by Vance Huxley
“Why not call Zephyr by her real name? We, the five Taverneers, call her Zephyr anyway so it’ll be easy. Though we shouldn’t tell everyone about Ffod, the real one, not the one in the game.” Abel smiled quietly to himself. “A Ffod bop should come as a complete surprise if we need one.”
“Would you mind, Abel? Zephyr?” Ferryl hugged a little, a smile starting at the corners of her mouth. “My memories say that kissing you about now would help you make up your mind, but I want you to decide without cheating.” She snuggled in a little bit. “Though I’ve started enjoying the sensation and the emotion when we kiss, so maybe I’m just looking for an excuse.”
“No need for cheating or persuasion. Ferryl Shayde really is your name and the ones most likely to be suspicious, the Taverneers, know the truth. This just stops Rob or Kelis looking at the wrong person when they say Ferryl, or saying Zephyr by mistake.” Abel heaved a big sigh and hugged Ferryl a little tighter. “It’ll be easier for me as well. The name Ferryl means someone very particular, regardless of which tattoo or body she lives in.”
“That’s definitely a cue for a thank you.”
Abel barely felt Zephyr leave. She claimed that emotions were messy close up, so she preferred hunting. “Whew. I should agree to rename Zephyr more often.”
“Not likely. She’ll sulk if you alter either Zephyr or Ffod.” Ferryl tugged on his hand. “Come on, let’s tell the others.”
The others were relieved rather than surprised. Rob, for one, had been expecting someone to notice he sometimes looked at the wrong person when asking Ferryl a question. Some of the lack of reaction had to be because they were distracted. Kelis had been telling Jenny her bit of news. The flat above the village shop was for rent and her mum would be phoning the estate agent in the morning! The excitement wasn’t just about that. After Kelis described sitting on the floor in Frederick’s house because there wasn’t much in the way of furniture, her mum offered any she wasn’t keeping. Now, if the flat was cheap enough and big enough for the two of them, they’d know how much furniture to keep.
“Three if possible?” Ferryl pointed at Abel. “I’ve still got to stay in Brinsford, near Abel.”
“Ooh yes, all that power and wealth. It’s still sticky then?” Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “Now I think about it, going by his face when you arrived, it’s definitely still working.” Abel felt his face heat up, just a little as Jenny raised her hand to high-five Rob. “It’s getting harder, but he’s definitely blushing.”
Though Rob didn’t join in the teasing, because he’d realised one possible flaw. “I doubt there’ll be room for Ferryl. Mr. and Mrs. Summers wouldn’t need three bedrooms.” He looked from Kelis to Ferryl. “I suppose you could share? Either that or Abel will be sleeping on his settee because I’m sure his mum won’t let his girlfriend sleep in the same bedroom, even with the door ajar.”
“Ferryl could use a storeroom as a bedroom and stay with Kelis. Stick a bed and a couple of wardrobes in there, and then she can help out with the rent.” Abel tried for an innocent smile. “Or maybe Kelis would like a room-mate?”
“Not likely, or not if there’s another way. No offence, but I’m sort of used to my mess, without adding someone else’s.” Kelis’s eyes narrowed this time. “How come you know there’s a storeroom in the shop? If it hadn’t been up for sale before we’d opened Castle House, I’d wonder if someone’s wealth had been sneaking about.”
“Common sense. For all I know there’s three storerooms, or the Summers kept the stock upstairs in their bedroom.” Abel shrugged. “We don’t even know if the shop is in with the rent. That would make a big bedroom.” Abel knew the letting agent would alter the amount of rooms available to make room for Ferryl if the upstairs flat wasn’t big enough, but daren’t even hint it. Kelis still hadn’t fully accepted she would get a fifth share of the investment money.
“It might also make the rent too high for me and mum, even with Ferryl helping.” Kelis threw a wind glyph that snatched up twigs and twirled them around in the air. “Botheration! I just wish it was all over. Slimeball will be sentenced this week.”
“They’ve found him guilty?” Jenny looked surprised because nobody had mentioned it, though it certainly explained Kelis’s erratic mood.
