by Vance Huxley
“But that’s all we need. Once everything is in place your job is to swan about in luxury, playing taxi for the muscle. Just grab a real taxi back home before the coach becomes a pumpkin. And don’t mention Creepio again.” Abel grinned and wagged a finger at her. “You can’t be a lost cause if you won’t give the archbishop his game name.” At least that made Shannon smile again. “Park on the grass and we’ll cast a veil around the car in case the wrong person comes along.”
Kelis plonked a lead bar on the car roof to supply magic, because the veil for a solid object that wasn’t held or worn by living creatures needed an independent supply. “I’ll get that set up. Good practice for later.”
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Five minutes later two anonymous white transit vans parked on the grass verge behind the veiled car. Eric, Warren’s nineteen-year-old big brother, leant out of the driver’s side window. “Two leeches as instructed. The tranq guns caught the church guards completely by surprise. Where does Braeth Huntian want them?” He’d got his lines dead right. Shawn gave them a thumbs-up from the second van, so his part had also gone well.
“We’ve got to carry them across the fields, but Shannon brought extra muscle. Did you get the stretchers?” Kelis felt sure they had, because Creepio had promised to put them in the vans along with the tranquilliser guns and harmless darts.
“Yup, and we brought extra people as well so we can take turns carrying.” Shortly afterwards both vans had lead bars on the roofs to feed their veils. The two struggling but securely trussed leech hosts were carried across the fields to Dead Wood, also safely hidden under veils. The leech-nappers had even taped the casts on the young woman’s broken legs together, because leeches could over-ride pain in their host.
The struggling had started once Eric mentioned Braeth Huntian, a promising start because the plan relied on both leeches being terrified. Rob and Ferryl/Claris were waiting with Jane Doe, Ferryl/Claris showing no signs of the wounds inflicted as the bone shards came out. Rob tapped his pocket significantly, where Ferryl/Claris couldn’t see, so all memory of the wits had been wiped out. Ferryl would want as little as possible left to erase as she left.
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Jenny and Rob directed the stretcher bearers as they laid the captives out well apart, ten metres clear of the magical barrier protecting the trees. Both leech hosts were taken off the stretchers and untied except for their legs, but their gags were left in for now. Abel and Kelis drew the magical traps in the earth around them and led the lines of magic to the tree nearest to each one, either side of a small clearing. Both cut a draining glyph deep into the bark, clearly visible from where the leeches lay, and Abel connected his to activate the trap around Thirteenseed. As far as Abel could see, Father Curtis, the leech’s host, didn’t look badly damaged.
“Thanks everyone. Braeth Huntian is coming now, and will want to deal with this personally. It will be safer if you have left.” Abel’s arm swept across to include Kelis, Jenny, Rob and Ferryl/Claris, though Zephyr still stayed hidden. She had her part to play, and very soon. “We are sworn to Huntian so we are safe. Come back at dawn to help us bury the bodies if necessary. You will be rewarded then.” He held his breath but the snatch squad all turned and left without anyone giggling or making a smart remark, taking the stretchers with them. Nobody would be back at dawn; the Taverners were all heading for their beds.
As soon as they were out of sight Rob, Jenny and Abel stood between the two leeches so they couldn’t see each other. If Father Curtis survived, he mustn’t know the alleged Braeth Huntian wasn’t Zephyr. Ferryl/Claris strode up to the young woman, the Fourthseed, and seized her head in both hands. She whispered, “Braeth Huntian is already here,” and let her true nature come to the surface before stepping back. As she did, Zephyr soared up in plain sight of Father Curtis, and his leech. Kelis had plenty of time to activate the trap and stop the Fourthseed leech escaping as its host tried to scrabble away from Ferryl/Claris with casts on both legs. Ferryl/Claris sneered at it once the trap sprang to life. “You can both take off your gags and free your legs.”
As soon as it had its mouth clear, Fourthseed shouted to let the other one know this really was Braeth Huntian but it couldn’t get past the church ward. Kelis laughed at it, while Zephyr swooped in lower and both leech hosts cowered. “Huntian doesn’t want to possess a churchman, but fancies having one as a servant. A servant with a bound leech inside so he can stand some pain. If you oppose Huntian, your host will make a good home for our leech, even with broken legs.”
