making biscuits. I will continue with this batch since I doubt the boys will care who made the biscuits." 

Lisa nodded. "Yes, milady Norwit.

When the boys breakfast began Bellany took a tray of biscuits out to the serving table. Brennon Stark was among the first group of boys into the cafeteria.

"Good morning, Brennon," Bellany said cheerfully.

"Morning, Lady Bellany. I didn't know you worked in the kitchen."

"I have experience cooking for large groups since Keep Norwit is a garrisoned fortress. The school kitchen staff could not make it this morning because of the storm. Headmaster Bristol asked me to assemble a group of volunteers to make breakfast. I have been supervising while baking the biscuits."

"Well thank you for stepping up, milady. Everything looks more delicious than usual." Brennon gave her a lusty look and licked his lips. He filled his bowl with oatmeal and took four biscuits. He waved and then headed for a table.
-------

"Gracious, Lady Norwit, it is a good thing you did not heed my advice about the biscuits. The girls may not have been eating them but the boys have inhaled them all and are asking for more," Lisa marveled.

Bellany smirked as she pulled a sheet of fresh biscuits from the oven.

"The boys seem to favor me more than the girls."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "You can say that again. I can hardly believe the number of compliments we have received on the biscuits and they keep asking when you will come out to serve more. I cannot understand it. You are besmirched; they should have no interest in you."

"I am no longer the kind of woman a nobleman can marry, but the boys may not be thinking that far ahead. Perhaps they hope I am the sort of girl who will teach them a thing or two so that they will not be at a loss on their wedding nights."

"You wouldn't!" Lisa blurted.

"Even if I wanted to, you know as well as I do what a short leash they keep us on here at Vargrend's, Lisa."

"But, but..."

"But what?" Bellany asked.

"I heard you have bedded Lord Jordell and all of his friends."

"I must be quite clever to have escaped the chaperones that many times," Bellany noted.

"But you go over to the Jordell's every day. Aren't you Lord Jordell's mistress? Doesn't he share you with all the other noble boys so that he can admire their bodies because he is queer and likes other men?" Lisa asked breathlessly.

Bellany cocked her head. "So rather than sweating over a grueling lesson in swordsmanship each day with Master Leafwhisper I am actually playing with Jamie and all the cutest noble boys?"

Lisa nodded.

"It sounds like I have a lot of naughty fun in someone's fantasies. It is not fair that I suffer the bad reputation without actually enjoying the benefits of my alleged activities. Perhaps there is some way I could fix that," Bellany winked at Lisa and tugged at her lust.

"Lady Norwit!" Lisa squealed. 
-------

Near the end of the boys' breakfast Headmaster Bristol visited the kitchen.

"Good morning, young ladies."

"Good morning, Headmaster Bristol!"

"I want to extend my personal thanks to Lady Norwit and you marvelous young ladies on the kitchen team that she has assembled. You have all done the academy a great service. You have gone above and beyond the call of duty preparing and serving breakfast this morning. I had hoped to come down and assure you that the kitchen staff would soon be here to take over. Unfortunately the storm has not blown over. If anything it is even worse than it was this morning."

Headmaster Bristol regarded the girls. Forced smiles tempered the apprehension all but one of them seemed to be feeling. Bellany showed no signs of alarm. Instead she was deep in thought.

"Lady Norwit?"

"There are several large hams in the meat locker," Bellany said as the headmaster broke her out of her reverie. "Would you like us to serve ham sandwiches and vegetable soup for lunch, Headmaster Bristol? I am sure the girls would enjoy the whole pork motif since I am involved. I think we have enough bread on hand but maybe we had better bake more if you think this storm might last a day or two."

Headmaster Bristol shook his head. "Lady Norwit, you are fearless, not to mention practical. Ham sounds fine since we have it on hand and the baking is a good precaution. You obviously know what you are doing. I would like you to take over the academy's kitchen until further notice. I need someone who can plan meals that can be made with the food we have on hand even as our food supplies begin to dwindle if this storm refuses to blow over."

Bellany nodded. "We can hold out for a couple days if necessary, although after tomorrow we will probably have little to offer but gruel."