“No, but he admitted being guilty to some things, and the jury are out on the rest. It’ll be settled in days. Then his slimeball lawyer will make sure my slimeball dad doesn’t give mum a single thing except the divorce.” This air glyph exploded twigs, leaves and dirt up into a fountain.
“But you don’t need anything from him, do you?” Abel opened his arms to encompass the others and the wood. “You’ve got magic and the Taverneers.” The rest joined in to cheer Kelis up, eventually getting her into a competition to see who could construct the tallest totally unstable stack of leaves and twigs. They all used magic to cheat outrageously, except Ferryl who insisted on being the judge.
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Kelis’s mood swung back and forth during the next few days despite everything her friends could say or do. She threw herself into magic to try and distract herself, even practicing glyphs in her room at home. Sentencing on Thursday left her in a foul mood. Her dad got four years, but as she pointed out, that would only be two with parole and then the slimeball would be free. She worried about her mum being harassed, but Abel thought any sort of aggravation wouldn’t last long.
Unfortunately, with the glyphs Kelis had learned and the amount of magic in her diamond, any showdown with her dad would end up with Kelis in jail. Ferryl thought an early grave would be the best cure for Mr Ventner but agreed that might cause trouble for Kelis, so she came to Abel with a solution. If Mr Ventner ever turned up, Ferryl would put on a seeming of a big muscular man and use wind glyphs to slap him around. She’d tell him to clear off or he’d get a proper beating. Abel agreed because that had to be better than Kelis stood in a heap of splintered ribs and the police closing in.
On Friday morning Abel received something that would definitely take Kelis’s mind off her dad. It did, she switched to berating Abel. Abel agreed he was stupid, an idiot, not fit to be let out without a keeper, and generally unsafe around sharp items. He still asked his mum to call a proper meeting of the management, with all three mums and Mr Forester attending. This time the five teenagers would be springing the surprise, sort of payback for being caught out over the church.
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Saturday evening, as Jenny and her dad came into the old library in Kelis’s house, Abel knew he daren’t spin it out. Jenny looked ready to spill the beans, while Kelis might be about to explode. He knew Kelis intended making some objection, but she wouldn’t be able to. He might have given her the money to offer to her mum to help with accommodation, but Mrs Ventner had been bursting with her own news. The shop itself wasn’t for rent but the two-bedroomed flat was, as a three-bedroom maisonette with a storeroom at the bottom of the stairs converted to make an extra bedroom. The letting agent claimed the shop had too much storage and the new owner wanted to maximise the rental value. From her looks, if it hadn’t been for the other news, Kelis might have been giving Abel the third degree.
“Right, what exactly is so urgent? Madame here is almost bursting with something, but won’t tell me.” Mr. Forester looked at the three puzzled mothers, but didn’t get chance to push further.
“We’ve found a real investor for the game. Someone with real money, enough for a proper launch.” Abel took out his envelope and extracted the papers and four cheques. “We have been scouring the internet and the boot sales. That jewellery got us really interested, but this time we tried to be smarter.” Abel hoped his little laugh sounded natural. “We ended up with a heap of old plates, ornaments and vases that will help to decorate Stourton Tavern Refuge, but which are barely worth the pennies we paid.” He glanced towards Rob, who took his cue.
“All except one. We were blindingly lucky because at first it went to Frederick’s house as a failure. Someone there said the vase looked fam
iliar, expensive sort of familiar, so we searched the internet again.” Rob turned towards Ferryl. “We all paid an equal amount towards every single item, deliberately, but Fay refused to cash in. She has her own money, from her parents.”
Ferryl smiled and took out a cheque, pushing it into the middle of the table. “I want to loan twenty thousand pounds to your company. Our company, if I am allowed to buy a stake.” She pushed eleven one-pound coins across the table.
“We’d like extra shares as well, so we’ve all got eleven.” Abel pushed one-pound coins across the table, as did Rob, Jenny and Kelis. “Which will give us fifty-five percent between us. That seems fair, because we’ll have the most money invested.” He pushed the cheques forward. “Four cheques, each for twenty thousand pounds, from a solicitor. Each cheque clearly states they are being paid to the company on behalf of one of us. Loans, the same as the one you put in, Mr Forester.”
