by Vance Huxley
Meeting with Magic
Involving all the betas meant two meetings. First the magically active Taverners had to gather somewhere they could talk freely, then the whole Tavern could meet in Brinsford. Organising the first one didn’t take long because everyone who knew about it wanted to talk about the Leech as soon as possible. When his usual visitors mentioned finding a suitable place, Frederick offered his house and gardens. All the Taverners who had been there agreed the place would be perfect, providing they brought their own food and pop. Frederick couldn’t afford to cater for them beyond a few cups of tea.
When Eric, Jenny, Abel, Rob and Ferryl/Claris arrived outside a big, rambling, rundown house in Jenny’s dad’s pickup, there wasn’t any doubt they’d found the right place. Petra, resplendent in her fur catsuit and shorts, wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. She looked up the road behind them with real curiosity. “Where’s Kelis and Laurence?” She smiled wickedly. “Has he got lost or run out of petrol?”
“No, Kelis has made the ultimate sacrifice. Laurence is going to have a problem when he finds out. She finally agreed to him dragging her home to meet his family, and on her own in the car without a chaperone so he’s really chuffed. He doesn’t know about this meeting, but can’t be too miffy with Kelis. He’d have insisted on coming if he’d known, a bit awkward with everyone else doing magic tricks.” Abel chuckled. “Or not actually tricks, which is the problem.”
“Not for long. You do know he’s playing the Tavern game every night if he can find a meeting or crash a Skype game? I reckon some of them have coached him a bit because he’s drawn a Tavern mark on his arm, and Shannon swears his leaf trembled last time.” Petra turned to sweep an arm across the house and garden behind her. “How do you like the Stourton Tavern? Frederick nearly bust a gut to volunteer, and as a bonus he’ll get the whole house plastered with hexes. Those who are good at them are running classes for the amateurs.”
“Hah! We’re all amateurs, according to Ferryl.” Rob glanced at Abel so he took off his jacket and the cat-woman tattoo version of Zephyr took a bow. “Though other magical apprentices apparently take twenty years to learn some of what we’ve got, and other glyphs take a hundred years.” Rob glanced round. “Worse, some of us won’t ever be able to cast advanced glyphs. Anyone really struggling with the plant growth glyph or lesser ones might never get any further, which makes them potential Witches and Warlocks.”
“Crap, that won’t go down well. We’d better have a meeting with those who are definitely past that stage and work out how to deal with it. Meanwhile, come on in and let Frederick give you the tour.” Petra pointed to a big gate in the wall at the side of the house. “There’s a big garden through there, with an overgrown orchard. There’s dryads but Frederick didn’t know. You know what they’re like, the miserable gits.” As they went through the gate she started pointing at various people wandering about dressed in anything from ordinary clothes up to full Bonny’s Tavern character costume. “About half the Taverners have some sort of costume this time. Some of us even wear them to play, if we can get together instead of using Skype. Una’s got her sword at last, with a soft steel blade that won’t sharpen properly because it’s a prop for re-enactments.”
Petra chattered on while Abel got his head round the crowd of young people casually levitating with wind, producing flames, creating little bursts of fresh growth on bushes or discussing glyphs. The size of the house came as a shock all on its own. “Hello Frederick. Thanks for letting us use your place. I didn’t realise you’d got a mansion.”
“Not quite. Big old houses are actually cheap, especially in the wrong part of town, but I didn’t realise the running costs when I bought it. My neighbours are mostly nursing homes or they’ve been converted into cheap bedsits.” His frown must be a trip down memory lane. “When my wife finally couldn’t stand me jumping at shadows she didn’t want the house, just everything else. After that the creatures seemed to get worse and I had a bit of a breakdown. Now I can only get minimum wage jobs so I’ve been padding out the income by flogging this and that on eBay. You know, buy the right thing from a boot sale, sell it on?”
“You don’t seem to be too bad now?” Ferryl had said people like Frederick could go crackers, but Frederick seemed to have managed to get right again.
