‘You are perceptive,’ Amelie said. ‘No, Cassy did that.’
‘Who’s Cassy?’ Drako asked.
‘Don’t you know her? Oh. She seemed to know you would like my design. She created this interior plan for you just a few minutes ago. No? You must have passed her in the corridor just now,’ Amelie added, aware he was frowning in thought.
‘I saw a small blonde girl come out of here, but she went the other way and I don’t know her,’ Drako said, suddenly feeling he was missing something. Who was this girl who had drawn something he knew immediately he would feel at home in. He touched the little labels denoting the various rooms. Only the office sidewall was blank, having neither exterior door nor veranda. There were dense trees on that side of the plot and no view, he recalled, no point having a veranda there too. Cassy must be sufficiently familiar with his plot to know that too. Why didn’t he know who she was?
‘Do you like the interior design? It can be altered easily,’ Amelie asked, noticing just how engrossed in thought Drako seemed.
‘There’s stairs here, but no upper floor plan,’ Drako said just realising that lack. ‘Presumably the upper floor is for sleeping?’
‘Yes. Normally it’s the ground floor that’s the difficult one to draw and anyway, Cassy wouldn’t know what number of bedrooms you’d want,’ Amelie told him.
Drako snorted, ‘multiple bedrooms? I should be so lucky.’
‘Don’t you have family that might want to visit?’ Jim asked.
‘Ah, yes. They’d expect to stay with me,’ Drako acknowledged with a small frown.
‘See Cassy when you have an idea of how you want your interior doing,’ Jasper said in the background. ‘Have a look on the walls at the other ones she’s done, it’ll help you plan yours.’
Drako realised his men had been having their own plans drawn up while he was engrossed in viewing his. ‘You all know this Cassy?’
‘She is always there in Amelie’s team doing the building. She’s down at the village most days,’ Freddie added helpfully. He was surprised Drako did not know her.
‘I thought I’d met every woman here,’ Drako said, frowning. He had a sudden recollection of having heard many of his people refer to her as someone to go to. An odd buzzing swept through his head. He blinked, shaking his head, aware he suddenly couldn’t remember who they had been talking about.
‘Are you alright?’ Jim asked.
‘No. We were talking about someone important; a woman and I cannot remember whom, now. I only remember struggling to keep hold of the conversation. Now it’s gone and I don’t even know what was important!’
Jim went to his side and put a hand on Drako’s shoulder. He felt Drako’s fear that he was losing his mind but skipped on, looking for anything odd. Finally, he found it. Cassy had woven a tiny compulsion that meant she was effectively invisible as far as Drako was concerned. If he heard her name or even saw her, he would quickly forget that small fact. Why she had done this he did not know, but her tampering did not impress him. He quickly removed the compulsion, whilst “suggesting” Drako look at his plans again. Whilst Drako was again absorbed and distracted, Jim magically closed Drako’s hearing and told the others not to mention Cassy in his presence. She was avoiding him and until Jim knew why, they should not mention her. He then reinstated Drako’s hearing.
‘Now you’ve got your plans you’ll need to work with your stone mason, carpenter and brick or tile maker to get the building materials together. Once you have enough assembled I’ll bring a team down to make a start on it,’ Jim said cheerfully.
‘We’ll have more snow soon,’ Drako said with annoyed certainty. The current thin covering was not much of a problem but this area usually had deep snow and another storm was overdue. Now he had seen the plans he desperately wanted his home built, and to move in.
Jasper held out a hand for the plans and Drako felt rather loath to let them go. He watched Jasper pin them up on the wall, do a number of calculations and a separate list drew itself on the slip in his hand. Jasper handed it over and Drako was shocked to find a precise list of the raw materials he would need to gather for his house, complete with quantities and dimensions. Drako clutched the list eagerly and just managed to thank Jasper and Amelie for their assistance before rushing out the door.
