by R. L. King
She waved them toward seats. “You’ll have to forgive us for that—it’s a necessary precaution. We do like our privacy here. Naturally, should Ms. Thayer decide she’d like to spend some time studying with us after seeing our presentation—and if you agree, of course—we’ll provide you with the proper directions.”
“Understandable.”
“This is a beautiful place you have here, Ms. Canby,” Verity said, looking around the room.
“Thank you. This is only a small part of it—our complex is quite extensive. You’ll get the full tour tomorrow, of course, but this is sort of our…visitors’ center.”
“Do you get a lot of visitors?” Stone asked.
“Not generally. It’s difficult to reach this place by conventional means, due to carefully placed illusions, a remote location, and other methods of discouragement. As you might or might not have noticed, we’re situated on a confluence of ley lines, which allows more potent concealment measures.”
“Interesting,” Stone said. “If you’ll forgive me for asking—have you got something to hide? That sort of concealment isn’t easy even with that many ley lines to assist. Generally when it’s done, it’s done for a reason.”
Anna Canby didn’t appear offended by his question. “I suppose in a way we do, Dr. Stone—but nothing nefarious, I assure you. As you well know, mundanes tend to be quite uncomfortable with any kind of magical activity. Suspicious, superstitious—most of them generally rationalize most of it away, as I’m sure you well know, but if you get enough of it in one place, even the most mundane of mundanes begins to become unsettled. With the number of people in our group and the level of magic we practice here, it would be difficult to conceal it from them if we didn’t take certain precautionary measures.”
“You have issues with mundanes snooping around your compound?” Stone asked.
“Not for many years.” Canby gestured around her. “This building is one of the few that isn’t included in our concealment rituals. To a mundane, the area appears to be a small artists’ retreat, much of which is abandoned. Most of our group doesn’t live here at the complex—as I’m sure you found out if you did any research on us, our twin purposes are to advance the study of magic, and to do what we can to assist in the wider mundane community. Sometimes those two purposes become entwined, as we look for additional magical talent among the mundanes. But quite a few of our members have positions of significant responsibility in the mundane world.”
“I see,” Stone said. “So then, you get together periodically to perform your rituals and whatnot?”
“Exactly. We have several extensive ritual spaces, both indoors and outdoors, as well as a number of private work areas and a significant magical library available to everyone in our group.” Anna Canby stood. “But you’ll see all of that tomorrow, I promise. It’s quite late, and most of those here have already retired for the night. If you can hold your questions until tomorrow, I assure you we’ll give you all the answers you seek. For now—if you’ve no objection, Lila will show you to where you’ll be staying.”
“Certainly. Thank you, Ms. Canby.”
Lila stepped forward from where she’d been unobtrusively waiting for them. “If you’ll come this way.”
They followed her out of the building and down a graveled path lined with more of the fairylike lights on narrow poles. “It’s not far,” she assured them.
Stone looked around as they walked, trying to get a feel for where they were. Though it was difficult to see much in the moonless darkness, it was obvious they were situated in a large forested area, and the faint tang of saltwater in the air along with the subtle, far-off sound of waves told him they had to be somewhere not too far from the ocean. It occurred to him that he wasn’t even certain they were still in England, or even the United Kingdom. The trip through the portal had taken about the right amount of time, but numerous other destinations would have been reachable in the same timeframe.
Verity touched his arm and shot him a questioning glance.
He shook his head and picked up his pace a little to keep up with Lila. It was absurd to feel suspicious just because this group of women had chosen to conceal their location. Mages were, by and large, an odd lot, and every one of them had his or her own idiosyncrasies. Not wanting a bunch of nosey mundanes poking around your private ritual spaces was hardly something to be concerned about.
As they continued down the path, a faint buzz told Stone that they’d passed through a ward.
“Here we are,” Lila said, turning down a narrower graveled pathway off to the right. After a short distance through some trees, the path opened onto a clearing. In the center, an elegant, two-story house sat surrounded by flowerbeds and more of the wild gardens. Cheerful lights illuminated a red-painted door.
“I hope this will be to your liking,” she said, walking forward to open the door. “You’ll have the place to yourself—it’s got three full bedrooms with en-suite baths, a large sitting room, and a well-stocked kitchen. And a small bar, should you wish to indulge.” She smiled. “You’ll be dining with us tomorrow during your tour, and Ms. Canby has a formal dinner planned for tomorrow evening, but we wouldn’t want you to be hungry.”
She stood aside, and Stone and Verity stepped inside. The house was built and decorated in the same style as the visitors’ center, with the same lush, sensual materials, fancy woodwork, and subtly feminine touches. The walls were decorated with a combination of paintings featuring nature scenes and prints showing elaborate designs Stone recognized as magical sigils and diagrams. The place’s initial impression was one of contentment and security; when Stone shifted to magical sight, he picked up traces of benign magic hovering around it.
“Thank you, Lila. This will be quite nice.”
“Good, good. Someone will come ’round to collect you tomorrow morning at nine a.m., if that’s all right. The tour will take most of the day—especially since we’re sure you’ll have quite a lot of questions and Ms. Canby wants to allow plenty of time to answer them.”