Frederick looked round with a big smile. “I did mention a bit of a breakdown? In the end it was dryad Elm who probably saved my sanity, the hallucination who talked back. When he asked for sweets, and ate the one I threw, I finally knew the creatures were real but not all bad. Though my sanity has still been a slippery thing now and then. I’m a lot better after meeting your Taverners.” He gestured at the young people all around them, chattering happily. Someone upstairs had started using a vacuum cleaner. “This lot have opened rooms I’ve not been in for years because of the creatures. Now they’re even getting rid of the worst of the dust. I went to the park to escape my house, because most of the things left me alone when I talked to dryad Elm.”
Frederick stopped, his face suddenly sad. “He’s not in an Elm because all the Elm trees died of disease. He’s still sad about that but seems to be a bit better since I first met him. Maybe he’s getting over it.” The bearded and still nothing like neat and tidy man turned to the stairs. “Come on. I’m really enjoying this, showing everyone around. I’ve even got pictsies and pixies helping now.”
After an extensive tour of the three-storeyed house and the cellar and a look at the gardens Abel found himself in the lounge, a huge front-to-back room which had been cleared of furniture to get everyone in. Following a chant of “Ferryl, Ferryl” he turned for his shoulder to take a bow, then say hi to everyone through spooky-phone. Abel held Ferryl/Claris’ hand when the questions started, so he could answer magical questions, but that led to the expected reaction.
“I heard, but seeing is actually believing.” Both sixteen-year-old Justin and his younger sister Rachel were scowling at Ferryl/Claris. “I’m surprised you had the nerve to ask Abel for help.”
“I didn’t. The Leech made me go to Brinsford and make him an offer. Instead of saying yes or no, him, Kelis, Rob and Jenny fooled the damn thing and got it out. I really am sorry about being a bitch in the past.” Ferryl/Claris gave them a sad smile. “I got it back in spades, believe me. Then I found out how nice the awful geeks are really, and then how reassuring one in particular is.” She put her arm round Abel and kissed him on the cheek. “On the cheek, so don’t give me a lecture.”
The murmuring from those nearby stopped as Jenny squeezed through to the front, with a good few bracing themselves for fireworks. Instead Jenny came up to the other side of Abel, turned to face the rest and hooked her arm through his. “I can vouch for that. Believe me, I’m the last person to give Claris any sympathy but she really has been in a very bad place. So was I in a different way, and Abel helped me as well so I can see her point.”
Abel had to smile, which seemed to amuse Justin. “Proper little white knight, our Abel.”
“White wizard.” Rachel hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut. “We should call him Gandalf.”
“I’m too short for Gandalf. More like a hobbit?” Abel grinned and hugged with both arms. “I’ve managed to find two preciouses?”
“Ooh, smooth. Actually, Kelis could be an elven princess. She’s got that tall, haughty all-knowing look dead right.” Warren turned to Rob. “Gimli? You’ll need to build some muscle, and shrink, or maybe Abel can go on a body-building course. Though you’ve got the axe, the magical rounders bat.” The room descended into suggestions about which Lord of the Rings characters others could be.
Rachel came back to the start of it. “I still reckon Abel is Gandalf. He keeps rescuing maidens and wanting us to carry out charity work, but he kicks magical ass when necessary. Especially bullies, which is something the whole Tavern should get behind. All he needs is to grow a beard like Frederick’s.”
“He can’t, not yet. Abel is a poor innocent adolescent adrift in a wor
ld of magic and wicked women.” Una pushed through and looked Ferryl/Claris up and down with a scowl totally at odds with her opening joke. “We’ve run into a sorcerer, Pendragon, so perhaps he’s stumbled over Morgana Le Fay. If so she’d better be careful. Some of the women here have swords, and might be a bit pissed off if she hurts Abel.” She tapped the hilt of hers.
“Some don’t need swords, just magic. Have you learned yet, Claris?” The rubber ball bouncing up and down above Petra’s hand wasn’t actually touching her, just being blown and sucked in mid-air. Several others casually levitated this or that or produced flames from their hands.