First on the list was gravel and stone. He went straight to the stonemason to place his order, then on to the carpenter and finished at the pottery where he ordered the curved roof tiles. Orders placed and ahead of his hunters in the queue, he returned to the quarry and spent the rest of the day labouring, assisting in the fulfilment of his own order. When everyone else packed up, ready to head back to the school for dinner, he reluctantly had to stop. He was satisfied however, that sufficient gravel had been dug and sifted to meet his order. It would not take long tomorrow to drag the remainder by cart to the side of his plot.
Meanwhile, the masons had made a start on the stone blocks required. He knew completion of that task would take many days of backbreaking work. Nevertheless, he liked the creamy white stone far more than the orange bricks. The stone would also contrast very nicely with the terracotta roof and floor tiles. The wooden doors, shutters and railings would also tone nicely with the stone once darkened with weatherproofing oil.
When Drako went down to the stone mason straight after breakfast the following morning, he eyed the stack of completed blocks in surprise. There were many more cut and ready than when they had stopped the previous evening. It was clear that the mason had gone back to work after the evening meal, had had help, or started very early this morning. Drako expressed his thanks and turned his attention to the heavy task of loading what was ready on the cart and taking them to his site, clearing space in the workshop.
Loading the second cart-full, he scented Jim passing by. He hurried the loading and arrived at his plot just before Jim. Clearly Jim had stopped off somewhere along the way.
‘Got your gravel and some of the stone already I see,’ Jim observed with amusement at his friend’s enthusiasm. ‘Leave that a minute and tell me if the position is how you want it. I could move it back or to one side if you’d prefer?’
Drako considered that and walked inside the string guidelines. ‘No, this is fine where it is.’
‘Ok. Come out of the way,’ Jim warned and waited for Drako to hop out hastily. He then magically carved the snowy turf and top layer off, rolling them neatly, and exposing the whole house’s footprint. He rested briefly then urged the heap of gravel to cover the exposed soil deeply. The gravel shivered, levelling itself, and compacting to make a sturdy foundation. Jim then rested his mental muscles by using his actual muscles, helping empty the cart of its very heavy stone blocks.
‘You’re not going to try and build it on your own I hope,’ Drako asked, aware Jim was now a little pale, but he also kept shimmering which was a very strange new development. Drako surreptitiously checked Jim’s eyes and realised they were nearer green than blue: a sure sign of stress. That was better than turning fully gold. Drako had learned to watch warily for the colour change, heralding the onset of anger. Whilst Jim was usually very even-tempered and amiable, when roused to anger he quickly became frightening. A harsher more judgemental personality took over and he was an unusually powerful wizard to boot. He doubted he was alone in the realisation that only Amelie was remotely capable of stopping Jim should he ever lose control.
‘No. But once the footings are in it’s easier to see the shape, even if it snows again,’ Jim added looking at the sky critically.
‘Don’t think it’ll snow today, unless the winds pick up. It might come late tonight or tomorrow though,’ Drako said.
Jim nodded and walked with him back to the masons. Jim’s magical assistance with a number of heavy tasks, including the cutting and shaping of blocks, transformed the time it took to accomplish the work. So much so, that the master mason announced Drako’s order complete near lunchtime. The final load delivered to the site, both men wearily dragged th
emselves up to the school, in need of a good hot lunch and a rest somewhere warm enough to thaw their fingers and toes.
‘I’ll bring a team down this afternoon to assemble the walls and anything else that’s ready,’ Jim advised Drako, aware that while Drako had laboured with the gravel and stone over the last two days, many of his clan had secretly pitched in to help procure the other items on his list. This meant more of the materials were ready, or nearly so, than Drako knew. Already factored in on his list were the materials required to create the interior, so they could probably get most of it done, if not complete the build in one go.
‘Wizard classes,’ Jim called once lunch had finished. ‘We’re building Drako’s place after tea break later. Time will be short, so bring your boots and coats to break and get down there promptly. We’d rather get it done before it snows.’