“Where did you get that?”
“What solicitor?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Are you sure about this?”
None of the four teenagers got a chance to answer before the same questions came from a different parent to a different child, along with a wide selection of others. Despite being tempted, the four teenagers waited for the storm to die down a bit, just answering “please wait a minute” or something similar until their parents listened.
“Right. We’re all waiting.” The glare Rob’s mum gave him didn’t bode well.
This time Abel passed the papers across to Mr Forester. “You’ll all get to see that, but I reckon Jenny’s dad will be more likely to know how legal it is. We sold the vase, a private sale through a solicitor, to an undisclosed purchaser. The solicitor was asked to pay us the money, after sorting out any taxes, in these cheques. When the money goes into the company, we all want the earlier loans back, the ones from the jewellery we didn’t give our mothers. That’s fifteen hundred quid each. I want to buy a bike with mine so I can get to town.” He looked straight at Kelis. “There’s an alternative. If we ask, the solicitor will re-issue the cheques payable to whoever we ask.”
“The reason we can get the cheques changed is so you can have my share mum, if you want. As a deposit for a house?” Kelis’s wry smile took in the others, because they all had the same option. “All of us are willing to consider that, giving the money to our parents if they want it, but we’ll never get this lucky again. We want to give Bonny’s Tavern the best possible chance of success, and we also want to be in control once we are old enough.” Her look at Jenny was another cue.
“Bonny’s Tavern needs investment, and any investor will want some control. Every time we need a few more quid, we’ll lose a share or two. Now, even if we have to borrow more money, the five of us will always be a majority.” She smiled at her dad, her patent innocent one. “You taught me that there’s a time to strike, to take the plunge, to put your money where your mouth is. So we have.” No giggle this time, Jenny turned to Rob.
“This way the five of us can outvote anyone else, once we are eighteen. Even so, we won’t do something stupid because it will take all five of us. Fay can’t afford to throw her inheritance money away, but she’s had advice and believes in us. We want her in because she’s one of us, our age and outlook and actually put in a fifth of the price of the vase. Technically she’s entitled even if she won’t claim it.” There wasn’t any sign of the joker as Rob looked his mum in the eye. “The four of us have parents who will advise us, or even shout at us if necessary. I really can’t see all five of us doing something utterly stupid, and anyway we can’t until we are eighteen. Until then, the money will get the game off to a good start.”
That did it. “Good start! That’s a fortune.”
Now Rob let his smile come. “Do you want the twenty thousand, mum? You can have it.”
His mum leant back in her seat and stared. “Of course not. It’s yours.”
“You’d all change your cheques, give the money to your parents?” All four nodded, so Jenny’s dad shifted his attention to Fay. “Leaving you the major investor.” He started to smile. “Which Jenny knows I won’t want, because regardless how these four feel you are an outsider, an unknown. I came today prepared to offer a small loan, just to get some sort of launch. I would have asked for a few shares, though I wasn’t sure how many I’d get.” His eyes went round the table, pausing on each teenager in turn. “That presentation covered all the main points, and the way you all took turns had to be planned so you’ve really worked it all out. There’s a chance we could legally stop you, because of your age, but personally I’m quite proud of my daughter and wouldn’t dream of it.” For once, Jenny was the one blushing as her dad switched to the other three parents. “So, I recommend we take the money and do just what they’ve asked. Providing these papers really do cover the legalities.”
“Which solicitor did you use?” Abel’s mum reached for a cheque and read it. “Who are Woods and Green?”
“The same ones who are advertising through the game. The man who bought the vase wanted to use them so it didn’t cost us a bean.” Abel hesitated, then asked, “You could have a new car?”