“Yes, barely. I’ve learned to float a leaf, sort of.” Ferryl/Claris looked suitably chastised. “I wouldn’t hurt Abel. I really have changed.”
Abel let Zephyr reach out with spooky-phones again, pretending to be Ferryl. “Claris was possessed by the Blood Leech, controlled but able to see, hear and feel everything. That included feeling its tendrils growing into her heart, liver, lungs and brain. It made her drink blood from living human victims. That’s enough to change most people.” Her tone lightened. “Now if you have all done with Abel’s love life we have news about the game, and new glyphs.”
Nobody had been able to talk properly about Claris over a phone, just in case a parent caught something. Only a few older Taverners like Eric and Warren had actually been to see her, so the bald facts hit hard. Now Abel, Rob and Jenny answered a series of questions about Claris’ appearance and how they’d got the Leech out. The truth worked for once, without mentioning actual possession or keeping the Leech alive. “From the sounds of that, Claris should be holding your hand, not Abel’s.” Warren watched, delighted, as a flustered Rob tried to find an answer.
“Maybe he’s not as forgiving as Abel, or as much as a sucker for Acro dancers.” Petra gave Jenny and then Claris pointed looks, before wagging her hips to make her tail wave. “Though if Claris had been wearing fur?”
“He might not want the traditional reward anyway, not while his lips are like that.” Several young women and a few lads made a big thing of inspecting Rob’s lips and deciding he wouldn’t mind the pain if the right girl kissed him.
Rob certainly distracted everyone from Abel and Claris, more so when Jenny sauntered over and put an arm round him. “Too late girls. Now it might have been his bravery, or it might have been magic, but Claris wasn’t up to it and I thought someone should say thank you.” She puckered her lips at Rob, who really couldn’t handle being on the wrong end of this sort of teasing. Despite protesting, he couldn’t escape as half a dozen laughing young women took turns to administer a gentle kiss to his swollen lips and ask how it compared.
Abel smiled happily, not just because of the teasing Kelis would give Rob once she knew. Rob really did deserve some recognition. He always insisted he came along as the joker or the brute barbarian, all club and no brains, but he’d always done his part. Before offering himself as Leech bait, Rob’s club had driven back the sorceress’s wolf shade to let Ferryl deal with it, and stopped the Kalkatrie escaping down its tunnel. Now, once the laughter died down, several newer trainees seemed to have adopted him as their mascot or role model.
∼∼
Eric and Frederick wanting to know about the Tavern game as a business, and others asking about new glyphs, finally got Rob off the hook.
The first part, the Tavern game actually being involved in real charity work, seemed to be a done deal. After Kelis’ comments about charity, back when they first met Frederick and Elrond the apprentice, the idea had spread. Now a good few Taverners were interested in how it would work. Some, like Rachel, had already embraced the whole idea and wanted to get started. She pointed out that as a white wizard had shown them magic, and was their leader, the Tavern had to be a force for good.
Despite Abel’s scarlet face, most of those present seemed to accept they needed some sort of real mission beyond learning magic. They were all having fun, but the world wasn’t a nice place and magic could be used to improve it a bit. Actually getting involved in charity seemed ridiculously simple. Frederick had already offered his house as a hostel of sorts for those suffering from creatures or anyone needing to get away from a sorcerer. There were seven rooms upstairs that were big enough for bedsits, and other rooms that could be connected to make another six at least. They’d be really popular because the occupants could use the main kitchen and this huge lounge instead of having to live in their room.
Before having his marriage-and-creature-induced breakdown, Frederick had even put en-suites in some bedrooms. Now he agreed to take in a battered wife or two, or someone like that, making the place a charitable refuge. He had one proviso; Frederick needed a few magic users on call in case of trouble. If Pendragon decided to act up, Frederick’s very rudimentary magic skills wouldn’t hold out for more than a few seconds.
