by Inelia Benz
She stopped.
He had the Staff with him.
If she was to get the Staff then she could stop the Shadow from getting to Heather, Owen had mentioned that some of the Council Elders were Shadow. That meant they were less powerful than Rossini.
The Staff was calling her, she knew she would be able to get it if she so wanted, Rossini would be no threat.
No. If Owen couldn’t get it off him then there was no way she could, thought Jennifer. She was losing control. Her mind seemed to split in two, not knowing where it was.
She sat on a garden wall and waited until she was in full control of all the places she was in, and then she carried on her way.
She found that if she didn’t veer away from her plan she could keep all the balls in the air, but she didn’t have room to maneuver, she couldn’t change her mind or think of another strategy.
Owen was entering the Peak District, it was misty, beautiful, the hills and trees called to him, to her, their essence mixing with theirs, she got on the bus and paid the driver, the third seat on the right was still available, she made her way over and sat down. Owen thought about a line of attack, he would be there soon, where was Jennifer?
“I’m still with you.”
He was startled. She was completely invisible, as though she didn’t exist at all.
The woman next to her started talking about the weather, Jennifer let her body answer her usual responses.
Owen was struggling with the misty conditions, cars and tractors were all going slowly, he reached over the passenger seat for the map, but looking at it and staying on the now invisible road was difficult.
Jennifer opened her backpack and took out the map. She looked at it and projected an image of it to Owen.
“How did you do that?”
”Can you see it?”
“Yes, perfectly, in my mind’s eye I can see the map, it just appeared there. Ok, you can turn it off now. How can you remember the map so well?”
The woman started telling Jennifer about her eldest son, he was starting university the next summer, after a year traveling the world.
“I don’t remember it, I am looking at it.”
“You are Borrowing while doing other things in your own body?”
A wave of surprise and admiration reached Jennifer from Owen.
She hoped he wouldn’t ask her where she was, but then she realized by the way he had felt and thought, that he would never think she had managed to leave the house, or even the room for that matter. She realized that what she was doing was impossible.
If it was impossible then the Shadow would never suspect her presence near them if they found out she was Borrowing into Owen’s mind. She could take them by surprise.
But, what would she do? She couldn’t kill them. She couldn’t fight them yet, not until she learned their magic. The point was not to defeat them, but make her invulnerable to them, stronger than them, strong enough to protect Heather.
The woman’s son was handsome and available.
Jennifer had a baby and was not married.
There again the woman’s son was in love with a very nice local girl, a bit simple perhaps but they made a lovely couple.
Not having to chat made things much easier for Jennifer. She was getting clearer by the minute.
At the airport she went straight to the airline counter and bought a ticket for that afternoon’s flight. She would have to wait three hours.
There was a cafeteria upstairs, she went up and paid for a fruit juice and a sandwich, she was getting good at it, being in two places at once.
She sat by the window and watched as the planes were towed here and there, buses collecting passengers arriving from distant lands, or maybe not so far. The thought crossed her mind of borrowing into one of those passengers at the same time, but decided she would leave it for another time. Multiple borrowing she thought must be like watching several televisions at once. It would take some getting used to.
Owen drove up a small private road, there was much energy near him, Jennifer became nervous, deep down she had felt the plan was a mistake, now the feeling was making itself present in her stomach and it was growing. It had never been Owen’s battle to begin with, he shouldn’t have gone. It was a mistake, a terrible mistake. She looked at her watch, time had hardly gone by at all. It would be hours before she got there. She thought about telling Owen to turn around, to come back, but she knew him well enough now, after being in his mind, that he wouldn’t do it. Once he had made up his mind about something there was nothing that would stop him achieving it. If she possessed him and made him turn around the battle of wills would be so great it would alert every mage in the isles.
Owen stopped the car outside some large gates, the place was walled from side to side, and the gate was padlocked. He stopped the engine and felt for his surroundings, there was strong magic all around.
He looked into the forest and saw creatures from other worlds. The wall between the dimensions was weaker there. He thought about entering the forest but remembered the effect nature had on him now, and decided to take a rain-check.
Why would they want to weaken the dimensional wall? He didn’t know. It didn’t really make any sense at all.
He tried to touch the lock but it was protected, he would have to announce himself if he wanted to go inside. That was okay, it was part of the plan after all.
On the side of the gate there was a chain, it was attached to a brass bell on top on the other side of the gate, a few meters from the wall.
He pulled it until he saw someone walking down the path.
It was a gatekeeper. A mortal.
“There is an intercom to your left, sir.”
“Oh, sorry. I need to see your master.”
“Is Lady Stellar expecting you sir?”
The name was very familiar, Stellar. He wondered where he had heard of her. Then thought he had probably met her at a Council meeting.
“No, but tell her it is Owen The Last Challenger.”
The gatekeeper looked Owen up and down and frowned.
“Your one of them queer ones then.”
“Sorry?”
