by Vance Huxley
The other two boys had moved forward, on each side of Davy but one stumbled and went to his knees. He’d never realise a wind glyph, an amateur, loose one but perfectly timed, had snatched his foot out from under him. Davy would never know he fell because as he staggered back from William’s punch a much more precise glyph snatched his feet from under him. With Rachel that made three magic users in the crowd of fourteen-year-olds. Four, Abel realised as two boys in the group faced the last of Davy’s allies. One only had one fist clenched, but the slow magic swirl in the other hand would be much more dangerous if a fight started.
Melanie, Rob’s little sister, waved to him and put a finger to her lips as Rachel stalked forward to sneer down at Davy. “Just so you know, you’d better quit the bullying or the Tavern will be after you.”
“The Tavern? That stupid game?” Abel could understand Davy’s confusion because he felt the same way.
“Yes, a stupid game with a lot of players, and we’ve got a new mission. We’re going to stop you and all the other bullies.” Rachel cast a contemptuous glance at the other two. “That includes you.” She turned and raised a hand in greeting as if just seeing Abel and the rest. “Why don’t you ask the game designers? The Tavern protects the downtrodden. It’s in the rules.”
Abel had wondered if there still might be trouble because Davy looked livid, but the sight of four sixteen and seventeen-year-olds made him suddenly very cautious. Kelis’ voice answered Rachel. “That’s right. It might even be classed as charitable and earn them health points when they play.” The seven youngsters backing William must all be Taverners because they cheered at that.
“So perhaps you three had better leave now.” Abel half expected a teacher to turn up, though they never had when Henry had been slapping him about. He also wanted those three out of here before any of the glyph wielders felt vindictive. Davy might be a brawny lad for fourteen, but any of the girls with glyphs whirling in their hands could knock him and his friends out in seconds. He’d never realised just how dangerous magic might be in a non-magical situation at school.
“You should let them slap him around a little, to make sure he learns the lesson.” Ferryl/Jenny sounded eager, but she’d also wanted to stick one of Henry’s ribs through his heart.
Meanwhile Diane had reached the rest, where she high-fived Melanie. The others clustered around a bemused William, congratulating him on his punch. All except Rachel, who came over with a big smile on her face. Davy and his friends didn’t quite run, but they’d disappeared from sight before Rachel came close enough to talk quietly. “I wanted you here in case it went wrong.” She glanced back and smirked. “Though with four real Taverners I didn’t expect too much trouble.”
“Someone like you could deal with all three, but you’ve got to be careful about using magic. We don’t want Creepio giving us grief.” Abel frowned, remembering the punch. “How come William’s hand doesn’t hurt?”
“I used one glyph to cushion his fist, and one to smack Davy. Not too hard, but he’ll have a lovely black eye. I remember how you and Ferryl Shayde met, and what she did.” Her smile faltered and Rachel looked a bit uncertain, scuffing a toe in the grass. “We decided that we’d had enough. What’s the point of magic and being charitable if we let someone like Davy get away with thumping William?” She firmed up a little. “We tried to back him off with numbers first?”
“Don’t worry Rachel. I’ll loan you my bat if he gives you grief again.” Though Rob suddenly frowned, looking towards William. “Though from bitter experience, Davy will catch William on his own next time.”
“No he won’t. There’ll be a Taverner,” her hand came up a little and a glyph swirled briefly to show which sort of Taverner, “keeping an eye on William. Though I suppose Davy might take a swing at the Taverner?” He wouldn’t if he saw the gleam in Rachel’s eye.
Abel relaxed, because this hadn’t been spur of the moment. Rachel and the others had thought it through, and he was all for anything that saved another kid from being bullied. “Now I suppose you’ll want to claim the health points for a charitable act?” He smiled over at the group. “All of you?” Though Rachel refused. According to her, this came under taking out the trash. Unpleasant, necessary, and nobody expected to get paid for it, but it made the air smell sweeter. Jenny wondered if she could get the quote in the game blurb someplace.