‘I’d better see what stage the other parts are at,’ Drako snorted. ‘No pressure for everything to be done then?’ Drako added shaking his head, but he was elated and eagerly hurried off.
Amelie assembled her merge team as usual, but this time she was discreetly watching Cassy. Cassy seemed normal, but Amelie noted her gaze rarely left Drako. Cassy’s overly large hood and scarf, to ward against the biting cold, almost completely hid her features. She was barely recognisable and Drako certainly had not noticed her. He was standing back, a large and excited crowd of his people around him. Another cartload of roof tiles arrived at his plot and many hands made swift work of unloading it. She noticed the cart was pushed aside, no one was rushing off with it, so perhaps that had been the last load. Amelie began to merge her team, making sure Cassy was actually at her side touching her. Because she was monitoring Cassy, she felt a sharp prick of power use and followed its signature.
‘What are you doing?’ Amelie demanded in Cassy’s mind, immediately closing the link to the other members of the merge so they could talk privately.
‘Nothing,’ Cassy said, unnerved and embarrassed to be asked, just at that moment.
‘What are you doing to Drako?’ Amelie was angry to find Cassy using the power of the meld in such an underhand manner.
Cassy eyed Amelie and bit her lip. ‘I think I might have inadvertently touched his mind last week. I was just trying to see if I’d done anything to him.’
‘You did do something to him,’ Amelie told her. ‘Jim found and cleared your spell when Drako began acting strangely yesterday.’
‘What did I do?’ Cassy asked in horror.
‘You put him under a strong compulsion to forget you. He only wanted to thank you for creating the plans, but within a moment, the whole conversation disappeared from his memory. He was most disconcerted and his warriors witnessed it. We haven’t told him, or them, exactly what happened, yet. Why did you do it? Drako’s such a sweet man. What did he do to upset you so badly?’
‘He scared me last week. It was only for a moment, but I panicked. I glimpsed the military commander everyone whispers of in fear. I realised his thoughts were obviously miles away at the time, and that his black mood wasn’t anything to do with me. Unfortunately, I was in a meld at the time. You know how quickly and easily a stray thought can turn into a spell with such power flowing through us. I must have instinctively tried to hide from him. I suspected I might have done something to him, but we finished quickly, and there wasn’t time to check.’
‘Ah. You were simply trying to see if you had affected him. So why did you avoid him yesterday? The designs you came up with were so good he hasn’t altered them at all and yet you practically ran from the room when you heard him coming.’
‘I thought that if I had affected him it’d be obvious, especially if I was in the room. I wasn’t ready to face that. I wanted to try to clean up any mess before anyone was aware of it. Guess I failed all round,’ she added despondently.
‘You’ll have to introduce yourself to him. He was most upset he couldn’t remember someone his warriors spoke of so highly. It was also rather obvious from your plans that you had a good impression of his character. That upset him too, that a woman should understand him to such a degree but he couldn’t even put a face to your name.’ Amelie switched now to audible speech so she could unblock the others from the mental side of the merge. ‘Anyway, we’ve got work to do.’ Jim reached her side and she quickly advised him of what she had learned.
Vako’s meld of third years built the exterior ground floor walls and finished by tiling the interior and veranda floors before stepping back. Jim brought his melded team of second years onto the new veranda and looked through the office window. Using Cassy’s plan, stone blocks were soon flying through the front doorway, building the interior walls and features he could see. Once the walls blocked his view, he would move to another window or doorway so he could physically see and direct the blocks precisely. He created the big inglenook fireplace in the living room and the chimney that would draw the other open fires in the house. Once the ground floor walls were finished, he pulled a second team forward to lay the ceiling and floor to the upper story. More walls flowed in, resting on top of the walls below so the structure was strong. The first team, now a little rested, took on the task of building the roof structure, finishing off by laying the curved terracotta tiles.
‘Now they’ve finished the roof, we can get started with the rest of your interior details. How do you think it looks in reality?’ Amelie asked Cassy.