She departed, leaving Stone and Verity to themselves.
Verity looked around, taking the place in. “Nice place. I could get to like it here.”
“Indeed,” Stone agreed. “Quite…serene.”
She slipped off her coat. “Better get to bed, I guess, if they’re planning to start the tour at oh-dark-thirty.”
They were both a bit bleary-eyed when they arrived at the visitors’ center early the following morning. Cups of strong coffee helped to wake them up initially, and the tour itself quickly drove off any vestiges of sleepiness.
The tour was led by Lila, accompanied by Kathleen Burgess. “We can’t show you everything in a day,” Lila said apologetically as they set off down one of the graveled paths. “The complex is quite large, and we’ve got a number of things going on. But we’ll hit the highlights, and if you have any questions about anything else, I’ll try to answer them for you. And of course, if Verity decides to remain with us for a while, she’ll have plenty of time to explore then.”
Stone and Verity followed along, easily keeping up with Lila’s brisk pace. He had to admit to being impressed: the women had obviously put a lot of care and thought into their space. Crisscrossed by more of the gravel paths, it included numerous outdoor areas designed both for magical rituals and simple meditation, all of them clearly designed as much for beauty and tranquility as for more functional purposes.
Lila showed them both the outdoor ritual areas and several buildings containing others; they had an impressively-stocked library, several more private buildings for study and contemplation, another large building built high on a hill with a commanding view of the forest and the sea beyond, and a few more guest houses not far from where Stone’s and Verity’s was located.
As she led them along, Lila explained more about the group’s magical style: as Eddie had told Stone, they were strongly
old-school druidic in focus, with an emphasis on the land and on working with the earth’s energies to work their magic, but they also incorporated a hermetic element more similar to Stone’s own magical style. Over the years, Kathleen added, they’d worked out ways to combine the two styles in a way that had produced some impressive results.
Stone had many question he wanted to ask about their work, but he mostly kept quiet and listened, letting Verity take point. They weren’t here to discuss the details of various magical methods and processes, but to allow Verity to decide whether this style was something she was interested in pursuing. If it turned out to be so, he’d have plenty of time to ask his questions later—and perhaps even to share some research with some of the women. Their approach intrigued him.
“Ultimately,” Kathleen said as they paused in the middle of the day to eat lunch in a beautiful clearing under a canopy of leaves, “our purpose is to add to the store of magical knowledge, and also to aid humanity as a whole—both magical and mundane. I know that sounds terribly idealistic and high-level, but it’s quite true. We tend to operate behind the scenes by necessity rather than out in the open, but some of our discoveries have proven to be a significant help in the fields of medical science, agriculture, education, and even less obvious areas such as architecture and finance. As I’m sure you know, many of our members hold positions of some importance in the mundane world. We do our best to help when we can, and to use our magic to improve on existing processes.”
Verity listened, intrigued. “That’s what I’d like to do,” she said. “I’m having a hard time deciding what I want to do with my life—I’ve got so many options, and as good as they all look, I’ve got to at least settle on something to try. All I know for sure is that I want to do something that will bring some good to the world—to give back, you know? Sounds like this might be something to think about.”
“I hope you do,” Kathleen said, smiling. “We’d love to have you here, if you and Dr. Stone should decide our approach is a good fit for you. And I guarantee you’ll have plenty of opportunities to do good in the world.” She folded her sandwich wrappings, put them in her small bag, and stood. “Shall we press on? We’ve still got quite a lot yet to show you.”
Stone got up too, watching Verity. He hadn’t seen her look this enthusiastic in quite some time. She caught him looking at her and flashed him a smile; he returned it and motioned her after Lila and Kathleen. Already, he was fairly sure she’d made up her mind.
By the time Lila took them back to their house at the end of the tour, it was nearly eight o’clock. “Dinner will be served at nine, on the upper floor of the visitors’ center,” she told them. “I’m sure you’d like a bit of time to freshen up a bit after your long day. Do you remember the way, or should I return for you?”
“We’ll find it,” Stone assured her. “Thank you.”
Between showering and changing clothes, they didn’t get much time to discuss the day’s events. Stone donned a dark-gray suit and paced downstairs waiting for Verity; when she arrived, he saw that she’d made a similar assessment about the dinner’s level of formality. She wore another snug-fitting black cocktail dress, similar to the one she’d worn to the mage gathering.
“You’re getting quite a lot of mileage out of your new wardrobe,” he said, amused.
“Oh, good,” she said as she looked him over. “I was afraid I was going to be overdressed, but you said they did things a little more formally over here.” She turned around, showing off the dress. “I like it, to be honest. I’d never really had anything like this before. I might have to do some more shopping when I get back home.” She gave him an impish grin. “And you should wear suits more often, Doc.” Before he could reply, she nodded at the door. “We should go. Don’t want to be late.”
Back at the visitors’ center, Lila and a couple of the other women who’d joined them on the tour waited downstairs. They were similarly attired to Verity: two wore cocktail dresses, while the other two wore long, robelike gowns in rich colors. Smiling, they led Stone and Verity up a sweeping staircase to the second floor.