"Don't worry about that. These storms seldom last more than half a day. I am sure we will have kitchen staff by dinnertime," Headmaster Bristol affirmed.
-------

That evening Bellany sat in Headmaster Bristol's parlor along with the stranded members of the academy's staff. Mrs. Perkins looked exhausted. Bellany had worked hard cooking and cleaning for the lion's share of the day but she had still found several hours to do a considerable amount of mathematics homework and to begin to memorize the verbal and somatic components to second of the Bestow Life Force spells. Headmaster Bristol looked his staff over and smiled warmly. 

"Thank you all for helping out today. I know some of you have had very little sleep. It has been a long day for everyone. As you can hear from the howling wind, the storm shows no signs of letting up. Let me assure you that I can remember past years that we had storms like this and we have always come through them just fine. Earlier today we moved some girls and boys around to secure an empty room in each dorm for our staff members to sleep. Some of you have already taken advantage of this arrangement to fortify you for tonight's labors.

"Lady Norwit has been managing the kitchen. We can all be grateful to her that we have had good meals. Once I tasted the fare I was gratified but I feared the girls might cook well yet leave the kitchen a shambles. I needn't have worried. Under Lady Norwit's management the kitchen is as clean as I have ever seen it." 

The headmaster motioned to one of the male staff members, "Jon Dunstable our watchman has been able to string a rope from the office to the gate and from there to the stables in order to allow him to tend to the needs of the horses without getting lost in the blizzard. He has created a similar line to the wood shed. I would like the nighttime custodial staff to patrol the halls at night in addition to their usual duties. I will need our night hallway monitors to maintain order during the day. I have been moving around attempting to coordinate our efforts and to fill in when other staff members need a break. So far we have been fortunate. Does anyone have needs or questions before most of us turn in for the night?"

"If it is okay I would like Jessa to wake me at half past four this morning so that Mary or I can wake the kitchen team around five."

"Jessa nodded. "Which room are you in, young lady?"

"We are in the room closest to the library door on the river side of the hallway."

"I will wake you early tomorrow morning then," Jessa agreed.
-------

Not surprisingly Bellany was already awake studying magic when the time for Jessa to wake her the next morning drew near. Early that night Bellany had taken a brief nap after fun with Mary. Once Bellany was awake she had finished working up the verbal and somatic components for Bestow Life Force II and had then gone outside and followed the rope that led to the stables. She paid the horses a visit to try the new Bestow Life Force spell on one of them. The spell was very similar to the lower power bestow spell that she already knew. It took her perhaps a dozen tries but she got the stronger version to work. Afterwards she made up for much of the lost energy by casting drain spells on the stallions. When she was satisfied that she could cast the stronger bestowal spell she returned to her room to pen casting notes.

Once finished with Bestow Life Force II, she started memorizing the verbal and somatic components to the thought-sending addendum to the telempathy spell. She also briefly studied Illusion of the Mind II since the sending of thoughts was quite similar to sending the images of a mental illusion. The storm actually gave her more time to work on magic since classes and swordsmanship had been cancelled. Over the next few days she decided that she would also get some work done on the fumble spell and the Mend Bones spell. Not long before Jessa came to wake her, Bellany had noticed that Mary was twitching a bit in bed. Bellany took this to mean that her roommate was dreaming and thus she cast her Telempathy spell on Mary. She used the addendum as well but at the time she was not sure it would work.

Within her dream Mary was calling Bellany's name. She seemed to be searching. Mary kept searching but kept finding others. Whenever she did she was horribly embarrassed and fled. Near the end of the dream Mary tried to speak to reverend Leland but wound up running and screaming. Mary seemed to be experiencing considerable distress.

"You are dreaming, Mary, you are safe and warm in my arms. Soon Jessa will wake us so that we can make breakfast for the snowed-in Academy," Bellany sent. Bellany raised her eyebrows when Mary responded to her from her dream.


"Bellany, why is the reverend dead and trying to kill me?" Mary cried in her sleep. 

"I do not know what your dream means, Mary, but you are dreaming," Bellany sent.

"How do you know?" Mary asked.

Bellany decided that since Mary seemed to be waking up she would begin talking softly in Mary's ear so that Mary would think that Bellany had been speaking to her all along.