“Lots of queer people have been coming of late.”
Mages, thought Owen.
“Strange things happening in the woods too, UFOs, we had the army here day before yesterday. Collecting samples they were. Radioactive samples.”
He reached into his jacket and took out a walky-talky, then turned around to stop Owen from listening.
“Lady Stellar asks if you are accompanied sir.”
Owen looked around him, then back to the gatekeeper.
“There is no one else here, I am alone.”
The gatekeeper took out his keys and unlocked the gate.
“I would be grateful if you used the intercom next time sir,” he mumbled while locking the gate behind Owen.
“Follow the drive, the house is at the end.”
Owen nodded and walked away. The gravel under his feet announced his arrival at the house.
The blond Shadow was waiting for him at the front door, she asked him to follow her, Lady Stellar was waiting for him in the study, she was beautiful, strikingly so, like a Greek Goddess.
“I am very surprised to see you here Owen O’Neill, please sit down,” her voice sang.
No greeting, Owen thought, at least she was honest enough not to try to be friendly.
“Lady Stellar, I have come to ask you and your associates to leave Jennifer and Heather Stone in peace.”
“What makes you think I have had anything to do with the events surrounding your charges?”
“To begin with not many mages know they are my charges, in fact only Rossini and the group of Shadows you belong to know about my role in this. Secondly the knowledge about the events you mentioned did not leave the circle of Shadow.”
Stellar looked at Owen up and down, she sat next to him and smiled.
“How did you find me Owen?”
&nbs
p; “That is of no importance, the important thing is that I need you to leave these young mages alone immediately.”
“Or else?”
“I will be forced to Challenge you.”
“Ah, first you challenge Rossini, now me. Do you realize who I am Owen?”
“I know you belong to the Council of Elders, or you would not have recognized me as the Last Challenger.”
“No, you don’t know who I am.”
She stood up to her full height, physical and energy wise, a type of magic muscle flexing.
“I am Stellar The Last Challenger, until you had the audacity to take my title. But no matter. I would be Staff Holder if it wasn’t for the fact that a better proposition came my way in the nick of time. Do you know what the Staff actually is Owen?”
“Yes, it’s a time machine.”
“Oh, it’s much more than that Owen. To begin with if you are unfortunate enough to take hold of it on your own it would possess you. Like a drug, an obsession. You couldn’t possibly share it afterwards. But in a group, a powerful enough group it is much more than just a magic tool or a time machine. It is a notch in the fabric of reality, the very matter that holds the universe together. It is capable not only of taking you into the past and future but of changing reality, the nature of things. With it we could make Hitler into a humanitarian, Gandy into a ruthless dictator, the earth, gravity, atoms, into anything our minds could conceive.”
She walked toward Owen, he felt apprehensive.
She took his hand.
“As you know one of our numbers is down, we need another powerful mage to take his place. How about it Owen? With you as part of our group nothing would happen to Jennifer or Heather, they would be completely safe.”
Owen took his hand back, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, she was asking him to join them.
“I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t know you Owen. You are very ambitious, very protective. You have a special type of energy not often seen in us. You could keep your charges, take care of them as you saw fit. We only need the Thirteenth mage to activate the Staff. She could do so now, even at her present stage of development. We could then steer it together, the rest of us. As a group we could control it, not letting it get hold of us and disabling us.”
Jennifer and Heather would be safe if he was allowed to keep them. It was all he wanted, for them to be safe.
He got up and held his head. Stellar was possessing him, she was trying to manipulate his mind.
“Common sense Owen, not possession, it is the perfect solution. Tell me where she is Owen, tell me where Heather is.”
“She… she is…”
“Owen, no, don’t say it”.
“Who is that Owen? Who is borrowing into your mind?”
“Jennifer, it’s Jennifer.”
“Good God. She is advancing very quickly, I can’t even detect her, she is completely invisible. It is truly amazing.”
“Don’t speak Owen, don’t even think. She is in your mind, just hold on.”
“Owen, where is the child? Where is Heather?”
“Owen don’t say it”.
“She is…”
He struggled, stopped himself speaking, but in his mind’s eye he saw Oak Place, he saw Esther giving Heather her bottle.
“No! Owen, think of a wall, I beg you.”
“Good boy.”
Stellar got up quickly and reached for her phone, she dialed.
“Sorry Owen, I have to possess you for a minute.”
“They are at…”
Her mouth gesticulated but no sound came out.
She looked at Owen surprised, picked up a paper weight and knocked him over the head.
Owen fell to the floor unconscious.
Stellar placed the paperweight back on the desk and picked up the phone, “The baby is at Oak Place, bring the woman too, I think she might be Jennifer’s mother, she could be of use.”