“I haven’t worn out the last one you gave me.” Her happy smile came as a relief to Abel. “Keep your eyes open for any more vases or earrings, then you can afford your own instead of a moped.” Around the table, parents and children worked through the same sort of thing, but none of the parents would take the money. If it had been enough to buy a house then Abel thought more than one of them would have been tempted to ask, but it wasn’t even a substantial deposit. Even so, twenty thousand pounds was more than two of the families had ever had in a lump sum, while the money that provided Mrs Ventner’s lifestyle had never been hers.
“When they wanted to advertise through Bonny’s Tavern, I checked up on Woods and Green. They have a very good name for dealing with rich clients and confidential business so I’m sure the sale is legal. These cheques won’t bounce, so if you ladies agree I’ll pay them in tomorrow and get the shares issued.” Jenny’s dad smiled at her and scooped up the pound coins. “Meanwhile the least we can do is leave you and your friends to have a majority shareholder’s meeting.” He glanced at the three mothers. “If one of you ladies doesn’t mind me bending your ear and drinking your tea until Jenny is finished?” Mr Forester stood up and put out his hand. “Welcome aboard, Mz Shayde. I will admit I wasn’t too sure why you were so interested, but that sort of investment means you are serious.”
Ferryl looked a bit uncomfortable but shook hands. From the talking as the parents left, they’d all be bending each other’s ears and supping tea together for a while. As the door closed, Kelis opened her mouth but Abel held up a finger. “Zephyr, just check outside will you? I’m not certain anyone will put their ear to the door, but Kelis might be shouting loud enough so they don’t have to. Tell my friends what you are doing, please.”
Moments later spooky-phone connected to them all as Zephyr disappeared through the crack round the door. “Nobody with an ear to the door, but everyone is hesitating and looking at each other. Now they are starting to move away slowly.” After a pause Zephyr finished with “They are down the corridor, going through the door into the lounge. Kelis can shout now. Should I wait out here?”
“No thank you, Zephyr. I doubt they’ll sneak back.” A shimmer reappeared around the door to hover by Abel.
“I was not going to shout!” Kelis subsided with a rueful smile. “Or not much. It still seems wrong but splitting the money into individual cheques means I’m stuffed. You gave me a clear chance to give mine to mum, but now she’s said no I can’t not put it into the company along with the rest of you. No more, right? I’ll pay you back one day, but it could be a while.” She turned towards Ferryl. “And regardless of all the fancy talk, we know where Ferryl’s money came from as well.”
“I offered to find my own money, but Abel wouldn’t let me make magical gold ornaments.” Ferryl put her arms ro
und him. “So, I’ll just have to say thank you and accept.” Abel had already told Ferryl she’d earned every penny a hundred times over, just by saving them all from the sorceress with the bound shades.
“Later, purrrrlease. Preferably without embarrassing any spectators.” Rob pointed at Jenny. “Jenny hasn’t finished blushing yet so don’t start her off again.”
“Yeah, well, dad doesn’t say stuff like that, not in public. Who wants a drink?” Everyone took the hint and changed the subject. Once they started talking about the launch, Jenny forgot all about blushing. She’d made plans based on about eighty grand, or thereabouts, but hadn’t shown her dad. Now she could feed him the updated paperwork over a couple of weeks while Rob produced the extra graphics.
Becoming investors had passed off fairly simply, but none of them really understood how much work it would be.
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Fishing for Snakes
The Taverners already knew what one part of the extra work would be. The character list for Bonny’s Tavern needed one more update before the launch, and Kelis had the job of drawing the new creatures and players. After seeing Rob create a hole in the road to trap the leech-ridden priest, Shannon wanted an earth wizard in the game. Provisionally named Rock’n Rolla after Rob’s preferences in music, he had to have armour made of magical granite. His mace would be a nod towards Rob’s rounders bat. K’liss Windcatcher was mistress of wind and, according to Kelis, water, so the Taverners wanted a fire sorcerer to make up the set. Provisionally named Flamm, he had to be black-skinned with a cloak of flames. Kelis had already refused to create a sorceress dressed in black leather, some sort of necromancer, so several Taverners had tried drawing one. She eventually gave in, because K’ress Bloodclaw would definitely become a character so Kelis wanted the sorceress drawn properly.