"I can feel you twitching in bed next to me."

Mary's eyes fluttered open. The room was cold and dark but Bellany was stroking Mary's hair.

"Oh goodness, you just saved me from a horrific dream," Mary whispered.

"Really? What happened?" Bellany asked in a hushed voice.

"I was naked in church searching for you but I kept running into others and it was very embarrassing. Then I found Reverend Leland but his vestments were shredded to rags and his skin was blue. He was dead and he started chasing me. That was when I heard your voice. At first it was a part of my dream and then as I woke up I began to hear you in the normal way. What do you suppose it means?" Mary asked plaintively.

"I wish I knew, Mary. Maybe it means that if Leland saw the naked truth about you he would attack you like a ravening monster."

"Perhaps he would," Mary shuddered.

"Jessa is going to wake us up soon. I guess I should get up and rekindle the fire," Bellany said reluctantly.

"Let me do it for a change. Before I knew of the pleasures of the flesh I never slept this soundly. You are nearly always up before me and in spite of your station you nearly always make the fire so that I do not wake to a cold room."

"Go ahead if you like, Mary, but I do not mind making the fire in the morning. It is usually so cold that I want nothing more than to build a fire to take the edge off. I just wish I could do it without getting out of bed."

Bellany briefly imagined floating the wood into the stove using telekinesis. It would not be practical. She could not lift the heavier billets of wood with anything but her Dancing Sword telekinesis spell and even if she used only kindling she had no way to light the fire without getting out of bed... unless she created a ranged Firefinger spell.

Shortly after Mary began building the fire, Jessa knocked softly on the door. "It is half past four, young ladies."

"Thank you, Jessa," Mary called. 

Jessa turned the key to open Bellany's door and then left down the hallway.

The morning in the kitchen was a busy one. Supplies were dwindling but a barrel of salt pork helped spruce up the otherwise dull breakfast fare. Bellany had to stretch her cooking talents further with each meal. She knew just what was left and planned her meals accordingly. The ham sandwiches the day before had not gone over well with the girls but the boys had made up for it. Bellany noticed that the girls ate better today after some of them had starved themselves yesterday in an attempt to avoid her cooking. With the fare becoming increasingly bland, Bellany's bread and biscuits became the best the kitchen had to offer.

Monday passed rapidly as the cooking team continued its work. Bellany managed a hearty stew for dinner that evening but the meal exhausted the school's supply of beef and vegetables. Tuesday's meals were nothing more than spruced-up gruel. Wednesday morning things began looking truly dire. Bellany went to meet with Headmaster Bristol after breakfast to break the news.

"Headmaster Bristol, we are out of nearly everything, flour and grains included. It appears that the academy keeps about three days worth of food on hand and our three days are over," Bellany observed. "I can scrape up some uninspiring odds and ends for lunch but I will also have to start tapping the oats for the horses. The girls and I will have to go through and sort out the bad grains and any rodent droppings."

Headmaster Bristol shook his head. "I have lived here many years but have never seen the likes of this storm. We have had storms that have lasted a day or two but this one has no peer. The wind is positively diabolical. I do not relish going before the Academy to announce that we will shortly begin to starve but I will do what I must."

"There is no need for us to starve, Headmaster. I will put the girls to sifting through a few bags of horse feed. I have been thinking about our predicament and I may have a solution for you," Bellany announced.

"Does it involve magic?" Headmaster Bristol asked.

"Only if we require keys to the mill," Bellany shrugged.

"Then by all means let me hear it," Headmaster Bristol said.

"Emerald lake was created by a dam put across the Emerald River for a mill, was it not?"

"Indeed it was."

"Does the mill still operate?" Bellany asked.

"Yes, of course. It is a grand mill. The entire town of Vargrend has its meal and flour ground there."

"Do they keep a supply of grain there?" Bellany asked.

"Yes, I see what you are driving at. The mill's granary is considerable."

"The wall on the girls' side of the academy can easily be found by leaving through one of the doors on the east side of the ground floor where the classrooms are," Bellany observed. "Once a party picks up the wall they could follow the wall surrounding chapel row to the north, then to the east until they arrived at the main wall of the academy. They could follow the main wall north and then west to the river. They could cross the ice at the foot of the dam and feel their way to the mill house."