Although the incident seemed to be over, the fourteen-year-olds really had planned ahead. As the pupils trooped back into school after lunch, Davy had positioned himself to the side of the main doors. Abel hung back to see why, in case of trouble, and his friends stayed with him. They weren’t needed. When William came in he walked among a small crowd of classmates. As they approached the door they all punched the air and shouted “Tavern,” then followed him inside chanting “William, William, William.” It didn’t last long, only until the first teacher came in sight but it certainly sent a message. Abel thought he probably looked as startled as Davy and his friends. In Abel’s case it was at the numbers of Tavern players, over twenty, because he hadn’t thought the younger kids were particularly keen. All the young players he knew had been introduced to Bonny’s Tavern by older siblings.
∼∼
Davy didn’t make any more trouble, or if he did Rachel and her friends took care of it very quietly. Neither Diane nor Melanie knew about magic, but both of them told their elder siblings not to worry. The year ten Tavern had it covered. Careful enquiries showed that the more numerous year eleven Tavern had also adopted the idea. Whatever the pupils were doing they’d managed it without causing any ripples, or none yet.
The next excitement came during the third week of school when the teachers called a fire drill. As he filed out onto the school field Abel realised it wasn’t a drill because the Headmaster and Deputy Head were in a fierce discussion and looked puzzled. As the last students, the Upper Sixth, came out of the fire exits voices were raised in alarm. Abel turned to where several students pointed across the field, at the trees. Creatures big and small were racing out from among the trees and across the grass, with a cloud of different types of fae above them! The way some of the teachers and pupils were pointing and shouting, some of the horde must be fully visible.
For a moment Abel reeled as confusion swept over him and his ward flashed icy cold, but then his head cleared. All around him students and teachers were crumpling, everyone but the magically warded Taverners he realised. Claris ran to him and caught hold of his hand. “I mazzled them, full strength. Tell everyone. Advanced Taverners take the large creatures, beginners the small. Quick!”
Glyphs were already arrowing across the grass, but in a scattered response and many weren’t very strong because the throwers were rattled. Luckily the mazzlement also seemed to confuse the larger creatures like Skurrits, a muddy-green wolf-like creature with a ruff of orange porcupine quills, a yellow snake with tiny pincered legs and covered in short, white, knife-like points and a white glittery lizard with red horns and jaws like a coachman beetle. The smaller ones kept coming, a bewildering array of types. Abel had never seen anything like the gleaming black rat-scorpions or grey ratlins veined with virulent blue and purple, now mixed with familiar types like Hoplins, Globhoblins and Thornies. The few that Abel recognised were hunters, and were heading for the fallen pupils.
“Taverners, form a line. Strongest aim at large creatures, beginners at the fae. Intermediates take smaller creatures. If you can barely use wind, blow fae away from everyone else.” Abel sent a tight, very hot glyph into a lizardy thing, searing off half its jaw and one horn. It spun away then started back towards him. “They’re tough. Watch every glyph all the way to the target. Don’t waste magic.”
“We’ll run out. There’s too many.” Abel glanced at the speaker, a new trainee who could barely float a leaf.
“We won’t but if you do I want you to go and help anyone who passed out. If they are attacked, your ward will allow you to smack fae away by hand or stomp them.” Abel drilled two
hot glyphs into a wolf-thing that had a broken front leg but kept coming. “They can’t sting you as badly.” A glyph came past him, split into eight or nine rapidly growing shards of ice, and tore into a wolf-creature from every direction. It dropped and started bubbling.
Ferryl/Claris threw him a quick glance. “I can’t hold back now. If I stick close everyone might think it’s you three.”
“Four.” Jenny stood just beyond Rob, helping to shield the other side of Claris, mostly using pure fire because she wasn’t good with combinations. To Abel’s other side Kelis duplicated Ferryl/Claris’ feat, but only managed three shards. Abel used his wind and fire combination to torch a crippled Leggy-snake and the one crawling over it, before Kelis’ wind glyph picked both burning creatures up and threw them into a group of nightmare scorpion rats. A growth glyph from somewhere sent the grass up and over the struggling mass, binding them together into one burning heap until the flames finished the job.
