Trial By Fire (Schooled in Magic Book 7) by Christopher Nuttall Page B

should all have had a chance to read the important parts,” Lady Barb said. “Do you have any questions?”
    “Yes,” Tam said. “What happens if I decided to leave the course halfway through?”
    “You’d still be bound by the oaths,” Lady Barb said, curtly.
    Emily swallowed. Healers might do good, but they also lived very restricted lives. A Healer couldn’t do anything, apart from Healing. There could be no involvement in local politics, even something as minor as suggesting the introduction of proper sanitation or not taxing peasant villages so highly their inhabitants had far too little to eat. A Healer could fix the damage, if a wife was beaten into a bloody pulp, but not do anything to the husband, no matter his crimes.
    And if you took the oaths and then failed , she thought, you’d still be stuck.
    Lady Barb’s gaze swept the room. “A Healer can do great good - or great evil,” she warned, her voice softening slightly. “In order to learn how to heal , you have to learn how to kill ; you have to learn how to inflict pain and suffering on the human body. Those oaths are the only thing preventing you from becoming monsters, should you become detached from the realities of life - and many Healers do. Once you start on this path, you will be committed.”
    She paused. “I won’t say it isn’t a rewarding life,” she added. “You will save countless people from injuries and curses that would prove fatal. You’ll watch as newborn children are brought into the world, children who would have died in the womb were it not for you. You will pass through a community, then leave, knowing that everyone behind you is healthier than they were when you arrived. Healers know the satisfaction of doing nothing but good.”
    Emily felt almost wistful, just for a moment, before dismissing the thought. It wasn’t something she’d want, not really; she’d enjoyed part of her time in the Cairngorms, but there had been too many horrors for her to be comfortable working their permanently. A Healer could heal , perhaps, yet he could do nothing about the cause of the problem. She could, if she didn’t take the oaths.
    “You will have your career sessions later in the month, I believe,” Lady Barb said. “By then, I expect you to decide if you want to go on to become a Healer or not. If you do, check and double-check the requirements, then take the forms with you to the career adviser. They will go through everything with you, then help you to apply. Regardless...”
    She looked from face to face before she continued. “This year, there will be more practical work than ever before,” she explained. “There will be field trips to both Dragon’s Den and the Halfway House, where some of the worst curse victims are housed while Healers search for a cure or a counter-curse. You will see some of the greatest horrors the human mind, armed with magic, is capable of producing. Some of you, I think, will be unable to tolerate the encounter, even under controlled conditions. I do not advise anyone who feels that way to try to continue to Fifth Year.”
    Emily nodded. That was understandable.
    “Those field trips will probably include only three or four of you at a time,” Lady Barb added, curtly. “While I’m gone, classes will be supervised by Mistress Kyla, Whitehall’s Healer. I suggest, very strongly, that you use the opportunity to question her about her job and the problems she faces here. I also suggest you don’t cause problems for her. She takes the post far more seriously than myself.
    “And that,” she concluded, “leads to a final point.
    “In Dragon’s Den, you will be assisting people who have volunteered to allow you to examine them. Pregnant women, giving birth; men who have injured themselves and require the services of a Healer to regain full use of their bodies; children born with deformities that make it impossible for them to have a normal life...they have all volunteered to be examined and