"Your plan has merit but the ice of the river is not to be trifled with. Even in the coldest weather it takes time to thicken and it is still early in the year. The operation of the mill also tends to create thin spots beneath the ice because the mill uses pipes beneath the ice to continue running during the winter. I know the ice is dangerous because the girls' riverside wall was built about sixty years ago to keep boys from trying to leave their own courtyard and get into the girls' courtyard by walking over the ice. A group of young men attempted to get to the girls side by traveling over the ice. They got more than they bargained for and fell through," Headmaster Bristol said grimly.

"Instead of going across the ice could a group from the academy stop at the gate to the stairs that go up to the dam? They could cross the dam, and go down the other side into the mill. Even if visibility were nil, they could find their way. Perhaps they might need ropes to safely cross the dam in these winds but I think it could be done. If you can scrounge up skis or snow shoes and a sled or two we could begin moving grain and flour from the mill granaries to the academy kitchens. Do you have the keys to the gate up to the dam? Bellany asked.

"The mill is the property of Headmistress Vargrend's family and she keeps the keys to both it and the river gate on the girls side on her personal key ring. Unfortunately she is not here right now and neither are her keys. Nevertheless I do have a few skeleton keys that I have confiscated over the years that might fit the gate and once we reach the mill we should be able to raise the miller. He and his family live in a house next to the mill," Headmaster Bristol offered.

"Even if none of the keys work and I need to make use of a little clandestine magic, they could furnish us with a believable excuse as to how we were able to open the lock." Bellany smiled.

"Yes. Let me see what can be found as far as volunteers. It is possible that a group of boys could make the trip this morning without our help. I am sure that I can scrape up some volunteer boys who brought skis or snowshoes to school. The academy owns several toboggans as well. If that does not work I think I have a pair of snow shoes around here somewhere and there must surely be a boy with small feet that would be willing to loan you some gear."

"I will gather up our empty grain sacks. We could use an oil cloth to keep the snow off the sacks as well if you have one," Bellany said.

"And some rope to secure things and string across dangerous areas," Headmaster Bristol added. "I will begin assembling a team and gathering the requisite supplies."

About four hours later, a young girl Bellany recognized as part of the library staff walked into the kitchen looking for Bellany.

"Headmaster Bristol would like to see you in his office regarding supplies, Lady Norwit."

Bellany nodded. She had spent the last four hours assembling lunch and overseeing the horse feed conversion project. When she arrived at the offices she found the door that led into the boys side was open. She went through and into Headmaster Bristol's office.

"Did you go to the mill?" Bellany asked.

"I sent a team of boys there earlier. They followed the walls to the stairs to the dam, although they missed the gate the first time and had to double back when they hit the river wall. Unfortunately the gate to the dam stopped them cold. None of the skeleton keys I gave them would open the lock. I told them to prepare for another foray tomorrow because I was sure I could find some additional keys somewhere. In truth I do have a few more keys but I gave the boys the most likely keys to start with. Do you feel up to accompanying us on the next foray? We may need your special talents. I have located a pair of snow shoes that you may use. Actually the boys of the academy were all too willing to volunteer their gear for your use."

Bellany grinned. "It would be fun to come along. Perhaps we should bring torches or something as well in case the locks are frozen," Bellany added.

"I am not sure a torch would survive that wind but I am sure I could locate some covered lanterns that might stay lit and some flammable oil. We can secure them within the toboggans in an open crate. Strong rum also works to de-ice locks and I will locate a long-necked oil can that we can put rum in. We will also bring plenty of rope. Tomorrow after mathematics I want you to bundle up in as many layers of warm clothing as you can muster. The boys reported that the weather is absolutely cursed. The wind bites through clothing and makes it difficult to keep one's feet at times. You haven't been practicing weather curses, have you?"