That only underlined how tough the bigger creatures were, which meant some smaller ones got through. A swarm of furred Horn-Toads reached several unconscious students, trying to gore them though the triple spikes were foiled for a moment by clothing. At least a third of the defenders were distracted, concentrating on pick the toads off without hitting innocents. “Everyone, kill the ground creatures first. Beginners hit the small ones. The fae can’t get through our wards, or seriously hurt the rest. Anyone running out of magic, kick or slap the fae and smaller creatures off the helpless.” Abel concentrated. “Zephyr, forget the creatures. Break up the big clouds of fae. Don’t wait to kill them, scatter them.”
“Beware the Flying Fist of Doom!” Zephyr zigzagged away from where she’d been trying to smother a Skurrit, scattering fae. “Fae bopping time!” Despite her speed a line of fae dropped in her wake, stunned or already bubbling into oblivion.
“There, to the left.” Kelis sent one solid shard this time, driving a two-metre-long spined terrapin with eight legs and a huge tusked head sideways into a wolf-thing. They tore at each other, forgetting the humans.
Abel saw what she’d spotted, a dozen larger creatures heading straight for the Headmaster and the clump of adults and pupils laid near him. “Una, Warren, save the Headmaster. Only take strong users with you.” Five students ran that way and powerful glyphs exploded or tore at the creatures.
“It’s the wolfish things. They lead. Kill them and the group scatters.” Abel looked where Rob pointed in time to see grass snatch the front legs from under a wolf-thing. It barely hit the ground before the earth surged, burying its head. As it scrabbled, slumped, then began to bubble away Rob staggered. “Curses, that hurt.” He put a hand in his pocket, no doubt for a bar of spare magic. The group of creatures following the wolf-thing scattered, a few still attacking while the rest turned to flee. A clump of grass snatched the legs from under another attacker while strangling a hand-sized beetle with cat’s paws and claws. Water vapour appeared around a bigger beetle-lizard’s head before exploding into steam. It collapsed and began to bubble away.
Abel raised his voice. “You heard Rob, target wolf-hedgehogs, or whatevers. Kill them first.”
Jenny flipped her hand up and her wind glyph overturned a tortoise-thing that had kept coming. She promptly smacked a fire glyph into the exposed belly and glanced at Abel with a wild grin. “Diamond magic!” Beyond her one of Rob’s fan club had his rounders bat, smashing smaller creatures away from fallen pupils.
The glyph from behind Abel looked like one solid something until it unravelled into a net, collecting five scorpion-rats before wrapping around the main target. As the glowing red mesh tightened, the wolf-thing and smaller victims started bubbling before they hit the ground. Earth surged and along the line four more of the creatures stumbled as the playing field snatched one leg and held it fast. A thistle exploded under one, growing straight up through its body. “Flower power!” That sounded like Rachel. All along the scattered line of Taverners, magic users steadied and retargeted, and in a flurry of mainly wind and fire glyphs the wolf-things went down.
Within a few frantic moments the attack faltered. Many Taverners were now holding their lead bars of reserve magic, while others had run right out and were kicking and swatting at fae or stomping Thornies and smaller creatures. Despite that, enough had the magic to finish the larger creatures or send them scampering or slithering away. Probably twenty sparks of fire swarmed past Abel. He launched five, the best he could control, and they were joined by possibly eight or nine from Kelis, some from Rob and even two from Jenny. A miniature firestorm enveloped the fae in front of them, scattering the survivors. “Fae-hunt! Small and tight, save magic.”
In response to either the display in front of Abel, or his shout, a cloud of sparks and wind glyphs swarmed out from the advanced Taverners. They washed over the fae around the fallen students, either burning them or battering them into the ground. “Ratlin-hunt? Give me the fire, Abel.” Abel grinned back at Kelis, tossing out a continual line of small, tight fire glyphs as he once had for Ferryl. Kelis caught them with wind glyphs before driving them one after the other towards her targets.
“Zephyr, come back. We don’t know what’s in there.” Most fae were scattering now, flying frantically back towards the trees and escape, but a flying fist of doom hadn’t given up.
She stopped reluctantly, hovering. Three quick tight fire glyphs fried the three biggest fae flying past her. “I could get more?”
