Princesses Are Never Lost Page 7

  The scrying room, high up in the west tower of Lady Amberyll's Academy for Young Ladies, was a wide, airy chamber that was nevertheless as cluttered as a magpie's nest. The many and varied instruments of divination were present: the viewing pool, the crystal balls and enchanted mirrors, the arcane cards and sacred dice, all strewn across the broad table. Everything had seen plenty of use that day.

  "Well, they're safe," Mistress Penskill announced with a groan. A full day's frantic work, and that was about all she could say. The Academy's head instructor of the mystic arts had had better days. First, the magical automata she'd set on the scrying pool had sent the alarm, alerting her too early in the day that something had happened to those girls she needed to watch over, and then... nothing all day. The girls were gone, vanished, and nothing could tell her why or how. No spell at her disposal could find them, and Freja Heyerwif was away doing librarian things, so there was no one available with better. The blessed situation was enough to make her want to pull her hair out!

  "You worried too much," came headmistress's reply. Lady Amberyll was seated a safe distance away, on the seats meant for the audience so as not to disturb the diviners at work. Mistress Penskill would rather she not be there. "All's well that ends well, Penelope."

  "My lady!" she shouted back. "Five of our pupils vanish for an entire day, only to reappear injured, and... and... whatever it was that happened to Bianca, and that's all you can say?" The gnomish magician huffed and smoothed down her blue hair. "They could have died in there, and we'd never know!"

  "But they didn't."

  "And we can't even tell how they suddenly jumped two hundred miles to the east!"

  "No, but I am sure we can find out."

  Damn the woman! Mistress Penskill could feel her hair going straight up again, powered by her anger and frustration. "My lady, I must protest! This was supposed to be an educational adventure for them!"

  "There is no education without risk, Penelope dear. And we cannot hold their hands or dictate just what dangers they face." In contrast, the lady's silvery hair was perfectly in place, unmussed by any emotion.

  "Reckless, that's what it is! Reckless and dangerous and ill thought-out!" Mistress Penskill hopped onto a stool just so she could look the headmistress right in her emerald green eyes. "And I'm through with it," she announced. "These girls need help, need some protection, and I've already contacted the Temple of the Sun and Moon closest to their current location. They are sending someone to escort the girls to safety."

  "You will do as you see fit." Lady Amberyll's lips quirked, almost to form a smile. "That is why I took you on as an instructor, as I recall. I have no problem with it. I hope only that it turns out for the best."

  "Anything is better than a dead kid on my watch."

  Now Lady Amberyll sighed. "Trust me, Penelope, when I say that yes, there are worse things that could transpire. Worse things that will happen, in time. Early trials shall bring them together," she said. In the far mirror, the princesses Gwenevrael and Selvi Khan's-daughter were talking and laughing. It was not a scene that anyone at the Academy would have recognized. "Yes, it is risky, perhaps even reckless, but it may well be worth it in the end."

  To be continued in Princesses of the Pizza Parlor, episode 3: Princesses Don't Play Nice