Bellany shook her head. "Weather spells are still out of my league, but I can see why you might think the weather has been cursed. Avengene was really moving on the orcs this year. It is almost as if someone did not want him to crush them and turn his military might elsewhere."
-------

That night the school dined on oat gruel made from horse feed. The menu repeated itself for breakfast and lunch the next day but Bellany was not at lunch. After mathematics class Bellany prepared to launch herself into the howling winds along with three toboggans, six hand-picked young men from the Bristol Academy and Headmaster Bristol. The group met near a door on the ground floor of the girls' building around ten o'clock once it was light outside. The daylight only gained them one foot of visual range and a few degrees of temperature but it was better than nothing.


"Lady Norwit, I believe you know Abraham Steefl. These other boys are Gary Steadman, Clarence Larson, Mark Thurman, Dean Clark and Richard Boyer. Young men, I have found another ring of keys and I feel sure one of them will fit the gate to the dam. I will be coming along myself this time. We are also bringing Lady Norwit who has been managing the kitchen. Essentially we are all here to facilitate Lady Norwit's shopping trip on behalf of the academy. She will determine the particulars of how much of what we take should we meet with success. If we fail we will be eating nothing but horse feed. That is why I am coming myself. We must succeed!"

"It is a pleasure to meet you all." Bellany nodded to the young men. 

After a round of introductions and hand-kissing Bellany smiled at the young men and then wound a scarf around her face and neck.

"Let me help you with your snow shoes, Lady Norwit," Sir Steefl said. "These shoes were loaned to you by a young man named Ron Bennett. He said it was the one time he was happy to have small feet."

Bellany smiled. "Please thank Mr. Bennett for me, Headmaster Bristol, and Thank you for securing the shoes to my feet, Sir Steefl."

"It is my pleasure, Lady Norwitt." Steefl said.

When her snowshoes were secured to her feet the expedition set out. Abraham gave her some pointers on the use of snowshoes during the first leg of the journey. Travel along the wall that fenced off the various chapel yards proved easy because the girls' building blocked the wind, but once they started north along the main wall of the academy the full force of the wind became brutally apparent. It tore at Bellany's clothing like a pack of angry wolves. She thanked the Medusa Club for giving her the opportunity to practice bundling up for winter walks. Along the east wall the wind was easy enough to weather since it pressed a person against the wall but when the expedition reached the corner and turned west to make its way along the north wall the wind was in their faces. Bellany had to adjust her scarf several times to prevent daggers of wind from stabbing her face. For safety's sake each person held onto a rope that was secured through rings in each of the three toboggans. Abraham Steefl and Gary Steadman took the lead and did their best to break the wind for Bellany and Headmaster Bristol.

Westerly progress was very slow as the group had to fight the wind all the way but after what seemed like the better part of an hour the group arrived at the base of the stairway that led to the dam. 

"Boys!" Headmaster Bristol hollered above the wind. "Check the ropes on the tobaggans while I work on this lock! Lady Norwit, please assist me!"

Bellany took a lantern from the crate on the toboggans and handed it to the headmaster. He dusted the snow off around the lock and held the lantern under the lock so that the heat from the top of the lantern's glass flue would warm it. Before a minute had gone by a gust of wind blew the lantern's flame out in spite of the glass enclosure that surrounded it.

The wind was so loud and visibility was so poor that Bellany would have had no trouble casting Floating Dagger without drawing any attention even if the boys had been standing next to her. Casting was more difficult because of the high winds and the thick clothing that she wore, but practice during her Medusa Club walks helped mitigate casting difficulty due to winter clothing. Nevertheless it took two attempts to cast Floating Dagger, a spell she should have been able to cast in her sleep considering how often she used it. Once she cast the spell she attempted to open the lock but she could tell that it was frozen.

"The lock seems frozen!" Bellany screamed above the howling wind.

Headmaster Bristol produced an oilcan with a long snout from his coat pocket. 

"I will try the rum!"

After Headmaster Bristol squirted a great deal of rum into the lock Bellany tried it but it would not budge. She kept Floating Dagger on hold while she cast Firefinger into the lock and attempted to keep the magical flame going for longer than an instant. The magical fire ignited the alcohol, which burned in spite of the wind for as long as Bellany maintained her magical flame. Afterwards she cast the Grease spell and applied Floating Dagger. When that failed to budge the lock, she cast Dancing Sword. All the while Headmaster Bristol was making sure that none of the boys returned to look. The lock gave way shortly after she applied the power of Dancing Sword. When the lock was open she immediately let her telekinesis spell lapse. The gate was buried and it took some time, some digging and Abraham Steefl's brawn to get it open. Once they had the gate open, Headmaster Bristol tied it open with a length of rope. 

