Untouchable Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 7)

by Judith Berens

  The shifter muttered under his breath.

  Kelly lifted her wand. “I’ll handle the shield first if you want to try to move us.”

  Raine nodded and waited for the other witch to cast the shield spell over the boat before she drew a deep breath and pointed her wand toward the back. The incantation followed, each syllable spoken slowly and deliberately as she made the necessary motions and fed a small amount of magic in. Their boat jerked forward, not nearly as fast as the professor’s had but not at a crawl either.

  With her heart pounding, she turned slowly and twisted her wand—clutched tightly with both hands—and the craft bounced a few times over the waves. Her stomach lurched, but she ignored the sensation and concentrated on steering.

  Cameron clutched his oar even tighter, his knuckles almost white and a stern look on his face. “This isn’t as bad as I thought, but I can’t imagine what it would feel like if I didn’t have that spell on me.”

  The boat slowed until it finally stopped and bobbed up and down on the incoming waves.

  Professor Powell smiled. “Excellent, Raine. A good initial showing. Good technique.”

  She exhaled a sigh of relief. While she occasionally fell into the negative habit of believing she might never have the natural talent or power of some of the other witches at her school, she was learning to recognize this particular weakness. Years of careful attention to detail in all aspects of her life had helped to steadily improve her magical skill.

  The professor pointed to the rowboat with Dnai, Sara, and Philip. “You’re up next. I want everyone to have a try at manning one of the stations. We’ll switch places to make that possible, and depending on your progress, maybe I’ll let you putter along the beach without direct supervision.”

  Dnai sniffed disdainfully. “Professor, I want to point out that I can fly.” She shrugged and extended her wings a few inches.

  “Sure, but you’re still participating in this exercise. It’s easier to carry people and things in a boat than when you fly. So, let’s see it. Decide amongst yourselves who will do what.”

  After a brief discussion, Sara chose to maintain the shields while Philip worked on the propulsion. Dnai wanted to focus on water control.

  The wizard raised his wand and took a deep a few deep breaths before he shouted the spell rapidly. Raine winced when she recognized a few wrong syllables in the middle and some incorrect pitch emphasis.

  The boat hurtled forward and up and continued headlong in actual flight. The two girls yelped, and Philip groaned.

  A few seconds later, it splashed into the water upside down. The three students emerged from beneath it and spat water out while the others laughed.

  Professor Powell offered an apologetic smile to the three soaked students. “I think a couple of observations and reminders are called for. Slow and steady is fine until you master the incantation, and it’s better to start out with too little power than too much.” He raised his wand and waved it. The capsized boat righted itself as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Also, a reminder that wet wands still work with no problems.”

  Dnai crawled into the boat with a pained expression. “My poor wings. I’ll smell like salt forever.” She sighed and pushed wet clumps of her dark hair to either side of her face.

  Philip shoved Sara into the boat before he scrambled in himself. “Sorry.” His efforts made it rock and he clutched the gunwale with slight panic on his face. “What’s in the water around here?”

  The professor shrugged. “I doubt that there’s anything worse than a few sharks or maybe a few giant bugs. Nothing serious. It’s probably more that the magic has scared off larger sea creatures than anything dangerous.”

  The young wizard frowned. “Seriously, du…uh…Professor, sharks and giant bugs? Those are okay?” He shook the water off his wand. “Wait. What counts as a giant bug?”

  “The sharks are all small. Don’t think Great White, let alone megalodon. They’re more scared of you than you are of them.”

  “Maybe,” Philip muttered but didn’t seem at all reassured.

  Professor Powell scratched his chin. “As for the other issue, does a bug the size of a small dog count? Or is that merely large?”

  Philip’s eyes widened. “That’s not a real thing, is it?” He looked around in desperation.

  “Keep practicing and don’t fall out, and you won’t have to worry.”

  Chapter Nine

  Professor Kaylis offered the students sitting around the firepit a broad smile. A small cauldron sat atop a metal grate.