“We might need you to help if they come back.” Abel walked forward, driving a windhammer into a crippled Skurrit and stomping a small something pinned by a tight web of grass but still moving. Both began to bubble away. “These aren’t finished yet.” All along the line Taverners moved forward, crushing or burning trapped, stunned or crippled creatures. Just in time. Some of the adults and students were stirring, shaking their heads in confusion. A few cried out, because fae or creatures had bitten, stabbed or stung them.
“We’ll never explain this.” Kelis straightened, taking her hand from inside her blouse. She smiled at Abel’s look. “Just because I can’t show that stupid great rock doesn’t mean I can’t carry it sometimes. I put some magic in it to top up lead bars for some of the trainees. Just as well, my belt is empty.”
Ferryl/Claris’ quiet voice sounded subdued, really worried. “Mine too. Maybe it won’t matter if someone saw me. There’ll be investigators all over this and then the church. They’ll realise what I am and try to force me out of Claris.”
“Not a chance.” Rob, Kelis and even Jenny echoed Abel, which cheered Ferryl/Claris a bit.
“Church. Good idea. Creepio seems to like a challenge. Let’s see if he can keep this secret. After all, I’ll bet some of the injured are churchgoers.” Kelis looked around with a satisfied smile. “He can’t use God’s SAS, because we did that bit.”
Abel glanced around as more people began to stir, and several were definitely injured though mainly stings as far as he could see. “A teacher will call 999 anyway, so the ambulances will be here before long. I’d better call Creepio sharpish so he can fray my ears, then hopefully try and keep most of this out of the news.” Abel didn’t think that would happen, but Creepio had to be his best shot. As usual he had to leave a message first. “Huge creature attack in Stourton. Non-magicals hurt at comprehensive school.”
Sure enough, as baffled or stung students began to gather in small groups, his phone rang and Creepio started on the ear fraying. “What have you done now?”
“Driven them off, but there’s students and teachers stung or bitten.” Abel explained, briefly. “Someone must have removed our barrier posts, or only the largest would have got through.”
“Check that when you can. Are the emergency services on the way?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop worrying.” The phone clicked and went dead.
“Well?” Kelis, Rob, Jenny and Ferryl/Claris watched with a mixture of impatience and apprehension.
“Don’t worry, that’s all he
said.” Abel looked around. “Now let’s see if we can help anyone.”
“Me for starters. I’m knackered because I had to use magic, not brute force. I loaned my bat out anyway, to someone who’d run out of magic.” Rob suddenly grinned. “Did you like the instant grave? Though it took more magic than I expected.”
“Hey, fancy glyphs my man!” Abel staggered, then Rob as a hand connected with their backs. “Who buried that cursed thing’s head? I swear I nearly choked when I saw that.” They looked round to see the only two of the rugby team to have managed magic so far. The Tavern wasn’t a popular game among the players. Neither were past leaf fluttering, but a glance showed their hands and forearms were scratched and bitten so they’d done their part. The wounds meant they’d gone past swatting fae and small creatures to seizing and crushing them.
“Rob did that. Are you feeling okay?” Abel looked pointedly at their wounds.
“It’s like a grass burn, when we slide. This feels like about fifty metre’s worth. That would be a record in a game. I reckon I drop-kicked a Hoplin nearly that far before it disintegrated.” Both of them laughed, possibly a bit high on survival. Quite a few seemed to feel that way.
“Typical macho rugby players.” Though for once there wasn’t any malice in the comment. “Well done with the leg grab thing whoever it was.” Warren scowled. “My magic ran down a bit but having the cursed thing’s leg nailed to the field made it a sitting duck.”
“I want to learn that net, and the multi-glyph ice shard. Who did that?” A tired-looking Justin looked hopefully from one to the other.
“Rob is the earth wizard, and the Glyphmistress can manage a little thing like multiple shards. Ferryl created the firestorm.” All true, even if Kelis only managed three shards. Abel avoided the net. He doubted Ferryl wanted to teach yet another advanced glyph even to him.
“While General Abel marshalled the troops and directed the battle. We were all over the place at the beginning until he started chucking out orders.” Jenny managed a sort of salute.