Stellar put the phone down, straightened her blouse, checked her hair in the mirror over the fireplace and rang for assistance. She was looking forward to meeting Jennifer. If Jennifer could take control over her while Borrowing, she had to be very skilled indeed. They had taken too long to get to her, but Stellar was sure it was not too late to control her, once they had the baby Jennifer wouldn’t be a threat, she would simply vanish into her anger and rage allowing them to have full access to the Thirteenth Mage.
A wet cloth whipped his face, he tried to move but he couldn’t.
“Owen, wake up.”
It was a male voice.
He opened his eyes and saw his face looking down at him.
“Sean?”
Sean helped him up and sat beside him, he looked around. They were in a cellar. His head was pounding.
“Jennifer!”
There was no answer.
It was possible she was knocked out as well, too much of a shock.
“Where are we Sean?”
“We are prisoners, the mages, Shadow.”
“We are on earth then.”
“Yes.”
“What are you doing here? I thought I asked you to stay put for the time being, your skills are not developed, you are like a new born child here on earth.”
“I thought I could talk to them. I wanted to remind them of our deal.”
“How did you get out of the Old Ones world? I didn’t claim you.”
“Well, I broke out, it didn’t matter the Old Ones knew where I was because I would be here and the Shadow cannot hurt me as long as I am Old Ones property. This is where they brought me first. The dimensional walls here are very thin.”
“We have to get out of here, they know where Heather is.”
Owen looked around for a weak point, the walls were sealed, they were in a mage cage.
“How did they find out where Heather was?”
Owen looked away from his brother, it was humiliating to admit he had failed, had walked straight into their hands.
“I told them, that Lady Stellar is very strong, I underestimated her skills. The only rewarding thought is that Jennifer has some of those skills now.”
He felt for the walls, it was very good protection, but there again it could never be complete. Nothing was completely integral in a place where the dimensions mingled.
Like an ant taking a grain at a time, Owen began making a hole in the thinnest of the energy impregnated walls.
Chapter 18
Jennifer was shaken to the core. She was alone. Owen was nowhere to be found, he had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Before boarding the plane she had called Harry Johnson to collect Heather and Esther, get them to a safe house. He didn’t quite understand why he was being asked such a thing but assured Jennifer he would take charge of the baby until her return. If only her mother had accepted a mobile phone Jennifer would have been able to warn her. She hoped against hope that Esther wouldn’t refuse to go with Harry Johnson, it would be just like her mother to stay behind.
The Shadow were in London, that meant it was only a matter of minutes before they would get to the house.
Time seemed to stand still. Everything moved slowly, the plane was taking an eternity to arrive.
Tears were on the border of her eyes, waiting to explode.
They had underestimated the enemy.
They had underestimated what the Shadow could do. Now Heather might fall into their hands and there was nothing Jennifer could do.
She waited.
The plane landed, Jennifer went to one of the cash machines, touched it and withdrew a few hundred pounds, no card, no PIN. She would return it when it was all over, she promised herself.
She ran out and got into a taxi, showed him the map and offered a hundred pounds if he could get her there very quickly indeed, “a matter of life and death.”
“Put your seat belt on Miss,” said the driver, a wide smile on his face.
The gates were locked, she tried to break it but it repelled her hands and her
energy. The walls around the grounds were very high and also unreachable. It felt as though she was touching the wrong end of a magnet.
Across the private road was the forest that Owen had been looking at, she looked closely but saw no creatures from other dimensions, nothing but ordinary trees.
She heard a car approaching and hid behind some bushes, the gates opened, the car drove in, she waited until it turned the corner before running in after it.
Owen.
She could feel something small, a small sense that he was there, like a left over trail of energy leading into the house, down, under the house.
Sean!
Sean was there too, Sean was with the Shadow!
She crouched down behind a tree by the back entrance to the house. There wasn’t much movement in the house. Someone worked in a greenhouse, probably a mortal. She surprised herself at the way in which she now classified people as mortal or mages, it was something new to her.
The house was large, had dozens of window, a few terraces, all impeccably kept. She wondered how many people it took to keep it looking that way, or maybe it was all done with magic, in which case only one person could do it.
If she had a place like this she would open it up to the public, the house and the grounds open for everyone to enjoy. It was a beautiful place.
She closed her eyes and tried to locate Owen and Sean. Their trails both ended under the house somewhere, ended and disappeared there. She reasoned they must be in a space bubble, like the one Aeoife had taught her to make. If that was the case then she wouldn’t be able to get them out, she didn’t know how to undo another mage’s space bubble. Owen had said that she was not like other mages. She could absorb knowledge, magic skills. This was her only weapon, she had to start using it before it was too late. There was no choice but to face Stellar directly herself as soon as possible.
She stood up and brushed the leaves from her clothes and hair, the dumb things were always getting stuck to her.
She cleaned her shoes on the back of her jeans and walked round to the front door, rang the bell and waited.
The door opened revealing the blond mage, Jennifer sent her to keep David Andrews company and stormed into the house.
Stellar filled the house with her presence, so much so that it took Jennifer a few seconds to locate her.