As she spoke Jane Doe sat up, with an obvious effort. “That is a fine young body and cannot be damaged too badly inside. Much better than this one. Braeth Huntian has promised me a new host once I have told her all the secrets your Firstseed left behind.”
“Traitor!” Compulsion lashed out at Jane Doe with absolutely no effect.
“Firstseed tried to kill me. Braeth Huntian stopped her, then killed her and accepted me into her nest. A nest that destroyed yours. I have already killed three seeds for my new Firstseed. You two are the last of the nest, and tonight you will be bound or die.” Jane Doe smiled, which with her gaunt features looked ghastly in the moonlight. “If Thirteenseed is foolish and refuses the binding I will get the churchman as a host. He looks strong and healthy, and is hardly damaged at all.”
“Why? Why does Huntian want to bind us? Huntian kills leeches. All the memories say so.” The young woman, the host, whipped her head back and forth, looking at the four teenagers around her in total confusion. Even so she avoided looking directly at the fifth, the one possessed by Braeth Huntian, or the wraith hovering above them.
But that teenager answered. “You have just spoken to a bound leech, because we have found a use for them. Just killing leeches is not enough now. You will be bound, to be used as hounds to help us find more leeches. Huntian has been away for too long, and leeches have grown bold.” Ferryl/Claris produced a classic evil cackle that rang out over the fields. “It is time to spread some fear again.” She leant closer. “Bound servant or bound shade? Make a choice.” Zephyr swooped in again and the leech host tried to scramble away, but couldn’t with her legs in casts.
“I will wreck this body. I will make it unfit even for a shade.” The host looked back and forth again. “You can’t bind Thirteenseed, not with a church mark.”
“But we can kill the body, slowly, if you refuse. We can cut both of you out of the corpses and take you into this wood.” Kelis wore her Windcatcher cloak, which she opened to reveal Una’s sword. Producing her very best sneer, she pointed to Dead Wood. “Take a good look. Nothing magical goes in there except Braeth Huntian and her sworn apprentices.” Zephyr swooped down on cue. “But before the wood kills you, we will cut the hosts open and drag you out. You will agree to be bound or die screaming in terror, and then we will bind your shade. A leech shade without a host isn’t much use but Huntian can amuse herself torturing you when something annoys her.”
Abel wondered if Kelis might really mean that but despite his misgivings added his part. “Even if you compel something, it can’t get to those trees to break the glyphs because of the barrier around Dead Wood. Trying to cross the barrier will send them crazy, then kill them. You’ve got until an hour before dawn to sit here and think about your choices. Watch all the magical creatures that try to get in there and think of being in there yourself, helpless. Use compulsion to try and force a few and watch them die.” He didn’t try for a sneer because he’d never match Kelis’s, so Abel gave an evil or possibly crazy grin. “Life, even as a bound hunting hound, might seem more precious after some thought.” The next bit had total conviction, because Abel really didn’t like leeches and this was an old one. He’d no idea just how many people it had killed or tortured, or sent insane. “I really hope you say no. I might even ask if I can bind your shade personally because I hate your kind.”
Compulsion battered at each of them, desperation because the leech had to have tried that on the other Taverners. All fiv
e laughed, Ferryl loudest of all. “You two, wait in Sorcerer’s Keep. Take the bound leech.” Kelis and Rob picked up the stretcher with Jane Doe and headed into the nearby clearing. Ferryl/Claris’s imperious gesture included Abel and Jenny. “We will find something to amuse ourselves. Waiting until the leeches decide will be boring, and a hunter’s moon shouldn’t be wasted. If we kill enough local wildlife it might make up for letting a leech live.” Ferry/Claris strode between the two magic traps, out into the field, before turning back towards the wood. “Fourthseed! Thirteenseed!” The hosts turned towards her. “You have until we come back to think about your options. One way or another, alive or dead, you will obey before dawn.” She beckoned to Abel and Jenny as Zephyr headed across the field. “Come, Abel, you and your woman can flush the game.” She held out her hand, waiting for Abel to come and take it before stalking off across the field after Zephyr.