The snow-covered stair would have been impossible to mount were it not for the wrought iron fence on either side of it. Abraham Steefl heaved himself up each flight of buried stairs on his skis with the mighty strength of his arms. Once up he anchored himself at the top of a given flight of stairs and hauled the toboggans up and assisted everyone else. 

At last they reached the dam and made ready to cross it. The wind over the dam was exceedingly powerful. Bellany clung to the wrought iron fence that ended at the top of the stairs.

"The wind here could be very dangerous, Headmaster!" Steefl hollered over the wind. "I will tie a rope to the stairway fence post and pull it across the dam! The dam's rail is buried and too short for safety in this wind!"

"Very good, Sir Steefl; keep low, we don't want to lose you!" Headmaster Bristol shouted back.

"I will return when the rope is secure!" Steefl bellowed before disappearing into the blizzard.

It seemed like an eternity before Steefl returned although it was probably no more than fifteen minutes. When he returned everyone made the crossing over the dam. Bellany was blown off her feet about midway over the dam but her hold on the rope kept her secure. On the far side of the dam was a door into the upper story of the millhouse. The boys wrestled the toboggans across while Headmaster Bristol pounded on the door.

The door opened about the time the boys arrived with the toboggans. Bellany breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the millhouse. The giant gears were fascinating.

"Heimdall! Heimdall Miller you have no idea how good it is to see you!" Headmaster Bristol shouted.

"Come in! Come in! I were jus' down there greasin' the wheels 'o progress. How in blazes did ye get here, Headmaster Bristol? Haven't ye seen the weather?"

Headmaster Bristol, Bellany and the boys came in and the miller secured the door behind them.

"Indeed I have. The weather has been difficult to miss these past few days, but I could not let it keep me at bay any longer. The academy is out of grain and flour and I thought an expedition wise before my students turned to cannibalism." Headmaster Bristol grinned.

"Well it is good of ye ta come. Business has been a mite slow these past few days."

"Just a mite?" Headmaster Bristol jested.
XXX
"Gods yes, even me partner and neighbor Headmistress Vargrend can't find th' mill in this blizzard. Looks like ye didn't come alone, who are these fine young lads who braved the blizzard ta keep from bein' et by their fellow students?

This is Lady Bellany Norwit, Sir Abraham Steefl, Clarence Larson, Gary Steadman, Dean Clark, Mark Thurman, and Richard Boyer.

"Oh I've seen ye in th' joust, Sir Steefl. Ye're quite the unstoppable juggernaut, ye are. Good ta meet ye in the flesh.

"An' Lady Norwit, Sir Steefl'd be yer knight, would he not?"

"Yes, he is under my father's command beneath Marquis Avengene," Bellany acknowledged.

"Ahah! I thought as much. A fine welcome to ye, milady and Sir knight. A fine welcome to all of ye. Shake off a little o' that snow ye're coated with if ye like. Get outta those scarves and hats fer a minute. It's not exactly warm here in th' mill but the fire keeps it above freezin'.

"Owen, come on out 'o those gears and meet Headmaster Bristol an' th' gang. Ye got to get ta know the headmaster. Th' academy is our biggest account. This is me first son Owen. He stands ta inherit me millin' empire when I expire. That is assumin' me business partner Mrs. Vargrend or her get will agree ta th' switch. 'e'd make a steady husband fer any young lady," Heimdall extolled, turning towards Bellany for the last quip about his son.

Bellany blushed.

Owen came away from the gears and kissed Bellany's hand and then shook hands with the boys.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Norwit, Sir Steefl, Headmaster Bristol and gentlemen of the academy," Owen said formally.

"How do you run the mill in the winter, Miller Hiemdall?" Bellany asked as she looked around at the gears and pipes.