Within minutes Frederick had two magical lodgers, Taverners with jobs who would provide protection, lessons and help with fixing the place in return for a cheap room each. At least one other considered it, as a way to leave home and be free to practice magic while she mastered her glyphs. While the rest moved on to adapting the game and creating new characters, she negotiated with Frederick to rent a room once the place had been cleaned up. Frederick could do with the rent, especially if he had to get the place up to scratch as a refuge. A few quick searches on the internet showed that this charity business might not be as easy as expected, because of all the legalities. Just how hard it would be depended on some serious research on the internet, and what Mr. Forester’s lawyer came up with.
∼∼
The whole charity business was abandoned for now when Justin introduced his cousin Kieran from Hope Valley. The flustered teenager confessed to being overwhelmed and sick with worry, but not now. Seeing most of the thirty-seven local magic users in one spot had changed his entire outlook. They ranged from fourteen to mid-twenties, fifties if they included Frederick, and from fluttering leaves to colour changes and juggling sparks. Learning that the experts had taken a nasty creature from inside a victim got rid of the last of his worries. Now he wanted to know how he could learn more, and what he could do in return.
After serious discussion with several Taverners, Kieran agreed to be the liaison in the Hope Valley, to visit anyone local to him who emailed Ferryl Shayde. He could get to the nearest big towns by bus or train in an emergency, to deliver hexes and calm someone down until the Tavern could organise a real visit. According to Kieran at least one of his own friends might be emailing very soon. She seemed determined to float her leaf even if that wasn’t meant to be possible.
The other Taverner from out of town had come from further afield. Luckily she had floated her leaf in the holidays so she’d been able to come and visit relatives for training. Since those relatives had been the ones who told her about the Tavern game, that only seemed fair. Now she demonstrated how her leaf leapt and fluttered, listened to the experts, and watched the adepts make various objects dance or burn on command.
At least the first rush of new magic users had eased off, now that nobody passed on hints about drawing a Tavern mark on skin and stroking it while meditating. There would still be occasional breakthroughs because some seemed almost there before they started, the sort who saw shadows move. Shawn had brought another new member, one who had never played Bonny’s Tavern or fluttered a leaf. “I’d like to introduce Effy. Epiphany for her sins but if you call her that, duck.” The slim, studious-looking young woman raised a hand in greeting. “I noticed her at work, flinching from creatures so I knew she could see them. I introduced her to the Tavern hexes so she could clear her workspace. Effy’s got news about how the sorcerers make their money.”
Everyone’s interest sharpened. They’d been told the sorcerers and sorceresses were all in big cities where they could earn more money with their talents. Despite that Pendragon claimed to have valuable contracts in Stourton, which was only a small market town. The Taverners had been keeping an eye op
en but couldn’t see many signs of magical protection or apprentices, except around churches which wouldn’t be paying Pendragon. The few very expensive blocks of flats or houses that were avoided by creatures, and protecting the units on the industrial park, couldn’t be much of an income. Vicar Creepio Mysterio and Pendragon weren’t particularly chatty so any extra news would help.
“Hi everyone. I’m still a bit nervous about all the magic, but once I’d got this,” Effy touched the Tavern hex on a leather string around her neck, “it answered lots of questions. I’ve always seen creatures but mostly hints and shadows. I thought they were ghosts, spirits of the dead, so it seemed odd when I found a place at work without any. It’s where the lawnmowers are finished prior to being shipped out.”
“Lawnmowers?” Shannon looked puzzled, as did others.
“The place we work at puts various bits of gardening gear together, a production line. The thing is, that logo goes on at the very end.” Shawn indicated Effy.
“I only noticed because I like to eat my sandwiches by the doors to the warehouse, the clear place?” Everyone nodded, some magical creatures were attracted to food. “There’s a man comes to fit the logos, just that, which seemed odd. The thing is, the creatures leave him alone. Not only that but when I showed Shawn he says they have magic in them, the logos. He says I’ll be able to tell when I can float a leaf. There’ll be a very faint red glow?”
Or a bright red glow if Abel, Rob or Kelis looked, but they’d had their eyes adapted by Ferryl. “True, and you’ll be able to see the creatures better as well.” Abel turned to Shawn. “Do you know who the man is?”