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Despite the spooky-phone and skin connections, nobody commented until they reached the far side of the field. “What do you think?” Ferryl/Claris held out a hand and Jenny took it so Ferryl could talk silently. She repeated her question.
“About being Abel’s woman again? You might have asked.” Jenny smiled at Abel but then sobered. “It went well I think. I hope. You kept saying ‘we’ and left it sort of unclear exactly who Braeth Huntian was, so Father Curtis might think you are Huntian’s senior apprentice or something.”
“Both were frightened of Zephyr and if Father Curtis is as confused as Claris, he’ll never be certain who was what. Hopefully they are too concerned with escaping to have a long involved conversation about who each of them thinks is the real Braeth Huntian. At least both of them looked away from the wood for long enough, providing that glyph on Jane Doe works.” Abel didn’t seem too sure about that. “Fourthseed seems very sure of itself, and that it can stop you taking Father Curtis.”
Ferryl/Claris let go of their hands. “Maybe talking silently is a bit paranoid. They can’t hear us now.” She looked back towards the wood again. “That glyph is the one Creepio cast on the altar so our leech will be masked. Don’t mention it to Creepio, or he might be more careful when he casts other glyphs near us. I wish we could hear, then we’d be sure.”
“I can sneak in, a quiet Zephyr rustling through the grass?”
“No need to risk it, Zephyr,” Abel spoke aloud. “The Firstseed tried to kill our leech just by ordering it to die. Can Fourthseed do that to Thirteen?”
“Possibly. It is now the oldest, so might take the role of Firstseed. If it wasn’t for the binding and ward, Fourthseed could probably either command or compel the leech in Jane Doe.” Ferryl/Claris sighed, looking back again as they walked into the next field and a hedgerow hid the Dead Wood. “I hope that leech is smart enough to see the flaw in our trap, and can’t see the rest of it. I also hope it knows how to draw the glyph the other leech used to get into Dead Wood when it came after you. I should be nearer, just in case of trouble.”
“It’s all a bit iffy, but the leech in the badger must have had the same glyph as Henry to get into Dead Wood, so Fourthseed should know it. In any case, this is the only chance Father Curtis has so it’s worth a shot. How about we actually hunt a few skurrits instead of hanging about worrying, or maybe find some of those things that attacked the school? Just to keep us occupied. Will there be any out here?” Jenny looked around at the hedgerows and occasional magical creatures browsing on the magic in grass and leaves. “I don’t want to kill the grazing ones, just nasties like those creepy snakes with spikes.” She squinted in the gloom. “That’s if I can see them.”
That distracted Ferryl, briefly, because she reverted to tutor mode. “I doubt you’ll meet most of those creatures again, but you ought to know what they are and how to avoid them. Lone varglin, the spikey wolves, might be hunting along the hedgerows but they prefer packs and woods. The turtle types, amanatik, are from South America so there won’t be many in England and they’ll be by a seashore, waiting for the Goddess Amana to return. Satan-steeds, the white lizards, prefer old bogs where sacrifices were once buried alive, while the beinsnork, bone snakes, only appear in graveyards. Ganshbaal, the little black scorpion rats, lurk by pathways in thickets or other places difficult to travel through. It’s some sort of connection to Ganesh the elephant god, their creator. Wealth toads and catspaw beetles are rarely seen in the wild, and are not usually belligerent. There may be some ruttlyte, the grey ratlins with purple and blue veining, lurking in the hedgerows. Legends claim they were a failed attempt to bind a complete goblin meld. Most of the other little creatures in that attack are even weaker, secretive and daren’t come near magic users like us.” Ferry/Claris stopped, shrugging at the two intent faces. “I doubt you’ll ever get three of those types together again.”
Jenny pointed back the way they’d come. “At the time, the St. John’s man wondered how anyone managed to get all those different creatures together to invade the school. Now we know. A combination of sorcerer commands and bindings, and compulsion from eight or nine leeches, must have been enough. Even so, Firstseed must have spent weeks preparing that attack.”
“True, which makes it a really good thing the sorcerers and most of the leeches are dead.” Abel smiled and obliged as Jenny raised a hand for the celebratory high-five. “Any other time I’d want to know more about all of those creatures and how come they’ve ended up in England, but right now I can’t stop worrying about Kelis and Rob. I suppose we’ll just have to settle for hunting skurrits and maybe the occasional thornie and hoplin. I’m not really in the mood but it might distract me.”