  “Ah. I almost forget. I’ve already told this to the Orono students, but for our friends from the School of Necessary Magic, it’s perhaps best that I repeat myself. For travel reasons, we didn’t have you pack a cauldron, nor did we bring many, but it’s no worry.” He swiped his arm in a bold gesture to point at the boiling black cauldron. “I’ll handle the potions prep for your first freshwater potion, and people can use my cauldron as necessary throughout the trip if you want to make more. It might not be necessary at all.”

  Philip, who sat close to him at a table with Sara and Dnai, nodded quickly. He did a poor job of hiding his boredom.

  Evie sat hunched over her notepad, a pen in hand and her face alight with interest. Raine sat beside her and admitted, at least to herself, that she didn’t find the subject of today’s lecture as engaging as some of the others. Still, she managed not to allow open boredom to show on her face like Philip.

  Sara shrugged. “Why not simply make water directly? This seems like unnecessary work.”

  Professor Kaylis shook a finger at her. “That’s a good question, Sara. You could, but it means you need to stop, cast the spell, and potentially tax your magical resources that you might have drawn on all day.” The wizard fumbled in one of the many pockets in his shorts and withdrew a small vial. “Of course, you’ve brought fresh water on your initial forays into the forest, but what if you drink it all? In the case of the witches and wizards, they might lose their wands and find they have trouble managing even a quick spell.”

  He clucked his tongue and regarded them with a sober expression. “At which point, a few drops of this freshwater potion would come in very handy, as it can change a good gallon or so of salt water into fresh water, no new magic required.” He shook the potion. “That’s something you students always forget. If you can prepare something ahead of time in potion form, it’s always preferable to an active spell.” He tucked the container into his pocket. “Even if it isn’t as flashy.”

  Evie and Raine scribbled notes as they always did. Among the others, Silas and Heidi paid close attention, but the remaining students—both from Charlottesville and Orono—seemed less interested. Philip’s eyes fluttered constantly as if he might doze off.

  The professor raised a small aquamarine petal from the table in his forefingers. “I already showed you the primary ingredients, all of which are fairly easy to obtain, and many of you have already seen the flowers this petal comes from. They are not unique to this island, but they are rare on Earth outside areas of high magic concentration such as here or the kemanas.”

  He looked aside for a moment and a thoughtful expression settled on his face. “I should note that they aren’t the only thing that will work. Traitor’s Weed is something common that would also serve well enough as the primary ingredient. Frost Kiss is another excellent choice. Swirling Violet is decent, although it won’t do as well. It would maybe convert half a gallon.” He took a mortar and pestle from a nearby table and began to grind the petals. “The truth is, the potion itself is fairly simple. Add the ingredients, boil for about an hour, and you’re good to go. It’s merely a potion that the average magical won’t need, so students rarely learn it.”

  Asher grinned. “Yeah. Why bother with a potion when you can go to a water fountain or sink?”

  Several of the students chuckled.

  Professor Kaylis smiled with no hint of offense on his face. “True enough, but as I hope t
his trip is reinforcing, there are different types of dependencies, whether technological or magical, and it’s important to be able to account for those.” He frowned at his cauldron and gestured for the students to move away. “Did someone use this cauldron earlier? Or yesterday?”

  The students stood hurriedly and took several steps back. Raine’s heart kicked into a gallop.

  Philip’s eyes widened, and he grabbed Sara and practically carried her several yards back. She rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

  Silas raised his hand timidly. “I used it yesterday. I asked Professor Tarelli, and she said it was okay. It was for only about thirty minutes. You were still out with a survey group.”

  The professor scratched his cheek. “I see, and of course she said it was okay. That much was fine.” He backed away slowly as his cauldron began to bubble with angry fury. “She merely forgot to mention it to me. Silas, my boy, do me a favor next time and let me know directly. We all know that Professor Tarelli can be a touch absent-minded, and that can lead to issues.”