"That's Heimdall Miller too, heh heh." The miller pointed at a large pipe. "I've got me a pipe that lets out beneath th' ice o' th' lake above and one that lets out beneath th' ice o' th' river below. It's not enough volume ta turn me biggest grindstone mind ye, but it works for one o' th' smaller stones. If it stays this cold even me under pipes might freeze but in that case I can attach a draft horse over yonder and run th' millstone under horse power."

"Clever," Bellany smiled.

"Glad ye appreciate a well-oiled machine. Few ladies take an interest in such things. It speaks volumes for ye that ye got th' curiosity.

"Thank you Mister Miller. I have had an interest in gears and things since studying artillery while I was recovering from wounds last spring."

"Ho, that's th' last thing I would expect a lady o' breedin' to take an interest in during sufferin' but I like it just th' same. Th' world would be a better place if more youngsters understood machines," the miller said. "How would ye all like a free tour o' th' mill? It would give ye a chance to warm up and what with all th' customers I have, I've got nothin' but time."

The boys voiced their interest and the miller took them from one nexus of gears to another explaining how each setup worked. 

"Now, what can I do for ye in th' meal an' flour department, Headmaster?"

"Lady Norwit?" Headmaster Bristol prompted.

Bellany handed Heimdall Miller a list.

"These are the basics, assuming you have only wheat, oats and flour, but if you have other things I would be interested in more varied fare for my fellow students.

"Me letters are not th' best but I can read th' name o' most any grain and I have a knack fer numbers. Me son is trained proper in readin', writin' and 'rithmatic. I can fill this here order, an' I can also sell ye some rice I got if ye want."

"Oh that would be great. Thank you Miller Heimdall," Bellany said.

"Yes, thank you Heimdall. How long are we good for, Lady Norwit?"

"With this order we should have enough for a little over two days. If the storm has not blown over by then we can send another expedition."

"Bein' as how ye smile so sweetly, how would ye like some taters, onions an' carrots with that?" Heimdall asked.

"That would be wonderful," Bellany beamed and kissed the miller on the cheek.

"Hehe heh, nothin's too good for ye, sweetness. I have quite a bit from barters. I can replenish me supplies after the storm if need be. I'll tell ye what. I got two more sons an' a coupla extra beefs on th' hoof that I was planning ta butcher sometime this winter. Since ye're so sweet I'll give th' headmaster a good price on a couple o' sides o' fresh beef. Me sons can butcher it up while th' rest o' ye have some mulled cider with me an th' missus."

"Ooo!" Bellany squealed. "You are so wonderful to us, miller Heimdall. You've provided a veritable feast at a time when school morale is so low. I don't know how we will ever thank you."

"Yer smile an' th' headmaster's cash will be plenty thanks enough.

"Owen, get th' other boys tagether an' see ta this order. Why don't th' rest o' ye come across th' road to me home. I'm sure th' missus can fix ye a mulled cider ta fortify ye fer th' trip back ta th' academy."

For nearly two hours the team drank cider and talked about the weather with the miller and his wife, and then they returned across the road to the mill. Near the end of their time in the miller's house, Bellany inquired about the headmistress:

"I wonder how Headmistress Vargrend is doing? Do you suppose she has enough supplies, Mister Miller?"

"Well now, I've been a bit worried about that. Normally 'er kitchen staff comes down fer flour every few days. I've not seen them since a couple o' days before the storm. I've been hopin' it would let up but it don't seem ta be." 

"How far away is her house?" Bellany asked.

"I'd say maybe three ta four hundred paces ta th' northwest."

"Are there any fences a person could follow?"

"Aye, her property does have a fence around it. It could be found about twenty yards yonder. Me son and I were fixin' ta pay her a visit with some supplies shortly."

"Good. Please send her my regards. Perhaps we could send her a few steaks from the beef as well. Headmaster Bristol, would you like to write Headmistress Vargrend a note?" Bellany turned to ask.

"Yes of course. I am sure she has been worried about the academy," Headmaster Bristol nodded.

"Let me get ye some parchment for ye then and secure a bit o' meat for the headmistress," the miller said before leaving the room.

"Is it okay if I go help Owen secure our order in the toboggans?" Sir Steefl offered.
XXX
"Aye, I am sure 'e would appreciate it. Ye got any butcherin' experience?"