“There’s always fae. They’re nasty and take concentration.” A tiny, hot glyph arrowed out from Jenny’s hand but missed a passing fae. “They also need better eyesight than mine.”
Abel raised his hand to cast a glyph, about to point out he could see better than Jenny in the dark, but Ferryl/Claris interrupted him. “That might be a way to keep us amused. Zephyr has been practicing as she promised.”
“Practicing what?” Jenny glanced towards the spooky-line from Abel’s shoulder because she couldn’t see Zephyr’s shimmer in the moonlight.
“Adapting eyes. She passed her final test, giving Stan’s dog better vision and enabling him to see the magical creatures more clearly.” Ferryl/Claris laughed as Jenny spun to look at her, then Abel, her eyes wide with excitement.
“I get night vision?”
“Only if you keep quiet about it.” Abel wagged his finger at her but Jenny pointedly ignored it. “No letting it slip like you did about getting extra magic from a tree, or every Taverner will want the same. Zephyr will spend weeks doing nothing else, then someone will show off to a sibling or parent and there’ll be a trip to the optician.”
“That’ll be fun, when they end up on national TV with a dozen top opticians trying to work out if they’re some sort of biological freak.” Ferryl/Claris added her wagging finger to Abel’s. “Creepio will not be amused, and Stourton will be knee-deep in reporters.”
“Opticians? It isn’t just a magical coating?” Now Jenny looked a little apprehensive. “You’ll physically alter the inside of my eyes? I know you said Zephyr had to learn to get inside my eyes, and that’s why I couldn’t have mine done as soon as Ferryl left me, but you didn’t mention surgery!”
“More a case of re-growing some parts in a slightly different way, but it’s the only way if you want permanently enhanced eyes. You’ll see better in poor light, not in pitch darkness, and if you concentrate the faint lines of magic in leaves and grass are visible. The glow from the magic in smaller, thin-skinned creatures is quite pretty, and makes them really easy to hit at night.” Ferryl/Claris tried to be stern but the huge grin spreading over Jenny’s face didn’t make it easy. “Zephyr will do what I did to Rob’s, Kelis’s and Abel’s eyes. She will alter the cones in the back of your eyes, making them more sensitive but also more adaptable so you aren’t dazzled by ordinary light. Zephyr will also adjust the lenses, your c
ornea, so that with a little concentration you will see further, clearer. That will include a thin magical coating to see magic better. Active hexes will appear bright red instead of a faint glow.”
“How long will it take?” Jenny looked towards Dead Wood. “I don’t want to be fumbling about because the job’s only half done when the trap is sprung.”
“When Ferryl fixed mine it only took a couple of minutes so there’s plenty of time. The leech will still be waiting to make sure we aren’t sneaking back.” Abel looked up at Zephyr. “Are you ready? Zephyr, the gentle breeze for this, not the Ffod.”
“Very gentle. You know I practiced and practiced on mice and rabbits, before fixing Bugsy. I will adjust one eye at a time so Ferryl Shayde can check.” Zephyr drifted slowly closer to Jenny. “Part of me will go inside her eye, a little way, so I must keep coming back to my tattoo. Just to remind me who I am.” Zephyr still worried about losing her identity when she merged her magic into any living being, even though it was only a little way.
Abel pointed to the grassy verge around the field. “Sit down Jenny, and close your eyes until it’s done. Remember you have to trust Zephyr completely or she’ll not get past your ward. You’ll have to keep trusting her for a long while because Zephyr wants to do this slowly and very carefully.”
“I’m good with the slow and careful bit.” Jenny found a place without nettles or thistles and sat, before looking nervously at a very close Zephyr. “What do I do?”
“Relax.” Ferryl laughed as she said it because Jenny wouldn’t be able to, and Jenny’s nervous giggle confirmed it.
“What about Claris? Will she remember the eye thing, that we can all see better? You said you’d left the minimum to erase as you left, but won’t this bit take time?” Jenny looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry Claris, if you remember that eventually, but I’m worried you’ll say the wrong thing.”