  The student blinked and looked decidedly nervous. “Is something wrong?”

  Raine raised her wand and cast a shield spell and the other students hastily followed suit. Philip moved in front of Sara. William tried to do the same for Evie, but she evaded him, her gaze fixed on the bubbling potion.

  Cameron had been excused from the lecture due to his shifter nature and lack of general potion-making ability. He had told Raine he would take a run in wolf form.

  Professor Kaylis frowned as he squinted at his potion. “Let me guess, Silas. You were strengthening an already prepared flare potion yesterday?”

  The boy nodded quickly. “Yes. I brought a few but they are old, so I thought I’d freshen them using that technique you showed us last semester. They were supposed to be back-up in case we ran into something nasty in the woods. How did you know?”

  “Some of the ingredients you used can cross-react with the ingredients in this potion—even at very low concentrations—in surprisingly violent ways.” The man laughed and his jolly smile lingered. “Let this be a lesson to all of you. The scouring spells and potions I recommend—and I’m sure the potions teacher at the other school also recommends—aren’t merely a suggestion. Magical contamination is the bane of any potions maker. You can clean a cauldron thoroughly and go weeks without trouble, or not clean a cauldron effectively and find yourself in trouble hours later.”

  Raine frowned. She had never thought much about cauldron clean-up. They were required to attend to their cauldrons in class, but the scouring potions were always provided. Professor Fowler had idly mentioned that they would learn how to brew the potions in their senior year due to their complexity and specificity of use.

  Students without experienced potion makers around them weren’t supposed to make potions outside of school anyway. In practical terms, that meant Evie was one of the few of the FBI Trouble Squad who did much with this type of magic on vacation.

  The frothing liquid in the cauldron bubbled and hissed and a few sparks erupted from the surface.

  Professor Kaylis raised his wand and his grin built so much that it looked like it must hurt. “Don’t worry. Sometimes, failure provides the most entertaining mistakes of all.” He chanted a quick spell and a column of radiance surrounded the firepit and cauldron and extended into the sky. A thin plane of light extended beneath the grate. “It doesn’t hurt to take a few precautions, though. There’s no reason to waste a perfectly good healing potion.”

  The cauldron began to shake and rattle on the grate. Raine layered another shield spell over herself to be safe. With a loud explosion, it shattered into tiny pieces. The frothing liquid inside splattered against the walls and floor of the magical shield around it. The shards of the vessel settled in an uneven pile, still hissing and sparking.

  The professor laughed with genuine amusement. “Now that’s what I call a good cauldron death.”

  Raine blinked several times at the destruction. Potion accidents at the School of Necessary Magic didn’t normally destroy the cauldron, but it might have been that the wizard welcomed the damage as an object lesson.

  Silas winced. “Sorry, Professor.”

  Professors Hudson and Tarelli rushed out of their cabins. The concern vanished from both their faces once they spotted their colleague standing in front of the column of light with a huge grin on his face.

  Professor Tarelli rolled her eyes. “Did you do it on purpose this time, Basil?”

  He grinned with no offense at all. “No. A simple accident.”

  Professor Hudson sighed and shook her head.

  The wizard turned his attention to Silas. “It’s nothing, my boy. A mere inconvenience. Because I’m an always-prepared potions master, this really is a trivial problem to correct.” He scrabbled in his pocket for another vial and shook it after a quick glance as if to confirm that it was the right one. “Can anyone guess what this is?”

  “A repair potion?” Evie asked.

  “Indeed. Good job. A particular type that I keep around specifically for cauldron repairs.”

  William had managed to creep in front of Evie. Fire glowed in his eyes, but Professor Kaylis seemed oblivious to the boy’s concern.

  Raine eyed the professor dubiously. “Your cauldron blows up so much that you always have special potions on hand to fix it?”