‘It’s even better,’ Cassy said honestly. ‘It looks so inviting and homely. It could do with glass in those windows though. I didn’t think of that before. It’ll be very dark with the shutters closed and it’s too damn cold to leave the windows open.’
‘Good point,’ Amelie conceded and told Jim.
Jim met Cassy’s eyes searchingly then turned to call Jasper. ‘We’re going to need glass for these windows. Have any of the other buildings got glass?’ It wasn’t a question that had occurred to him to ask before.
‘No. Not unless they’ve made it themselves. I’ll investigate,’ Jasper assured and stepped out of the way.
Now Cassy took charge of providing the images that Jim used to create all the detailed fittings. Soon sturdy shutters attached themselves to each window, hinged to fold flat against the wall when open. She even thought of the hooks necessary to pin them open. Each room got a plain but well crafted wooden door complete with latches. She provided the inglenook fireplace with a fire-basket and the kitchen with a substantial cast-iron stove rather than an open fire. It was safer and the broad hotplate top was suitable for cooking. Cassy suddenly became aware her team were flagging and guiltily called a halt. They had put in far more details and fixtures than in any other building. Drako would only need furniture to complete it.
Cassy walked through the completed building with everyone else, and daringly climbed the stairs to the sleeping areas, that would normally be completely off limits. Drako had obviously decided on one large master bedroom with adjoining bathroom and another down the corridor to serve the four equal sized smaller rooms. The big windows in the master bedroom gave spectacular views and lots of light. However, through them, she noticed Drako approaching. She made a quick exit back downstairs and out the kitchen door.
‘Still running from him then?’ Amelie asked. ‘You’re not being very fair to him.’
‘I know,’ Cassy admitted her eyes on the tall man with windswept black hair she could see inside through the window. He was laughing at something with Jim but she noted his hands kept possessively touching things. Clearly, he was delighted and that warmed her heart. ‘It’s too cold to stand around and I’m starving,’ Cassy announced rather inanely but it was true. The excuse enabled her to join the other students walking back up to the school. The light was poor now, heavy clouds taking the light early and threatening a storm. She glanced back spotting Jim and Amelie in the living room with Drako, a fire already kindled in the new fireplace. His house looked cosy and inviting and she was torn with mixed feelings of pride in the design and chagrin that she’d
never even dared introduce herself to him. Everyone else was heading up to the school quickly, an eye on the gathering clouds overhead. She dropped her head and trudged wearily back to the school and obscurity.
2. After the Event
‘My Lord; so many dead,’ Tobias gasped in horror as they surveyed the rocky field. Splashes of dull colour marred the light covering of crisp white snow, drawing the eye to the grim presence of corpses. The only movement came from the crows, busily pecking at their grisly feast. Dozens of bodies lay where they had fallen and the snow was not deep enough to cover them. Had no one survived to bury the dead? Did no one care enough about these people to give them the basic respect of a burial? That bothered him more than the deaths themselves.
‘It’s a battlefield,’ Lord Aubrey remarked with a shrug, ‘it’s always gruesome and shocking to come across one unexpectedly. Notice how ill clad most of them are; deserters turned bandit, most likely.’ He dismounted to have a closer look at several groupings of bodies, reading the evidence of how the battle had gone. ‘Four warriors stood their ground and accounted for a great many bandits each. Was magic used in the deaths of any of these?’
‘No.’ Tobias reluctantly came close enough to check the mangled corpses for magical residue. A crow plucked out someone’s eyeball with a pop and Tobias winced, hastily looking away. ‘They were all killed by conventional weapons,’ he conceded, surprised by the relief he felt in making that discovery. Perhaps Jim was not the bloodthirsty renegade he had feared on hearing the patrol’s report. A beautiful rusty red fox on the far side of the field provided a welcome distraction from the carnage, but as it slunk away, Tobias noticed a severed arm was in its jaws, the hand flopping obscenely.
Clan Green Bear: Wizards of White Haven Page 2