“Wow,” Verity said when they stepped through the open double doors into the dining room. “This is beautiful.”
A long, narrow hall of wood and glass, its ceiling beams rose in graceful curves to meet at a peak in the middle, forming a space reminiscent of a ship. An elaborately set table with ten chairs dominated the center of the room, and the walls not taken up by massive windows were hung with more nature- and magic-themed artwork, carvings, and symbols. Soft classical music played in the background.
Some of the chairs were already occupied. Anna Canby, seated at one of the table’s ends, rose gracefully as the group arrived. “Dr. Stone. Ms. Thayer. Thank you so much for joining us. I do hope you enjoyed your tour today.”
“We did,” Verity said. “What you’re doing here is really fascinating.”
Canby waved them toward two seats, one at her right side, the other at her left. “Please, sit down. We’ve shown you quite a lot of things today—now it’s time to relax and put it all aside in favor of good food and good conversation.”
All around them, the other women began taking their own seats. After they’d all settled into their places, Stone noticed that the other end of the table was not occupied. “Are we expecting someone else?” he asked, indicating the empty chair.
“Unfortunately, no,” Canby said. “I was hoping Madame Nessa, our leader, might join us, but she sends her regrets. She’s become—somewhat reclusive as she’s gotten older, I’m afraid.”
“I understand. I believe I noticed her at Desmond’s funeral, yes?”
“Yes, she did attend. I hope you both will have the chance to meet her at some point—she’s a fascinating lady, and you’d no doubt find some of her experiences intriguing. Perhaps if Ms. Thayer decides to remain with us for a while, she might be persuaded to share some of them.”
Two young women began circulating around the table, pouring glasses of red wine for each of the attendees. Verity paused to sip hers before replying. “I’d like that very much. But please—if you don’t mind, you don’t need to call me ‘Ms. Thayer.’ Verity is fine.”
Canby smiled. “Verity. Of course. You’ll have to forgive us—we tend to be a little overly formal when we’re dealing with guests. But I do hope we’ll all become good friends, regardless of whether you decide to study with us.”
The servers entered again, this time pushing wheeled carts bearing dishes. They served everyone—Stone and Verity first, then Canby, and then the others—and once again unobtrusively departed.
“Please, enjoy,” Canby said. “Everything has been grown and prepared here. Some of our group pride themselves on their agricultural and farming skills, and I’m sure you’ll see it reflected tonight.” She smiled a little. “We didn’t include the agricultural aspects of magic on our tour today—I made the assumption that the two of you might not hold a particular interest in the subject. But if I was mistaken, please feel free to say so.”
Verity took a bite. It was some kind of savory meat dish, surrounded by delicate vegetables. “This is delicious,” she said, and returned Canby’s smile. “I think you guessed right, though. For me, anyway. I’m sure it’s fascinating, but I know there are a lot of aspects of magic I’m much more interested in learning about than magical farming methods.” She chuckled. “And I can’t really picture Dr. Stone driving a tractor.”
Canby laughed, glancing at Stone. “No. No, I can’t either, to be honest. I’ll admit that it’s a somewhat specialized aspect of magic—its practitioners tend to be rather passionate about it, while most others tend not even to think about its existence. But in any case, it does mean we eat very well here, and we’re pleased to be able to supplement some of the local food assistance programs with our produce, which is always satisfying.”
“That’s great that you help out the mundane commu
nities,” Verity said. “I’ve always had the impression that magical society kind of—keeps to itself.”
“Well, we do, in a sense,” a dark-haired woman in a deep green gown said. “By necessity, we have to keep our true nature secret from the mundane communities. But that doesn’t mean we can’t help in other ways.”
Verity nodded slowly. “That’s one of the things I’ve really been struggling with. I want to do something useful with my magic. I went through some pretty bad stuff when I was a teenager, and one thing I got out of that was that I want to do something to give back.” She glanced at Stone. “I know Dr. Stone and Mr. Desmond were both involved in a lot of research and scholarly stuff—makes sense, since the Doc is a professor—but I’m looking for something a little more practical, I guess. For a while I was thinking I might want to be an EMT, so I could help stabilize accident victims with magic. I might still want to do that. But right now I’m exploring all my options.”
“Very wise,” Canby said. “You’re still quite young—you’ve got plenty of time. There’s no need to commit to anything before you’ve had the chance to explore all your options.”
“I agree,” Stone said. “There’s absolutely no reason you need to make any decisions yet. Even after you finish your apprenticeship, you’ve still got a lot of leeway for exploration. That’s why I think what Ms. Canby and the others here are offering might be useful for you. Even if you don’t decide to pursue it further, data points are always good things to have.” He took a sip of wine, and nodded toward the glass. “This is excellent, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Canby said, smiling. “We bring out the special reserve for guests.” She turned back to Verity. “But I don’t want you making any decisions yet, Verity. As long as you’re an apprentice, it’s important for you and Dr. Stone to talk things over on your own, without us hovering over your shoulders. No doubt he’s got some comments he wants to share with you, and that’s absolutely what we expect. We’re not going anywhere—you take all the time you need to make up your mind.”