  Professor Kaylis marched over to the glowing column. “Exploring the edge of potion making always involves some risk, which typically manifests as an exploding cauldron.” He pressed his hand with the vial against the column and after a few seconds, it penetrated but moved slowly as if pushing through a thick gel. He upended the receptacle and poured the potion over the remnants of the cauldron.

  A bright flash blinded Raine. When her vision cleared, the vessel was half-reassembled. Small chunks flew back into place and cracks sealed themselves.

  Philip shook his head. “No offense, Professor, but I think I’ll leave the potion making to you for a while.”

  Chapter Ten

  Professor Hudson’s careful control of a rowboat relieved the students of any risk of capsizing. It’d only been a few days since their first lessons. Laden with Raine, Asher, Adrien, and Finn, the professor’s craft cruised along the eastern coast of the island.

  Adrien helped with water bailing, but Professor Hudson handled both the shielding and propulsion without help.

  Raine felt her backpack to make sure it was closed and her quick-transfer scroll was protected from any water. The scrolls allowed them to take voice notes and copy them to a central book Professor Tarelli had set up in her cabin, a necessity given their inability to use electronic or radio data transfer.

  Their camp lay in the southwest corner of the island. The entire western side was far more accessible, with longer stretches of beaches. Even if they were irregular and rock-strewn, they were at least visible, unlike some of the barely submerged rocky shoals that dominated the eastern portion of the island. The beaches might never become tourist attractions, but they made docking easier.

  The eastern side, in contrast, was defined more by jagged rocks that required caution. While twenty-first-century magicals weren’t at tremendous risk, they still needed to be alert.

  “We’re almost there,” Professor Hudson announced. “The section we’ll explore in the northeast hasn’t been studied by any of our teams yet, so we don’t know what to expect. Obviously, we don’t believe it will be more dangerous than any of the other areas we explored. Caution is never unwarranted, though.”

  “Woah.” Finn pointed into the distance. “What’s that?”

  Raine squinted but couldn’t see anything other than water. A few seconds later, two dark fins broke through the surface.

  “I see it!” Asher yelled. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Yeah, I think it is. Cool.” A grin broke out on Finn’s face.

  Adrien narrowed his eyes. “Should we be worried? Novelty might be interesting, but it can still present
danger.”

  Professor Hudson glanced toward the fins, her wand still pointed at the back of the boat. “If that’s what I think it is, no. Let’s take a moment to watch and verify.” She slowed the craft.

  The parallel dark fins glided through the water. Whatever creature they belonged to didn’t appear to swim directly toward the boat, but its course would intercept the island in a few minutes if it held the same speed.

  “Keep watching,” Professor Hudson said and raised her wand. The rowboat slowed to almost a stop and only the weak tide tugged it gradually toward the nearby shore.

  A huge, dark form leapt out of the water. The two upper fins were mirrored by two dark ones on the bottom and another two pairs on either side of its smooth, shiny body. Easily twenty-feet long, the bulbous creature had four solid green eyes spaced equally around the sides of its head and which glinted in the afternoon sun. A thin line, a mouth perhaps, cut through the center, but it didn’t open before it splashed into the water. It wasn’t until the creature dove that Raine noticed it had two wriggling tails.

  She smiled. “It’s not a whale, but it’s close.”

  Asher nodded. “Those go by a lot of names, but Professor Tarelli’s called them skimmers. We saw one on our way to the island when we took the ferry.”

  “Not fair. I didn’t see anything on my trip.”

  “What can I say? We’re lucky in Orono.” The elf winked.

  The skimmer submerged until only its top fins remained visible. It changed direction, this time heading farther out into the ocean and away from the island.

  Professor Hudson pointed with her free hand at the retreating fins. “As strange as it looks compared to surface Earth life, it’s a filter-feeder from my understanding, with only a small amount of magic required to sustain it. As the gates continue to open, you’ll see many new types of life continue to flourish.”