"I live in the north, scarcely a boy there does not know how to hunt or butcher a kill and I am no exception," Steefl affirmed.

"Aye, good then, come w' me. I don't want ye gettin' lost trying ta find the barn in th' blizzard."
-------

Once Headmaster Bristol had finished his note, Bellany and the boys thanked Mrs. Miller and headed back across the road to the mill. Crossing the road was a leap of faith since one could not see one's hand in front of one's face. Bellany missed the door by several feet and had to move along the outside wall of the mill until she found it.

"There now, th' load's all secure and here's a receipt for ye, Headmaster. I put it all on th' academy's account."

"Thank you again, Heimdall. We will not forget your kindness," Headmaster Bristol promised.

"Heh heh, don' mention it. I'm just a pushover fer a pretty face an' flame red hair. Enjoy the fare, I know it's been a lean few days over at th' academy fer them that's not used ta such straits."

After Abraham and Owen had wrapped up the sacks of root vegetables and stowed them in the toboggans, the expedition got underway. The most difficult part of the trip was getting over the dam and down the stairs. Once they completed that, the journey back to the academy was simple. With the wind at their backs they made far better time than they had on the way out. In spite of the toboggans being fully laden, they were back to the academy in under an hour.

The boys hauled the supplies to the kitchen starting with the vegetables. Bellany helped put the supplies away while hastily creating a dinner menu. When the boys were gone she got her kitchen team working on the evening meal. That night the Headmaster announced that dinner would be held at the same time for both girls and boys but that seating would be segregated. Bellany found that she had been assigned to the headmaster's table with Abraham and the boys from the expedition. At the start of dinner Headmaster Bristol stood before the assembled students.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the feast that we are about to partake of did not come easily. Were it not for the efforts of a team of students this afternoon we would still be eating horse feed. As you have seen if you have looked outside, this accursed weather has not given us even a brief moment of respite. Yesterday morning Lady Bellany Norwit, who has been managing our student volunteer kitchen staff, informed me that our supplies were nearly exhausted. She also suggested a daring plan whereby we could re-supply in spite of the blizzard. It made use of the school's stone walls to serve to direct a stalwart party within the blinding embrace of the blizzard. 

"Sir Abraham Steefl led this party. Yesterday, the first time they went out a frozen lock stopped them short of achieving their goal. Earlier today we made another attempt. For this foray, Lady Norwit and I came along with some additional tools to de-ice the lock. Were it not for Lady Norwit's dexterity in spite of the weather, I do not believe we would have successfully opened that lock, but we did. Once the lock was defeated it remained for Sir Steefl to string a rope across the dam for the rest of us to use as a guide. You see, the rails of the dam were covered in snow and the wind was very treacherous. Sir Steefl prevailed and our party made it across to the millhouse. The food you are eating tonight was brought back from the mill in several academy owned toboggans pulled by Sir Abraham Steefl, Gary Steadman, Clarence Larson, Mark Thurman, Dean Clark and Richard Boyer. Lady Bellany Norwit assisted me with opening the lock, put together our order to the mill and charmed the miller into giving us the beef, potatoes, onions and carrots that made tonight's beef dinner possible. Let us hear a round of applause for the valor of these students in the face of the elements!"

The applause was loud and heartfelt. It was not surprising following a day when students had eaten nothing but oat gruel made from horse feed. Many of the boys and even a fair number of the girls came by the Headmaster's table to offer personal thanks to the boys and Bellany for their work.
-------

"Aren't you exhausted?" Mary asked once the day was done and they were getting ready for bed.

Bellany shook her head. "I am used to Master Leafwhisper's lessons. I have been loafing for the past few days."

"You are amazing, Bellany! I am tired just from working in the kitchen. You did that _and_ battled the elements. Was the expedition fun?"

"Yes, the wind was horrific and you could not see more than a foot in front of your face but it was good to be outdoors with six boys doing something for the academy. I just regret I could not do more."

"With the six boys?" Mary smirked.

Bellany giggled. "Mary, you know me too well!"
-------

This ends, Snowed, chapter 66 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in chapter 67, The Snowflake.

My thanks to Graylore for his help editing this work.
Copyright 2006 by Rapina